Luna Abyss (2026) - Sci-fi Horror Video Game Review (Xbox Series X)

I almost decided I wasn't going to review action game, Luna Abyss. A weird meld of sci-fi and horror taking place in an even weirder location. I haven't actually heard anyone talking about the game though, myself, I just stumbled across it on Xbox Game Pass. This meant I felt compelled to write a review in appreciation for the hours spent there. While flawed, this was still something that had something to it. My synopsis is based on what I believe was going on, shall try and keep spoilers to a minimum.

A couple of hundred years ago, a second moon suddenly appeared in the space around Earth. This moon was red, and upon being explored, was discovered to have a seemingly endless abyss going all the way down through it. The arrival of a second moon led to problems on Earth, with the red moon's gravity affecting the planet. With this disruption, some people decided to travel to the new moon and form a colony there; mining the abyss for the valuable resources contained within. Others were practitioners of a new religion who believed God was at the bottom of the abyss, and so travelled to the moon to be closer. Eventually, enough people went there that a city was formed. All was fine until one day a strange rot began to emerge from the depths of the abyss, anyone caught by this rot transformed into a mindless monster. After all had fled or been taken by this rot, the city was abandoned, and in present day, the moon is used purely as a penal colony. People born with red eyes on Earth are rounded up and sent away, as they are seen as being evil. It turns out these red eyes allow the humans to remotely pilot artificial constructs using their mind. This is put to effect in the abyss, were constructs are sent to scavenge for resources.
You play as Fawkes; a teenage girl imprisoned on the moon, she is told by an A.I construct; Aylin, that she has been chosen by an all powerful being named the 'All-Father' to use her red eye power to search the abyss for essential items.

The chaotic and sprawling world reminded me of Blame! The structures, while artificial looking, seem to spread on for infinity. Stone staircases, pipes, vents, and vast rooms make up the endless structure, so gargantuan that it doesn't seem possible that it was ever man-made. The signs of human settlements within the abyss gave some nice Bioshock vibes, that is reinforced with the many audio diaries scattered around the levels, buoyed up by lots of environmental storytelling. Outside of a handful of locations though, the meat of the game is abstract constructs devoid of life. With you travelling around the abyss, you never really get a good feel for the layout of it. Due to this, it never felt like too much of a 'lived-in' location, more like a collection of levels connected by pipe networks.

Luna Abyss is a first person adventure game that is a mix of shooting and platforming. There are also friendly characters you can interact with, though outside of hidden rooms, there are no side quests to be found. Over the course of the roughly 12 hour game, you get access to four sci-fi guns. These are essentially an assault rifle, shotgun, sniper, and rocket launcher disguised as something far fancier. Rather than ammo, the guns work on a cooldown timer and can overheat. In addition to using these to kill enemies (using a lovely Metroid Prime style lock-on ability), the guns can be used to assist with the platforming. The shotgun can be used to destroy blue forcefields, the sniper for purple ones, the rocket launcher can fire multiple rockets at the same time to hit switches. Enemies for the most part are made up of floating orbs of various types, and demonic humanoid creatures. There are a bunch of epic feeling boss battles against huge constructs, which is when a more 'bullet Hell' type of gameplay begins. As fun as the bosses were, they all take place in a formulaic way, with circular battle arenas for each one.

The meat of the game is platforming, the abyss is very vast in size, with Fawkes traversing this world with a combination of double jumps, boosts and the handy ability to take zero fall damage (you fall from some dizzying heights here). There was a steady stream of new abilities to help with the platforming, such as forming platforms out of ice, a grapple beam, and most fun - unlocking the ability to possess specific constructs to move around the levels. One of these has you on a train track, another allows you to magnetically stick to floating platforms, and one puts you inside of a heavily armed killbot. 

The look and feel of the game world is chunky, with environments feeling thick with substance. This allowed for a cohesive stitching together.
Voice work was a highlight, with many of the accents coming out of the weird constructs being regional British ones. Never was not strange to see a grotesque construct speaking with a soft northern accent! As a whole, I thought the voice acting was great.
There was a decent story here, with plenty of flashback cutscenes to try and explain vaguely what has been going on. Much of the story is revealed via audio diaries and notes however.

Excellent controls, quality voice acting, and a unique setting with an occasional U.K feel to it. I wish there had been more of a lean into Bioshock style human locations, as many of the levels here are more alien and remote in feel, while I found the lived-in areas to be a lot more interesting. Split between platforming and shooting, there wasn't too much variation throughout this, but it was good for what it was. Maybe missing something to really feel essential, Luna Abyss still worked at creating a compelling game world.

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Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors (2026) - Horror Video Game Review

A few years back I got bitten terribly by the Vampire Survivors bug. On the surface it looked like junk shovel-ware, but just one play was enough to discover just how insanely addictive that rogue-like auto-shooter really was. Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors is aiming to do the same with card battlers that the other game did with auto-shooters. Boy, does it succeed.

Much like its predecessor, the story here has you setting out to discover the source of the evil responsible for unleashing hordes of monsters upon the land. Starting off in a village, you choose your character and leave, the assumption being that a vampire is the cause. Of course, exactly the same as before, the big joke is that there isn't a single vampire to be found anywhere in the game.

