Wednesday, November 29, 2017

The PulpRev Sampler Review [SPONSORED]



All right, so, first things first. This is, as it says in the title of the post, a sponsored review. I was not involved in the production of this anthology in any way, shape, or form, other than cheering from the sidelines. I was approached by one of the writers, who cleared this with the others, nearly all of which I know and communicate with on some personal level, and I was paid the fee I mention in the podcast ($20 for a month of advertising), and then I went and bought a copy of the book so that I wouldn't be lying when I made remarks as to the quality. Of course, I had total faith from the beginning that this would be the best damn anthology to come out of 2017, but I wanted to be sure before I ran my mouth off and got bit for it. So now that you know that they paid me not only for advertising on the blog, the podcast, and social media, as well as to write this post, you can decide for yourself how seriously to take this review. The review is going to be glowing, can't be helped, but I am attempting to remain as objective as possible on a subjective matter, and not let the cash I was paid color my opinion. If there were shitty stories in this, I'd let you know. But, again, how seriously you want to take that opinion is your decision.

Disclosure achieved, let's get into the review.

This is, in my opinion, the best damn anthology to come out of 2017. 

No, seriously. I know it sounds like I'm heaping praise because I'm being paid to heap praise, but I was paid for an honest opinion (and to advertise the work regardless of that opinion), and that's what I'm doing. The ads go on the social media, podcast, and blog. The opinion goes here. Guys.

This shit is really, really good.

There is not a single story in this anthology that isn't original, entertaining, weird, and downright fun to read. These stories, all of them that I read, are absolutely riveting. Now, I say, "all of them that I read," because two stories, the ones by Jon Del Arroz and David J. West, are excerpts from their novels For Steam And Country and Walking Through Walls respectively. These novels I want to read in their entirety, and so I skipped the stories. But I'm certain that if you choose to read them you will not be disappointed. I skipped them personally because, as they say, spoilers. There was also an excerpt by John C. Wright that I did read, and didn't realize it was part of a larger thing until he started using a lot of jargon that I just did not understand, so I guess now I have to pick up the rest of that series.

Anyway, back to the ones I did read. Most of these stories are fairly short (the entire anthology is only about 146 or so pages), and as such they're very action packed. Lots of them involve fighting of some kind, a couple involve romance, all of them are fun.

So this anthology opens up with The Knights of Aos Si, by N. A. Roberts. Knights is a very tight story about a duel between some elven knights and some witch knights. It's a straight up fight, with little sandwiching the fight itself. This story feels like a complete tale unto itself, as the fight only happens once every hundred years or so, and not much of a picture of the world outside the fight itself is given. For what it's worth, the elves in this story feel more Dunsanian than Tolkienesque, which was a very refreshing change up from the incredibly vast majority of modern fantasy. There's just enough there to whet your appetite, and leave you wanting more. Which, honestly, is true of all the stories in this anthology.

Next there is The Ghost Fist Gambit by Bradford Walker. This is a very impressive story about a battle between two space navies, whose commanders are rivals. There is a feint, a boarding action, a laser sword fight, and a victory, but I won't tell you who wins. It's well written, the action doesn't let up for a second, and I want to personally thank Bradford for stealing back laser swords from Star Wars. Somebody had to do it first, and it might as well be the PulpRev. Bradford's action flows like a raging river, pulling you along in a Flash Gordon-esque space opera (minus one exploding planet. Next time, Bradford) reminiscent of Star Wars but infinitely more interesting. At least to a jaded old fuck like me. 

After this there is Primitive Life Forms by Julie Frost. This was the first story that threw me for a loop. It begins with a man who is far too complacent about being infected (sexually) with lycanthropy. He's just kind of accepted it by the time the story starts, which is fine, but he seems a little too easygoing for someone who turns into an eight foot tall, razor clawed and fanged, damned near immortal killing machine. And then he gets abducted by aliens. You can see why I was thrown right about here. The aliens then proceed to regret abducting this particular human, very quickly. This story started as a standard werewolf story and then took a sharp left turn into fucking crazytown when the aliens showed up, and it's right about here that you realize that this isn't your usual sci-fi/fantasy anthology. 

The Plowshare's Lament is the next story, by Jesse Abraham Lucas. This was one of the more inventive or outside-the-box stories, as it's not about people, but sentient magical weapons. They live for centuries, change hands, see the rise and fall of kingdoms, and come to an ignoble end. I have to applaud Jesse's creativity here, because this is not a story that would've occurred to someone like me to even entertain the idea of writing, and it was an interesting take on a classic fantasy concept that I personally haven't seen done before.

Yes, we're going through all of them, because I need you to understand precisely how awesome and different all of these stories are.

Herald of the Dead by Todd Everhart is next. This story is more of a prologue to a fantasy novel in feel, as it deals with the invasion of a village by an undead army from underground. One teenage boy escapes, and runs to warn the king that his kingdom is in danger. As I say, it feels more like a traditional fantasy story, but the way Todd handles it makes it immediately engaging, and as with most of these stories, it ended too soon and I wanted more.

Silence in the Cell Block by T. T. Arkansas is an incredibly weird story that accurately captures the ethos of "weird fiction." It would've been right at home in the pages of Weird Tales right alongside Lovecraft and Howard. It's the tale of an innocent man imprisoned, who dies in his prison cell and meets a creature that's described like Nito from Dark Souls but in reality just wants some company. There is danger in the hereafter, but there is also hope of peace, however distant. This story is a mystery wrapped in an enigma, and not a lot gets properly explained with expository dialogue or prose, which is precisely how I like it. It keeps one guessing, and there is fodder enough here to keep fan theorists busy for several months at least.

The King's Portion by David Skinner is the tale of a ruler in exile, fleeing the userper's hordes, who is dragged from a hopeless fight by his servant and into a demon-haunted wood to speak with a terrifying forest spirit. It seems, though, that even deadly demons respect royalty. This was, once again, very competently written, and highly enjoyable. It's a take on the king-in-exile trope that I haven't personally seen done before, and makes a point of how human nobility, arrogance, and a touch of hubris can help you live to fight another day, if not outright win the war. 

