October is always a great time for horror releases, and this year was no exception.
So many small indie games came out that it’s easy for great ones to slip through the cracks. I was able to sample a bunch of gems from this month, so here’s a list of the best I played to help you fill your Halloween with some great spooky games.
There are often games that aren’t exactly scary or horror that nevertheless have Halloween vibes, and Spooky Express, by longtime puzzle developer Draknek and Friends, is the perfect example. The game puts you in charge guiding a train through a series of eerie landscapes while you pick up a variety of monsters and bring them to their destination before moving on. The music and graphics give it a fun house feel, making for a pleasantly adorable take on classic monsters you know and love.
Each level is a single screen, with various creatures and destinations, along with an entrance and exit. Your job is to lay down tracks to guide the train to pick up and drop off monsters at the correct locations. For example, vampires go in coffins, zombies go in graves, and children need to be on the train when you make it to the exit. Two important points complicate this. One, you can never double back on spaces that you’ve previously placed track, and two, you can only carry one passenger at a time. I was concerned that the game would be too simple, but it quickly ramps up in complexity and introduces new little wrinkles that challenge your puzzle-solving skills.
As you make your way through the levels, you have branching paths to choose from, allowing you to go a different direction if a level’s got you stumped. If you’ve got an insatiable appetite for these puzzles, completing both paths will unlock extra challenge levels for you to complete, so there’s plenty to do with the simple setup. I’ve been playing the game on my Steam Deck, but it’s also available on mobile and feels right at home on that platform as well. It’s a delightful shot of Halloween that works your brain while putting a smile on your face. Plus, the zombies say “traaaaaaiiiins,” so that makes it a win in my book.
I know the roguelike deckbuilder genre is a crowded one, but when one comes around that has as strong of a horror theme as Malys, the new game from the studio behind the musical RPG Stray Gods, I still take notice. Former Dragon Age writer David Gaider pens a tale of a former priest turned demon-hunter on a quest to save possessed people by performing exorcisms, which is played out in the form of card battles. It’s a wonderful new theme for a game of this type, and there’s solid card mechanics to back it up.
When you go into an exorcism, you’re trying to break the will of the demon to defeat it, while it’s trying to do the same to you. You’ve got attack cards that can hurt it, defense cards that can protect you from incoming damage, and several other cards that do more specific and interesting things. One of the key things that makes this system feel more unique is how you build your resources to play your cards.
There are three candles on the right side of your screen that start unlit. If you drag a card to the right, it will discard the card and light a candle. Each card has a cost to play it, and lit candles are your currency for playing. This creates an interesting moment at the beginning of each turn as you look at your hand – which cards are ones I want to play now, and which are the ones that I’m going to sacrifice to make it happen. Most of the time you can see what the demon will be doing to aid in this planning, but sometimes that information is obscured until you meet certain conditions.
Aside from the clever twist on deckbuilding, Malys has a gorgeous artstyle, often presenting stark black and white images with pops of color outside of battle, then deep reds during an exorcism. In a unique move for a card game, there’s also a decent amount of narrative while you are going from area to area on a Slay the Spire-like map, featuring some evocative writing paired with the crisp images. Since it’s a roguelike, I’m still pretty early on and don’t know how the complexity will increase as you continue, but if you’re out there waiting for Slay the Spire 2 and want a horror-themed deckbuilder to tide you over, the sinister and moody Malys will fill that hole for you.
The roguelike structure is one that’s been applied to a lot of different subgenres, from isometric action games like Hades to slot machines like Clover Pit, so it was only a matter of time before it made its way to a genre like the classic beat ‘em up. Absolum is a dark fantasy game that feels like the side scrolling version of Hades, and it feels like a match made in heaven. You play as a group of heroes that band together to take down the Sun King Arza, who has forbidden the people from using the very magic he wields to keep everyone under his boot.
While the developers are known for working with other properties like Streets of Rage, this is an original world that’s brought to life with a lush art style that looks great in screenshots and even better in motion. The smooth animation and unique designs breathe tons of life into what could come across as fairly rote fantasy concepts, making the world feel more lived in, even when the story doesn’t exactly feel unique. There’s just enough proper nouns to make for a cool swords and sorcery setting, and the characters you play as have the right amount of personality with their dialog to compliment their look.