Again, this is presented with a charming pixel-art style. Indeed, the monster and character models are lifted whole-sale from Survivors, looking even more basic and janky due to being blown up to a larger size to fit the first-person card battling. Each stage follows a familiar rogue-like pattern. Defeating enemies with your card attacks gives you XP gems, which then level-up your character, each level giving you the option of three rewards. There are different attack types, buffs, and special abilities to add to existing cards. Each card has a value, usually between 0 and 3, these allow you to build up combos, with each subsequent card in line getting more and more powered up. You traverse maze like levels in first person, dotted around are candles to break for gold and other boons (gold being used at the village to buy new heroes at the tavern, buy permanent upgrades at the shop, and later, adding ability slots to cards at the blacksmiths). Levels are usually made up of five floors, with the exit to each floor being guarded by a boss enemy whose charging attack can be quite painful to receive if not countered.

Story-wise, of course this is very basic. Levels are identical to Survivors, woods, an enchanted library, milk factory etc. It is very addictive and I always felt I was making progress, each run taking anything up to an hour to get through. I found it fun to play both with and without podcasts as background accompiment. It was also lengthier than you might expect, my final play time being over 24 hours! Similar throughout, I still rarely got bored playing this, and by the time the end credits rolled it just about hadn't outstayed its welcome.

Vampire Crawlers, much like its protégé was crack in the form of a game. Highly addictive and with a good sense of progression, this was very much worth playing. Even better, it is currently on Xbox Game Pass.

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Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4 'Safe Haven' (2025) - Horror Video Game Review

In-between playing mascot horror Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3 'Deep Sleep' and this latest (for consoles at least) entry; Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4 'Safe Haven', I fell down a giant rabbit hole in the form of the very rough, yet equally addictive Garten of Banban series. I was so down this hole that even when I picked up Chapter 4, I still didn't return. Instead, playing through all 8 games in that other series before finally being able to come back. I had in my head that both game series were on an even level with each other, but playing this one, I quickly realised how much more polished and well made Poppy Playtime of course is. Unavoidable spoilers for previous games to follow.

As a former employee of the sinister toy company, Poppy Playtime, you had returned to the factory ten years after a disaster closed it down, following a cryptic letter you received in the post. Safe Haven begins with you descending into the darkest level of the secret underground facility, where there is no longer any pretence as to the twisted experiments being performed by the company. Between the underground prison and surgical wing lies the titular 'Safe Haven', a home for all the non-violent sentient toys, who hide there, protected by Doey the Doughman (a large creature made out of what appears to be Playdough). Poppy arrives and announces a plan that would see the complete destruction of the entire Poppy Playtime facility, as well as the sinister Prototype (the mastermind behind the initial disaster ten years previously). To carry out this plan however, the employee must travel to the domain of  'The Doctor', to retrieve a high access key card that he has in his possession.

Following the trend of the other games, this fourth chapter is again longer than any of the ones that came before, with my overall (Poppy) playtime being over five hours. Deep Sleep introduced more of a pure horror vibe, and that continues here, the bleak and brutalist prison area being a prime example. There is lore here in spades, with this chapter having more notes and videotapes to discover than ever before. The story that plays out during this chapter is also the most involved yet, featuring a big cast of characters. Helping you are Poppy, Oliver, Kissy-Missy and Doey. That later one was a fantastic new one, coming across as almost cartoon-like with his comical exaggerated movement and jovial way of talking, yet also containing within him a lot of darkness that occasionally bubbles to the surface.
Much of the chapter has you pitted against 'The Doctor', an antagonist who is more cerebral, watching you over CCTV rather than physically trying to kill you. He is a constant presence, taunting you, directing where you are able to go, and occasionally sending enemies after you, most notably, the lion-like yarn creature; Yarnaby.

There are puzzles to solve and chase sequences as always, but also an increased focus on stealth sequences that see you pushing switches while avoiding a prowling creature. The stealth is pretty simple as the creatures appear to have atrocious vision, only able to spot you when they are almost on top of you. I enjoyed the chase sequences, nearly all of which were fun to do. There was the odd moment of frustration when it wasn't exactly clear where you were meant to go while being chased. There were also a few boss battles, but all followed a similar pattern of pressing switches and pulling levers.
Safe Haven is graphically lovely, especially coming from the very simple and plain level design of Garten of Banban. I really enjoyed traversing the areas here, occasionally giving a Resident Evil 4 vibe with its mine areas and labyrinthian medical facility areas. All of this leads up to a cliff-hanger finish that was a return to form after the underwhelming end to the last chapter.

Playing Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4 'Safe Haven' made me realise just how superior in quality this mascot horror game is to nearly any other one in the sub-genre of horror video games. I have a soft spot with both this and GOB, but with both games it feels like an ending really needs to come into sight, rather than treading water by stretching out the plot. Many had assumed that Chapter 5 would be the the final game, but apparently that isn't the case. Regardless, the second it drops on consoles, I will be plunging in feet first.

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Trepang2 (2023) - Horror Video Game Review (Xbox Series X)

Originally released in 2023, but only very recently added to Xbox Game Pass, Trepang2; (despite the title this is a first instalment, the original one had you playing as a sea cucumber!?) published by Team17, is a Hell of a weird game to play. This first person military shooter/horror mash-up is pure schizophrenia, the quality going up and down like a yo-yo during the roughly 10 hour campaign. When it's bad it's really bad, but when it's at its peak - it can reach levels of near perfection.