Excerpt: Assassin in Everest by John C. Wright is the one I was too stupid to realize was part of something larger till about halfway through the story. This story features a technologically advanced group of people called "The Lords of Creation" with tech that is functionally indistinguishable from magic. One of them, Aeneas, is attacked in his room by an assassin with a similar level of technology. The entire story is a fight scene, and an incredibly entertaining one, at that. It really has to be read to be believed, but now I understand why Wright garners so much respect with regards to his fiction.

Into The Hands Of A Living God by Dominika Lein was another that threw me for a loop. It takes place in a fancy ballroom in space, with the humans in the room captivated by an alien creature. The story is told first-person, and our protagonist is infatuated with this creature as well, despite being no human. A man shows up to fight for her hand, but as the title says, what chance does he have against a living god? The tone of this one is remarkably consistent, and I loved the way it was written. It never once deviates from the first-person perspective, which is no mean feat in writing, and the reader knows precisely as much as the character relating events at the time those events happened. It also has far more bloodshed and monsters than your average ballroom, which is always a favorable thing.

Lucky Spider's Last Stand by JD Cowan is next, and this was one of my favorites. In a collection this good it's hard to pick a favorite, or a few favorites, but this is one of them for sure. It's the tale of a gangster who was his boss' right hand. The boss is dead, there's a legit, no-shit superhero who is immune to bullets called "A Crusader" (nice touch btw), and Lucky Spider has to fight this superhero with a healing factor in a god damned sword fight. This story read like an old-school Dark Horse comic, and I loved every line of it. Spider was sympathetic without having a tragic backstory, the Crusader was a kickass honor-at-all-costs hero presented more as a force of nature than a man, and the action was quick paced and very well detailed. You'll want to watch all the writers contributing to this anthology, but I'm going to be paying special attention to JD's career in the future, because hot damn can that boy spin a yarn.

Avatar of Pain by PR Marshall is an interesting tale that might be a little too out there for its own good. Don't get me wrong, it's a very good story. It's the tale of a warrior sent by the chieftain of a tribe to rescue his daughter from the cult of the god of suffering. Very cool stuff, and I liked the touches with the alcohol and the ax. It's essentially Conan on another world, and that, honestly is what lends to the overall busy-ness of this story. None of the characters are humans, and the various skin tones vary wildly, so it leads to a lot of description about the various players in the story that tends to weigh it down a bit in parts. However, this is not a critical flaw, just something I noticed while I was reading it. Very good story, awesome premise, a well told tale that I thoroughly enjoyed, as I enjoyed all the stories in this anthology.

The Red World Dies by Fenton Skeegs is another example of the diversity of ideas in this anthology. It's the tale of a barbarian warrior come into the ruin of the former civilization to kill a wizard, and they wind up banding together to escape the encroachment of faceless savages as the wizard goes on about the people of another planet whom the previous civilization modeled their...well, pretty much everything after. A very interesting concept, it had me riveted throughout, and left me wanting to know more about this. I hope that most of the stories in this anthology are continued in some fashion, because quite a few of them, this one included, sound like tales just begun.

Longman & Cobbledick (snrk) by David Godward was another of my favorites, because it played with a lot of ideas and had a good time doing it. It was obviously set in a kind of modern day, but the main character has had interactions with gods that let him bend reality a slight bit, and give him a bored, hard-boiled detective internal monologue that serves as the prose of most of the story. This was Longman. Cobbledick is a kind of magic-user, who's infiltrated a magic cult to rescue the son of a rich family, and he can hear Longman's internal monologue. This story was incredibly fun to read, had good amounts of action, a few twists and turns, and a couple of good funny surprises that got me to chuckle more than once. 

Danger On The Colony Ship by John Daker is a classic action story about a security officer on a ship that has been boarded by raiders determined to kill the civilians, and so he dons his armored boxing gloves and proceeds to beat some aliens to death. This was a lot of fun as well, and I liked the idea of honest-to-god fisticuffs against a multi-limbed alien monster that could end your life by putting one of its claws through your heart. If there was a problem with this story, it's that there were a few echoes near the beginning, meaning a word was used twice in the same sentence. The idea of the sentence was put across without an issue, but that's one of my personal bugbears in my own writing, and it's something I tend to notice easily when reading the work of others. Apart from that, this story stands proudly alongside the rest in this anthology, and the heroism of the main character was very inspiring. Particularly that little bit at the end, and if you go read it you'll know what I'm talking about. But again, spoilers.

Defiance by Jon Mollison is the last story in the group, and here's another one of my favorites, but I might be biased because I've read Jon's work before and I greatly enjoy it. He writes with a Robert E. Howard flair and attention to heroism and bravery in the face of seemingly unbeatable odds, and that is most certainly not lacking in this story. The King of Eternity, master of multiple universes faces down one defiant man who has vowed to kill him and free the multiverse from his tyranny. There's some good banter, high stakes, a gorgeous redhead (bonus points, btw), and no small amount of good old hack and slash action. It was definitely the right choice to end the anthology on, because I'm not sure much else could've topped it in my estimation, even the venerable John C. Wright's work. But then again, Jon and I come from the same school of writing, so I might be biased in that regard. 

I have to stress that there are no, zero, absolutely not a single damned low spot in this anthology. All of the stories fire on all cylinders, and it seemed to me that all the authors were trying to out-do one another in sheer gonzo levels of action, adventure, and wild ideas. Some succeeded more than others in my personal opinion.

As I said, I'm quite partial to the stories by Bradford Walker, Dominika Lein, Jon Mollison, JD Cowan, and David Godward. But this isn't meant to disparage or put on a lower tier the other writers. These people merely appealed to my sense of enjoyment in fiction more. This is without a doubt the craziest collection of short stories I've ever read in my life, and quite frankly they're undercharging by only asking one dollar American for the whole kit and caboodle. 

This anthology is worth what the big name publishers charge for their collections of garbage think pieces dressed up as science fiction and fantasy. It blurs the lines between action, adventure, horror, fantasy, and science fiction in the best spirit of the old pulps, and I'm currently trying to convince them to put it in print via Createspace so that I can bother friends, family, and strangers by breaking into their houses in the middle of the night and leaving a copy on their coffee tables. Whether or not that happens is up in the air at the moment, but we'll see.

