1. Renegade Ops (PC)(Multidirectional Shooter)
2. Borderlands 2 (PC)(FPS/RPG)
3. Gunpoint (PC)(Puzzle Platformer)
4. Robotrek (SNES)(RPG)
5. The Tick (SNES)(Beat 'Em Up)
6. Alien vs Predator (SNES)(Beat 'Em Up)
7. X-Kaliber 2097 (SNES)(Action Platformer)
8. Metal Slug (MVS)(Run and Gun)
9. Shadowrun (SNES)(RPG)
10. Quake II (PC)(FPS)
11. The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang (SNES)(RPG)
12. Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (PC)(Action)
13. A Story About My Uncle (PC)(Platformer)
14. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (PC)(FPS)
15. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith (PC)(FPS)
16. Catacomb (PC)(Top-Down Shooter)
17. Catacomb Abyss (PC)(FPS)
18. Catacomb Armageddon (PC)(FPS)
19. Catacomb Apocalypse (PC)(FPS)
20. The Catacomb (PC)(Top-Down Shooter)
21. Catacomb 3-D (PC)(FPS)
22. EarthBound (SNES)(RPG)
23. Quake II: Ground Zero (PC)(FPS)
24. Quake II: The Reckoning (PC)(FPS)
25. Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader (PC)(RPG)
26. The 7th Guest (PC)(Puzzle)
27. Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness (PC)(RPG)
28. Loom (PC)(Point and Click Adventure)
29. Castlevania: Dracula X (SNES)(Action Platformer)
30. System Shock 2 (PC)(Survival Horror FPS)
31. Final Fantasy V (SNES)(RPG)
32. Descent (PC)(FPS)
33. Mortal Kombat 2 (SNES)(Fighting)
34. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (PC)(Point and Click Adventure)
35. Alien Shooter (PC)(Top-Down Shooter)
36. Alien Shooter: Fight for Life (PC)(Top-Down Shooter)
37. Alien Shooter: The Experiment (PC)(Top-Down Shooter)
38. F.E.A.R. Extraction Point (PC)(FPS)
39. F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate (PC)(FPS)
40. Among the Sleep (PC)(Survival Horror)
I finished a short writing project I was working on yesterday and decided to treat myself with a short horror game.
Among the Sleep is a horror title in the vein of Clock Tower, Haunting Ground, and Hellnight, where you play a two year old child in a first person perspective who is struggling to cope with some very dark themes and has only a trust teddy bear to find any source of light in the darkness. It is not a game about fighting; there is no combat system. When the thing in the darkness comes for you, all you can do is crawl under something and hide and hope it doesn't find you. When not hiding in fear, you must solve puzzles involving finding objects and climbing structures to reach key items or exploring dark and spooky corridors across a series of foreboding imaginary worlds. The ultimate goal is to find your mother, but to do so, you must find objects of memory to open the final door and discover just what it is that frightens you so much.
The game plays convincingly too for the most part. You can run for a while but will occasionally stumble and fall forward(like in Clock Tower 3). You can crawl to fit into tight corridors. You can grab and throw objects but have very limited strength to do so. You can clutch your teddy bear to light up your immediate surroundings You can even lean around corners when normally standing around. But you cannot easily go through all of these, so picking which position you are in is heavily dependent on your situation. Thankfully you crouch quickly; otherwise I would have been toast on at least two occasions. You also cannot easily look at things that terrify you. The visuals waver with fearful intensity when you do, and your heartbeat escalates until it practically thunders in your ears. The first few times this happened, I wondered if the game had a sanity effect a la Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. It doesn't, and you won't die or be driven insane just from looking, but it is not a pleasant experience for either the player or the child to face the nasties head on. Also, I got a kick out of looking down at the toddler's shadow.
The game is short and will likely take only a couple of hours to complete, with only a DLC prologue done in a similar style to keep you coming back. No enemies appear during the first half of the game aside from a few sudden scares, which both allows for a slow but steady build up and lulls the senses into thinking the game will not offer any dangers. I prefer this length and style, because it lets the game last just long enough to get the job done without overstaying its welcome and helps to keep it feeling fresh and interesting. But I also managed to buy the game on discount on GOG for $5. At $20, I think it's a bit pricey for the amount of content I get, especially when considering how much content I can get from other games on GOG for considerably less money. But it is an effective horror game that I greatly enjoyed. Perfect for the annual October festivities that are coming up soon.