I feel like I’m walking on a path made of very thin ice.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent Review

A few weeks ago I finished Amnesia: The Dark Descent (I really should’ve written this a while ago) and it was pretty fucking good. It was like a Victorian-era version of Outlast.  I’ll separate the various aspects of the game into different categories and review those individually because I feel that keeps things organized.

Story: Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a game about a man named Daniel and his journey trying to rid himself of a creature simply called The Shadow that began following him when he found a mystical orb on an archeology expedition. To do so he, with the help of a man named Alexander, conforms to many horrific and disturbing rituals only to discover Alexander is doing this for his own purposes and to use the orb for himself. Daniel, to keep his mind on bringing down Alexander and away from the horrific things he’d induced on other people for his own sake, drank an amnesia potion, which is where the game begins. While the story wasn’t all that strong in the end, it was delivered very well in the way you always wanted to know what happened next and would continue to  play for the singular point of that. I think it served it’s purpose for the sake of the game but was still interesting and fluid enough to be called its own story and not just put there for no reason.

Characters: The characters were very few in this game and the ones that were there weren’t very fluid in personality. The main antagonist Alexander is relentlessly evil and never strays from that path, Daniel is your typical timid horror game protagonist, and The Shadow is more of a force really than a person. On the other hand, the dialogue and voice acting were both very well done and through this made these very straightforward characters work for a game were massive character development wasn’t entirely necessary. If we’re considering The Shadow as a character (since, besides the fact it acted like a monster, it was certainly intelligent and had a motive) I really liked how it barley appeared as a shadow and instead made itself corporeal by random growths of flesh, blocking doors and rooms and such, or as hulking deformed creatures that barley look healthy enough to live. It was a really creative way to have a separate protagonist.

Gameplay: Throughout the game there were two things you could never take your mind off of: Sanity and light. If your Sanity dropped low enough the game would become hell by a constant sine in your ear, a red shader over everything, hallucinations, and horribly slow walking. Your Sanity dropped anytime you stared at a monster for long enough or it was too dark around you. Any sort of disturbing event would do the same. Light could be produced in two ways. First of all your lantern, that needed oil that you had to constantly search for, and torches, stationary lights that could be ignited by tinderboxes, which you could also find as items. The gameplay consisted of puzzles mostly, with the exception of a few chase scenes, and then there were the really hard ones that mixed the two. Though something I loved about the game was the realism of it. There was a puzzle that involved needing to get through a locked door, but I hadn’t the key, so I threw a chair through the window and climbed outside and into the room to unlock it from there. Even the end of the game was a puzzle and depending on how how solved it it gave you separate endings.

Graphics: The graphics, while definitely not the best realism-wise, worked very well for the game to give it a gloomy, kind of gothic feel. The approach on the graphics seemed similar to Diablo 2, in the way that the graphics were designed to be good for the game, not realistic necessarily, and in the darker, harsher way. I feel like the graphics worked extremely well especially for a horror game. Every wooden pillar looked like it would give you a swath of splinters, every stone wall looked colder than a wet blizzard, every cog and gear rusted to oblivion. In short, the graphics weren’t impressive but they were very good for the kind of game this was and I never tired of them. 

Sound: The music was only really used when there was something to queue it like a chase or an event or something. But the times there was an entire song and not just a ten-second ambient or something were really good. I especially liked the main menu music and that’s not something I can say for a lot of things. The sound effects were all pretty awesome. Everything sounded exactly like the sound was made by whatever happened in the game, not a sound studio attempting to recreate the sound (that is except for the sound made when the player took damage, that one was just kinda weird). 

To be honest this wasn’t an amazing game, but I very much enjoyed it nontheless. It was interesting enough that I felt engaged in it and it was fun and not too easy or difficult. It had a great mix of psychological and visual horror and wasn’t too focused on one or the other or a dumb jumpscare-fest like most indie-horror games seem to be recently. I’d definitely say it was worth playing.

Train to Busan Review

A few weeks ago I watched the Korean movie Train to Busan. This was undoubtedly a zombie apocalypse movie, but it handled a little bit different from most.  I’ll separate the various aspects of the game into different categories and review those individually because I feel that keeps things organized.

