Tag Archives: zombies

video game reviews

You Will Die Here Tonight is the creepy retro survival horror game you need in your library

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I was sent You Will Die Here Tonight as a review code. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I will not let it sway my opinions. This will be my honest review. If you enjoy my reviews, please make sure you leave a like, follow, and share this with your friends.

You Will Die Here Tonight is a retro-style survival horror game available now for PC. It features challenging puzzles, a solid story, fun combat, and a creepy atmosphere. If you enjoy the genre or are simply looking for something spooky for the holidays, I recommend adding You Will Die Here Tonight to your collection.

Aries Division is sent on a mission to recover a stolen serum from a mysterious house on the hill. But this is no ordinary mission. Death hides behind every corner, zombies roam its halls, and the team has been separated. Can you find a way out of this nightmare?

Players investigate the mansion as each member of the Aries Division. Each character has a unique set of skills, stats, and personality that affects how they interact with the environment. This allows for interesting encounters, creative puzzle solutions, multiple endings, and a decent amount of replayability. 

This game does very little hand-holding. There are no checkpoints, and it won’t light your path to the next objective. Instead, you’ll have to stumble through the dark mansion, searching for clues. I loved the anxiety I got from not knowing where to go or what was going on. This anxiety coupled with the mansion’s creepy ambiance makes for a solid horror experience. You will die a lot, but most of the fun comes from getting a little farther with each life.  

The gameplay loop is split into three parts: exploration, combat, and puzzles. Exploring the mansion can feel a bit slow at times, but the setting is creepy enough that it won’t matter. I appreciate the isometric maps and retro vibe of the art style, but there are points in this game where I got stuck because it was too dark to see anything. 

Combat in this game is unique. Each encounter triggers a fun first-person shooter mini-game. The character you play affects how easily you can kill zombies. Killing zombies isn’t always hard, but finding enough bullets and medicine to stay alive can be difficult. 

The puzzles are the best part of this game. You may need a guide for a few of the puzzles, but they are manageable for the most part. I felt a decent sense of accomplishment after completing each puzzle. I definitely appreciate the creativity that went into making them. 

I loved this game. It is a fantastic title in the genre and a must-have if you are a fan of the original Resident Evil. It has a creepy vibe, a solid story, fun gameplay, and some great puzzles. You can pick up on Steam for $19.99.

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Deceit 2 can be kind of fun, but only if you’re playing with the right people

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I was sent Deceit 2 as a review code. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions about the game. This will be my honest review of the game. If you enjoy my reviews, make sure you like, comment, subscribe, and share them with your friends.

Deceit 2 is a unique take on the traitor-finding genre. You are trapped in a demonic ritual stuck playing a sadistic game run by a demonic game master. Together with nine other players, you must work together to escape. But two players are working against you. Can you find out who the traitors are in time to make your big escape, or are you doomed to play the game forever?

Before you consider buying this game, evaluate how comfortable you are speaking to strangers over a mic. This game’s sandbox structure both helps and hinders its longevity because what makes this game fun is its player base. The freedom the game gives you as you complete tasks and work towards the win condition is fantastic, but games aren’t fun when no one is talking. What makes games like this fun are the shenanigans they foster. I found that in the games where no one was talking, I was often waiting for the game to end. Unless you are willing to create your own fun or have friends to play with that will help you do that, there really isn’t much reason to get Deceit 2. 

It is a shame I can’t recommend this game because the game looks good. It has a fantastic theme, and some cool mechanics and it runs great with a bit of tweaking. If this game were free, I would be urging everyone to try it at least once. Unfortunately, the price tag makes this game a gamble.

If you are willing to make your own fun and enjoy this genre of games, now is the best time to get it because it has a decent-sized population. Once the game fades from the public eye, it’s going to die, and no amount of content is going to revitalize it. There might be a slight uptick during free weekends and the console releases, but it’s not going to have a lasting presence in the genre.

Deceit 2 is out now on Steam, with PlayStation and Xbox releases planned for the future. I can’t recommend it because of how heavily it relies on strangers to be fun, but you can pick it up for $14.99.

Series Reviews

Series Review: Hot Skull (2022)

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Hot Skull is an interesting take on the zombie genre. While the series may not feature the traditional zombie, it does feature the traditional tropes. The series is in Turkish, but there is dubbing in multiple languages. I always recommend watching shows in their original language, but the English dubbing for this is pretty good.

