How do I talk about a game that should have been dead about a year ago, but is still going strong? If you didn’t get that, the game I am talking about is Overwatch. A game that is strictly online, which means no story mode to find out the lore behind this game. If you want to learn about the lore, then join the line buddy. Players have to wait months til another origin short comes out about their favorite hero, which makes sense if you want to keep an online game alive. Recently a new “hero” has been announced called Ashe, and we got a bunch of clues about who she is from a McCree short.

Heroes

Even though Overwatch came out in 2016, they are still releasing new heroes. According to a video by Your Overwatch, there are 5 new heroes coming out within the next couple of months. Once a new hero comes out, there is a good week or so before they are available to play. That means you have little time to master this new hero before they are out in comp. If you didn’t notice the error in my previous sentence then I will repeat it: a hero that is made to counter certain heroes. Do I believe this statement? Of course not, because Overwatch is about skill and luck at the same time. You need enough skill to be able to counter your counters with any hero, but you also need luck in order to group with a team that also has enough skill to carry its own weight.

Comp

The lowest ELO I have gone down to is bronze in Overwatch competitive and that is the lowest you can go. I had the worst luck in getting grouped with players that didn’t use mics. Now using mics doesn’t automatically guarantee a win, but it increases the chances. It is better to try and formulate a plan to win against your enemy, than to try and blindly attempt to understand your teammates actions. So, if you do decide to play competitive mode, then please try to talk to your teammates.

So, when do you believe that people will stop playing Overwatch? In my opinion, I believe the game is already dying, but you have players like me that come back to the game after months of quitting, just to see if it became a little less toxic. I quit because I was tired of the toxic players that kept throwing games and leaving so that you were missing a teammate. Something that Overwatch needs to work on the most is leavers. If you never played this game, then you wouldn’t see the problem with someone leaving, because you would get a new teammate right away. No, that would be common sense and common sense doesn’t work in Overwatch.

Toxicity

If they leave in the first 30 seconds to a minute, then the game is cancelled and no one loses anything, but any later than that then you have to hope that the player comes back. Leavers don’t make sense, because they still receive a loss from leaving, but there is the rare exception where someone just disconnects. If they do, then they have a chance to come back and help out the team. That is the only way you get the blank spot in your team filled.

Lifeline

The game will die when they finish releasing heroes and when we get the origin and shorts for every hero in the game. Then again, they are releasing new heroes every few months, so that day won’t be anytime soon. Blizzard makes money from the ever-growing Overwatch league and from the new players that joined because of sales and new heroes. I only bought the game because some friends wanted to play with me. The sad thing is, that I haven’t played with them since I bought the game because we have different play styles. I am a support main and I can’t play with someone that charges into a battle and doesn’t expect to protect the healer that is keeping them alive.

Should you buy?

So, what is my take on this game? I actually hate it more than anything else, and I wouldn’t exactly recommend it to others. It is a fun game to play with friends, but once you start playing with randoms, that is when the stress happens. I am not in a high ELO and I will take a quick break until next placements just so I can get my third gold weapon. The main reason we play comp is to say we have a high standing and to also say that we have a gold weapon for this hero, so praise us.

So, buy a mic, don’t get too stressed and remember unless you are on PC—you aren’t going to find yourself in the Overwatch league.

Hopefully you enjoyed  this review. Comment to let me know what game you want me to review next, and I’ll see if I can play it!

Image courtesy of Blizzard

The spooky times are upon us folks. In just a couple days the spirits of the night will take hold, and the world will descend yet again into the darkness and horror that is All Hallow’s Eve. And for most of us, that means Halloween Parties. Maybe you’re hosting one, or maybe you’re just attending one.  It’s always good to have board games ready for a party, to bring people together and have some fun that doesn’t require cramming around a screen. But how do you please everyone at your party? If one guest only likes fun and campy spooks, while another is in to Halloween for the guts and gore, you may find yourself struggling to select games to bring to the dinner table this year. But fear not! Games writers Cat and Dan have teamed up to bring you a curated list of games, each selected especially for some of the most troublesome ghoulies who might haunt your Halloween fête.

