#give me scripted linear horror or give me death. or something.

[spring-lxcked]

rip to everyone who hated it but ruin still has a chokehold on me. started a new playthrough to look for secrets. gave william a self-indulgent SB verse. added ca.ssie and roxy to my multi. fighting every day to not add gla.mrock chi.ca. thinking abt it always and forever say i love you ruin!!

[thanksjro]

Eugenesis, an Overview: Let Me Get Weirdly Serious About This Book For A Sec

HOLY SHIT WHAT A RIDE.

So, let’s recap what we’ve learned over the last 282 pages.

In 2001, James Roberts published nearly 300 pages of fictional prose, based in the established franchise of Transformers, specifically the Marvel UK comic continuity. This novel tells the story of the Transformers, in their dwindling numbers, being attacked, not by their opposing factions, but by an outside force hellbent on revenge. Those who are captured by this force- the Quintessons- are stripped of their very individuality, forced into servitude until the moment they die of exhaustion. Everyone is pushed to- and in some cases beyond- their limits, the horrors of a literal genocide beating down on them like a tidal wave. Only by casting aside their differences and banding together can they hope to survive the nightmare that is the Eugenesis Wars.

But people don’t really talk about all that, even though it’s a majority of what the book’s about. No, people only talk about what happens after the Quintessons are defeated. People only talk about the robots getting pregnant, because honestly it is the most bizarre thing.

Not because the idea itself is terribly odd- I mean, at least it’s in line with the lore the comics set up. It’s bizarre in how we get to that point. All the torture, all the suicide and death and depression and destruction of entire belief systems, leads up to these robots getting pregnant. Almost like that was the whole point. And considering that this story is presenting to us a bridge for the gap between the classic Transformers and the Beast-Era ones, it could have very well been.

I won’t say fetish, because that doesn’t feel quite right, but our dear author seems to have a sort of… obscene fascination with the concept of mechpreg. A fascination that will carry on well into his career as a professional comic scriptwriter, setting readers on edge for the duration of his run with IDW.

Comparing Eugenesis to More Than Meets The Eye and Lost Light, you get an interesting view of Roberts’ growth, as both a writer and a human being. Eugenesis is the work of what Billy Joel might call an "angry young man”, focusing on the despair of wartime and the futility of one’s struggle against the flow of time and mortality. The theme of time only being perceived as linear, and being in actuality an unending plane where all moments are equal and eternal might seem oddly specific, but it’s reflected upon by multiple characters within the story of Eugenesis. Perhaps this is why he has Brainstorm and Perceptor collectively and completely jack up time itself in the Elegant Chaos storyline.

Character moments sprinkled throughout the narrative give us a glimpse of the relationships that would be written later on- some of the most compelling scene writing happens between Quark and Rev-Tone, two original characters who have such a delightful dynamic between them, they very quickly became some of my favorites. You truly believe that they care so strongly for one another, they would do just about anything to keep the other safe. And they do, in a couple cases.

Then there’s all the death. There’s a lot of death in Eugenesis, and none of it is by way of natural causes- you’ve either got suicide, murder, or suicide-by-way-of-murder. You really see Roberts shine in these death scenes, both then and now, as he captures the utter, raw tranquility as one stares down their own demise, and on the other side of the coin, the complete annihilation of one’s very heart as someone they love is destroyed. It’s downright poetic how he handles these scenes.

Still, there is a difference in how the aftermath is handled. When someone dies in the MTMTE/LL run, there’s always meaning and purpose to it- nobody dies just to die, and those who are left behind are left at least something to comfort them.

A message of love.

The return of a friend.

A chance to keep living.

A chance to be a better person.

You don’t get that in Eugenesis. In most cases, there’s no salve for the wound, only more hurting. There’s no time to even mourn, as the fight rages on and on and on. Any happiness pulled from the narrative for the characters is laced with a bittersweet understanding that these folks probably aren’t going to make it, and they’re just as aware of that fact as the reader is.

And yet there’s something kind of beautiful about that, in a twisted sort of way.

Eugenesis is a sort of love letter to those dark thoughts hiding in our heads, those deeply scary intrusive visions of everything we care about being ripped away from us. It’s a book make up of catharsis, of hurting that begs for some sort of outlet. The characters in this story are lost, and scared, and hollowed out before the mass extinction even arrives, and are put through wringer after wringer, like some sort of distanced facsimile of self-harm.

Perhaps I’m reading a bit too into this, but with how intense things get, with self-insert characters no less, I can’t help but wonder if the James Roberts who was writing Eugenesis truly needed this outlet in more than just a creative sense.

Which isn’t to say that there aren’t issues with this novel just because it was a vessel for catharsis. Pacing can end up going so rapidly it feels as if you’re being pushed towards the edge of a cliff, then stutter to a halt to the point where continuing on feels like an absolute slog. But it always seems just as you’re about to put the thing down and give up, something completely thrilling, completely insane and powerful and profoundly attention-grabbing happens, pulling you right back in. If nothing else, this book demands one’s attention.

There are also some other, more interesting issues with Eugenesis. Issues I wasn’t really expecting to run into. To highlight one such issue, we’re going to play a game.

The game is called Guess That Character Design!