You play as Subject 106 - a super soldier who at the start of the game is being held captive and brainwashed by the shady all-powerful global entity, Horizon. Broken out of your confinement by an equally shady mercenary group called Task Force 27, you are given an offer to join up with them once you have escaped the prison facility and transported to their secretive HQ. Task Force 27 really have it in for Horizon, and so your goals align, with each mission taking you to a different Horizon facility dotted around the world for you to attack and expose its secrets. At each place you uncover sinister experiments that the entity had secretly been performing on volunteers, with this information then published by the mercenary group in an effort to weaken the companies global reach, enough that a full frontal assault on their main HQ can then be initiated.

Trepang2 had the feel of a middle of the road Xbox 360 shooter, albeit, with a nice coat of paint and better quality of life improvements to the gameplay. As the super soldier protagonist, you infiltrate bases over six main missions and an equal amount of side missions (roughly, can't recall the exact amount), with the quality varying wildly throughout. At first this felt like it was going to be an immersive sim in the style of something like F.E.A.R. As you battle through levels, scenery gets blasted apart (reminding me of Black), and you get treated to the increasingly desperate radio chatter of the enemies commanders as you single handily mow down legions of faceless enemy soldiers. There are computers to hack, vents to traverse, key VIP boss-style specialists to defeat, and also...monsters (more on that later). You can hold two weapons at a time, later getting the ability to duel-wield, pick up and throw enemies, as well as use two different recharging super abilities. One of these puts you into a Max Payne style slow-mo/bullet time state, the other makes you briefly invisible. Oddly, you are unable to aim down the sights of your guns (of which I believe there were about 8 different types), instead, the traditional aim down sights button instead throws your grenades. Combat never gets more complicated than that, no upgrades to your abilities, though you are frequently fighting small armies of spawning enemies. Missions, especially the side missions, can become very video game-like in feel, multiple ones being nothing much more than combat arenas where you have to survive against waves of increasingly tougher enemies.

So, at first glance this did feel like it might be an immersive sim in the design of the levels. The places you go to are certainly full of environmental details, but it isn't long before it comes clear (in some of the levels at least) that the actual level layout can leave a lot to be desired. Main missions are typically set in labyrinthian locations, while at the same time also being extremely linear, legions of locked doors funnelling you ever onwards down the only unlocked ones. These missions can be extremely hit and miss, pure joy one moment, screaming frustration the next. Take the second mission that is set in a Horizon medical facility. The first half has you slowly ascending through the facility into the basement lab, where you discover patients had been experimented on and turned into essentially zombie type husks. Sounds cool, but then the second half has you fighting these zombies who really annoyingly explode upon death, leading to lots of swearing on my part as I constantly got swarmed by the blighters. Some of the main missions really do suck, one that sees you assault the mansion based HQ of a group of cultists was once such example that was a real slog to get through. Others though were startingly amazing. One mission sees you exploring a Soviet underground base whose inhabitants had mysteriously all vanished without a trace. From start to finish that level was pure joy to play through; a 10/10 mission stuck in an often middling game. Perfectly designed, atmospheric, and at times transported you ingeniously to Creepypasta 'Backrooms', linear spaces complete with soggy carpet and yellow walls - was so unexpected to discover!
Trepang2 is a crazed mix of military shooter and horror, with roughly 75% of the game the first part, and the remaining 25% when things occasionally gets weird. That other part makes for a real ride, where you are never really sure what to expect next. A moth-man, bio-organic blobs that communicate via computer banks, evil spirits, clones, zombies, and one side mission that sees you on an oil rig battling a giant U.F.O! This felt especially jarring with so much of the rest of the game feeling much more grounded. I was fully on board for the horror of course, a welcome atmospheric break from the pure action of the rest of the game.

Trepang2 was a weird game with a frequently wild and darkly humorous (though somewhat generic) story. At its highs, this has some of the best video game moments I have experienced in years, but it is so hit and miss in quality that the less well designed moments really bring the overall game down to something that at times is very average.
There is DLC in the form of battle arenas and two extra side missions, but I never played those.

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Garten of Banban 0 (2025) - Horror Video Game Review

It had to happen eventually, this past month (at the time of typing back in February) I have had a whale of a time playing through the Garten of Banban mascot horror games. Sure, sometimes the quality has been less than ideal, but I really grew to love the liminal low-fi world, the sometimes janky controls, and the story. With Garten of Banban 0, I have for the moment reached my personal end. There is an eighth game out, but I don't currently own it, and with the ninth game not due out until way later in the year in August, I want to pace myself (ok, it turns out I in fact did not pace myself, a review for the eighth game dropping some point soon!). For once, spoilers for previous games not to follow, as the title might suggest, this time around we have a prequel.

You play as an unnamed young creature who one day wakes up in a small room with no idea who you are, where you are, or why you are there. The door to your room is soon opened up by someone; a young red creature that introduces himself as Banban. He leads you out to a vast underground play area, where you are introduced to further creatures. After playing a few games with your new friends, the day ends and you return to your room. You are disturbed later that night by Banban. He tells you he has something that he wants to show you, leading you to an intimidating gigantic locked door...

This was the second game in the series to be free, on Playstation 5 it had a much reduced price than recent others, so I figured it likely wouldn't be the longest game. It took me roughly an hour to complete, and on the whole I had a lot of fun with it. I'm sure important lore is given, and it was interesting to see the characters I've come to love appearing as children rather than grown adults. As to when the game is set, or where it is set, I don't know. I have a feeling the location might feature in the eighth instalment, time will tell. I thought the location looked great, and while the first half is light on horror, things do pick up when the night time sequence begins. It leads to an introduction of a fearsome and creepy looking new antagonist, making for a fun finale. I will say that on my playthrough, the game crashed in this final section, causing me to have to restart the game and replay a small part. It did take me out the story somewhat.

