Prime Gaming – October 2023

The only thing spooky about this month is the fact I want to send some people 6 feet under for being annoying, oh, and a not-so-great selection of games for Prime. I’ll say it until I’m blue in the face, you can once again (much like Troy McClure) get that free crap from that one game, or get the other guff from that other free-to-play game that’s dull. If you are a fan of Destiny 2, COD Mobile, SMITE, WOW, WOT, and Overwatch 2 to name a few, you can pick up in-game “content.” Those finally getting to enjoy Cyberpunk 2077 with the latest update and DLC can also pick up the Chesapeake gun.

We’ll start off with the point-and-click story-based horror puzzle title from earlier this year, GRUNND. This is a game so dark it challenges you simply to see the very nice art that is present throughout its short and suspenseful story. Available from the 5th of October through the Amazon Games App, it is maybe the one smaller title that seems like it gets horror for what it is supposed to be rather than jumpscares and clanging saucepans. It may not be the best voice acting you’ll hear, but it is certainly better than Ronda Rousey and Megan Fox.

Also available from the 5th is the month’s highlight which is only available to those of us not upset that Epic has a storefront. As I mentioned Friday, you’ll be able to pick up Ghostwire: Tokyo. Supernatural horror engulfs the Far East of Tokyo, and you’ll have to save the world from being raptured or something. It is typical open-world horror survival but it lacks that overall horror as it is about as gory as the daily episode of Teletubbies.

I’m not going to bash Ghostwire: Tokyo half as much as I normally would another open-world survival horror since it comes from Tango Gameworks. This means it was produced by Shinji Mikami. Ya know, the voice of that robot in Diamond City, or more accurately the bloke that made Resident Evil (1 & 4), God Hand, Vanquish, The Evil Within, and co-wrote Killer 7 with Suda51. There might be some minor issues like dark environments and colorful projectiles making the action difficult to keep on top of, but it is still the highlight of the month.

Speaking of Asian stereotypes that only weirdos who obsess over anime and K-dramas care about knowing, The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters is available through GOG from the 12th. This is a 2020 indie horror adventure where you play as a woman in a skirt so small you can almost see her lips through it as she runs. Of course, the horror version of her (maybe the sister?) has her breasts busting a button off of her shirt. If Devespresso Games wanted to sell a horror game to me, they need to do better than put a young Korean woman in a shirt and a push-up bra.

There are GOG codes galore for the 12th of October, as you’ll be able to pick up Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp, the dating sim series produced by the always wonderful Jesse Cox. If I wasn’t busier than that cat in a wizard’s hat running the bar at this camp and generally disliking dating sims that aren’t Eternights, maybe I’d like Beautiful Glitch’s colorful monster-based dating sim with charm. As a colorful delight in a month of jump-scares and boos, Monster Prom 2 is almost as light as we’ll get, so take it while you can have it.

Moving on to the 19th of October, we’re still handing out GOG codes like it is Christmas, or Christmas for goths I guess. The Textorcist is the bullet hell with a hint of typing tutor gameplay to it, which sounds great for a dyslexic who spends half an hour trying to think of something nice to say about these games before returning to snark about them. We’ve covered this one before when it was on Epic, and it was difficult enough to say something nice then too. It is loved by many others, but MorbidWare’s 2019 title just isn’t going to excite me anytime soon.

Linking your account to Epic will get you the last of the games available from the 19th of October with Mr. Pink’s Golden Light. Released in 2022, Golden Light tries to capitalize on the “boomer shooter” genre with a hint of survival horror. It also has the aggressive current style that indies are pushing that feels harsh to look at like Cruelty Squad but one step before the seizure, or similar styles to an early 00s personal webpage. Without playing Golden Light, it is difficult to provide a position either way with marketing based on “those games you used to enjoy” and very little else.

The final addition to your library for the month is available on the Amazon Games App from the 26th of October and is a platformer with a hint of a difference. Super Adventure Hand has you playing as Thing T Thing. For those that somehow missed The Addams Family or Wednesday, that’s the severed hand that scuttles around like a hand would. As a platformer, it sounds quite interesting, but what’s more interesting is that at the time of writing it only came out on Steam 2 weeks ago. It isn’t a big release, but it is a new one.