From big-name franchise revivals to small-scale indie productions, horror gaming on PlayStation was in good health in 2023. PlayStation LifeStyle selects 14 of the year’s best horror games on PlayStation consoles.

Resident Evil 4 Remake (Capcom)

Few remakes would come with such expectations as Resident Evil 4, and yet Capcom managed to exceed them.

Resident Evil 4 Remake takes everything players loved about the 2005 classic and integrates a flurry of modern touches to make it feel like a natural evolution of the original.

Dead Space (EA Motive)

While Resident Evil 4’s remake reimagined the original, EA Motive’s Dead Space largely stuck to the script with a smattering of improvements where they were needed.

The spirit of the original is kept intact, but a PS5 sheen made every Necromorph encounter and gore-splattered outcome a grisly treat. But the real star of the new show is the Ishimura, which no longer feels like a series of interconnected rooms masquerading as a spaceship but more like an actual place.

No One Lives Under the Lighthouse (Marevo Collective)

Finally getting a console release, Marevo Collective’s atmospheric PSX-style horror is a delightful slow-burner that makes the most of its minimalist structure.

The ambiguity of the story keeps players on edge, and when chase scenes kick in, the perspective shift adds another layer to the unsettling atmosphere.

Amnesia The Bunker (Frictional Games)

Frictional Games’ ability to rewrite the rulesets of its story-led horror games is admirable and with Amnesia: The Bunker, it does its biggest edit yet.

Amnesia: The Bunker is a self-contained sandbox set in a wartime bunker where the player has to find the means to escape whilst evading a deadly monstrosity. Think of it as small-scale Alien Isolation meets Immersive Sim.

The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners 2 (Skydance Interactive)

PSVR2 had plenty of horror goodies in 2023. The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners 2 was my personal pick from the brand-new bunch.

Why? Well, its immersive, intense gameplay translates so much better to the PSVR2 than the original game did with PSVR. The dread of getting cornered by the undead is offset by improvised weapons. Throw in a seemingly unstoppable behemoth out for blood and Saints and Sinners 2 will have you working up a sweat.

Killer Frequency (Team 17)

Killer Frequency stands out for me because it’s clearly doing something quite different in the horror space. Playing the part of a washed-up DJ who finds themselves having to help save locals from a returning legendary serial killer. Killer Frequency limits you to the radio station as to the extent of your help, but within that station is plenty of exploration and opportunity.

Not only can you find things to guide potential victims away from their fate, but you get the chance to play as a DJ, putting on records, ads, and, of course, taking calls. Killer Frequency does everything possible to immerse you in the role.

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals (Night School Studios)

Oxenfree’s dialogue system remains one of the most refreshing and ingenious of its kind, so a return to that with Oxenfree II would always be welcome. That system is more refined now, but it’s Oxenfree II’s story is where it excels.

After the teen-centric tale of the original, Oxenfree II shifts things to an adult perspective and, in doing so, gives us a wonderfully melancholy flipside to the first game.

Homebody (Game Grumps)

Homebody puts a modern spin on classic survival horror, with plenty of homages to Clock Tower, especially on show.

A young woman and her friends are stuck in a time loop that keeps them inside a strange old house. She must solve the many puzzles of the house in order to break the loop, but every time the loop begins, the threat of a masked killer arrives with it.

Trepang2 (Trepang Studios)

If you miss the frenetic supernatural shooter action of F.E.A.R. then Trepang2 has your early 2000s needs covered. A labor of love that transformed into a full game, Trepang2 is a lovely reminder that shooters can simply be big, loud, bloody slabs of nonsense.

The slo-mo ability turns large-scale chaos into a ballet of bullets and blood, but truly the art of Trepang2 comes in chaining together kills at full speed, utilizing the various other superpowers at your disposal.

Alan Wake 2 (Remedy Entertainment)

Thirteen years after Remedy Entertainment’s Alan Wake, a sequel finally arrived, and it’s the quintessential distillation of everything the developer has done up until this point.

