Halloween Bonus! Talkin' Spooky Games
Kevin and Phil each brought a list of 5 horror games that they thing you should check out! And if you have already played them, well then that’s like awesome for you! Anyway, enjoy this episode, and check out the Steam Halloween sale cause a bunch of these games are available now for large percentages off.
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So Nick Cage dinosaur bones.
Phil 0:02
I mean, man, I just kind of feel for the guy but you're also just like,
Kevin Erhard 0:08
just a dinosaur bone.
Phil 0:10
Right? How much can I feel for the guy in the end? Like I understand
Kevin Erhard 0:15
being addicted to, like drugs or nicotine? Sure. Sugar or, or whatever? Yeah, eating pastes? I don't know. Because there's like, I guess there is a chemical rush that you get from the purchase eating paste.
Phil 0:32
Oh, yeah, sorry. Whatever you were gonna say. Yeah.
Kevin Erhard 0:38
Right. dinosaur bones.
Phil 0:40
Right, right. I guess I have to take his word for it. I just kind of can't fully relate on that one.
Kevin Erhard 0:51
No, I can't either. Yeah, but you know what I can relate with?
Phil 0:56
What can you relate with Kevin?
Kevin Erhard 0:58
Hey there, everybody. Welcome back to pixelate. Oh, my name is Kevin.
Phil 1:04
I'm not, I'm only wearing a slip, Kevin. No. The audience can hear my nipples.
Kevin Erhard 1:18
And today's a special bonus episode. Bonus bonus time playing a little fast and loose clearly with the clothing.
Phil 1:25
Obviously, obviously, this is this is what this is. This is why you come here for the bonus episodes. Because you never know. When someone's going to get a little PG 13 on your ass.
Kevin Erhard 1:35
No.
Phil 1:37
Yeah,
Kevin Erhard 1:37
it's like, it's like a PG 13 remake of an arm movie that you loved as a kid. Mm hmm. And it just ruins your childhood.
Phil 1:46
It just just destroys it just powderized any good memories you had of that childhood?
Kevin Erhard 1:51
Yeah, so let's Fright Night this episode. Hmm,
Phil 1:53
let's do it. Oh, yes.
Kevin Erhard 1:57
Actually, hmm. I actually don't know if the Fright Night remake was PG 13. But, you know, I
Phil 2:01
have no idea. I only ever saw the original.
Kevin Erhard 2:04
Yeah.
Phil 2:07
Anyways, but that is an appropriate way to go with it, though. Because today we are. We're having another bonus Halloween episode.
Kevin Erhard 2:16
That's right. That's right. And I don't know when I'm putting this up either tomorrow or on Halloween itself. We'll see. Ooh, Whoo. Whoo. Whoo. You will know the audience. I roll until I hit the publish button. So we'll see about that. How that is. That's gonna be fun. That's gonna be fun. But today, we're talking about a top five list of horror games. That Phil and I think you should probably play and may have haven't, you know, so it's not necessarily going to be super obscure. But they underrated underrated, they could have slipped through the cracks. And each of us brought five games to the table. So we're just going to go through the list. Talk about them a little bit. Have a little fun. Eat a little cheese. You know,
Phil 3:12
cheese, the the favorite snack of Halloween
Kevin Erhard 3:16
cheese, the podcasters treat.
Phil 3:19
Well, Kevin, where should we begin what you want to achieve? You want to get started here
Kevin Erhard 3:22
you know I'm gonna go ahead and get started with number five number five. Number five on my list and I slotted in at number five because y'all probably have heard of it because just about every YouTuber played it when it came out. Stories untold. Oh, which hell yes, stories. Untold is such a cool little game. It comes in basically four parts and each part is its own style of gameplay. And the opening segment is done in a way that it's it's almost like the fourth wall breaking of a text parser game, like an adventure style game and called the house abandon. I believe that's what the first part was called. Yes, super memorable, because of how effective it is at getting spooky thumbs translated out to the audience with just a little bit of like, lighting effects and screen shake. And, and a little bit of sound effects. Sound design, oh, this this lovely sound design. And then then there's parts two, three or four. Also awesome, but it really sets the tone with the house abandoned. Yeah, stories untold. I mean, everybody's played stories and told scary game squad played stories untold. And, you know, if if they were a YouTuber, and what was it 2018 I want to say 2017 Then how I played stories untold and famously, stories untold. Actually, it looked like it was kind of capitalizing on the Stranger Things. Yes, at first because it has this opening, kind of like title sequence that the the music and the vibe and even the logo are very much in line with Stranger Things. And it's it's just a smart kind of like a smart play on their part because Stranger Things was like the horror, horror adventure metta at the time. And I think doing that really, really drew some people and who probably wouldn't have otherwise tried to play it.
Phil 5:40
Yeah, that was a that was devolver, wasn't it?
Kevin Erhard 5:42
It is, I believe it is published by Devolver game. I mean, they use so many things. They just
Phil 5:48
they just, they know how to pick the good ones. There's something there's just something so consistent in the quality of games that they publish.
Kevin Erhard 5:59
Yep, so that is a devolver game. And one moment, let me check a few of the other games on my list because they devolver
Phil 6:11
Oh, that would be funny. Start top five devolver our games?
Kevin Erhard 6:16
No, no, it's not the other one. The other one I'm thinking is not okay.
Unknown Speaker 6:21
Okay. Is that at least.
Kevin Erhard 6:27
But yes, stories untold. It's really neat game. You can get it on Steam. I probably should have looked. It's I don't think it is. It's much story. Oh, 10 bucks right
Phil 6:37
now. 10 bucks. I think it's like, yeah, it's 10 bucks. And it's Wait, wait, wait,
Kevin Erhard 6:41
wait, wait, wait. It's on sale right now. There is actual promotion ends November 1. So try to get this episode out before November 1. I mean, we have to because it's Halloween. So
Phil 6:55
that is so cheap.
Kevin Erhard 6:57
$2.49 do right now. Alright, that's
Phil 7:02
told that's what we need to do. We need to because there is the Halloween sale going on.
Kevin Erhard 7:07
There is a Halloween sale going on right now.
Phil 7:09
So let's let's do that. Let's try to let's try to I'm gonna make sure I'm on top of these.
Kevin Erhard 7:14
Yeah, let's, let's throw a slip some of these prices in there. Yeah, cuz that's quality games. These are quality games. It's $2.49 right now.
Phil 7:23
And it's like a four or five hour game.
Kevin Erhard 7:24
It's a it's a four or five hours. That's like 50 cents an hour.
Phil 7:28
It's just solid. It's so it's so good. I have I have such good memories of that game. It was that was one of my top 10 games of 2017. And I remember that because it came out at the very beginning of 2017. And you know how that is? That's kind of the death knell for a lot of games when they come out of the beginning of the year. Because by the end of the year, everyone's forgotten about
Kevin Erhard 7:50
it. Yeah, it's it's both games and movies. Yes. At the beginning of the year is like the the dump period. Right. Typically, I mean, games are a little less formalized in that logic. But movies, definitely. It's like if you're coming out in like January or February. They're just trying to get it out.
Phil 8:11
Yeah, exactly. And that one, and that one just stuck with me for a long time. They
Kevin Erhard 8:17
there is a not a sequel there. The follow up game from no code is, which is the developer is called observation. I haven't played it. Observation. Yeah. But it looks like it has some similar vibes of unique gameplay elements. And that is
Phil 8:39
stuck. Yeah. So I'm gonna have to look into that. Yeah.
