Shocktoberfest: Enter The Nightmare -- A Month-Long Journey Through The Horror Game Genre

When does this start?

Shocktoberfest begins on October 1st, and will last the entire month of October, ending at 11:59 PM on Halloween night.

What should I play?

Anything that falls under the classification of a horror game. Survival horror, action horror, a horror-themed FPS, anything with zombies, etc. In the interest of having fun, this can be more of a loose definition of what defines a horror game, and constitute anything that is more-or-less "horror themed". So games like Gears of War or even Luigi's Mansion are fine.

For me, it's very much the same outlook as Backlaugust -- I've got horror games in my backlog, and it's time to play them. How many games you want to play is up to you, whether that's just one game or a few games. Any platform, doesn't matter. They can be new games, old games. Even horror games you've already beaten long ago and want to replay. You don't have to choose all of your games up front; you can if you want, but it's fine to just take it one-game-at-a-time.

Who should participate?

If you:

a. Enjoy horror games
and/or
b. Have at least one horror game in your backlog
and/or
c. Plan on buying a new horror game (such as, I don't know, ZOMBIU!!!!!!!!)

you should do this.

The purpose of this is a little less about seeing how many games we can beat, but for everyone to share in the experience of playing something scary. A good horror game can be a tough thing to get all of the way through to the end, but with some moral support from the rest of the community that's going through the same thing, maybe we can all make it back into the light by November! That's what it comes down to -- having fun, and being scared shitless. And being scared shitless is a lot more fun when being scared shitless as a group.

One last thing -- for your fellow NW-er who hasn't played every game, try using spoiler tags whenever possible for anything major that's story-related, or just in general anything that should not be spoiled. So, "I can't believe Leon died at the end!" instead of "I can't believe Leon died at the end!"


Completed (18)



Kentucky Route Zero, Act 1 (Secret_Tunnel, 10/6)
The House of the Dead: Overkill (GameDadGrant, 10/7)
Dead Space (PogueSquadron, 10/11)
Kentucky Route Zero, Act 2 (Secret_Tunnel, 10/14)
Fatal Frame (TheBigG753, 10/17)
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (PogueSquadron, 10/20)
Dead Rising 2 (Zero, 10/20)
Dead Space Extraction (Mop It Up, 10/21)
Super Castlevania IV (Het_Nkik, 10/23)
Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir (GameDadGrant, 10/24)
Zombies Ate My Neighbors (Het_Nkik, 10/26)
ObsCure II (r_hjort, 10/26)
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (Jargon, 10/26)
Resident Evil: Revelations (ludist210, 10/28)
ZombiU (Mr_Mustache, 10/29)
Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (TheBigG753, 10/31)
Project Zero 2: Wii Edition (r_hjort, 10/31)
Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen/Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse (Het_Nkik, 10/31)


LEFT 4 DEAD (10)

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (Secret_Tunnel, in progress)
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (GameDadGrant, *has thrown in the towel*)
Dead Space: Extraction (chrisguy, through 5 levels)
Doom II (Pokefreak911, 12 levels in)
Resident Evil Zero (gojira, at the Training Facility)
TellTale's The Walking Dead (Zero, finished Episode 3)
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Pokefreak911, through Stone Tower)
Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (Zero, finished first run)
ZombiU (gojira, Tower of London)
ZombiU (r_hjort, whack-a-zombie)


The Players (20)

chrisguy: Dead Space: Extraction
deathly_hallows: Cult County, Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil: Deadly Silence
DrFinkelstein: ZombiU
GameDadGrant: Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir, The House of the Dead: Overkill, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
gojira: ZombiU, Resident Evil Zero
Hero_of_Hyrule: Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
Het_Nkik: Super Castlevania IV, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen
Jargon: Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Dead Space, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
kriswright: ZombiU
ludist210: Resident Evil: Revelations
Mop It Up: Dead Space Extraction
Mr_Mustache: ZombiU, Castlevania
PogueSquadron: Dead Space, Castlevania 3
Pokefreak911: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Bioshock, Bioshock 2, Doom II
r_hjort: Obscure 2, Project Zero 2: Wii Edition, ZombiU
Secret_Tunnel: Dead Space 3, Kentucky Route Zero, 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare.
Shadowlink: ZombiU
Stephen: Alan Wake
TheBigG753: Fatal Frame, Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, Fatal Frame III: The Tormented
Zero: Dead Rising 2, Castlevania (III or Adventure Rebirth), Virtue's Last Reward, The Walking Dead