Best Game To Play With Your High Goth Friend

They’re the first to arrive and the last to leave. This is their time of year, and they have gone all out. White face paint, black clothes, a frilly shirt. This is standard for them year round, but there’s something different about them come Halloween. There’s a spring in their step, a twirl to their parasol, and a twinkle in their eyeliner. They will accept only the darkest and most dramatic activities this Halloween.

Our Recommendation: Fury of Dracula

Fury of Dracula has been a classic staple of horror gaming since it debuted in 1987. The 2006 reboot, and its 2015 revision, have done nothing but increase its popularity. Based on, what else, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the game places players right into the gothic world of Victorian Europe. One player takes on the role of the infamous Count, and the other becomes one of his hunters: Jonathan Harker, Lord Godalming, Dr. John Seward, and Mina Harker.

The game is largely one of deduction, with the hunters using clues and signs to follow Count Dracula as a he carves a bloody swath through the continent. You gather items, defeat the minions of Dracula, and contend with the Count himself as he misleads, obfuscates, and lies as only he can to throw you off the scent. The game ends when Drac or the hunters bite it, he completes his dark mastery of Europe, spreads his vampiric curse, and survives. Winning requires smarts, cunning, and a flare for the dramatic even Dracula could appreciate. In the novel, Dracula was killed and the world freed from his dark presence. Will the same happen to you?

Fury of Dracula is available from WizKids, with the newest edition available for pre-order on Amazon.

Best Game To Play With Your “Psychic” Friend

They “knew” you were going to have a party, after you made the Facebook event, and they “knew” you needed more napkins, even though you had plenty and would have preferred they bring more snacks. They keep you updated on your horoscope, carry a tarot deck in a belt holster, and will almost certainly get very drunk and predict someone’s doom tonight. You should make sure the game you pick ensures that the doomed person won’t be you.

Our Recommendation: Mysterium

Our choice of Mysterium should be no surprise to board game fans, as the game of guessing and ghosts is already considered a classic by many despite its youth. One player in this game plays as the ghost of a murdered servant and the rest are mediums summoned to their master’s house to find out who did the deed. Think of it as a cooperative Clue, with someone playing as Mr. Boddy. The ghost, who is otherwise silent, hands out clues to the mediums to help them guess who the killer was and where and how they did it. If they can figure it out, and agree on their choice, in time, then the ghost will be set free to enjoy his eternal rest. If they can’t? They’re doomed to roam the halls forevermore.

Mysterium is available at most game shops as well as on Amazon, where it retails for $44.90.  The digital version is available from Asmodee Digital on Steam and most mobile devices. 

Best Game To Play With The Scooby-Doo Fan

They may not be as into the guts and gore as other people, and they may have a thing for the campier side of horror, but this guest is one of the most enthusiastic year in and year out. They make great sandwiches, kick butt at charades, and rock a mean ascot. As well, they’ve probably got the best costume at the party (though your goth friend will fight them over it).  They’ll want a game that isn’t too spooky, one that captures all the fun and silliness they love about the holiday.

Our Recommendation: Betrayal At House On The Hill

You can’t beat Betrayal for sheer classic Halloween flavor. Taking the roles of stock horror film characters like “The Professor” or “The Little Girl,” players enter a creepy old mansion that you don’t know the layout of until you begin to explore it. All sorts of strange things can happen as the house grows, from ballrooms in the basement to a balcony-adjacent kitchen. Players gather items, deal with mystical events, or are visited by dark omens that presage the dark presence in this house. When enough omens are drawn, or the players are highly unlucky, the game shifts and becomes a new challenge as they race to defeat a new and powerful enemy.

This “Haunt” changes based on where the Haunt was triggered and by what omen, and you will almost never get the same one twice. They range from a mass shrinking to an outbreak of werewolves to a full on demonic summoning, and often require a player to turn traitor and kill, transform, or delay their former friends as they try to escape. It’s a great game with infinite replay-ability and is just cartoony enough to keep it from truly scaring anybody. The 2016 Widow’s Walk expansion adds to the potential with all sorts of new monsters, haunts, and rooms for you to explore.

Betrayal At The House On The Hill and its Widow’s Walk expansion are available from Avalon Hill, at most game shops and on Amazon.

