Unstoppable (2023) - Horror Video Game Provisional Review (Steam)

First off, I will point you to the part of the header that states 'provisional'. That is there as I have not actually completed Korean survival horror video game Unstoppable. In contrast to its title, I frequently hit roadblocks, with my journey coming to a current end at the chapter three boss, that after weeks of trying I just cannot seem to beat. I do feel I have played enough of the game to write a review, though when I do eventually actually beat the game I will update this review to reflect my thoughts on the whole game.

This takes place in 1999, you play as a delivery man who has been tasked with delivering a package to an office block. Not long after delivering it however all chaos breaks loose, with the delivery man getting knocked out. He awakens to find that the staff in the building have gone feral, affected by a poison gas, they have become afflicted with rage, killing all that they come across. His task now is to make his way down through the floors of the office block, trying his best to avoid both the dangerous infected, but also a shadowy group who appear to have orchestrated the whole event for unknown reasons.

Unstoppable is split over four chapters, each of which is made up of around four to five floors of the building, each chapter culminating in a boss battle. The game has an isometric overhead perspective, and reminded me a lot visually of the 'Die Hard' section of the video game Die Hard Trilogy. That is no bad thing as I loved that game. Each floor of the building has you searching for the access stairway to get to the next floor down. Along the way you have to fight infected, mainly using melee weapons that have durability. I'm assuming the business based at the office complex dealt with hardware, as the default weapon the infected carry are hammers, so many hammers! Levels are small, but they feel logical, the lack of variety in the locations makes this feel more realistic than if each level looked wildly different to the last. There is visual storytelling with many corpses and signs of past violence dotted around the rooms and corridors. There are some notes and files to be found, but I wish there had been more than the handful there seemed to be.

Combat is mainly melee focussed, though there are a variety of guns with limited ammo to be found. You have both a quick and heavy attack, as well as a dodge ability. Playing with a gamepad I found the combat to be enjoyable, if a little on the hard side at times. If you don't pay attention the enemies can swiftly make short work of you, and I sometimes found the dodge button caused me to leap forward towards an enemy rather than away like I had intended. It is the boss battles that really slowed down my progress. These were always against non-infected humans working for the shadowy group behind the outbreak, wielding unique weapons. The first boss took me a good while to work out how to beat, but I found this more interesting to decipher than frustrating, even if dying meant you had to re-do the level leading up to the boss each time. The chapter three boss was just too much for me, its attacks able to kill me in around three hits, while even after a good two to three minutes of fighting I was unable to reduce his health by even a quarter.
You can hold up to two weapons at a time, but melee weapons have limited durability, while guns have limited ammo that can't be replenished. You later get a special rage ability that allows you to attack with unlimited stamina for a time once a bar has filled up. During this state however you are still susceptible to attacks, so makes you a bit of a glass cannon.

The cutscenes were not amazing looking, but they had an old school charm to them. The same goes for the barebones story, it is completely functional, and gives you reason for doing what you are doing. I did like the transitions between chapters, as well as the playable character slowly getting access to better armour. If not for the tough boss battles and a lack of difficulty settings I may have enjoyed this more than I did. It certainly is not a bad game, but it does fall a little on the bland side. Unstoppable is out now in its completed form, it can be purchased on Steam.

SCORE:

Spookware (2021) - Horror Video Game Review (Microsoft Windows)

Spookware is a horror themed comedic adventure game that's whole model is most keenly inspired by the WarioWare games. These were micro sized mini games that can often be completed within a matter of seconds. It took me a little while to really get into the spirit of what Spookware was going for, but once I was there I had a fun time.

Lefti, Midi, and Righti are three teenage skeletons in a world that is populated exclusively by skeletons. The core game features the first episode that includes within it 60 micro games to experience. The rest of the game which brings together episodes two, three, and four are planned to come later on as downloadable content and will bring around 200 more micro games. The prologue has the three friends in their crypt based home watching horror films on their VHS player. This straight away had you playing multiple mini games in a row and I feared the whole game would just be this. Instead the game is far more of an adventure game, think a point and click with the puzzles replaced with mini games. Each chapter felt wildly different in styles of what you were doing thankfully. The first chapter took place on a school campus and had you trying to recruit members of a school band. All the mini games here were rhythm action style ones. This first chapter didn't give me much of a good impression. I found the location a bit confusing to get around, while I didn't really enjoy the style of mini games.