Without doubt this is an anthology that you do not want to miss. It contains, and I speak from the heart and head with all the honesty I can muster in my being, stories by the absolute best of the best up and coming authors writing in the field of speculative fiction. Some of these stories are on the level of my personal deity Robert E. Howard, and the rest are at least as good as Fritz Leiber. 

These people set out on a mission, that being to prove that the PulpRev wasn't just bluster and hot air. That we were serious about this shit, and we meant what we said when we wanted to recapture the spirit of the pulps, not merely ape them for brand recognition or to tug on the heartstrings of those nostalgic for the days when scifi and fantasy didn't have to be ideologically motivated. To, in a phrase, make fiction fun again.

After reading the book, I can safely report that they have accomplished this goal in spades and then some. There's merely meeting a bar, then showing you're better than everybody else currently trying to meet that bar, and then there's The PulpRev Sampler. With the possible exception of Cirsova Magazine, this is the absolute best anthology to be published this year. Buy it, and tell your friends that fun fiction just came back in style.

Here's a link to the Amazon store page where you can get this landmark in the revival of SFF literature for one measly dollar.

I'm sure you've got a dollar to spare. Put it where it counts and get this anthology on your kindle or phone. I can guarantee that you will not in any wise regret it.

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

The JimFear138 Podcast Ep. 75 ft. The Mad Shangi



Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the podcast! Sorry this one is late, I ran into an issue with my conversion software that ate up an entire day to fix because I'm almost tech-illiterate. But late is better than never, or so I'm told, so here we are! This episode I talk to The Mad Shangi about Phantasm and other horror movies, the insanity in Hollywood lately, and then we get into MGTOW for a while.

Hope y'all enjoy!

The Mad Shangi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MadShangi

And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHbE75zwJRfU3LP0Ca1EbFg


[SPONSOR] The PulpRev Sampler on Amazon & PulpRev.com! Be sure to sign up for the newsletter!

MP3 Download of this episode:  https://ia800408.us.archive.org/25/items/jimfear_audio_productions/ep75.mp3


Social Media Dump:

Hatreon: https://hatreon.us/JimFear138/

Steemit: https://steemit.com/@jimfear138

Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/jimfear138/id1107844659?mt=2

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Minds: https://www.minds.com/JimFear138

Vid.me: https://vid.me/JimFear138

Dailymotion: http://www.dailymotion.com/jimfear138

Opening Music:
Honey Bee by Kevin Macleod: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100755
Honey Bee Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Closing Music: 
Crunk Knight by Kevin Macleod: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1400044
Crunk Knight Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

The JimFear138 Podcast Ep. 74 - EA, Trump Sips, & Contraceptives



Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the podcast! Sorry this one is a bit late, my brother wanted me to watch some Marvel show with him and I don't get to chill with him often. This time I go over the Star Wars Battlefront 2 shitstorm, give a couple better game recommendations, and talk about some fucking ridiculous news like Trump drinking water, Twitter removing verification badges, and state lawsuits against contraception. It's a long one, so grab a drink, turn on your favorite RTS, and strap in for the haul!

Don't forget to sign up for the PulpRev.com newsletter, guys! 


[SPONSOR] PulpRev Sampler on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/PulpRev-Sampler-Anthology-2017-Mollison-ebook/dp/B076WH49CS?pd_rd_wg=Irstl&pd_rd_r=6bb3f3f0-4094-4afd-9729-1a2504cc7632&pd_rd_w=Qj2jN&ref_=newr&pf_rd_r=33BJGZ78XCJA11ZP7243&pf_rd_p=16b35636-6c7d-51f6-83b5-988d33d81888
Unlocking Everything in Star Wars Battlefront II Reportedly takes 4,500 hours or $2100: http://nichegamer.com/2017/11/15/unlocking-everything-star-wars-battlefront-ii-reportedly-takes-4500-hours-2100/

EA Exec Responds to Battlefront 2 Microtransaction Controversy: https://archive.fo/TYNqf

Star Wars Battlefront 2, Overwatch Being Investigated for Unlicensed Gambling: https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2017/11/star-wars-battlefront-2-overwatch-investigated-unlicensed-gambling/44284/

GayFraggs Youtube screencap from Cusman: https://twitter.com/GayFraggs/status/931263043220201472/photo/1

SidAlpha's Dirty Devs: Star Wars Battlefront 2 EA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THt3ODESeew&t=626s

Sidalpha's The Star Wars Battlefront 2 EA Refund Controversy and Cooldown Timers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOzBsZqvHiU

SidAlpha's Star Wars Battlefront 2 EA Reddit AMA and Gambling Investigation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30acpxuaiIU&t=620s

SidAlpha's EA and DICE Surrender (for now) to community outrage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xm_kq8Sxzs

Where's Our Star Wars Battlefront II Review?: https://archive.fo/fgIxj

Electronic Arts says Loot boxes aren't gambling: https://archive.fo/4eDBG


The Curious Case of the 'EA Game Dev' Who Said he received death threats: https://archive.fo/saFti

NicheGamer's removal of online currency in Battlefront 2: https://twitter.com/nichegamer/status/931325974016278528

EAStarWars twitter statement from DICE General Manager: https://archive.fo/5fw9h

EA official statement full: https://archive.fo/s2JFp



By me at Pulprev.com: The Big Difference Between Us and Them: http://www.pulprev.com/2017/07/the-big-difference-between-us-and-them.html

Trump Drinks Water: https://archive.fo/SvHQK



Twitter says it will remove verification badges from accounts that violate its rules: https://archive.fo/t0Nmw

State Lawsuits against contraception mandate acceptions would gut religious liberty: http://thefederalist.com/2017/11/14/state-lawsuits-contraception-mandate-exceptions-gut-religious-liberty/



Social Media Dump:














Opening Music:
Honey Bee Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Sunday, November 12, 2017

The JimFear138 Podcast Ep. 73 - RE6, Gun Sense, & Dumb News



Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the podcast! In this one I vent my spleen about Resident Evil 6, talk about the RedPillBlack controversy for a bit, have a laugh at the expense of USA Today, and go over some news relating to Facebook telling people to send nudes, Fusion GPS, and fake hate crimes. It's a lot to fit in, but I missed last week, so I wanted to jam pack this episode with as much content as I could to make up for being sick. Hope y'all enjoy!