Best Game To Play With Your Gamemaster

They’re still miffed they had to move your session this week for the party, but they’ll get over it when they find the snack table (a DM’s one weakness). You’ll have to deal with them turning their nose up at games that allow for “structured” play, or stories that are “already written.” How do you please the lover of RPG’s when you only have one night to play?

Our Recommendation: Vampire The Masquerade 5e

It’s difficult to pull off pen-and-paper in a one time setting, but we at the Fandomentals are firm believers in the power of one-shots to capture all the fun of a good tabletop session without the long term commitment. And one of the best games for that, on Halloween or in general, is White Wolf’s newest edition of their classic Vampire the Masquerade. As Cat covered in her review, the new edition goes along way to update the game and improve its accessibility for a new generation. At its core a heavily story and character-driven game, Vampire doesn’t require quite as much minute number crunching other games do. It also fits quite well with Halloween, allowing you to craft a dramatic tale of horror and tragedy around one of the most classic monsters of all time. The only real question is, which clan are you going to be?

Vampire the Masquerade: 5th Ed. is available at most local game shops, from World of Darkness, and on Amazon, where the physical book retails for $42.95.  And keep an eye out, as the Camarilla and Chicago by Night books will be releasing soon to supplement your vampiric experience.

Best Game To Play With The Bookworm

They showed up dressed as someone from the 19th century, and are offended when nobody gets it. It’s not their fault nobody’s read the marginalia of Poe. They can tell you which books every horror movie is ripping off of, and they hold a grudging respect for Stephen King (even if, they say, he hasn’t been good since he wrote IT). They want a game that scratches their love of literature, while keeping things as bone chillingly spooky as their favorite dark novels.

Our Recommendation: Masque of The Red Death

One of our favorite games coming out of GenCon this year, Masque is a truly unique experience in the board game world. The game is a mix of strategy, deduction, and planning as you attend the famous ball given by Prince Prospero at the locked Abbey. Just as in the story, which is helpfully printed in the rules, players must gain favor with the Duke even as the plague known as the Red Death ravages the countryside. Fritter your time away with idle gossip and petty insults while secretly plotting your own survival. When the ebony clock strikes midnight, your only hope for survival is your ability to remember. It’s got beautiful art from Gris Grimley that makes even the box look like a Halloween decoration, and the gloomily colorful board and Ebony Clock standee make a bold statement at any party. Hopefully yours ends up better than Prospero’s did…

Masque of the Red Death is available from IDW Games at your local games shop as well as on Amazon, where it retails for $59.99

Best Game To Play With The Horror Film Snob

They’ve already gotten into three arguments with the Bookworm over the IT adaptations, and they brought a stack of beat up VHS’s in lieu of the bean dip you asked for. You don’t even OWN a VHS player. Nobody has heard of any of the movie’s they’ve brought, and you’re scared that one of them may end up being a snuff film. Any film you suggest is derided as pedestrian, cliched, and, worst of all, not scary. So how do you make them happy at the tabletop?

Our Recommendation: YOU Are The Maniac!

He’ll already be itching to play this based on the box, a beautifully designed thing built to look and feel exactly like the old VHS’s so many classic slasher flicks came in. It even has the wear and tear that signifies that yes, this is an original. But inside is not B-grade scares and badly done makeup. Instead, YOU Are The Maniac contains a well paced strategy card game that allows players to step into the shoes of their favorite slasher villains. Played across three “films,” you compete to rack up the highest kill count among all the slashers in the game. Chasing down victims, acting out scenes with the Maniac deck, handling the various plot twists, and killing the Final Girl at the end of the movie; it’s all in a days work for the killers in this game. It’s fun and darkly hilarious, working well as a fast-paced party game you could even play while watching one of the movies that inspired it!

YOU Are The Maniac! is published by Counter Culture Cards and can be purchased on their website for $24.95

Best Game To Play With The History Geek

They know the complete history of Halloween and will happily spend all night telling you exactly why and how candy corn came to be. They’ve been to Salem dozens of times, and complains that the rituals in Hocus Pocus aren’t historical accurate. They obsessively find old newspaper clippings from one hundred years ago to send you. They want a game that’s fun, scary, and has well sourced historical backing, dang it!

