Wish me luck haha

Townfall is a solid survival horror game but the obstacles blocking pathways to other areas should be more believable! This is just one example I fixed.

This is kind of my first horror game, I wanted to go with something that fealt retro and this hits the spot. I'm around 2 hours in and have been enjoying it a lot, getting all the different camera angles is hard for me to work with, but not having to actually use tank controls is a plus. It definitely makes me think of what to do with some puzzles, i wonder how the puzzles were for Resi 1.

What do the people who play horror games regularly think of it? I'm curious

We’re Kooky Studios, a small team. Pestilence is out now.

You wake up in a basement with no power, an old computer, and notes you don’t remember writing. Somewhere down there is what happened to your daughter.

About 90 to 120 minutes. Built in UE5.

Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3525940

Disclosure: I received a free review key through Keymailer. This review is translated from my original text. I thought I'd share my thoughts with the English-speaking community as well, especially since I'm happy to answer any questions people might have, as long as I can do so without spoilers.

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Standing out in today's crowded horror game market is becoming increasingly difficult. The indie scene is flooded with cheap four-player co-op horror games, often dubbed “friendslop,” while even in the past few days, titles such as Silver Pines and Hellraiser: Revival have attracted attention and earned praise from critics or players, adding some serious competition to the genre. And if that weren't enough, this October is shaping up to be one of the most crowded release months in video game history, partly due to the looming arrival of GTA VI, which has prompted publishers to avoid scheduling conflicts. It's against this backdrop that Tenebris Somnia must find its footing. The game caught my attention with its premise alone, combining minimalist visuals reminiscent of 1980s computer games with live-action sequences. The question, however, is whether this is merely a novelty designed to grab our attention, or whether the game can offer something beyond its distinctive presentation that makes it worth considering amid October's brutal release schedule.

The story revolves around Julia, a former film student plagued by recurring nightmares about her ex-partner, who also comes from a filmmaking background. Her concern eventually drives her to seek him out and make sure he's alright. What follows is part arthouse horror film, part existential drama, with the narrative unfolding through notes, dialogue-free live-action sequences, and the game's conventional dialogue boxes. The story takes place within a multi-storey apartment building, but the setting is much more than a simple backdrop. Each floor serves as a physical manifestation of the two protagonists' memories, and as we descend deeper into the building, increasingly painful fragments of the past begin to surface. Along the way, the game explores various shades of horror while taking us through a wide range of emotions. Its shifting moods occasionally brought some surprising associations to mind. Without spoling anything, one of the endings, for instance, reminded me of Amélie, while much of the final third of the game ventures into territory blazed by Martyrs, one of the best-known representatives of French extremity, pushing the horror into increasingly disturbing and oppressive depths.

The gameplay draws from two distinct traditions: the creative problem-solving of classic point-and-click adventure games and the resource management of survival horror. At its best, the former offers some genuinely clever environmental puzzles that require not only combining items in the right way, but also improvising in unusual situations. For instance, if a key is lying on the other side of a locked door, we must use half a pair of scissors to nudge it through the gap, then slide an X-ray sheet underneath the door to pull it out. Another puzzle requires us to exploit the discrepancy between reality and the environment reflected in a mirror in the screening room, following our reflection's movements to interact with certain objects. The survival horror component, by contrast, offers a less inventive, albeit largely functional, system. We have access to two types of melee weapons, two types of ranged weapons, and two types of healing items, but combat offers little in the way of tactical depth. Essentially, all we have to do is hit or shoot the enemy at hand, dodge its incoming attacks, and repeat the process against the handful of different creatures in the game. Meanwhile, star-shaped keys scattered throughout the apartment allow us to unlock a total of six storage lockers, although their rewards don't always justify the effort involved. Some lockers, for example, contain nothing more than a single Lavendium, which restores just a quarter of our health. The save system is another nod to classic survival horror, as we can generally only save our progress in designated rooms. There's an interesting twist, however: at one point, we must permanently disable three save points to progress, introducing at least a little strategic consideration into what is otherwise a fairly straightforward resource management system.

While the game provides an enjoyable experience during its first few hours, it's difficult to shake the feeling that it buckles under the weight of its own ambitions far too soon. Following a tonal shift at a certain point in the story, we're forced to revisit the previously explored floors of the apartment complex. Although the environment this changes the environment somewhat, it does little to make exploring it all over again particularly compelling. On top of that, the gameplay's earlier balance completely falls apart, culminating in two particularly frustrating boss fights. One of them, for instance, revolves around a mirror-based mechanic that adds little in the way of interesting tactical depth and instead needlessly complicates the encounter, while an ever-growing number of persistent traps gradually render the arena increasingly difficult to navigate. Poorly defined hitboxes and problematic perspective make matters worse, sometimes leaving us unsure whether our character is actually safe from an incoming attack. The fights also drag on far longer than they should, and the bosses can occasionally kill us simply by pinning us against a wall from which there's no way to escape. Similarly frustrating situations can arise during exploration, too. While navigating the stairs, for example, it's possible to become permanently stuck in the environment's geometry, leaving us at the mercy of an enemy patrolling the apartment that can kill us in a single hit. Achievement hunters are also in for some bad news: the challenge tied to completing the game using only the wrench feels practically impossible due to the enemies' movement and attack patterns. All of this reinforces the impression that Tenebris Somnia has inherited not only the visual austerity of 1980s and early 1990s games, but also some of the undercooked mechanics, unnecessary friction, and technical limitations that occasionally plagued games of that era.