MP3 Download of this episode:  https://ia600408.us.archive.org/25/items/jimfear_audio_productions/ep73.mp3

Blaire White & RedPillBlack on The Rubin Report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REHex5e57HI

MAGA 2020 & Beyond: https://www.amazon.com/MAGA-2020-Beyond-Milo-Yiannopoulos/dp/1925645487/

Townhall spanking USAToday: http://archive.is/bukyK

The Daily Wire spanking USAToday: http://archive.is/73Csj

CloudCuckooCountry's Book Burning: The Ancient Solitary Reign Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzdvUcDfdGo

John C. Wright's Phoenix on the Sword Review: http://www.scifiwright.com/2017/11/conan-phoenix-on-the-sword/

Fox News Fusion GPS Official Met W/Russian Operative: http://archive.is/0JJvi

Burt Kreisher's The Machine (Russian Mafia story): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paG1-lPtIXA

Hard Bastard: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYmqiv_DNFYFkn8fvvJujmA

Facebook's Nudes Scam: http://archive.is/iuezf

Air Force Academy Fake Hate Crime: http://archive.is/k0LsC

Sargon of Akkad's This Week In Stupid about anti-white racism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XmA6ZVLHww

Aydin Paladin's Why Is It Not Okay To Be White?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X6G64iM82k

Dr. Layman's Paul Joseph Watson Doesn't Understand Anything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30YF8rSpqpE

Scream Helplessly At The Sky: http://archive.is/RDZSt

NotJohnDaker/The Mixed GM's Book Recommendations: https://twitter.com/NotJohnDaker/status/928461536393383941



Social Media Dump:

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Vid.me: https://vid.me/JimFear138

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Opening Music:
Honey Bee by Kevin Macleod: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100755
Honey Bee Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Monday, October 30, 2017

The JimFear138 Podcast Ep. 72 - Legacy of Kain, YA SocJus, & Cultural Roots



Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the podcast! Sorry this one is late, but my dad was in town this weekend, and I don't get to see him that often, so I spent the afternoon I should've spent editing the podcast hanging out with my dad. Anyway, in this episode I ramble about The Legacy of Kain games, talk about an article Bradford wrote about serialized stories, go over an article by Jon Del Arroz about social justice in young adult publishing, and talk about another article in which a woman has raised her child to hate herself because she's white. Fun stuff, yeah? Hope y'all enjoy!


Crystal Dynamics LoK Post: https://twitter.com/CrystalDynamics/status/921167223263129600

Let's Ramble With Rae: Soul Reaver 2 by Dawn Somewhere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g63IzB0ZVos&list=PLNC_sRuPtMomRdD3RUxFBc_NhrKQ5gG6A

[ON SALE] Nethereal by Brian Niemeier: https://www.amazon.com/Nethereal-Soul-Cycle-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00ZBDOHKU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509253419&sr=8-1&keywords=nethereal

Getting Started: Reconsider the Serial by Bradford Walker: http://www.pulprev.com/2017/10/getting-started-reconsider-serial.html

How Never-Satisfied Social Justice Mobs Are Ruining YA Book Publishing by Jon Del Arroz: http://thefederalist.com/2017/10/25/never-satisfied-social-justice-mobs-ruining-ya-book-publishing/

Jon Del Arroz's Website: http://delarroz.com/

T-Rex na Kanojo (My Girlfriend Is A T-Rex): http://www.mangahere.co/manga/t_rex_na_kanojo/c001/

CTRL ALT Revolt! by Nick Cole: https://www.amazon.com/CTRL-ALT-Revolt-Nick-Cole-ebook/dp/B01BKWKBCS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509260171&sr=8-1&keywords=control+alt+revolt

The Young Protectors is the Comic You Always Wanted by Nerkish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk5stat0weg

The Black Witch by Laurie Forest (AFFILIATE LINK): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0373212313/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=jimfear138-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0373212313&linkId=1645a944c198e248940775ec9fed1076

Postcolonial Parenting by Tama Ward: https://archive.fo/ytoE0

MP3 Download of this episode: https://ia600408.us.archive.org/25/items/jimfear_audio_productions/ep72.mp3

Social Media Dump:

Hatreon: https://hatreon.us/JimFear138/

Steemit: https://steemit.com/@jimfear138

Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/jimfear138/id1107844659?mt=2

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JimFear138

Tumblr: http://jimfear138.tumblr.com/

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Blogspot: http://jimfear138.blogspot.com/

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Minds: https://www.minds.com/JimFear138

Vid.me: https://vid.me/JimFear138

Dailymotion: http://www.dailymotion.com/jimfear138

Opening Music:
Honey Bee by Kevin Macleod: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100755
Honey Bee Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

The Three Different Kinds Of Horror Games



As most of you who frequent this blog, or the podcast, or my social media feeds in general will know, I'm a horror junkie. I love horror games, movies, books, short stories, comics, anything horror I can get my hands on. It's a bit strange, because I'm a night owl, and it's ridiculously easy for a horror concept to get inside my head and freak me out when I'm alone at night. But for some reason I can't get enough of the spooky stuff. Christmas is way overblown as the most wonderful time of the year. Halloween's where it's at, in my extremely arrogant opinion.

I've been playing horror games since Resident Evil 2, and in the time since that game and the present day I've noticed a very disturbing trend in horror games. There are a ridiculous amount of games masquerading as "survival horror" that, quite frankly, aren't. So, in an effort to set the record firmly crooked about a couple of things I view as important, I'm going to explain the three different types of horror games.

I should mention that survival horror is my jam, and my favorite of the three, so if I sound disparaging of the other two subgenres it's not because I hate them.

It's just because I view them as inherently inferior.


Now that I've got my survival horror supremacy worked out of my system, at least a little bit, on with the show here.

Horror, at least with regards to video games, falls on a spectrum. This spectrum covers the vast majority of horror games, and while the subgenres do mix and blend occasionally there is a definitive place along this spectrum that most horror games will fall on. On the one side you have action horror, on the other you have psychological horror, and resting comfortably in the middle like a filthy centrist is survival horror. So what separates these three classes of horror game, and why do so many of the other two get paraded around as survival horror when they're self-evidently not?