Hey Transformers fandom, got a new quandary for y’all to fight over. Forget the Frenzy/Rumble color debate, forget the Bombshell/Skywarp is Cyclonus debate, it’s time for the What The Actual Everloving Fuck Is Quark Supposed To Look Like debate! Do we follow the comic and its script, which show him as being either about on par with Rev-Tone and Mirage or taller, but fails to note any sort of color because it’s in black-and-white? Or do we follow the novel, which states he’s short exactly once, and crimson? And if he’s red, where did the blue paint chips come from in Part Five? They sure didn’t come from Rev-Tone, who I know is mostly red- not because the novel told me, but because I’ve seen art of him outside of this. Honestly, other than him having big honkin’ shoulders and a bust to match, nothing about Quark’s visual aesthetic is concrete.

Now, I could tell you all about his quirks and mannerisms, how he holds himself, how he talks, how he interacts with others, all sorts of stuff. Nothing wrong with the writing there, characterization’s great! I just couldn’t tell you for the life of me how his body is supposed to look. Rev-Tone’s in the same boat, except it’d be even worse without the helpful input of some friends. Did you know he has a visor? Because I sure as shit didn’t until someone showed me. It’s never mentioned in the book. You can barely see it in the prequel comic art if you’re looking for it, and the script is less than helpful to me because I’m not Matt friggin’ Dallas, nor have I had the pleasure of reading Transtrip. All the information presented in the novel about his looks involves his mouth.

Hell, some of the writing in Eugenesis seems to imply that he actually just has normal eyeballs.

What I’m getting at here is that Roberts leans a bit too much on the reader knowing exactly as much as he does about the characters, the plot points, the lore. And he knows A LOT about Transformers.

This book essentially requires the reader to have the wiki open with multiple tabs at all times. Roberts put his heart and soul into the prose, but the world-building had his nerdy little brains smeared all over it, because there are some obscure references in here, not to mention the sci-fi jargon. You basically NEED an internet connection to get through this- I’ve never read a novel that pretty much forbid an acoustic reading, but here it is, in all its glory.

Eugenesis is a dark, morbid, conflicted story with the oddest little bright spots in it. Within five pages, you’ll go from some of the most horridly bleak death scenes to someone accidentally burning a hole in their hand like a cartoon character. But never once, in nearly 300 pages, does it ever stop trying. It may not succeed in what it’s attempting 100% of the time, but goddamn does it go as hard as it can. This isn’t something that was done for money, or fame, or anything like that. Eugenesis is a passion project in the purest sense, and you can really feel it in the way it’s been crafted. For all the frustration it put me through, never once did I think “man, this guy just doesn’t care.” The ambition Roberts shows in the prose, in the world-building, in all the funny little moments that show just so much personality within the story, truly were harbingers for what was to come just a decade later.

Ambitious. Bleak. Brutal. Weird. Ultimately unforgettable. That’s James Roberts’ Eugenesis.

But let’s get to the heart of the matter, shall we? The one question that truly matters for any novel: is it worth reading?

Well, that depends.

If you had a hard time with the darker parts of MTMTE/LL, I really couldn’t recommend that you read Eugenesis. You will have an awful time, because most of it is Grindcore x100 levels of depressing and brutal. There were a couple points where I had to take a break because things got so intense- and I’m not exactly squeamish. Maybe stick to a breakdown- like this one!- or try a group read-along. Friends make everything better, after all.

If you like Roberts work and want to see where he came from, like I did, I highly recommend you find a copy- digital of course, there are only a few hundred physical copies in existence. I recommend you find the 2nd edition, which includes Telefunken and fixes some of the more glaring continuity mistakes and typos.

It’s a good read. Just... it’s a lot at times.

Like, a lot.

Up next-

Oh, what? You didn’t think that was it, did you? This url is way too sweet to just be done with so soon.

Next, I’ll be taking a gander at Children of a Lesser Matrix, which is something that was never finished by Roberts, but is still floating around the internet because hey! It’s the internet.

If anyone has any other somewhat obscure writings from JRo, feel free to send them my way. Especially if you have any of the TMUK zines from back in the day. I wish to consume all the works.

[amandaklwrites]

TV Series Review: The Haunting of Hill House (2018)

Genre: Horror/Psychological Thriller

Rating: 10/10

TV Show Review:

Is it possible for me to give a million stars to something? No? Okay, I guess I will anyway.

Let me start this review by saying that I am in no way a horror movie person. The “worst thing” I have ever seen was CRIMSON PEAK, and even that I didn’t finish because the ending was too gory for me (I do know what happened, though). When I was a kid, Disney’s HAUNTED MANSION movie scared the living hell out of me, and now, it’s one of my favorites. So, for me to say that THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE was one of the best things I have ever watched says A. LOT.

I don’t even read horror books. I have found a few that I love—I’m looking at you Cat Winters and Simone St. James—and I’ve noticed, for me, it’s a certain type of horror. I have no care for the movies that are all about the jump scares or gory bullshit or serial killers chasing people around. To me, those stories have no substance (sorry to those fans, but that’s my personal opinion from what I’ve heard). I like the eerie, the idea that something is peering over your shoulder, and the play with darkness. I also like when stories are extremely character driven. A plot can be pretty terrible, but if I love the characters, then I don’t care if it lacks.

Which leads me into why I love this series. I love the characters, I love the vibe, I love the layers of interpretations.

