Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Celebrating All Things Spooky: The Sinking City 2

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video Games  No Responses »  Tagged with:
Oct 142026
 

I know what you’re thinking. Why am I talking about The Sinking City 2 when I’ve never talked about The Sinking City?

It’s true, I still haven’t played The Sinking City.

I do want to try it out one of these days, but I still haven’t gotten a chance to. Earlier this year, however, I had a chance to review The Sinking City 2 for MonsterVine, and since it’s a standalone sequel, I went for it.

You can read my full review over there, but the most important thing to know is that this is a survival horror game.

Not a detective game with horror elements. Survival horror through and through, complete with inventory management, puzzles, and areas that gradually open up as you find new keys. My main criticism is just that occasional sections focused too much on action.

I really enjoyed The Sinking 2, and right now it’s probably my favorite horror game that I’ve played this year. Despite it being the team’s first take on the genre, it really captured that gameplay formula well.

On top of that, it’s Lovecraftian horror, so that always gets my attention. I enjoyed its story, even though survival horror is one of a handful of genres where I look for gameplay first. Actually, the story and lore made me even more curious about finally going back and playing the first game…

…if not for this October, then maybe for the next?

In the meantime, what are your thoughts on The Sinking City 2?

Celebrating All Things Spooky: Helping Your Boyfriend

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video Games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Oct 122026
 

Over the weekend, I saw a post about a free horror romance visual novel called Helping Your Boyfriend, so I decided to give it a try.

You live with your boyfriend, a doctor named Adrian, who takes care of you due to a condition that left you unable to walk. You also take apart old dolls for him.

(With this premise and the knowledge that it’s horror, you might already have an idea of where this is going.)

The first thing I did was turn off the voices, because the voice acting came in the form of little laughs and things to accompany the lines, and it felt more distracting to me than anything else. I also puzzled over the difficulty settings for a while, because I couldn’t see what they affected…

…until I encountered a QTE where I had to hit buttons on a timer, and then I understood why there were difficulty options.

Yes, it’s not just a visual novel. There are minor adventure game elements in certain scenes, but also sections where you need to get past rapid QTEs or die. It adds a definite sense of urgency to those scenes, although a generous auto-save means dying doesn’t force you to repeat too much content.

Helping Your Boyfriend is pretty short, under two hours to get all four endings, but it manages its time well to build up a tense atmosphere. It also got me good with a jumpscare at one point.

My biggest criticism is that on subsequent playthroughs to get the other endings, I felt like I kept needing to hit the skip text button again (partly because of the number of dialogue options, but there were also times when I couldn’t tell if it wasn’t skipping or if the text was just slow regardless) instead of just skipping through smoothly.

Overall, however, Helping Your Boyfriend is a nice, creepy visual novel with some great moments. I’d recommend it if you like horror disguised as something cute or if your brain starts vibrating at the phrase “serial killer doctor.”

Celebrating All Things Spooky: ZENO Daily Life

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video Games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Oct 092026
 

Last October, we talked about an intriguing horror adventure game called ZENO, and I mentioned that I might check out the side games.

So this October, I continued the ZENO journey with the sequel ZENO Daily Life.

Despite the title, it doesn’t have a slice-of-life focus or anything like that. Instead, the characters’ peaceful life quickly reaches a crisis when someone with new ideas about how to handle the ZENO virus puts his plan into action.

ZENO Daily Life is much shorter and simpler than the first game. You largely just interact with things in the environment to get items and move from place to place, with very little to figure out.

Well, except for navigating the map. My one complaint about ZENO Daily Life is that despite only having a few locations, it’s strangely confusing to find your way. The way areas connect isn’t intuitive, and at one point I got stuck only to find the entrance I needed in a place that didn’t look like an entrance at all.

Aside from that, I enjoyed this shorter ZENO experience. ZENO Daily Life isn’t as horror-focused as the first one (and even the cannibalism and murder take a backseat here), but it’s nice if you want to see more of these characters.

I know, that makes two “this isn’t quite horror” games in a row. We’ll pick up next week with some games more in the spirit of the month! In the meantime, what are your thoughts on ZENO Daily Life?

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