We'll start out with action horror first. This subgenre is typified by hordes of enemies that you can't skirt, as well as plenty of weapons and ammunition to take them down with. You might get several different kinds of pistols and shotguns, a couple of long rifles, maybe even a grenade or rocket launcher for the really big bads. They also tend to take place in the day. In these games you never really have to worry about running out of ammunition or healing items (unless you're playing on harder difficulties), and in most cases your character is the "ultimate badass" type. Resident Evil 5 is a perfect example of an action horror game. Chris Redfield is a strong, heroic special forces agent with more weapons than you can shake a stick at, and most of the areas with hordes of enemies require the enemies to be defeated or a timer to count down before you can go anywhere. Quick time events are another staple of this subgenre, although they weren't before 2005. Thanks for that, RE4.

Yes, I'm still salty about qte's. 

On the other side of the spectrum is psychological horror. These games are typically dark, brooding, and have more of a haunted house feel to them. You're usually confined to a single structure, such as an insane asylum, a castle, or a mine turned research facility. Your protagonist is usually some kind of completely worthless dandy or fop with no ability to fight back whatsoever. You are typically given no weapons, and if you are given weapons they are almost worthless themselves so far as self defense goes. You are not supposed to fight, you're supposed to sneak around and avoid the enemy, running and hiding when you're spotted. Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Outlast are perfect examples of this type of game. 

Finally, in the middle, you have survival horror. In a survival horror game your character can be a member of a special forces team, but doesn't have to be, as everymen are staples of this subgenre. You have effective weapons, but limited ammunition and healing items, therefore it's often more judicious to flee from a fight rather than taking down minor enemies. These games can be set in haunted houses, small towns, research facilities, the list goes on. Good examples of this are Dino Crisis, the first 3 Resident Evil games, and the first 3 Silent Hill games. 

So why the confusion? Partly I think because very few people have taken the time to sperg out this hard and be this pedantic about it. A good couple rules of thumb I use are as follows:

1. If you can fight back, it isn't psychological horror.
2. If fighting back is too easy, it's action horror.
3. If you can fight back but have to decide whether it's a good idea or not, it's survival horror.

Of course these aren't hard and fast rules. Some games fall through the cracks in between these subgenres. The Telltale Walking Dead game is most certainly horror, but it's a point and click adventure game. You can fight back, but only when the game lets you. I'm not sure where that would fall on this scale, but I think it's safe to say that TWD is an outlier in the genre. Likewise, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is definitely a horror game, but it also falls somewhere between survival and action horror. Horror is a complicated genre, and this isn't meant to be exhaustive or definitive. I'm merely laying out the three big ones.

So why do action horror games and psychological horror games get marketed as survival horror games all the time? Frankly, and let's not be coy here, survival horror is a money printing machine. Games that bill themselves as survival horror sell ridiculous amounts of copies, and yet nobody has truly been able to capture the feeling of playing the original Silent Hill, or Resident Evil, or Dino Crisis. 

Not without actually re-releasing graphically updated versions of those games themselves, of course. 

But Amnesia: The Dark Descent, let's just look at that. According to this article in Yahoo Finance, this game has sold over 1 million copies based on the idea that it's survival horror when it isn't. And yet, if you check the game's steam page, that's one of the top rated user-generated tags for the game. I remember when this game came out. It was billed as survival horror, but there is a clear and present difference between what this game is and what survival horror meant during the heyday of the genre.

Now of course the game is good. I have a love-hate relationship with it, as I do all psychological horror games, but I can admit when it does what it's supposed to do and does it well. Amnesia is a well-crafted experience, even if it isn't specifically to my own tastes as a horror gamer. So this game no doubt sold on its own merits as well. Plenty of people, myself included, saw YouTube let's players get ahold of this game and go to town, thought it looked fun, and picked it up ourselves. But there is the undeniable draw that the classification of "survival horror" gives to a game. 

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say the confusion is deliberate. Survival horror is a hard genre to make well. It's far easier to overpower your protagonist with ridiculous amounts of weapons and ammo, or take away their ability to fight entirely and railroad the player through a haunted house. Crafting a balanced horror experience where the player will have to backtrack, solve puzzles, run around monsters, and fight their way through enemies and bosses alike is far more difficult. So most devs nowadays just make it action or psychological horror, slap the survival horror logo on it, and call it a day. It's understandable, but this watering down of the genre doesn't do anybody any favors in the long run. 

While action and psychological horror are fun subgenres, it looks like we'll have to deal with them masquerading as survival horror for the foreseeable future. Until someone gets off their ass and designs another proper survival horror game, we'll have to content ourselves with what's currently being released, or with revving up our old consoles so that we can get an actual survival horror experience. And in the interest of facilitating this, I'm going to be working on a post to have out by Halloween detailing precisely what makes a good survival horror game. I've been meaning to write this for a couple years now, and there's no time like the present to get this out of my system. So expect that in the next few days.

In the meantime, if you haven't played Dino Crisis, the original Resident Evil games, or the original Silent Hill games, and you want to understand how they're different in tone and gameplay from what's marketed as survival horror today, I'd suggest you look up an emulator or try to find the disk copies if you've still got a PS2. They'll be well worth your money, I can promise you.

Monday, October 23, 2017

The JimFear138 Podcast Ep. 71 - Alien Isolation, The State, Political Compass Tests, & The Black Pill


Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the podcast! This time I go over Alien: Isolation, talk about The State and how it's ISIS propaganda, demonstrate the fallibility of political compass tests, and explain how to avoid a black pill state of mind! Hope y'all enjoy!
They Mostly Come At Night by Killahawke1: https://www.reddit.com/r/freehorrorstories/comments/4i7ktz/they_mostly_come_at_night/

Aydin Paladin's The Appeal of Fear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vERK4zJjC0&t=2s

Aydin Paladin's Analyzing 'The State' Propaganda w/Hard Bastard Ep.1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIS1Kgo3X_k

Political Party Quiz: http://www.people-press.org/quiz/political-party-quiz/

The Political Compass: https://www.politicalcompass.org/test

Mouthy Buddha's Am I A Crypto-Fascist Making Nazi Propaganda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9_O-0pmxSU&t=217s

Stardusk's Gradations And Hues | Towards A Black Pill State Of Mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh95zAeurLg&t=0s

Turd Flinging Monkey's Antisemitism & Patriarchy Theory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-5GmpakfKY