For me, the characters are the best. I love the kids (Steven, Shirley, Theo, Luke and Nell), and the parents (Hugh and Olivia), and everyone else, but especially the family. I feel that they were all created so uniquely, with their own personalities and flaws and they all felt real. Like I was watching something real instead of scripted. Even how they respond to these events in their life are different (I have learned that Mike Flanagan specifically did it so each sibling represented a different stage of grief, which is SO BRILLIANT). And the strong relationship between them all, and their family unit with Hugh and Olivia as a strong couple of parents.

I loved how the story was told. That everything was unfolding with each episode, that pieces were pulled together with each siblings’ POV, and as everything started to ramp up. I like storytelling like this personally, as I don’t think it has to be told in a linear line. Sometimes, that’s not how telling your past works. So I think it reflects that idea well.

The haunting and ghosts were amazing. I loved the different kinds there were, and ones that seemed so new and original. I will say my personal favorite was the bowler hat guy, because not only is he rad, but he makes me think. Why is he so huge, why is he floating, and if he can float, why is his cane touching the ground? He doesn’t make sense, he’s a mix-match of so many things, and that’s what I love the most. That he isn’t like other ghosts I’ve heard about.

For me, I love how Mike Flanagan made the story about both ghosts and the psychological aspects of humanity. Without spoiling too much in this section, I think he made it a balance. Which is what I believe in. That there can be ghosts in this world, trapped in a house, but there is so much psychology behind it. That a house can be alive with the past and its own ghosts, but how you respond to it is up to you.

From here, I’m going to talk about some spoilery thoughts I have. So, if you haven’t seen the show and don’t want to be spoiled, please don’t continue. But if you have, or you don’t care about being spoiled, please do click on the “keep reading!”

Okay, so more on what I was trying to say with the whole ghost and psychology thing. For me, I’ve always believed that ghosts are real (I’ve lost count of how many experiences I have had, and I see ghosts all the time, and they seem to love following me around), so the idea of all these ghosts living in a house doesn’t seem unreal to me. I’ve been in places that feel like absolute rotting hell and I have to get out of there. I do believe that ghosts have a lingering bad energy and can seem evil. But to me, I don’t think ghosts possess or attack people (like, to kill them). I think at that point, there’s a psychology to it. Have you ever watched a horror movie and can’t sleep because you’re convinced there’s a ghost staring at your back? That’s how I think of it with a creepy house full of ghosts, you can be convinced that something will drive you mad. Which, for me, Flanagan created a good balance of both for this show, at least in my opinion. Because, we see all these ghosts, and after only a couple of instances, none of them attack anyone. They don’t hurt anybody. They’re just there. To them, the Crain family are the ghosts and what the devil are they doing there??

Which brings me around to Olivia. We all knew she would be brought up sometime, and her demise and descent into madness. I knew there was something with her from the very beginning (unfortunately), but I didn’t realize that she attempted to kill her two youngest kids, and actually did kill a little girl. I never even guessed it. But I knew she was losing her mind as more and more time went along. But I can see it. I mean, it does make some sense to a degree. Who isn’t scared that the world will tear apart their children, especially ones like Luke and Nell who are clearly caring and empaths? I’m an empath and I care so much sometimes that I feel like I get disappointed and hurt all the time. And I have heard my own mom talk about her concerns of me growing up that I will fall apart (and actually, I did at one point). So I 100% understand Olivia’s mindset. But I have the thought process that I don’t think the ghost of Poppy Hill controlled and manipulated her into killing her children. I personally feel like Olivia had mental illness stuff long before the house (I mean, the weird headaches??), and Poppy was a projection of those feelings and thoughts she was already having. I mean, we hadn’t even seen Poppy until Olivia was really thinking like that. I’m not saying that the ghost had no part in it, not at all. I think if you are unstable in the first place, and then you go to a place that seems to have this bad, lingering energy, your mind can spin out of control. I briefly mentioned that I have been in places that feel so haunted. I was deep inside a ship with my grandparents at one point, and I stood in one spot and I literally felt someone shove me back and then I couldn’t breathe. For like five seconds, I felt like I was losing my mind. I felt like I was dying and I wanted it to stop. (Turns out, someone had been crushed to death right where that had happened, which I found out afterward). So, I know what I’m talking about. In my opinion, that was Olivia’s case, since that was what had happened to me. I’ve also fell into such deep depression that my thoughts were erratic. So, somewhere along her time in this house, with her mind already in tatters, and listening to a maniac ghost who had been in an asylum, she lost it, she cracked. And that makes her so fascinating, doesn’t it?

I loved the kids. I loved all of them. But I do have to say, my personal favorite was Luke. He was so quiet and sincere, and he grew up and became a junkie. He was haunted by what happened in that house—and somehow, I think, he knew what his mother was trying to do to him and Nell. I know they were little and didn’t fully understand, but I think as you get older, you have to look back and think about it. This little girl with you had died after drinking tea. He may not totally realize it, but I think deep in his subconscious, he knew what happened. And how does someone live with that? Not only is he traumatized because of ghosts and his mother killing herself, but that haunting feeling? To me, that’s why his mother shows up as a ghost to him. Because he knows. But why I also connect with him is because I feel like we share similar personalities. Now, I never got into drugs, but there was a reason for that. It took me my whole life to avoid drugs constantly. Because, especially when my depression was bad in high school, I knew, knew, knew that if I had started playing with drugs, I would become an addict. I just knew it deep down inside of myself, so I stayed away from them. I consciously made a choice to not let that happen to myself. So, I think when I look at Luke, I see a version of myself that could have been. And I also understand it, even if I hadn’t done the drugs myself, if that makes sense? He cared so much that it broke him and that made me cry so much because I get it. I get it.

