We’re getting closer and closer to Halloween every day, which means everyone’s gearing up to watch their favorite horror movies, make weekend trips out to pumpkin patches, and do all kinds of other, fun seasonal stuff before this month ends and everyone looks toward Thanksgiving.
If you’re in the midst of all your Halloween activities and you want to take a break with some games that match the spirit, we’ve got good news for you. There’s a bunch of great games on the App Store that can get you in the mood for Halloween, and we’ve compiled a list of the best ones in a handy little list. We've also added a "spookiness rating" (1=not scary, 5=scariest) to each one so you can find the right game for you. Check out the picks below:
If you really want to be spooked for Halloween, there are few mobile games that can do the job better than Kaigan Games’s Simulacra. This is a game I included on my list of games to get you in the Halloween spirit specifically because it’s the most horrifying game I’ve played on a phone, bar none.
iPhone App - Designed for iPhone, compatible with iPad
With the season of creepy stuff and spooks upon us, it feels right to chat about our favourite spooky games, doesn't it? Everyone's got one that stuck with them regardless of the platform. Whether it's the rhythmic drums of Slenderman, the gross mutilated family of Resident Evil 7, or the static radio sounds from Silent Hill 2 (AKA the greatest horror game of all time), everyone's got that one game that rubs them up the right and wrong ways.
In mobile it's a little trickier, only because it's tougher to balance the content and controls in such a way that the experience doesn't feel cheap or underwhelming. That's not saying there aren't tons to choose from, of course. We're very much spoiled for choice.
Due for release on October 22, Dead Effect 2 is a first person shooter that’s clearly been influenced by the likes of BioShock and System Shock 2. Somewhat predictably for anyone who’s spent some time with those games, that means that Dead Effect 2 is at its strongest when it’s taxing your brain rather than your reactions.
It’s clearly still a work in progress, given that thetutorial is littered with references pertaining to keyboard controls, but it’s still looking rather delightful. As you’d expect with any sci-fi horror game, Dead Effect 2 is pretty dark and moody as you navigate your way around a spaceship full of puzzles to complete and zombies to annihilate.
A virtual joypad dictates your direction while the right hand side of the screen is littered with buttons for your weaponry, as well as interacting with objects. That’s one of the main issues for Dead Effect 2: on the iPhone 5’s screen, it can be too easy to tap on the wrong button, activating the wrong ability at the worst time. By default, auto-fire is switched on, meaning you can just hover the reticule over an enemy to shoot at it, but that ends up feeling a little weightless.
This becomes an issue when up against numerous zombies at once, meaning you feel like you’re fighting against the controls as much as the enemies. That’s in harsh juxtaposition to the slow but measured approach taken to figuring things out while away from combat. During those moments you’re expected to crack codes and use a bit of lateral thinking, which is immensely more satisfying and much easier to deal with on a smaller phone screen.
There’s time yet to see how this manifests in the full release and whether compensations are made for those with small screens and large fingers. In its current form, Dead Effect 2 is shaping up to be an appealing - but flawed- game.
