Half-Life

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: Valve Software

When Half-Life first came out, it blew away any other first-person shooter that had come before it. First folks like me, who typically found first-person shooters to feel repetitive and boring, Half-Life combined fun first-person shooter action with some clever puzzles that resulted in some fantastic gameplay...And on top of that, the atmosphere of the game was incredible. The graphics were amazing for their time, the story was interesting, yet still pretty simple...It's just a fantastic overall experience that still holds up very well today. This set the stage for the sequel, which many consider to be the best first-person shooter ever made, and created a rabid fanbase that have been clamoring for a third entry in the series for over a decade. Thankfully, it’s still extremely easy to play this gem today since it’s available on Steam, often on sale for very cheap. Even after all these years, this is still an enjoyable experience and well worth playing for any fans of the genre.

Review added: 02/19/2020

Half-Life 2

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: Valve Software

The original Half-Life was an absolutely amazing game for its time...Groundbreaking, even. No first-person shooter had ever been like it before. It was hard to imagine that it could be surpassed. Fast forward a few years and Half-Life 2 was released, completely blowing the original away in every way imaginable. With such a variety of environments to traverse, vehicles to cruise around in, and a pretty dang solid story, Half-Life 2 is better than the original (which is still excellent) in just about every single way. The game is so good, in fact, that over 15 years past its release, one could still argue that Half-Life 2 is the measuring stick for how good a first-person shooter can be…kind of like how Super Mario Bros. became the measuring stick for platformers (and video games as a whole) back when it was released in 1985. I still pop Half-Life 2 in and play it from time to time and it’s just as fun to play today as it was back in 2004 when it was initially released. I was never a big first-person shooter fan when I was younger, but Half-Life 2 is one of the games that helped me realize that first-person shooters could be so much more than mindlessly shooting at stuff...they could be a fascinating, engaging experience when done right. One could argue that none have ever done it as good as this game.

Review added: 06/24/2020

Haunted Room: 205

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: GameLoop

Haunted Room: 205 is an okay game…the vast majority of the game takes place inside of a one-bedroom apartment after you get home from work each night. Your task every night is to acknowledge all of the supernatural stuff going on in the apartment while trying not to lose your sanity - there's a sanity meter on the lower left part of the screen. Each time you come across a supernatural part of the apartment, the meter drains. You can make the supernatural stuff disappear by pressing spacebar to close your eyes while the cursor is red. However, keeping your eyes closed also drains the your sanity meter. So, the key to survival is to close your eyes only when necessary. When a jump scare happens, you'll also get a lot of sanity lost…unless you see it coming and are able to close your eyes in time. When not being scared by the spirits haunting the apartment, you can make dinner in the microwave to eat and/or pour some tea to drink - doing both will re-fill your sanity meter. Anyway, Haunted Room: 205 is about an hour in length, which I would say is about perfect for it…the gameplay was beginning to feel a little tedious right before the game ended, so it thankfully doesn't overstay its welcome. However, I also feel like it lacks enough gameplay for most folks to really want to play it more than once….or if you're the kind of person that needs constant action in your games, you may not have the patience to see your way through to the end. But, for what it is, Haunted Room: 205 isn't bad…I consider it to be just shy of passable, but if you can get it for cheap and if you have patience, it's not an awful game to get to pass an hour during the Halloween season.

Review added: 10/20/2025

Haunting Record: Phantom Street

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: GameLoop

I don't normally give up on games….but Phantom Street got me there. The sequel to Sins of Lust, Phantom Street is basically the same kind of gameplay. You walk down a street on a loop. Each time you walk down the street, watch for anomalies. If you see any, take a right at the end of the street. If everything seems normal, take a left. Make too many mistakes and you're thrown into an awful maze in order to continue on. The game starts out badly, though, if you don't speak Chinese. Unlike Sins of Lust, there is no obvious way to switch to another language…I had to use the Google Translate app on my phone to navigate the menus and find where I could change the language. It's a very odd design choice to have the language settings hidden away like that - the game has been translated to several languages, but if you're unable to get past the initial Chinese, you'd never know it. Then the gameplay started…and I was actually ready to compliment this game. I feel like it did a better job with the creepy aspects than Sins of Lust, and did a much, much better job of telling a story…but this game is too long. An hour in, I was starting to get sick of playing. Around that same time, I hit a part in the game where I got stuck…but it didn't feel like I was getting stuck in any way due to what I was doing. I had to dodge two spirits…one time I dodged one, but the other grabbed me. The next time, I dodged both successfully, but the shift key suddenly deactivated and I stopped running, so they grabbed me…then that exact same thing happened two more times. After being sent to that boring maze two more times, and continuing to get caught, I decided to throw in the towel. I wasn't having fun, and I had no idea how much longer I'd have to suffer through whenever I got past the area I was stuck on. This was a nice second try for GameLoop, and would have been decent if it had simply been an improved version of Sins of Lust…but they decided to add some extra stuff to this game, and most of it was not very good. GameLoop would eventually put out a near-passable game with Haunted Room: 205 just a few months later, but Phantom Street could have been decent, too…but GameLoop got in their own way with this one.