Kevin Erhard 8:43
Also published by Devolver.
Phil 8:46
Observation. Okay. That is a solid game to start this whole thing off with my friend
Kevin Erhard 8:52
stories. Untold Stories untold. Yeah, I not, why not? Oh, some esoteric ones. And some. And I think one of them is free on my list actually go
Phil 9:04
even better.
Kevin Erhard 9:08
And, but that's it. That's it for stories until that's my number five. Number five.
Phil 9:13
Okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna pitch my number five then. It's kind of sounds dirty when you put it that way. But fuck it. Number five game is phantasmagoria Ooh. Now this one. This one is for us old old grog nerds in the in the room. For those of you who might remember this one came out in 1995. It is an FMV horror point and click game. It was designed by Roberta Williams, who you might remember is the person who designed King's Quest. So right there, you've got a lot of a pedigree, if you will. Exactly. Yeah. And it was one of the first games that was on CD ROM as I recall. So he was able to pack a whole lot into this game. And like I said, it's FMV it's horror, and there were a few death scenes in it. That when you look at them now people kind of it's it's it's laughable. It's really very funny.
Kevin Erhard 10:15
I'm sure it was a it was Oh, my God wasn't waiting. It wasn't fair. It was phantasmagoria one of the games that got brought up at some point, or am I as far as as far as like Congress or Senate or?
Phil 10:29
I think I don't think it was it was definitely a lot of people didn't like it, but I think I think it was kind of overshadowed by a lot of the other games. Yeah, that were popular at the time were
Kevin Erhard 10:43
Mortal Kombat and doom and then right. Roy was the one with the Oh, what was the other FMV? One?
Phil 10:49
Oh, that's what I was trying to think of the one No, the other night night hunt. Night
Kevin Erhard 10:53
night. Night, night. Night, something like trap Night Trap. Night Trap. There it is.
Phil 10:58
Yeah, I think I think it was I think this one was specifically kind of overshadowed by trap. Um, which is a shame because this is a way better game. Right? It's way better. Yeah.
Kevin Erhard 11:09
Night Trap is is not a very interesting game. If you know, if you play it for any length of time. No more just actually don't. It's not worth necessarily playing. Just watch somebody else play it. Shoot it same effect. But the Nitro not phantasmagoria. Right. Well, they built up
Phil 11:27
this huge, like, a legend around it about it being this horrifying game, and it was banned for a while and they didn't release it for years. And when they finally released it, you're like, oh, that's what that's it. Okay, fine. Okay, and phantasmagoria wasn't quite as bad as all that because like I said, I think it got kind of missed. But it honestly, it had better death scenes, like people's heads getting smashed and stuff like that. And it's just cartoonish. It's, it looks like it looks terrible. But in the game, you play a woman who has moved into this creepy old house with her pony tailed husband, who is wearing a black long sleeve shirt and a safari vest the whole time. So he's just the most odd looking he looks like he should be writing songs for meatloaf. It's just a very weird specific vibe that he's given off. And and you're playing this woman who kind of looks like the the the main lady protagonist in werewolf for my MST, three kg fans. And you're just working your way through this mansion. And your husband is losing his mind. And there are ghosts and secret compartments and secret underground spaces that you can investigate. And it's it's nuts. And when I was a kid, no matter how can't be an over the top and silly. It was I remember seeing clips of this game. I didn't play it fully until I was an adult. But it scared the piss out of me when I was a kid because the FMV thing there was something so vaguely sinister about it. And I I can't quite put my finger on what it was, but it always felt so weird. I think because it's so grainy. The quality's not so great. And that kind of as a kid leaves a lot of room for your imagination to play. Sure, sure, I hear and a few years back I did end up buying it it is currently 999 on Steam, which is its normal price. But it 10 bucks for like kind of a classic. If you're into horror games if you're into FMV games or if you're into just old school video games this kind of ticks all of those boxes. Yeah. And it's it's I played it for the first time years ago I actually played it and and did a Let's Play of it from beginning to end on my YouTube channel. And it's still up there. So if you want to watch me play my wanna dig that hour Yeah, yeah, go go check out L conky. Stork on on YouTube and dig. It's somewhere in there.
Kevin Erhard 14:24
And and for those of you who might, who might be confused by a similar sounding title, it is not Phasma phobia, no four player online Co Op game where you're hunting ghosts. It is which phantasmagoria
Phil 14:40
we've got a couple of friends who did say that that one is scary as hell though fat
Kevin Erhard 14:44
Phasma phobia. I mean, it wouldn't it's not on this list because obviously it's it blew up like gangbusters ever Brian? And their and their mother knows about Phasma phobia for such a for such a small budget game. And there's a bunch of other games that do the same thing. You know, you're it's like Co Op investigating spooky places. Phasma phobia was basically the first one to kind of break out though. And yeah, it can have some really spooky moments. And I've played it with our, our UK pals a few times. And it's, it's, it's fun, but it's not phantasmagoria they are two different games,
Phil 15:30
two different games. Okay, well, that's, that's my number five,
Kevin Erhard 15:33
number five.
Phil 15:35
Number five.
Kevin Erhard 15:36
All right. So on my list, I'm going to, I'm going to go with my number four as faith. And this is also including faith too. Oh, yeah. They last is developed by air Dorf, and published by new blood interactive, who you might know from things like ultra keel and SC faith is another one of their the games that they they publish in faith is now actually on. It's available on Steam. Sort of oh, is it? Not? It's not not? Yeah, not totally. Because it's there's a store page for it, where you could get the faith unholy trilogy, or unholy trinity edition when faith three comes out the third series. So right now there's, there's just like a store page with a demo. And then once the third one is finished, it's going to be released as a full a full thing. Faith the unholy trinity. Very cool. Yeah. So faith is I actually interviewed air Dorf for my YouTube channel some time ago, to talk about how he got started in in making games. It's a really cool interview. He's a neat dude. And the games are basically these top down adventure games, but the visual style is that of almost like Apple to E, Commodore, you know, 1980s. So, it's very simplistic, and he does so much. He does so much with the simplistic graphics and juxtaposing them against these really intense rotoscoped scenes, that, that as he put it, if it's something that should you're seeing something that you shouldn't be seeing is the idea. So faith is pretty cool. It's it's loosely based on some of the concepts, some of the things that people were scared of, in the Satanic Panic. You know, that the, that the children are under attack by Satanists and stuff like that? So it's, it's, it's basically, he wanted to make a game that you could like, you accidentally find it in a yard sale. You know?
Phil 18:23
Yeah. Its own creepy POS
Kevin Erhard 18:25
is like, yeah, it's like it's it. It's like its own creepy pasta, come to life. And that's, that's the faith series. So faith is my number four on the list. It's pretty cool game. You can check it out. I think it's on. I think if you wanted to get the first and second one, you can still buy them on HBO. Yeah, they're available on HBO. But otherwise, if you just want to wait and get the whole shebang, you can check out this theme page. And it has it as a demo for I believe faith three, the third game in the series is up right now.
Phil 19:06
I couldn't agree with you more in terms of how much he was able to do within the confines of such an old school. sort of setup like he did rotoscope stuff in there. Like it's just incredibly effective and really spooky. Yep. Yeah, it's a good game.
Kevin Erhard 19:25
It's a really good game. Yeah. So number four, fate number four, number four, number four.
