I always want to have a joint with David Szymanski. The creators of Dusk and Iron Lung really know how to make games like this feel good, no matter the genre—really tactile weapons and interactions, great sound design, just overall attention to detail—and his games always have an anarchic sense of humor that I really enjoy. Szymański’s next match, Butcher’s CreekI feel like another winner. It’s a first-person horror game focused on close-quarters combat where you fight torture cultists in rural Appalachia.
Like many indie games, it’s a resurrection of a genre or idea that Nintendo’s huge dogs no longer have. While Selaco is an indie celebration of Monolith’s FEAR, Butcher’s Creek takes another look at the studio’s other horror hit, Condemned: Criminal Origins. Condemned is a game in which you play as an FBI agent framed for murder, so you must fend off the bums with improvised weapons and be intimidated by paranormal entities in the hopes of clearing your name.
Butcher’s Creek trades the platonic ideal of Condemned, the Fox News humid dream of a neglected American heartland, for classic rural isolation. Are you some sort of Scum Bag who goes out among the fools in search of VHS snuff films and gory Polaroids—to sell to the highest bidder? For your own edification? Either way, the cannibal cult couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, and Billy Butcher’s Creek quickly comes face to face with the gang of nasty boys.
There is a really great, jarring contrast between the sense of horror and the sense of humor. The atmosphere is stout and oppressive: rustling night forests and stark torture chambers in neglected, converted industrial interiors that remind me of Silent Hill 2 or Manhunt. GoldSrc-Source’s graphical fidelity is enhanced by the blurry effect on the camera screen, sort of like how Unrecord really impressed us all with its bodycam presentation. Maybe the real path to realism in video games is to simply make the screen worse? Lots to consider.
All this disgusting atmosphere I was just building and building, and then I found some cult correspondence in the workplace: Apparently these guys exchange casual notes like emails between offices, letting you read all about their petty squabbles and complaints. Gary, a psychopathic ax murderer, writes: “Like why do we all have to wear the same outfits? Surgical gloves and a burlap hood are really uncomfortable when you’re cutting off limbs and sweating.” The next note mentions the possibility of finally working with “The Port City Manhood Masher”, and said Masher responds briefly, asking them to try to remain professional.
I quite liked the melee combat, although I think it needs some refinement before the game’s scheduled release in January. Mainly, I wish these iconic guys were more aggressive: they often hesitated or held back in a way that left me a little too much room to breathe, and I found that when doing the aged Elder Scrolls “step forward, attack, step in” sequence back” was more effective than trying to parry. Combining the Duke Nukem Kick melee attack with another melee attack has always been fantastic, and the intro sequence featured in the demo is probably the easiest part of the game.
I’m almost thrilled: I felt stressed and unhinged while playing the Butcher’s Creek demo; the tension that the game relieves satisfactorily with its humor and that “fuck yes” feeling after winning a melee fight. You can check out the Butcher’s Creek demo and add the game to the end Couple.
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