Dead Beacon

A 5 dollar masterpiece (I paid $1)

Inspired by Nightmare of Decay, which itself is insipired by first Resident Evil. Honestly a very solid game, and personally I think it is even better than before mentioned NoD. Big mansion with large enemy variety and lots and lots of secrets, what more do you need?

Looking to scratch that old "Survival Horror" itch? Do you enjoy indie horror games, such as Nightmare of Decay? Then boy, oh boy, do I have a game for you. When Nightmare of Decay came out in 2022, it caused a bit of a stir among the Survival Horror community. It was a cheap indie game with a bit of a janky appearance, but with a strong understanding of the genre and a bit of a dark sense of humor. Not only that, but the game knew not to overstay its welcome, taking around 3 or so hours to beat the base game. Yet, I wanted more. Well, I'm hear to tell you that if Nightmare of Decay was the indie darling of 2022, its a genuine crime that, only 7 months later, Dead Beacon did not receive the same treatment. I have achieved both endings in 7 hours, with a total overall time of 10 hours spent in-game (I made a decent number of mistakes). Dead Beacon's scope is far more comparable to that of Spencer Mansion from the original Resident Evil. You will explore multiple wings of a decrepit, eery mansion, each stuffed to the brim with rooms, locked doors, and a decent handful of rewarding puzzles. You will trek through the hedge maze and gardens, secret laboratories, dismal attics, a dank basement, and a creepy, but brief, crypt. The design of the mansion and grounds took me by surprise, and I thrilled at each locked door and new discovery. Boss fights are a decent challenge, resources are scarce, and backtracking/note-making is necessary (on the in-game map, that is, altho this is optional). Not only that, but there are many secret valuables to be sold to vendors in exchange for upgrades or resources, and some shoot-the-target mini games are also scattered throughout the mansion, ultimately making character progression feel rewarding. There are plenty of secret objectives and side-areas, but they are not too challenging so long as you take care in exploring. I played on the normal skill, but will probably return for a harder experience. The end was a little disappointing, as I would have liked to have had to worry about more enemies showing up once the majority of the game had been completed, and in that same vein, more ammo. I managed to reach the end boss for ending A with barely enough to scrape by. I feel I was given enough resources to handle threats throughout, but towards the end the only ammo I was being given was mostly for my pistol and a little for my shotgun. This definitely made the fight for survival towards the end a little more stressful, however. Overall though, on Normal, this was a tough, but fair time, and was a nice, chill game. I definitely recommend for a chill, puzzling, gloomy night's experience. I look forward to replaying this gem. Please, buy this game, tell your friends, leave a review, and buy it for others. TLDR: BUY IT NOW. IT IS SO FUN. GLHF!

I recommend this game only if you are a big fan of the survival-horror genre who doesn't mind some rough edges. If you haven't played Nightmare of Decay, it is a very similar game without the rough edges - I consider it a superior experience, so if you'll only play one, I recommend Nightmare over this game. THAT BEING SAID: This is still overall a very competent game with some superior qualities of its own. Dead Beacon is, big picture, a very competently designed survival horror game that will take you around 4-6 hrs to complete. The map design, resource management, exploration, light puzzling, and atmosphere are all great. The developer has done a very good job guiding players through a labyrinthine mansion without hand-holding. The default map setting requires you to take your own notes, and this can even be used for puzzle solving in interesting ways. Navigating the manor and figuring out where to go next was the most engaging part of the game for me. Good note-taking and/or a sharp memory is rewarded and it feels very good when this pays off. This is good enough to carry the game for me. Really - the map design, exploration, keyhunting, etc - and the decision to include note taking and drawing on the map as part of the *intended* experience really made the difference for me. When you zoom in on the gameplay, however, you begin to see the rough edges. Combat is tedious, and there is a lot of it. You will find yourself backpedaling while whacking basic zombies in the head a LOT. You can do this risk free in most cases, so that it takes so long Some of the other enemy types have unique behaviors but these behaviors are mostly answered by shooting them with a powerful weapon to deal with them quickly before returning to whacking the lesser zombies. Combat overall has a lack of smoothness - you will take damage if you enter the "damage zone" of an enemy, which will in most cases lock you in place while the enemy plays their attack animation, and you take damage. This is all very choppy, awkward, and can even make things feel more frustrating than they need to. The bossfights (which I have seen praised in other reviews) also suffer from this, and are some of the worst I can remember in a game I otherwise liked. They all revolve around kiting the boss in circles in a small room, turning around, waiting for your aim to steady, and shooting it. Rinse + repeat. They often take quite awhile and aren't very dynamic or exciting. The overall experience of shooting and moving is just awkward and unpleasant. None of the guns feel good, impressive, etc. All of this is to say - The combat you'll be spending a lot of time on in the game is not very good - and this somewhat soured me on what was otherwise a good experience Disclaimer: I did play on hard, maybe on normal difficulty this all feels less tedious - but I felt the resource balancing on hard was excellent, and the candle limited save system is fun (even though I always had a surplus of candles), so I can't recommend playing below that difficulty either. Another minor quibble - Some of the English is off. I don't want to rag on the game too hard, though. I did enjoy it, I do recommend it. I devoured it in more or less one sitting (which is nice!) and I feel that it was time well spent. The dev seems to have been responsive to criticism and also provided support to users quickly. This is one of just a few games of theirs, and I think it's impressive for what seems to be the dev's second game. Give it a shot - and also go check out Nightmare of Decay.

Мёртвый Бекон

Бюджетный хоррор который можно охарактеризовать так - обитель зла курильщика. Из ностальгии творцы питают такую страсть к особнякам на отшибе, доверху забитыми абсолютно неуместными загадками и оружием. Не ну а чо? Вдруг горничной понадобится дробовые патроны, всякое бывает, поэтому положим их в шкаф. На разок пойдёт, вот прям на разок, если вдруг у вас есть друг, который любит вот такую дичь (уверен что это ты сам и у тебя нет таких друзей, что любят стрёмную дичь) то можно смело рекомендовать ( в твоём случае, зачем то в это играть)

Это крутая игра

It's okay, I guess. Nice retro PSX feel, combat is kind of wonky and the boss fights are annoying as hell, but solid atmosphere.