Games
The 5 Best Horror Games To Play This Fall
Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for all year: Halloween Season!
There’s a magic in the air that you can only feel during the fall. It’s by far the best season, full of treats, coziness, and, of course, HALLOWEEN!
My favorite fall self-care ritual is popping a giant bowl of popcorn, lighting a concerning amount of candles, and cuddling underneath three blankets to unwind with a good horror movie or video game.
A video game with the right amount of creepy imagery and soundscape can definitely elevate the #vibes and get you excited for the season ahead.
Here are five of my favorite video games to get you in the Halloween Season Spirit:
Animal Crossing (Nintendo Switch)
How long do you think you’d have to be away from your island for your villagers to organize a search party? It might be time to clear the weeds on your island and get rid of the cockroaches in your house, babes. Unless that’s the kind of Beetlejuice vibe you’re going for, of course!
Animal Crossing is still one of the best games to get you excited for any season, and Halloween Season is no exception. The new update included over 9,000 new items, which includes a ton of new seasonal decor items, limitless Halloween costume possibilities, and fun ways to interact with your villagers. And now that your villagers can visit your place, it’s a great time to turn it into a haunted house!
Night in the Woods (Nintendo Switch, Playstation, Xbox, Windows, iOS)
When I first started playing Night in the Woods, I figured it would trigger repressed memories of growing up in a smaller town. But I was quickly immersed in the game’s idyllic fall scenery elevated by its buoyant and melodic soundtrack.
You play as Mae, a recent college dropout who returns to her small hometown to reconnect with her friends. The town is surrounded by thick and treacherous woods, and most of her neighbors wish she had stayed away (and do not hesitate to tell her as much). Mae quickly discovers a dark secret about the town and how it relates to her missing friend Casey. Mae also has some secrets of her own, and her unreliable narration will have you rushing toward the end in search of more.
Luigi’s Mansion 3 (Nintendo Switch)
Poor Luigi. Always playing second controller behind his more popular and beloved Mario, he’s now forced to explore a haunted mansion to rescue his brother and their friends after King Boo snatches them.
While Luigi’s Mansion 3 is light on the horror, you’ll still have a lot of fun sucking up ghosts and other malevolent spirits with Luigi’s vacuum. Luigi’s trembles and whines throughout the game will also get you in the right creepy mood for this season. This game is a lot of fun as couch co-op as well. A second player can control Gooigi, Luigi’s slimy clone companion, and Professor E. Gadd’s latest invention.
What Remains of Edith Finch (Nintendo Switch, Windows, iOS, Playstation, Xbox)
This beautiful and chilling game follows Edith Finch as she explores her childhood home in Washington state. The gothic Victorian home is perpetually shrouded in fog and has sprawling additions much like the Winchester Mystery House in San Francisco. Edith believes her family is cursed in a way that only leaves one member of each generation alive, and the bedrooms of the deceased are sealed off and treated as shrines.
Each Finch passed away in a peculiar way, and Edith’s tour of the house allows you to explore each family member’s room. You play as Edith, crawling through hidden corridors and trapdoors into each family member’s room, and also as the deceased during their final moments. There are also some fun easter eggs for horror enthusiasts. The game is endearing, eerie, and at times tragic.
Death’s Door (Nintendo Switch, Windows, Xbox, Playstation)
Work is hell, right? In Death’s Door, you play as a plucky crow and a harbinger of death tasked to bring back souls to the bureaucratic Reaping Commission. You’re also obligated to bring back larger souls that have outstayed their welcome in the world of the living.
Adorable isn’t really a word you’d find often on this site, but Death’s Door has such an adorably moody aesthetic that’s elevated by the indelible soundtrack. If you couldn’t tell, I love a good game soundtrack! And out of all the games listed, Death’s Door has my favorite one. It’s the perfect backdrop to exploring overgrown ruins, lush cemeteries, and long-forgotten fortresses in search of lost souls.
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These games are sure to get you ready for the Halloween Season ahead! Each game is perfect for curling up on the couch and recharging from inevitable Halloween candy sugar crashes. All that’s left to decide is which one you’ll play first.
Sex, bloody torture, gore, cosmic terror, and whole lot of BDSM demons. The iconic Hellraiser franchise, known for its queer subtext and dark fantasy-terror, is fucking back…but maybe not the way you might expect. Saber Interactive, the company behind Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has unleashed the iconic franchise into the video game world with one terrifying trailer. This is Hellraiser: Revival.
