To say it has been one hell of a year would be an understatement. Fortunately, the medium of horror was faithfully standing at the ready to provide spooky solace in these uncertain times. As the year comes to a close, Neil and I are counting down our top five horror games of 2021, a task […]
Author: Jay Krieger
‘Until Dawn’ Remains a Thrilling Trip to a Cabin in the Woods [Safe Room Podcast]
The line between cinematic presentation and player interactivity has been a fine line within the horror games space. Giving the player enough agency while still contending with an experience informed mainly by decades of horror filmmaking can be challenging to maintain. Something that Supermassive Games managed to pull off in spades with their first foray […]
Is There No Defense For Horror Games Without Combat? [Safe Room Podcast]
Combat has been an integral part of video games since their inception. By giving the player the ability to take the fight to those that stand in their way, they become empowered and emboldened to a certain extent. And while on paper, this seems like a no-brainer in terms of giving players agency, combat can […]
‘Condemned: Criminal Origins’ Still Hits Like a Lead Pipe to the Skull [Safe Room Podcast]
As is in life, first impressions are important. And as a result, launch titles carry more weight than most console releases. Not only ushering in a new console cycle, but the games available on Day 1 should be a snippet of the future of that cycle. And for the Xbox 360, that Day 1 horrifying […]
The Claustrophobic Horror Of ‘Condemned: Criminal Origins’
The empowerment of arming the player has always been somewhat of a conundrum for the horror genre. While necessary to the player’s survival, the inevitable firepower bestowed upon the player can be detrimental to the carefully crafted horror elements. So, what happens when the player is stripped of that empowerment and trades in their gun […]
Arkane’s Sci-Fi Horror Game ‘Prey’ is an Immersive World of Mimics, Misdirection, and Monstrous Aliens [Safe Room Podcast]
Countless games claim to emphasize player choice, but how many actually deliver on that promise? Often player choice amounts to little more than black and white morality decisions or variations on stealth or “loud” approaches to combat. And while there are surely outliers, a more traditional approach to immersive sims seems to be a rarity […]