LAST YEAR'S THREAD

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@GameDadGrant
The Director's Cut levels throw more enemies at you, and are also longer than the standard levels, so if you ever feel an urge to go back to playing the game, Director's Cut is definitely where it's at!

Well, I finished Ni No Kuni last night so I officially jumped into my Shocktoberfest by playing an hour or two of Dead Rising 2. Fun times.

I feel like I need something scary next though. Dead Rising is more like... funny. Parody of the whole zombie thing.

@gojira

Hmm.. Maybe I shouldn't start over either. You're on your way to where I need to go next, I believe.

So I was playing the game some more and got to another hoard I had to deal with. And the combat in this game is just terrible in general. It's even worse when fighting multiple enemies. So I of course died. And when I came back with my next character I still had a bunch of enemies to deal with and died again. Thus losing the chance to get back the mountain of stuff I just found.

I probably would've just given up on the game all together if it weren't for Shocktober. It seems really easy for zombies to sneak up on you. They kinda just spawn at times and make almost no noise. So if you're not looking directly at them they'll just seem to appear at your side or back. It was so frustrating I decided to start over on a easier difficultly level.

So when I went to choose 'easy' instead of normal all I found was a 'chicken' difficulty level. Eff you Ubisoft-whoever made this game. Insulting your consumers is a great idea. Makes me glad no one bought this heap.

I'll still stick with this game for Shocktober, but I make no promises about finishing the game.

@Zero

Kinda the same way I felt about doing Dead Rising 1 or Dead Island for this. They're there in the backlog to be done at some point...but I couldn't justify doing them, even though they are the only "horror" games really that I have left on the shelf. I just had to go out and buy something that I haven't played already.

I'm gonna do a little more clean-up duty in GTA over the next few nights, and then I'm gonna jump right in.

@TheBigG753 Well, I think I can make it through Dead Rising 2 with some time to spare for another game. We'll see.

I didn't know the Fatal Frame games were on PSN, might check one of those out.

Managed to beat the Pirates Fortress, Great Bay Temple and Stone Tower Temple in the same in-game day. Whew that was stressful. Had about 2 in-game hours left.

@gojira
The melee combat sure is clunky by design, which is why you often need to find other ways of getting rid of infected, and especially when you've got many of them to deal with. The passage you talked about first took me by surprise too when I got there, but as long as you keep your head cool (which I didn't ) you can make it without even getting scratched. Placing mines, using flares in combination with molotovs or hitting-and-running, and barricading doors usually helps in situations like that (even though it's possible to do without them), but never underestimate running the hell away either. You're definitely the prey in this game, and not the predator.

Another tip is that the infected generally don't just spawn somewhere to screw with you. There are instances where enemies will spawn into the map, but at those times you will be alerted to it in one way or another (like outside Buckingham Palace). All other times you just need to use your radar, scanner and take things slowly and methodically. Use your flashlight to see if anything reacts to the light, or throw a flare into a dark area if it looks like a death trap. Playing with a decent pair of headphones on helps keeping you alive too, in case you don't already.

But then again, dying in this game isn't really failure (well, unless you play the survival mode), it's an integral part of the experience. The fact that you can potentially die so often makes the game feel even more tense and rewarding when you manage to get a long survival streak going with one of the characters, and even more upsetting when they inevitably die as you stop paying attention for ten seconds.

Maybe the game simply isn't for you, and I'm just wasting my breath here, but if so feel free to ignore anything I have to say about this ever.

