What are we playing for Halloween?

GRIND EDITION

October is probably the best time for gamers. “Days shorten, nights lengthen”, but for us, it’s perfect. This cosy Spooktober atmosphere is just right for firing up the console for a few relaxing hours. Because what else is there to do, right? It’s cold outside, raining… you know, that perfect gaming weather. Of course, you could watch a series or maybe a film, but hey, we’re GRIND here, we like games, so we haunted the gang on the Discord channel and got some solid 7s for this spooky season, or maybe even for Halloween night itself.

Luigi’s Mansion

Recommended by Vlad Costea

Luigi’s Mansion 3 might as well be the best-looking game released on Nintendo Switch… but also a relatively safe and psychologically trauma-free way for a child to experience the thrill they’ll later discover in Resident Evil. In his adventure, Luigi gets stuck in a haunted hotel and must use his ghost-sucking vacuum to teleport the souls of morally rudderless strigoi to the afterlife. The game successfully blends horror genre clichés with a mechanic for capturing restless and malevolent spirits. Even if the graphics are relatively cute and seemingly harmless, there will be moments when you’ll jump and feel the urge to drop your controller! Luigi’s Mansion 3 is available on Nintendo Switch and represents one of the deserving titles that still doesn’t receive the love it’s due in the context of the current generation of Nintendo consoles.

Fran Bow

Recommended by Mădălina Coman

The first horror video game that comes to mind, which I’ll never get tired of no matter how many years pass, is Alice: Madness Returns. And I’m convinced many of you are already on an intense nostalgia trip when you hear about this classic. Unfortunately, we’ll never get to see what American McGee would have wanted Alice: Asylum to be. But rest easy, because I have a perfect recommendation, just right for enjoying on Halloween night. Fran Bow, an indie point & click, is a kind of more eccentric cousin to Alice. After finding her parents dead in a pool of blood, the child’s mind is tormented by morbid hallucinations that give her no peace. Fran wakes up in an asylum, where the visions become more violent and frightening. All she wants is to escape the asylum and find her cat, Mr. Midnight. There’s a lot of symbolism in Fran Bow’s story, so you definitely won’t get bored while solving increasingly strange puzzles. As a bonus, between the five chapters, you’ll come across mini arcade games that will test your skills and patience.

Silent Hill 2 Remake

Recommended by Adrian (retro_adr14n)

I recommend Silent Hill 2 Remake. I played the original in late autumn 2011, with my girlfriend. I remember the atmosphere and puzzles captivated both of us, especially since we’re horror fans. I don’t think I got the best ending; I didn’t even know then that there were multiple, and it annoyed and deflated me a bit. It felt like a weak ending for a game that was otherwise very good. 13 years later, another autumn, my girlfriend has since become my wife, and now we’re going through Silent Hill 2 again, this time the remake, and it’s captivated us even more than the original. We’re both like, wow! They did such a good job. Unlike us, Silent Hill 2 Remake is fresher than ever and definitely a must-try. It’s seriously spooky, fuckface (Pyramid Head, but we call him fuckface) is scarier than ever, and the constant oppressive atmosphere is exactly what’s needed. A must-play for fans of the series and for those who’ve never tried it. We’re also Halloween fans, so it’s exactly what we’re playing this Spooktober.

Condemned: Criminal Origins

Recommended by Silviu Tănase

There are many elements that can make a horror game very good, from monsters representing our inner demons to invisible entities chasing you while you try to solve puzzles, but the human factor remains one of the most terrifying. In the shoes of Ethan Thomas, an FBI agent, investigating a series of murders becomes even more complicated when the city’s violence rate increases without any explanation, and the only means of protecting yourself from the human factor are pipes, planks, or guns without bullets. An FPS game that emphasizes close combat with locations where tension rises at every turn is my recommendation for a proper Spooktober.

The Thaumaturge

Recommended by Constantin Dumitru

Music as dramatic as in The Witcher. Even more terrifying monsters. Conspiracies and plots at every turn. Impeccable narrative, aesthetic, and audio direction. You can’t go wrong with The Thaumaturge as a game for the Halloween season.