MP3 Download of this episode: https://ia600408.us.archive.org/25/items/jimfear_audio_productions/ep71.mp3



Social Media Dump:

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Opening Music:
Honey Bee by Kevin Macleod: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100755
Honey Bee Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Thursday, October 19, 2017

Alien: Isolation Carries The Burden



So I came down with a fairly bad cold last week, and to ameliorate it I took copious amounts of alka-seltzer and Nyquil, and played a game that has been in my library for a couple years now but I've never really touched. Before I get into this, this review will have pretty massive spoilers for the game, but it's been out since this month three years ago, so if you haven't played it yet, go play it before you read this. If you want my final verdict, it's consistent with the lore from the films, and it's a fun game. Definitely worth what you'd pay for it in a Steam sale, although I'm not entirely certain I'd pay $40 for it up front. Good, not that good, for reasons I'll get into. But, if you want to avoid the spoilers and still get a verdict out of me, if you're into horror/stealth games, or just really like the Alien franchise, give this one a buy. I had fun with it. 

Now that we've done the disclaimer and given a basic verdict, let's get into what this game does right, and what it does wrong. Firstly, fuck what those idiots on Reddit say, this game is 100% consistent with the lore from the first two Alien movies. I've seen both multiple times, and practically have them memorized. I know I give Ridley Scott a lot of (deserved) shit whenever he tries to bring something he didn't create to film, because he's bad at it, but when he does an original film it is an incredible sight to behold. Alien is no exception, and James Cameron followed it up with a stellar sequel that's as good as the original, although they're in two different subgenres. The game does not deviate from the lore one whit, and, as a matter of fact, feels more like an Alien experience than any other game I've played in the franchise, with the possible exception of Alien vs Predator (2010). 

The problem with AvP2010 is that it told three different stories, and as such each gameplay experience was truncated into easily repeatable environments and gameplay, which you can imagine gets repetitive fairly quickly. The only campaign that felt like an Alien/Aliens game was the human campaign, and that's the experience Isolation most closely mirrors, while fleshing it out. You're not some roided-out space marine walking in with a pulse rifle or smart gun, and you're not meant to be. Those weapons didn't come around until later in the series anyway (Isolation takes place between 1 and 2). Maybe a plot synopsis would help.

You play as Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley, come out to the far reaches of the galaxy to chase the Nostromo and find out what happened to her mother. She signs on as an engineer on a trip to pick up a flight recorder from the Nostromo, and they fly to the space station Sevastopol. Upon arrival they find that shit has completely hit the fan, people are rioting and killing each other, the synthetics have gone psychotic, and there's a dangerous monster roaming the station. People start dropping left and right due to one reason or another, and Ripley has to escape before any one of a million things kills her. 

So in AvP2010 you were a space marine with all the trimmings. Big guns, big muscles, big team (till you start getting picked off, at least), etc. The human campaign plays like a shortened action horror game. There's not a whole lot of avoidance going on. When you're getting run up on, you're getting run up on, and running isn't going to save you, because they'll just follow you through the door to the next room. Competent, but it should've been its own separate game, in my opinion. Anyway.

Isolation is much more of a survival horror game than the human campaign of AvP2010. And to be honest it's a fairly decent one. The stealth elements really hammer home exactly how alone you are in Sevastopol. Not many people are coming to help you, and much the same as in the movies, those who do tend to end up as dinner or incubators.

So there are two elements you're dealing with, here. Stealth, and survival horror. This game is an admirable mix of both, and they lend to each other to strengthen the whole. You are unable to kill the Alien, but you can scare it off with the flamethrower. You are able to kill the hostile humans and synthetics on the station, but you have a severely limited ammo supply. I should mention that while you are able to craft medkits, the materials you need to do so are scattered throughout the station, and the locations are randomized so far as I'm able to determine. You also use those materials for the crafting system in this game to make other weapons and distractions, which is completely ancillary and should've been cut, in my opinion.  But I'll get to that later.

Because you cannot kill the Alien, you have to hide from it and distract it. It has heightened senses, so it can see you from about 25 meters away in complete darkness, it can hear a gnat fart in a symphony, and its dual-AI system ensures it always knows where you are in general. It doesn't know precisely where you are, but it knows the area, and will stick around until you leave, so hiding only works until it hops back into a vent. You can craft noisemakers to distract it, but basically all this boils down to SNEAK EVERYWHERE. Totally serious, there were very, very few portions of this game I was not crouching and sneaking. It's just the smart way to play, given that every time I thought the Alien wasn't around, I'd stand up, and it would dive out of a vent and put its tongue-mouth through my head. Just sneak. Trust me.

Unless you get to a point wherein the humans or synthetics are your main enemy (it happens in places). Then you're free to walk around if you fancy getting into fights you don't have to. The humans usually have ammunition on them, so if you can take them down quickly you might get a nice payoff. The androids, on the other hand, are not simple to take down, even when you get the bolt gun. So this is where strategy comes into play. In some areas it's more expeditious to just kill the damned androids, in some areas you don't have any weapons to kill them with except what you can craft and your big wrench (they call it a "maintenance jack", but fuck off, it's a big damned wrench), and in some areas you can just shuck-and-jive around them and make a break for it. You have to decide what to do in any given situation, and the game forces you to carefully consider your ammo stores and work out what would be best here, given that you don't know what's around the corner.

The timing with the sneaking is also very important, because nobody in this game follows a set path. In stealth games of yore like Thief, or Styx: Master of Shadows, the enemies would follow a set path that you would have to memorize. This path could be retardedly simple or ridiculously complex, but you could memorize it and work out a way around them. In Isolation, it really comes down to waiting for the AI to get bored with your ass, because the enemies (except the androids) follow randomized paths. After the first section in the medical wing of the station I rarely had a problem with the AI tracking me, because if you break line of sight and round a corner they've lost you, at least with the humans/synths. With the Alien it's all a matter of keeping an eye on where it is, waiting until it's not where you want to be, and then making a break for it while keeping an eye on any convenient places to hide along the way. But if it sees you, load your last save, because you're done for unless you have the flamethrower and the reflexes of a rabbit on crack.

