Joe's Diner (2015) - Horror Videogame Impressions: 'Rotted Meat No.1'

The list of video games I own and have yet to play have gotten to such an amount over the years that I fear I will likely simply not even get around to playing some of them. Due to this, I have been more harsh lately, skipping games if I feel I am just not 'getting' them. This gave me the idea of creating a new series of posts. Titled 'Rotted Meat', these won't be reviews, but instead the impressions I had of certain games, and what led to me abandoning them. The first of these is Joe's Diner...

The Synopsis:

The game is a horror survival game that takes place out in the desert at a remote diner (Joe's Diner obviously). You play as a night-time employee of the diner, and have unusual tasks assigned to you. The place happens to have been built on the site of a Native American burial ground where two rival chieftains were buried. The hate they share for each other even resides in death, and so one of your jobs is to diffuse any supernatural occurrences that might arise due to the spirits of the chieftains still warring.

How the game felt:

This is one of those horror games where you are defenceless, and instead of fighting, you must sneak around the environment trying your best not to get killed by the evil spirits. Having a limited shift time, the game is split into different nights, much in the way of Five Nights at Freddy's, though here you are free to walk around rather than stuck in a single room. The game was unremarkable, basic looking, and really not a lot of fun. 

Reason for abandoning the game:

I started playing this shortly before upgrading to a Playstation 5, and Joe's Diner was one of the rare games that wasn't backward compatible on the new system, leading to me ditching it. Sure, I could have hooked up my Playstation 4 had I really wanted to play this one again, but I found the game super boring and dull, and so I really wasn't bothered about ever going through the minor hoops to return.

Atomfall (2025) - Post Apocalyptic Video Game Review (X-Box Series X)

Post-apocalyptic adventurer Atomfall has been described as an English Fallout video game. Both due to the setting and that comparison, I was excited to try the game, and so it was great to see it head to Xbox Game Pass. When the game first came out I played it for around forty five minutes, got to the village area and then left never to return to that particular playthrough. About a month back I retried it and this time it all clicked. I enjoyed this enough that despite not owning it, I purchased the first DLC for the game; 'Wicked Isle'. I will include that DLC within this review rather than doing a separate review for it.

The game takes place within an alternate timeline in which the very real fire in 1957 at the Windscale nuclear power plant (Britain's worst nuclear accident), resulted in a quarantine zone being set up around the plant. No one was allowed in or out of the quarantine zone, so everyone living in the area now find themselves cut off from the rest of the country, both due to being sealed in, but also due to the disaster causing a strange electromagnetic field that prevents messages getting in or out of the area. The army were called in, but too found themselves trapped within the quarantine zone, and now brutally enforce the areas they control, calling themselves 'Protocol'. Outside their area of influence, bandit groups arose, as well as a strange druid like cult who worship the land.
Five years after the disaster and quarantine was enacted, your player character awakens in a bunker within the zone with no memory of how they came to be there. An injured scientist in a hazmat suit trades your assistance for a special key card, they tell you that a secret facility known as the 'Interchange' is the key to escaping.

Atomfall is a first person adventure game that has light elements of the survival genre to it. You don't need to manage food, water and sleep, but you are able to craft various items such as health, bombs, and temporary stat increases. There is also a skill tree that requires B.A.R.D (British Atomic Research Division) upgrades to advance through. Skills you can unlock aren't particularly exciting, but they are useful. Think traditional stuff like increased skills with melee and ranged weapons, and the ability to craft items faster. Combat is one of the weaker areas of the game, and for much of my time I avoided it. I don't think it was the intention, but I ran rather than fought a lot of enemies until later in the game when I was better armed. This led to me speed running through certain areas, such as the cultists base in Casterfell Woods, meaning I likely missed parts of the game, even if it made sense for my character. Weapons are limited and basic, and ammo is in short supply, but enemies can be dealt with. Human enemies can be dispatched easily enough, there are also ghoul like infected humans that come in various types. Going back on the Bioshock influence, there are giant robots who can be battled to take their power cores. I didn't once engage in combat with the robots as I didn't really see the point. Then there are the animals, very basic looking rats and eels (and crows in the DLC) who attack you in packs in a bit of a lame way.
It isn't all gunplay, you get a hacking device that allows you to turn off gun turrets and restore power to doors, and a metal detector which can be used to uncover buried items. Enemy A.I isn't that great, the enemies tend to swarm you rather than using any other type of tactics, but with combat being not essential this wasn't an issue.

Is this really an English Fallout? Yes and no. It shares elements of that series with others such as Bioshock, and even this years Avowed. Rather than open world, the game takes place within six large areas (seven if you also include the DLC island). Central is Wyndham village, my favourite place due to being a safe area controlled by Protocol. Skethermore is also Protocol controlled, while Slatten Dale is bandit controlled. Then there is Casterfell Woods where the cultists roam, and including the island from the DLC, you have Midsummer Island that contains both cultists and bandits (and takes a more supernatural bend rather than sci-fi to its story). That is all without mentioning the Interchange. There is no fast travel option available in Atomfall, so this requires you to be intelligent in completing missions and side quests, as it can take a good while to travel from one side of the game world to the other. The Interchange is essentially a second way of travelling around the game, this vast underground facility allows you to pop up in any of the games areas (excluding Midsummer Island). A key part of the game is removing the lockdown from the facility, feeding into the end game task of visiting Oberon. With the lack of fast travel I caused more than a few headaches for myself, arriving at my destination only to realise I had left a key item behind back in the storage container system at the Interchange. It did add to the immersion not fast travelling.

