Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we’ve found ourselves playing over the last few days. This time: bullet-vampire hell, classic horror, and a brand new SRPG.
If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We’ve Been Playing, here’s our archive.
It never fails to amaze me how Vampire Survivors can give so liberally with one hand and then, with other hand, take so rapidly and brutally away. Case in point: my last attempt. I was flying. I had the garlic and the wand and the bird and everything was clicking. I was well ahead of whatever the game was throwing at me, and I had that feeling you sometimes get in the game: that I was in control. I was the hunter not the one being hunted. I was actively seeking mini-bosses and charging into swarms of enemies, and character-levels were flying by. And in that moment I was thinking, ‘Oh, what a different experience this game can sometimes be, what a reckless joy, what a romp.’ Because sometimes it doesn’t all come together – a lot of the times it doesn’t come together. But in my merriment, I’m going, ‘Oh but I suppose you need the rough to appreciate the smooth.’ I was full of it. I was primed for my fall.
It was like the game heard me. Suddenly, a kind of enemy I couldn’t defeat quickly enough flooded my screen, and I couldn’t get out from the pack surrounding and suffocating me. So I dove through a part of them to escape, still confident enough to think I could do that, and half my health disappeared. Then, I panicked. I was scrabbling, on the run, desperately looking for breakable objects I could get a roast chicken health-drop from. But all the time, my health was being nibbled away at and the inevitability of death was rapidly catching up with me. Then another large wave boxed me in a corner and, overcome, I died. This all happened in the space of about 30 seconds. I was humbled in the blink of an eye, and left staring blanky at the screen.
Sometimes I really hate you Vampire Survivors.
Challenge accepted.
I’ve been on a bit of a Silent Hill binge following the recent showcase reveal and Vikki’s expert response. I even watched the so-bad-it’s-quite-good Sean Bean film, which at the very least succeeded in inspiring me to finally, all these years later, play a Silent Hill game.