Top 5 First jumpscares in horror gaming

Yep this is Halloween in year 2017. When it's comes with horror genre for gaming, there are some of the great horror titles which really surprise us with unexpecting jumpscares that makes everyone piss their pants badly. I had a quite few of jumpscares that I did not expect to see happened in some horror games. Jumpscares is one of the main importance for horror genres especially it can sometime happens in some horror movie as well. One of the most popular online game such as Scary Maze Game is the huge example of jumpscares that the players has to reach it to next level until the pop-ups image of Regan Macneil from The Exorcist suddenly appears out of nowhere. 

I decided to make my top 5 that I had my first reaction to the jumpscares in horror games and I will include the video from YouTube to show you how these game gives you such panic attack. Here is a Top 5 First jumpscares in horror gaming. 

5 -  Resident Evil - Zombie dog jumping through window

    

Resident Evil is the one of the Capcom's most ironic survivor horror that was first came out for PS1, Saturn and PC. It was made by legendary creator Shinji Mikami made such outstanding game that defines the genres which made the franchise very popular has spawned with many sequels, spin-offs films and novels. This game is about the outbreaks that has been spread through Raccoon City which turns lot of people into deadly zombies. It focuses on two of the member of S.T.A.R.S such as Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine has been sent their mission to investigate the Raccoon Mansion to uncover its secrets. 

I remember first playing the original and what really made me surprised that one of the room that I did not see this happen, so I ran across the room until the zombie dogs jumps through the window outta nowhere just gives me huge shock on my friggin head. This is one of the best part of the game that I did not see it coming. 

4 - The Evil Within - Wall Safe 

          

Yep another great Shinji Mikami's title called The Evil Within is a game that mixed between survivor and psychological horror genres. The game focuses on police detective named Sebastian Castellanos and his partner Juil Kidman and Joseph Oda investigating the scene of a gruesome mass murder at Beacon Mental Hospital until he is pulled through a distorted world full of nightmarish locations and horrid creatures.

There's one of the scene in mansion place where Sebastian tries to open up secret area by unlocking safe code. After unlocking the safe codes causing the blood pops out from the safe dial which made me jump off my gaming chair at the same time as Sebastian just fell off backwards. I hope I didn't broke my ass off after seeing this happen.   

3 - Alien Isolation - That damn Xenomorph

Alien franchise was very popular starting from late 90's to 2000's. The very first Alien movie was released in 1979 which listed as one of the best Sci-Fi movies of all time and the success of the first movie has spawned with movie sequels, comics, and of course video game. One of the game that really surprised me the most was Alien Isolation which takes place in event between the original 1979's Alien and the 1986 sequel's Aliens. The story focused on the woman named Amanda Ripley was been sent to the station to search for her lost mother Ellen Ripley (Signorney Weaver's character from the original 1979 Alien). Amanda has her ability to use her stealth, combat weapons and crafts items to keep her alive from hideous creature called Xenomorph.  

I got to say the game is quite challenging to complete the certain objectives without being caught by the enemy nearby. Being chased by Xenomorph is sounds pretty scary that you need to be really smart with the use of stealth gameplay is the only goal to be survived. I've got panic attacked when Xenomorph just found me while I'm hiding in the places like under the table, locker storage and behind the objects because this scary bastard is nothing but fast-paced creatures that can react very quickly which gives an example of shitting player's pants. 

2 - SOMA - Teleporting WAU

Frictional Games was well known for their previous titles such as Pennumbra and Amnesia series. The game starts off in 2015 with the person named Simon Jarrett who was suffered with his severe brain injury due to car accident and he has an brain scan appointment with the Doctor named David Munshi began to experimenting on Simon's brain until the scan went horribly wrong which causing Simon to black out and regains consciousness in Site Upsilon of PATHOS-II. After Simon learns that he has awoken in the year 2104, his goal is to escape from the underwater facility which is full of mysterious creatures known as WAU. 

Despite this game has stunning atmosphere, quality gameplay and impressive story, it is terrifying at the same time which this game has unexpecting jumpscares during the gameplay. The part that scares me the most is the WAU that has the ability to teleport which came really fast towards me on the screen and I had to run for lives before I get annihilated to death in the game. It's not just the jumpscare part, but with static noises, screaming WAU sounds and player's death imagery are also quite disturbing that made the game look terrified which fits well for the modern day horror genres. 