Secret World Legends

Recommended by Tudor-Codrin Enea

My recommendation for Spooktober is a more atypical game. Classic recommendations are single-player titles, whereas the one I’m suggesting is an MMORPG. Secret World Legends is a game where all fabulous legends, urban myths, and sinister conspiracies are true. Whether you join the Templar Order, the secretive Illuminati, or the chaotic Dragons, the story in Secret World Legends will put you face-to-face with all sorts of monsters, from Draugr and Wendigo in the lands of the United States of America, to Djinn and Mummies in the scorching desert, or even Soviet Vampires in our Romanian lands. If you think the presence of other players will spoil the horror atmosphere, then you’d be wrong, because critical story missions take place in special instances where only one player can enter. Thus, and for nostalgia’s sake, Secret World Legends is the game I recommend for this Spooktober, but be careful not to get caught by the zero-point pathogen!

F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon

Recommended by Midnight Geek

FEAR is in the name… and if they tell us that F.E.A.R stands for First Encounter Assault Recon, we know that FEAR means half explosive and epic shooter, half tension and scares that make your palms sweat and your heart pound. The epicness, if you’ll allow me, of this game is that it keeps you in suspense almost constantly, without knowing when the next horror scene will happen, because even though strange things are always happening in F.E.A.R.… an object moves, a light goes out, these poltergeist phenomena aren’t always followed by a horror apparition; sometimes it’s just that, an object falling, so you never know when “the monster under the bed will grab your feet”. I recommend F.E.A.R. to anyone who wants to play a good shooter, anyone who wants to venture into a classic and tasteful horror, and anyone who isn’t afraid to turn off the lights, put on their headphones, and spray lead into… ghosts?

Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi

Recommended by Gabi (ArhivaBD)

What? You haven’t heard of Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi? This intense horror game where you’re trapped in a gothic castle infested with vampires, with a dark and frightening atmosphere, with the castle’s structure changing with each session, maintaining suspense and offering new challenges? You really haven’t played the game where you use classic vampire hunter weapons, from crosses to silver bullet pistols, in a fight for survival, where every corner of the castle hides dangers, and the tension increases as time passes? If you love gothic horror games and knife-edge challenges, this is the perfect game for you. That’s all I’m saying!

Metro 2033 (and DOOM II)

Recommended by Leo Luția

Initially, I wanted to recommend DOOM II. I’m not a big fan of the horror genre, but id Software’s title was the first game that made me have nightmares, right from the first level I played. Even if by today’s standards, DOOM II doesn’t look that scary anymore, well, in 2001, at least for me, it was as terrifying as could be, especially when I entered those dark corridors, full of Imps and other monstrosities. Ughhhh… However, it’s an old game, even retro, and I don’t know if it still has such great relevance for younger generations. So I decided to recommend a newer title, and my mind went straight to the Russian metro in – Metro 2033. It’s not necessarily horror, but there are many moments where the game becomes creepy (in a good way) and has quite an oppressive atmosphere. The story is very good, and it was adapted very well from the first book in the trilogy written by Dmitry Glukhovsky. The game has action, light-stealth elements, but the coolest mechanic, in my opinion, is survival. You have to calculate your targets and how much ammo is needed to achieve your goal, otherwise you risk ending up in areas where the action is intense and you’ll progress very slowly without the necessary equipment. It’s a perfect game if you don’t have much time to play, because a level doesn’t last very long and so you don’t have the stress of not reaching a checkpoint, and next time you have to restart the mission from the beginning. I recommend not only Metro 2033, but also the other two titles, which are even better in every respect. However, it’s cool to start the series chronologically so you can enjoy Glukhovsky’s wonderful but sad story, rendered in pixels by the 4A Games studio. Happy gaming and happy Halloween, or whatever you say…

Clive Barker’s Undying

Recommended by Dosboi Aidan

When your mum catches you smoking while playing Undying.

Here’s a horror scenario: you’re 14 and Clive Barker’s Undying has just been released. A neighbour on the same floor gets a pirated copy and invites you over to watch him play. Maybe he’ll even let you on the mouse and keyboard for a few minutes. You’re good friends, after all.