It’s a weird, meta tale that blends mediums in an impressively seamless way. The shift between Alan’s and Saga’s sides of the story gives us two distinct flavors of horror that intertwine at key moments.

Stay Out of the House (Puppet Combo)

It was pretty remarkable that Amnesia: The Bunker condensed a horror immersive sim into such a small space, but Puppet Combo’s Stay Out of the House manages to pack that into an even smaller space.

You have to escape the house of The Butcher by utilizing whatever you can find. Get caught, and it’s back in your cage. Each run gives you the opportunity to discover more about how the house works and the backstory behind The Butcher.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Gun Media)

After an unfortunate licensing drama with Friday the 13th, Gun Media clearly wasn’t deterred from bringing beloved horror franchises to life in video game form, and we should be glad because it gave us The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Taking the asymmetrical multiplayer model of games like its Friday the 13th game and Dead by Daylight, Gun, and Sumo change things up by pitting a team of three family members against four unlucky potential victims. The change makes for an intense cat-and-mouse dynamic distinct to this game.

Dead Island 2 (Dambuster Studios)

Given the rocky history of Dead Island 2’s path to release and the emergence of rival franchise Dying Light by original Dead Island developers Techland in the years since it would have been understandable if Dead Island 2 turned out to be a bit of a stinker.

Yet, thanks to Dambuster Studios, it turned out to be not only good, gory fun but the best Dead Island game by far. Its tongue-in-cheek humor, detailed zombie degradation system, and general blood-splattered combat combine to make for a fine multiplayer hoot.

Dredge (Black Salt Games)

Fishing has been a staple of game activities for some time now, but few outside actual sims make that the basis for an entire game. Black Salt Games thought it was worth a go, and Dredge was the unholy result.

This open-world fishing sim has an increasingly dark undertone that taps into the core of Lovecraftian horror. The murmured warnings not to stray too far at night, the messed up fish you occasionally haul in, and the strange, ambiguous way locals talk about things. When the horrors of the deep do finally show themselves, your little fishing boat never felt more vulnerable.

The post Best of 2023: PlayStation Horror Games appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

The original Oxenfree had a tedious Platinum, something that was symbolized by the trophy that required players to beat the game without saying anything. It was dull at best and buggy at worst. Oxenfree 2’s trophy list is surprisingly even more tedious. However, instead of pointing out a problem in just this franchise, it’s representative of a wider trend of annoying Platinums in narrative-heavy adventure games.

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These Platinums mainly suffer because of how laborious it is to replay these types of titles, which often call for a few playthroughs. Running through games again to nab trophies isn’t a bad proposition — as shown by the Resident Evil 4 remake and the Dead Space remake — but it can be in this genre. Dialogue and cutscenes are often unskippable and walking speeds are usually incredibly slow. Having to crawl from story bit to story bit and listen to most of the same conversations again means trophy-related replays aren’t snappy. Even just going back to grab a single collectible can take far too much time.

Oxenfree 2 falls into this trap, too, since Riley’s movement speed is sluggish, and there’s no way to blaze past anything. Players have to hear about Jacob’s insecurities again and clamber up the same ropes with very little in the way of expediency. Trophy hunting would be significantly more tiresome if every game had these restrictions and forced players to hit credits at least a couple times.

Supermassive Games’ titles have had the same issue, not only contriving multiple trophies to encourage another run or two, but also getting players to sit through a lot of the same scenes. This approach doesn’t do this genre any favors since it points out how truly limited they often are. While The Dark Pictures Anthology and games like Oxenfree pride themselves on variability, second playthroughs often don’t differ too much. 

Oxenfree 2 has a few splintering points, but many of the choices players are presented with are in regards to how they talk to Jacob. Some lines are different, but that doesn’t distract much from how similar the rest of it is. Few games are truly that unique each time, and the trophy list shouldn’t make that even more clear.

