October's spookiest games, Magic: the Gathering preview
Plus, Roblox tries to address the horror of child predators on the platform
Some weeks I write about one game, some weeks I write about, uh, half-a-dozen?
Along with NPR’s Will Mitchell, I reviewed five of the month’s biggest releases: Until Dawn, Silent Hill 2, Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred, Batman: Arkham Shadow, and Alan Wake 2: The Lake House.
While I’d gladly excerpt all of those, I’ll confine myself to the survival horror titles (there’s plenty more to get to after this!):
Silent Hill 2 has haunted me for decades. It was too lurid for my 10-year-old self when it came out in 2001. I attempted it in college only to struggle with its opaque design. But in 2024, a new remake led me to embrace its dense fog and denser storytelling.
While literal zombies, insectile parasites and fungal beasts stalk the rival Resident Evil series, Silent Hill oozes with horrors inseparable from its characters’ psychology. The game doesn’t reveal much about protagonist James Sunderland — but the fleshy corridors and bizarrely sexualized monsters speak volumes. You’ll steer him to plunge his hand into pustulant orifices in apartment walls, gun down twisted, feminine mannequins and batter inhuman nurses in high heels and tights. Pure as James’ goal to find his missing wife might seem, something’s clearly plaguing his mind.
Never have I played a game that so excruciatingly earned its “Mature” rating. Thankfully, Silent Hill 2 is worth the trauma. Many questioned Konami for entrusting this remake to a Polish developer known for middling horror games — but Bloober Team pulled it off with potent imagery, oppressive sound design and music that ranges from beautiful to brutal. While its pacing lagged over the 16 hours it took me to complete it (twice the runtime of the original), Silent Hill 2 is easily the most disturbing and heart-thumping game I’ve played.
Alan Wake has always been about how art shapes reality. Alan Wake 2: The Lake House, surprise-dropped this week, takes that premise to its most literal conclusion.
You play Agent Kiran Estevez, a bit player in the main story, as she explores a shadowy government facility’s attempt to manipulate a paranormal entity through captive artists (there’s even a jab at generative AI!). Ever the professional, Estevez dispatches corrupted scientists and Jackson Pollock monsters with the exasperation of an official dealing with a breach in protocol. She’s unfazed even when interrogating a sentient abstract painting.
I only wish the combat was so charmingly efficient. Where Silent Hill 2 provided a near-perfectly balanced rollercoaster ride, The Lake House is either too difficult or way too simple. But if you can forgive its ham-fisted enemy encounters, Remedy’s trademark combination of gameplay and filmed footage make The Lake House a worthy postlude to the experimental zaniness of Alan Wake 2.
Read about the other spooky games on WBUR.org. While you’re at it, hear me chat about horror games with Here & Now Anytime’s Chris Bentley (who, incidentally, just published this excellent interview with self-described “weird fiction” author Jeff Vandermeer!).
I also attended a digital preview for Magic: The Gathering’s upcoming Foundations — a set intended as both an on-ramp for new players and a vehicle for tournament staples for years to come. The presenters, which included head designer Mark Rosewater, insisted that Foundations wasn’t meant to be dumbed-down. It’s Magic at its most elemental, featuring desirable reprints and new combo-pieces. I asked if the set would also stabilize the game’s escalating power creep: the answer I got was, essentially, “mostly.” Since it wouldn’t rotate out of competitive formats, upcoming products will need to play well with it — which implies that they can’t be too far off the Foundation baseline. Appropriately named, no?
We were next treated to a 2025 forecast, starting with Aetherdrift, out February. While it’s not literally a “Universes Beyond” crossover, I’d be surprised if the interplanar race set doesn’t have a tie-in with the Fast & The Furious or Mario Kart. I’m much more excited for April’s Tarkir: Dragonstorm, a return to my beloved Khans of Tarkir. Mark Rosewater acknowledged that people loved the three-color “khan” factions (and claimed, more dubiously, that folks liked the dragons that opposed them too). I asked him if the dragons we’d see this time would be in the same colors as the plane’s earlier broods:
I take this to mean that all bets are off.
Roblox also announced this week that they’d implement more child-safety changes, days after I produced an interview with Bloomberg’s Olivia Carville on concerns about predators on the platform:
“Over the years, people have raised concerns about a lack of guardrails or safety settings on the platform,” says Bloomberg investigative reporter Olivia Carville. “They've pointed to criminal indictments where individuals have been arrested after connecting with children through Roblox.”
Those criticisms again made headlines this month after Hindenburg Research, a short seller that profits from betting against companies, called the game a “pedophile hellscape.” Roblox Corporation strongly objected to the Hindenburg report, stating that, “Roblox has a robust set of proactive and preventative safety measures designed to catch and prevent malicious or harmful activity on the platform.” The company’s stock price wobbled but largely recovered, and independent analysts proved skeptical of Hindenburg’s claims that Roblox inflated its user counts to deceive investors.
Worries over Roblox and social media dangers to children remain, however.
“You're seeing lawsuits filed across the country alleging child safety concerns on these big platforms that attract children,” says Carville. “Congress, the courts, child safety advocates are really calling out for more protections for kids in this space.”
Carville investigated child sex abuse on Roblox along with Bloomberg video game reporter Cecilia D’Anastasio earlier this year.
Finally, in related news, I produced an audio-rich interview on The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, a new Netflix documentary about a terminally-ill World of Warcraft gamer and the community he built online. And if you want some science fun, check out this Shortwave episode on Under Grove, a board game about mushrooms co-designed by Elizabeth Hargrave, the mind behind the uber-popular Wingspan!
Other Mastromarino Here & Now Productions
Matthew Broderick stars in 'Babbitt' — a play with plenty to say about 1922 and 2024: I read the Sinclair Lewis novel in preparation for this interview and got to meet Broderick himself at DC’s Shakespeare Theatre Company!
Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize winner documents alleged Russian war crimes, calls for Western aid
'Road Diaries' documentary offers rare look at Bruce Springsteen's touring process
Incredibly busy week! On to the next!