The world building is fantastic, and is one of the stronger elements of Atomfall, it feels like a living breathing world that tells a lot of story just with how items have been arranged, such as crashed copters and roadblocks. As amazing as the world building is, unfortunately the main story really sucks. Your goal is to simply escape the zone, and pretty much all the quests revolve around helping various people who reckon they can help you escape should you assist them. You don't need to complete these various tasks at all, the free form mission structure means you could just side with one character and follow their path to the end of the game. Wanting to get the most out of the game, I played all the quests up to the end points, but I couldn't shake the feeling it was a bit pointless in terms of story, only important to me for getting to see more of the fantastic world. Your player character is a huge missed opportunity, it takes the old school approach of a silent protagonist who seems to exist purely as a proxy for the player to be in the game world. Anyone expecting any sort of grand reveal of who this player character actually is, or how they came to be in the quarantine zone will be disappointed, I know I was. It's a shame with a world as well built as this that the protagonist is such a dull nothing. I brought the DLC as I heard it was more of the same. It naturally integrates its new area without feeling like it doesn't belong in the pre-existing world. It added an extra five hours onto my playthrough, so when the end credits rolled I was at twenty two hours. I admit, I had imagined the game would be a good sixty to seventy hours, but with a wafer thin story, and a sometimes samey feel to what you do, I appreciated the shorter runtime.
Another strange thing were the power cores. These are set-up as if they are the game's version of Bioshock's 'Adam', yet despite much being made of securing these rare power cores, there are far, far more of them than you would ever need. It felt like a wasted opportunity, I wish they had been required more, or even used as a means to get through your skill tree.

I loved Atomfall, I thought the way the player is giving control of how they get through the game to be wonderful, and the British setting was fantastic. I wish the story had been more involved, it is so basic here that it almost feels placeholder, like the developers forgot to put the actual story into the game. The lore and world building is really good, making me able to look past the sometimes janky combat, but the main plot was so barebones as to make me feel that I probably won't return for a second playthrough as there wasn't a single engaging story beat. Some of the side quests were fun and added to the world, but far too many of the main quest lines involved fetch quests that had a similar feel. Despite that, I thought Atomfall was a very good game, perhaps just missing out on being an essential play.

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9th Dawn Remake (2024-25) - Initial Impressions (PS5)

I've had a review copy of 9th Dawn Remake since April time, but it is the type of game which requires a lot of investment. This is a huge game, and so, rather than wait to finish it, I will give my initial impressions based on the first ten hours or so. 

Unsurprisingly, this is a remake of a much older game. How old I was unable to find out, You play as a character plunged into a nostalgic feeling, relatively basic looking fantasy world. The graphics were really charming and old school, but the game itself felt more fresh. The open world is absolutely gigantic, in my time playing this so far I have barely scratched an eighth of this massive world. It has one of the biggest map screens I've seen in a game to my recollection. I haven't mentioned the story yet and that's probably due to it being about the weakest part of 9th Dawn Remake. It is simple enough that I honestly have no idea what it involves, not helped by a quest screen that is extremely light on details. I love a story in video games, so this was a slight issue. Thankfully, due to the huge world I felt like it was 'open world' rather than just a big old school RPG. This world is to begin with quite a deadly place, my poor wizard was getting the stuffing beaten out of him. I later found an armoury that lets you upgrade your weapons, so that helped. Even more helpful was the amazing creature companion feature. Occasionally you stumble across eggs that when hatched give you a little pet who will battle alongside you. You can have up to eight of the critters at once, making it very fun to pounce on an enemy as a mob. As they level up, they can also evolve into better monsters. On my playthrough I've recently had a skeleton join my crew, love it.

Combat is very simple, requiring nothing more than to have you hold the analogue stick (playing this on Playstation 5) in the direction of enemies to auto battle them. Dungeons are literally dungeons here, all taking place under ground in various caves or sewers. This creates a combat loop of heading in a little bit at a time, slowly grinding out levels to make your team better suited to conquering the place. I enjoyed many an evening with a podcast on while doing this. As if this huge game wasn't enough, there are also some great little side games you can play. Head to the docks and you get a fun fish based Vampire Survivors clone you can play. Even better, by taking to the Card Master in each town you can access Deck Rock. I adored this side game. It has you as paper warriors fighting your way past paper monsters in castles in turn based card combat. Truth be told, I had more fun playing that side mode than the main course itself.

I was given a review code for this indie fantasy game so my words might sound false, but I think there is such a vast and impressive game to be found here. Having a game with such a charming retro look to it coupled with a massive world makes this something I could easily see myself sinking days and days into. 9th Dawn Remake is out on just about everything, from the major consoles to mobile phones.

The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 3rd of July

There won't be any blog posts on this site next week as I am off to Dunkirk with my father for the weekend, the weekend being the only chance I get to write posts. I figured I might as well pull my finger out and make this week's output a full five posts (I failed, plus I am moving one of the four posts I did write to next week). Onwards to a terrifying trilogy of horror news.

Found footage streaming service FOUND TV is branching out into video game territory, with first release Tag! You're Dead now available to wishlist on Steam. The game takes the form of a side scrolling horror, with it being a small reimagining of the cursed video game from the film /demo_n. You play as Gary, a man battling his way through a demon infested city. Co-founder and CEO of FOUND TV - Louie La Vella stated that this is only the beginning for their video game output 'FOUND has several other gaming projects in the works, including a VR experience in development...' Tag! You're Dead is due for release this summer.

A trailer for upcoming horror comedy The Massage Parlour Massacre has been released. The film sees a detective who has spent their whole life trying to find the person responsible for their mother's death at a massage parlour get caught up in another massacre at the same location some twenty years later. The star studded cast include Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), August Kyss (Murdercise), Sandy Johnson (Halloween), Mark Patton (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge), and Robert Allen Mukes (House of 1000 Corpses). This is to be written and directed by Nigel Hartwell (The Demented).

Finally for today, the official poster and trailer for indie horror Blood Red Beach has been released. Coming from Mad Angel Films (Graveyard Shark), this follows a group of friends who anger the vengeful ghost of pirate Captain Roderick Cross while on vacation at a remote island. Blood Red Beach is due for release on August 1st on Blu-ray, DVD, VHS, and a limited edition collectors box. Preorders are live here.

Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods - Part Two (2021) - Horror Video Game DLC Review (Playstation 5)

Continuing my playthrough of the previous games on the path to Doom: The Dark Ages, I have played and beaten the second of the two story DLCs (also available as a standalone mini-game) for Doom Eternal, funnily enough, this one is called The Ancient Gods - Part Two. I didn't have high hopes due to the first DLC being neat in terms of lore, but exhausting in terms of incessant combat. Thankfully, the developers seem to have realised their error with a much easier, and albeit, shorter second set of levels that were much better designed and more fun to play. Unavoidable spoilers for both Doom Eternal and The Ancient Gods - Part One to follow.

With the Dark Lord of Hell resurrected by the Doom Slayer, all he has to do is kill him. It doesn't turn out to be that easy as the Dark Lord teleports away to the prime city of Hell, challenging Doom Slayer to meet him there if he wishes to battle. Part Two is therefore the journey of the protagonist to this city.

This again is made up of three levels, kind of anyway. There is actually a fourth level, but that is just a boss fight. My issue first time around was how combat heavy and dull the levels were. This time around the levels feel like they are in the same style as the base game levels, rather than being endurance runs. The challenge was much lower, I again played on easy (now in my forties my reactions aren't as great as they once were), but this time it did feel a little easy. There was a strange Halo vibe to this second DLC, with the levels feeling like they wouldn't be out of place in that game. Like before, the three levels all take place in different realms. Starting off out in the rocky countryside of Argent D'Nur, which includes a dragon ride and plenty of platforming, things then move to a post apocalyptic Earth city, before finally heading to the principle city of Hell. These all looked great, but there has been a steady shift from supernatural to science fiction. No longer does it feel like you are battling demons, but more like an ultra advanced futuristic society! The last level in particular had this feel, but it was countered by having it take place during a massive war raging in the background.

The new enemy types from Part One reappear here, and plenty of new enemy variants are introduced. You have stone version of imps, armoured versions of Hell beasts, zombies with indestructible shields, and a rarely used enemy that can curse you, the only cure being to hunt down the teleporting idiot and punch him. A new weapon appears here, a giant hammer that when used stuns all enemies around you. This weapon was ridiculously useful, meaning that there wasn't much fear when surrounded by hordes of enemies. A new platforming element is also revealed, there are now grapple points floating in the sky that you can hook onto using the super shotgun. Some of these platforming sections were a bit intense, thankfully you no longer lose health when falling to your doom (Doom?), making them perfectly fine despite not really having a place in the universe.
The story was basic, but again, the lore you can collect was excellent. I especially liked how the lore of the second level is then shown to be lies by the lore of the third level. Doom Slayer also finally gets to speak, something that was a lovely surprise!

I was prepared for another faintly boring collection of combat challenges, instead Part Two delighted by feeling much more like the base game. I'm glad I played through these, though I probably won't ever return to them. Enjoyable, and a fine farewell to Doom Eternal. At around two and a half hours long this is a shorter part, but it goes to show, sometimes less is more as this is superior to Part One.

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Doom Eternal (2020) - Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 5)

In a tale as old as time, on my path to playing Doom: The Dark Ages (that is now out on Xbox Gamepass), I decided to play through the previous newer Doom games. Returning to Doom 2016 was a complete blast, that game just seems to get better with each subsequent playthrough. Doom Eternal is a different beast altogether. I brought this on day one, super excited to play. The game just didn't click with me, despite some amazing levels, I eventually crawled my way to the last third of the game and promptly gave up. Now, some five years later I have returned, deciding to play the game on easy mode so that I could finally finish this particular fight. In a film-less week, the two DLCs will be making up my other reviews.

This picks up fourteen years after the end of Doom, with no explanation whatsoever, Doom Slayer is now on a space station orbiting Earth (he was last seen fourteen years previously being teleported away to an unknown location), an Earth that is under supreme demonic assault due to the UAC (Union Aerospace Corporation) becoming completely corrupted by Hell. Dr. Samuel Hayden (a powerful robot with a human brain) had led a resistance, but had been defeated, so now the Earth is at the mercy of the legions of Hell, and the three Hell Priests leading the invasion. Your goal is to head to Earth and kill these three Hell Priests, with it hoped that will lead the invasion to collapse. Unfortunately, it appears that the demons have teamed up with an alien race named the Maykr, and the leader of this race; the Kahn Maykr is determined to stop Doom Slayer completing his task.

I have mixed feelings about this game. When it is firing on all cylinders there is nothing quite like it. There are a load of fantastic levels here. In the first game, the levels took place either on the Mars UAC facility or in Hell, with the former being much more fun to play through. This time around, the levels are either set on Earth (channelling the spirit of Doom II), or in various other planets. You have several set on the Sentinel (the alien race who helped Doom Slayer after the events of Doom 64) home world of Argent D'Nur for instance. These take place on sprawling maps which is basic Roman architecture turned up to eleven. These levels just were not as fun as the more logically designed Earth levels. The absolute highlight of Doom Eternal were the levels set on Earth, from an artic cultist base, to the epicentre of the demonic invasion in the middle of a huge city, these were all amazing. I also loved the detour that takes you briefly back to Mars, again, some lovely designed levels. In between most levels you return to a hub area set on the space station. I enjoyed this break in pace, even if there isn't really that much to do on the station, other than use energy cells hidden in levels to unlock power-ups.
A weird new addition to the series is the introduction of platforming sections. Doom Slayer is inexplicably now able to swing on poles and clamber up rock walls, throw in the return of a double jump, and the ability to dash forward twice in mid-air and you have a much more dynamic protagonist. These sections were fine, but they felt out of place (having now started playing Doom: The Dark Ages I can confirm there are mild platforming sections in this prequel).