So while it can get repetitive, they try to mix it up enough to be fun, and I think they succeed. The game is fun to play, and I enjoyed the hell out of trying to outwit the Alien's AI. Dodging humans and letting the Alien take them out was also fun. I wish it was more hostile to the synths, though, because when those two work together it's almost impossible to get out alive.

The atmosphere in this game is also amazing. Everything is designed with that 1970's aesthetic from the original Alien movie, and it all looks great. It's a lot of fun to just look around the station, and the view from the windows of the outside is nothing short of entrancing. You can tell that the people who made this game are huge fans of the franchise, and they took serious notes from Scott and Cameron's films to make sure that this game looked and felt like an Alien game. Slight spoiler side note: The mere look of the hive from a first-person perspective was terrifying, and my god did it feel good to escape from that deathtrap. They did a great job with the level design in this game. 

There are puzzles that you have to solve in-game (not the mini-games, I'll get to that), but none of them are particularly difficult. If you were able to figure out the original Resident Evil, you'll have no trouble with the puzzles in Isolation. Sometimes figuring out where the hell to go was more difficult than working out puzzles, which is saying something in the days of linear-as-fuck-game-design currently overtaking the market. I got lost in this game. Several times. Thank god for the map. 

Speaking of the map, this was another interesting feature. It's digital, but one-dimensional, so you get a floor layout, much like in the original Resident Evil, or the first few Silent Hill games. Being digital, it updates itself whenever you enter a new room/hallway, or whenever you manually download a floor plan from a console. From there, points of interest (save points, terminals, locked doors, etc) are marked or unmarked as they become relevant and irrelevant. It also shows you the general area of your current destination, which is helpful, but encourages laziness on the part of the player. Although I can't blame them, because some areas in this game are fairly large, and take quite a while to navigate through while sneaking, so knowing where I'm going saved me probably another five hours all told of wandering around and dying. It's a double-edged sword, but in this case I'd rather have it than not.

You also get the motion tracker they used in the movies, and by god is it cool wielding an exact replica of the motion tracker so you can hide in a closet and piss yourself as you see that green dot on the screen rushing towards you. You can get by without it, but it's a big help, and it's really nice to have along for the ride. It's also not quiet, so use sparingly. 

Another thing I had a good long think about but finally decided was a pro in the game's favor was the save system. This game saves in two ways: 1. There are save points which you can access with Ripley's ID keycard, and 2. It just kind of arbitrarily saves when you enter certain areas. This isn't perfect, and could've been improved by removing 2 entirely. I've been playing a lot of older games like Thief, Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, etc, and in those games they would save when you enter a new chapter/mission, or you had to save yourself, and if you didn't and died then oh well fuck you remember to save next time, asshole.

If this game had gone full retro a la Resident Evil or Silent Hill, wherein you have to manually save and can only manually save, and then are graded on your performance, then the save system would've been perfect. If they'd taken into account the amount of manual saves, time, number of deaths, shot accuracy, and given you a grade at the end, it would've felt a lot more like a classic survival horror game. As it stands it has a retro feel to induce the anxiety of thinking, "When was the last time I saved?" but in reality they failed to commit to the bit, and as such cheapened the whole experience for everybody. Also, the countdown timer from when you insert your keycard into the emergency station and when the "Would you like to save?" text box pops up on-screen is far too long, and there's no reason for it other than to make the player nervous when enemies are around. Get rid of that and commit to the retro bit, and you'll be golden. This is a weird mix of a save system that's retro feeling but modern playing, and while a cool idea it just doesn't work with both options in action.

Overall, this game is really good, but we're about to get into some shit that I just didn't enjoy at all. 

First of all, THIS FUCKING THING:



FUCK THIS THING. This thing got me killed so many god damned times over the course of this game, I lost count. The idea is that there are some areas that are sealed off behind secure doors, or some terminals are sealed except to certain personnel, and you can use this "Security Access Turner" to get into them. This is meant to vary up the gameplay and give you little mini-games to complete so that you don't get bored just sneaking around opening doors and hiding. This is all well and good in theory, but in practice, it becomes an abominable fucking headache every time it's pulled out of its little satan pouch. That image you see on the screen isn't the only mini-game they make you play. There's also one with sliders and you have to time your button presses, among others, and you never know which one you'll get. Most of the time it's the one pictured, but occasionally they'll throw you a curve ball to trip you up. Bastards. 

Next up, this game has an absolutely egregious amount of quick-time events. Absolutely egregious. Emphasis. More emphasis

Look, game devs, I totally get that you want to keep your audience engaged at every step of the way with the gameplay, but we went for fucking years not getting sucked out of gameplay because we didn't have to press a fucking button combo every two minutes. Right up til Resident Evil 4 was released, matter of fact. Yes, quick-time events are all RE4's fault. Yes, it's a great game despite that, and they were novel at the time. Yes, it was a bad decision for them to include them and yes, it's still a bad decision to put them in your game today. I shouldn't have to press four different buttons and pull the joysticks in wild directions just to pull a lever or prime a generator. It's cheap, it doesn't add anything to gameplay, and you need to stop doing it. Just have the character pull the lever, start the generator, or open the god damned door. It's not that difficult to just let the game glaze over really unimportant shit like that. They did for years and nobody complained about it, then quick-time events came along and EVERYBODY started complaining about it. Take some time to sound the fanbase on this one. Fuck off with the qte's.

You think I went on for too long about that? The time you spent reading that is nothing compared to the amount of time you'll spend in qte's in Isolation. I know it feels like I'm banging this particular drum a little too hard, but literally every door you open is a qte. All the generators are qte's. Cutting through plates with the plasma torch is a qte. Every time. And, icing, every switch you throw is a qte. They just can't let Ripley throw a fucking switch on her own, for fuck's sake. Which confuses the shit out of me, because when you use a console to update your map you don't have to go through a fucking calisthenics course of button presses. They could've done the exact same thing with all the previously mentioned qte's, but for some reason they really wanted you to press those particular buttons at those particular times. Fuck off with this qte bullshit, and let us get back to what gameplay was before 2005, thank you.

