Schlocktober '21 round-up. A ranking of the games I played and some closing thoughts.

This October I decided to play through a bunch of games with seasonally appropriate horror themes from my backlog. I wanted to get into the holiday spirit and finally get through some games I’d acquired over the years but didn’t otherwise have the impetus to play. I ended up playing a lot more than I thought I would and much more than I usually do over the course of the month and I really enjoyed it. None of the games were home runs for me, personally, but it was interesting to see the different ways that horror themes could be incorporated into various genres, and to play so many older games close to one another and see what held up, what didn’t, and why. If you’re interested I’ve ranked the games I played here and linked to my longer write up of each of them.

1) Bioshock. This is the best game I played and is obviously a beloved classic. I’d already played half of it but I enjoyed finishing it. The game has aged in many ways but the underlying aesthetic and story remain strong.

2) Alice: Madness Returns. This game is both fun and unique. It’s a big budget platformer with very dark themes and visuals that have aged wonderfully. The gameplay hasn’t aged quite as well but it’s still a fun time, and it’s not like anything else I’ve played since.

3) Shadows of the Damned. A stylish shooter with gameplay that’s just okay but an absolutely killer look and some great writing. It’s definitely worth going through once, whether that’s playing or watching a video of it.

4) The Darkness II. This is a short but fun little FPS game that plays well and tells a fine story. There’s nothing special about it, really, but it’s a good time and has some fun powers to mess with.

5) Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. This is a God of War clone with some rough parts but some great environments and decent gameplay. It’s wildly ambitious with a ton of variety but there are definitely some rough spots.

6) Echo Generation. A short RPG/adventure game with some funny scenarios and a lot of visual flair. The lightest game on the list this is a great playthrough if you just want something easy and amusing.

7) Deadlight. An above average zombie platformer. It isn’t very ambitious but it executes its mission pretty well, except for one boring sewer sections. Sewer levels are the real horror in gaming.

8) The Medium. A very pretty adventure game with a great heroine and an okay story. The gameplay isn’t anything special but it can be atmospheric and has memorable characters.

9) Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate. A slightly below average Metroidvania with a weird structure and somewhat stiff gameplay. It’s not bad but there just isn’t much to recommend it.

10) Little Nightmares. A very stylish 3D platformer whose inconsistent controls and frustrating parts make it a bit of a chore to get through. Loved the world and the look, but this was one I thought about quitting.

11) Castlevania: Lords of Shadow II. This is gorgeous for a late 360 game but it has a lot of flaws and never really coheres in a meaningful way. A ton of frustrations and irritating parts keep the good stuff from shining through.

12) American McGee’s Alice. I feel bad putting this so low, but while I enjoyed my playthrough because it brought me back to a different time and place, this game has aged to the point where it’s more a curiosity than anything else. You can still see the great aesthetic despite the older graphics, but the combat is awful and the platforming stiff.

13) Blood Knights. This game is trash but at least it’s so bad it’s funny and it’s a quick and easy playthrough.

So there you have it. 13 games in 31 days (technically 32 since I didn’t finish Echo Generation until November 1^st) and more skeletons, vampires, ghosts and ghouls sliced, diced, staked, baked, and fled from than you can shake a whip at. I can’t remember the last time I played through that many games in such a short period of time, and while many of them have completion times of around 5 hours, that’s still a bit of a binge. On the other hand I cleared out a lot of games from my backlog and got to experience a lot of different games in a short period of time.

Some observations:

I was surprised at how many of these games I ended up liking mostly for their aesthetics. I generally enjoy games for their stories, world building, and game play but while I appreciate art and especially music it’s not the most important thing to me. I always appreciate creativity, though and I think that horror themes allow artists to really stretch their stylistic legs and do fresh and interesting things. So many modern games are about shooting the same enemies in the same locations that it’s fun to see some original creature designs and castles full of sentient blood. I also think that this also shows one of the big differences between even good indies and bigger budget games. Even the good looking indies have to be efficient with their use of assets and locations while the really big budget games can afford to do crazy things like Lords of Shadow’s insanely different environments and incredible Patrick Stewart voice acting. And I got through the whole Lords of Shadow trilogy in one month. I always wanted to play those, and now I have!

Although I did get scared a few times while playing these games they did not affect my dreams. When I used to watch horror movies or play horror games as a younger person they would easily infiltrate my dreams, but even something like The Medium, which is actual horror and not just an action game incorporating horror elements, didn’t affect me. That’s definitely a good thing.

Video game soundtracks have gotten really really good. I have always loved video game music from the NES era on but playing this many games across such a wide period (from 2000 through 2021) made that very clear. I think that we underrate just how incredible video game music is these days.

Game marathons can be a lot of fun because they help a lot with the issue of picking what games to play next and give you a reason to push through a game even if you’re not super motivated.

Overall I’d call the project a success. It made for a sometimes fun sometimes interesting month of game playing, and it sated my curiosity about a lot of games that I always meant to get around to but never found the time to play. I’ll probably do something like it again next year if I have the time, since there are still lots of horror inflected games in my backlog, and this is a good way for me to sit down and actually play some of them. For me part of the joy of gaming is being able to compare how different games handle similar themes or mechanics, and any excuse to put a bunch of games with a shared theme together and figure out what works and what doesn’t for me is going to be a worthwhile exercise.