As per usual, along with a chase sequence, there are a few puzzles to do, the hardest of which had you trying to line up spinning symbols in a room rapidly filling with poisonous gas. Though with that one, when the timing clicked, it clicked immediately; a Herculean task suddenly fun and easy. With you as a creature, and set before the events that led to the protagonist of the main games entering the facility, there wasn't much explanation or deep story. A few notes were scattered about that gave some neat early lore about Banban, and as mentioned, I thought the location this game took place in looked fantastic.

With a cheaper price, I figured this would be bite size, but I still had fun along the way. I'm going to miss this series, which is crazy as I initially grudgingly picked it up as a stop gap game while waiting for Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4 to go on sale. Something I forgot to mention; shout out to the great end credits sequence, the first time one of these has had credits, and the charming illustrations show the entire series story from start to current end.

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Garten of Banban VII (2024) - Horror Video Game Review

I have been barrelling through the Garten of Banban series of mascot horror video games these past weeks, mainly due to travelling to Australia for a month (at the time of typing). Hopefully I am still able to put up blog posts there using my laptop (I am!), this review is written four days before the long 25 hour plane journey starts. Garten of Banban VII is the first game in the series not to be released in 2023, and was the only one to be released in 2024. I also have to say it was mightily disappointing. As ever, unavoidable spoilers to follow.

After descending yet another elevator of the secret facility hidden under Banban's Kindergarten, you arrive on floor six - the domain of Syringeon. The previous floor having become overrun by Sir Dadadoo and his small army of corrupted creatures. You had fled the area with the intention of retrieving the missing piece of Queen Bouncila's magical sceptre; the only item capable of sending the giant slug and his naughty one minions back into her pouch. After finding the surgeon, he instructs you with locating Jumbo Josh, the green giant being somewhere in Syringeon's improbable city, and who the creature believes is the only one capable of stopping Dadadoo.

I have to say, I did not expect a city to be found on this particular floor of the facility. I reckon by now we must be getting on for a good half a mile under ground. After a brief but fun horror opening, you make it to the city. The rest of the game takes place in this small open world area, with you tasked with heading to various locations, such as a bar, apartment block and theatre, as you search for clues on Josh's whereabouts and find the items you need to capture him. Unfortunately, this is the most frustrating game in the series by far, frustration popped up at several annoying moments. Chase sequences are back, but there was one here that required a mix of running and pixel perfect jumps. I must have taken at least 50 increasingly angry attempts until I finally did that section. Then there is the drone, it has another upgrade that lets you control it directly. I had hoped this would make it less cumbersome to control, but alas, the controls are poor and its range is limited by invisible walls. There are also a lot less puzzles to be found here, a handful of ones that mostly revolve around memorising patterns.

The city was fine, populated by alien looking creatures who talk in a variety of languages, it wasn't anything exciting. It had a kind of 1920's American gangster type feel, the bar playing jazz music, and a misty vibe to the streets. I can't say I liked that aesthetic, for much of the two and a half to three hour game there was barely any horror to be found. You get the obligatory dream sequence which to be fair was pretty fun, but the lore here was minimal. The story of containing Sir Dadadoo started to feel like a bit of an unimportant sub plot, divorced from the bigger story of finding your missing child. I liked the twist ending, but other than that there wasn't many interesting events to be had, outside of an epic finale, and the death of a major character.

I figured that each subsequent game in the series would be better and more polished. Garten of Banban VII however felt a bit of a mess. It felt like it was too ambitious for its own good, the amount of times I encountered invisible walls during my playthrough was ridiculous, and those moments of absolute frustration really hampered my enjoyment. This was ok, but really lacked the quality of the last few games.

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Garten of Banban VI (2023) - Horror Video Game Review

Surprise surprise, it is yet another review of one of the games in the prolific mascot horror video game series; Garten of Banban. If you have been following these, you may be wondering where my review for Garten of Banban V is, seeing as the last review I put up was for Garten of Banban IV. This has caused me no end of confusion. Initially I believed that for some bizarre reason the fifth game just hadn't been added to the Playstation store, but it turns out that as of now, that fifth game still hasn't been released, despite there being eight games released. What I do know about that missing game, is that it was for some reason planned to be missing, and that rumors suggest it was meant to be a prequel, taking place on the day that the event happened that caused all the staff and children of Banban's Kindergarten occurred. 
Anyway, onwards to my review of the fifth released game - Garten of Banban VI, and as always, spoilers for previous games are bound to follow.

Due to Bittergiggle's meddling, the 'naughty ones' that had been contained within Queen Bouncelia's pouch have been released once more. Arriving on the fifth floor down, Sheriff Toadster leads you to the locked room where the Queen's allegedly magical scepter is kept, with it assumed that the scepter has the power to return the mischievous monsters back to the pouch. He asks you to work your way around the floor, pressing the three switches that will open the door to the scepter room, and making sure to avoid the dark, for that is where the naughty ones like to reside.