Combat is the main focus of this sequel, and spices things up by having different enemies be weak to different weapon types. A lot of the enemies from Doom return, albeit with new looks and abilities, and a lot of new enemy types are introduced, many being ones that had appeared in Doom II. Mech spider creatures for instance fire missiles, but their launcher can be destroyed by rockets. The magma monster is suspectable to gatling gun fire, while the returning BFG can lay waste to multiple enemies at once. There are four key powers on a recharge meter that are essential to get the most out of the game. A flamethrower causes enemies to drop armour pieces, a chainsaw can be used on weaker enemies to create ammo pick-ups, a super punch can instantly kill weaker enemies or massively damage larger ones, while both ice grenades and normal grenades can be fired. All enemies can be stunned, which allows you to perform a gory execution kill for health. Being required to constantly change up your weapons depending on the enemy type, as well as having to constantly manage your ammo and armour might not appeal to everyone. That was actually me included, but by the end of the DLC missions I had started to finally appreciate this aspect.
Levels are full of secrets to collect, and grant points of various types that be used to upgrade weapons (each of which has two different special functions), or to upgrade your character, such as being able to see secrets on the maps, and increasing the damage of your grenades. The levels are mainly split into adventure sections and battle arenas. Unfortunately, the last third of the game is pure combat. The final four levels are all intensely combat heavy, as a result I got quite bored with this final section of the game. I understand one or maybe two levels like this to finish on (the manic final boss fight brought to mind a feeling of the similarly manic final boss in Doom II), but four in a row was a real test of endurance. The levels also get worse as they go on, the very final one gave an intense feeling of playing an Xbox 360 game, and not in a good way. The level design got more and more dull, almost as if the creators were running out of time to get the game finished.

Doom Eternal has some levels that match or even surpass some of those found in Doom. It also has its fair share of more bland ones, especially towards the end of the game. I loved the lore given here, I was delighted to discover Doom Slayer is meant to be the same character from the original games, and the drip-fed backstory as to what happened in the character's past was both awesome and fascinating. It was however, also weird how so little of what happened in-between games is explained, leading to lots of confusion. I had a tremendous amount of fun playing this, but I also had a less entertaining time than the first time around. Level design really suffers at times thanks to the unneeded inclusion of the gymnastic sections, and those parts really do not feel like Doom at all. Great story (for a mindless shooter at least), it looks and sounds fantastic, and the gameplay is solid. I wish that sometimes more care had been given to the level design, and that the final third had been improved upon.

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House of the Dead II: Dead Aim (2005) - Horror Film Review

I've owned zombie horror film House of the Dead II: Dead Aim for many years, but I had such bad memories of the Uwe Boll directed original that I had long put off watching this sequel. That original made the cardinal sin of being as dull as dishwater, even if it had a couple of inspired moments, such as editing in gameplay from the Sega video games it was based on during some of its more action packed scenes. In terms of quality, this Michael Hurst (New Blood) directed sequel is not better, but is more entertaining in that special way that only low budget zombie films can be.

A university science professor trying to perfect a serum to resurrect the dead (a short but sweet role by cult actor Sid Haig - The Devil's Rejects) results in the accidental unleashing of a virus that turns the students and teachers of the university into flesh hungry ghouls. Catching the attention of a zombie hunting organisation known as A.M.S, they send two agents; Nightingale (Emmanuelle Vaugier - Saw II) and Ellis (Ed Quinn - Werewolf: The Beast Among Us) as well as a small group of soldiers to the place of learning. Their mission is to retrieve a blood sample from patient zero, with the hope a vaccine can be created from the blood. They are working against the clock however, the army planning to destroy the place by missiles in order to contain the contagion.

This was cheesy, predictable, and silly in a way that if not purposely done, was still a good reflection on the cheesy video games that the property spawned from. Over the hour and a half runtime there are many easily avoidable deaths, groan worthy one liners, and stupid ideas. One of the things I most love about zombie films is that it doesn't matter if the plot is particularly good, as long as there are enough undead I am going to be happy, content to switch off my brain and let the goofiness and mayhem wash over me. Unlike the first movie, this one remembers to be entertaining, from the start to the finish there isn't really a let-up, with the action forever increasing, and the odds of survival getting more and more ridiculous. Side characters mainly existed to be swiftly killed, it was funny how fast the soldiers were defeated, even one of them who stated he had fought the undead before, kept mistaking zombies for survivors until his luck ran out. Most memorable of these soldiers was Bart (James Parks - Kill Bill: Vol 1, Vol 2), a self serving and cocky man who was as entertaining as he was sleazy. I liked Nightingale and Ellis, they didn't have much to them other than tonnes of bravado and a willingness to be cold as ice when it came to dealing with the recently infected, but they did remind me of the protagonist duos you would see in the games.

Initially in small numbers, the amount of walking corpses increases as the film goes on. There did seem to be a bit of main character energy with the protagonists, as they are able to survive intense close quarters fighting of large groups without getting bitten or scratched, while the more expendable characters instantly get bitten. To be fair to them, by the end of the movie the zombie actors direction seems to be 'pretend you are in a mosh pit at a hardcore music festival' as they seemed to do little more than rush the heroes with their arms windmilling in large circles! There is plenty of blood, plenty of action, and a couple of references to the games. The games are not known for their deep stories, and this is the same, the plot is incredibly basic and fitted the vibe of a short and sweet arcade machine light gun game. Some later story beats were more silly than serious, but it gave a reason to increase the tension and threat level. Zombies were plentiful and looked the part, often appearing in huge groups. Nothing like the games, there were just zombies here and no other creatures, and those zombies look like former people rather than lab grown monstrosities. I was fine with this though, I was more than happy that the film was enjoyably dumb rather than a lesson in tedium. I also appreciated how this was linked to the first movie, rather than being a completely self contained story. Lastly, I enjoyed the bleak ending to this, always good to see in these types of movies!

