Games
Mixtape Massacre: Escape from Tall Oaks Review
Mixtape Massacre: Escape from Tall Oaks is a 45-minute board game for 2-6 players, blending ‘80s slasher horror and nostalgia. Teens cooperate to survive killers, collect tokens, and escape, but only one can win. With VHS-inspired art and references like Nightmare on Elm Street, it’s a hit for horror fans.
If you love slashers, 1980s pop culture nostalgia, and board games, Mixtape Massacre (available here) is for you. The series began with a Kickstarter campaign that collected over $26,000 back in 2015 to fund the first board game. Five years later, after another successful campaign, Mixtape Massacre: Escape from Tall Oaks was confirmed. In the near future, as in sometime in early 2022, the latest installment of the game, the Director’s Cut, will be shipped out to Kickstarter supporters. We love to see successful indie efforts. This article will focus on Escape from Tall Oaks.
Introduction to Mixtape Massacre
With a minimum estimated playtime of 45 minutes, the game isn’t too long, and it is pretty easy to pick up. The rules are straightforward enough, though the rulebook can be a bit intimidating at 13 large, information-packed pages. Essentially, you and one to five others play as teenagers trying to survive the onslaught of three killers. Each teenager has their own special ability, such as Derrick with his extra Defense point on every roll. You move across the board with two standard six-sided dice, but the outcomes of your turns are decided by three action dice. The goal, at first, is to collect Scene Markers/Rescue Tokens, which will allow you to try to complete Tasks once you have five of them. Watch out for attacks on your health and the level of the noise meter, though! When the noise meter is full, the active player must face off with the killer. If you are lucky enough to complete all your objectives, you have a chance of escaping. But only one teenager can get out of Tall Oaks. All, however, can die. It’s difficult to lay out all the aspects of the game in one paragraph, but that’s the gist of it. As with most board games, forgetting a rule here or there won’t destroy the experience.
Gameplay Mechanics and Objectives
The gameplay itself is smooth. It is particularly interesting that, for most of the game, everyone works together to keep the noise down, rescue survivors, and kill the slashers. But once the escape route appears . . . all that camaraderie is out the window. There’s also an option to get into “Scuffles” when two players land on the same space, though, which results in the losing player losing health and giving one Rescue Token to the winner. If you’re feeling nasty and competitive, this is a good way to burn some in-game bridges.
Nostalgic ‘80s Aesthetic
As expected in a game inspired by ‘80s slasher flicks, there are plenty of nods to the genre and its tropes. Each Killer Scenes, Dude card reveals the event that happens in your character’s location. They are usually either calls to attempt rescues or cards that immediately summon the killer. Some great rescue scenes include “Time to Chop the Salad!” featuring killer plants, “Put that Damn Thing Away!” with a Ouija Board, and “Why Are You Running towards the Woods?” which is pretty self-explanatory. One of my favorites is a reference to Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) on one card that shows a clawed hand reaching out of a bathtub.
The aesthetic of Mixtape Massacre: Escape from Tall Oaks is delightful. The backs of the various cards show relics from the ‘80s. There are VHS tapes with the bright green HORROR sticker on them, cassette tapes, and marble notebooks. The Final Scenes, Dude cards have a video rental sticker on them as well. Instead of “Be Kind and Rewind,” they read, “Rewind or Die!” The Scene Markers/Rescue Tokens are also great, with images of Rubik’s Cubes, red-and-blue 3D glasses, red plastic cups, and roller skates. Of course, there’s a splatter of blood across most items too.
Final Thoughts
There are currently two base games of Mixtape Massacre, and the boards can be combined to make a larger map. Additionally, there are four expansion packs, and, as stated in the first paragraph, the preorder for the Director’s Cut will be coming to Kickstarter supporters soon. There are enough twists to keep the replay factor high, and playing with different groups of people is always amusing. Horror junkies and scaredy cats alike can enjoy Mixtape Massacre. I thoroughly enjoy the game, and I’m looking forward to playing the expansions as they come. Have you played Mixtape Massacre or its sequel? Did you back the Director’s Cut? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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.)
Final Thoughts: Nostalgia Meets Yearning
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