This was another great entry in the series, and the final game to be released in 2023. To have five games released in the space of a year was really impressive. The games have come on leaps and bounds from the very rough and basic first game. This, like the game before, took me roughly two hours to complete. All of that time I was having a blast. It is more of the same to be fair, there are chase sequences, scripted story moments, an obligatory dream sequence, and plenty of vaguely challenging puzzles to solve. If any of those elements were not fun then it might be an issue; it might seem repetitive. That isn't the case though, some of the puzzles here were the most complex yet, even if they are still simple to do. There wasn't really much new in terms of the puzzles. You had one kind of similar in style to the operation puzzle from Garten of Banban III, there was a boss encounter that required mild puzzling to solve (thankfully far less frustrating than the last game's boss fight!), and there was a platforming section, which to its credit did ask for something more than just jumping around a bottomless chasm.

The lore is where it is really at for me. The biggest thing this has over Poppy Playtime is how much personality these mascot monsters have. I love that each floor of the mammoth facility leads to the introduction of new monsters, while never forgetting about ones that have came before. I love all the interactions between these monsters, and their interactions with you, each new game it feels like less and less of the creatures have it in for you, even when you forge new alliances and end old ones. Finding key cards and notes is still the order of the day, but this was the most open level yet, with chasms in short supply, and your upgraded magical drone (sure is clumsy how it operates still), now able to shine lights into dark places. Darkness is a key part of this game, and becomes a puzzle itself. The locations are as ridiculously huge and unbelievable as ever, but thinking of these places as liminal spaces has made them a lot more interesting to me. 

I'm completely engaged in the story by this point, I can't wait to play the next game in the series, though feel a twinge of sadness knowing that there are only three of these micro-games to play and I will be caught up...completely. Really enjoyed Garten of Banban VI, who have I become?

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Garten of Banban IV (2023) - Horror Video Game Review

I think something has broken within me. I initially picked up Garten of Banban as a stop gap mascot horror game to play while I was waiting for later entries of Poppy Playtime to go on sale (being jobless at the moment, my limited budget doesn't stretch to buying full price games, even as relatively cheap as these all are). Since then Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4 has gone on sale and I have brought it. I also picked up a bunch of the Garten of Banban games at the same time, and despite the low quality...I am completely hooked on them! A part of me knows that this is a subpar series, but I just cannot stop playing the damn things! With a choice of the fourth Poppy Playtime or Garten of Banban IV, I somehow chose the later. As always, unavoidable spoilers to follow.

Having escaped finally from Stinger Flynn at the end of Garten of Banban III, you have descended down to the mysterious fourth floor of the seemingly infinite basement complex hidden under Banban's Kindergarten, with a chick creature in tow. It isn't long before you have once again been captured, this time by new creature - Sheriff Toadster. In a weird twist, Sheriff Toadster is a subject of a kangaroo themed creature called Queen Bouncelia, and both of these creatures are shockingly actually non-hostile to you. Sympathetic to your search for your missing child (children?), Queen Bouncelia instructs Sheriff Toadster to help you retrieve three parts of a damaged elevator from around her kingdom, which when repaired will take you back up to one of the higher levels where you can continue your search.

I played through this game in one single sitting, and I have to say it was by far the most polished and fun to play one yet. Your objective is clear from the start, and with this level split into four distinct sections, it is clear also where you need to go. There is a load of lore, notes mainly talk about Sheriff Toadster and Queen Bouncelia, later on you get audio diaries that talk about the rogues gallery of creatures you have previously encountered (who of course once again appear here). With each subsequent game, this distances itself more and more from Poppy Playtime. I loved that not all the creatures are hostile to you, and I liked how self contained this game felt. It both gives further beats to the main story, while also having its own little plot going on of a rebel jester creature that is on the level causing mischief.

There is the usual assortment of fun and easy puzzles, from spot the difference, to again more switch pressing with your magical teleporting drone. There were also a couple of chase sequences (one that starts immediately at game's beginning), and another kind of boss fight against a new giant creature occurs. That boss fight was a low point of IV though, involving you tricking it into running into giant switches, it took me many many goes before I finally worked out how to do that. According to my Playstation 5, this was the longest game yet, with me taking about two hours to finish it. Each subsequent game costs more than the previous one, but this was still well under £10. This is a brief experience, but it was also a fun one. There is something about the basic creature designs that just become more and more appealing with time.

It is crazy to me that four Garten of Banban games were released in the space of a year (actually five in the end). There has been a thankful gradual improvement with each game, this one being the most fun I've had yet. It wouldn't make much sense to pick up Garten of Banban IV if you haven't played the previous games, but from the growing quality (there are some actual attractive looking locations here, and the increase in background music is much appreciated), this one was by far the best one yet. Just don't expect anything remotely scary, the jump scares are once again ineffectual, and the content very horror slight.
With eight games in the series released, you would assume that the next game will be Garten of Banban V. That is not the case though. Tune in to the next review to find out more.

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Garten of Banban III (2023) - Horror Video Game Review

Another week and another review of a Garten of Banban game. Picked up alongside Garten of Banban II and IV, I have (as of typing) just this moment completed the third game in the series; Garten of Banban III. As always, unavoidable spoilers to follow.

After taking yet another downward elevator, you end up on yet another testing floor. You learn pretty soon that this is the last floor that was still in use when the event happened (where the staff and children of a kindergarten mysteriously vanished). It is here that you encounter the goliath sized psychic jelly fish monster; Stinger Flynn, perhaps the creature that is responsible for the missing children and the outbreak of the creatures.

