b e a r d @beardalaxy@gameliberty.club

aw fuk i accidentally stayed up late enough to get hungry again dammit

So, the bathroom jumpscare is actually in the original game, I found. I'm going to have to watch a playthrough of it again once I'm done with the remake just to see if any of my other complaints were present in the original as well. It would be interesting to see. I'm sure there are problems with it too and I hope that I can stay consistent with it instead of being blinded by my negative outlook on the remake in general. Or, at least some things might have another explanation in regards to how they were set up. I'll make sure to do that before giving an actual review, and I'll be looking at other reviews before that too just so I can see things I may have not considered, both good and bad.

1. They completely changed where the noose puzzle was and how you progress to the next area. Kind of odd I guess. They also changed how it functions a little bit. Like I've said before, the game is remixed so much that it may as well not be Silent Hill 2 anymore.
2. There's a newspaper clipping talking about Angela killing her dad. Is that in the original? I don't recall. Either way, with how much other information you get about it I always just assumed that's what happened.
3. There is an entirely new section of the game added and remixed with Angela and the first time you see Abstract Daddy. It's alright, but definitely too on the nose imo. The original walked a pretty fine line and did it well, this goes a little overboard. It's additive in terms of the raw information being presented, but it does change the mood significantly and because of that it FEELS reductive.
4. They treat the Abstract Daddy more like a boss encounter when, iirc, it was more like a regular enemy in the original. Not exactly but a lot closer to that. It has this scream thing it does that stuns you and that's kind of bullshit, but what's even more bullshit is that you can just sort of spam dodge, get a quick shot in, and then spam dodge again. I'm getting hit from across the room by regular ass enemies and boss enemies can just be i-framed I guess?
5. Another dumb jumpscare with a painting falling off a wall. It really is getting tiring.
6. Yeah this part is TOTALLY changed and brand new. Haven't even had the reunion scene with Maria yet so it's even shuffled around a bit. If they have changed Angela's stuff this much I wonder what else they've done with Eddie.
7. Cutscene with Maria in the cell was decent. Idk, it is like a word for word and scene for scene recreation, minus some depth of field, but it still feels... Wrong? Comparing it to the original, it's missing Maria saying "I can't do anything through these bars" but it isn't just that. The voice acting and the inflection are very different from each other and it makes the new one seem more sinister versus the original being more confusing but also giving that odd, cozy feeling. I'm not sure how to convey that without just telling you to compare both scenes. It kind of goes along with the theme I keep noticing, which is that the game feels more like a western movie than a Japanese game.
8. More enemies that scream and stun you... Great... My question is just... Why? Why is this even a mechanic? You can't dodge a scream, and they never do anything to take advantage of the stun. Just mash dodge and you'll be fine. It's just an annoyance.
9. I'm now faced with another set of locked doors and another puzzle to figure out. I'm honestly getting really tired of playing the game. I'm at 16 hours now, and I haven't even gotten to the hotel yet. Why is it so long? Probably to justify the $70 price tag, kind of like how they made NES games really hard so you felt like you got your money's worth. It's really dragging though, and I'm going to have to force myself through it which means I'm going to like it less and less.

I just found out that the founder and lead singer of Low Roar passed away two years ago. They're one of my favorite bands. You might know them from their multiple songs in Death Stranding or "Feels" for the first celebration event in Arknights.

Rest in peace, Ryan Karazija. His vocals and music have had a huge impact on me.

It seems they will release one more album in February that was fully recorded before his passing but in post-production.

Dreamer - Low Roar

Wow, there ended up being 131 games submitted to the ShroomJam! I hope everyone had a good time and I'm excited to see Vinny play a bunch of them :)
#vinesauce

1. Got stumped by a puzzle and had to look up a hint. It looks similar to the one in the original game but it works completely differently. It also affects the entire map instead of just the puzzle itself so it's pretty different.
2. The ambient sound for the prison has like, random screams in the distance. Actually, the audio for the prison in general is just annoying. Again, I wish I could just turn it off without worrying about missing music that's actually good. When none of these sounds correlate to actual things happening in the game world, it makes it far less scary. Especially when you can tell they are looped. Then add this music on top of it that is trying to make you tense, and it really just screams "western horror." The original uses audio much more effectively.
3. There are now enemies that climb on walls and ceilings and I am extremely glad I've been playing on easy combat difficulty because ohhhh boy, if you thought it was dumb trying to dodge enemy attacks before, now trying dodging attacks you literally can't see! Sometimes they will make a screech sound first, but not always? It's really frustrating. It would be nicer if you weren't carrying around the shittiest flashlight known to man. I feel like they probably added these enemies in just to help justify the new freelook camera.
4. The default zombie enemy dude has a vomit attack, and apparently it can hit you from an infinite distance away if you're in a straight line from it. Cool.
5. So many enemies respawning... It can be interesting to do this a couple times throughout the course of an entire game for specific moments, but when enemies come back every single time I return to a room it's just frustrating. It's only useful in games like Metroidvanias when you can grind them for pickups or EXP. And no, it's not because I'm forgetting to double tap.
6. Okay I'm actually like pissed off now. I'm in a bathroom, it's pretty spooky. They always are in horror games. Then I hear a woman screaming and loud banging sounds, so naturally it scares me. THERE'S NOTHING IN THE ROOM. THIS IS FUCKING RETARDED. Cheap, dumb jumpscare. Because you know, Silent Hill has tons of those. Even with the cat in the locker scare, it sets up for another one later on and there are actual THINGS tied to the scares instead of just random screams.
7. I had a dead enemy get stuck in a doorway I needed to go through and had to kind of cheese my way through. 10/10.

Wow, I don't know if it's just the mood I'm in or something but that was by far the worst session yet.

uhhh check out my shroomjam entry, it's like 10 minutes and has two endings and it's kind of shitty but maybe a little bit funny.

https://after-midnight-games.itch.io/uncorrupt-inc

#vinesauce