the dread x collection is a random assortment of horror games (if you would call some of these "horror") made by different indie devs around the theme of a "playable teaser" (P.T., yes, like the silent hills demo). there's some interesting overarching narration in the game's "hub" screen (a launcher where you start every other game), and each game has a little story narration before heading into it. this little overarching theme between all games and the hub world is something they really expand upon in later dread x collections, but they're just kind of testing the waters with this one. as for the individual games, they're REALLY hit or miss. i'm rating them in the order that i played them:

this is an interesting little game that reminds me of old-school shooters like Hexen or Blood but without the shooter aspect. it's a lot more of a puzzle game with some story going on behind it. it's fairly entertaining, but it's also very slow and became a bit of a slog halfway through.

the game revolves around you going to work a job you know very little about, but they pay you well. the game will tell you this about 80 times. you just kind of walk around, there's a pretty cool little science puzzle that you need to read some documents first to understand how to solve, and then it's just kind of over. a few interesting events happen, but other than that, this game is really boring and uneventful with an abrupt and unsatisfying ending.

a shooter game, this one actually scared me a few times, since most of the enemies just sprint at you from out of the darkness or lie in wait behind a corner to do the same thing. you basically just pick up a rivet gun and start mowing down demon skeleton ponies and progress through the levels, picking up ammo and health—so you could say the gameplay isn't too riveting hahahahahahahahahhahahahaha but it was fun 3.5/5

this game is actual dog. zero effort was put into this thing, and it was the biggest waste of like 12+ minutes of my life. all the textures and objects are just slapped together, all the sceneries glitch out, nothing has collision, the sound design is ass, there's no story, and you literally walk down a train tunnel with NOTHING in it for like 8 minutes straight, NOTHING happens aside from some monkepilled jpgs that fade slowly onto the screen then fade out, then you walk back, and nothing happens. the end. the epilogue says you survived being stabbed, but i experienced nothing that even implied that. honestly, one of the worst, most worthless gaming experiences i've ever had.

this one has great ps1-esque visuals, in my opinion, with vibrant, toxic greens and harsh, neon pinks, taking place in a post-apocalyptic world where money is moot and minds are uploaded into the great IT cloud and function through neural enhancements. the story is this game's strongest point with its intrigue, but the world is also a bit interesting to explore. i was expecting some combat, but you moreso just avoid enemies at some point in the game. exploring is a little slow, and aside from a few npc interactions, nothing really happens, but if you're interested in visuals and story over gameplay, this one might interest you. if things were sped up a little bit, i would love to see this expanded upon.

my absolute favorite game out of the bunch. this game was excellent—you're a child playing one of those old, retro lcd handheld games, when some things start sounding off... but you just brush it off because it gamies time. the aesthetics and ESPECIALLY the sound design are absolutely phenomenal. if you play this game, it needs to be played with headphones, as that what makes everything. the ending is superb and totally caught me off-guard and absolutely terrified me. just kidding; absolutely nothing scary happens in this game.

this one started off really promising. the environment was intriguing, the music was really cool, and i thought it was gonna be really puzzle-based. about a third or so through the game, things switch up, and now you're getting chased by these glowing hologrid dudes who just SCREECH at you with the most annoying, distorted bellow constantly, and you can't do anything about them that i could find, just run from them. you will now be doing this for the rest of the game, on top of now trying to do absolute trash platforming instead of puzzle-solving. there are a few sections where you need to run from those enemies while also platforming, and it's the most frustrating part of the game and absolutely ruined it for me because the controls are actual dog, and the movement and controls are floaty and trash. there's a portion where you have to do a long and arduous process of running through some sen's-fortress level assery by hopping through guillotines and retracting spike traps with little room for error. thank christ almighty that you have the SLOWEST regenerating health i've ever seen or else i would have quit this game and never touched it again because you have VERY little leniency in messing up before you just straight-up get dumpstered and have to start from the very beginning again. the ending is also straight hogwash.

this one is very middle of the road. you basically wake up in a house you know nothing about, trying to remember things that have slipped your memory. other than that intro, the amnesia doesn't play a huge part in much else. you explore a pretty large house and find clues and small buttons/secrets around the house that help you unlock more hidden areas around the game before finally escaping and going through a pretty quirky little ending section that was fairly enjoyable. the game also spooked me a couple times because of an outside section, but other than that, there was a LOT of trial and error. it definitely became a bit of a slog to go through after several failed attempts, since the game is timed every time and most things are randomized. there's also an easy mode if you just want everything to start in a predetermined location, which might help the sloggishness but then make it a lot more on-rails.

a pretty cute little game where you're stranded on a desert island, Cast Away style. you've been on the island for 13 years, and some of the objects that've "died" from old wear-and-tear have been getting antsy and upset, or maybe the 13 years of isolation are finally getting to you. you have a few friendly items to help you survive, but you're forced to slowly whittle them away and survive in other ways. it becomes a quirky little game of resource management, but it's also very slow-paced because of the walk speed. i'd be cool if everything was sped up a little bit, but aside from that, this was definitely one of the more enjoyable games.

an extremely short little turn-based card(?) game. you're just a little guy exploring a little cave with some friends and simply need to survive 9 hours (9 turns). avoid a few monsters and the encroaching eldritch growths, and you're gucci. it was enjoyable but pretty easy to solve and win once you understand what's going on. the artwork was nice, though, but i always have a huge weak spot for 8-bit stuff.

overall, there are a few games that are really worth checking out, but there's also a lot of mid stuff that should have just been scrapped because they weren't fun and were actively annoying and frustrating to experience. other games in the dread x collection series thankfully get bumped up a lot in quality going forward.