One thing that sometimes frustrates me about console beat ‘em ups is that death either feels too punishing or inconsequential, and using the roguelike structure makes dying an integral part of the gameplay loop. The combat feels crisp and precise, and the upgrades you can select from as you progress from section to section allow you to modify your build in meaningful ways that add clever layers to the experience. As you play over and over, you’ll not only upgrade your character through spending resources, but you’ll also complete little quests that span runs. For example, I was tasked with getting a bridge fixed, but I had to go down a specific path and to find a character, which unlocked the bridge for future runs. I didn’t get a chance to try out the multiplayer co-op, but I can only imagine that, like any good beat ‘em up, it’s even better with friends.
Horror-themed action games are dime a dozen, but I promise you that none of them are like Silly Polly Beast, the latest game from solo dev Andrei Chernyshov. It’s a strange mix of visual and thematic elements that makes it feel wholly unique, taking you on a strange trip to the underworld as you follow Polly, a mute orphan who finds herself in a strange realm while on the search for her best friend Alice. It feels like part Devil May Cry, part Suda 51, but still manages to forge its own identity.
Most of the gameplay is presented from a fixed isometric perspective, occasionally shifting into a side scrolling view, and features a combination of melee and ranged combat, but of which are limited, either by stamina or ammo, to prevent you from spamming attacks. Polly swings her skateboard and blasts away with a gun to fight off the strange creatures she comes across, and the battles feel more tense than your average action game thanks to the challenging constraints of the combat. I did find myself wishing the stamina bar recharged faster, but once I got in a rhythm of attacking and dodging, I found it really satisfying, if occasionally frustrating.
Silly Polly Beast is aggressively stylized, presenting some really striking imagery as you descend into the weird world you find yourself in. The shifting perspective allows for them to frame some really unique moments, feeling almost comic book-like at times. There’s a real punk rock energy that the game captures, without ever feeling forced, and flashbacks help fill in your past at the orphanage. There’s a lot going on in the game, but that manages to make it a unique experience, even if it could use a little bit more tuning or polish.
Blue Prince made some waves earlier this year with fans of mystery games that really make you feel like you’re solving something. Hopefully players who still want to scratch that itch check out The Séance at Blake Manor, a new mystery game by Spooky Doorway, creators of the adventure game series Darkside Detective. You play a private investigator in 1897 Ireland who goes to a remote hotel to investigate the disappearance of a woman named Evelyn Deane. You arrive mere days before the Grand Seance, which has drawn mystics from all over the world, creating a wonderful cast of characters for you to get to know.
The Séance at Blake Manor makes a stunning first impression with a visual style that takes cues from comic artists like Mike Mignola and Eduardo Risso, creating an eerie mood right from the first dark and stormy night. Even before you meet the other guests, it’s clear that something strange is going on at the hotel, thanks to the lavishly rendered world it presents. Once you meet the wide cast of characters, you start to unravel the creepy tale that the game lays out before you.
The game surprised me with the surprising mechanical complexity of how the mystery is solved. Every small bit of investigation you do, whether it’s examining an object or talking to a suspect, takes up time. As time moves forward, the various characters move around the hotel on a set schedule, providing specific windows for you to make key discoveries in your investigation. All your clues are presented on an interconnected mind map allowing you to keep track of everything going on with a press of the button.
When you have enough information to solve a specific question, you’re given the opportunity to fill in a “Mad Libs”-style sentence a la The Case of the Golden Idol, synthesizing all your clues into a theory. It’s a compelling combination of other mystery games, but made all its own with a beautiful art style and unique setting.
Honorable Mention:
One of my favorite games of 2023 was Slay the Princess, a clever little visual novel that not only told an interesting story, but also felt like a commentary on the nature of choice in video games.This month, they released an art book for the game that also feels like an examination of how far you can push the concept of an artbook. While it does have the wonderful illustrations from the game alongside insightful commentary, it’s also presented as a choose your own adventure, allowing you to “play” the game in an entirely new way!
The post Indie Gaming for Halloween: A Selection of 6 Indie Horror Games to Check Out This Year appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.
