Category: videogame

So! Now I’m back in chronological order and I’m on The Vengeance! The plot is my nephew who is not Brandon Gray (DESPITE A PHOTO) but James MCGRAY ( who is… part of the same family! Also I am somehow also a Gray, despite my sister Luisa marrying John Gray?) has murdered (so they say) his sister Elizabeth.

Also there’s a third branch of the family now, the Maxwells. So let that be clear, this family bush is the Grays, McGrays, and the Maxwells. No O’Maxwells yet. I shouldn’t be so harsh, I actually name things like I was built to do the opposite. Hurling boulders at glass houses.

 

 

Most important: This was a fun game. It wasn’t as all out ‘constant creep out moments’ as Bloody Mary but definitely was a ghost story unlike The Stone Queen which was a straight adventure story.

The scenery art is really good and the hidden object sections are looking excellent. Genuinely fun to see how they’re put together. I especially liked Elizabeth McGray’s character design too.

We finally get it confirmed that the protagonist’s deal is that she’s psychometric and not only that, kind of famous for it! Which is cool. She’s certainly done enough interesting things.

The end of this game with Elizabeth manifesting alive was very satisfying. I look forward to playing the bonus chapter soon.

We’re in 2014 now, gamewise? So game tech is gonna start leaping forward pretty soon. Unfortunately there’s that one game that just straight up got zapped from existence so I won’t be able to play that one.

I was so relieved when I found what I was actually going to be shooting from my crossbow to stop the dogs. I wasn’t really signing up to impale puppies.

Finished the game + Bonus chapter.

In the last bit capitalism has led to mystical elemental creatures you must defeat in various ways to get at their precious precious power cores. Petals. They were petals. I really liked the design of the ice wolf and I totally did not snap a screenshot of that, sorry. But a wolf made of crystal ice is pretty.

I DID get a screen capture of the last one but first let’s talk about how this game was mostly an adventure game and not a horror game like the others I’ve played in the series at all (and the one that followed it, Bloody Mary, which as I’ve said I played out of order by accident).

So you know. Adventure! Magic! Love!

AND THEN THERE WAS THIS THING.

I had to wind it up to make… to make that jaw open and the teeth were QUITE THE SURPRISE and the eyes sure as hell weren’t looking at me before. The thing in its mouth is a motorcycle amulet which opened a locker that had been closed since the start of the game. I assume the doll ate the previous owner holy crap.

Okay so the final elemental beast was fire! Specifically a phoenix! And the phoenix had a DELICIOUS surprise inside! The horrifically calcified body of the villain!

 

Oh also with great delight I got to say the words ‘I have upgraded my goblin’.

So the bonus chapter wasn’t as easy to infer the use of tools as the main game and it turned out a lot of my frustration joke guesses were… what I was supposed to use! Huh. The hammer was VERY useful. And in a surprise twist, ice turned out to be the answer, not fire.

So the plot for the bonus chapter is as Brandon Gray (my nephew, son of John Gray off in a dungeon somewhere and Luisa my sister probably horrifically cursed somehow right now) embraced his true love, her EVIL BROTHER came and kidnapped her and Brandon was all ‘we have to save her! I guess you can help!’ and then I never see him again.

Not even at the end of the game after I’ve saved everyone.

RIP Brandon Gray, your bloodline was fucking cursed.

Okay so it turned out I’d skipped ahead by accident (Stone Queen comes before Bloody Mary!) so I went back and this is interesting! It’s way more fantasy than horror than the other ones.

Actually, I was so involved in the gameplay and figuring out where things go I didn’t even really dick around/take screencaps to make jokes about. I am pleased to see that my nephew Brandon is alive and well except for the mortal wounding but apparently I just didn’t see him again until now after I saved him from Volo(s?)!

What kind of auntie am I? Jeez. Luisa might be in another crystal ball and I didn’t even check on her. Is John Gray in a dungeon? Do I know? No. I failed them. I failed them all.