Story: The story takes place in a city in Korea where a work-to-the-bone funds manager for a nuclear powerplant has been having trouble finding any time to spend with his daughter and, with her mother living in Busan, she’s been almost totally raised by her grandmother. The Father (who’s name is Seok-woo) promised his daughter (who’s name is Su-an) that they would travel to Busan to see her mother. On the way by train to the city a sick woman enters the train and loses her shit and starts eating the ever-loving hell out of the train staff who try to help her, and that’s kind of where the story takes off. Now the reason I put so much emphasis on the undead cannibalism is because the zombies in this movie are a lot more sporadic than most zombie stories. They’re a lot less like The Walking Dead, rotten and slow; and more like Left 4 Dead, fast as fuck and will stop at absolutely nothing to get to you, even if it means hurting themselves or other zombies. Another interesting thing about the undead in this movie is the speed of reanimation. If you’re bitten it’ll take about half an hour, but if you’re eaten then it can take just seconds. Though, eaten wouldn’t be the right word as the zombies seem to not be so bent on getting food, but rather just beating another person to death and infecting them. They were also fairly stupid as many scenes showed, if they couldn’t see you you didn’t exist to them. But if they heard you, you were fucking done. They were relentless but stupid. It also seemed to be able to infect everything, not just humans, but there was only one scene of this and it was a baby deer so young it could hardly walk, so it made no difference really. I feel like they could’ve easily thrown a dog or cat at someone and it would’ve made things a lot scarier. Overall though, the story was okay, nothing great. It seemed to really only be there to make way for the zombies, train, and characters (which I suppose was pretty much the whole story anyways) but it was definitely something that kept me watching.

Characters: The characters were very well done, fluid enough to seem like real people if this were a real situation. You can see in the background too character development between extras that aren’t really main, or even side characters, but rather reoccurring, and so every decision and casualty really meant something to the viewer as long as they’d been paying attention. 

Graphics: The special effects with this movie were great. They stayed subtle enough to seem realistic but were still really exciting when they were used, especially when it was used for the zombies, but it wasn’t used so much that it seemed like it was directed by Michael Bay. This movie was extremely realistic with the gore, not something you tend to find in most American movies, and that just added to the tenseness so well. Now, I’m gonna talk about the train. They got their fucking money’s worth with that train, because about 95% of the movie is on it, but also because they utilize the train in so many different ways. Designating certain cars for prisons, quarantine, and living spaces, using the bathrooms as strongholds when moving through infected areas of the train, and using the doors as blockades in several different ways. Damn that train was cool!

Sound: The music was pretty minimal, but I like that in tense situations. It makes the entire scenario seem so much more realistic, like something that could actually happen. When there was music, it wasn’t fantastic or anything, but it definitely was the right choice, and done well for the scene it was in. The sound effects were similar. Nothing was added that didn’t need to be, and it was all very realistic and timed well, but not outstanding.

Overall I’d say this movie is worth a watch. Weather you’re into zombie movies, horror, or just stuff from other countries and cultures, this was definitely something I’m glad I watched, and I have @queen-of-the-nerdlords to thank for the recommendation! I don’t think this is something I’d watch a second time alone, but I’d definitely with someone else.

I feel like it’d be really kinky to have sex with a Sith.

Dark Souls 2 Review

Yesterday I finished Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin and i have to say it was really good, but so was the first one. Almost nothing changed between the first and the second and, with the first one being good, so was the second. I’ll separate the various aspects of the game into different categories and review those individually because I feel that keeps things organized.

Story: The story of Dark Souls 2 was just as ominous as the first. In this one you play as another wanderer who has cursed themself to become undead to begin the journey to the domination of a land called Drangleic. Over the course of the game, unlike the first, you are able to learn about what happened at Drangleic before you’d arrived from people, scenery, and near the end of the game experiencing memories of the people who were there before you. I’ll try not to spoil anything but I was rather disappointed by the endings. They were exactly the same as the first and added nothing new or different, just changed a few variables such as this being on a different world, and some different characters, and that’s it. I mean, I liked the story, but I also liked the story of the first Dark Souls, and the two ended up being almost identical.

Characters: The characters in this game shared that same depressive visage that they did in the first, though that I’m not saying to hinder it, I think with these similar plots the characters would also be quite similar. To name a few of my favourite; Benhart, a scottish dwarf carrying a big-ass teal greatsword who’s composure never fell even in the face of total hopelessness; McDuff, an insane blacksmith who’s absolutely obsessed with fire; and my favourite, The Emerald Herald, an aspect of fate who tends to speak only things that were the total truth in a pretty calming way. She was definitely the creepiest out of them and I genuinely thought she might be the final boss, but she kept her tutorial-esque demeanor. All-in-all I’d say the characters were all their own person and pretty well developed in their own ways. Oh, except for the final boss who had a single line of dialogue through the whole game… I really think the Emerald Herald would’ve made an excellent final boss.

