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Geek Woman looks at a chilling coven of thirteen games that are guaranteed to satisfy your slash and splat Halloween needs. Here you will find the blood dropping gems that were released this year. Part two will illuminate the future with previews of new releases in the horror genre.
Women will go in places that men find fearful such as exploring their dreams or the occult. Women know how to suspend disbelief and let things happen, like believing in intuition. Men are often freaked out by intuitive things that women can do quite naturally. No one really knows why but women are drawn to mystery related entertainment. Women like surprises. It isn’t so much the blood and wall spattered gore in games that we go for. It is the surprise, the suspense, and then having the weapons to do something about it. “What is around the next corner?” “What happens next?” Those questions keep us interested. I believe that’s the factor that has kept TV shows that women follow such as Dark Shadows, Bewitched, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The XFiles, and Charmed running for so many years.
Siren was published by Sony Computer Entertainment last spring and it was released in the US in April 2004. It isn’t a popular title but now copies of it are showing up used and it would also make a fine rental. If you are fond of Japanese horror movies like Ju - on or Ringu then this game will please you. The game was directed by Toyama Shûichirô. He directed the first Silent Hill game which is considered a corner stone of the genre. Siren has its’ share of spooky girls with long hair and accompanying hell hound. Bad mojo is stirred up in the sea around a town and red rain falls. They all become “shibitos” or the undead. The Japanese word “han-shibito”, means half-person-cadaver. The game heavily borrows from Japanese traditional imagery
The graphics are really good. In Siren, every character is played by actors who also provide the voice over work. They were motion captured and character modeled. There was much effort put into the details of the game. During game - play you take the part of ten different characters throughout the game. Two are female. Of the ten playable characters, most of them don’t have weapons, and even if a select few of them manage to find some along the way it isn’t about that. It is a creepy game like Silent Hill of course. Each level is a quest where you have to accomplish something. And like Japanese movie storytelling, the levels are not linear. It skips around. It is one of those games where you have to make sure that you get all of the pick ups in order to advance. If you manage it you’ll be rewarded with a bonus video at the end.
It is a very difficult game. It is immersive and has a sense of eerie realism that should keep gamers who are looking for a challenge very happy. There are no healing items in the game. All the items you will find will be connected to the mission, even the ammo. The game doesn’t glibly leave ammo out on empty shelves that are sparking with clue lights. The ammo is only found in the places where you should find it, which makes it rare and you have to think before you shoot. There is no life bar in the game, the character can die instantly if shot.
The suspense of trying to discover what the whole mystery is about that drives the player to want to finish it. The story-line is the strongest and part of the game. Some levels will need to be played many time to acquire everything. You’ll have to use evasion and stealth and sneak behind unsuspecting enemies. All the horror games have a M for Mature rating, but this one has several of the ESRB Content Descriptors: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs. Siren 2 will be released in February to coincide with a release of a Siren movie in Japan. Right now Siren is a PS 2 exclusive.
The movie and game Constantine came out in February of 2005 for Ps2 and Xbox. If you were a fan of the original Hellblazer comic then you should be prepared for an entirely new characterization of John Constantine. He is more of a young, American, brunette reincarnation of the character. Constantine, as written, was an alcoholic chain-smoker, with a hereditary geist to the occult. I missed those unique Brit witticisms of his and the ‘colorful metaphors’ in Constantine, as filmed. It does loose quite a bit in the translation. But that doesn’t make it bad. Hellblazer was so good that even stepped down to pabulum for the masses it still makes for better story-line than much of what is out there.
The Constantine comic, movie and game combination is an excellent choice for nightmarish fun around the long three day Halloween Holiday. In the game you don’t get to play as a female character. But if you like slaughtering beasts and searching murder cases then this supernatural thriller is for you. The graphics are good. They seem to be taken right from the movie. Unfortunately Keanu isn’t doing the voice of John Constantine. You shoot Holy Bombs or a twelve gauge which are specially crafted weapons. The holy spirit shotgun shoots cross-shaped bullets. The Crucifier is a submachine gun that fires nails which were once used in crucifixions. Constantine is stocked with weapons and with a few spells.
Obscure was released for PS2, Xbox and PC in April of 2005. The game is inspired by a host of teen scream movies such as Halloween and Scream. Once again we have a bunch of high school kids who discover something demonic and get killed off one by one.