1 - Outlast - Wheelchair man   

    

Outlast is by far one of the most scariest horror game in gaming history. Red Barrels has done perfectly right with the impressive story, horrific scenes and dark elements that made the game so great. The game takes place in mountain of Lake County, Colorado. The story is about a reporter named Miles Upshur who has a mission to investigate in Mental Hospital, which involves deadly patient, religious occult rituals and dead corpses which spreads everywhere in any room. 

Outlast has multiple of jumpscares that scares the hell of everyone when playing this game. There's one of the scene in the game where the creepy guy sits on the wheelchair, so after being thrown down by the big scary guy, the player sees the guy sat on the wheelchair which does nothing at the start until you move on to the next room that has full of bloody mess with two mentally patient just sat on the sofa while staring at the static TV. After discovering the room, the player goes back to previous place as the wheelchair man whereabouts and then finally the player came close to the wheelchair man that causing them to jump on the player and convincing player to get rid of the mad doctor that tortures most of the patient in the mental hospital. This is the part that scares me the most which gives a player amazing horror experience that is worth for trick and treat for the fans of horror genres.   

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SOMA PS4 Review

SOMA is a Sci-Fi Survivor Horror game for PC and PS4, which was developed and published by Frictional Games who are known for their previous titles such as Pennumbra and Amnesia series. 

I haven't tried any of their previous titles until I've played this because SOMA is the game that caught my attention after watching their promotional trailer on YouTube just right before buying this game for my PS4. After spent playing an hours, this type of game is very similar with other Survivor Horror games or 80's horror movies, so it sorta like Outlast meets The Abyss and I'm very impressed with the story presentation with mysterious plot-twist, insane atmosphere with disturbing creatures and terrifying jumpscares, well designed graphics design and decent puzzle-solving gameplay that made the game worth for playing for gaming horror fans. 

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

Before this game takes place in an underwater research facility known as PATHOS-II, it's starts off in 2015 with the person named Simon Jarrett who was suffered with his severe brain injury due to car accident and he has an brain scan appointment with the Doctor named David Munshi began to experimenting on Simon's brain until the scan went horribly wrong which causing Simon to black out and regains consciousness in Site Upsilon of PATHOS-II. After Simon learns that he has awoken in the year 2104, his goal is to escape from the underwater facility which is full of mysterious creatures known as WAU. 

The story in the game was sounds very interesting when its comes with huge crazy plot-twist explaining how the hell Simon ends up looped in wrong year after brain scan disaster and why the WAU creatures exists in research facility that kills many of innocent humans because Simon felt that he's not in the right universe as the ones in 2015 which the story tells that the person was been unconsciousness in the same day as his appointment until he finally woken up in 89 years later. 

Simon is a quite impressive character because I liked his personality and bravery in the game. He's just the survivor who wanted to get out of the facility with the help of woman named Catherine Chun who instructs him to come to her whereabouts as he contacted her through his omnitool devices. I also liked the concepts of WAU which I'm finding them looked terrifying depending what type of WAU monster. One of them teleports randomly towards player which increases the chance of jumpscares and the other one starts chases the player around the room which was the most scariest chase sequence so far as the screen static starts scattering and fuzzing during the chase scene. I finding the player's death tends to be very disturbing due to multiple of gory imagery. So far, I liked the horror atmosphere of the game that offers unexpected jumpscares, horrifying chase sequence and the scarier enemies design which increases the overall scare factor of the game. I liked the Atlantic ocean theme of the environments with amazing underwater atmosphere and the research facility is pretty reminds of similar late 80's Sci-Fi movies such as The Abyss which adds the interesting concepts of level design.

Overall, the game is well presented with unique story, underwater theme and horror atmosphere that just got the game right.

Gameplay

You take control of Simon played on first person perspective, so the player will encounter a number of creatures in gameplay aspects. Your aim is to survive and escape from the facility by solving problems with several clues and evading WAU's nearby. 