I’m a literature major, and in my classes, we learned that houses in stories, especially haunted ones, are huge metaphors. They represent the psyche. That’s why we find haunting houses so interesting in stories. So, to me, this house is both a physical entity that can be seen as evil, but it’s also more than that. Like Olivia had said, a house is like a body. It has its own energy, it collects memories, it sees more than any of us have ever had. So I like the idea of a haunted house collecting all these ghosts, and they’re living amongst them. Because isn’t that what hauntings are? Lingering memories, the past clawing after you? And a house perfectly represents that—how many memories, how many people and pasts has it collected over the years? I don’t see the house itself as evil, but all that has happened inside of it. I know the house and ghosts played a huge part of what happened, but we have to give Olivia some responsibility of what happened—she killed a girl and attempted to murder her own kids. I know she was mentally ill, but we can’t blame the ghosts and house itself. I mean, the kids are grown up and living away from the house, and they’re still haunted. So, it’s not only the house. It’s us. It’s humans with our grief and guilt and horror, and we’re remembering it all. But this house is important to them, because it’s where the ghosts reside, it’s where their mom—and then Nell—killed themselves. That’s their ghost.

I think where Flanagan wins is his complex characters, his complex themes and ideas. And that he creates an idea that has so many layers that anyone can interpret things differently. Like for me, I wonder how much the house and ghosts influence the characters and their actions, and vice versa. I think they’re meeting in the middle. And is Olivia evil or good as a ghost? To me, it seems still a bit deranged, because she wants her son to die and be with them. You would think that she would have let go of all that once she had died. But she’s free to choose, and that could be monstrous. But maybe she’s still living in her own hell because of the lingering ghosts and pasts in the house. Maybe you can never quite shake off your past, it’s always there, hanging out in the background.

It’s a complicated show, and that’s what I love about it. I watched it almost a week ago, and I’m still thinking about it. I’m still talking about it to my mom (who has only seen bits) and talking about the different layers and thoughts I have. I loved the sixth episode and how it was filmed in only five shots (who the hell does that???). I think this show is a work of genius, and Mike Flanagan needs all that credit.

This show is such an experience that I loved every single second of it. I want to watch it over and over to catch every little detail, to see if I experience something differently.

It makes me look a little longer at the ghosts that I see pass by me at work all the time now.

[doing-an-okay-job-miranda]

Restart the Story

AO3 / Masterlist

Warnings: Blood and Violence, Temporary Death, Implied memory loss, Loss of control, forced to kill, sword fighting, hurt no comfort :(

Summary:

Roman is designed to win.

Remus is designed to lose.

It's a game, a test, a simulation. They're both aware of its false nature but this is how it's always been. Time doesn't move linear, it's a story that needs to be finished, it's multiple stories that continue forever.

--

Roman is designed to win.

Remus is designed to lose.

Neither of them thinks they are human, at least not anymore.

It's a game, a test, a simulation. They're both aware of its false nature but this is how it's always been. Time doesn't move linear, it's a story that needs to be finished, it's multiple stories that continue forever.

Once Roman wins, he gets rewarded with a short view of a happy ending he won't actually get to live before a new story begins and he loses it all. Roman is the prince, the savior, the hero.

Once Remus loses, he gets to watch from his cell or from beyond the grave, gets to see Roman be offered not real smiles that are wiped away forever once it resets. Remus is the Duke, the monster, the villain.

This is how it's always been.

Remus is happy to destroy whatever he can while he's around and Roman is happy to protect and be praised for defeating him.

Roman has never killed Remus before.

At least, not directly. Remus always is defeated but he's either imprisoned or somehow brings about his own demise so Roman has never shed his blood.

"Kill me," Remus tells Roman the first time the story changes, the Prince is standing over the fallen man with his sword against the Duke's chest. "It's alright."

Roman doesn't realize he's crying as he struggles to regain control of his arms, to pull the sword away and not be forced to kill his brother.

"I've been dying for years." The Duke does nothing to move and neither of them knows if it's because he can't move like Roman or if he simply doesn't care to. "It doesn't even hurt that much, you should try it." Remus giggles as Roman's hands shake with the strain of resisting.

Roman isn't happy anymore after his arms give out and the blade plunges into the Duke's heart, he's not happy when people cheer and reward him for killing his brother, he's not happy when the story forces him to marry the maiden he saved before erasing her forever.

Remus and Roman are never brothers, the story never connects them like that, the fake people never recognize what they look like. They have no reason to be brothers but they know that they are, that they once were.

It's a simulation, a test. They always pass, the game never lets them fail, Remus can't stop being the villain and Roman can't stop defeating him.

"I want to stop fighting," Roman tells Remus as they meet on the battlefield for the millionth time. "I'm tired of this story."

Remus's ever-present grin falters slightly. "I don't think we get the choice," Remus says and they both draw their weapons, Roman's body moves without his permission but Remus just gives in and does it. "I think we're just code at this point, a bunch of numbers."

Roman shoots forward with his sword, metal clinking against metal as Remus blocks. "How do we even know what that is?" Roman asks as he dodges the morning star that almost smashes into his head. "Why can't we break it? Why do I want to go to a home I can't remember?"

Remus chuckles at that, looking sad and resigned. "I miss mom-" He's silenced as Roman cuts off his head and Roman watches in horror as it rolls and blood squirts from the neck.