Phil 19:33
Okay, my number four is the shrouded aisle. And this was another one that came out in 2017. And it was a good it was a good year for in the spook games. This one was basically the idea is you are it's like a strategy, resource management sort of game and you're the head of a group of priests in this world. Old Hamlet that worships this elder god. And the whole thing is you're trying to raise this, this, you know, Lovecraftian God, from its slumber beneath the ocean, near your little island Hamlet. And you have to keep everybody happy. There are all these families that have power. And, you know, for now you're the one who's in charge. But if you if you piss off the wrong people, you know, it's got kind of a range vibe to it. But it's not as simplistic obviously, as like, you know, swipe left or swipe right. It's told through this whole kind of Green Swamp old school gameboy color scheme, which is fascinating. And I think only adds to kind of a gross, uneasy quality that the whole thing has. It's pretty terrific. Stylistically, it's really hard. I will say I had, I did have trouble getting through it, getting through it to an ending where I was, you know, nobody wins when you wake up an elder god. But theoretically, that's the that's the, you know, the wind state. And it took me a while to get there. But by the time I got there, it was absolutely worth it. It's pretty brutal. It's pretty tough. And they actually have a new DLC for it. That came out recently. I haven't played it yet, though. It's called the sunken sins. And that's and it's free, free DLC. Who doesn't love that?
Kevin Erhard 21:40
Who doesn't love it?
Phil 21:41
Who doesn't? Who doesn't? Now I'm looking at it. And normally this one is also 999 on Steam. But right now until until November 1, the sucker is going for 199. Yeah,
Kevin Erhard 21:53
it's also it's also part of a couple bundles. Yes. Yes. So kitfox games, which, which developed and produced, it has a bundle of all their games on Steam right now. Right? That's available for 30 to 68. They, they kind of make you know, they have a pretty wide variety of they do Yes. Lucifer within us, for example, is like a mystery puzzle solving game where you're like you're solving murders. And that's, that's the only one I've actually seen some gameplay of actually, I believe I've played or watched some people play fit for King, which is a real it's basically a really old see RPG style game where you control you control a king, basically Henry the eighth. And you can you can do whatever you want. You can kill or you can sleep with or you can wet it's it's pretty funny. I think I watched the Super beard bros play.
Phil 23:10
Well, they did they did have a game that came out this year called Super boyfriend dungeon, which did get some attention.
Kevin Erhard 23:17
Oh, is that them as well? Yeah, yeah.
Phil 23:20
It's a visual novel. Where you it's, well, it's visual level with a little action RPG thrown in from what I could tell I haven't played it. But the whole idea is that there are these swords or otherwise weapons and when you go into a dungeon and fight with them their weapons and then when you get out of the dungeon. They're They're handsome, handsome people that you can date and maybe kiss on and and who doesn't? Who doesn't love that? I
Kevin Erhard 23:52
doesn't love the smooches
Phil 23:54
they're very eclectic games to the UK. Yeah, they're also
Kevin Erhard 23:57
developing a yeah, they're also developing like a graphical version of Dwarf Fortress. So in haste in case ASCII was was the thing that ever held you back from from playing Dwarf Fortress. They're, they're working on fixing that for you.
Phil 24:13
There you go. You go. And if and if and if that was the only thing keeping you from playing Dwarf Fortress? I question that. I think Dwarf Fortress might be the thing that was keeping you from playing. But yeah, the shrouded isle. Really interesting. It's not going to be for everybody. It's a strange, strange dark little game. But I found it really intriguing. And frankly, for two bucks, you could do a hell of a lot worse. So that's what number four?
Kevin Erhard 24:41
Yeah, cool. My number three number three. Number is the uncle who works for Nintendo.
Phil 24:54
Oh, now I've heard of this one. I don't know much about it. But I've heard this one.
Kevin Erhard 24:58
So it is I don't know what specifically this type of game it's it's just text. It's like basically a text adventure. You're just clicking on hyperlinks. It's available on HBO for free. And so it's Z tool that itchy itchy that IO slash the uncle who works for Nintendo. There's dashes in there. But if you Google it, it'll show up. Probably just Google it. Yeah. Yeah, just Google it.
Phil 25:32
I just imagine me like going alright, it was the Oh God, just Google it.
Kevin Erhard 25:39
So the uncle who works for Nintendo base, the the synopsis is right on that page. For the game, you are 11 years old, you're sleeping over your best friend's house. You and your friend like video games, your friend has a lot of cool games. And believe it or not an uncle who works for Nintendo. And he's coming to visit at midnight. A narrative horror game.
Phil 26:03
That's really
Kevin Erhard 26:05
isn't it? Like the way that's written is super spooky? It is it's very spooky. There are some trigger warnings for it, because it talks about some some really heavy topics, so it's worth checking those out before you start.
Phil 26:22
Just based on that, that, that description alone. Absolutely.
Kevin Erhard 26:28
And to give a little backstory in the phrase, blah, blah, blah works for Nintendo is it's kind of this. It's, it's almost like a meme. And I don't mean a meme in terms of, like present day meme image, you know, on the internet. I mean, people would say this in playgrounds, when Phil and I were kids, yeah, to try to basically prove that they knew something about like, upcoming game or a secret for a game or, or how to actually beat something or what would have you. It was meant to lend authority to you. Yeah, it was it was it was meant to try to argue from a position of authority be like, Well, my my dad's cousin works for Nintendo and right, my dad said it's this or whatever. So that's kind of where that phrase comes from. For those who might be too young to understand to grasp the, the person who worked for Nintendo was almost entirely was always fictional. Like, right, they're never they never actually existed. It was just kind of like something that was grabbed from the ether in order to prove that they knew something that you did not.
Phil 27:48
Yeah. And shut down the debate basically.
Kevin Erhard 27:51
Exactly. So yeah, I I remember playing this a few years ago, because it was on a thing was a Kotaku article or something like that. It was just on my Twitter feed and like out, it doesn't take long to get through. But it is very chilling. With its use, just with it just uses text. And like some looping background sound design to really give you a flavor of, of the horror. It's it's emotional, psychological horror, but really, really neat stuff. And it's totally free. You could go and you can play right now the uncle who works for Nintendo, it'll take you it won't take you very long to get through it and get all five endings if you if you just want to kind of click through it. So that's that's my number three is who works for Nintendo
Phil 28:56
number three, that's a good one damn. Like that's that's the kind of just the urban legend de quality it is.
Kevin Erhard 29:03
It's like an it's like an interactive creepypasta basically, yeah,
Phil 29:07
Lo Fi stuff really, really has always creeped me out the most actually looking over this list all of my games are pretty indie. Now to be fair, like we said, we're going to we're trying to cover underrated video games that maybe you haven't played so that does lend itself to that naturally. Sure. Even if we were just doing like our top horror games. These kind of games would all be included. You know, you'd have your Alien Isolation of course and yeah, Resident Evil and shit but right you know, I love that kind of thing. That's really creeps me the fuck out.
Kevin Erhard 29:42
Yeah, I think more than any other genre. low fidelity works to Harper's advantage when wielded skillfully.