Like I said in my last review, this follows the Poppy Playtime formula by having each instalment be larger than the last. My final play time for this third chapter was about two hours, I'm sure that included the many times I died. This time around there are four main areas, each accessed via a horizontal lift that travels over a vast chasm. It follows the by now familiar format of searching out key cards to open further doors into the complex. Stinger Flynn was an interesting antagonist, I particularly liked the trippy dream sequences you fall into when he psychically connects with you. It was fun to see the non-sentient objects from the second game make a new appearance here. There are the usual drone based puzzles where you have to press switches, including one that takes place as a boss fight against a two headed turtle. The beach cannon puzzle from last time around returns, the only difference here is that you are playing as Stinger Flynn in a flashback sequence, of which there were two, neither of which was particularly exciting . The text on the wall is again written really badly from what appeared to be MS Paint, this led to some annoyances with later puzzles simply for not being able to make out what the primitive looking diagrams were meant to represent. Best puzzle came towards the end, an escape room one where you have to keep resetting the room's look, so that your attempts at escape are not noticed by a patrolling creature. Another memorable one had you performing an operation on a creature, while balancing spinning plates (so to speak) as you did so.

I enjoyed playing this chapter, but I wouldn't say it was as jump scare filled as last time. In fact, while there are jump scares, not a single one made me actually jump. The main antagonist is the mostly static jelly fish, but the teacher creature, Jumbo Josh, and Banban all make returning appearances, as do the birds. The obligatory chase sequence this time around involves you riding on the back of a bird, that was different, if a little messy with how it controlled. The lore comes more from what Stinger Flynn tells you than files found around the place, though they too feature. I actually managed to play a found videotape, but it wasn't very impressive at all.
The game leads up to a fun end, but again, not a very memorable actual exit to the game.

Garten of Banban III was more of the same, it was neither better or worse than the second game, perhaps, with the jump scares not landing, and a few noticeable glitches, this was slightly worse thinking about it. Still, I again finished my playtime wanting to see what was next. I'm sure it will be underwhelming in a design way, but the thought of getting to see an unused floor of the mammoth underground complex has me intrigued. 

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Garten of Banban II (2023) - Horror Video Game Review

It was about what I expected when I played through the first in the Garten of Banban series of video games last month. A mascot horror game that takes heavy inspiration from the much better made Poppy Playtime series. I did say then, that if I saw the subsequent ones on sale I would take a look of them. Less than a month later and those games are on sale, so I gave Garten of Banban II a try. Unavoidable spoilers for the first game to follow.

The first game ended with you descending on a hidden elevator into the depths of the Banban's Kindergarten, before getting attack by a giant creature. This one picks up immediately afterwards, the attack caused the elevator to crash, with you saved by the creature breaking the elevator's fall. You emerge into a secret underground complex, and it is there that someone spots you on the complex's camera system. A man's voice informs you that he has become trapped in the security room, and has asked for your assistance in finding the key card to free him. Can this man be trusted though?

Much like with Poppy Playtime Chapter 2, Garten of Banban II is more of the same but offers a larger experience than the roughly 45 minutes of the first game. It is hard to quantify exactly how long this one took, as I did have the game paused for minutes at a time due to texting a friend while playing. I reckon that this one took me just over an hour to complete, and at a once again dirt cheap price, I find it hard to complain about that length. Thankfully, while still obviously low budget (the signs on the walls and the notes you find still all appear like they were written on MS Paint!), this was a much better made game than before, and is made up of more than just one long corridor with branching rooms off of it. Again in first person, your main goal is finding key cards to proceed further into the labyrinthian underground complex. You still have a drone that you can send to press switches, though this seemed to be used less this time around. Puzzles were all easy, but they were fun to do, not so easy that they felt pointless obstacles to progress. These puzzles range from collecting a group of chick mascots and returning them to their nest, to pressing switches in a correct order, and one sweat inducing platforming section over a large pit, which was more fun than its similar counterpart in the first game. The highlight of this second game was when you find yourself inadvertently trapped in a classroom with a teacher mascot, having to answer the questions she gives you, with surreal break time mini-stories involving the other students, who were made up of non-sentient watering cans, bowling pins, and shade wearing basketballs! I really enjoyed that section, felt unique, doing something different in feel to Poppy Playtime at last.

Before there were only the two mascot antagonists, and both barely featured. For this second game there were at least six of the creatures. I can't recall their names, but these included the return of the bird from the first game, the teacher mascot, a giant snail, a large spider, and a hulking great green monster among others. Similar to Poppy Playtime, some of these mascots are able to talk. The voice acting wasn't great, it felt like they had just dragged random people off the streets to read the lines. In the context of these normal voices coming out of vaguely creepy looking creatures though, the voice work grew on me. There were plenty of jump scare moments should you get caught in any of the sections where that is possible, unlike my first experience, here, I jumped a fair few times. The chapter culminates in a chase sequence, that while not original, was pretty cool, mainly due to the wonderfully massive Jumbo Josh. Dotted around the game world are letters and video tapes. I never actually got a chance to use the tapes, but the letters added a surprising amount of lore to what had seemed to be a wafer thin game story-wise. There are still many lingering questions, but I had far more of an idea what was going on than I did previously.
Level design is better here, but again, the game world doesn't feel like a realistic place, you have dark chasms that stretch into darkness, and this place if real, you would have to assume was created by a maniac, due to the amount of artificial puzzles and level design. It is after all a game though, so perhaps I'm being a bit harsh on that front.