@gojira@r_hjort

Yeah, what r_hjort said. This game is more about running away than running full speed ahead into the horrors.

If this is frustrating you, just you wait... there are more frustrating parts ahead. Super frustrating.

That said, I loved the game.

Oh man, this Spirit Camera game is a trip. It's like...a game you can't even sit down and play. It's all about the AR stuff. Kind of interesting and kind of bothersome, at the same time, ha ha.

@r_hjort

There's this one bit where I saw one and only one zombie. I hit the radar and it showed only one. And the second it saw me two more zombies showed up.

And then after killing all zombies in that area I go into a building. The door on the opposite end is boarded up but there's a zombie pounding on it. I know it's going to get through so I prepare. As I'm fighting the two zombies that came through the door I'm attacked by a zombie from behind. Which I guess came through the door behind me without making any noise.

I want the game to be more strategic, but I think it's designed to keep you on your toes. I just find that frustrating.

gojira said:

@r_hjort

And then after killing all zombies in that area I go into a building. The door on the opposite end is boarded up but there's a zombie pounding on it. I know it's going to get through so I prepare. As I'm fighting the two zombies that came through the door I'm attacked by a zombie from behind. Which I guess came through the door behind me without making any noise.

Note that you can board up the doors behind you as you advance! I always close them at the very least.

@Mr_Mustache

Now that I'm wrapping my mind around what kind of game this is doing that makes sense. And the door was closed, it just doesn't make any noise when it opens or closes. Also as I said earlier, zombies don't seem to make any noise if you don't see them either.

Man, the twins in Dead Rising 2 were pretty tough. I mean, once I kind of got a sense of what to do it wasn't too bad, but it takes some time and planning just to get through the hallway leading up to them, so it would take me a good 15-20 minutes just to die. A few hours of that though and I emerged victorious.

I had totally forgotten how tongue-in-cheek this series is, I love it. My Chuck right now is running around in a banana thong fighting zombies...

@gojira
If the door was closed and the zombie opened it behind you it should have made a sound since it's not like the undead politely reach for the door knob. I'd say it's more likely that the noise of the fight drowned out the noise of the third zombie entering.

Zombies can definitely make noise even if you don't see them -- it's more a matter of them making more noise than usual when they spot your succulent meatiness strolling about. That being said, don't expect every single zombie to announce their presence by growling and moaning, 'cause the game is not interested in doing you any favours like that, which it seems you've noticed by now. This is why you never ever leave your back open to attack, always try to keep an eye on your escape route at all times, and if need be barricade a door behind you like @Mr_Mustache said.

Also note that the infected that lay dormant won't show up on the radar unless you spot them and tag them yourself. The ones that spawn through scripted events won't show on radar either, and may or may not be visible to the naked eye and scanner beforehand, but there will generally speaking be some kind of tell to indicate them coming into play, even if that can be so subtle that you won't notice in a busy or distracted moment. The only thing I can say is that they won't just pop into existence behind you or anything, but more likely emerge from some basement window or fall down from some rooftop.

@r_hjort

I checked the door after the fight because I thought it was odd that I didn't hear it open. And it made no noise when I opened or shut it.

And not starting over meant I completely forgot about the tagging function. Now that I have started over and learned about it again I see how useful it can be.

@gojira
Yeah, that's true; when you open and shut a door it's as good as silent (which is pretty helpful considering the way the undead react to sounds), but when a walker does the same there will be banging noises.

I'm on chapter 10 of Dead Space on PC. That's way better than last year woo woo.

@gojira

Tagging function? Please remind me. --Oh, like, use the GamePad to look at them and be like "oh, theres a guy."

Its been months since I've played..

@Mr_Mustache

You planning on jumping into ZombiU soon? I'm being kind of a baby about it. Not that I have time to play it right now, but all this talk about how real ZombiU acts about it's apocalypse makes me both incredibly intrigued and eager to play but also freaked out about the experience and easily choosing a less stressful game.