Anyway so Brandon’s performing a Snow White routine in a crystal coffin and I’ve got a little goblin servant now and I’ve been hanging out with trolls and ogres. The puzzles are relatively easy to solve but I keep missing items I’m meant to pick up, like I swear my eyes don’t register them until I hit the hint thing and it’s like ‘there was a coin there???’

The puzzles are relatively interesting. I like the story telling format that will come later in Bloody Mary and they’re not as frustrating/why? as in the first two. There was actually an interesting rpg style one. (For the record, I did skip to the end of that one but I played halfway through it but I’ve been having spacing out issues lately so I just moved along. I did like it though and in normal circumstances would have played to the end).

The plot is pretty strong in this game, focusing on a corrupt mayor and a strange girl beneath the earth. Name of this strange town where people are being turned to stone by the Stone Queen: Stoneville.

And I’m done! And I just realized I was supposed to do The Stone Queen! Not Bloody Mary! Heck!

I wish I’d managed to get a screencap of the multiple times I literally blew up a monster, or any of the times I used a chipmunk as my servant (at one point stranding him in an aquarium) but the time has passed. The moment has passed. We have to move on with our lives. The explosions were lovely.

This had a lot of really good spooky incidentals. I am hoping Stone Queen explains some of my ‘wait we’re doing this now?’ vis a vis the protagonist’s situation. I’m led to believe skipping an installment can cause that confusion.

Also, one of the games just isn’t available for purchase anymore so I’ll be having to face that reality eventually anyway. C’est la vie.

Also another bonus chapter giving closure. I appreciate those. Perhaps the REAL monster all along was classism!

I’ve got a new relative, Jackie! She called her auntie for help. I assume I’m the same person as in previous games and this is Brandon’s little sister and that somewhere John Gray is in a dungeon.

So right off the bat, this game is haunted as hell. Stuff keeps moving, the protagonist is finally noticing and commenting on the creepy shit:

 

So everywhere I go there’s haunted children trying to fuck my shit up. I’m so happy.

I wonder if the games are ever going to do anything about the fact that I have ghosts of twin murdered sisters that gave me a single clue once in The Bride?

(I’m not doing so great with story progression in this one, I keep having to ask for help)

Fun side tangent about Bloody Mary: In school around third grade I had a classmate swear her cousin had been murdered by Bloody Mary and I spent a fair bit of time confused between ‘but that’s literally impossible’ and ‘but why would someone lie about something like that?’ because I was 8 and not horrible and jaded by then.

Anyway, nothing about demon possession back then but that was Canadian Bloody Mary, not Russian Bloody Mary who I assume is much tougher.

Also the kids have been murdering the teachers and I have NOT been checking to see if they’re okay beyond ‘I hear some moaning’.

There’s achievements in this game and it does scratch that little ‘I done good’ itch in my head when it praises me for finishing a puzzle under a minute um, clicking on a meerkat. Yes. Keep praising me. PRAISE ME MORE. I am the best player ever.

There were more corpses in this one. This one really leaned into Eastern European paganism, with shamans and totems and swamp witches, which I can really appreciate. Is paganism the right word? Anyway, shit went down.

I finished the game tonight and the bonus content (I really like the follow ups!) and here’s my last “The Wishes’ update!

I had a few goals in this one – I had to save John Gray from another wacky mishap, get my sister out of a crystal ball, and uh, evict a demon from my nephew. John Gray was off in Siberia being chased by bears (as one does) and I’m just so proud of him for not being in someone’s dungeon. He’s getting tougher.

The horrible puppet was never fully disposed of, but… perhaps one day that family will finally be safe. I wonder what happens in the next game, The Stone Queen. I’m sure nothing zany is happening to them now!

So the possession was pretty freaky! I had a friend watching me play and I do believe she screamed at this part:

 

What I wished I’d screencapped: The demon bear I exorcised that turned into an adorable orphaned cub and the literal frozen corpse of the shaman standing outside his hut by the human skeletal remains that there is no real comment on besides ‘rub fish oil on his hand to get his flask!’. I don’t know what is up with the protagonist but she is cold as hell.

For the bonus content:

 

Anyway, good times. I also played Bejeweled to save the world from a demon, proving I DO have the skills that will serve me well in the coming devil wars.