Category: monsters

System Shock (2023)

We begin our story as a hacker getting busted by the Trioptimum Corporation after failing to steal tech. Edward Diego, the man in charge, offers us a deal: face the wraith of the company or do disable the safety protocols on Shodan, the AI for Citadel Station. After disabling the AI, we find ourselves on Citadel. Shodan has gone insane. Most of the crew is slaughtered, many reconfigured into cybernetic monstrosities, the machines have gone rogue, and genetic experiments are running amok. Can you escape the wrathful clutches of a wannabe god?

The original System Shock is a pioneer of immersive sims, heavily inspiring games like Bioshock and Prey. I was thrilled when the remake dropped, having never been able to experience the original.

First, Shodan is easily my favorite part of the game. Terry Brosius is absolutely iconic with her cold, hateful delivery. Shodan has become one of my all time favorite game villains. She is a all encompassing presence on Citadel with multiple Doomsday schemes to eradicate humanity. The game is a lot more eerie and unsettling than I thought it’d be, even more so having Shodan’s face following you, and her cameras eyeing your every step. The enemies themselves are haunting. I love he game’s overall cyberpunk sci-fi horror aesthetic.

Gameplay is very old school in some of the best and worst ways. This game does not hold your hand. You had better pay attention, take some notes, and be ready to dig through every nook and cranny for audio logs and data sticks for what the hell to do and where to go. Like the horror games of old, there’s a hell of a lot of back tracking but I found it fun. The environment tells a story and every floor I found either something fascinating or terrifying. Most of the combat is FPS which is solid, even awesome at times. It was pretty awesome beheading Temu Borg with a laser sword or setting mutants on fire with dragon breath shotgun rounds. There are plenty of puzzles and the cyberspace segments which give me a retro Star Fox meets 80’s space shooter vibe.

While there’s so much of this game I love, I’d be lying if I said this game didn’t piss me off at times. Their were times the game’s objectives are too abstract and for the second half I had to lean real heavy on Youtube to finish the game. Much like Dark Souls dying has big consequences. Autosave is unpredictable and more than I want to admit, it made my life way harder so save often. I also love the game’s retro approach but dammit a few small quality of life improvements would’ve done wonders like having your total ammo on your HUD, not just what’s in the clip. Automatically reloading would be nice too. Like every game, there are pain in the ass part, System Shock’s are FromSoft levels of brutal. I played the game on all the easiest difficulties possible and still took me 36 hours because of the back tracking and difficulty spikes. It wasn’t always fun but it was fulfilling much like my time with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

In the end, I loved the System Shock remake and I’m willing to say it’s up their with Resident Evil 2 (2019) and Dead Space (2023) as far as horror game remakes go. It’s absolutely not a game for everyone, its hard as hell but well worth a play. May the gaming gods bring you glory, insect.

Hellraiser: Revival release date trailer

Holy hell the horror nerd in me is freaking out. I love Clive Barker’s work. I’ve read the The Hellbound Heart at least a dozen times. Hellraiser is one of my favorite horror movies, and even Hellbound: Hellraiser 2. I’m hyped Doug Bradley is voicing Pinhead. The visuals are gritty, gory, and kinky as they ought to be. This might be the first game n a long while I buy day one. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Alien: Isolation 2 trailer

Hallelujah! Alien: Isolation was my nightmares come true in the best ways. I heard whispers of a sequel but I didn’t believe it until we got the full reveal. We’re stuck on a dark, dreary planet being hunted by the Alien. So far I enjoy what I see. We don’t get much information, which I’m glad for. I’m absolutely going to follow Isolation 2. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Resident Evil: Veronica remake reveal

We finally have our next RE remake after the banger that was Resident Evil 4 Remake . Personally its Veronica as opposed to the original or Resident Evil 5. I can already tell just from the reveal trailer it’s going to be a wildly different game in a lot of ways. The set up isn’t the same and I know damn well they are redoing the Ashford lore. Overall I’m pretty pumped and I’m sure it’ll be a good time (even Resident Evil 3 (2020) wasn’t all that bad.) May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Until Dawn 2 reveal trailer

Until Dawn was one of my biggest surprises of the PS4 era. I loved the story, the atmosphere, and there was passion behind it. I never really expected a sequel to Supermassive’s masterpiece. Upon seeing this, I’m just very confused how this is a Until Dawn 2. I feel like this might’ve been a project they slapped the title on to generate buzz. It doesn’t look bad by any means, just hardly what I think any of us were expecting. Hopefully we’ll get a better idea what’s coming soon. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Florist-Gardens of Death gameplay trailer