Another problem I had with this game is how it handles it's theme. Namely, that of isolation, terror, and being stalked by an unkillable, unrelenting, inhuman enemy. This is going to get into pretty heavy spoiler territory, so you know. The first half of this game is perfect. Honestly, they could've stopped the story after you jettison the Alien in the science lab and that would've been a very satisfactory ending. The Alien is falling into a gas giant, never to be seen again, and Ripley is on her way back to Sevastopol to have hard words with the man who betrayed her to save the station. Up to that point, it had been a stealth/survival horror game that felt exactly like the first movie did. Dark, cold, far from help, hunted, alone, wondering how in the fuck you're going to get out of this mess.

And then the second half of the game happens. The synths start to go psychotic, killing everybody on board, and eventually you find out that the Alien built a hive below the reactor. So you go down there, and that's where this turns from Alien, into Aliens, with a generous side helping of stealth-horror featuring your not-so-friendly neighborhood androids. You start getting more ammo in this bit. It's not enough to turn Amanda into Rambo, but the feeling of sheer helplessness from the first half of the game is gone. And while that doesn't exactly ruin this game, it comes damned close, given how the first half and back quarter of this game act. 

So you purge the generator and wreck the hive, and this scene was pretty cool. Very reminiscent of the scenes in Aliens when Ellen Ripley went into the Hive after Newt. They perfectly captured the look and feel of the interior of an Alien hive, and by god was it creepy going through there and watching my supply of flamethrower fuel slowly dwindle. This section was fun to play, however as I said it throws the feel of the game off.

The Aliens break and run out into the rest of the station, and from that point the AI gets a serious uptick in its aggression. Apparently there were always multiple Aliens running around, and that would explain the seeming ability to teleport this creature has in the first half. However in the last quarter of the game, if you don't sneak literally everywhere you go, you are going to die. The aggro on this bot goes through the roof, and it will spend minutes stalking around the room that you're in, and when it gets bored and hops in a vent you had better move fast, because it's coming back soon. 

The problem with this isn't that it ramps up the difficulty of the first half of the game with the same mechanics, it's that it undermines the pretense of essentially playing the first Alien movie that the game was sold on. This was why I'd bought it. 

While I love Aliens, Alien has always struck me as the better movie because it's a pure science fiction horror flick. It's a predecessor to the 80's slasher genre, and the special effects, monster design, background design, and acting in the movie are all top notch. There's not a wasted moment, and it never gets old. If you offer me the chance to play a video game conveying the feel of Alien, or conveying Aliens, I'd pick the former in a heartbeat. There are already a million conveying the latter, and I've played plenty of them. Most action horror games tend to do what Aliens did, just with a different universe. So really this is a personal nitpick, but given that you don't find multiple aliens outside of the Hive segment, this felt less like a chilling revelation that this problem was so much worse than we'd thought and more like I'd been lied to about what I was laying my money down for. 

Also, that crafting system I mentioned earlier. You find a ton of items in this game that you can use to craft weapons, distractions, and medkits to help you along. The only two I found remotely useful or necessary were the EMP mines and the medkits. In my opinion, the game would've actually proceeded smoother and been more fun had this system been cut and we'd just found medkits, noisemakers, EMP mines, molotovs, etc lying around the station. While the crafting system offers an explanation for why Ripley has all of these items (she is an engineer, after all), most of them were mildly helpful bordering on useless, and the game doesn't pause while you're crafting. Meaning you can get run up on while trying to fashion a medkit. This whole system just felt stupid and tacked on, and honestly they could've put the items you make in the game by themselves and explained that people had been making improvised explosives and tools to protect themselves.

There's even a scene in the game where this happens. You run through a synth display room, they come to life and start chasing you, so you dip out the door and find a room full of shotgun shells and molotov cocktails, as well as a bunch of dead bodies. The logical extrapolation here is that these people made these molotovs, and that could easily have been extrapolated to the entire station to explain the noisemakers and EMP grenades lying around. You find blueprints for these things, so somebody on station knew how to make them, and others could've worked it out. The crafting system was a burden rather than a positive addition, and nothing would've been lost by axing it entirely. 

Finally (read a pun into that if you want), we have the ending.

I'm going to be perfectly frank with you, people, the ending fucking blows. It sucks ass. We go through all that, go to hell and back, and all we get is a three minute spacewalk that ends with a series of qte's and a cutscene with a bunch of Aliens getting ripped off the station exterior. Then it looks like Ripley escaped, she runs into an Alien on the escape ship, and spaces it and herself. Final cutscene, Ripley is floating in her spacesuit, lights show on her face, cut to black, roll credits.

What the fuck.


While completely internally consistent with the lore (whether you subscribe to Theatrical Release Universe wherein Amanda died before Ellen returned or Deleted Scenes Universe wherein Ellen met Amanda right before she died and Amanda blamed Ellen for being gone for so long), this ending is no sort of payoff for the absolute hell this game puts the player through. I wouldn't know about easy mode, because I didn't play it, but normal mode was fairly punishing, and I'd hope it only gets worse from there. It felt cheap, it felt rushed, and it did not feel rewarding. I actually didn't think the game ended there, and went and looked up let's plays of the ending, and forum posts about it, to see if my halfhearted hope had been right and you could unlock the actual ending by being good at the game.

No such luck. What you see is what you get. Is it internally consistent? Yes. Is it consistent with the wider lore set up by the relevant films? Oh, most definitely. They took serious notes. Is it a satisfying conclusion to god only knows how many hours of sneaking through Hell In Space being hunted by the scariest movie monster of the 70's, fighting off psychotic synthetics and crazed humans? No, I really don't think so.

However, disappointing as the ending is, and frustrating as some of the gameplay elements are, the game itself is very solid, and a lot of fun to play. I don't do that numbered score bullshit, I list pros and cons as I see them and then tell you whether I think it was worth my money. This one was. I definitely got my money's worth out of it, and with the Survival Mode and harder difficulties, I stand to get far more enjoyment than the entry fee. It's available on Steam, and I suppose it got released for consoles but if you want to know if it's available for your specific console you'll have to do independent research, or just finally join the master race like most sensible people did after the XBox One/PS3 debacle. 

But if you're into stealth games, horror games, good old-fashioned survival horror games, or just like the Alien franchise in general, you could find a worse place to put your money. This company obviously cares about franchise integrity with regards to the in-universe lore, and given how much fun this one was I hope they get the opportunity to do more with this franchise in the future. Just, please, fewer qte's next time.

For me.