Hot Skull takes place in the middle of a global pandemic. The world fears a contagious disease that transfers through audio. People affected will start rambling endlessly, slowly forgetting who they are. People will turn to ramblers if they are exposed to rambling, so people live their lives wearing noise-canceling headphones. The government has taken advantage of the chaos and uses the pandemic to control its citizens. In a world without a cure, hope falls to Murat, the only person immune to the disease. Now the race is on to find a cure before the government silences Murat forever.

I enjoyed Hot Skull, but it isn’t without its faults. The series looks great and has a decent story, but some poorly written speeches were hard to sit through. It wasn’t bad enough to give up on the series, but I did zone out a few times. You notice it a lot whenever it deals with the peaceful protest group, but you can always skip around.

What I liked about this series is how it criticizes authoritarian governments. Hot Skull does a good job of showing how the government took advantage of the situation. Travel becomes restricted, curfews are set in place, the public narrative is heavily edited, and the government is not afraid to use excessive violence on what they consider to be dissidence. Civil unrest brews in the shadows because people no longer have control of their lives. I just wish they did a better job with the rebels. The group seems a bit lazily written and only exists to move the plot forward at points. 

I enjoyed Murat as a protagonist. Murat is the only person who is immune to the disease, but he spends his time in hiding. As he becomes exposed to the cold reality around him, he becomes more involved in the revolution. It is cool to see his transformation as he becomes more active in finding a cure. His transition to heroism may not be fluid, but it was well enough for what this is. 

The only complaint I have about this series is that it slows down halfway through. As Murat gets more active about his role in the pandemic, the series gets bogged down with a lot of revolutionary ideology that I didn’t have much interest in. It might be a translation issue, but there are a lot of sappy speeches about freedom and martyrs I didn’t care for either. The pacing picks up eventually, but not until I was ready to give up on the series.

Overall, the series stands pretty well. There was a good amount of suspense and tension. It handled a lot of its themes and criticism well. It may not be the best story, but it will pass the time. While I don’t see myself rewatching this series or waiting for a second season, I’m glad I watched it. I’d say that if you like the zombie genre and want to see something different, give this series a try. It’s better than the recent resident evil movies. Otherwise, wait till you have nothing to watch.

It is available for streaming on Netflix.

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Series Reviews

Series Review: Resident Evil (2022)

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After the disappointment that was Welcome to Racoon City, I had the lowest expectations for this series. I was not ready to love again, but the show grew on me. I didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would. It may not be perfect, but I feel it is a step in the right direction.

The series focuses on the fall of New Racoon city as experienced by Jade and her sister. The show will skip from the present zombie-infested world to the past when the Umbrella was still covering up what happened in Old Racoon City.

This series is fine, especially if you want a zombie survival show with some solid stakes. The acting is good for the most part, but there are some inconsistencies. The monsters and special effects are fine, but they are limited by the show’s budget. This is a low-budget series, and it shows, but they do well with what they have. I have seen more expensive shows do worse. It is a bit cheesy, but I was able to forgive it because there are some solid narrative beats.

The story is good enough. The jumping between narratives is impressive. There is some solid editing at play. The story also holds enough suspense and drama to keep most audiences entertained. There are moments where the series slows a bit, but I never thought it was unwatchable. The series doesn’t offer too much world-building if you have at least seen the movies. The series is another narrative about survival told from a different perspective. This isn’t a bad thing, but I am not sure how canonical this series will be.

My favorite part of the series is the villains. They were fun, competent, and had clear goals that helped move the narrative organically. The heroes were equally as competent, but they still get infected with those convenient ex-Machina zombie powers. It isn’t as ridiculous as I have grown used to, but it is hard to ignore. Fortunately, the powers don’t kill much of the tension, and there was enough suspense to keep me engaged. 

I can’t speak on how it relates to the games since I haven’t really played them. There are references to events from the game and the movies, but I never felt like I needed to be up-to-date on the lore to understand what was going on. It might help to give you a better appreciation for the narrative. If you like zombie survival dramas, this is a solid one if you can get past the cheesy overtones. I am at least curious to see where this series goes from here. You can watch it on Netflix.