Phil 29:54
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Kevin Erhard 29:56
Because it it kind of fuzzy up the translation between the participant and the content, just enough to introduce like, you know that that mystery and that vagueness of oh, there's some stuff out there. There's some spooky things out there, Ryan, it can really get into you get into your head when when used effectively, I know there's a bunch of like horror games out there that his horror games are you can find horror games all over steam that are absolutely, that are just like a joke at this point. Yeah. And you'll see and they they'll slap like, they'll slap like a VHS filter on on the on the game. That's not what I'm talking about. That's that's like, just like that. What I talk and I'm talking about specifically, when I say low fidelity, I mean, something like faith, which is in terms of in terms of a recreation is like a high fidelity recreation of something that was low fidelity, rather than just throwing some some some scribbly stuff on the screen and saying that you can't see very well. Oh, well. You know what I mean? Yeah, totally. And also, if there is any game developer listening out there a VHS filter. Unless we are looking through the point of view of a video camera, it never makes sense.
Phil 31:38
Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't. It's like it's cheap and easy. That's all it is.
Kevin Erhard 31:46
Or your your the idea is, it's like second person, and you are watching the playback of a tape or something like that. But right, you have to do the work to set up, why the why things exist the way they do, in order for it to actually have any real effectiveness.
Phil 32:06
Yeah, it has to have some level of explanation. You know, you know, we don't have to go into it real deep. You don't have to give it like 500 pages of explanation. But you know,
Kevin Erhard 32:16
something you don't have to Stephen King, this explanation, right?
Phil 32:19
No one No one asked you to do that. No one asked you something. Someone asked Stephen
Kevin Erhard 32:23
King to do that. But he does it anyway.
Phil 32:25
But he does it anyway. Because he loves us.
Kevin Erhard 32:30
Stephen King giveth and he gave us
Phil 32:36
excuse me, either.
Kevin Erhard 32:40
I'm here. Yeah, you got out for a second.
Phil 32:42
Oh, yeah. Cuz I just had a big sneeze. And I wasn't sure if you're not.
Kevin Erhard 32:45
I heard the excuse me. Okay, good. Yeah.
Phil 32:49
Mute the Yeti. That just, which is a metaphor, I'm sure.
Kevin Erhard 32:53
Yeah. Yes. Because as I was saying, while you're sneezing, Stephen King giveth and he gave us,
Phil 33:00
they give us any giveth, and they give us
Kevin Erhard 33:02
he never take it away. He knows. He might give it to you more. If you tell him to take it. Take some of it away. He gave
Phil 33:11
us and he and he never edited. But I love the man. so damn much. So there you have it. Yeah. All right. All right. It's my turn.
Kevin Erhard 33:29
Yeah, yeah, it's your turn rack.
Phil 33:31
Let's try I just I like I like this format. Just sit and talk about
Kevin Erhard 33:35
gains boot games. Number three.
Phil 33:38
Oh, my number three. Now this one I thought was my own little trip for a minute there. And I reviewed this one years ago when I came out. And I found myself playing it constantly. And a bunch of our friends play it too. And it's kind of a sleeper hit. It's called distrust. And distrust is the best way to describe distrust is a love letter to John Carpenter's The Thing. You you play one of several different styles of characters you got a lot of them you can unlock and play with and that sort of thing. And your goal is to get through. It's like an isometric survival game. And you've got to make sure that you're fed you got to make sure that you're warm. You got to make your way through these different stages of an Antarctic science station, while avoiding aliens that come when you sleep. That instead of like the thing like taking over someone's body and you can't trust somebody which don't get me wrong, is fucking awesome. But instead of doing that, it's it's you if you sleep too much, you attract these horrible little alien Things that will attack you. And you're running out of sleep, you're running out of food, it's that kind of resource management sort of thing, which is super stressful, but a hell of a lot of fun. And it just captures that. That the thing, Antarctic polar, horror, sci fi, atmosphere, fucking beautifully. And not long ago, they actually released an update for their, their, they've been working on this thing kind of constantly since it came out, which was in also in 2017. Interestingly enough, they've been working on it kind of constantly, and they came out with a co op version, so you can play with your friends. Normally, you can you can find survivors that are NPCs and take over them. And so you got better chances of making it through but I imagined playing, we want to play this together. Yeah, that would be fun. It will be a lot of fun. And it couldn't be a better time to do it. Because Kevin until November 1, this game, which is normally $11.99. And by the way, worth every penny at full price is $1 $79.79.
I'd like to point out again, no one's paying us to do this. I just I think this is a smart thing to do for you guys, the listeners, just to let you know
Kevin Erhard 36:20
when they're a good deal, hey, there's some good deals out there. There really
Phil 36:23
are. And these are genuine games that me and Kevin really actually love. And I got the feeling that by the end of this thing. You'll be able to buy the entire catalogue of our 10 games for like 20 bucks or
Kevin Erhard 36:39
so. Yeah, yeah. So the developer by the way of distressed or the yet the developer, a company called cheer dealers. They have they have three games. And their newest one just came out. Like 10 days ago. Oh, nice. Yeah, it's called they always run. It's a 2d platformer, space Western where you chase bounties.
Phil 37:10
Oh, now that sounds fun. Come on. How can you not go for that?
Kevin Erhard 37:18
So yeah, that's that's, uh, and it says similar to games. You've played hollow Knight and Hades. With Oh, wow. Way too many hours on record for both of them. For me,
Phil 37:33
I believe that you those those were both games that really those those games both just got you right. I was. I was writing them. Those. Yeah, those are two big ones for you. So that makes sense. Yeah, shit. Yeah. So if you like, if you like survival games, and it's actual survival horror, it's not. You know, you've got a submachine gun and you're killing zombies. And
Kevin Erhard 37:57
you're running out in, you know, every now and then run out of ammo for it.
Phil 38:01
Right? Right. It's actual survival, research management. It's that kind of really addictive form of it to where the first I think it's like five stages. And the first stage and maybe even the second stage, you're able to get to a point where you're like flush you're like, Okay, I got plenty of food. I got a little ammo. I got plenty of sleep. I'm in good shape. I'm this is the run, this is the run. I'm gonna do it. No problem. We're gonna kick its ass. And then by the third stage or so, everything just starts to see you start to Okay. Alright, I actually I really, really need to sleep but everything else is fine. And we're good. We're just just gonna just keep on Okay, well, actually, I haven't. I have way less food than I thought I did. And that sucks. So I really need food too. But I got that the rest of it seems fine. And you just did everything. It's like if you've ever played banished, which is one of my addictive games. It's just like that where it starts out like I've got it under control here. Everything's cool. And then before you know everyone's dead and on fire. It's it's just that good. So that's that's my number three distressed, fuller survival. It is so good.
Kevin Erhard 39:11
So basically, it's survival, comma, horror. Right? Because like I feel like survival horror has a connotation of like, Resident Evil, you know?
Phil 39:23
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think yeah, you're absolutely right. And And honestly, the monsters like the aliens are kind of secondary. They're there and they provide a
Kevin Erhard 39:35
bit of a thing that's gonna kill you. That's probably gonna kill you as the Arctic.
Phil 39:39
Exactly.
Kevin Erhard 39:40
You're probably
Phil 39:40
gonna freeze to death that's probably how it's going to work. Yeah, that's That's exactly it. So yeah, definitely worth getting. I think you guys would like it a lot. That's my number three.
Kevin Erhard 39:51
Number three. Cool. All right, my number two coming in at the do spot. Oh, that was a bourbon.
