The Architect's List of SpoOoOoOoOoky Steam Halloween Sale games (Patreon)

Hello Friends! I wrote this list of recommendations for someone I'm in a discord channel with and I thought I may as well post it here for all to see. Aren't I a nice guy?  Honestly steam is using the term horror pretty loosely here but whatever there are some cheap games up for grabs.  Go check out these sweet spooktacular games accessable here: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/halloween2018/

Darkest Dungeon (£5.69) - The premiere vaguely lovecraftian misery simulator. Send hapless adventurers into a series of very scary dungeons filled with some truly nasty foes in order to slowly build up your town and better equip your dudes, sounds pretty standard right? The real draw of Darkest Dungeon comes from two sources, it’s very unique take on character “progression” and the battle system itself.

Darkest dungeon’s adventurers don’t really get stronger or more magical, they just slowly go insane, get sick and develop unhealthy habits like alcoholism as the dungeon drives them to madness, this promotes a really cool relationship with you treating certain adventurers as the expendable cattle that they are and trying your best to stave off the crazy eating away at your best troops. The battle system is also pretty unique, taking place in row-based formations that leads to some cool mechanics based around movement and positioning that spices up what would otherwise be plain tactics rpg mechanics. Tens of hours of content here, well worth a buy.

Resident Evil 7 (£12.99)- Finally, a good resident evil game! It’s been a long time since resi four and the series has gone back to its horror roots, adopting a first-person perspective and really leaning into the campy b-movie side of horror for most of the scares, it manages to provide a really compelling survival horror experience we’ve really not seen since the first game.

The game’s cast of weird hillbilly characters are very charismatic and make for great bad guys as well as bosses, fought with satisfying gunplay that never outstays its welcome... That is, until the very end of the game which is a bit of a shooting gallery. The end third of the game really ditches the horror stuff in a way I’d argue is for the worst, but up until that point the game is a fresh new take on a very old formula and one of the best straight up horror games of the last few years.

Crypt of the Necrodancer (£2.19)- What if I told you that you could mix a rougelike and a rhythm game? You’d call me a madman and quite rightfully so, at least until you played some Necrodancer. Jumping around randomly generated dungeons to some fantastic music is surprisingly intuitive and provides the inspiration for some great enemy designs that remain fun to fight hours into the game.

There’s a surprisingly rich selection of levels that took me several hours to master and even longer to actually beat, and that’s not counting the DLC which adds a bunch of new stuff too. Between that, the multiple characters and the daily challenge runs this is the best value proposition of the lot and also one of the most unique takes on the rougelike formula I’ve ever played – though be warned – if you’re not into the whole dying a lot thing, Necrodancer won’t change your mind.

Grim Fandango Remastered (£2.74)- The best Double Fine game of the lot, Psychonauts be damned. You play as Manny, a normal skeleton in a decidedly abnormal Mexican dia de los muertos styled afterlife.

The game has a great story, about unravelling a noir-esque conspiracy that predictably involves solving some rather clever puzzles and engaging with some of the best comedy writing in an adventure game. If you want to see an old-school adventure game done right for once, then Grim Fandango isn’t to be missed as it’s one of the best of all time.

Did I mention you get to drive around in a skeleton-themed souped-up Hot Rod? No? Is that why you’re not playing the game right now?

Limbo (£1.39) and Inside (£6.74)- Doing these ones together because they’re very much the same sort of game by the same developer and both star weird mute monochrome boys who get murdered a lot. Inside and Limbo are dark, atmospheric puzzle platformers which don’t actually do that much new on the mechanical front but man do they NAIL the atmosphere.

These games are grim, managing to feel oppressive and uncomfortable, yet also weirdly enticing, drip feeding you small lore nuggets to keep you pressing on through the weird and wonderful obstacles they can come up with like evil spiders and mind controlled pigs. You’ve probably heard the hype for these games and Limbo in particular has been a little overblown, but taken at face value as a pair of standalone movie-like experiences, you can’t go too far wrong with Playdead’s catalogue.

Prey (£9.99)- Prey’s a strange beast. An immersive sim released about a year after the second great immersive sim extinction that’s really trying to be system shock 2, bioshock and also dishonoured at the same time. The end result is a game that’s a little messy, loses the plot about halfway through and has some serious balance issues, but in a really interesting way.

Prey is a game with some wonderful potential, and great immersive simmy toys to play around with, like the glue gun which gums up enemies and can be used to create hardened glue structures on walls and floors. It’s also got a great soundtrack, trust me, if you play for about two mins, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

The best designed part of the game though is the mimics, the first baddie you meet and one that’s capable of disguising as any of the game’s physics objects. These little guys really help ratchet up the surprise factor and are used to play some great practical jokes on the player in ways I won’t spoil, seriously, they deserve a spot on a “best enemies ever” list.

Witch Hunt (£6.11)- Don’t let the cheap graphics and lack of polish turn you off, Witch hunt is a very interesting game that excels at evoking a very specific theme – monster hunting. Most of your playtime is spent hunting Werewolves and other gothic baddies in a big wood, slowly stalking your prey. The game is slow, occasionally boring and more than a little bit frustrating at times, but it taps into a really engaging loop of skirmishes with your mark as you slowly whittle them down before resuming the chase once again.

The game isn’t perfect but if you ever want to feel like Van helsing armed with a flintlock pistol and are looking forwards to about six hours in a spooky forest getting jumped by spiders, you’re in luck here.

Sunless Sea ( £4.75)- London has fallen, literally. It fell into a vast underground cave system years ago, on the coast of the unterzee, a vast underground ocean, and that’s where you come in. You’re tasked with captaining a boat and sailing it between the many varied and strange islands in the Unterzee, engaging in mind-bending adventures, eating your crew and maybe even getting enough money to retire.

Sunless Sea is written, predictably, by the Fallen London team, and it too has the same rich and expressive writing style that’s just dripping with lore and interesting characters. Each island is its own self-contained series of mini adventures making Sunless Sea an awesome pick up and play storytime game bursting with high-concept charm. The actual mechanics are a little wonky and the balance is strange (farm the early port reports if you want to live) but that’s more than made up for by the reams of excellent writing you won’t find matched in many other games.

Well. There you go. Some Halloween games. Now if you don't mind, I've got a crypt to return to.