The neighbour is home alone, it’s already dark outside, tomorrow is Saturday and you don’t have school. At the first puff of Tibetan War Cannon, you’re already drenched and scared. You try to help your buddy as best you can and you’re attentive to every sound, thinking about possible places where a howler might be hiding. You both get absorbed in the game and, instead of secretly smoking behind the block or on the balcony, you light up a cigarette. Punk life, mate! “We have time to air out,” your neighbour tells you, “my folks aren’t back until Sunday evening.” You believe him. Why wouldn’t you? His jeans haven’t been washed in two months and, earlier, he was eating Victoria salami without bread. Biting into the sausage like a man possessed by Legion. Of course, his parents aren’t back until Sunday evening – if they even come back.

But you, you of all people, forgot one thing. That, in the meantime, it’s struck midnight and you haven’t been home. You feel a cold shiver and turn around, eyes red from smoke. How long has she been standing there? You choke. You cough. Your mum is behind you. The neighbour’s door was unlocked and she heard you screaming in fright. She doesn’t know you smoke. The neighbour laughs, having the advantage of the neglected child. You don’t laugh. You don’t breathe. You don’t swallow. You’re already dead, but you don’t realise the dimension of nothingness that awaits you. Good night and happy Halloween!

Conscript

Recommended by Klamath

In a pixelated presentation set in a Bacovian atmosphere, in the trenches of the First World War, Conscript is a survival-horror built on the classic recipe of the early Resident Evil games. The game is viewed from an isometric perspective and doesn’t need to invent monsters, beyond those created by the reality of war. Locked doors, an automatic map, puzzles, a flashlight with batteries, medkits, safe/save rooms (with the option to activate – recommended for atmosphere – saves limited to the number of ink cartridges held, just like in Resident Evil), weapons and weapon upgrades – all the ingredients of a classic survival-horror are present. In addition, the intentionally “clunky” combat system forces you to weigh every step. A perfect game for Switch/Steam Deck and a quality pair of headphones.

Control

Recommended by Bogdan Menci

Control was a game that tried to be a game-changer in its time. It arrived in 2019 with its cool story and even cooler clothes. And that’s because it was the first game created to benefit from NVIDIA’s RTX technology. So, visually it looked impeccable, as evidenced by the countless awards it won for art direction.

But what would a few light reflections have been without a well-crafted scenario? Without a story to complete the puzzle of the atmosphere that earned it so much praise from players?

In the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control, you’ll fight an interdimensional entity that has taken control of the governmental building. Abandoned and devastated offices, dead people floating in the air, rooms that change shape, flickering lights, transpositions of consciousness in time and space, whispered voices, and a cleaning guy who guides you through dubious riddles. The soundtrack is suitable for thrillers, accentuating moments of mystery and revelation at certain key points in the narrative.

So, it seems to hold the perfect recipe for a tense atmosphere and makes Control a title worthy of trying during the Halloween season.

And if you liked Quantum Break or Alan Wake, you won’t regret trying this Remedy title either.

Sanitarium

Recommended by ion00

When we hear the word “horror,” most people probably immediately think of all sorts of unholy creatures like zombies or vampires or storks or other kinds of little monsters invented to scare disobedient children. But what if the terror was represented by something much more mundane and human than that? In my opinion, mental illnesses are one of the most terrifying experiences anyone can ever live through, either directly as a patient or indirectly as a close person. Sanitarium is an adventure game that addresses this unpleasant subject. In this 1998 classic, you play the role of Max, an individual who had the misfortune of being involved in a serious car accident. He escapes with his life but wakes up in a mental hospital with his face completely bandaged and his memory fragmented. I won’t say more because the story of this game deserves to be discovered by everyone individually. The puzzles and controls are not necessarily the most brilliant examples of the genre, but even so, Sanitarium offers an unforgettable experience that no one should miss, especially since it can now be easily played on any operating system thanks to its recent port to the ScummVM engine!

My dears, these were GRIND’s recommendations for you. Thanks to the team for contributing to this spooky article. I hope you have a terrifyingly cool Halloween and feel like playing these solid 7s.

GRIND 4ever! Mwhahahaha…

Article by Leonard Luția