smudgebag
2013
This review contains spoilers
Considering this game is free, there is next to no reason for you to not go and play the first hour of it, see what you think. That’s what I did on my first run of the game, and I decided that I didn’t like it. I never uninstalled it or anything like that, but the mechanics of the game were just too inconvenient for me and the idea of survival horror was pretty new to my tiny brain as well. Played it until the end of the first area, and quit. Thank god I went back and fixed my mistake, because it provided me with some truly beautiful and disturbing moments that stick with me to this day.
Before getting to my favourite aspect of this game, I wanna talk about some of the other great things it does. There are constantly top-tier horror moments in CoF, the college, forest, asylum, just consistently peak horror segments that are petrifying every time and keep the player on their toes for the rest of the game. I like the weapons, they aren’t anything spectacular, nor all that unique but the addition of more than one melee weapon is something I really appreciate and is an idea that many other horror series (cough resident evil cough) refuse to incorporate. The art direction is surprisingly amazing for a game with graphics like they are, and the designs of the creatures are usually pretty grim, quite Resident Evil-esque, so, again, not especially unique but nonetheless very disgusting and Team Psykskallar definitely understood what they were going for in that respect.
Despite all this, the most impactful aspect of Cry of Fear, in my opinion, is ironically the sections when there is no horror. Two or three specific set pieces that are all just indescribably beautiful for so many reasons, but I will try to communicate why I find these moments so genius.
- cityscape over a lake -
Firstly, there is one area in the game, quite early on, either just before or just after being chased down by a chainsaw wielding maniac, where you are left with your own thoughts, walking next to a lake, with a cityscape in the background, this is so brilliant, simply for the reason that the game decides to give you a break and put a nice little city in the background, there is not much symbolism or clever artistic choice going on for this one, it’s just a demonstration of the love that went into the creation of this game and the knowledge of how to make the player enjoy and remember the experience for longer.
- fully lit school -
What makes this section so exceptional is that it is, once again, just simply a break from the nightmare. This section also intelligently capitalises off of the audience’s vulnerability and susceptibility to a surprise ambush, however, for a game that is so great at scaring the player, it manages to put them back at ease impressively well, and it makes the player want to explore this serene school a lot more. (atleast before it gets filled with monsters again after the lights turn off)
- paddle through the lake -
This is my very favourite moment in the entire game, and one of my favourite moments in any game ever, which is impressive for a small indie half-life mod released 10 years ago. It is simply a minute or so of gameplay where the main character gets inside a rowboat and paddles across a small stretch of water. This section itself isn’t so great on its own, but it is what becomes before and after that, and how this boat ride leaves the player to ponder their journey. Just prior to the lake, is a mental asylum: a very frightening section that concludes with a gun duel between you and the doctor, who you have been following for most of the game. This showdown has a sense of finality to it, which is emphasised by the few moments afterwards in which you walk outside to meet… daylight. For the first time in the entire game the sun is out and the once anxiety-inducing trees are now perfectly lit, and the path ahead is clear. The little walk out of the asylum along with the boat ride produces a cathartic feeling in me every time, an “it’s finally over” feeling. This emotion is so difficult to describe, but I’m confident anyone would understand it if they have gotten to this point. The part afterwards is great too, it’s the final area, so there are obviously enemies and scares, but it is done in a fashion that helps to maintain that powerful emotion throughout its entirety, and it doesn’t ruin the moment before to any capacity.
I wrote this review without touching on the story once, which is really depressing and has some great themes, plus the way it is done makes it so that it unravels throughout the game, until all the symbolism and meaning is dropped onto you at the end, changing future playthroughs and making the player realise new things they wouldn’t before.
In the end, Cry of Fear is a really fantastic game. There are some op collectible weapons you can get from beating the game, which in my opinion kind of ruins that feeling i described earlier, but otherwise, pretty much no nitpicks to make other than maybe minor pacing issues.