With zombie films it is never so much 'is this good?' but more 'is this fun?' House of the Dead II: Dead Aim is not a good movie, but it was an enjoyable one. The university setting might not be the most original, in fact, there is little here that is original, but there are spirited performances from people who are likely all too aware of the level of film they are acting in. The story might be incredibly basic, but I kind of get the feeling that was the intention, and being from the early 2000s (that I have huge nostalgia for), this was a zombie film that did exactly what it set out to do, mindless entertainment.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 - The Tomb - Impressions of the new Zombies map

I mentioned Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's 'Zombies' mode briefly last month, but this was a swift overlook of the mode as a whole, covering the first three maps. It has been a while since I spoke about a map in isolation, but now, with the release of fourth map 'The Tomb' it felt like it was the time. 'The Tomb' is the first map released for the new game that felt like it had some personality to it, something that couldn't but help remind me of the more classic Zombies maps of old.

The story is as convoluted as ever, especially as I have yet to finish the story quests on the prior three maps. Following on from whatever events occurred during third map 'Citadelle des Morts', the four heroes - Weaver, Maya, Carver, and Grey arrive at an ancient holy burial site said to be the resting place of the Sentinel Artifact, something that is said to be able to bring the dead back to life. They find unlikely help in the form of Archibald; an English explorer from an earlier time who is somehow able to guide the team. Of course, being a Zombies map, they also discover plenty of the walking dead.

The map might not go back to as claustrophobic as the ones of old, but it is closer than the other maps have been this game. The location has a logical circular design to it, while 'Revelations' style gateways allow you to teleport to the four key locations. Starting off outside in a dig site, the rest of the map takes place within the tomb, dark and dank locations where it can be difficult to see the enemies. A central hub area takes place in a mystical zone that looks like a location ripped out of The Elder Scrolls Online, vast giant mushrooms and the backdrop of a starry sky. I liked the location due to how different it felt compared to the more realistic and slightly dull previous maps. I got echoes of 'The Frozen Dawn', as well as the Ancient Greece themed map whose name and game eludes me.
The default enemies here are zombies as expected, these ones had an older look to them, coming across as more ancient and dusty, like the creatures for the classic Blind Dead series of Italian zombie films. The special round again brings the spider monsters and flying insect creatures, while bigger boss creatures I've encountered so far include a giant beast covered in electricity, and mimics; large monsters who are initially disguised as helpful items.

I have only dipped my rotted toes into this new map, but it is the first one this game that had me actually excited to go back to and play some more. The more fantastical design set it apart from the less atmospheric ones received so far, and as a whole it looks fantastic, a neat design, and plenty of places to go. With 'The Tomb', you finally have a round-based Zombies map that feels it can compare even slightly to the classics of old.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (2024) - Thoughts on the Zombies Mode

After several years of an either terrible or non-existent Zombies mode in Call of Duty, it has returned with the classic round-based gameplay that was so missed by fans in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Do these new maps perhaps play it a little too safe and formulaic though?

The game launched with two maps, and since then one more map has so far been added as part of the season one content. I had low hopes for this, I had heard the maps were basically areas from Warzone cut off and dirtied up a bit. Thankfully, these maps do actually feel like they were created with zombies in mind. The first of these maps was 'Liberty Falls', which takes place in a town in West Virginia. This map includes various shops, and key places like a bowling alley and comic book shop. The core point of all this is the local church, existing in an alternate realm and the way to pack-a-punch your weapons. Second of the launch maps was 'Terminus' which is a more dark map, taking place on a prison island that has secretly been experimenting on the undead in a secret underground bio-research station. This map includes boats that can be driven around.
The third map released was 'Citadelle Des Morts', and as the title suggests, this takes place in and around a zombie infested castle, principally, its dungeon area and the town surrounding the castle.

All three maps are huge, and due to this they do have a bit of a samey feel. The large space means the zombie surviving experience lasts longer, with even me and my best friends first game lasting over forty five minutes. It is fun to play, and of course it is a pleasure to return to proper Zombies maps, but the large areas give it less of an intense feel of the older Zombies maps that would contain you in much smaller locations. Also, there is no boarding up of windows, something that is needed for that old school feel. Nowadays Call of Duty multiplayer remains the much bigger draw, this mode is fun to play, but the long match times means I often put off playing it.
In general though I have been impressed with the zombie content in the latest game, something that has spilled out into multiplayer, even the single player story fitted in horror elements. As well as pre-order and Vault edition versions including zombie 'Operators' for multi-player, there has also been unlockable items such as loading screens and stickers. This included the first prestige level being made up of homages to Zombies, and the Christmas event that included a zombie Santa. Sticking with the horror theme, there is currently a Squid Game 2 crossover taking place which has been a lot of fun.

I might not play as much Zombies as I once did, but it was still good to see it return. At heart I may still be wishing for a Zombie Chronicles 2 (the older maps are much better), but this is a decent way to waste an hour, and killing the undead is as fun as ever. I did like the Christmas crossover that made the enemies into festive versions, especially the spider monsters wearing Christmas hats! I also like that there is a dedicated 'directed' mode that actually guides you through the steps needed to complete the ever complicated story missions within the maps. Even on this mode I struggle to get things done, but hope one day to succeed!

Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) - Dystopian Video Game Review

I very nearly decided not to attempt a review of Cyberpunk 2077. I have been playing it almost constantly over a four year time period, but it saw me restarting the game several times after being deep into it. The issues with this game at launch were many, but years later it is not only in a much better shape, but had the release of amazing DLC titled Phantom Liberty. I love cyberpunk stuff, I've reviewed things previously here, so here is my attempt at doing written justice to this frankly amazing game.

The game is a first person shooter with driving and RPG elements to it. Mainly taking place in Night City, you play as V (female version voiced by Cherami Leigh), a low level mercenary who through a series of misadventures ends up with an artificial construct of a legendary rocker and terrorist named Johnny Silverhand (voiced by Keanu Reeves - The Matrix trilogy) who died decades previously during an assault on Arasaka (in this dystopian future as is the way with cyberpunk, large corporations rule the world) embedded in her head. With this construct unavoidably taking over her mind, V goes on a hunt to try and find a way to get rid of the construct before it kills her.