Phil 40:01
so unfortunate that you said that while getting that horrible bubble burst coming up. Yeah, but the news spot Oh, good news
Kevin Erhard 40:11
number two is blasphemous. Now. Hell yes. This is not a game that is, I will say scary in the traditional sense. So every other game that I've listed so far has moments of just genuine terror blasphemous as what I like to call aesthetically horror. Because it is a it is a Metroidvania it is a side scroller, 2d Metroid, Metroid Vania with gorgeous, gorgeous pixel art. And it is so so good. And so, so creepy. Basically, so a game is set in the land of custodia, which is like a stand in for, for Spain. It's almost like it's almost like it was Spanish Inquisition style Catholicism. It is what blasphemous, kind of represents. It's not Catholicism, it's a it's a totally fictional religion. But to per Catholic, yeah.
Phil 41:35
I remember seeing that one and being like, Oh, this is Catholic horror. Got it. This
Kevin Erhard 41:39
is a Catholic car that and specifically a Catholic horror that you would have found in Spain, like 500 years ago. So the the basic story you have, you are this guy who has, you're part of a an order a Holy Order that has taken on a vow of silence, and your entire order has been killed, but by some miracle, you are resurrected. And it is up to you to set right the sins of basically the pope
Oh, it's, it's it's really hard to summarize the story in kind of, like a meaningful way. Because it's, it's very the war for it is is super deep. It makes sense, the more you read it, right, it's one of those things that but it is it and I say this not to use it as like a charged way but it's very foreign in Yeah, the the way the story is written, but the more you read it and if you have any experience with Catholicism, or, or any other sect of Christianity that is very pomp and circumstances centered you're going to start to kind of get it because the the the world of custodia has been has been beset by this thing called the Miracle and the miracle has blessed or cursed literally everybody in custodia and the blessings or the the blessings or the curses are grotesque in nature. So you'll find people that are just like turning into trees people that just have to walk around with a gravestone on their back you know it's it's it's terrifying and then the bosses the the the amazing thing is is these bosses the design of the bosses is top notch and you will you will fight a giant baby all I'll say that right now
Phil 44:15
I I'm I was that was actually going to be my next question. So I'm glad you brought that up
Kevin Erhard 44:20
Esposito, the scion of abjuration Yeah, you're gonna fight a giant baby.
Phil 44:26
You're gonna fight a giant baby.
Kevin Erhard 44:29
You're going to kill that giant baby.
Phil 44:32
I hope so. Yeah, terrible.
Kevin Erhard 44:34
He is is there like you?
Phil 44:35
You better let's put it that way.
Kevin Erhard 44:39
And here's the crazy thing and I'm not I don't think I'm spoiling anything. It's specific. The games a bummer. Surely the ending is a bummer. There is a good ending. Also a bummer. There's you're not escaping this game with without being a little bit bummed out by a the nature of the game and be the ending.
Phil 45:08
That's really surprising. When you think about the Catholic church that's really genuinely Yeah,
Kevin Erhard 45:14
this is not a feel good story. No. You're You're the first boss you fight. This is the first 15 minutes of the game. Your dude wakes up. He fights a boss. He he takes he drains the boss's blood into his helmet. And then he puts the helmet over his head and is a washed in the blood. And yeah, that kind of sets the tone for the game.
Phil 45:47
Yes, yeah, it's I'll tell you you know we've had some discussion on on the kind of get good games and how I feel about them and this is this is one of them. This is this side scroller.
Kevin Erhard 46:00
Yeah it's very difficult it does have I believe it's been I haven't played it since 2019 when it came out but right the month that came out I pretty much played exclusively that for like a month getting through it but yeah, it's it's very it is difficult it's not an easy game. It i It's I don't want to say it's the unseen it is tagged as a souls like it is not a souls like it's a Metroidvania there's no stamina bar if I recall correctly, there's no stamina bar it's just health and magic. And the the only thing that kind of makes it souls like is that it? I think it has a corpse run in there. You
Phil 46:51
do have souls or whatever the
Kevin Erhard 46:53
equivalent you have souls. Yeah, you do have things that you spend. So it's very loosely been called a souls like it's mostly a Metroidvania.
Phil 47:05
Yeah, yeah, it was, it was enough. It was it was not so brutal that I didn't I played it for a little while. I didn't get very far. Because actually, Metroidvanias are tough for me. Just in the midst, my attention span, and trying to remember where I'm supposed to go. And I get really frustrated with that kind of thing. It's tough on me. But I'll tell you what, I'll play a game that is not necessarily made for me for way too long, just for the aesthetic. And that that was absolutely a case with this one. I have fun memories of it.
Kevin Erhard 47:44
Yeah. And last miss is also can in the Halloween sale on Steam right now.
Phil 47:53
So what are we looking at?
Kevin Erhard 47:55
We're looking at, and I just clicked off of it because I I saw London as like, that's, that's nice. I like that bundle. So you can get blasphemous right now for 849 you could also get the digital deluxe edition for 1638 Now the digital deluxe edition is actually kind of cool because it has it it contains the digital art book for some some really cool art from the game. And there is a digital comic as well, which I believe is the it's basically the story leading up to where the game begins. It's like what was your carrot mate? What was your dude doing? Before the game began and what led to his death and resurrection so yeah, it's it. It's it might be worth getting because once the sale ends, the game goes 2499 which is more expensive than the digital edition is I mean, it's that you could get the digital edition for less than the whole game right now as well. There's also it also it would be part of the the dark coat bundle which would
Phil 49:18
was in there with with
Kevin Erhard 49:20
shrouded Isle church, the church in the darkness and outlast 204 1739
Phil 49:29
That's a pretty good dude. That's
Kevin Erhard 49:30
not a bad score. You can get the sword and whip bundle if you're if you prefer the Metroidvanias which is bloodstains, which is straight up Symphony of the Night, but not Castlevania.
Phil 49:45
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Kevin Erhard 49:47
bloodstain. Really, really cool game. I played the heck out of that when that came out. So that that might be worth it as well. Yeah, but yeah, Halloween sale really coming in is just Yeah, currently I mean currently adding things to my cart.
Phil 50:08
I am literally as we talk just going live these are awfully cheap
Kevin Erhard 50:16
things are cheap right now. You know what's funny is that every it's like oh man, all these things are games are so cheap. And then it's like you buy all these games and it's like, wow, that's a lot of money.
Phil 50:28
Right? Right. It does have a way of adding up those
Kevin Erhard 50:31
numbers have a have this thing where they add up after Yeah,
Phil 50:35
it's It's bizarre. It really is. I never expected
Kevin Erhard 50:39
Yeah. Never expected.
Phil 50:42
You'll never see it coming.
Kevin Erhard 50:44
No. Oh, there's a cool anime. Like, trailer now for the game. What the heck? Oh, that looks sweet as hell. Anyway, last Miss number two go check it out.
Phil 50:59
Yeah, check it out. Go get that one. See? Okay, I have got my number two light. Now. Here's you kind of started yours with a caveat for number two. That you didn't see it is quite a Halloween spooky game. You know, it's
Kevin Erhard 51:18
spooky, but not like jump scary. It's just Yeah, yeah.
Phil 51:23
Right. It's just like, I don't feel so good. Right. Um, I've got a similar thing not but not quite in the same vein, but, but you're just gonna have to trust me on this one. My number two, it's two games. It's Costume Quest One and
Kevin Erhard 51:40
two. Ooh, there we go.