While the player is combatless, the player can able to interact things such as items that you can pick up and throw things, flipping switches to turn on the generators, pressing button to unlock the doors, and using computers to gather information about the history of PATHOS-II. During the stealth gameplay, your character can able to lean left and right side to peak through without getting caught by WAU nearby and to decrease the WAU's reaction using the crouch button is to help prevent making noises and you can distract them by throwing objects in random places. Your player can also run through the area by holding trigger button, but it will increase the chances of making noises causing WAU to chase you around the rooms, so be careful at your own risk. Using the torch is very useful for most of the dark rooms and you can also heal your health by touching one of the blue circle creatures from different rooms only if you're been knocked out once by WAU creatures, but you may die in the game by getting knocked out twice. The player will progresses through puzzle solving which involves getting power generators on to turn on electricity powers, inserting new chip into omnitool devices allowing to scan things, and using computers to fix the troubleshoot on whole facility such as activating doors. 

Controlling the player is pretty responsive and reliable with having no issues at all. The puzzle aspects is quite very challenging to get used with solving problems around the levels which is excellent for certain horror games genre. The stealth simulation is done perfectly right for slow-paced gameplay which gives a huge satisfying to player's experience, while the chase sequences are also pretty good, but it can be very annoying at the same time due to overused enemy's encountering attack which I felt the enemy is moving too fast on player making it bit impossible to successfully evading from them. I also liked the exploration in the levels where I can able to discover new rooms with bunch of the audio types and notes which is quite useful to discover things in the game.  

Overall, it has decent controls, excellent puzzle aspects, cool exploration and great stealth gameplay.

Graphics

The graphics design in the whole game is looking spectacular regarding their graphics engine that runs really well on the PS4 system. The whole environment of facility area are dark and sinister that really fits the mood of the game and the animation on the enemy looked really wicked with thick-blackened design to make it more frightening creatures and the underwater is looking realistic with great splashing effects. The visuals has really disturbing static screen effects and gory images in the game that really creeped out the players is pretty well made for modern day survivor horror game. I also liked the lighting effects of using torch is quite amazing for most of the dark rooms giving a nice use of brightness. It has large level design for both underwater and facility giving a player freedom to explore the whole area which is fantastic and well presented.   

Overall, It has dark environment, wicked enemy's animation, disturbing visuals and large level design. 

Music and Sounds

The music in the game has both dark and pleasant themed soundtrack. The soundtrack on chase sequences has frightening industrial style which fits well for chasing scenes, while the other soundtrack can be very fascinating and calm for some non-horror parts which feels like you're on moment of relief. The sound effects does have terrifying background noise which is great for jumpscares parts, and the static noises and WAU's screaming sounds is just making you feel how scary the game was which I finding the use of sound effects is quite outstanding. The voice actors is sounds very professional for most of the characters can express their emotions and personality which kinda worked well for story presentation. 

Overall, it has fantastic soundtrack, outstanding sound effects and well professional voice overs. 

Special Features

The game has lacked any of DLC content and extras which is kinda disappointing, but at least it has trophy achievements in the game. 

Overall, no DLC and extras. Kinda shame.

Advantages

Unique story

Horror atmosphere including jumpscares

Decent gameplay

Dark graphics

Fantastic soundtrack

Disadvantages

Long loading times

Overused enemy's encountering attack

Lack of special features

Final Verdict

Presentation 8/10 - unique story, underwater theme and horror atmosphere.

Gameplay 7.5/10 - decent controls, excellent puzzle aspects, cool exploration and great stealth gameplay.

Graphics 8.5/10 - dark environment, wicked enemy's animation, disturbing visuals and large level design.

Music and Sounds 8.5/10 - fantastic soundtrack, outstanding sound effects and well professional voice overs.

Special Features 3/10 - no DLC and extras.

Overall 8/10 - SOMA is a one of the Frictional Games's solid title that brings an amazing horror experience for players to meet their satisfaction. It has stunning presentation that offers well written story and the use of scare factor that makes the game look mysterious and scary at the same time. The quality of gameplay, graphics and soundtrack are also fascinating which works really well for the modern day horror game. If you're the fan of their previous titles then I dare you to go buy this from PS Store or Steam, turn your lights off, and play this game in the dark because SOMA is a great example that gives you an epic scare moments and will satisfy you well for overall game.

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Dishonored 2 PS4 Review

Dishonored 2 is a action-adventure FPS game for PS4, XBONE, and PC, which was developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It was sequel to original 2012 game's Dishonored.