I loved this game, I loved the stories told here, I loved the missions, I loved the combat, and I loved the atmosphere. It is a bit of a flawed gem as it got so close to complete greatness but there are some elements that hold it back from a perfect score for me. It plays most like Grand Theft Auto I guess, but instead of driving being the focus, it is the combat and story telling that is the biggest thing. For my build, my V had the ability to hack enemies, uploading viruses to them, and even being able to force them to commit suicide or turn against their teammates. Combat is fast paced and full of great music and brutal and bloody kills. Missions are plentiful and run the gauntlet of cyberpunk style situation. Side quests include such topics as discovering a self-aware vending machine A.I, rescuing a Buddhist monk who had been spliced with tech against his will, and discovering a candidate for the role of Night City mayor is secretly being controlled by a shady group. There is simply too much to go into, I loved the story telling here, there are some really powerful moments. One minor complaint is the amount of side quests that task you with stopping crimes, these little moments are so numerous that at the games start the map screen is covered in the symbols for them.

Then there is Phantom Liberty, taking place in an area of Night City inaccessible in the base game, this twenty to thirty hour DLC features Idris Elba (Luthor TV show) as agent Solomon Reed. It felt like a half-step sequel to the core game due to the amount of improvements here. The story missions are much more involved and detailed, while combat encounters have been levelled up (such as reinforcements arriving during battles). In total, the game took me around a hundred and seventy hours to finish, it is a large game and one that never gets dull due to the intense atmosphere that almost makes you feel like you are in a living city. That is where some complaints come in. The traffic situation is one of the biggest peeves. In the distance the roads are full of cars, yet these fade away when you get close to them, making the city streets feeling a bit dead in terms of vehicles. In general the cars are barely needed, there was a later attempt to add combat to driving, as well as to make the police an actual threat, but it couldn't really be achieved. There are various radio stations featuring some really cool music, but the songs on the stations aren't many (originally you could only listen to the radio while driving, so tracks are limited, something that becomes apparent after they added the ability to listen to music anywhere you go).

This has been a bad review, I just can't put into words how much I enjoyed Cyberpunk 2077, I may even go so far as to include it in my top ten games of all time, despite its issues! It is that much of a nova game choom! Cyberpunk as a concept is something I hope happens in the real world, for now, I'm happy to have such an atmospheric game as this one to occupy my time. Something special, if with some obvious flaws.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Tuesday 10th December 2024

Due to a pitifully small news round-up for last month, my news inbox is currently close to getting out of control again. With changes in my personal life I have much more time to work on my blog at weekends so hopefully it won't be long until I am back on full steam ahead for this site. Talking of steam (or rather Steam), I have very recently begun to explore indie PC horror games, there is a giant selection to check out.

On 22nd October, BayView Entertainment released slasher film By The Devil's Hands: The 666 Killer on AVOD Digital Platforms worldwide, with it having previously been out on Digital Platforms. The story states that twenty five years ago a killer dubbed the '666 Killer' went on a bloody murder spree. Now in present day it seems like this killer is back in business, with Jamie Anderson (Susana Gibb) the only one who is able to stop him.

Double Exposure is a supernatural thriller that is set for a North American Digital debut on VOD platforms and DVD on 18th February 2025. The story sees a dead bride who has returned from the dead to take back her husband from a beautiful influencer he fell for. Written and directed by Howard Goldberg, the cast features Alexander Calvert (Supernatural, Gen V), Caylee Cowan (Willy's Wonderland), and Kahyun Kim (Cocaine Bear).

Finally for today, LaBouche Canalla Wins Her Snack has had its first official trailer released. Coming from Split-Vision Development, written and directed by Giuliano Tomassacci, this centres around a feral country girl with a taste for human flesh.

Returnal (2021) - Sci-fi Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 5)

Housemarque's Returnal is a stunning sci-fi game that had me enthralled from start to mid-point. I say mid-point as I have the shocking revelation that I didn't actually finish this game, nor did I even get near to the end. By my estimations, I made it roughly halfway into the game after about twenty six hours, before bouncing off of it due to the high difficulty. The time I spent with the game however was spell-binding, this really felt like a true 'next-gen' game. Due to not actually finishing this I won't be including a score at the end of this review.

You play as ASTRA Corporation pilot and explorer Selene Vassos. After learning of a strange signal coming from the off-limits planet of Atropos, Selene decides to disobey orders and investigate this signal. Her attempts to land don't go well, with her ship crash landing, wrecking the vessel in the process. With the only way to request rescue being tied up in the mission she had embarked on, she decides to push on, trekking through the ruins of a long dead alien civilisation in order to locate the strange signal dubbed 'White Shadow'. It isn't long before she discovers a terrible fact, should Selene die then she awakens back in her crashed ship, stuck in a perpetual time-loop. She also discovers that with each subsequent attempt to locate the signal that the planet is morphing and changing around her, so that each attempt has her traversing a different layout.

Returnal is a very hard rogue-like action adventure game that is a sublime joy to play. As Selene, you traverse biomes made up of a series of interlinked areas. There is a finite amount of these areas but they are always remixed in a different order, with different items and weapons appearing each time. Combat is zippy, with Selene's spacesuit having the ability to boost in any direction quickly. There are a variety of guns that are similar to current day weapons in part. There is a shotgun type weapon, a machinegun, pistol, rifle, and even a gun that shoots corrosive globs of green gloop. Enemies change with each biome visited. The starting biome - ruins in a rainy forest mostly features wolf type tentacled alien creatures, later areas feature different type of alien animals, as well as robots of both flying and ground based variety. Enemies often attack by shooting vast 'bullet-hell' waves of brightly coloured projectiles. Dotted around the levels are machines that you can use energy dropped by defeated enemies to buy upgrades such as increased weapon damage and health, as well as items such as a device that prevents gun turrets from activating.