Phil 51:43
They're made by Tim Schafer and Double Fine Productions. They're not scary games in the slightest. In fact, they're really sweet, charming, G rated games that you could play this with your kid and in many ways it would act kind of as like, Baby's first RPG. The whole but the whole aesthetic of it. I have never played a game that felt more flawlessly effortlessly Halloween than this game. And then that's because it is you play a group of kids on Halloween night. And a group of like goblin things have come into your town and they're dressing up and they they're up to no good. And you and your friends are all dressed in different costumes and stuff and you gotta go put an end to these goblin things. You know, their their plans. And when you get into a fight you start out you know you gotta you got a kid he's he's wearing like a cardboard robot costume. And right one little girls wearing a knights you got a cardboard Knight Sword. And she's using the trashcan lid as a shield and that kind of thing. But when you actually get into combat, it goes like full on kaiju Power Rangers, and you grow into this giant, you know, idealized version of your costume. And and it's so cute and fun. And you know, you're you know, you go from my mom, a blue costume robot guy. And then suddenly you're this towering, Gundam looking thing. Missiles and I've never played a game that better capture just the spirit and like the really honest to god fun
Kevin Erhard 53:33
the childhood hit on the imagination of the kids. Yeah, absolutely adorable. And that's actually that is like the, that's like, the best thing about being a parent on Halloween is it's just like taking your kid around the neighborhood and there with all the other kids and they're like, pretend they're in their costumes, playing and pretending and all that stuff. It's just, it's just adorable. I'll have to check this cat.
Phil 53:58
It's so pure. It's so pure. And you can get both of these games right now for five bucks. And frankly, the The Costume Quest bundle outside of the of the say sale is 20 bucks. These are these are, you know, again, real type games. They're not super long. I don't think it took me that long to be I think it's like, five, six hours, something like that. Maybe a little more. But God they're charming and funny and fun. And they've gotten they pull from a lot of the old classical, not classical but you know, just old school action RPG kind of things. You know, like when you're in the overworld and your you and your friends are dressed in your little costumes. Each one of the costumes has a different ability. You know at one point you've got like this space night you know person right a glow up like a flashlight with a cone at the end of it that you're pretending a sword or lightsaber and there's a dark area and you use your flashlight light cone to you know, light up the area so you can get through it. And yeah, the I think it's the robot. He's got these rocket skates that will even go off ramps with it. It's just so charming and so pure that it's it doesn't have a cynical bone in its body that is hard to come by.
Kevin Erhard 55:17
That is adorable.
Phil 55:19
It really is I Honest, honest to God, of all of the games on this list. This is the one that like this was the first thing I wrote down when we decided we were going to do this. Yeah, it was like underrated Halloween games. I was like, Well, I got to talk about Costume Quest, but it's not a scary game. It's gotta happen. It's just so great. It's it's a lot of fun. I cannot recommend them enough. I really can't
Kevin Erhard 55:43
add is awesome. I love Yeah, it's in my cart and sitting in my cart.
Phil 55:49
And honestly, that's the kind of thing you can play with your kid. You know, like, yeah, it's simple enough. And it's fun and, and funny that you guys both enjoy it. It's not like some of the some of the TV shows that I imagine, you know, parents have to deal with as kids grow or you're just gritting your teeth through the whole thing. Yeah,
Kevin Erhard 56:09
yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's
Phil 56:13
genuinely cute and funny. It's fantastic.
Kevin Erhard 56:16
That's awesome. I love it. All right, it's time for number one number 111111. This game is also part of the steam Halloween sale. And my number one is world of horror.
Phil 56:36
Oh, yeah. You told me about this one.
Kevin Erhard 56:39
Yeah. So world of horror is it is a basically you take you take Gingy Ito you know Junji Ito is the Japanese manga horror God Junji Ito everybody, everybody knows him. He's an everybody has their own tale that he's he's written that that is theirs that that really gets them the most. For me, it's the I believe it's called the Enigma at Magara faults. That Whoa, yeah, that one really ruins my day
so world of horror is is basically a love letter to Junji Ito with a dash of Lovecraft. Not not it, it has Lovecraftian elements in terms of like the, the end game. And some of the some of the way the setting is is used. But I I really think it's more Gingy Ito than then Lovecraft just because of the art style.
Phil 57:53
Your style is really upsetting.
Kevin Erhard 57:57
It's, it's one bit, just black and white. Or there's other there's other styles that you can choose from color palettes rather, that you can choose from. Basically, you play a character in the main quest mode, there's there's several, there's several modes of the game who has to investigate five mysteries in the town. Now these mysteries are random. It is a it is a rogue light. So basically, you every time you fire up the game, you're gonna have like a different disadvantage. You know, like, what, what's the Elder Gods advantage, right? You're gonna have different mysteries that you got to solve. And then within those mysteries, the encounters are also random. So you're gonna, you're occasionally you're going to run into enemies that are going to be weird and upsetting and disturbing and you're not necessarily going to know which ones you're going to run into. There's certain like plot enemies within each mystery, of course, but otherwise, the random encounters I should say, or as they typically are in an RPG, random, but they are truly like one of a kind, random, it's not like fighting slimes over and over again. Right? It's like, oh, you run into this guy who he cut his face off but he put it tried to put it back on. You know, things like that.
Phil 59:38
Like why why not? Why not?
Kevin Erhard 59:41
It is it is terrifying in so many ways. And so there's like there's two different health meters that you have to deal with in in true. Like, this is the real love craft of it is you Have your stamina, just your physical grit and ability to just like get through things. And you have your reason. And
Phil 1:00:11
oh god, one of these, okay, okay.
Kevin Erhard 1:00:16
Basically, you can either lose your health or you can lose your mind. And so it's, it can get pretty dicey. But the fun thing about it is it is a roguelike. So you know, up, well you died, you can start start a fresh game, and it's not going to, you're not gonna, you're not going to lose too much, you know, it doesn't take very long to get through it, you know, it takes maybe like an hour or two to get through a five mystery run. If I believe it. I can't recall off the top of my head but I think it only takes a couple hours to get through the the five mystery run, right, you win, you lose whatever, you'd start back in the beginning and you you have a fresh experience and it's it's kind of fun to play through. It's still in early access. Now. This is the the caveat that I need to put out there to the world. It is still in early access and the developer pantsed as had up until recently been radio silent for the past year or so. However, pants that I'm just looking up their Twitter on October 14, after basically being radio silent for a year pantsed as tweeted, it's truly been a miserable year. But good news soon, along with four screenshots of new content that they are adding. Or he is adding i There's no gender listed. But I believe it's he is adding to World of horror. So nice the game is back in development. But even if it wasn't it still has a lot of good stuff going going for it. The other fun thing about it is that everything illustrated in the game was illustrated in MS Paint.
Phil 1:02:26
Oh my god. That's amazing. I believe that having looked at it and everything like that, but Jesus
Kevin Erhard 1:02:38
is very good looking for Ms. payeezy. Yeah, and the the interface feels very, like old Macintosh style interface. You know, the the text and the the the the UI and all that stuff. It's it's really cool. It's got a lot of neat stuff. I can't say enough about World of AR if you are a horror fanatic, you know world of horror, but if you're not a horror fanatic, like I don't, I don't, I'm not assuming that a lot of our fans are necessarily our fanatics, then you owe it to yourself to check it out. It's it's not on sale for that much. It's technically part of the steam Halloween sale, it's only 13% off, which is basically $1 It's normally 15 bucks. And but it is in early access. So your mileage may vary. You get what you get, but I recommend it even though with those caveats
Phil 1:03:49
that makes a lot of sense though with you just that that broken simple kind of look your viewer no fan of
Kevin Erhard 1:03:56
no fan of glitch har I didn't actually I didn't actually put any true glitch heart games on the list.