Oxenfree 2 is also full of highly specific and missable trophies. It’s easy to forget to ping Evelyn after every transmitter, not tune into Maria’s radio station, or even pick the specific dialogue choices in two scenarios in order to unlock the “3 AM Food Friends” and “Merry Scary Christmas” trophies. Supermassive’s titles are rotten with these types of trophies, and they’re not much better here. Having to deduce how to trigger certain events or closely adhering to a guide is also not the most ideal way to play these games, especially when ignorance or a slip up can force yet another run.

Detroit: Become Human also has a few scene-dependent trophies and 1979: The Revolution calls for players to not miss a single quick-time event, but those games, unlike Oxenfree 2, at least has a chapter select feature to mitigate frustration. It’s not possible to skip around and mop up collectibles or grab the aforementioned missable trophies in this sequel for some puzzling reason. Not even the game’s final autosave lets players pick the other endings; those who don’t back up their save right before that choice are completely out of luck.

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There are some narrative adventure games with friendlier trophy lists, though. The Life is Strange series not only lets players skip around, but each entry also has a Collector Mode that strips out the story and makes collectibles easily accessible. Telltale Games, with a few exceptions, also takes the easy road and gives players the Platinum for reaching the end. Not every narrative-heavy title like this needs to be so simple, but they also show that a less prickly path is possible.

Games like Until Dawn, The Quarry, New Tales from the Borderlands, Heavy Rain, Last Stop, Beyond: Two Souls, and The Medium all suffer from many of the aforementioned issues, but Oxenfree 2 still is one of the most hostile to completionists when compared to many of its genre peers. Its glacial movement speed, inability to let players skip dialogue, nearly identical events, lack of chapter select, and very specific and highly missable trophies make it a true slog to complete. There’s even one completely bugged trophy on PS5 (which Night School Studio is aware of), but that’s not nearly its biggest problem. Its biggest problem is that it’s a multifaceted pain to complete that succinctly illustrates this genre’s trophy-related struggles.

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Netflix has made no secret of the fact that it’s getting into gaming, and the streaming giant has made its first acquisition in the gaming space. Oxenfree and Afterparty developer Night School Studio announced that it has been acquired by Netflix.

The team revealed the acquisition via a blog post on its website. Night School has been talking with Netflix over the past few months, aligning their visions on “where we see games, storytelling, and our collective opportunity for positive impact somewhere in the middle.” Now under the Netflix umbrella, Night School says this gives them an “unprecedented canvas” to their team, unlocking the same potential that Netflix has afforded to its film and TV creators. The studio says it was an “instinctive” and “natural pairing,” based on Netflix’s previous catalog of support for diverse storytellers.

This makes Night School the first every game studio for Netflix, ramping up the streamers plans in the space in a big but perhaps not entirely unexpected way. Night School says that Netflix is respecting and protecting the team’s culture and creative vision, and that they will continue working on Oxenfree II (ironically announced at PlayStation Indies back in August), as well as making new game worlds. How exactly this acquisition plays out, especially in the console space where manufacturers have their own subscription gaming services, remains to be seen, but it is undoubtedly part of a much bigger strategy that Netflix is laying down as it enters the gaming industry in a bigger way.

Over on the Netflix side, the company said that it is in the early stages of creating a “great gaming experience for our members.” They echo Night School’s statements that the acquisition came from a shared passion for storytelling, and specifically how Night School does it for games. “Their commitment to artistic excellence and proven track record make them invaluable partners as we build out the creative capabilities and library of Netflix games together.”

Netflix says it will continue to work with developers, as well as hiring more gaming talent.

We’ll continue working with developers around the world and hiring the best talent in the industry to deliver a great collection of exclusive games designed for every kind of gamer and any level of play. Like our shows and films, these games will all be included as part of your Netflix membership — all with no ads and no in-app purchases. Stay tuned for more.

The Netflix Night School acquisition is effective as of today, and heralds a big new step in the video games and streaming landscape.

[Source: Night School, Netflix]

The post Netflix Acquires Oxenfree and Afterparty Developer Night School Studio appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Sony has dedicated today to reveals for seven upcoming PlayStation Indie titles. Amongst these were announcements of Oxenfree II, Wytchwood, A Short Hike and Carrion coming to PlayStation 5 and/or PlayStation 4 in the future. There were also updates on three other titles and you can catch all of the latest news below.

