Prepare The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch!

I can see what the dev went for and was optimistic, but meh, this didn’t do it for me. I love RE and SH, and have been gobbling them up since I first set eyes on RE1 on PS1 at my friends house as a kid. That said, I don’t like bumping their difficulty up, at all. I drop it to the easiest for a reason, the setting and story is why I play, challenge is a detriment.

People say there’s a ton of ammo, but it’s easily 5 or 6 headshots to down a basic zombie on normal, and there’s an accuracy cooldown after each shot or movement. Perhaps it’s because I have to use a controller, which requires K&M binding, but this ruins combat. Don’t get me started on the knife and its level of complete uselessness. Sure, there’s a knife only run, if you enjoy that kind of attack > back off > attack > back off repeat clunky combat, more power to you. Typically knife combat is the path to conserving ammo in these, but the knife dance is awful for a single enemy, if there are multiple, it’s an instant death sentence for me.

You could avoid combat in the titles this uses for inspiration because you could outrun monsters. This has a limited sprint, and a hit will instantly stop you in your tracks. Constantly leaving you defenseless and taking repeat damage. It falls into the “tough by bs” rather than “tough but fair” category.

If you’re a casual player, or you frustrate easily, and are just looking for some short fun and nostalgia… this ain’t it.

The Resident Evil 1 remake we deserve. 10/10

This was a pretty good game. The developer doesn't try to hide the fact that it's heavily inspired by Resident Evil, but that's fine. Especially because, in my opinion, it's better made. I realize a great deal of the RE fanbase would crucify me for saying that, but I always found RE to be overrated. This game has none of the stuff that used to drive me nuts. You can move around when shooting, you can go anywhere you want and you don't have to circle around the entire freaking map because the devs couldn't be bothered to put a shortcut after you've completed an area/puzzle, and there's no limit to inventory.

The story is okay, but it's pretty vague and ends on a cliffhanger.

Gameplay-wise, it can be challenging. It's about what you would expect. There are various unlockables for completing achievements. Such as an infinite ammo weapon, randomized story mode, hoard mode and dungeon escape mode.

Overall, it was fun. If you're a Resident Evil fan, you'll like it. If not, it's a good survival horror game.

FPS Resident Evil 1 without the Japanese Anime.

REVIEW #96
Nightmare of Decay
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Holy crap, this game is good.

Nightmare of Decay is a gem of a retro-styled survival horror game played through first-person perspective. The first thing that players will notice is the game's style, which consists of homages of varying degrees to classic horror games like the Resident Evil series, Silent Hill 1 & 2, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and even the original Dead Space. The visual aesthetic of NoD is very reminiscent of a mid-to-late '90s PS1 or DreamCast game, and although many areas look a little empty and sparsely decorated, there's a whole bunch of little details like gun smoke and subtle lighting effects that really punch up the game's visual style. Enemy mouth and jaw movement is synced with their sound effects, and even bullet casings and chunks of gore will land on the floor and stay on screen for a time.

Speaking of details, the combat in Nightmare of Decay is so well-balanced and incredibly satisfying. Ammunition for firearms is limited, and while this issue can be mitigated with use of melee weapons, close quarters combat is usually a tense experience especially at the beginning of the game. Player movement is very finely tuned to avoid cheesing by simply sprinting past enemies or dodging attacks with too much ease, but it never feels like controls are overly restrained or restricted.

Nightmare of Decay is pretty solid in all other aspects, too. The game plays very smoothly and without issue from a technical standpoint, sound design is superb, levels seem well thought out in design, and even the small cinematic cut scenes are cool. AI path-finding can be a bit wonky with enemies suddenly turning backwards and/or running into walls, and the story is weak and a bit of a throwaway, but these things really don't impact the game negatively by much, if at all. The main campaign is a little short being about 2 hours in length, but additional gameplay modes are unlocked after the main story is completed, and some of the achievements offer different, challenging ways to play.

What's really hard to describe about Nightmare of Decay is how fun, addictive, and satisfying it is, especially for $5 USD (current price at time of review). It's such a nicely crafted survival horror throwback that feels less like it's trying to rip off its influences and more like it's a great game made of several, tastefully-implemented homages to many different things and yet manages to have its own identity.

This gets an enthusiastic recommendation.

great game for the price

The distilled essence of survival horror.

Very good surviving horror.

Nightmare of Decay was a worthwhile 2 hours of gameplay. I bought the game on sale for $2.50, so it was well worth the price of admission. I want to provide some positives and "needs work", however the developer of this game almost certainly will not read this, and the game has not been updated since 2022. So this will be me writing for whoever desires to gain insight from my review before hopping in themselves.

Positives:
> Excellent retro aesthetic and art design
> Gameplay is inspired by the likes of Resident Evil or Silent Hill, but with more ammo
> Great level design
> Clever "resolution reduction" of the graphics to degrade their quality and take the game from PS2 era down to N64 era
> Great performance with no noticeable bugs or technical issues
> Some good humor moments

Needs work:
> Combat can be abysmal, especially with the pistol. Damage seems highly inconsistent and many times it can take up to 10 HEAD shots before an enemy finally dies.
> Mini-boss battle with the chainsaw guy was absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Specifically, it is very poorly designed in the way that once he is able to get an attack on you, its an auto-death. There is zero room for error, and if you did not know what to look for, then it is impossible. But if you DO know what to do, its exceptionally easy. This shows that it isnt a challenge or skill issue, its a poor design issue.
> The way regular zombie attacks are handled overall can be pretty ridiculous too. Once the leap animation is triggered, then you cannot break it or avoid it... it is an auto-lock attack. You cannot sprint past them if you are within a fairly wide cone radius, and you cannot break free by any sort of action. What's worse - MULTIPLE zombies can latch on at once, and you cannot escape. So you can be at full health, enter the extreme edges of a zombie's cone of attack, then they auto lock on to you and start gnawing. Meanwhile, two others come up and latch on as well. You go from full health to dead in a very frustrating 5 seconds.
> Too many of the hints in the game undermine the puzzles themselves. Trust that people can think and that by actively thinking and solving the puzzle ourselves, it is rewarding and worthwhile for us as players.

Overall, a central part of the game does end up being combat and puzzles, both of which needs quite a bit of work. But for $2.50, 2 hours of gameplay of a pretty mid indie game is worth it in my books. It was a nice evening of curious entertainment where I had no expectations of what to expect going in.