Gameplay: The gameplay was almost the same as the first with a few mild differences. For the most part there’s exploring and fighting with some puzzle elements as well. The fighting, though, is by far the main part of the game. Most fights consist of strategically dodging and blocking, getting hits in when you can. There’s also spells and ranged weapons, and a large variety of all kinds of weapons with large amounts of different attacks, some even have their own special maneuvers. I really like the gameplay because of its semi-realistic nature. It’s not like an ARPG or a FPS where you can just charge into an army thinking that you’re some badass. You’re gonna die in this game if you do’t do that, and you’ll die regardless eventually. You have to plan out every fight that you come across or you’re doomed, and it’s when things don’t go as expected that you get really worried and don’t want to lose all your souls. That brings me to the next aspect about the game is souls. In this game when an undead creature kills something it takes their souls. Souls can be traded to other undead as a currency for weapons, armour, ammunition (arrows and bolts), and some magical items, or they can be used to level up your character. The reason that it’s so crucial that you spend your souls before you die is because if you die you lose all unspent souls. You can retrieve them at the place you died at, but if you die again before you reach it they’re gone forever. I very much enjoy this style of gameplay, it’s kind of like a Kaizo-Skyrim or something.

Graphics: The graphics were identical to the first, and nothing too special by realism’s standards, but the thing this game does with the graphics that too few games do is make the graphics for the game, not for realism. A few good examples of this are Diablo 2, Dishonored, and Minecraft. The graphics work by making the grim look dire, the deadly look unstoppable, and the beautiful look magnificent. It eccentric-izes everything so perfectly somehow (and I don’t mean that dumb shit AAA games love to do when they just skyrocket the contrast.)

Sound: The sound effects were pretty minimalistic and nothing special. They worked, that’s about all there is to say. The music is also nothing too special, almost totally operatic and only during bossfights except for a select few places. There is one part where you think you’re about to fight the final boss and it turns out creepily otherwise (don’t wanna spoil anything) and it plays a really on=point creepy ambient, but that’s about it.

Dark Souls 2 was pretty much the same game as the first, just with new maps and characters. Don’t get me wrong, I very much enjoyed playing it, it was fantastic, but by the end it was a little disappointing. I still have a couple DLCs that I haven’t played on it yet and a couple classes yet to try, but I’ve already started Dark Souls 3 and hope that one delivers a little more on its story. I hope so, because if I have to power through the stuttery-ass god awful engine that the third game uses for the same story I’ve already played through twice, that;s gonna suck. The game itself is fun though, and I’d recommend it to any patient, persistent, person who loves real-time combat.

Recently I started watching a show called “Angel Beats!”. It’s a really interesting idea of the afterlife and, in a way, is similar to the show “The Good Place” just that this show is a lot more physically brutal than that one. Something that I really like about the show, though, is that it’s kind of like a JRPG but as an anime. Like, you could easily make this show into a JRPG Horror Game with almost no changes, I’m really enjoying it!

intj-girl-things:

WHAT WOULD A SCHOOL DESIGNED FOR INTJs BE LIKE?

• First of all, INDIVIDUAL TABLES.
• There would be no break in the routine. This would disrupt the schedule. For example, if lunch is set to start at 1pm, it would ALWAYS START AT THIS EXACT TIME.
• MINIMAL GROUP PROJECTS.
• There would be debating rooms, so that the rest of the school could be quiet while people are debating.
• Q U I E T
• Rules would be logically imposed. No stupid rules that have no reason to be there.
• Lunch tables probably wouldn’t need to have many seats. It’s unlikely the INTJs would form squads of 4 or more people.
• Coffee would have to be easily accessible.
• Quiet rooms where people could go to study, isolated from the rest of the school.
• There probably wouldn’t be that many PE lessons, if there were any at all.
• Lastly, the library would be huge, containing books on many different topics in multiple languages.

Have any more suggestions? Add them under this post!

(Source: over-ana-lysing)

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Book by Mary Roach

I started reading this book mostly because I really enjoy the topic of death. I just find the transition between person and object, and the enormous variation in how people deal with death or killing very interesting. Anyways, this book, as far as I’ve read, talks a lot about how corpses are treated during human dissection and practice for surgeons. The corpses are given a large amount of mental and social respect, acknowledging that it was a person who did indeed live once, but physically it’s just a body; an object made of flesh, bones, and various fluids. I’m really enjoying it and I relate quite a bit to the policies and ideas of the difference between a dead person and a corpse.