The first half of my initial playthrough of Lunacy: Saint Rhodes captured my attention in a way only a top tier horror game ever could. Exploring a derelict house and its surroundings, feeling stalked by an unpredictable demonic presence, keeping me on edge nearly the entire time! I felt the need to take a break because of how tense it was, yet I also felt a desire to keep playing and uncover all of St. Rhodes mysteries. The eerie visuals, the town, and macabre story had me completely hooked, bringing me ever so closer to nominating this game as one of 2023’s hidden horror classics. And then comes the second half of the game barging in like a bad parody of Nicholson in The Shining: “Heeeeere’s Lame-O!” What could have been an enjoyable three-hour supernatural horror romp that started off exceptionally well, unfortunately becomes an obnoxious tedious mess real fast, with frankly disastrous consequences for the atmosphere. Introducing a laughable disembodied demonic voice that communicates with the player, followed by gameplay mechanics that switch from exploration & puzzle solving into (poorly executed) action territory, and to top it all off with everyone's favourite video game trope: the unstoppable one-hit kill stalker enemy! Rejoice! Upon completing the game, I forced myself to start another playthrough. The dopamine I got from the first half was still lingering. Then I reached the second half again, where I just refused to continue playing and uninstalled the game. I couldn’t help but mutter to myself “Fuuuuck you…”
TL;DR An entertaining atmospheric mystery horror-themed 2 hour puzzle game. Puppet House is a simple game, let's not obfuscate this. But what it does, it does well. Its a very old school "haunted house"-type of ride set in a house filled with (easy) puzzles, and a possessed puppet on your tail. Gameplay is as simple as: locate items or hints located in this room or the next, solve an easy puzzle, survive a brief (often QTE-based) encounter with the puppet. Graphics are adequate and the game runs smoothly. Puppet House is not meant to be taken too seriously and its quite self-aware. There is some lore, a somewhat simple yet coherent story, voiced by a tongue-in-cheek monologuing detective It's short, to the point, and fun while it lasts. Once it's over, it's over. Worth a buy on sale. Ideal Halloween evening filler.
As a horror aficionado having lived through the glorious golden days of survival horror, I should be cheering this one on... I usually eat through old school survival horror like a starved stray dog. Unfortunately I find Hollowbody a rather dull and shallow affair despite its strengths. There's really nothing in this game that makes it a memorable classic. The visual style is drab & bleak, the characters are forgettable, exploration is a chore, puzzles lack finesse, the story's unengaging, the droning soundtrack is something we've heard a thousand times before with no memorable themes or cues, and the way it is delivered ends up being a load of pretentious wank, I found combat to be rather unsatisfying as well. What a waste of a cyberpunk theme as well. Most importantly, it being a horror game, is it scary? Not in the slightest. First-person mode does increase the tension but I found myself not willing to suffer through the game a third time. The developer's previous effort, Chasing Static, was a completely different beast altogether but its premise and atmosphere made it much more memorable than Hollowbody's. Clearly the man behind Headware Games is talented as the game is conceptually thought out and runs very well, so it is somewhat with a heavy heart I have to say it falls completely flat for me. Honestly, I don't know what it is about Hollowbody that other players find so appealing, nor where the positive reviews are coming from. I'd rather recomment Crow Country, Tormented Souls, Withering Rooms, Starless, Homebody, etc. than this.