The different biomes I encountered all looked amazing, with so much atmosphere to them. The starting area was beautiful, and the Playstation 5 controller does a fantastic job of representing the rain drops falling. The second area - a desert area was just as impressive, giving the illusion of a gigantic endless desert. I really loved how Selene's spacesuit gradually gets covered in the red sand. The third area I got to took place in a vast ruined city made up of giant buildings. Each run requires you to play through the entire game, the only concession being that once a boss is defeated (tough fights of the multi-stage variety) there is no need to re-fight it, and that you get the ability to fast travel if you so wish. For example, once you have gotten to the top of the mountain in the desert area you are subsequently able to use a warp gate at the base of the mountain to teleport straight up. The third area becomes accessible from the first after you collect a certain item that allows you to ascend to out of reach platforms. These shortcuts are good, but your abilities are brought to zero with each run, so it might save you time, but it might also be wise to go the long way around to build up your weapons and items.

This game has atmosphere in spades, you get a real feel for the isolation the character finds themselves in. I also loved how you keep finding audio diaries left from previous versions of Selene who had attempted to get to the signal, and how you slowly come to learn the alien language that allows you to translate the words on alien markers, which hint at what caused the long lost alien civilisation to fall. After each boss you also get access to a bizarre recreation of Selene's family home, which provides hints to Selene's backstory, and how things might not be exactly as they seem.
Should you tire of the search for the signal, you can also head to a seemingly endless tower. Made up of a randomised battle rooms, you fight your way ever upwards. This includes its own story and plenty of audio diaries.

I guess my biggest complaint with Returnal is how stingy the game is at letting you keep things you discover. There are a handful of key items that stick with her, but mostly each run you are starting completely fresh, with progress only really coming from not having to re-fight bosses, and the shortcuts you are able to take. I adored this game, but playing it on Playstation's version of GamePass, and with my strange randomised way of playing a set list of ten games at any one time, I felt it was time to move on, hoping to one day return. There may not be a score, but if I was forced to give one based on my time with the game I would shockingly, currently, give this a solid ten out of ten!

Silent Hill 2 (2024) - Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 5)

In my mind, the original Silent Hill 2 is one of the best video games ever made. With it trapped on old technology I haven't played the game for quite a few years. When it was announced Bloober Team were in charge of a remake of the beloved game many people were cautious. The team have been a bit hit and miss with their output over the years. Thankfully they seem to have finally struck gold, sure this is a remake, so the story is known, but it is a damn good remake that brings the classic game kicking and screaming into current day. Some story spoilers to follow, but I will try and keep them to a minimum.

James Sunderland (voiced by Luke Roberts) has headed to the small resort town of Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his wife Mary, stating she is waiting for him there in their 'special place'. What makes this stranger than you might expect is that Mary died of a terminal illness some three years previously. James is sure there is no way his wife could actually be at the town, but still being in deep grief he just has to check it out. He arrives to find the town covered in a thick mist, and the streets and buildings deserted, save for deadly monsters that is. It turns out that him, alongside a handful of others, have been called to Silent Hill, where the town has judged them for perceived crimes and will make them traverse a gauntlet of terror in order to confront their guilt.

It has to be stated straight away that the remake of Silent Hill 2 is excellent. It looks great, it sounds great, and it creates a feeling of a classic survival horror game from back in the day. In terms of the story this is an almost beat for beat remake. There is added dialogue and some smaller events play out vaguely differently, but the core story is the same as it ever was. Thankfully that story is as strong as ever, and new voice acting has made it more engaging than the often cheesy dialogue of the original game. My problem with remakes is that they don't have the excitement and mystery of a new story. As much as I loved this game, it is a story I have experienced literally dozens of times, and with expanded larger locations I often find myself almost impatient to get to the story beats I knew so well. During James' travels he meets troubled teen Angela who is in town looking for her mother, moody Eddie who had fled to the town to get away from bullies, and innocent child Laura, who has came to Silent Hill also trying to locate Mary. Key character is Maria, a flirtatious woman who bears a striking resemblance to Mary, and who teams up with James for a decent portion of the game.

I believe the original game was around six to seven hours long, this time around it is a lot longer, with my first playthrough taking me nineteen hours to get to the end credits. It is expanded mainly with larger locations that are filled with more enemies. The town feels like a larger place now, and each of the games' 'dungeons' seemed to take a lot longer to get through. People who have played the original will be familiar with the apartment building, the hospital, and the annoying labyrinth, this time around they lasted for hours. I recall the apartment block took me over two hours to traverse, with that the typical time needed to get through one of these 'dungeons'. The level design has for the most part been totally changed up, and the puzzles all seemed different. Some cool nods to the original with 'deja-vu' style moments where puzzles and items from the original game are pointed out, but not utilised by James for the remake. The game world looks fantastic, with both the light and dark versions of the town being wonderful places to visit. For much of the game I used the recommended darkness settings, but I did eventually have to change this due to struggling to see enemies with my naff torch.

Combat has been increased, and felt a lot harder. You now have a dodge button which is essential to get to grips with to avoid the attacks of the more aggressive enemies. I can't say I ever really got good at combat, nearly ever enemy encounter in the game saw me getting hit a few times. Initially you are armed just with a 4x4 plank of wood, eventually you get access to a lead pipe, a pistol, shotgun and hunting rifle. Ammo and health seemed random, sometimes I would feel I had lots of it, but much of the later half of the game saw me constantly hunting for these items. Default enemies are not huge in variation, there are the creatures who vomit poison, zombie nurses, and cockroaches. The split-people thing gets an upgrade in that it later has the ability to crawl along walls and ceilings, then of course there are the bosses. Over the course of the game you encounter quite a few boss characters, most notably the iconic Pyramid Head. I often found it wasn't clear if these were boss fights you were expected to win by combat or if they relied on a certain amount of time passing before the fight automatically ends. Most boss fights were fine if a little bland, it wasn't fun to find the boss fight against a certain character was even harder than the original, even if it was probably the most memorable boss fight in the game.