Roman doesn't get a happy ending that time, the story resets immediately into something new and Roman goes through the motions until he's at the first battle but the cloaked figure that stands before him doesn't wear a manic smile or a similar face.

"Who are you?" The stranger asks, looking just as scared and confused as Roman. "You're not- where's Patton?"

"I am Prince Roman." The prince doesn't have the energy to put effort into his introduction, he hasn't in so long but the story demands he reply. "I am- I am the hero of this story, here to-to put an end to your evil ways." Roman raises his sword to point at them. "I'm sorry." He says when his voice is freed from the script. "I'd imagine they are wherever Remus is."

"I see." This fight is harder than any fight Roman's had, not because the cloaked man is stronger but because he's obviously scared. He doesn't fight directly like Remus does, dodging and weaving around the Prince's blade.

It's only so long before he makes a mistake, either because he's tired or because the story demanded he did and Roman finds his sword buried in the man's gut. "I'm sorry." He whispers, standing this close to the person who has scales marking down their face.

He only let out a small pained wheeze, gripping around where the sword pierced his stomach.

They have to wait, Roman has to stand and watch a man slowly bleed out because he's not allowed to move and help him die faster to end his pain. Remus always died quick, Roman was never forced to watch, this stranger reaches out with a bloody hand to grip onto Roman's shirt and leans on him.

"It'll be okay." They whimper out. "Thisss- it's a punishment. It'll end soon."

The story resets.

[slpublicity]

Scripted Horror Anthology BLEEDERS DIEGEST Launches on Bloody Disgusting Podcast Network

From your speakers straight into your psyche, Bleeders DIEgest has launched on the Bloody Disgusting podcast network. The scripted horror anthology is created and written by Powerman 5000 frontman Spider One, filmmaker Krsy Fox, and The Boo Crew podcast hosts Trevor and Lauren Shand.

Ranging from 15 to 30 minutes, each episode tells a new, original story of dark fiction complete with immersive audio production. Select tales feature guest stars such as Bonnie Aarons (The Nun), Adam Busch (Buffy The Vampire Slayer), and Ice Nine Kills vocalist Spencer Charnas.

From sinister voices in the darkness to malevolent forces lurking at home, the first two episodes are available on all major podcast providers courtesy of Acast. New episodes will debut weekly every Thursday.

"Ever since I was a little kid, I was transfixed by horror and science fiction," explains Spider One. "Endless hours of my youth were spent watching Creature Double Feature and scouring the aisles of my local video store for the goriest of cover art. It’s a dream come true to be able to now partner with Bloody Disgusting and share my own brand of scary with an audience."

"We're so excited to share the darkest parts of our minds with an audience we know will truly appreciate it," adds Krsy Fox. "Making terrifying original short stories into such a theatrical and interactive show has been a dream come true. The stories of Bleeders DIEgest are already giving me nightmares, and I hope it does the same for all of you!"

"There is something so magical about crafting characters and their worlds that don't exist painted with words," Lauren Shand notes. "Being able to do this in the horror space with Bloody Disgusting is so incredibly cool."

"The 'theater of the mind' is something I retreated to so often as a kid with old-school radio dramas and tales of horror that emanated from the small speaker I’d stash under my pillow at night," reminisces Trevor Shand. "To be able to play in that world with the support of this small group of friends and our Bloody Disgusting family is a nightmare come true. Our goal is that these stories might live in yours."

"We're so excited to grow the Bloody Disgusting podcast network with the addition of Bleeders DIEgest," Bloody Disgusting co-founder Tom Owen comments. "These stories are truly terrifying, and the intimate format of podcasting is the perfect platform to deliver them straight into the listener's ear. I can't wait for everyone to hear what Spider, Krsy, Trevor, and Lauren have created."

We dare you to listen to Bleeders DIEgest on your favorite podcast provider: bleedersdiegest.carrd.co

About Spider One

Spider One dropped out of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. Started the band Powerman 5000. Released eleven albums (and counting), enjoyed platinum success and toured the world. He has directed several music videos in addition to writing and directing the horror feature Allegoria starring John Ennis and Scout Compton. Spider also served as an on air personality for the horror network FEARnet and created and co-produced the horror/comedy TV series Death Valley for MTV.

About Krsy Fox

Born in British Columbia, Canada, Krsy Fox began acting professionally at the age of 12, appearing in such productions as Underworld: Evolution, In the Land of Women, and the CW series Aliens in America. In addition to acting, her passion for music led her to write with numerous artists, garnering three number-one radio hits and seven top-ten singles with bands like Theory of a Deadman and Halestorm. She has also toured internationally as the frontwoman of Knee High Fox and is working on new music with her latest band QUINN. Fox founded OneFox Productions with fellow musician-filmmaker Spider One, producing and directing music videos and films. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Fox wrote, directed, and starred in the horror feature FRANK, set for release later this year. She is currently in production on her next movie, I Live Alone starring Bonnie Aarons, and will next direct a feature version of her award-winning short, What the Spell?

About Lauren Shand

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Lauren immersed herself in the local music scene. This led to a decade-long stint at the world famous KROQ-FM running the boards and answering phone calls for America's most popular DJs and tastemakers. She soon found herself as assistant producer of the legendary syndicated radio show Loveline with Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew. She made the leap following her passion in music working for Warner Bros. Records. In 2018 she channeled her love of horror into the co-creation of The Boo Crew along with her husband Trevor, Leone D'Antonio and friends, as well as co-hosting she is producer of The Boo Crew podcast and TV show. She also works for the Bloody Disgusting Podcast Network.