The second chapter was where I really began to enjoy the silly and mostly light-hearted world of Spookware. This had you investigating a murder on a cruise ship, it was here I saw how varied the game could become. You had almost Phoenix Wright style mini games where people would be speaking and you would have to object and present proof if you thought they were lying. The final chapter again switched up the format, this time it had a restaurant simulation in which you had to manually seat diners at tables before doing mini games in order to make their meal. I loved the variation and I loved how low key the story was. Each chapter is self contained within its ten or so screens. You move around using the number pad, return or the spacebar is all you need to interact with characters and travel between areas. The adventure feel of this game really reminded me of the types of PC games you would get in the nineties, in particular I was reminded of a great Beavis and Butthead adventure game from that period. The story is so chilled and enjoyable in the relatively mundane settings the characters find themselves in. By the time the game wraps up things really are not resolved, it all ends on a bit of a cliff-hanger, so it will be interesting to see how much is charged for this additional DLC as it seems most the game will be in that format. It's roughly an hour per chapter with my final run time just over that, so I guess it is up to you if you think the asking price is worth it.

A Robot Named Fight (2017) - Horror Video Game Review (PC)

It is a nostalgic month in the world of video games it seems as after the fun Citadale: The Legends Trilogy that I reviewed yesterday comes A Robot Named Fight which is another retro throw back to the classic days of yore. This time around the inspiration is Metroid, and specifically the Metroidvania (one huge 2D level) style of Super Metroid as the graphics are 16 bit and the sound is authentic to that time. This has a difference though in that the game is a Metroidvania in style but has roguelike elements thrown in, in that you only have the one life and the game is procedurally generated so no two playthroughs are the same.

Millennia ago the mechanical Gods arrived and brought with them peace for the robots who lived on the world. However one day a huge moon sized mass of evil flesh known as the Megabeast arrived and spewed out thousands of monstrous creatures which decimated the land and massacred the robots. One robot decides to make a stand against this hell and descends into the planet in search of lost artefacts of ancient wartime in order to defeat this unholy terror...

A Robot Named Fight is fantastic and like the best roguelikes it is extremely addictive with that 'just one more go' feeling perfected. I love how like Metroid it really is. This is a 2D platformer that is one huge maze like level made up of hundreds of smaller rooms. You play as a robot armed with a cannon and as you progress you can collect upgrades that both make you more powerful (such as extra health, guns do more damage and increase your speed) and unlocks more skills for you that help you get to places in the levels that you couldn't previously get to. Rockets can destroy metal doors for example, while the spider ability allows you to navigate narrow spaces. Elsewhere you can get a double jump to reach high places, eventually unlocking a jet pack. There are also suit upgrades that let you survive in hot areas, torches to light dark places and so much more. Each playthrough is different and so every time I played I unlocked different abilities and upgrades.

Citadale: The Legends Trilogy (2017) - Horror Video Game Review (PC)

Citadale: Gate of Souls was originally released on the Wii-U last year and has now been re-released as part of the Citadale: The Legends Trilogy which funnily enough is made up of three different games. These games are modelled on the classic Castlevania series, so much so that many plot points, level design, and enemy types, as well as the weapon system are virtually copied totally. Nowadays with Konami seemingly refusing to make any more Castlevania games a copy is better than nothing, and thankfully Citadale is a damn fun game.

So there are three games to be found here, each one can only be played once the one before it has been completed. Starting off is Citadale: Gate of Souls. A Dark Lord (who is in no way Dracula) terrorises the land, playing as Sonja Dorleac and wielding the Dark Lord killer 'Shadow Blade' you make your way to his castle to meet up with your husband (who happens to be the Dark Lord's son) in order to seal his Dad away behind the Gate of Souls.
The second game is Citadale: Curse of Darkness, it is 24 years later and with the seal on the Gate of Souls weakening, a wizard (the son of Sonja) has headed to Citadale in order to repair it to full power. After failing to return Sonja's other son Gabriel decides to also make the journey to see what has come of his brother.
Finally you have Citadale: Legacy of Fate, 17 more years have passed and now the wizard's son Christopher makes the fateful journey to the dark castle as evil is once again rising to suffocate the land.

This is a very nostalgic game as it is made to resemble an 8-bit game, like the early Castlevania's were. The graphics are simple but with modern technology there is far more animation to them, while the amazing soundtrack is done in the chiptune style. It is a 2D platformer that has you battling through various locations such as forests, caves, mines and castles with a unique boss at the end of each level. The variation of these bosses is impressive with only one repeating over the 18 levels (a giant eyeball that behaves and looks differently each time). These bosses have simple attack patterns but are fun to fight and range from skeletal demons, giant insects and humanoid foes and they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Normal enemies range from zombies to skeletons, ghosts, bats and spiders. There are some that appear to be ripped straight out of Castlevania in the way they look, especially a large knight with a shield, and the final boss for Gate of Souls that not only has a battle that takes place in an identical throne room to Castlevania but the boss is a vampire who teleports around the room and summons bats.