Well, a day left before jury duty (BOO! but civic duty is important, folks! That said, who the hell schedules jury duty on friggin’ Halloween?!) and me getting busy doing a ton of other stuff not site related, I’m moving a bunch of stuff into November once this court-ship pulls back into port and I’m a free man again. Anyway, let me wrap this horror game thing up with a bunch of randomness you’ll want to check out. Starting with a new game that’s a hilarious must of you like to laugh more than scream:

Slayaway Camp: Well, wow. Blue Wizard Digital just dropped one of the most fun and surprisingly funny puzzle games this year and yes, if you’re at all a horror fan, you either need to play it or haunt someone who has a Steam account until they buy it so you can watch them play. The game has you playing a number of different horror movie killers taking out teens in a series of increasingly tricky sliding puzzles. Complete an entire movie’s worth of scenes to unlock more in the game’s Video Store.

Just check the video below for the gory truth about how awesome this is:

The blocky graphic style makes those kills go down easy, the music is straight up fantastic, the selection of playable baddies will get genre fans grinning, and there are some pretty sweet bonuses to unlock. Oh, and you NEED to check out the options screen just for the different visual tweaks, some of which make zero sense and parody more graphically intensive titles with way too many options. Clearly, Blue Wizard’s love for 80’s slasher flicks is making a ton of people more than happy, so why not join the happy crowd, I say? Hey, if you don’t… Skullface himself may come a-knockin’ at your door…

SYNDROME: On the other side of the horror coin, developer Camel 101’s nifty, freakish horror game makes for a gorgeous chunk of nightmare fuel. Your character wakes up on a spaceship with a chunk of the crew dead and caught between two groups of survivors who want you to figure out what’s going on while hopefully eliminating one side when you’re not running like hell or hiding from some terrifying creatures. Sure, it’s got a few technical issues here and there. But it’s also packed with genuinely terrifying moments, great graphics and a twisty-turny plot that works despite a few of the usual horror clee-shays rearing their ugly heads.

Speaking of ugly heads:

Oh, don’t let the gunplay in that trailer fool you. Ammo is scarce and stealth is required or you’ll die often. It’s not quite the cinematic to gaming brilliance of Alien: Isolation, but there’s enough here to very safely say In Space, EVERYONE can hear you scream. Especially if you play this late at night and your neighbors are trying to sleep just when you get to a really scary bit.

Barrow Hill: The Dark Path: While initially a bit buggy, this follow up to developer Shador Tor Studios’ 2006 adventure game Barrow Hill: Curse of the Dark Circle has been patched up to be a great deal more enjoyable. It’s clearly NOT a game for action fans or those who want jump scare monsters popping up around every corner. The game owes more to slow-burning horror tales that start off slowly and build over time as they work their way under your skin.

The live-action FMV and close to photo-realistic visuals go a long way in conveying a solid sense of atmosphere, but this one’s a game where you need to pay attention to everything you see. As with the first game, the witchy goings on will confound the short attention span crowd to no end, but anyone else with a sharp mind and a sense of adventure who loves a mystery will be hooked in for the long haul.

BUTCHER: Basically, it’s DOOM meets QUAKE meets ABUSE, but reincarnated as a side-scrolling 2D pixel-fest and yes, it’s as hard as hell as it sounds. Transhuman Designs‘ insanely tough game will keep your teeth gritted until they crack while your mouse hand will cramp up so tightly that you’ll probably need a replacement before the first level is done. “The easiest mode is HARD” is the game’s tagline and nope, the game kids you not:

Yeah, you need this one like those enemies need holes in their heads. I’m still playing this one and it’s chewing me up and spitting me out every time. But I’ll keep at it until I beat it. And so will you, I bet. Get it on Steam, get it on gog.com, get it on the Humble Store, Get it on itch.io. Just get it… or you’ll get it when you realize you’re actually missing out on learning important skills needed when YOUR shuttle crashes on a planet packed with everything trying to kill you.

Okay, that’s it for now. I’ll wrap this up tomorrow night with some final picks including what I think is one of the best horror-themed games this year…

-GW

Review codes provided by the publishers.