Games That Made Me Shriek In 2019
Michelle Enelen
A Quick Mention goes to Luigi’s Mansion 3 and A Plague Tale. Both games make you feel like a kid again, but in vastly separate ways. Both horror, Luigi will make you jump when inevitably that ghost grabs you from behind. Plague makes you cringe, seeing all those non-cute infected rats is reason enough to shower after gaming.
Blasphemous – The hack and slash game moves quickly making you work to take in all the incredible pixel art. The Game Kitchen did an outstanding job creating an immersive religious story. The Penitent One (you) picks up guilt along the way, to rid yourself of it simply pay your fee at the closest religious house.
Days Gone – is one exciting open world game. Do yourself a favor and watch the trailer, it’s captivating. The light in this game adds a lot of depth and changes gameplay as does the mercurial weather. That might momentarily distract you from the plethora of enemies. Not for long, they are everywhere and only some of them are still human. An action-packed world of beasts and Freakers looking to eat you.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – shows you its horror undertones by way of mythological creatures from Japanese folklore. What you will notice most though is the gorgeously fluid artwork. The rippling water, the waving grasses, and the bursting bodies shooting multi-toned geysers of blood as you rip them open with your sword.
Resident Evil 2 – If this franchise doesn’t make it on the best of lists it would have to be because there wasn’t a new one that year. Capcom is great at making over-the-top games (Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang, Oh yes, that would be Deadpool) in this one they’ve kept up the tradition of scaring the Hell out of you and intensified it by magnifying every heavy footfall, every creak of the doors and stairs as you try to hide from Mr. X. There is one point, I don’t consider this a spoiler because you will never know when it’s coming; that the giant mass of insanity crashes right through the wall. You know, the wall you thought you were safe hiding behind. Ha-ha, good luck!
NUMBER ONE
MORTAL Kombat 11
Who would have thought the Mortal Kombat series would still be going this strong? The game’s been around forever, though it did bring about the invention of the ESRB and many of the morally outraged wanted it gone. Anyone else remember sneaking away from youth group to play this franchise? I loved how fast and hard you could pull that big joystick. Not much like the way we play now. Nope, now the buttons are a bigger deal because they have added even more fantastically gory final moves. FINISH HIM/HER! A bonus, every new edition gives us new celebrity guests. Last year it was Leatherface and my oh so adored Xenomorph. There was a silly rumor about Shaggy (Scooby-Doo) getting in on this one, but we did get The Terminator and Spawn. I haven’t gotten to play with Spawn yet, I definitely want to! The story campaigns, the ladders, the bubblegum blowing mouth on Cassie Cage; that’s right, if you haven’t played for a long while that narcissistic punk Johnny Cage did get with Sonya Blade. We still get Hanzo Hasashi aka Scorpion, in fact we get 2; the new, more Zen Scorpion meets his old high-strung self. Devora is back with her bevy of bugs, others are ghosts of themselves, but still fully capable of kicking ass. It is gleefully gory with no apologies. If you are battling yourself about which game you should make time for this year MORTAL KOMBAT 11 easily makes the
FINAL ROUND.
My NUMBER ONE scariest horror video game of ALL TIME is…
ALIEN ISOLATION VR
STILL! This is not the game to play if I’m home alone, surrounded by the night. It is a great game no matter what platform, but if you get the chance to play it in virtual reality, you will agree the difference is stupefying. Not only do you hear the sounds around you, something that is usually in your favor; this time the Xenomorph hears you! Normally I have a fondness for the creatures (normally?!) Giger played god and created an entire atmosphere of shadows and slippery wet terror. They are disturbingly beautiful on screen. However, when you’re isolated in space and being hunted by a master your heart thuds, your muscles tense, and I guarantee you will scream.
Coming in 2020 The Last of Us Part 2 looks promising (Naughty Dog makes some of my favorite games; the Crash Bandicoot and Uncharted series especially). In this one you are going to be on the lookout for creepy creatures and thugs. As usual this is one of many post-apocalyptic games coming for you. After five minutes watching the world news, you would have to be dense not to understand our fascination with a crumbling future. It might be a great time to take a break and zone out to a good old-fashioned game of Tetris. Good luck to you all.
Michelle Enelen
Raised by Pentecostal preachers, horror was not a readily available commodity. As her love grew, her parents were occasionally summoned to school to talk about book reports and various projects that weren’t quite appropriate for her age. They were lost as to where she’d gotten such “trash”. Luckily for her, there was a librarian that understood her insatiable hunger for darker worlds. Even now, if she could, she’d live among the stacks.
Her penchant grew to include ghastly movies and music, which she’ll happily share with anyone listening. The love of horror continues with her favorite videogame, “House of the Dead, Overkill”. She’s not the best gamer, except when defending herself against the wrong monsters. Head shots are her speciality.
Twitter @falln468
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