Review added: 10/20/2025

Haunting Record: Sins of Lust

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: GameLoop

I wasn't really expecting much when I first played Haunting Record: Sins of Lust…The game description says that you're trying to escape an endless corridor…but the note right in front of your face when you start the game lets you know that it's not too difficult to get out. Essentially, In Sins of Lust, you have a single apartment to explore on each floor. Your goal is to find any differences between the apartment on each floor, then go up the flight of stairs if you find an anomaly and go down the stairs if you don't find anything out of the ordinary. If you make the correct choice, you'll notice the floor number lower, regardless of if you went up or down. Eventually, you'll make your way to the first floor, where you can escape the building. It's not necessarily a bad concept, but Sins of Lust also fails to be scary in any way…it has some decent, scary ideas, but it simply fails to execute them in an effective way. The name "Sins of Lust" is also an odd choice…since there's not really any sort of story here. I guess since the apartment is covered in posters of an attractive Japanese woman, that's where the name comes from? Maybe the person that you control is obsessed with that lady? Maybe that's the same lady that you come across while playing the game? I don't know…but I do know that Sins of Lust isn't awful…but it's also not really one that I would recommend. If GameLoop decided to revisit this concept and tweak some stuff, I wouldn't mind giving it another try…but as this game stands, it's simply sub-par.

Review added: 10/20/2025

Hazing - Night Shift

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: REVVALUTION Studio

Hazing - Night Shift is a short horror game that I'd like to enjoy…because it's kind of ridiculous….but unfortunately it's just short of being passable. The concept here is that you take the roll of a police officer that was called in to a house, and of course, the house has supernatural stuff going on. The frustration of this game is that it lacks a lot of logic….like at one point, and this will sound weird out of context, but I don't want to spoil anything, you need to grab four bodies to bury. Your first trip, you grab two, full-grown adult bodies. The next trip, you CAN'T grab two bodies…even though they are half the size of the adult bodies…so you've got to make two separate trips for the last two. You're also in need of a flashlight in the beginning of the game….and there is literally a candle on the windowsill mere feet from you, but it's not usable. I get it, if you grabbed the candle, then you wouldn't move the game at the intended pace…but if that's the case, make it a dim lamp or something that must be plugged in, thus making it worthless to take with you as a light source. Anyway, I can complain more, but I think I made my point. While those oversights make the gameplay frustrating at times when a simple solution is right in front of you, but not usable, there are still some good ideas here, too. The fact that you play as a police officer allows for some unique jump scares - you carry a walkie talkie, so if it suddenly goes off when you're not expecting it, it can rattle you a bit. Unfortunately, the good that's here still isn't enough to make this a passable game. Still, since it takes less than an hour to complete, so maybe if you're looking for something different to play on Halloween, if may be worth giving this game a try. You may enjoy it more than I did.

Review added: 10/31/2024

The Hole

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: Bober Bros

The Hole was the second game made by Bober Bros (available on Steam, anyway) and it's both a dark, disturbing, bizarre game (which I tend to like) while also having a really nice message at the end of the game to show you that some of the darker themes in the game aren't there for shock value - they're there for a purpose. But anyway, in The Hole, you're a guy who likes to drink beer, eat Froot Loops that are heated up in the microwave, and watch television….except your dang neighbor won't stop making noise. Eventually a hole appears by your television, allowing you to see some of what is happening in the apartment next door. Much of it is hinted at…which is good. If some of the stuff Bober Bros hinted at actually appeared on screen, I'm pretty sure I would have quit the game on the spot, regardless of if the game had a positive message to spread or not…the main one being rape of a child. They didn't include sounds or anything…but just an image of a plug going in and out of an outlet….followed by milk spilling….followed by seeing the child's legs sitting on a bed. That got the point across without making it very, very uncomfortable for this player, while still making me feel pity for the child. By the end of the game, you realize that this game was created to help let people (especially children) know that they're not alone…and if they're being abused, it's NEVER their fault and that they should seek help, because there are always people that want to help you. But anyway, The Hole is a decent, short game, with a nice message and plenty of bizarre scenery, while hinting at the controversial stuff without being graphic about it. It's less than an hour in length, but I did enjoy it while it lasted…and like the developer says in the end, I genuinely do hope that this game can help let abused folks know that they are not alone, people do care, and their future can be so, so much happier than their past.

Review added: 10/25/2025

Holidays in Khrushchevsk

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: ASK_GAMES

I would love to say that Holidays in Khrushchevsk is a good game…but there's just too many things wrong with it. The main issue with the game is the lighting - this game is way too dark. I get having things dark for atmospheric purposes, but when you need to find things in the dark, and setting brightness and gamma all the way up still isn't enough to give you proper lighting to see what exactly you're doing, then you need to add more light to the game. The first half of the game is a struggle to figure out what you need to do in the dark…the second half of the game, you get a night vision camera, which helps significantly. Unfortunately, once you're finally able to see, the actual gameplay isn't much less tedious than  it was when you were stumbling around in the dark. Overall, this just isn't a very good horror game. The scares are minimal, the lack of light doesn't do much for the atmosphere but will likely frustrate you, and much of the gameplay just isn't very enjoyable. I'd like to try more from ASK_GAMES and give them another chance…I do see promise here, but this simply isn't good.

