Happy Halloween on RPS! Have a load of horror-themed writing to celebrate

Happy Halloween on RPS! Have a load of horror-themed writing to gloat

Spooky article delights for the season!

A black and white illustration of a griffin gargoyle creature

Halloween comes but once per year, and it'southward nearly over already! But hither on RPS we historic the reason for the season (i.e. horror things; scary stuff; being scared, you know) in fashion. We had a whole host of chilling themed articles this year, and what a troupe of little devils they are to behold!

Whether you're staying in for a quiet one, pelting fun-size chocolate bars from your upstairs window at the neighbour children with cruel forcefulness, or you're having a heavy weekend and will need to recover come up Sunday morning time, have a look at the Halloween 2021 for some night delights. Or read on in this commodity!

I myself will non be seeing whatever Halloween activeness this year, living as I do on a bit of an out-of-the-way street, and in a third floor flat (the entrance to which is directly contrary a community bin that is currently overflowing). We never get a lot of fob or treaters at the best of times, is what I'm saying, and my trip the light fantastic card for themed house parties is also very empty. So I'm not just asking you to experience spooks for these articles for the hell of it. I'm going to exist doing the same!

Nosotros've put together a lovely shovel-load of takes most horror, from smart to a flake giddy, large blockbuster titles to unsettling Bitsy games. A few of them accidentally intersect with things I've been interested in outside of games, like the innate horror of mushrooms, but others cutting into the development of multiplayer horror, or Untitled Goose Game as compared to Blood Omen. Y'all know, archetype stuff.

There are also a couple of juicy interviews with devs coming upward who've made some interesting, creepy horror games - including Inscryption, everyone's favourite carte game that isn't a card game.

Y'all tin find all of them under the Halloween 2021 tag, as I mentioned, simply we've also listed them all here, with a little flavour of what to expect in each, merely to assistance you out. Because hell is a bitch, but I'm non.

Halloween 2021 on RPS

The strange influences of Silt

A diver swims in a strange cavern in Silt

Silt is an upcoming pretty but creepy horror puzzle game that will remind you a chip of Limbo (which is no bad thing). Katharine got a hands on of the demo, plus a chat with developer Screw Circus' co-founder Tom Mead. He takes her through some of the weird influences on his horror fine art and Silt - including Beatrix Potter. To be fair, I know exactly the ballet he's talking about and it'south pretty fucked up.

Lo-fi horror and the attraction of an uncanny Bitsy

A giant eyeball from bitsy horror game Vitreous

Kat Brewster explores the unnerving earth of lo-fi Bitsy horror games by highlighting 4 of her absolute favourites. With their express colour palettes and short, precipitous, no-messing-about narratives, these horror games manage to conjur up all sorts of chilling, cosmic chills despite their lo-fi toolset. Plus, they're all available for free, right within your browser. Definitely ane to go on your big purple eyeball on.

All I desire for spook calendar month is more classic survival horror

Lady Dimitrescu of Resident Evil Village looking very angry

Nic Rueben is feeling nostalgic for classiv survival horror, similar what the Resident Evil games used to be similar. Resident Evil Village didn't quite scratch that itch for him, and he's not too enamoured of the more modern multiplayer delights of games like Phasmophobia. He takes a wait at some of the essential ingredients for a good survival horror game, as well as some cool weird indie games that are nonetheless flying that horror freak flag in 2021.

Inscryption is horrifying because it does things games aren't supposed to

Inscryption is a recent Bestest Best here on RPS, so our very own Imogen Beckhelling sat downwardly with developer Daniel Mullins to talk about this extremely unsettling card game. Sort of a menu game. It turns out Mullins isn't entirely sure Inscryption should be called a horror game. But information technology'southward non non a horror game... It'southward a flake of a spoiler-filled interview if you've non played Inscryption yet, but it's an absolutely not bad read that'southward full of interesting insights on the game's development.

Where are all the good Stephen Male monarch games?

A gravestone in a moonlit cemetery. The inscription reads "George Stark, 1985-1991. Not a very nice guy."

Rebecca Jones has been let out of the Treehouse guides loft for the spooky flavour, and has treated us with a look at the games based on Stephen King's books. In that location are a lot less than you'd imagine. I for one assumed that King was operating on such a dissimilar chemical plain to the residuum of usa in the 80s that he had no idea where the rights to any of his work even were. It's an interesting history, and is rounded up with some suggestions for non-King Male monarch-ish games to play.

An ode to Kain from Claret Omen and his Legacy - including Untitled Goose Game

I honestly didn't intend to commission whatsoever freelancer for Halloween more once, but this premise made me express mirth so much that I said yes. I of my trademark changes of eye. But what was originally going to be entirely a joke piece is actually a solid love song to Kain from Claret Omen as the daddy of all villain protagonists. But also a big joke, patently.

Mushrooms, mould and killer plants: the best horror isn't animal, it's vegetable

The angler fish from Dark Bramble in Outer Wilds

I believe I mentioned before that I read Mexican Gothic and Entangled Life nigh simultaneously, which was a terrible affair to practice for my psyche. Here, Ewan Wilson has distilled the horror that I experienced in that calendar week-long period into a great article most how the scariest scares are from nature, not man. Watch out for that first mushroom. It'southward a doozy.

When did horror games become team sports?

Andrew Heaton looks at the trend into multiplayer horror games like Phasmophobia, using Outlast Trials as a case study. One time a single-histrion terror-fest of survival and hiding, the series is poised to go a team-based sport. Volition it work? What are the pros and cons of horror with and without friends?

The weird folk horror of Mundaun

The horror of paw-drawn, blackness and white adventure Mundaun is a special kind of creepy, unsettling horror. Andreas Inderwildi takes a expect at how it embraces the traditions of folk horror, without becoming old-fashioned, to truly scare the pants off you. And also in that location are goats. In that location are always goats.

Happy Halloween!