About Trevor Shand

Trevor grew up in Canada engulfed in the indie music scene as a guitar player and on the air as a radio personality in his teens. Moved to Boston to join a major label band, toured North America and returned to a broadcasting career that eventually landed him as the creative imaging director of the world famous KROQ in Los Angeles. He has been the voice for Disney XD, the Outdoor Life Network, projects for Adult Swim and 20th Century Fox films and over 20 radio stations across Canada. He is currently behind the audio branding of the sound of alternative radio in the US including KROQ, Alt 923 New York and over a dozen others. As an obsessive horror fan, he co-created The Boo Crew Podcast in 2018 with his wife Lauren, Leone D’Antonio and their friends, joining the Bloody Disgusting Network. The Boo Crew has welcomed everyone from Danny Elfman to Elvira, Phoebe Bridgers to Mike Flanagan and Gerard Way and most recently expanded into a TV show on BD’s linear Roku channel.

About Bloody Disgusting Podcast Network

The Bloody Disgusting Podcast Network offers a wide variety of some of the fastest-growing, chart-topping, and highest-quality genre podcasts. Featuring nine exclusive shows ranging from original audio dramas, to in-depth horror discussions, to interviews with horror's biggest stars, the network receives over 2 million monthly downloads and sits atop the Apple Podcasts and Spotify charts.

[goliathbetagamer-blog]

The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners Review

Imagine what would happen if you took a half-season of The Walking Dead TV show, mashed it together with a Deus Ex or System Shock style of exploration and decision-making, and then drizzled it with the best aspects of a modern VR game.

What you might end up with is a survival horror game that’s oppressively tense and brutal, but also tugs on you relentlessly to explore every corner of its post-apocalyptic world for hidden loot and nuggets of lore. The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is exactly that, and it absolutely nails the mix, delivering it with a level of detail and a depth of interactivity that feels like a genuine step forward for virtual reality.

You play as the Tourist, a storied survivor and living urban legend who seems to be immune to the fictional virus that makes everybody else a little bitier in The Walking Dead universe. You’ve rolled into the sunken remains of New Orleans following a rumor about a buried hotbed of limitless supplies called the Reserve, and the rest is up to you. It’s a simple setup, but one that's perfect for the size and scope of Saints & Sinners because it doesn’t immediately saddle you with any presumptions about your character’s morality.

You’re introduced to New Orleans by your old buddy Henri, but the moral choices you’ll make while navigating its several open-ended zones are yours alone. As an Obsidian fan, I was pleased to find that there were several major factions fighting for control of the Reserve, each with their own perspective on the bleak situation around you. One such moral choice involves a mission where a faction member will send you to rescue their brother in exchange for an important item, and it’s fantastic that you can then choose to upend the original mission and kill the brother, earning his captors as allies and instead taking the item by force – if that’s the path you prefer, of course. Saints & Sinners’ ending depends entirely on the decisions you make throughout the campaign too, few of which are decidedly ‘good’ or ‘evil’.

All that choice makes the Tourist primarily a shell for you to insert your own personality into, with decent voice acting that gives life to each dialogue option, much like Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect series. By comparison, Telltale’s The Walking Dead accomplished some truly great feats of cinematic storytelling and meaningful decision-making in its hostile and zombie-riddled world, but it never gave me free rein to do whatever I wanted. That’s something I had craved for years when I was a regular watcher of The Walking Dead TV series, and while Telltale’s take on The Walking Dead certainly made me care about Clementine, it never made me feel like I was in that world.

Saints & Sinners scratches the itch for a truly explorable Walking Dead world with the grace and confidence of a well-lubricated bowie knife

Saints & Sinners scratches that itch with the grace and confidence of a well-lubricated bowie knife. The portrayal of killing zombies – or walkers – has never been as satisfying as it is here, and the abject terror of an unexpected walker swarm has never been as palpable. Zombie guts and brains are rendered with great detail, but what really grounds you in this world is the fact that weapons have appropriate weight and heft. Heavy weapons like axes and rifles require you to grip them with both hands for stability, while small weapons like shivs are much lighter and easier to land precise blows with. It’s not as nuanced as a game like Boneworks; you can’t wield just any item as a weapon, but this combat system is far more tactile and exciting than if you were doing it remotely with a gamepad or a keyboard.

Diseased walkers explode and unleash poisonous gases that lower your health pool when killed up close, meanwhile helmeted walkers are far tougher to kill, requiring a complete decapitation or extremely precise blows to exposed parts of their heads. This increased challenge only adds to the intensity of fighting an entire pack of walkers at once, a common occurrence later on, as you need to quickly pick and choose which walkers need to be killed in which way and in which order to preserve the durability of your best weapons. Rapidly juggling my inventory in real-time to acclimate to each fight forced me to be smarter and, as a result, Saints & Sinners never fell into that Action-RPG trap of becoming repetitive. I spent a little over 18 hours in the campaign – the story itself is a few hours shorter than that, but it was just loads of fun to complete scavenging runs and hunt for secret recipes on my own.