Just play it lol. 9.5/10
Before getting to my favourite aspect of this game, I wanna talk about some of the other great things it does. There are constantly top-tier horror moments in CoF, the college, forest, asylum, just consistently peak horror segments that are petrifying every time and keep the player on their toes for the rest of the game. I like the weapons, they aren’t anything spectacular, nor all that unique but the addition of more than one melee weapon is something I really appreciate and is an idea that many other horror series (cough resident evil cough) refuse to incorporate. The art direction is surprisingly amazing for a game with graphics like they are, and the designs of the creatures are usually pretty grim, quite Resident Evil-esque, so, again, not especially unique but nonetheless very disgusting and Team Psykskallar definitely understood what they were going for in that respect.
Despite all this, the most impactful aspect of Cry of Fear, in my opinion, is ironically the sections when there is no horror. Two or three specific set pieces that are all just indescribably beautiful for so many reasons, but I will try to communicate why I find these moments so genius.
- cityscape over a lake -
Firstly, there is one area in the game, quite early on, either just before or just after being chased down by a chainsaw wielding maniac, where you are left with your own thoughts, walking next to a lake, with a cityscape in the background, this is so brilliant, simply for the reason that the game decides to give you a break and put a nice little city in the background, there is not much symbolism or clever artistic choice going on for this one, it’s just a demonstration of the love that went into the creation of this game and the knowledge of how to make the player enjoy and remember the experience for longer.
- fully lit school -
What makes this section so exceptional is that it is, once again, just simply a break from the nightmare. This section also intelligently capitalises off of the audience’s vulnerability and susceptibility to a surprise ambush, however, for a game that is so great at scaring the player, it manages to put them back at ease impressively well, and it makes the player want to explore this serene school a lot more. (atleast before it gets filled with monsters again after the lights turn off)
- paddle through the lake -
This is my very favourite moment in the entire game, and one of my favourite moments in any game ever, which is impressive for a small indie half-life mod released 10 years ago. It is simply a minute or so of gameplay where the main character gets inside a rowboat and paddles across a small stretch of water. This section itself isn’t so great on its own, but it is what becomes before and after that, and how this boat ride leaves the player to ponder their journey. Just prior to the lake, is a mental asylum: a very frightening section that concludes with a gun duel between you and the doctor, who you have been following for most of the game. This showdown has a sense of finality to it, which is emphasised by the few moments afterwards in which you walk outside to meet… daylight. For the first time in the entire game the sun is out and the once anxiety-inducing trees are now perfectly lit, and the path ahead is clear. The little walk out of the asylum along with the boat ride produces a cathartic feeling in me every time, an “it’s finally over” feeling. This emotion is so difficult to describe, but I’m confident anyone would understand it if they have gotten to this point. The part afterwards is great too, it’s the final area, so there are obviously enemies and scares, but it is done in a fashion that helps to maintain that powerful emotion throughout its entirety, and it doesn’t ruin the moment before to any capacity.
I wrote this review without touching on the story once, which is really depressing and has some great themes, plus the way it is done makes it so that it unravels throughout the game, until all the symbolism and meaning is dropped onto you at the end, changing future playthroughs and making the player realise new things they wouldn’t before.
In the end, Cry of Fear is a really fantastic game. There are some op collectible weapons you can get from beating the game, which in my opinion kind of ruins that feeling i described earlier, but otherwise, pretty much no nitpicks to make other than maybe minor pacing issues.
