Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Celebrating All Things Spooky: Happy Game

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video games  10 Responses »  Tagged with:
Oct 282024
 

Let’s talk about Happy Game, a short game that warns you right on its Steam page that it is not a happy game.

In terms of tone, it’s psychological horror, but as far as gameplay goes, it’s a puzzle game before anything else.

You play as a little boy having a nightmare, and I have to praise it for really capturing a surreal tone. The imagery is often disturbing, sometimes bright and colorful at the same time, and always bizarre.

The puzzles, meanwhile, are the type that seem to be complete dream logic when you first look at them, until you figure out the rules of each situation and see how to proceed. It’s simple mechanically – the main things you do are walk and click – but tricky in terms of figuring out solutions.

Now since it’s a horror game set within the context of nightmares, I’m sure there is a ton of symbolism here. It’s clear that it’s exploring childhood fears and trauma to some degree.

At the same time, everything is so surreal that it lends it ambiguity. There was a point while playing where I wondered if it simply was just a nightmare after all, and other points where I started to theorize about certain things. I feel like it’s the sort of game that lends itself to multiple interpretations.

It’s also disturbing enough in tone to be a great fit for this month. The final section in particular felt like a perfect game for Halloween.

So if you’re looking for a strange, surreal puzzle game that takes only a couple of hours to beat and is set within the context of a nightmare, Happy Game is certainly one to consider.

Celebrating All Things Spooky: Higurashi When They Cry Chapter 6

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video games  6 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Oct 252024
 

Last year, I made some solid progress in Higurashi and reached Chapter 5 in October.

Unfortunately, I unintentionally took another year-long break, so it’s taken me this long to get to the next chapter.

But now I have, so it’s time to talk about Higurashi When They Cry Chapter 6: Tsumihoroboshi.

The past two chapters have had different viewpoint characters, and this one splits most of the story between Keiichi and Rena. We learn a lot more about Rena’s past and have some truly emotional, heartfelt moments, and then…

Then things really get interesting.

While reading this chapter, there was a point where I believed Higurashi had finally given me all the answers and explained everything, revealed what was really going on. But then I began to get suspicious. It was a little too neat and tidy.

What followed was the most intense build-up of paranoia since the first chapter. I went back and forth so many times on what I believed, and that made it all the more interesting to read. It’s hard to say anything much about this chapter without spoilers, but suffice it to say that I still have many, many questions.

Click for major Higurashi Chapter 6 spoilers
The parasite theory made so much sense at first, but it seems like it was just Rena’s paranoid delusion after all… but that still leaves questions. Tomitake’s death is similar to Rena’s behavior during her maggot delusions. The disaster does feel like a cover-up.

While I still have a lot of confusion there, I’m much more confident in my theory that Rika is traveling between timelines (or resetting the timeline) to try to find a branch that doesn’t lead to disaster. It was such a good moment when Keiichi remembered his actions in the first chapter, not to mention Rika realizing that he remembered.

(Rika talking to Rena at the car was incredibly creepy, though.)

Meanwhile, both Ooishi and and Takano continue to be suspicious. Both of them have nudged things toward disaster in multiple episodes. This episode paints Takano as simply an occult nut or a conspiracy theorist, but other episodes made her actions seem more sinister. Ooishi’s point-of-view chapters here feel like they should exonerate him, but at the same time, him telling Rena about Takano’s time of death really pushed her over the edge. Was that really just an innocent mistake even though he already knew how precarious her mental state was?

It might have left me with a lot of questions, but this is one of my favorite parts of Higurashi so far. The atmosphere and sense of paranoia was incredible, and it was a great choice for this time of year.

Of course, if you haven’t played Higurashi yet, you’ll want to start from the beginning. But if you’ve played up through Chapter 5 like I had, you won’t regret moving on to Higurashi When They Cry Chapter 6: Tsumihoroboshi. I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.

Celebrating All Things Spooky: Hollow Head

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video games  6 Responses »  Tagged with:
Oct 232024
 

We’ve got another short horror game to discuss today, this time Hollow Head: Director’s Cut.

You wake up to a horrible smell in your apartment and decide to take care of the problem, but things quickly start getting weird.

Hollow Head uses graphics reminiscent of the PS1 era and has a fairly simple gameplay setup where you can walk, run, and interact with things.

A few notes and occasional interactions with other characters help to guide you along the way, but for the most part it’s just you, your flashlight, and the thing lurking in the dark as you make your way through the maze-like corridors the apartment building has become.

Yes, it’s the sort of game that makes use of a maze of identical hallways, but fortunately it’s not such a vast area that you can get completely lost like in some games we discussed earlier this month.

It also makes excellent use of its atmosphere – paired with a couple of well-timed jumpscares, the game had me on edge the entire time even when nothing was going on.

The story, on the other hand, is a bit too ambiguous for my tastes. While there are some curious hints, I’d say it’s definitely the sort of game you want to play for the horror gameplay rather than for the story. I’d be hard-pressed to explain what’s actually going on here.

Hollow Head is fairly short and should take under an hour to complete. If you’re in the mood for a short, atmospheric horror game, it’s worth checking out.

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