Phil 1:04:04
No, but this is this comes close it was and
Kevin Erhard 1:04:07
the uncle who works at Nintendo has some but yeah, it's not. It's not like a It's not like a Pony Island.
Phil 1:04:20
Right? Oh, God, you listeners I gotta tell you when when Pony Island was popular if it was ever popular, quote unquote, you know, I heard I loved that game. And I heard from Kevin about that. What
Kevin Erhard 1:04:37
what is this? Like?
Phil 1:04:39
I don't know if I could do I don't know how you do this. I don't like I'm not fucking around. I don't know they could do this like the glitch or is is his kryptonite? It's it's an I don't know if we need to be putting that out in the world. But there it is. It was it's just that effective. So yeah, yeah, I guess it is. kind of surprising that none of these are like full on but then again most of them are kind of popular you know you got your Doki Doki literature club and your Pony Island so those are pretty well known those are
Kevin Erhard 1:05:10
right rated yeah yeah they and and and stories untold kind of know that does have a little yeah has it hasn't a bit it's It's weird if you're like really looking at the meta narrative of it to consider it glitch are but glitch har in my mind specifically is when the program the game itself be behaves in a way that you don't want it to or is surprising to you whereas because of the point of view chosen for something like stories untold it is your it is one step removed step removed. You know what I mean? Like you It's you as a person in the game interacting with the UI that is glitching as opposed to the game itself doing the glitching right. If that makes sense. It's a very fine line. But it is it is a it is a very effective fine line for me personally.
Phil 1:06:20
You're You're a man of code like you. You're a man of tech. Yeah, you're like No, they're not supposed to do that
Kevin Erhard 1:06:26
supposed to do that. Why is like, is like, why is it? Why is it changing the size of my screen? It shouldn't right? It shouldn't be allowed to do that.
Phil 1:06:37
Shouldn't have to do to beat this boss. I shouldn't have to go into the files and find an execute file and delete it. That seems wrong to me. Yeah. That does fuck with me too, though. Yeah.
Kevin Erhard 1:06:50
Huh. All right. You're number one.
Phil 1:06:54
Okay, my number one, you know, I was thinking of this recently recently because it's like, super underrated. My number one it's this little indie horror game. You guys probably never heard of called Dead Space two. I'd be dead space today.
Kevin Erhard 1:07:18
Super gaudy.
Phil 1:07:20
Go out and buy Dead Space two. It's a It's a masterpiece. It's amazing. I just had to get that out. I just had to get that out. It was what I can't believe it took me this long to play that franchise. It's a masterpiece. I love it. It was amazing. Holy funny.
Kevin Erhard 1:07:35
You finished Deadspace too. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So good, right.
Phil 1:07:40
It's so much better than the first and I really liked the first but we're gonna we're gonna get into that. Well, we got a whole episode, we got a whole episode dedicated
Kevin Erhard 1:07:48
to that I
Phil 1:07:49
just had to. I had to get off the off my chest. This is actually a very underrated game. I don't know how hard it is, but it's deeply upsetting, and unsettling. And spooky. And it's a series called Rusty Lake.
Kevin Erhard 1:08:04
Mm hmm.
Phil 1:08:05
I it's three games rusty Lake Hotel, Rusty Lake roots and rusty Lake paradise. They are puzzle games. There is some they're made by a team called Rusty Lake who are also known for another unsettling set of puzzle games, called cube escape. And there is some sort of meta narrative underneath these games. I do not know what it is. I can barely bring myself to, like even consider what it could be. But the puzzles first off first and foremost, the puzzles are incredibly clever. They're really good puzzles if you're a DM and and you want like some puzzles that you can like rip off and and like transform to work for your Dungeons and Dragons game or something like that. And you want to take credit for some clever rip off rusty Lake. They're amazing. And they could totally work in in in any number of styles of game there. They, first and foremost, their team. Their designers are badass puzzle designers. They're great. They're clever. And they're also really off putting the games take place in these far off middle of nowhere places rescue Lake Hotel, as the name suggests, takes place in a hotel. And it's filled with this cast of animal anthropomorphic animals. And you have to kill the animals one by one and feed them to the party. The remaining guests and it's very posh there, they're all dressed in fine clothing and everything like that and it's and it's really That kind of Eyes Wide Shut. Weird, upsetting. Yeah, sort of atmosphere. And as you go on throughout these games, you deal more with more humans. But the animal masks are still a part of it. There's this weird Victorian sense of, of, what's the word? When you're when you can't you're you're not good with sex and stuff like that.
Kevin Erhard 1:10:31
Oh, yeah. Like, why is it on the tip of my tongue? Yeah, that's dry. Because they're like, like Victorian prudishness?
Phil 1:10:41
Yeah, yeah, there's this there's, there's this very puritanical. Yeah, and it's got a very strange vibe to it. The puzzles are always in a style that's kind of familiar. If you play puzzle games. If you play these sorts of games before, they're familiar enough, but the outcome is always gruesome, or, or morbid, or just flat out weird. And I don't know what the fuck they're getting at with the story. They might not be getting it, they might not be getting anything at all. And I wouldn't care. They're just so good. The games are so good. They don't take very long to play, they probably take you a few hours at most. But they are even without the sale going on. And they are part of the sale. But even without the sale going on there. Two, three and $4 each. Just normally. And you can get all these games for six bucks right now. Oh, wow. During the sale, the I, I can't I can't describe them so much without giving certain things away. Sure. And without just and it's also also really hard to put your finger on. I challenge you. You play these games for a couple of hours. And then you try and explain to your friends. You know what they're about. You can't do it. You can't do it. The Cube escape games are really good too. And they're very closely related. In fact, they're probably they probably have a similar storyline. I think I haven't played them as much though. You
Kevin Erhard 1:12:24
know, what's interesting is the the art style is is not the same necessarily. quite well. The art style is not the same. But it reminds me it gives me an Edward Gorey vibe.
Phil 1:12:40
Yes, yes. There's a bit of that. Absolutely. So
Kevin Erhard 1:12:43
for those of you who are unaware, Edward Gorey was a cartoonist. He, he basically drew these really just McCobb cartoons. Like that, you know that a lot of them would feature like death or the Grim Reaper, or or I think there was like one where it was just like, Oh, if you ever saw the opening to mystery on PBS, which was always on, when I was growing up, my parents would always watch watch mystery. Right? And mystery was just a series on PBS that played you know, it will play like a Sherlock Holmes movie or, or inspector Paul row or something. But the opening to mystery was animated by Edward Gorey. And
Phil 1:13:45
I didn't know that that's interesting. It
Kevin Erhard 1:13:47
is. The animation plus the music is absolutely terrifying. And lives rent free in my head to this day. So yeah, Edward Gorey. If you like, the weird vibes of rusty Lake, check out the cartoons of Edward Gorey. And be be vile vibed out completely.