So once again I came across a game channeling some old school horror vibes ala the Tortured Souls series. Admittedly this game gives off a huge, classic Resident Evil 1 vibe with the scenery. What I think is cool is the idea of killer plants and plant monsters. In that regard I was getting a lil bit of Poison Ivy’s section of Batman: Arkham Asylum feel too. The tank camera is a lil bit of a con but if the game is smoother, I’ll be ok with it. In the end, I’d definately would keep on eye out for it when it comes to PS5. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Lanterns trailer 2

So likely due to the backlash over the first trailer for the latest DC show, it was pulled off much of the internet. So now we have round 2 and I think it looks much more promising. There’s a few scenes of Hal Jordan looking pretty badass. The sci fi elements came through a lot more and it’s at least starting to look like a Green Lantern property. I’m not super sold on the suit still, I think it’s still too brown and unappealing for my liking. I can’t say I’m super hyped for this show, but I’m starting to see some promise which is a big step forward. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Welcome, Dear Human announcement trailer

Sometimes I find some really cool stuff wandering down the Youtube rabbit holes. The trailer looks odd but the art style is really eye catching. The concept looks pretty interesting and I can see it being a fun kinda creepy. Admittedly the narrator made me think of Patrick Stewart which also helps. Anyway, this game looks like something interesting I’d like to check out someday if it lands on consoles. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 trailer

Aliens: Fireteam Elite was one of the video games of all time. No, that last sentence wasn’t a typo. It was a alright experience with some cool moments but even as a fanboy of the Alien series, I wasn’t really blown away by it like I was Alien: Isolation nor was it the hilarious trainwreck of Aliens: Colonial Marines .

As for the sequel, I’m getting much the same vibe. We see some new Xeno types that barely resemble the iconic monster. I’m sure me and Savior would get some level of enjoyment out of it but I highly doubt it’ll be full or even half price worth. I did laugh seeing the queen at the end- remembering the travesty of the finale of the previous game. In the end, I’m pretty meh but with friends I’m sure it’ll be fine but if you want a epic horde shooter, there’s always Left 4 Dead or the surprisingly awesome John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Doom: The Dark Ages

In the years before Doom and Doom: Eternal , the Doom Slayer was a slave to the Kreed Makyr. Dispatched to a world overrun by the demon scourge, the Doom Slayer must band together with a kingdom to make a stand against the endless armies of hell.

Ok guys, real talk time: there’s A Lot of story in this particular entry. No longer is the story stuffed into notes or audio logs most of us didn’t pay a lick of attention to. It’s Doom. Most of us come for the brutal demon slaughter with badass weapons to loud, unrelenting metal music. Thankfully we get plenty of that. I love the aesthetic of this game. The weapons are a mix of medieval and sci fi, with giant robots, biomechanical dragons, and a certain special horror figure tossed in. The shield is the biggest gameplay change. You can whip it around like Captain America, sawing through fodder hoards and stunning bigger enemies, as well as parrying critical attacks. The parrying mechanic is fine but I felt like it was overused to living hell. Instead frantic combat that made you think on a microsecond’s notice like Eternal, most of this game comes down to the shield. It made the game stale in a way the previous entries weren’t for me.

The game takes a grander, more open approach than any other Doom has. I found it mostly fun to explore and gather loot to upgrade my abilities. The enemies are your pretty standard Doom fare, with a couple new enemies that can murder you real quick if you don’t learn to parry. The weapons themselves range from great to meh- the Super Shotgun, the Ravager, the Accelerator, Rocket Launcher, and Chainshot were my personal go-tos. Some weapons I felt were cool in theory but I nevr found much use for a lot of the options I was given all around. The epic set pieces were a huge win for me, fighting giant kaiju demons in a robot mech and flying around on my badass dragon were a long time metal nerd’s dream come true.

The game leans heavy on it’s story but sadly I wasn’t really invested. There’s long cutscenes that while beautiful feel like they belong in another game. A lot of the game is basically generic fantasy game dialogue and hyping the Slayer up as if he wasn’t already a absolute legend. As I said, while I appreciate the effort, the story didn’t really do anything for me.

In the end, I found Dark Ages to be the weak point of the trilogy but far from terrible. It’s a damn fun, truly epic experience at times that just leans too heavy on the shield parry and a meh story for me but still well worth grabbing. May the gaming gods bring you glory.