The cut-scene ends (or does it?) sets up the game very well and it ends with you in control of your character. Obscure may not be as original as Siren or as mystical as Constantine but it still has some twists to offer. ObsCure is a pretty average survival horror game in many respects. There are ambient effects like echoing footsteps and other distressful touches.
You play the game as five different characters. You can choose the female characters for some of the game. You can play as a team or co - op with two characters. You can play with a friend or with one controlled by the AI. The friend can leave at any point and give control of that character back to you when they leave. I expect that other games will make better use of that feature in the future. It is one of the things that makes Obscure the perfect gruesome game to accompany a night of teen slasher movies.
Haunting Ground was released in May of this year and I mentioned it in my recent article Girls’s Best Friend In this game you do play as a female character named Fiona Belli. She is an eighteen year-old blonde British girl. She has woken up after a car accident and finds herself inside an abandoned old castle.
It is another game without guns or status bars. It can be called a chase-based game. If you have a paranoid phobia about being pursued. Haunting Ground will give you nightmares. You have to hide under beds, or benches. Then you climb into closets and ditch where ever you can to avoid capture and cookery. The puzzles are many locked doors, objects with pieces missing, and places that you will need to use Hewie the dog’s help. Haunting Ground has a sprawling layout. You get lost easily.
The save-games are clocks in the stylish gothic scenes. You’ll need those saves. The graphics are set in the near darkness of the castle. There is plenty of detail in the furnishings, and there are good lighting effects. Watch out for those shuddersome spider webs.
If your game store is out of everything else on the list there is always Bloodrayne 2 for PS 2 Xbox and PC. There is a female lead character to play. It has repetitive, clumsy, game-play, lousy controls and camera issues though. But for some reason it is still popular. The story line makes little sense. You have to keep her rage meter up. To get more special attacks, Rayne has to perform brutal fatality moves. The slash fest with Rayne’s gauntlet blades produces fountains of gore. There are lobotomies, limbs flying and blood constantly sloshing around the screen. You can even watch it in slow motion.
There is a role-playing element included where Rayne earns carnage points by solving puzzles with impaled enemies. When the carnage meter is maxed out Rayne’s rage and health meters increase capacity. It’s a graphic and brutal game. Can’t say it is hardcore because the game - play is too squishy for hardcore gamers. The blood bath aspect may be too much for the casual gamers.
Darkwatch was released this August as well. It’s a first-person shooter on PS2 and Xbox. It has three levels on foot and three on horseback too. The game is an unusual combination of a western and vampires. Unusual but not original. Try to find copies of the first vampire western, House of Dracula (1945) The Monster Club (1980) and Twice Bitten (1979) to make a full night of it. When you think about it, the legend is that vampires have existed since the dark ages so why wouldn’t there have been some in the old west?
In the beginning of the game you get cursed and you are turned into a vampire. Then you become a member of an organization called the Darkwatch that has fight evil creatures. There is a single player campaign with about seventeen missions. Each objective has to be finished off to move on. They are all different which gives it more variety. You can choose your missions and then there is a choice of good or evil to play. It is a fun game that is different from the others in many ways.
Last but not least is the recently released Evil Dead Regenerations for Ps2 Xbox and PC. This installment is the most fun of all of the Evil Dead games so far. The game-play is improved and it is true to the series and a blast to play. It takes place after the events of the movie Evil Dead 2. Now Ash has been committed to an insane asylum and no one believes his story. The Necronomicon oozes its evil through the asylum and Ash and a new character called Sam have to stop the evil doctor.
You will have the “boomstick” and the chain-saw. Throughout the game there are new weapons such as a harpoon, a bomb launcher, and a flamethrower. Sam, the half deadite, gets kicked into targets. His character is voiced by Sam Raimi’s brother, Ted Raimi who you may remember as Joxer from Xena: Warrior Princess. This game like all the Evil Dead stuff is just hilarious.
Bruce Campbell does his voice acting with the dry humor and delivery of lines that fans have come to love. This isn’t a game that you can play with a female character, but both Bruce and Ted have plenty of female fans that enjoy these games. It is funny just to watch someone else play and take turns. Evil Dead Regenerations is a fun game. A combination of the movies and the new game make a classic Halloween celebration.
That’s seven games that are sure to please a woman gamer that is a horror fan. Either for yourself or as suggestions for a grisly girls night. Watch movies and play games for more expansive fiendishness. Have a Halloween horror game party.
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