The walkers and human NPCs themselves have their own agendas too, often interacting with one another in interesting and useful ways. While the AI isn’t always the most bright, causing enemies to sometimes get stuck in hilarious and vulnerable positions, an impressive amount of the unfurling drama that makes Saints & Sinners exciting is simulated in real-time rather than deliberately scripted. To my satisfaction, I found that many of the quests allowed me to choose my own path to a solution, and it was a delight to discover alternate routes and secrets, even if the map can feel a little nondescript or claustrophobic at times. Even when I was presented with straightforward options for moving through a group of wary human NPCs or solving a quest with diplomacy – or simply by attacking an NPC directly – I could just as easily avoid interacting with certain characters altogether, either by attracting a herd of walkers and sneaking past the ensuing carnage, or by climbing over the side of a wall or up the side of a house. That freedom to tackle a situation so many different ways is fantastic.

And though the bigger story about breaking into the Reserve can sometimes feel pretty thin between long periods of exploring, looting, killing, and crafting my way through the streets of New Orleans, it was refreshing for a VR game to let me define my character through my own decisions in a setting as meticulously detailed and open-ended as this. While Saints & Sinners isn’t exactly the first of its kind, this caliber of storytelling reaches a height that VR had otherwise yet to achieve.

Zombalaya

Central to the tension of Saints & Sinners is that you only get so much time each day to do things before the city’s bells are rung and the streets flood with ravenous corpses. Once you head back to safety you can go to sleep and skip to the next morning, but the number of undead you encounter the following day increases. This creates a compelling risk-reward choice between pushing your luck past dark or playing it safe at the cost of worse odds tomorrow, driving the tension of the entire game.

That dilemma would be perfectly manageable if not for the fact that you only have a limited amount of inventory space, pushing you to think more carefully about what you grab. You also have to continue crafting or finding new weapons as your old ones tend to fall apart at a distressingly high rate. That forces you to make each attack count, which is easier said than done since you actually have to swing and aim with your real-world appendages. With a ticking clock looming behind all that, Saints & Sinners quickly becomes the perfect storm for adrenaline junkies.

Luckily, the inventory management is intuitive and feels great. Picking up items and placing them into your backpack is as simple as throwing them over your shoulder, and to access them again you simply grab the pack off of your back and pull items out of their neatly arranged slots. Meanwhile, weapons can be holstered in convenient slots on your waist and back while your journal and flashlight fit snugly on your chest. This style of physical inventory management has existed in VR games like Rec Room and Township Tale for some time, and it’s far more interactive and interesting than simply tapping on a menu screen with your fingers or pointing at some text with a laser pointer.

This is the perfect formula for some of the most terrifying moments I’ve had in a VR headset

Limited stamina is also a worry. Running out of stamina makes you slow and unable to swing, aim, or run away, meaning it’s all the more critical to land each and every blow with finesse. Likewise, having a strong weapon or beefed up stamina pool makes you feel satisfyingly powerful, but never so much that you can let your guard down, keeping combat engaging even as you get stronger.

If you do die to the shambling hordes, you’re forced to respawn at the start of the map while the day’s clock is still ticking, and you only get one chance to reclaim your inventory before it’s gone forever. As time wears on, high-quality supplies and weapons can become so difficult to find that scrounging up a broken bottleneck or screwdriver in the nick of time is sometimes the difference between life and death. This, mixed with the fact that your health and stamina pools are temporarily decreased when you die, is a perfect formula for some of the most terrifying moments I’ve had in a VR headset – but that terror was met with an equal amount of satisfaction if I could make it back to my loot and come out alive after.

It is disappointing that character progression is fairly linear, with only a few tech trees to branch into – Gear, Guns, and Survival – and no mutual exclusivity between them. There’s nothing stopping you from unlocking every possible upgrade at the crafting stations in short order, just as long as you can find the right components from scrapping items you find in the world, similar to Fallout 4. It’s plenty of fun to use newfound upgrades like the Nail Bomb and the Grass Cutter, and there are some recipes that you first have to uncover the hidden nooks and crannies of New Orleans to find, but it’s too bad that there’s no real way to personalize your Tourist beyond the story choices you make.

Verdict

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is a noteworthy step forward for VR gaming, proving that a Deus Ex-like Action-RPG can feel right at home in a headset. Every one of its many interwoven systems clearly has a level of thought and care behind it, swirling survival horror and roleplaying staples together with nuance. Even though character customization can feel limited and the story is a bit short, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is a fantastic example of what VR can be.

Developer: Skydance Interactive

Publisher: Skydance Interactive

Release: DateJanuary 23, 2020

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4

- Joystick Buff 🕹️🧡

https://www.destructoid.com/--581333.phtml#post

[symbianosgames]

It’s been a few years now since virtual reality became mainstream. As the kinks are worked out and the wrinkles straightened, VR continues to open up new gameplay mechanisms with fascinating potential applications. It also offers an even deeper level of immersiveness. What responsibility does the developer have to the player?

Among the early games to take advantage of the intensity offered by virtual reality is Here They Lie. The title was released for PSVR back in October. As one of the pioneers of the horror genre’s arrival on VR devices, the game’s developers, the Sony Interactive Entertainment studio in Santa Monica, have already tread this new and unfamiliar territory, and having done so, can help shed light on the creative and ethical pitfalls that lie ahead. To that end, Cory Davis, creative director on Here They Lie, agreed to share some insights with Gamasutra. 

He first makes clear that he and his team weren't pursuing cheap shocks. “I think in our game, instead of a direct rise and fall to jump scare, we had an element of bliss acting as this other zone we were pulling the player into," he says. "That to me can be just as surprising as a jump scare and anything else you might be able to set the player up for.”