Our Recommendation: Salem 1692

Salem:1692 is a fantastic replacement or addition to your rotation of deduction games that you’ve been playing for years. Unlike standbys like One Night Ultimate Werewolf or Are You A Werewolf, Salem grounds itself in the real Salem Witch Trials while maintaining all the suspicion and plotting we love. As Dan said in his review,  Salem is a well researched and fun game that is visually stunning to boot, and you can read more about it in the previously linked review. Your history snob friend will never expect you to pull the next game straight out of the bookshelf!

Salem:1692 is published by Facade Games, and can be bought on their site for $24.99

Best Game To Play With That Guy Who Takes RISK Way Too Seriously

There’s a good chance this person is also your Gamemaster, and they’re certainly in your group, but they aren’t in it for the roleplay. No, this guest wants to prove that they are so much smarter than anyone else at the table. They have probably seen Patton too many times, and an entire wall of their apartment is covered in maps. But there isn’t really anything scary about Risk or Stratego (except for their length), so how do you make the tabletop general happy?

Our Recommendation: Eschaton

While the dark fantasy setting of Eschaton doesn’t at first seem to have the trappings of Halloween, the eldritch plot and beautifully grotesque art make it fit right in with its more seasonal friends. Taking on the role of a cult leader in a world on the brink of Apocalypse, players must battle for territory and the favor of the Dark One as they recruit men and monsters into their unholy ranks. Only one cult can walk at the side of the Dark One when the Eschaton comes, will it be you?

Eschaton and its expansion Sigils of Ruin are published by Archon Games and can be bought on their site, where they retail for $60.00 and $30.00, respectively.

Best Game To Play With Your Hungry Friend

This guest will not leave the snack table, and always fills a plate when the party moves away from it for any reason. They’ll probably suggest a Taco Bell run sometime around midnight. Yet they always seem hungry, famished even. Are they looking at your skull? Why do they keep trying to steal your hat? Why are they moaning like that? Wait, where’d the bookworm go? Do you smell blood?

Our Recommendation: Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game

There are A LOT of zombie games out there, and it was really hard to narrow it down. But there’s only one game that captures the full experience of the living dead, and that’s Flying Frog’s Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game. I mean c’mon, it’s in the title! Now celebrating ten years in the gaming world, Last Night on Earth is as much an ode to Romero and his ilk as YOU Are The Maniac is to Tobe Hooper and John Carpenter.

Playing as zombie movie cliches like high school kids, scientists, teachers, and more, most players must navigate the dangers of a zombie apocalypse. One or two players, however, get to play as the brain-hungry zombies. Each playable scenario is different, whether you’re rescuing a fallen friend, trying to escape, or just trying to “not die,” it’s easily re-playable. And with ten years under its belt, its had a lot of time to come out with expansions and supplements (22 as of this writing), including a spin-off Timber Peak and a spin on the cliche alien movie with Invasion from Outer Space: The Martian Game. Load the shotgun, keep your cool, and always remember to double-tap.

Last Night On Earth: The Zombie Game and its expansions are published by Flying Frog Productions and are available at most retailers as well as Amazon, where the base game retails for $59.99.

Best Game To Play With The Pescetarian

This guest really likes fish. They haven’t just cut meat out of their diet, they’ve cut nearly everything that else isn’t aquatic from their diet as well. You can’t get over the strange and salty smell that comes off of them, though, or how cold and clammy their hands always are. Sometimes you catch them mumbling to themselves in a strange language they keep insisting is just Polish. They’re quiet and a little odd, but they make great sashimi, so it’d be a shame not to have a game that caters to their unique self.

Our Recommendation: Pandemic: Reign of Cthulu

A spin-off of the popular Pandemic series of worldwide disease simulator games, Reign of Cthulu replaces the science and medicine with chaos and madness. Players take on the role of a 1920’s investigator working to stop the return of the Old Ones from their cosmic prison. They must defeat monsters, gather items, and seal the portals before the most ancient of evils can bring doom to the world. It’s a mix of strategy and teamwork as you and your fellow investigators move through classic towns like Innsmouth and Dunwich in search of an end to the evil. But beware, there are things man was not meant to see, and one’s mind does have a tendency to get lost in the darkness.

Pandemic: Reign of Cthulu is published by Z-Man games and can be bought from their website for $49.99, as well as most retailers.

