Topic: Push Square Game Club Spooktacular: Resident Evil 4

@RogerRoger @TuckNorris85 I ask for votes and I get withdrawals! No worries, both of you 😉

Honestly, the only game on PlayStation I'm up for playing is DOOM 3 since I started it earlier this week but haven't gotten too far into it. However, I vaguely recall that you guys have already played it so I can't really offer a vote this month. I'm also playing Team Sonic Racing but I'm almost done with the game. Not to mention that I've already played through games like Little Nightmares, The Last Guardian, AC2 and Arkham Asylum. So I might sit the next one out, unfortunately.

@nessisonett I got Sonic Mania in the recent sale and have an itch to play it (and probably will anyway), but otherwise my vote would be Little Nightmares, Bugsnax or The Last Guardian, in that order.

@ralphdibny @RogerRoger @phil_j @crimsontadpoles @Ralizah @Th3solution @Thrillho @mookysam @LieutenantFatman @LobsterJohnson @Tjuz @Kidfried @Octane @Col_McCafferty @DerMeister @Mr_B021 @Fight_Teza_Fight @R1spam @TraCuz- @ThereThere @LtSarge @IAM1982 @SirWoolsley @CJD87

Looks like Little Nightmares has just just pipped The Last Guardian so that will be our game for the foreseeable. By all accounts it’s a very short game so we might honestly fit The Last Guardian in straight afterwards but we’ll see how it goes. As always, get downloading now and then start whenever you have the time!

I played through Little Nightmares last year and I really like the fixed camera angle 3D levels. Every room felt cozy to explore as a result. The main issue I have with the game is that it can get very frustrating to play as it's easy to die over and over again. It was still worth playing through nonetheless and I'm looking forward to playing the sequel, which I just ordered.

Sounds good. Little Nightmares is just the kind of fringe game that I probably would never play if not for the collaboration of my Push Square mates. I’ve found some of my favorite games this way, so hopefully Lil’ Nightmares doesn’t disappoint.

I’ll download it sometime this week, and give it a try when I get a chance.

@ThereThere I definitely think we’ll have the time to fit in The Last Guardian before we play Resi 4 for Halloween. Probably another game as well! I’ve kinda been putting off The Last Guardian personally so I’ve been rooting for it to do well in these votes so that I can’t avoid it anymore 😂

i tried lil nightmares & got stuck way earlier on in the game , got frustrated , uninstalled .

i appreciate games that don’t hold your hand and let you play without a constant reminder that it’s video game , but right at the beginning though , i already gotta figure out something that’s probably so “in your face” that it’s actually hard to see & then feel dumb when i youtube it ?

nah , my patience is short .

Tried it last night and was pleasantly surprised. Went into it completely blind (no reviews, no YT, no 'beginner tips'... basically no context!) and had no idea what to expect.

Quite cerebral in places, and never feels too punishing when you die.

What I'm enjoying most is probably the 'simplicity' of the mechanics and basic principles, not having to worry about builds and min/max etc. I can't remember the last time I played a game that wasn't reliant on having Fextralife open at the same time!

Don't get me wrong, I love the Niohs and Elden Rings of the world... but it has been a nice change to just 'play' a game without necessary researching.

I'll likely keep this as a side dish alongside Sunbreak and Bloodborne

@Kairu Will check it out! thanks for the recommendation

Spent a good hour or two with the game and I’m torn. The first 30 minutes I was really impressed, wondering why this game didn’t get more attention. It has a really unique and atmospheric vibe and the platforming/puzzle solving started off good enough. I was really eating it up; it reminded me of Inside and it’s sibling Limbo, both of which were really great games.

But as I got toward the end of the first chapter, the frustration that I read about in reviews started to kick in. Not because the puzzles were too hard, rather because the 3D depth of field was difficult judge and the movement was imprecise. I died over and over on that one area while trying to raise the crane and having to jump onto it while it was moving over. I wasn’t dying in the same manner either — it was various silly deaths like simply walking off the ledge accidentally to misjudging a jump. It wouldn’t have been so bad if you didn’t have to respawn back in the previous room and run all the way back to the climbing section and then climb that whole way to the switch all over again. The climbing and jumping doesn’t really feel satisfying so it comes across as tedious if you have to repeat the same section over and over.

After that room I began to die over and over in the following areas for other various silly reasons, usually needlessly walking off a ledge to suffer death by gravity. Maybe I was getting lazy and frustrated or maybe the game is getting harder, I can’t tell. So I was happy to just turn it off for the night and will see how I feel tomorrow.

The charm and mystery of the backdrop will keep me invested to the end, I think. But I guess I’m not much of a platforming fan.

