Silent Hill

Warning: Play with the lights on

Platform: Playstation 1

What's it about

A physiological horror in the style of Resident Evil. In other words a scare the pants off you kind of game while trying to navigate your way through a compelling story and solving puzzles. Just look at the front cover, even that gives me shivers brrrr.

What happened?

Warning! Seriously the first the screen is a warning that there are violent and disturbing images, well we are off to a good start then if that is what you are looking for.

Music starts with text "The fear of blood tends to create fear for the flesh" well it is a horror game. A mish mash of characters, man in a suit, a nurse, a female cop, all thrown into a montage of doing there thing, looking a bit creepy and sinister. And the music on top, just amazing. This intro does an amazing job of making you think, what the heck is going on? But after a while it becomes clear we are looking at a Dad who is taking his daughter on some trip and the Mother has died? Then he swerves to avoid a figure in the road and crashes. No talking or nothing, just music and images, incredible way to open a video game.

Next up is the title screen, think ill choose 'Normal' difficulty as I have a feeling this is going to get a little hairy. So it carries on right from the car crash with our man waking up in the car, and shock horror (sarcasm) his daughter isn't in the car. Time to go look for her I guess, and....wait there she is running off into to that creepy looking mist covered town. Why? Is it her? So off we go running goofily through the town chasing a shadow and having an uneasy feeling of dread looming over because something is going to happen that's for sure.

The cut scenes are simply incredible

And sure as the snow is falling it gets darker and darker and scarier especially now as I am in a ally way.....looking at a wheel chair? Then blood? Harry (the main chraacter) couldn't have put it better, "what is this!?" he says, "what is going on here?" And then horrible looking creatures with knives come out and......game over.....or is it?

Conclusion

Even as I type this I'm already feeling a little afraid, like the hairs on the back of my head standing. That is pretty much all you ever feel throughout this chillingly and sometimes shocking of a game. 

I won't bore you with the overall graphical look, or the pokey aim (although our hero is just a simple man, not a commando soldier) I'll just say that if anyone ever asked, "what's the number one game that comes to mind for best introduction?" Well this will be very near the top.

Shadowgun:Deadzone

Don't think just shoot!

Platform: Android also available on ios and pc
Genre: 3rd person shooter

Developer: Madfinger

What's it all about?

It's a 3rd person view online shooter made by the same people who made Dead Trigger. Think gears of war and you're pretty much there. In other words run, cover, roll and shoot , nice and simple. 

Will you be so lucky?

The first 30 minutes

After a lengthy loading time I'm greeted to some scifi style upbeat music and a messy and I mean messy looking menu screen. Luckily a training pop up on screen points out what's what.

Not long after I'm thrown straight into an online battle, no training here, just learn the controls and feel for it on the job. Pleasantly surprised at how quickly it connects to a game. I must say at this point I'm playing using my ipega controller (check out my previous post for the review).

So running and shooting simple, not so sure about this jumping into cover though, basically it works but not every time. Doesn't matter, I'm having too much fun anyway blasting everything in sight!

Game over and I come in fourth out of 8 people. Not bad for the first try. Next, is an introduction to the shop (freeium) weapons, upgrades all here. But I'll save my cash for something bigger, right now I just want to jump straight in again.

What I thought

Fun and free is what I can say. The game looks and runs great. Lots of weapons and upgrades to keep things interesting. However it does have it's flaws.

Lag, the bane of every online gamer. While in a one on one, many times did my opponent move like a ghost, almost naturally. A couple of times I would be shooting one player and nothing was registering. I don't know if it was my connection or what (I have a good speed on wifi) but it was very frustrating.

Then there is the controls or rather the feel of it. Going in to cover is not the smoothest of transitions and sometimes I was left standing like a lemon while trying to hide. In the end I just gave up with cover altogether. Next is rolling, if you have ever played gears of war (or any 3rd person for that matter) it is the most useful tactic you can do in terms of countering your enemy. In this game however it just feels clunky and slow, I felt open every time I used it, in the end I just abandoned it also.

You aren't going to do much from there

Despite those kinds of major flaws its still fun. And the various weapons, shotguns, assault rifles, energy and sniper keeps things ticking over. But to get these weapons and upgrades you need money, at the beginning its easy to save, but later on it will get hard as powerful weapons become so expensive, sound familiar? That's where the freeium comes into play. The game is free but the developers got to make money somewhere. However I think its still possible to get by without spending anything, just be prepared to feel underpowered in the higher ranks. 

Conclusion

Would I recommend it? Yes if you like a fun free online shooter. If I had paid for it I would have felt very disappointed as the game feels unfinished. Then there is the issue of hackers and cheaters, I'm not sure if I encountered any, but it would explain some of the strange things I saw.

Overall a good fun game and it's free, but possibly short lived as something better is bound to come along. Maybe the developers might release an update to iron out its rough edges? See you on the battlefield.