I love the original Silent Hill 2 and it was a legitimate joy playing through this remake. Personally, I would have preferred an original entry, but getting to play a Silent Hill game in 2024, even as a remake, was wonderful. I have missed this series, and with this one being such a great game, it seems there will be more to come in the future. If you haven't ever played a Silent Hill game then this remake is a perfect place to start. It might have a '2' in the title, but the game tells a stand-alone story, and it tells it in a sublime and wonderful way.

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Fortnitemares 2024 - Thoughts on the Halloween event

I have said this before, but I really love Fortnite. Especially over lockdown it really brought me, my sister and my friends together, with us playing it more for social reasons than just to play. The game has in recent years begun to get really lazy with their month long Halloween event they call 'Fortnitemares'. Last year was the most lazy of the events with minimal map changes, the only changes being an added boss fight, pumpkin buckets outside houses, and a hard to spot blood red moon. Thankfully, this years event is the polar opposite, so much change has been made to make the island look spookier than ever.

Changes are across the map, with not only a new location (Freaky Fields replacing the train station POI), but the bright green river in the Underworld section of the map being changed to blood red, many areas covered in mist, Brawler's Battleground reimagined as the vine covered Brawler's Patch, and pumpkins absolutely everywhere, you can barely move for pumpkins of all sizes covering near every location on the map, my personal favourite being the giant statue at Mount Olympus now sporting a gigantic pumpkin head. I also liked the alterations at Restored Reels that now have Fortnite inspired horror movie posters displayed there. Perhaps the best change being the train that travels around the map is now a ghost train, it has a very cool effect.
There are two new boss fights added, with Billy the puppet (from the Saw franchise!) and a very cool original creation - the pumpkin knight themed Ultima Carver.
In addition is Horde Mode once again returning, the same as ever but is still fun to play. This time around you are able to buy attachments for your guns in between rounds. There are also plenty of rewards to unlock by completing limited time Fortnitemare quests.
Included with returning special weapons are a proximity bomb that is a little Billy the puppet on a tricycle, and Leatherhead's iconic chainsaw.

The other big part of the Halloween event is of course the skins. I always get suckered into buying many of the skins and this year there seemed to be a huge amount of both original and licenced skins. There are two more The Nightmare Before Christmas skins (Pumpkin Jack and Sally), Leatherface, Billy the puppet, three Disney villains, some horror Marvel skins (sadly no Marvel Zombies - a missed trick) even a skin for Edward Scissorhands! Original skins are more of a mixed bag, but the previously mentioned Ultima Carver is very cool looking, as was the zombie skin locked behind a Save the World deal. I wasn't impressed that a fun looking bright pink werewolf skin was locked behind a Fortnite Lego battlepass - Lego being the one mode I have zero time for so refuse to get that battlepass just for the skin.

I am a real sucker for spending far too much money on skins over Halloween, but Fortnite is a game I play nearly daily, having sunk over two thousand hours into the game over the past seven years! I will admit I had to dip into my savings this year.
The lack of any new Halloween themed mode for the game would have been disappointing if not for the huge changes made to the map. It really feels like they made a giant effort this year to 'horror' up the map, and I am very much on board for this.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 (2020) - Horror Video Game Review (Nintendo Switch)

I love the Metroidvania genre of video games. Typically taking place in 2D, these place you in a platform adventure game in one huge level, with new areas slowly revealed as you unlock new powers and abilities. On paper Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night sounded like the perfect game, heavily influenced by the Castlevania series. Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of the game, I found it to be pretty dull. It did have a retro spin-off (inspired by the earlier more traditional level based Castlevania games) titled Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon that was thankfully quite excellent. A sequel was released in 2020 - Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2, that I excitedly began but then bounced right off of. Recently I gave it a second go, but the game for whatever reason didn't grab me the same way.

You play as a variety of characters, with you able to swap between them at will to take advantage of their unique powers and abilities. Main protagonist is the demon hunter Zangetsu, and he gets initially joined by exorcist Domonique, Robert who is armed with a rifle, and Hachi - a comedic steampunk mech suit piloted by a corgi! The barebones story has Dominique discovering a tower that has been used to summon a demon castle. Over eight levels you battle through castles, forests, volcanos and towns on your quest to reach the castle and defeat its master. Each level is made up of a load of different areas and all culminate in an impressive boss battle. Characters have different abilities to help you take shortcuts and find secrets. Robert for instance is able to crawl on his belly through tight spaces and bounce off of walls, while Hachi is able to destroy special walls and is impervious to damage from spikes. Towards the end of the game your team are joined by the protagonists of the original game with their abilities added to the mix.

The first one had you going through the levels twice to get the true ending. I felt Curse of the Moon 2 goes too far. It is split into three chapters, each chapter has you going through the same set of eight levels for various story related reasons. On occasion it will lead to a different boss battle and areas you couldn't previously travel to but mainly it felt the same. This leads to my confession of not actually having truly completed the game. I was getting bored by my third run and ended up abandoning the game at the final level. Also, I admit I played on 'Casual' so that I had infinite continues and didn't have to keep replaying levels. The levels are fine but not particularly memorable, and the soundtrack was a disappointment. One thing it does get right is the amount of unique enemy types and some fun boss battles. Favourite boss was a giant bug infested sarcophagus, and the fire dragon I grew to like. Others, particularly the final boss for the first chapter were not so good.

It looks and feels like Castlevania but the level types also reminded me a lot of Mega Man. I thought the retro pixel graphics worked well and the gameplay was decent enough but I just wasn't feeling it as much. Especially with the three chapters being essentially the same. I couldn't help but be disappointed, both by the increased difficulty on the default mode, the lacklustre music, and the uninspired level design. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 was a fine game, but not an essential one to play.

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