Garten of Banban II was a lot more fun to play than the first. It is still obviously low quality, but I found this to be better designed in general, and I didn't really find any of it frustrating to get through. It also delighted by doing some original things, rather than just feeling like a copied clone. Even with those new ideas, I could never escape the feeling that this is just a poor imitation of a better series, but I would be lying if I said there wasn't some fun to be had here, and would be lying if I said I didn't immediately boot up the third game at the completion of this one.

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Tormented Souls (2021-22) - Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 5)

Tormented Souls may have one of the most generic and forgettable titles I've heard in recent memory. I've constantly kept referring to it as 'Forsaken Souls' for some reason, and even writing this review; I've noticed that I have initially titled the game 'Tortured Souls' before noticing the error. Thankfully, that is one of the worst things about this very entertaining retro survival horror throwback - a game that blends classic elements of the original Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil and Silent Hill games into one cosy bloodstained whole.

Taking place in 1994, Canadian - Caroline Walker, receives a strange letter in the post that contains a single photo of twin little girls. In the weeks that follow, Caroline begins to experience terrible nightmares, unable to stop thinking about the photo. In desperation, she heads to the abandoned Wildberger Hospital (the return address for the letter she received), hoping to find out more information about the two girls. Once there she gets immediately attacked and knocked out by a mystery assailant. Sometime later, she awakens naked in a tub full of water, with a bandaged eye, and breathing tube in her throat. After getting dressed, she checks under the eye bandage in a mirror and is horrified to discover her bandaged eye has been surgically removed! She leaves the storage room she's in and heads out into the hospital (which is situated in an old mansion). Her goal; to find the whereabouts of the twin sisters and rescue them should they need assistance.

This is very classic survival horror, it really reminded me of the golden age of the late nineties. Games have came out before that promise to be authentic returns to survival horror roots, but they often feel like they are missing something essential for the nostalgic feel. Despite some small issues, I loved my time with Tormented Souls thankfully. The mansion setting of course reminded me heavily of the original Resident Evil, and is of comparative size to that game, with my final completion time being around 8 hours. The game is populated with grisly horrors, all of which fit the hospital vibe in their own twisted ways. ghoulish creatures with gas canisters strapped to their legless torso, zombies with blades for arms, and blending of corpse and surgical apparatus. There were also three boss fights, though two of these were against enemies that later join the roster of common enemies. The final boss was neat, requiring puzzle solving and combat blended together; the only one of the bosses that actually stood out. As a note; without going into spoilers; the boss in the game that resembles something from Evil Dead II is invincible, something I wish I had figured out before wasting most of my ammo on the blasted thing. If I had just left the room I would have made the back half of the game a lot easier! Enemy design works when the enemies are hidden in darkness, sometimes in well lit areas they can become a bit goofy looking. Character design mostly failed here; Caroline herself looks great, but other characters encountered had an exaggerated cartoon look to them that pulled me out the immersion on occasion. The less said about the voice acting the better, maybe they were going for a cheesy Resident Evil tone with over empathising each word, but the delivery really pulled me out of the experience. 

I first thought it was weird that a hospital would be inside a mansion, but that was explained to my satisfaction in a file I came across. The same happens with why the enemies look like they do. Nothing revolutionary, but was nice to have some lore about that. The mansion is full to the brim with puzzles that need to be solved, from cryptic door locks, to memory repetition puzzles, riddles, and items you discover that need either combining with one another, or used in the environment. Getting around the mansion is like solving an intricate puzzle lock, the puzzles here, while not hard, still are decent enough to give you a rush of dopamine when you solve them.
The mansion's design includes many secret doors and unexpected short cuts, with the detail appropriately hellish. At every turn there are corpses and body bags, literally hundreds encountered during my play through. Special mention to the choice of fixed camera angles, as well as the tremendous lighting that was especially effective in the basement sections.
The game starts off feeling like Resident Evil, but increasingly takes on the feel of a Silent Hill. It starts with tiny sections that feel like the Silent Hill  'Otherworld', then the back half of the game increasingly takes on a more cosmic horror feel. I enjoyed this mix of the grand daddies of the survival horror genre, their blend worked fantastically. The game's plot wasn't particularly engaging, but it served it's purpose. Much of the story for what happened at the mansion comes from diary entries you find dotted around the place, with hints of Fatal Frame II to it. You have to assume Caroline is illiterate, as she always seems very surprised from revelations that had already been revealed in easily obtained diaries. I recall one time around six hours in where Caroline responds with shock to something I had literally found out about within 15 minutes of starting the game by reading a diary entry!

Some of the item management can be fiddly. Thankfully, you have an infinite carry space, rather than limited, and the game sees fit to split key items and gameplay items into different sections in the item screen. You unlock maps of the floors in the building as you play, though weirdly when you bring up the map screen you have to manually locate the map you need rather than it bring it up automatically. The game world is also very dark, this is used in a gameplay way due to darkness causing instant death should you be in it for too long. You come to rely on a lighter (with seemingly infinite fuel) to see where you are going. The only problem is that you can't use your weapons while holding the lighter, nor can you use without, as it restricts you from using them when its pitch black. Neatly used as part of some of the puzzles, with areas of the mansion blocked off by stationary enemies that you can't attack in the dark. You only get access to four different weapons throughout the game, at least it tries something different but having a much more D.I.Y feel to them. Your primary weapon is a nail gun which was quite weak, my favourite came to be the shotgun apparently made out of pipes. Of course, ammo, health, and even save reels are all in short supply, by games end I did have plenty of those save reels stored away. Saving is needed as being old school there are not any checkpoints. Should you die, then you will have to reload your last save. There were definitely a few soul destroying times when I realised all too late my last save was a long time ago. 