I played the first 30-45 mins last night and like @Th3Solution, you can't miss the limbo inspiration in this game. I've yet to hit any real frustrating bits yet but I enjoy when a game doesn't hold your hand and let's you figure out the controls yourself. Puzzles so far have been pretty straightforward and the atmosphere suitably creepy. I played on the remote play app and latency etc was pretty decent. Hope it holds up to some of the trickier platforming sections.

@R1spam Most of my deaths have been more a matter of poor visual perspective issues rather than poor timing, but there has been a couple instances where you need to be timely with a jump or activity, but nothing exotic, so hopefully it doesn’t get worse later on because I’m not a fan of prolonged timed jumping sequences

I really enjoyed my time with Little Nightmares when I played it at around the time when the 2nd game came out. There is one level later on which I found truely horrifying.

@JohnnyShoulder As far as the horror/creepiness aspects, the game seems to be doing a good job. I think the design choice of not having any beginning tutorial adds to the feeling of anxiety that the developer is going for. I was really creeped out in the early room that you go through where you have the beds to hide under and that nightmarish thing come in looking for you. Truly unsettling.

I noticed the game is rated “T” for teen here in the States, rather than “M” for mature, which most horror games would usually be “M”, and so I was curious how they were going to make a scary game yet have it be rated “T”. And I think mainly it may have to do with the lack of gore and brutality that the game has. The death animations have so far been pretty tame and do not feel grotesque or shocking, yet the environments themselves are what puts you on edge. The lack of fear of dying is what probably keeps it from being truly legitimate horror. Contrasting it with Limbo or Inside which were rated M because although the games were no more creepy feeling than this, when you die in those games it will show your head being lopped off or being impaled by a spike or splatting on the ground, etc.

Anyways, it’s good to hear that although it’s not rated as Mature that there are still some really horrifying things to come.

Finished The Prison which was pretty good actually. The atmosphere’s brilliantly creepy without resorting to cheap jump scares and the puzzles were clever and not too demanding yet. A couple niggles with the camera angle making it difficult to judge some jumps but other than that I’m enjoying it quite a lot.

Have finished the first 3 chapters now. Man, this game is creepy.

I liked the third chapter more than the second. It was still disturbing, with really weird imagery. But it was less frustrating, even if there was a few sections I had to play over and over because I didn’t know what to do. There is still quite a bit of frustration in this game. But the more I play it, the more I realize that’s probably purposeful to create stress and anxiety in this horror-lite game. The slightly imprecise and floaty controls and the difficult 3D depth perspective make for many deaths that heighten the tension.

Finished the game now. I didn’t realize how close I was to the end. The game is quite short in content, it took me close to 8 hrs though because of certain sections with repeated dying and a few obtuse puzzles.

The game is well crafted though and most of the puzzles are clever once you figure them out.

The sections where you encounter enemies are another thing though. Really frustrating at times. And like I said earlier, I realize that’s part of the point of the game to create internal tension (which the game does in spades), but a few encounters went a little too far into the aggravating department. Again, much of this is not only finicky controls and perspective, but slight “cheap” traps.

The game is a real mind f*%k. Really, really sinister and unsettling. They nailed that aspect. I’m slightly freaked out at how things evolved.

Which brings up the thought — I think the marketing for this game is off the mark. This is a proper horror game, despite its ESRB/PEGI rating. It really is the stuff of nightmares. Knowing nothing about the game, I went into it thinking it was a kids or family game. I know the title doesn’t pull punches with the word “nightmare” but the cute little yellow guy and the the imaging just seemed to give me the sense it was going to be a fun little platformer. No so much.

Overall it’s a really good game though. I like to be scared every now and then and it’s not often than I’m caught by surprise by a game, given that we have previews, reviews, and trailers and showcases aplenty which show a games entires story before you even play it. So in that sense, I’m glad I went in blind. I do recommend the game for those on the fence about it.

@Th3solution Yeah the enemies as well as the lack of depth perception which made the platforming more difficult were my main issues with the game. It's definitely a title that I would have loved if they had just made things more straightforward.

@ralphdibny @RogerRoger @phil_j @crimsontadpoles @Ralizah @Th3solution @Thrillho @mookysam @LieutenantFatman @LobsterJohnson @Tjuz @Kidfried @Octane @Col_McCafferty @DerMeister @Mr_B021 @Fight_Teza_Fight @R1spam @TraCuz- @ThereThere @LtSarge @IAM1982 @SirWoolsley @CJD87

I reckon it’s probably time to move on with the next game, it’s been longer than I planned due to current events!

As I said before, The Last Guardian was so close to winning the last vote so it seems only fair for that to be the next game. Shouldn’t take us too long and then we’ll play Resident Evil 4 in the run up to Halloween.