Or at least until their next game, that is. It takes an hour or two to get a grip on the dizzying lore that fuels its narrative, but Kaizen Game Works have crafted a dark concoction of existential horror and mystery that’s going to stick with me for a very long time.
With its 2D character drawings that rotate within an otherwise fully rendered 3D environment, the game shares many similarities to visual novels but with free-roam exploration gameplay across a surreal, dystopian vista that intrigues as much as it bewilders. Once a year, there’s an indie game that just hits completely different than nearly everything else out there, and in 2020 that was PARADISE KILLER. Fans of BLAIR WITCH and SILENT HILL should definitely check this one out. During my playthrough I was consistently amazed at how sprawling its environments felt, and though I did find myself a little disoriented at times, it only bolstered the experience and made me feel like I was actually inhabiting that space. There are some rough aspects such as the voice acting, sure, but nothing that survival horror enthusiasts will find particularly disagreeable.
SOMEDAY YOU’LL RETURNĭoes the thought of trekking through the beautiful and dangerous Moravian forest in search of your missing daughter sound like a good time? Well, it should, because SOMEDAY YOU’LL RETURN from CBE Software is one of the more unique first-person horror games to come along in quite some time. It’s been a while since something made me feel this uneasy during play, and for that, VISAGE is commendable. something special and expanding on them in new and terrifying ways. Case in point is VISAGE from Montreal developer SadSquare Studio, first-person nightmare fuel that takes many of the mechanics that made P.T. Although we only got a demo of the project in the form P.T., it served as a shockwave that’s still being felt in the indie horror scene today. It never came to fruition, but the pairing of HIDEO KOJIMA and GUILLERMO DEL TORO for Konami’s SILENT HILLS no doubt would have made for a fantastic game. The game recently added a co-op mode as well so you can bewilder your friends and family. I still don’t fully understand what the hell I’m even doing when I play it, but I’ve been totally enthralled every time I do. Yes, every moment of this first-person roguelike is deeply upsetting, but it’s also kind of hilarious? If wandering around a sun-soaked, flowery field before being thrust into a dungeon with walls, items, and enemies composed entirely of meaty flesh sounds like something you’re interested in, I highly recommend you just buy this thing immediately and take the trip yourself. Pink’s GOLDEN LIGHT, beyond that it is supremely strange. I’m kind of at a loss for what to write about developer Mr.
Though PARANOIHELL visuals may look, dare I say… cute upon first glace, developer lum worked their magic and got under my skin in ways I was never prepared for thanks to some unsettling sound design and unconventional jump scares.
The problem? A mysterious and violent force has suddenly taken hold, transforming its citizens and the topography itself into a hellish place where death awaits in every back alley, park, and previously ordinary place of business.
Take for instance the initial setup of PARANOIHELL: a bar employee closes out her shift and begins to make her way back to her apartment across town. Sometimes the seemingly mundane can be the most terrifying setting of all. Though I tore through the game in one sitting, THE HORROR OF SALAZAR HOUSE kept me returning to wander the mansion’s dark hallways again and again throughout this year. If one look at the game’s lovingly recreated Apple II visuals isn’t enough to draw you in, consider the fantastic music, sound effects and surprisingly touching story of a journalist investigating the disappearance of a famous author and his family in their remote mansion. THE HORROR OF SALAZAR HOUSEĪs the debut game from Ignacio Maldonato and first title released on Puppet Combo’s TORTURE STAR VIDEO label, THE HORROR OF SALAZAR HOUSE is one of the most satisfying point-and-click adventure games for me in years, horror or otherwise. With that, here’s a short list of my favourite independent horror games released in 2020 in no particular order. Though AAA horror titles such as RESIDENT EVIL 3, THE LAST OF US PART II, and DOOM ETERNAL released to their devoted fanbases this year, the indie horror scene produced some of the most disturbing, poignant, and imaginative experiences one can have with the medium. Despite last year being host to a ton of horrible events and human behaviour, at least we could depend on video games to keep us from going any more insane as we bided our time between lockdowns.