Tormented Souls was a frequently stressful experience. I was always really hesitant to use healing items, ammo, or to save my game as I was always nervous about how limited these items all where. I liked how the enemies just lay dead where you killed them for the rest of the game, it makes returning to previously explored areas much more chill, as well as make it feel like it wasn't a waste to kill them first time around. The unsettling looking location is the best thing about this game, the story didn't really resonate much, maybe due to the exaggerated voice acting, but the environments were nightmarish and there were some well placed jump scares to be had in them. The old school tank controls and fixed camera angles might not be for everyone (I had forgotten how annoying it was to battle an enemy just off screen), but for those wanting a return to the glorious early days of survival horror, Tormented Souls was an excellent adventure, albeit, not a perfect one.

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Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3 'Deep Sleep' (2024) - Horror Video Game Review

I was pleasantly surprised when I decided to check out episodic horror game; Poppy Playtime late last year. I had expected something like Five Nights At Freddy's but more basic. Instead it was the opposite, feeling like that game if it had been expanded upon to be more than just a single room puzzler. Both Chapter 1 'A Tight Squeeze' and Chapter 2 'Fly in a Web' were quite light on genuine horror moments, I would even go as far to say they are relatively child friendly. That isn't the case for Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3 'Deep Sleep' - this chapter heightens the terror to make an experience that I would not recommend for those who don't enjoy horror. Of course, unavoidable spoilers for what has come before.

Chapter 2 ended with self aware doll Poppy Playtime deciding you were too useful to let go, and so at the last moment diverted the train that was transporting you to the surface, to instead send you deeper into the nightmarish facility, inadvertently causing the train to crash in the process. The third chapter begins with chapter antagonist - CatNap, picking up your unconscious body and discarding it in the trash compactor room. Regaining consciousness at the last moment, you escape the room, and soon get in contact with new character; Ollie, who communicates via a telephone device you collect. He tasks you with powering up a huge machine to divert the hallucinogenic red gas that is blocking the way deeper into the vast underground complex. To do this, you must head into Playcare - the giant biodome orphanage, that also happens to be the stalking ground of the lethal CatNap.

With each subsequent chapter being more expensive to buy, I really hoped the game would increase to match the price rise. That again is the case here, where Chapter 1 was around an hour long, and Chapter 2 around two hours in length, by the time the end credits for Chapter 3 appeared, I had been playing for around four hours. It is more of the same, you explore maze-like levels in first person, solving puzzles, while avoiding the chapter specific enemies who instant kill you should they get a hold of you. The game is at its most unique with the biodome setting, a vast area that is designed to look like it is outside, despite being very very deep below the surface. The central hub area here is made to look like a small town, with various buildings that you travel to as you attempt to reroute the power. Your adventure takes you to a variety of locations, from a school, to caverns, and offices. The horror is in abundance here, with much of it suggested rather than shown in detail. There was something really quite unsettling exploring dormitories and nurseries that featured blood stained bunk beds and cots.
To help assist you, as per previous chapters, new abilities for your grab-hand device are given. You get an upgraded grab-hand that lets you stretch out the hands further, and get two additional upgrades for it - one that allows you to use jump pads, and one that fires flares to light up dark areas. I spent much of my time here cursing how dark the game world was, especially when at the midway point your torch is destroyed. This was a problem of my own making, as I completely forgot I had a flare gun attachment that would have been very useful at giving light to the sometimes pitch black areas! The gun can also be used to protect against the pint-sized enemies that appear in the terrible Playhouse section. Terrible as in horror filled, not terrible as in badly made. Again, forgetting I had the flare gun made that part of the game a whole lot harder.

I was pleased that there is quite a lot of lore revealed during this chapter. You get information about the event that led to the initial disaster in the 90s (that you were seemingly the sole survivor of), and also get a good idea of your ultimate goal in the facility, with the hinted at main antagonist - 'The Prototype', making more of an appearance. The big bad of Chapter 2 was a constant presence, constantly interacting with you. CatNap has a far more hands off approach and barely even appears until the final half of the game. Puzzles were simple, but involved enough to feel satisfying to solve, mainly revolving around moving batteries about, and setting up relays to power up doors. The chapter culminates with a big boss battle, which was basically Five Nights At Freddy's, having you needing to monitor a series of corridors that something was trying to advance down. The hands-off approach of  the chapter antagonist was balanced with a few other enemies, a teacher robot that only moves on you when you aren't looking at it, and a horde of tiny robotic animals. These were both neat and effective enemies to face. Often these take the form of chase sequences. There were quite a few of these sections, though strangely, the checkpoints for these were never just before them, but several rooms before. This led to a pointless minute or so walk to get to the section that you previously died in each time (should you fail). Added to the horror mix are nightmare sequences (a result of the hallucinogenic red gas lingering around). These parts gave some variation, adding rather than detracting from the overall experience.

Each chapter of Poppy Playtime has both increased in length, and increased in horror. It was a pleasure to have the best looking area of the game yet with Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3 'Deep Sleep', and I appreciated how survival horror like this felt, even if you are only in actual danger during set events, rather than constantly. I loved the lore here. The dark locations, and not knowing where to go during chase sequences occasionally frustrated, but myself forgetting I had a flare gun was no doubt the cause of some of these frustrations. As I say at the end of each chapter review; I can't wait to pick up the next chapter and get further into the Hell of Playtime Co.

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