I really liked the first Dishonored when I was playing on my PS3 in three years ago. I loved the stealth combat gameplay, campaign missions, weapons and ability's upgrades, great level exploration and decent storylines that made the game quite fantastic, so I decided to pick up the Dishonored 2 for PS4 from the gamestore and I've played it for two weeks on single player campaign including new game plus mode and I think the sequel is almost just good as the originals due to two playable characters with different playstyles, higher challenging stealth missions, introduces non-lethal combat gameplay and replay values that adds the edition to the game, but I find the story in this game was not strong as the first game due to lack the focus of narrative in the game's presentation, while the rest of the characters in the game are seems to be lot better than the ones in the originals first game. Despite the annoying crashes and drop-downs frame rate on PC version was been aided with patch update to remedied the problems after the game's release.

So without go further do, let's start the review.



Presentation

This game takes place after the event of first game. Its starts off with fifteen years after Corvo Attano has restored Emily Kaldwin to the throne following the assassination of her mother Jessamine Kaldwin.

In city of Karnaca, Emily is now a empress of Dunwall, while Corvo becomes her new bodyguard as royal protector. During a ceremony in remembrance of Jessamine Kaldwin's assassination, they were been encountered by the groups of Crown Killer including the witch named Delilah Copperspoon, who claims to be Jessamine's older half-sister. At this point, the player chooses two of the playable character as Emily or Corvo. Depending on the player's choice, the other character will be turned to stone, while the player is able to escape to the Dunwall docks to meet with Meagan Foster to help them. Their task is to assassinate Delilah and rescue Emily or Corvo depending what character are you playing as and reclaim the throne back.

The story in the game was not that bad at all, but I find the narrative seems to be sounds bit rushed and undeveloped compared with the first game which they should have been done better by putting more efforts on storylines to add more depths on the main story. I was being surprised with Emily Kaldwin as playable characters and her appearences are really damn impressive, while Corvo Attano is still a badass protagonist with his awesome skynet-styled mask. I'm very glad that the rest of the characters in the game are lot better than the ones in the first game, such as Meagan Foster and Anton Sokolov are quite decent supportive characters, while the villains such as Delilah, Jindosh, Duke and Ashworth are definitely in the right direction.

I really liked the dark-medieval settings in the game's presentation and the great cinematic design with well drawn slides animation and in-game cutscenes.

Overall, it does have the average storylines, but impressive characters and great game's settings.


Gameplay

The game is similar with the original first game, but you get to select any of the two playable characters throughout the story campaign. During the open-world gameplay, you get to explore the area where you can able to find and collect runes and bonecharms, reading documents, unlock safe combination, purchase upgrades and items from black market, and disabling security systems. Both of the playable characters will have primary weapon such as sword, while they have their secondary weapon such as pistols, crossbows, grenades, retractable blade and stun mines. The sword is used for close-combat gameplay which you can able to use it to slash and stab the enemies, but you can also perform brutal melee attack by chopping their heads off or instant stabbing to jaws when the finishing move icon appears on the screen and you can also block with your sword for deflecting bullets and enemy's weapons attack. The pistols are pretty basic for secondary weapon which are good for mid-range shooting, while crossbows are used for far-distance range, but offers some of the useful bolts such as stun that puts them to sleep, incendiary that sets them on fire, howling that blinds them and of course stinging that made them go full crazy. Using the grenades, retractable blade and stun mines are also come in handy when you need it for certain campaign missions. Each characters has different kinds of supernatural powers, so for example Corvo stills retains the same powers from the first game such as blink that allows him teleports to chosen locations, devouring swarm that allows him to summon rats which are used for clearing the dead bodies off or eat the enemies alive, possession that allows him to enter into dead or alive humans, bend time that can be used to slow down time and windblast that allows him to push off the enemies with blasting wind. Emily has newer power which is different from Corvo such as far reach which allows her to pull objects or enemies toward her and dash forward, mesmerize allows her to distract enemies and moving them into a state of sedation, domino is used for connecting each enemies together so that they share the same outcome, shadow walk turns her into shadowy clouds and doppelganger allows her to create the clone version of herself in order to misdirect her opponents. In stealth combat where the player aims to get past through the level without being alerted by enemy's nearby, the player are able to take down the enemies by strangle them into unconsciousness and drag them into hidden place where enemies won't able to see what's happening and you can distract them by throwing objects. The alert icon will appear on top of the enemy's head which showing their reaction, so if the alert icon turns white which means you are not been seen, while red means they finally caught you in action which forcing players to fight them or run off the stage. You can also disabling those security hazards such as walls of light and barriers by using rewiring tools or removing tube from the power generators. You can upgrades your weapons from the black market store which improves the accuracy, reloading, and capacity of weapons and you can upgrade your abilities through pause menu which improves your healths, strengths, reflexes and movements.