Just play it lol. 9.5/10
2012
Cool game, great art-style, writings not quite as bad as people say it is. Would be a lot better if you could clap handsome jack’s cheeks tho. 8.2/10
2009
Good game to be honest, my first assassins creed game, I bought it for the satisfying combat and parkour, and left pleasantly surprised with my attachment to Ezio and the story in general, it’s great fun to explore the world and meet all of the quirky side characters, but other than that the game felt a little generic, and it’s sort of a shame that the series would continue with every game in the future being so derivative from this one. Thankfully it’s a fun game in general and I could definitely see myself hopping on in the future and messing astound in the overworld, not sure how bothered I am to replay the story or collect all the feathers though. 7.5/10
2017
One of the best games I’ve played, simply put, I’ve bought this game 3 times, that’s how much I like it. It’s simplistic yet enjoyable combat, mesmerising hand-drawn art-style and memorable characters + enemies perfectly encapsulate what an indie game should be, and I’m glad so many games have been, and still are, following in the game’s footsteps in the recent years and hopefully many more after.
Although I’ve played it enough that I’m a little burnt out, it still remains as one of the best games in recent memory and probably my favourite game to platinum. ~9.5/10 for me.
Although I’ve played it enough that I’m a little burnt out, it still remains as one of the best games in recent memory and probably my favourite game to platinum. ~9.5/10 for me.
I picked up this game really recently expecting an enjoyable but “nothing special” level experience, I loved other games in the series so I am not really sure why, but honestly this game blew me away on so many levels.
The combat system completely outshines the other games from fromsoftware, it makes me wish the posture metre was in every other game, and even watching gameplay of the game after completion, I feel my finger itching for the L1 button to pull off that glorious, rewarding parry which skyrockets the quality of the game’s combat in my opinion, along with, of course, the infinitely satisfying “deathblows” that the protagonist employs after defeating an enemy.
The infamous difficulty of Sekiro is a key component to it’s success, and the many hurdles that you will face do not require skill as much as they require patience, determination and the will to learn from mistakes. THAT is what makes Sekiro’s challenges and boss battles so gratifying to overcome.
As if this style of gameplay wouldn’t work perfectly without such high quality art direction and world design, Fromsoft had to go ahead and add just that to top it all off, as they do with all of their other games. Beautiful environments, some disgusting monsters and badass samurai armour, the designs in Sekiro are really top notch.
My only real gripe with Sekiro is that it is too short - not in the corny “this game is so perfect I only wish there was more of it” kind of way - I genuinely believe that it could have seriously benefitted from an extra few hours between the penultimate and final boss, especially considering the abrupt difficulty spike between those two points. It almost feels like you could beat the game easily in one sitting due to how skippable a lot of the areas are and the fact that one of the endings literally cuts the games playtime in half.
Overall, one of the closest times any game has ever gotten to perfect, a very comfortable 9.8/10 for me, and I could not recommend Sekiro enough to anyone curious whether they should play it.
The combat system completely outshines the other games from fromsoftware, it makes me wish the posture metre was in every other game, and even watching gameplay of the game after completion, I feel my finger itching for the L1 button to pull off that glorious, rewarding parry which skyrockets the quality of the game’s combat in my opinion, along with, of course, the infinitely satisfying “deathblows” that the protagonist employs after defeating an enemy.
The infamous difficulty of Sekiro is a key component to it’s success, and the many hurdles that you will face do not require skill as much as they require patience, determination and the will to learn from mistakes. THAT is what makes Sekiro’s challenges and boss battles so gratifying to overcome.
As if this style of gameplay wouldn’t work perfectly without such high quality art direction and world design, Fromsoft had to go ahead and add just that to top it all off, as they do with all of their other games. Beautiful environments, some disgusting monsters and badass samurai armour, the designs in Sekiro are really top notch.
My only real gripe with Sekiro is that it is too short - not in the corny “this game is so perfect I only wish there was more of it” kind of way - I genuinely believe that it could have seriously benefitted from an extra few hours between the penultimate and final boss, especially considering the abrupt difficulty spike between those two points. It almost feels like you could beat the game easily in one sitting due to how skippable a lot of the areas are and the fact that one of the endings literally cuts the games playtime in half.
Overall, one of the closest times any game has ever gotten to perfect, a very comfortable 9.8/10 for me, and I could not recommend Sekiro enough to anyone curious whether they should play it.