The game's visual presentation reflects and further reinforces this impression. I'm a big fan of pixel art's timeless aesthetic, as the limitations imposed by chunky pixels can serve as a creative stimulus rather than an obstacle in the right hands. They force artists to pack as much expressive power as possible into a limited number of pixels, while leaving the player's imagination to fill in the missing details. Signalis and Conscript are excellent recent examples of this approach. Tenebris Somnia, however, takes simplification so far that its visuals almost begin to approach the territory of wireframe games or graphics constructed from ASCII characters, where environments and their inhabitants are represented by little more than a handful of lines or letters. At this point, minimalism no longer feels like an artistic tool that stimulates the imagination, but rather a limitation that actively restricts the game's expressive possibilities. The extremely limited colour palette and sound design do little to help, either. The sound of footsteps, for instance, resembles distorted, heavily compressed crackling more than a deliberately crafted sound effect.

The most disappointing moments, however, come when the game visibly struggles with the spatial limitations of two-dimensional pixel art. Depicting diagonal surfaces and more complex three-dimensional shapes is inherently challenging in this style, yet Tenebris Somnia occasionally resorts to perspective techniques that simply don't work. Its winding staircases, for example, look so distorted and unconvincing that they bring to mind a clumsily thrown-together MS Paint drawing. The contrast between minimalist, 1980s-inspired graphics and live-action sequences is undeniably interesting as a concept, but in practice, one half of this dual visual approach falls woefully short: the pixel art simply cannot match the artistic impact of the live-action segments.

Verdict

Whether Tenebris Somnia is worth giving a chance largely depends on the expectations we bring to it and what we consider most important in a video game. True to my own principles as an advocate of gameplay-first design — after all, video games are fundamentally an interactive medium — I'd lean towards saying no. However, the game's live-action sequences, particularly the moments leading up to and including the finale, elicited such powerful reactions and emotions from me that they managed to transcend the shortcomings of the gameplay and elevate the experience into something greater than the sum of its parts.

That's not to say the cinematic segments are without their own problems. Following the peculiar internal logic of horror, they occasionally lead to inconsistent narrative turns, while the ending attempts to unravel the story's mysteries through a sixteen-page deluge of in-game journal entries. This runs counter to the suggestive, almost ethereal approach of the live-action sequences themselves. Nevertheless, these segments, which rely primarily on practical effects and old-school filmmaking techniques, create such a distinctive atmosphere that they set Tenebris Somnia apart from most of its genre peers. Aside from Alan Wake II, it's difficult to think of many comparable experiments in recent years.

Furthermore, the first two-thirds of the game are paced remarkably well, even if, beyond some occasionally clever adventure-game puzzles, it doesn't offer much in the way of genuinely original ideas. So, if you're primarily looking for a distinctive atmosphere, experimental cinematic storytelling, and the emotional impact that can emerge from the combination of the two, Tenebris Somnia may be worth a shot. Those who prioritise polished, inventive, and consistently engaging gameplay, however, will find it much harder to recommend.

Me and my friends have been trying to find good horror games to play but most dont really fit.

we like more unserious ones where we could just goof around but most so called "friendslop" games we havent enjoyed so much, like repo as a example we played for a few days but then it just got repetitive.

so something that isnt just extremlly repetitive that you play once and then get bored of.

thanks :D

Hello all, I was looking for some horror recommendations that have a specific vibe to them. I was listening to a song called “Cigarettes out the Window” by TV Girl and It reminded of some of the old Silent Hill soundtracks. I wanted to know if anybody knew any games that gave off the same sort of “vibe” if that makes sense? (Of the song itself and other songs like End off Small Sanctuary more specifically)

Developer disclosure: I’m posting on behalf of the SILVERPINE CREEK team.

We have updated our released PS5 survival horror game with an even more aggressive Witch Korana. Voice-sensitive gameplay uses the DualSense controller’s built-in microphone: speaking can reveal your position.

You investigate missing tourists in an abandoned village through bodycam/VHS-style found footage. There are no weapons; awareness, timing and a camera flash are your means of survival. The update is about making the witch feel more threatening while your own voice becomes another risk.

This post is about the PS5 title. Official PlayStation Store page with screenshots and game details:

https://store.playstation.com/en-bg/product/HP7096-PPSA37150_00-0944275671136413

A cassette arrives with no return address. On it, your sister Iris, missing for three years, whispers: "Come home before the quiet hour."

Ashgrove: The Quiet Hour is a story-driven, first-person horror adventure I've just released on Android. You drive back to the town you swore you'd never see again and follow Iris's trail through one night, from 1:04 a.m. to 3:33 a.m.

Available in Google Play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aroik.horror_ashgrove&pcampaignid=web_share

Hi! This is ELLA, my first game. You have to find 8 diary pages in a dark house while two monsters hunt you with opposite rules: she patrols humming a lullaby and spots your flashlight, so you want to hide and run; the Blind One can't see but hears everything, so running near him is the worst idea.

You can hide in wardrobes, under beds or behind curtains, and throw bottles to lure or stun them. There's also an optional webcam "smile mode": if you stop smiling, they know where you are.

It's free (name your price) on itch.io: https://abambafear.itch.io/ella

I'd love to hear what scared you and what didn't.

Every time I see a little village surrounded by farmland my brain goes “nice, time to make friends with everyone.”

Crop is giving me the distinct impression that this strategy will eventually get me killed.

I have fatal frame 1 for ps2 and Madison on a good PC. I’m deciding between either a more retro horror experience with FF or a modern experience with Madison. In your opinion, which game is scarier? I personally have completed FF and thought it was pretty frightening at times, but I haven’t done Madison.

Does anyone know how to get into this room? It’s locked from the other side. Feels like I’ve searched everywhere and can’t find it online. Thanks! 😄