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There you have it! Ten games we guarantee to spook and surprise, entertain, and ennervate in equal measure. Now all that’s left for you to do is finish your costume…but wait…is someone early? Better get the door, that growling sounds awfully impatient.

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What games do you like to play for Halloween? Did we leave any off that we shouldn’t have? Sound off below!

Images Courtesy of Wizkids, Libellud, Avalon Hill, White Wolf Publishing, IDW Games, Golden Bell Studios, Facade Games, Archon Games, Flying Frog Productions, and Z-Man Games.

It is Spooktober, the best time to find a horror game and play it for all of your viewers, or just for your own enjoyment. This Spooktober, I chose Until Dawn, a choose your path, sort of thriller. It is a ps4 exclusive, so sorry for anyone that doesn’t own the console. (It was one of the games I received for Playstation plus a while back, so it was an easy choice when I looked for a horror game to stream.) In this game, you are able to play as all the characters presented and you get to feel out all of their personalities. The premise is: you spend the night at a friend’s family ski resort to escape the stress of everyday life, but it seems like someone has other plans for you. Since you decide what choices the characters make, your survival is dependent on whether or not you can foresee the best option.

My take on the game was that it was a horror take on Life is Strange. The two games couldn’t be any more far apart, but the playstyle is the same. Until Dawn trains you to be able to make quick decisions, since a lot of the decisions have a time limit. The timed button inputs were probably the most heart-racing part of the game since you could die from a wrong button input.

As if the game wasn’t interactive enough, there were times when you had to stay still in order to avoid something. I failed 99 percent of those because remote play doesn’t really give you that much wiggle room to those ps4 features. Basically, I lost a few people because this feature didn’t work for me. I know it sounds like I am making an excuse for failures in the game, but it is the utmost truth to my experience playing.

While running for your life, you are also trying to uncover the truth behind a few mysteries presented in front of you. It is kind of weird searching around a room when you could die in the next few moments. See, I called it a thriller and I stand by that because this game messes with your nerves while you play. This game is autosave only, which means if you make a mistake, there is no going back, well, not until you beat the game. This game isn’t necessarily a scare fest, but when you know death is around the corner, any kind of jump scare can make the bravest of women scream.

I regret actually screaming on stream while playing this game, but truthfully, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. It tested my wits and made me rethink how games and movies of the like use their jump scares. Yes, I did say the jump scares were predictable, but it still spooked me even though I was ready for it. While playing, it’s easy to imagine that you, the player, are actually there in these moments. You try to be as immersed as you can be and that is your downfall. Just finding a few clues will change your playthrough because now characters have something to share with the rest of the team. It made me think, “What would happen if I didn’t find this clue? Would I have died earlier because of my lack of knowledge, or would I have been better off not knowing it because I wouldn’t have expected it?”

There are so many unknown variables in this game, and I would like to know all of them. But, like all games, it’s better to replay this after a good long wait. I am not saying there isn’t immediate replayablity, but a thriller-horror game isn’t really as scary or as thrilling the second time around. You are expecting certain jump scares more often than not, and you already know where to look for certain things. Being wiser in these sorts of games takes away from the fun. The only way to have fun a second time is to forgot some of your knowledge and try to replay it a little better. I know that sounds weird since you usually play a game a second time to 100 percent it, but, for me, replaying Until Dawn means I just want to save more people.

See, I don’t believe this is a spoiler, but I only saved one person in end game. The motion controls were the end of me at the end sadly. I had a quick laugh at the fact that the one person I didn’t want to save ended up surviving. In my opinion, there were only one or two redeemable characters. A lot of the characters were driven by emotions that fit the situation but didn’t really make them look good in any light. A bunch of the choices weren’t decisions I would have made, which sucked since you only had two options to choose from at any given time. That kind of took me out the game at times, since I didn’t relate to any of a particular character’s choices. I also don’t know anybody with these character traits in real life, so again, it didn’t feel all that true to life.

However, even as I say all that, I still had fun playing Until Dawn, because it actually challenged me in a non-frustrating way. All in all, definitely worth a play, and a replay or two once you’ve gotten over the tension.

I hope you enjoy your Spooktober and find something you enjoy that spooks you. Why not try Until Dawn while you’re at it?

Featured Image Courtesy of Supermassive Games