Phil 1:14:16
Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh my god. Yeah, this this these were it's so funny. The one game that's expensive. Compared to all the rest of them is phantasmagoria. Sale. It's not doing it's not on the sale. But honestly, even even with or without that one. I feel like you could probably you know, the the entire price tag of this thing for the next couple of days is like 30 bucks. Yeah. Yeah, if you guys are looking for something spooky or unsettling or something to play over the weekend, any number of these games are going to do your well.
Kevin Erhard 1:14:53
Yeah. And we talked about. So a few of the things that we did reference that that aren't necessarily on our list Pony Island but also you can check out the Creator Apone Island his other games he actually just released one
Phil 1:15:08
just I need I just downloaded the demo it looks really really good all the
Kevin Erhard 1:15:13
inscription yes which is on the surface a deck building roguelike and but as you as you should be aware with with Daniel Mullen
Phil 1:15:27
No, it stays on the surface. Yeah, it's gonna
Kevin Erhard 1:15:29
it's gonna get it's gonna get under there it's gonna get into another game that's a it's a I adore and the the early access for the sequel just popped up unfortunately on the epic store not that I met that I'm one of those like, people like gets all worked up about the
Phil 1:15:48
epic store like when it's all in the same place so nice and tight yet
Kevin Erhard 1:15:53
he keeps but Darkest Dungeon to the Early Access, or it is is out now.
Phil 1:16:02
I made a whole thing. They made this whole announcement.
Kevin Erhard 1:16:07
They're like it's early access. It's it's early access.
Phil 1:16:11
I appreciate that someone still remembers what Early Access has meant. Yeah,
Kevin Erhard 1:16:14
exactly. And they were like and I think that's important to them because Darkest Dungeon was It was basically the first game to really utilize early access the way it was meant to be and to rom out of early access with like a polished finished products.
Phil 1:16:37
Yes, they did what they were what they said they were going to do.
Kevin Erhard 1:16:42
And while you're at it, you know you can you can always get Darkest Dungeon because that is
Phil 1:16:47
so fucking good.
Kevin Erhard 1:16:49
That is that that is I'm gonna say right now. That's, that's better Lovecraft and Lovecraft?
Phil 1:16:54
It absolutely is. It's It's It's love craft the way it probably should have been done. Oh, like they, they you know, it's still got combat and everything like that. But man, that game I find that game every eight months or so I go Oh, right. That game I really got Uh huh. Yeah. Maybe I'll maybe I'll play that game. And I do for a little while. And it goes the same way that I mentioned with some of these other games where you're like, Okay, I'm doing great. No problems. This is gonna be the one and boom, I'm dead. Boom,
Kevin Erhard 1:17:30
you lose all your party members to some sort of mania. And, and that's the end of your that's the end of your trip. That's the end. Also Darkest Dungeon has the best. Voiceover of all time.
Phil 1:17:49
Oh, god. Yeah. Um, what is his name?
Kevin Erhard 1:17:51
I forget.
Phil 1:17:53
He He's terrific. And he you can actually find him I'm gonna look it up because it's on cameo. Oh, that would be awesome. He he he actually does narrate a lot of HP Lovecraft stuff. Oh, that's amazing. And and if you can fit Wayne June, June that's right way in June and if he has the best voice and if you can find any Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard. Any of the old pulp writers. He's read a lot of them and God he's the perfect voice for it.
Kevin Erhard 1:18:29
You are a state opulent gender imperious.
Phil 1:18:36
Oh my god, it's so fucking good. He's just he's just he's just got that wonderful voice that he can say all kinds of bizarre and strange and horrible things and you're just like, please continue keep Don't stop.
Kevin Erhard 1:18:49
Don't suck. Just keep talking. Just say these. They just give him a list of weird things to say. And he's saying the wack for darkness dungeon two. Here's the thing is I don't think Darkest Dungeon is nearly as successful. I mean, maybe it is it's a really good game at its core. But I think there's like a certain panache to it. That's added by Wayne June's narration. Oh,
Phil 1:19:11
absolutely. I will. That's I mean that's just such a huge that kind of it's a huge part of it. You know, he
Kevin Erhard 1:19:16
is constantly talking like yeah, they're it's rare that you're not hearing him say something that's the thing about the way the game is designed. Is he has so many lines because he
Phil 1:19:28
it it keeps the it keeps the the atmosphere going. You know, it's it's fantastic. Yeah, just fantastic. Oh, I'd also recommend oxen free.
Kevin Erhard 1:19:41
Oh, yeah. Oxen free. Surprisingly spooky like
Phil 1:19:45
Irish spooky didn't realize that it's a game. Yeah, yeah. Very, very spooky. I liked that one. And classic that we're going to be getting to eventually I Have No Mouth and I'm a screen. Yep. which is just another classic point and click. Horror. Yeah. bleak, let's just say bleak, bleak, bleak,
Kevin Erhard 1:20:08
bleak.
Phil 1:20:12
It is just so dark. It will fuck with your head real, real bad.
Kevin Erhard 1:20:17
Yeah, I'm actually I'm actually going to get this episode out tomorrow, which will be 29th. So hopefully you guys are listening to this on Friday the 29th because the Halloween sale only goes to November 1, so you might as well get in there might as well get in there and get your stuff. Because there's just like, there's just a bunch of goodies. If you like spooky games,
Phil 1:20:42
people let's play some spooky games together.
Kevin Erhard 1:20:44
Let's play some spooky games together. You know? Yeah, yeah,
Phil 1:20:47
I guess I've got hunt now. Uh
Kevin Erhard 1:20:50
oh, you do?
Phil 1:20:51
I got the I didn't even realize I got a I kind of they comped me on that when they sent me one. Oh, nice. I didn't even notice it. I was like, I was like, looking at my, my key mailer account. And it was like, haunt and I was like, I really cuz I was thinking about buying that one because it's on sale. Yeah, that does look good. I play that with Kevin. That would be fun.
Kevin Erhard 1:21:12
I am considering getting the the the the super fancy version of blasphemous because I have it on who I have it on my ps4. So I might I might pick it up on Steam. I mean, forever forever buying games twice. That's my
Phil 1:21:30
it's your curse my friends. My curse. What
Kevin Erhard 1:21:33
a way to go. If I really love a game. That's the thing is that I really really really love a game. I will eventually buy it on PC. Because I have more faith that I will be able to play it in 10 years on my PC than on console.
Phil 1:21:50
Yeah, I mean, that's fair. That's totally fair. Yeah. Yeah, here's one that doesn't sound like it would be underrated but it's it I find I I can't believe more people don't talk about it. Blair Witch huh. That is a good game. It's it's not flawless. But it does the whole you know witch in the woods thing that yeah, you would expect from that? That's the whole point with a you know, Blair Witch. It does it so well. And it is really creepy. It's it's, it's it's really good. It's really worth the time.
Kevin Erhard 1:22:31
And speaking of sales, this is not a scary game, but if you want definitely it is like 20 bucks off this weekend.
Phil 1:22:40
So you loved that game. I love that game. You really liked that. That's
Kevin Erhard 1:22:49
a good one. If you're a fan of the arcane games if you're a fan of of prey and and dishonored then you know your I think you'll enjoy Death Loop. But I think that all about that about wraps it up for our super special spooky Games episode.
Phil 1:23:11
Oh yeah,
Kevin Erhard 1:23:12
we will have some we're gonna have this episode. We're gonna have another episode with a special guest out this weekend. And I hope all of you have a spectacular and safe and appropriately scary and spooky Halloween.
Phil 1:23:31
Scooby Scooby games.