Reviews - C-zom

The best horror mod I've ever had the pleasure of playing. I spoke with Andreas in a notable interview a few months back and ever since have held an enormous respect for the man and what it is he sees in his projects, in his "horror", and in himself. Cry of Fear has finally launched and with it comes a turning point in open source gaming, modding, creative expression and a revitalization of the almost dead psychological modern horror that we have come to see in Jacob's Ladder, Silent Hill, Afraid of Monsters, and now in Cry of Fear.

I could justifiably complain about the dated graphics and the visual inconsistencies that mar some aspects of the mod. But why would I? These are insignificant when compared to the handling of the atmosphere; the key to any horror project. And believe me, Cry of Fear is scary. I'm not telling you its scary based on the misconception that anything that makes someone jump is "scary". I'm not saying its scary based on the misguided ideal that anything "horror" is automatically scary. You're reading a review of someone who lives, breathes, and loves the genre even makes horror mods himself--and it scared the absolute hell out of me.

Cry of Fear is soaked in loneliness, dread, foreboding, guilt, deep introspective messages and thoughtful negotiation with your inner demons. Its violent, shocking, loud and original and presents its story clearly with a sullen acceptance of death and decay. Its a mature story for a mature audience, tackling themes such as rape, drug addiction, murder, depression, bipolar, psychosis and much much more. This isn't just about monsters.

I'm running out of characters. Cry of Fear is a huge mod, with tons of content, unlockables, co-op, and about 8 hours to the story. It could be its own game and I'd pay for it. This is masterclass in horror modding and is the #1 of all time in my opinion, dethroning Afraid of Monsters. Whilst my preferred horror genre is Lovecraftian (This is quite Cronenberg), it doesn't matter.

I'm writing this under the immense realization that there will, indeed, never be a perfect Hearts of Iron experience. Something that lets you just sit down and play from A to Z. How many of us crave the cold war espionage and nuclear threat and politicing, but never get to enact it due to script errors, impossible AI genius that destroys our armies, or overcoming impossible IC restraints?

Arsenal of Democracy proved just how ridiculously contrived, complicated, and un-user friendly HoI2 can be and is regarded by the more steel blooded fans to be the worst version of the game. On the flip side, most of us consider Darkest Hour to be the best. Why is that?

It's accessible, it has new content, even a new map. It doesn't make the AI tactical gods but it makes them smart and capable, and they react to thousands of new scenarios. It's an easy game though, and can be won through the same tactics.

It also features a surprisingly realistic and immersive ww1 campaign, but it cannot go over into the ww2 and cold war ones without the help of a mod and a save converter.

So yes, Darkest Hour is the best of the bunch (AoD is the worst) but still, one has to ask why its $10 or why it even exists, when perfection on an unstable platform would be like the pyramid of gaza being built sideways.

Unbelievably underrated, wonderful and polished game. Great story, I agree with Tanshaydar on this fully except I don't like to give out ten's, but it's very close to a perfect horror PnC

What started was one of the most ambitious and well designed zombie sandbox games has ended in mild ridiculousness as the development team, first halted by a robbery than by management inefficiency, has taken almost a year to bring to the table anything more than a thin tech demo. An arduous ticker-style counter has been placed on their forum, but after a revelation by community members that it was an algorithm and not a check box, it has been no surprise that it is taking additional months to count down.

Project Zomboid provides true zombie fans with what they have, arguably, always craved. Food, drink, weapons, melee, an open world and a day/night cycle. Its like what Rogue Survivor tried to make and failed, but on a much higher budget. It appeals to the true survival horror crowd by letting you survive until you die. Not when; it always happens.

However any advancements promised have been extremely slow to arrive or not at all. Years after release AI are still blockheaded, the zombies spawn out of thin air, hotfix patches have broken community maps and mods that haven' even bothered to update and so on and so on. In desperate need of a masssive patch and overhaul, Project Zomboid has the potential to be one of the best zombie games of all time, but developers with terrible and unfortunate robbery luck, and the extremely arduous process of recoding all the lost ground, has slowed down PZ to a near dead standstill. Purchase with caution, Terraria this is not.

I don't know what the point of this is. Why am I supposed to buy it? Why did I waste my money when:

A: Hearts of Iron 2 on its own is stable, moddable, fun, and dynamic. It is an amazing base for over 250 mods on the paradox forums.

B: Arsenal of Democracy as a mod is completely fine and still updated now and then, about as much as this retail version is.

C: You're paying for a mod, meaning the 249 other mods for HoI2 will NOT work. Buying this is essentially gimping your own copy of HoI2.

So, you're paying $20 for a gimped version of the base game that is only compatible with AoD addons, and a slightly enhanced--and SLOOOOWWLLY--updated version of a free mod that is already out and highly acclaimed? Huh? Who thought this was a good idea? Its a $20 fan patch you can get for free.

I fail to see the point. HoI2 is a 10/10, this is a 5/10. Just, why?