Week of 29 Sep 2024
“Accept your sin!”
Achievements Earned In:
- The Walking Dead: Season Two
- Scorn
- Bloodwash
- Home Sweet Home
- Lamentum
Acting as an unofficial start to Spooky Month, I managed to wrap up The Walking Dead: Season Two over Sunday and Monday. I could have done it quicker, but I wasn’t feeling super great so I mostly idled it, checking in now and then to make a decision or click on something to move things along. Still a great story, but I wasn’t in the mood to really pay attention.
Achievements unlocked: 40 (+11) | Completed
Now it was time for the real deal! My goal was to do (at least) one spooky game a day throughout October, but sadly I still didn’t feel good heading into Wednesday. So when I started my first game, Scorn, I stretched it out over two days instead. I actually hadn’t planned on even playing this one, but it was announced to be leaving Game Pass and since it fit in with the theme… This is a doozy of a game! It’s short, and fairly easy, but it’s so… off-putting. The designs of the “characters” and creatures are right out of H. R. Giger’s wildest fantasies, and everything is either outright gross or perverted. But, it’s mostly a puzzle game, and I followed a guide through the worst of it. When combat is introduced things get a little clunky, but it’s nowhere near as bad as I’d heard back when the game came out. Bashing a few gooey chicken-things or shooting a couple Krang-wannabes was no sweat as I wrapped this one up quick enough. What an interesting game.
Achievements unlocked: 12 (+12) | Completed
Oh, hey... dude. You okay in there?
Oh man, my first Puppet Combo game! TommyToday has been enjoying these games for a bit now, and I know their games are always a popular choice for content creators, too. Bloodwash was one I’d actually tested previously, so I knew of it over any of their other titles. Seemed like a good place to start! These are VERY short and easy games, and they are all made with that retro low-poly survival horror aesthetic and an 80's slasher movies vibe. There’s even a VHS “tracking” filter, but I always turn that off. You play as a college student off to do laundry late at night, and spooky ensues. There are a couple missable achievements, but the game is so short that you could sprint through the entire thing in an hour if you know what you’re doing. I’d say the coolest part are the full comics included in the game that you can collect and read. Very neat!
Achievements unlocked: 15 (+15) | Completed
Maybe, but I'm gonna carry it in my pocket anyway.
Next up for spoopy spooky time on Friday was Home Sweet Home, which was a game I hadn’t really considered for this “event”. All I knew about it was that Funhaus had played it back in the day alongside Rahul Kohli, and that was funny! I thought maybe this would be a little more shovelware-y prior to loading it up, but the achievements looked simple enough and short so why not? Wow, this was a heckin’ creepy game! I got jump-scared more than a few times, and the production values are much better than I expected. You play as a Thai man (there are some who call him... “Tim”) looking for his missing spouse and soon you get pulled into Silent Hi- er, a spooky dimension with various folklore creatures ready to stab/smush you. I knew about Belle, the ghostly boxcutter-wielding schoolgirl, but the game offers up some other nasties that made me jump a few times. Even weirder for me is the complete lack of English guides for this game! I had one overall guide in Russian and a collectible guide in Spanish (thanks, Google Translate), but obviously there was a language barrier and I refused to use a video guide. Even stranger, the game gets most complicated in the latter chapters but any guides I could find just… stopped there. Like, “here’s this puzzle in Chapter 1 and this puzzle in Chapter 3 and this item to pick up and oh just finish Chapter 5 it's easy”. Hang on, HOW?! But, obviously I managed and think I pulled something in my back from being so tense. There’s actually a Part 2, but it’s PC-only so I guess I won’t ever play that one. Oh, and there’s a single split-choice achievement, so be ready to replay a short bit of Chapter 5 over again. Also, made me wanna read up on some Thai folklore and traditions!
Achievements unlocked: 11 (+11) | Completed
Sometimes staring into the void can be very relaxing.
My final game for the week was Lamentum! This super wasn’t on my list, but someone on TA actually recommended it to me. Turns out, I own it from the (now defunct) Games with Gold program, so figured that was a good enough excuse to move ahead with playing it! I even found a very detailed and (mostly) accurate step-by-step guide to the completion to make this very simple. This is very similar to SIgnalis, where it’s essentially top-down Resident Evil in a different setting. Following the guide, I managed to easily get all the items I needed, the best weapons and routes for enemies, and, as is usually the case, ended the game with an entire lockbox full of healing items. There are also four endings to reach that can all be seen in one playthrough with some save scumming. The hardest to obtain, of course, is Ending S because you have to talk to a few NPCs and grab some very missable collectibles throughout the entire game. Miss one and you’re boned! I have to definitely pass along the recommendation, because this was a good choice to play.
Achievements unlocked: 19 (+19) | Completed
I'll drink this, but first: is this dairy-free? I don't want the toots.
Highest ratio: 3.37
Lamentum (Lamentum)
Lowest ratio: 1.00 (tie)
Warnings Unheeded (Bloodwash)
Grau Hill (Lamentum)
