There goes the fear

Horror aficionados have long held that scary movies can do you the power of good. The genre isn’t for everyone, of course, but it can be a surprisingly effective, even healthy, way to confront one’s fears and work through them in a safe and controlled environment. A few adrenaline-spiking jolts can offer a purging escape from real-world anxieties – and, let’s face it, there are more than enough of those to go around at the moment.

There’s a distinct undercurrent of horror to this month’s review selection, too. One of the most pleasant (if that’s the right word) surprises is Lightbulb Crew’s grid-based strategy Othercide (p102), which offers a range of hideous enemies to take down, and a group of even more ghastly units with which to do it. The folkloric themes of Wales Interactive’s Maid Of Sker (p104), meanwhile, give this firstperson survival horror a distinctive flavour at first, though its breath-holding stealth mechanics don’t equate to breath-snatching scares.

In the grisly Carrion (p98), we’re the one supplying the frights, as we occupy a fleshy mass of tendrils and hungry mouths, slithering around a lab to torment and tear apart a succession of screaming victims. Even if its squelchy thrills eventually wear off, it’s an undeniable delight to play as the monster for once. At the other end of the scale is Before I Forget (p105), in which we’re asked to face a more horrible monster still – although there’s admirable nuance in how 3-Fold Games portrays dementia.

Even Nintendo has been bitten by the horror bug: the memory of a group of faceless Toads in Paper Mario: The Origami King (p88) has haunted us ever since we saw them. Though Deadly Premonition 2 (p92) takes the biscuit. Sure, its otherworldly shootouts might be more tedious than terrifying. But the framerate? Now that’s truly scary.