I really liked the combat playstyle because I felt the sword is pretty responsive for melee attacks and blocking defence which works well on gameplay, but I do find the double bloodthirst is quite difficult to perform when the enemies is not been too close at the player, but it's still playable. I loved the crossbows with different kinds of bolts which is one of my favourite weapons in the game due to precise aiming and easier kills. I say the special powers in the game are quite well made for both characters with terrific moves such as swarming mice, windblast and dominos which is quite awesome. The mission is very challenging which offers great stealth playstyle and epic boss battles. I do find the load times is quite annoying which takes about 20 second to start off the levels. You can also use quick save on pause menu which I finding it quite convenient when I can able to continue the game where I came from instead of having to start the levels over again. Having new game plus mode which retains all the contents from the original new game modes adds the nice replay values of game. 

Overall, it has great combat gameplay, excellent weapons choices, awesome special powers, challenging missions and convenient save system. 


Graphics

Unlike the previous installment that used Unreal Engine 3, this game uses the Void Engine which is based on id tech 5. I really liked the rich looking environment of inside the building which gives a crispy look of level design. I also liked the lighting effects that comes from chandler, lamps, spotlight and sunlight from windows which makes the level environment feels vibrant due to great use of in-game contrast. The water animation on sea area is looking fantastic that gives a realism of realtime effects and the city building are looking well designed with full of great textures. The character's animation is looking amazing in the game and I really liked the use of blood and gore effects on brutal melee finish. 

Overall, it has rich environment, vibrant lighting, great level design and brutal blood and gore effects.


Music and Sounds

The music in the game is really amazing because I liked the southern European style of orchestrated soundtrack which fits well in the game especially with medieval ambient soundtrack. The sound effects are sounds quite decent during in-game missions with impressive sound designs. The voice actors sounds aren't that bad for most of the characters, but it wasn't sounds amazing as the original cast from the first game which sounds better in comparison with this game. I really don't mind the voice of main protagonist such as Corvo which he's supposed to be silent video game characters, but it's still a nice effort.

Overall, it has amazing soundtrack, impressive sound designs, and acceptable voice cast.


Special Features

The game came with two types of collector's edition such as regular collector's editions for console versions came with a copy of Dishonored: Definitive Edition, a remastered version of the first game for the eighth generation of consoles with all downloadable content included, while the special collector's editions came with a 13.5 inch replica of Corvo Attano's signature mask, a zinc alloy replica of Emily Kaldwin's ring, a Delilah's propaganda poster, metal collector's edition case for the game disc and manual, and digital imperial assassin's pack, which included additional in-game content.

Overall, they bought two really cool collector's editions. 




Advantages

Decent characters

Great game's settings

Cool combat gameplay

Challenging missions

Rich graphics

Brutal melee finishes

Amazing music


Disadvantages

Average storylines in comparsion with first game

load times

Performing double bloodthirst is quite harder




Final Verdict

Presentation 7/10 - average storylines, but impressive characters and great game's settings.

Gameplay 8/10 - great combat gameplay, excellent weapons choices, awesome special powers, challenging missions and convenient save system.

Graphics 8/10 - rich environment, vibrant lighting, great level design and brutal blood and gore effects.

Music and Sounds 8/10 - amazing soundtrack, impressive sound designs, and acceptable voice cast.

Special Features 9/10  - two really cool collector's editions.


Overall 8/10 - Dishonored 2 is another great sequel to the originals. I'm pleased with overall combat system and epic single player missions with replay values will able to satisfy the fans of the stealth game genres. The story is not the best part of the game, but I'm sure that they could able to improve the storytelling for future sequels. I'll say buy it for console versions as recommended, but if you're the PC owners just be sure to install the patches first before starting up the game. Overall, Dishonored 2 is a fun action-adventure FPS game for eight generation console era that does play plain awesome. 



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