The official blurb of the game introduces the story. Protagonist Aidan, who’s Girlfriend is taken into Hell after the Genesis Configuration (a puzzle box seemingly quite similar to the iconic Lament Configuration). He must use and unlock the secrets of the configuration to battle countless demons, Pinhead worshippers, and the Cenobites themselves to save her.
That’s not all for the story, though. Living legend Clive Barker, creator of The Hellbound Heart, and Director of the original film, reportedly helped on the story of the game, returning to the iconic franchise he created decades ago. He is quoted as saying, “Working on the first true Hellraiser game has been a venture deep into the recesses of my darkest imaginings.” With this in mind, one can it expect it to stay true to the roots of the series.
Graphic both in sex and violence, the trailer promises the look and feel of the classic film. It filled to the brim with cenobites, horrendous torture methods, and some deviously designed demons. The color palette is drenched in dark shadows and a menacing Hellscape.
Games
‘Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 2’ Review: A Heart-Wrenching ‘90s Adventure with Unforgettable Choices
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is a perfect jumping-off point if you’ve never played a Don’t Nod game. It shows you just how creative, original, and passionate the entire team is. Even the minor graphical glitches weren’t enough to take me out of the game one bit. That being said, I think Bloom & Rage is a game that will emotionally destroy many. Those of you who are in an emotionally vulnerable state, be warned because Tape 2 gets incredibly heavy, and if you’re not ready, you’ll be caught off guard. I said it best in my coverage of Tape 1 and want to end this review by reiterating that this game made me nostalgic for my childhood while also yearning for the one I never had.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 1 was a homerun for Don’t Nod Montréal. In the most recent episode of the Horror Press Podcast, I ranted about Y2K and my discontent with ‘90s nostalgia bait and that I almost dislike it more than ‘80s nostalgia bait. What I appreciated about Tape 1 is how it creates its own version of the ‘90s while remaining a referential timepiece. The ending of Tape 1 left me wanting more, and now that I’ve played through Tape 2 twice, and somehow got the same ending both times, I’m ready to talk about it.
Picking Up the Pieces: Tape 2’s Story Continues
Tape 2 picks up where Tape 1 left off. Present-day Swann Holloway (Olivia Lepore), Autumn Lockheart (Andrea Carter), and Nora Malakian (Amelia Sargisson) are at the Blue Spruce Bar in Velvet Cove. They’re reeling in their shared revelation of the night of the concert they put on 27 years ago in this very parking lot. The mystery box still sits in the center of the table as a beacon of what once was and what will be. We jump back and forth between the present and a post-concert 1995 and the fallout on the revelation of Kat Mikaelsen’s (Natalie Liconti) leukemia. But how the game ends, my dear players, is in your hands.
Before we get into it, I want to make sure I discuss two things I didn’t talk about in my coverage of Tape 1. First, we have an incredibly direct reference to a film that fits perfectly and has been confirmed as an easter egg. Swann’s license plate reads, “STV GLW”. This has been confirmed as a direct reference to Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow, which I thought was an incredibly sweet reference. We also get another great reference in a form that pays homage to another film that inspired this game (it seems), and that is Nora’s lighter, which is white and says, “Fire Walk With Me” on it—loved seeing that!
A Soundtrack That Haunts and Hypnotizes
I’m not sure why I didn’t cover it previously, but the other aspect of both tapes that makes the experience ethereal is the soundtrack. Much of the composed music for the game creates a hallucinogenic, dream-like atmosphere that sets the soundtrack miles apart from others. But the songs that resonate the hardest are those from duo Milk & Bone (Laurence Lafond-Beaulne and Camille Poliquin) and Ruth Radelet. Without the whimsical ambiance they created, this game would not be what it is. And then we have See You In Hell by Nora Kelly, which I’ve been humming to myself over and over since I finished the game.
Tape 2 ups the ante from Tape 1 in a way I wasn’t sure they could pull off. Even though the game is rated M, Tape 1 felt a little safe. Tape 2 takes the training wheels off and lets you know fairly early that we’re not here to mess around. Each second feels like an eternity; each decision is heavier than before. The writers (Desiree Cifre, Nina Freeman, and Jean-Luc Cano) crafted four wonderfully complex teenage characters, and seeing how what happened (in your playthrough) forms the clay of their present-day selves is a feat that many choose your own adventure games fail to pull off. I have never felt so deeply about a set of characters in a video game until now. (Even though my playthrough made me dislike Autumn quite a bit.)
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