Review added: 10/31/2024

Horror Fish Simulator

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: Tero Lunkka

I purchased Horror Fish Simulator fully expecting it to be bad...I just enjoyed the novelty idea of a zombie fishing for food instead of stalking people. That said, while I expected it to be bad, I didn't expect it to be this bad. I expected it to at least be playable...and Horror Fish Simulator is a total mess. Controls are terrible, the fishing aspect itself is even worse than terrible, It's like a combination of awful, terrible, and wretched ...the fishing is awretchible. It's so bad, I needed to invent a new word to describe it. It's also not uncommon to run into bugs...like when I somehow found myself hurled into the sky for about 30-45 seconds before I began to fall again. When I landed, I was so far away from the fishing spot that my poor zombie died of starvation in the desert. If forced to play this game again, I would wish that the roles were reversed...starving in the desert couldn't be any worse than playing through this mess.

Review added: 11/21/2018

Horror Noodles

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: MiHo

Horror Noodles is a game created by a developer known as MiHo, and it's available over at itch.io. I tried to be fair with my score…I'm not going to blister it - it's the project of a gaming student. But, it's also an extremely basic, simple game. My first playthrough was about 4 minutes long…and that includes me exploring the environment a bit and taking a little time to realize that I needed to use the E button to interact with things instead of using a right mouse click. The game works fine for what it is…but it's not very fun, unfortunately. The inclusion of keeping track of your best time is a nice touch, though….I'll admit that it made me tempted to play again to see how fast I could cook those delicious noodles. But otherwise, this is a pretty boring game with a pretty poor attempt at being scary. Again, though, since this was a school project for MiHo, I'm a little more forgiving with the score. If this is what they can do with a school project, it makes me interested to see what a nice, finished product is like coming from MiHo. Horror Noodles was a nice school project, but not necessarily a nice game.

Review added: 10/31/2024

Hotline Miami

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: Dennation

Hotline Miami got a lot of criticism from people for how it "glorifies violence." I think those folks haven't actually played the game. Yes, this is a very violent title...One look at the bloody axe on the "box art" will tell you that...But the violence is a major part of the story - it's not there just for the sake of having violence in the game. Wihtout that violence, this story cannot be told...and, quite frankly, since this isn't exactly a realistic-looking game, I feel like this is the perfect way to tell that story without making folks squeemish. With that out of the way, Hotline Miami's gameplay reminds me a little bit of Super Meat Boy in that you'll likely die a lot when you play, but upon death, the level restarts again instantly, and the levels don't take too long to complete, so the constant deaths never really get too frustrating. As long as you don't mind a little (okay, a lot) of pixelated gore, Hotline Miami is a very solid indie title to get behind. Remove the blood and gore, though, and you'd still have a very solid game here.

Review added: 07/19/2020

Hover!

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: Microsoft

I couldn’t remember the name of Hover! for the life of me, but I did remember having fun as a young’un with this game. That, along with Solitaire and Mine Sweeper, came installed on the first windows computer my family had – a Windows 95 PC. This was the first PC game that I ever played (unless you count the educational games at grade school) and it’s actually pretty fun considering that it was free. Essentially, you control a bumper car and your goal is to collect all of the computer’s blue flags while the computer tries to collect all of your red flags. First one to get the required number of flags wins. There are powerups and such to collect, but Hover! is a pretty simple game that was basically designed as an interactive tech demo to display what Windows 95 PCs were capable of. While it’s no masterpiece, it’s still pretty fun for what it was, and it was a nice trip down memory lane to play it again to refresh my memory and nab screenshots for this list. And for those wondering, yes, it still plays perfectly fine on Windows 10.

Review added: 03/03/2020

How Fish Is Made

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: Johanna Kasurinen

It's no secret that I love bizarre games, so it's probably no surprise that I completely fell in love with How Fish Is Made…enough where I immediately played through a second time, and followed it up with playing the additional chapter, "The Last One and Then Another." The game itself takes roughly 15-20 minutes to complete. The additional chapter takes maybe another 10-15 minutes to complete. The concept of the game is that you take the role of a sardine, flopping around since you're not in water, making your way to the eventual ending choice of Up or Down. Along the way, you'll talk to other fish and a parasite that provides you with one of the more entertaining musical numbers that I've seen in a game. That isn't to say that this game is perfect - it's not. But it's such a charming game that I can't help but like it anyway…and while things could be improved, nothing in this game feels broken or defective. The additional chapter is inspired by Katamari Damacy, with you rolling up fish pieces (and eventually full fish) with the end goal to roll up Curley from Mouthwashing…needless to say, the short chapter is just an interactive advertisement for Mouthwashing, the new game by this developer. Anyway, if you enjoy bizarre games, I highly recommend giving How Fish Is Made a try. It's free on Steam, so you've got nothing to lose by giving it a chance.

Review added: 10/31/2024