The horror genre relies on tension, and as the architect of player experience, Davis admits his process is abstract and less formal than that of other developers, likening the difference to that between producing jazz and writing techno. But this worked well for Here They Lie, in that the team sought to achieve an unsettling tone by matching the pace of a hallucination, or a nightmare. Davis says they hand-tuned the process to create a balanced cycle that steered the player through several emotions through their peak, from dread, to terror, to pure bliss, the contrast of the latter acting as another level of surprise. 

From the beginning of Here They Lie, the player character Buddy is in pursuit of a woman, Dana, who seems both connected to his past and to the dark events of the present. This dynamic gave the developers the chance to lead the player through events of varying impact to define the emotional cycle they sought to achieve.

The same mechanism that gives virtual reality an edge over traditional video game experiences may also present a hazard. It’s one thing to create a horror-based experience that, due to technical and physical limitations, will always limit the extent of the player’s immersion. VR, however, closes the sensory gap in ways that may hinder their immediate ability to distinguish fiction from reality. 

Having made one of the first horror games in VR, Davis is aware of the added responsibility that interactive player experiences bring, noting that unlike his previous game, Spec Ops: The Line (which was presented as a first person shooter but fell more along the lines of psychological horror), the game was marketed honestly, acting as a warning to an audience that may be otherwise naive as to the intensity of the immersion.

“I do believe that it's good to have a reminder that this is a very extreme experience. [We’re] still in the infancy of what we're going to learn in terms of what these experiences can do.” He also cites the game cover, warning screens, and its Halloween season release as a fair indicator of what the player is in for, adding that the game also avoids graphic depictions of self mutilation or other types of gore that might be additionally upsetting in the first person perspective. The use of firearms or close-up extremes doesn’t appeal to Davis.

“I always have a really sort of extremely visceral reaction to firearms," he says. "They're not something you see in Here They Lie. Not that they're inherently more dangerous than a knife but I think if I were going to shoot you in the head… I don't know, I don't think I would shoot you in the head.”

He also draws a line between the horror paradigm and the proactive empowerment fantasies of most games, reflecting on how removal of player agency might have more impact in such an immersive first person setting.

“Say you’re in a shooter game and you're like ‘Oh I'm in cover, I got shot, and now I'm responding’. That is a different feeling than having someone tie you down and stick a gun to your head," he observes. "I don’t know if either one is good for you, but definitely the one that feels like a real life murder scenario is terrifying. That might need a special warning at the start of the game. “It should at least be marketed like a Call of Duty: Murder Death Trip 6!”

Davis likens the early stages of adapting horror to VR technology to psychedelic drugs, confessing that while some users will find it appealing to be a guinea pig testing the possibilities, that may not be the average player’s goals. “You're gonna find people that want to be astronauts, but that's not the average consumer. Me personally, if you’ve figured out how to create something that's gonna affect me psychologically, I'm going to be very tempted to be your guinea pig. But that's because I'm probably trying to learn something that I can apply to something I'm creating for other people. And you know maybe I can go a little bit further so I can take everyone else into the safe zone right behind me (laughs).”

A challenge in horror VR design is the player’s unpredictable reactive field of view. Any linear game with exploratory aspects runs the risk that the audience may not catch every cue or random event, some of which might be integral to the game’s core. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make ‘em drink. Or in this case, you can curate a player experience but you can’t always ensure or predict their response. So how do you direct their attention while still maintaining a level of illusory freedom? 

Davis argues that first person horror games have always had the potential to respond based on where the player is looking, but that most center their action around major events instead of experiential moments that transpire in a reactive environment. 

“In Here They Lie, you walk into a new realm when a horror experience starts to happen around you," he says. "It’s almost like a hallucination or a nightmare because you're in a zone of horror. We're trying to get you into the situation to have a really unpredictable and interesting experience...so we're doing a lot of handcrafted timing tricks that had to do with where you're looking and where you might go and also using audio to foreshadow the small little tricks that we're trying to pull on you.”

“People are riding the razor's edge of their own expectations," he adds, "so you have to sort of predict what they might think is going to happen. And then make them wrong. And then make them right, at the right time.”

He compares the trick of anticipating and subverting player expectations in VR to sleight of hand. "We're naturally trained, in fight or flight situations, to have a heightened awareness of what might happen around us so that we can be reactive. That's just a really fun thing to play with."

He stresses that it's also an expensive thing to play with. "You need to have tools that allow you to evaluate those small details and the reactions people have, and be able to make the slightest adjustments to them without affecting the entire scene. You would not believe the amount of scripting that goes into a well-designed horror sequence. or the amount of it that you will never experience."

Davis says that the consequences of getting it wrong are profound. "All these small, little, tiny events, if you don’t design them correctly, can just cascade into maddening spaghetti wires of death that you'll have to rip out and redo over again just to get the smallest little effect of timing change that you may have learned is critical in order for the experience to play out correctly."

He claims that it's incredibly frustrating if you haven't designed your tools correctly. "You also have to build your scripting in a way that allows you to go back to the initial placements of the core foundation of the experience, and actually change them drastically and in a sort of fine tuned sort of way without causing an entire construct to collapse. You can think of each horror zone as a little realm that's almost an entire level's worth of scripting in and of itself.” Bad VR horror design can potentially cause as much unnecessary suffering for developers as it can for players.