Transient Extended Edition makes it’s way to Xbox One

Transient

Our friends at Iceberg Interactive shared their remastered Eldritch horror title Transient for the Xbox One.

Iceberg Interactive updated their classic title, Transient, for the current generation of consoles with the Extended Edition. The game begins in the distant future, the world was nearly ended and a scientific effort strives to carry the world through the fallout. You wake up in a facility with a weird skull mask on your head and start on your adventure. With the music and the overall ambiance the game is very much meant to be a horror title but as you explore the world this adventure honestly feels mores like the game was more of a game of exploration.

The game is extremely linear but is full of puzzles to keep things interesting. Best part of these puzzles is that they feel organic, none that I have experienced so far felt forced. Any game that brings in inspiration from HP Lovecraft is worth a try in my book but when you add in a gorgeous world and engaging story and you have a game that is worth playing until the end.

Moons of Madness – a futuristic Lovecraftian adventure

Moons of Madness

Moons of Madness is a reimagining of HP Lovecraft’s Mountains of Madness but instead of some twisted mountain it is the red planet itself.

Funcom brings us the game Moons of Madness, intended as a science fiction thriller on the surface of Mars. A strange signal has be coming from the planet’s surface and a team has been sent to investigate. The signal has baffled the scientists from Orochi and they decided to keep the signal from public knowledge, especially after they determined the source to be from someone or something with some sort of intelligence. As a lowly technician you have limited information regarding the signal and your job is simply to keep the station running.

Keeping everything working properly becomes more irksome as setbacks begin to happen and weird things begin to occur. Maintenance tasks range from the tedious and believable to the downright strange like a flooded greenhouse. A greenhouse being flooded is normally a believable occurrence but on a planet with virtually no water where it needs to be rationed closely how did no one notice the leak quick enough to prevent the flooding?

Visually the game is quite stunning but lacks in the ambiance to be a truly horrific title. The puzzles do have a more realistic feel to some of their solutions which makes up for some of the tonal issues but even when trying to up the tension it feels more like the game wants to be scary but simply doesn’t know how. It’s like me and dancing, I’d love to be good at it but don’t have any rhythm or even know how to dance.

Dread Nautical a voyage in Eldritch Horror

Dread Nautical

Dread Nautical is a tactics based horror game with an Eldritch twist.

In Dread Nautical you are on a cruise ship sailing through the Bermuda Triangle. What could possibly go wrong? This title from Zen Studios attempts to answer just that by putting players on a luxury cruise and everything goes to hell rather quickly.

You might as well be Bill Murray because you get thrown into a Groundhog Day situation where each day you wake up and the day starts over. Playing as Fargo Drexler you must solve the mystery of what is going on and why you wake up back where you started each time you sound the ship’s horn.

Conceptually a cruise ship in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle makes for an interesting locale and the introduction of Eldritch creatures make for a story that leaves you wondering what is behind your new world of horrors. Controls are quite easy to master as you maneuver the ship but where this game really lacks is the visuals. The visuals look very similar to the original Virtua Fighter game and feels out of place among the many other titles in their library– namely Pinball Fx. I was expecting something a bit flashier but it is not enough to take away from the experience. The gameplay is enjoyable enough but the game just comes off feeling tedious.