Oxenfree II Coming to PS5 and PS4

Previously announced for Nintendo Switch, Night School Studio has announced their supernatural mystery-thriller sequel Oxenfree II: Lost Signals will be coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 at launch too. The game is set five years after the events of Oxenfree, the game features a whole new cast of characters. Riley is an environmental researcher investigating strange radio frequency signals in her home town of Camena. After discovering the history of ghostly occurrences at nearby Edwards Island, she finds herself in her own supernatural mystery. The title offers similar gameplay to the prequel with player choice-driven narrative and a radio that can tune into the mysterious signals. Players can continue the story when it releases next year.

Wytchwood Announced for PS5 and PS4

Alientrap Games’ upcoming crafting adventure game has a touch of Grimm’s Fairytales about it. Players assume the role of a witch who is stuck in a dark pact she doesn’t remember making. The only way she’ll get out of it is to right the wrongs of a cast of characters doing their best to bring misery to others. A bear likes to beat people up. Puss in Boots likes to con market traders out of their wares. The witch needs to collect ingredients to cast spells and craft potions to stop them in their tracks. Wytchwood will arrive on PS5 and PS4 this fall.

Carrion Coming to PS4

Phobia Game Studio’s reverse-horror title puts players in the role of the monster instead. Players assume the role of an “amorphous blob of gristle, teeth, and tentacles” as it wakes up in a secret laboratory deep underground. As it sets about making its escape, it also decides to consume every human it finds in its way, allowing it to grow bigger and open up new areas and escape routes. There’s also new abilities to acquire like possessing humans and bending light. The chance to cause carnage will be arriving on PS4 later this year.

A Short Hike Announced for PS4

Adam Robinson-Yu’s title does exactly what it says on the tin—Claire the bird goes exploring up a mountain. As she freely explores the small open-world, she’ll encounter other people off the beaten track who need her help. Other mini-games that can be found include fishing, boating, and volleyball. When the game arrives on PS4 this fall, it will include a slider so players can alter the size of the pixels, allowing players to experience the game in low-resolution or even as high as 4K on PS4 Pro.

Supergiant Games Explains the Origin of Hades

Not long after the release of Pyre, Supergiant Games began thinking about their new title. They wanted it to be a “greatest hits” of all of the games they’d created so far. The result was replayable rogue-like title Hades with character-driven narrative set in a world adapted from Greek mythology. The team goes intomplenty more detail on the PlayStation Blog, but in the meantime you can also watch nearly 25 minutes of gameplay courtesy of PlayStation Underground. The game will arrive on PS5 and PS4 on August 13.

Sol Cresta Turns Out to be Real

Previously assumed to be an April Fool’s Day joke, Sol Cresta is a sequel 36 years in the making. The follow up to Moon Cresta and Terra Cresta is a vertical shooter where players control the docking fighter Yamato and aim to reclaim the solar system from the evil Mega Zohar army. This time the docking mechanic has evolved to become a “three-fighter “dock-and-split” system” as the Yamato is made up of three smaller ships that can be split and docked in various orders to equip alternative weapons and adapt to different situations. The title will arrive on PS4 with a Neo-Classic Arcade label later this year.

Axiom Verge 2 Reveals a Second World

One of the new mechanics the sequel to Axiom Verge will have is that the game will feature two different worlds. While players have already seen the overworld in earlier footage, Axiom Verge 2 also has an interconnected breach world in an alternate dimension. This world is of alien originand has a blockier appearance. Players will be able to enter and exit the breach throughout the game, allowing for non-linear exploration and secrets that can only be discovered in either world. The game will arrive on PS5 and Ps4 in the future.

[Source: PlayStation Blog]

The post PlayStation Indies Announces Oxenfree II, Wytchwood, A Short Hike and Carrion for PS4 and PS5, Full Roundup appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.