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Zero Brightness returns with the start of a new season and format for the show! Episode 91 finds Ali joined by returning guests Monica and Vincent (as well as new friend Justin) for an examination of co-op horror games including Resident Evil 5, Obscure, and Phasmophobia. We also take a look at the pre-history of multiplayer RE games, examine the weirdly racist and misogynistic tone of 00s-era survival horror and discuss the current state (and future of) the podcast. Better get started, it’s a pretty long ep.

Instead of a normal "best of 2020" list, we run down the games we played the most this year in order to distract ourselves from life - the real survival horror.

A few updates on the show and what to expect from Zero Brightness next year.

We talk about what we find to be scary in Horror games and dissect the different tactics that devs use to scare players and create tension, anxiety and fear.

We experience Silent Hill Origins - the world's okayest Silent Hill game - and end up having a discussion of the many questionable habits that all western-developed SH games seem to share. We also talk beating up monsters with toasters. confusing lore and one Tragic Travis.

We get very, very scared by the new PT-influenced horror game Visage. We talk about why the game's first-person walking-sim style gameplay is so horrifying and dissect it's many obtuse puzzles and odd design choices. Spoilers are very clearly marked within the episode so you shouldn't be surprised by anything - a nice change from this game, which definitely took a couple years off my life.

We check out Amnesia Rebirth, the new entry in the Amnesia series that finds the original devs (Frictional) returning to the franchise that established them as a fixture in the horror genre. We talk about how the ten years of experience they've accrued has led to a much more sophisticated game - albeit one still very grounded in 2010-style game design. We also discuss torture-based economies, racist horror writers, classic vines and simulated birth in video games. It's a time, that's for sure. (first 45 minutes are spoiler free, spoiler section is clearly tagged)

It's time for more Hitman talk! We discuss the second batch of stages, the various and wacky ways you can kill people and why easy mode is clutch if you want to play every stage like an episode of Mr. Bean.

Happy Halloween! Our long-awaited discussion of Dead Space is finally here - and a couple days early at that. As expected, there are many hot takes and rebuttals - although you probably will not see the reference to a certain overlooked wii game coming. Just remember that you all asked for this!

We're almost to Dead Space, so we have to talk about Resident Evil 4 - either the Greatest Game Ever or a disgusting pile that ruined horror games, depending on which host you ask. We debate the merits of its action-heavy gameplay, tense-but-not-scary atmosphere and absurdly over-the-top cutscenes - complete with exploding sunglasses and tiny napoleons. Is RE4 the Citizen Kane of survival horror or is it The Room? Listen in to find out!

We check out Echo Night 2, a game never officially released in the west and only recently patched with a fan translation. We discuss the many ways in which it tries to build out the basic Ghost Friendship Simulator gameplay of the first one - with results that vary widely in quality - as well as its super-90s goth aesthetic and incomprehensible plot. It's Echo Night, alright!

We try to answer the title question for ourselves. In the process, we discuss racism and bigotry in media, fair labor practices and what responsibility the consumer has in fighting for or against their own values when consuming media.

We discuss the asymmetrical online slasher movie simulator Dead By Daylight with our friend Vincent from our Discord. We try to talk about the finer points of the game but mostly end up debating whether it's best experienced as a competitive pursuit or an S-tier spooky hangout game.

We discuss two of the big Meta Horror games that keep coming up in conversations about all of the other weird/indie/meta games we've covered on the show. We discuss Eversion's simple yet effective mind tricks and Pony Island's utterly bizarre take on a Horror game. We also talk about working in a guitar store for a surprisingly long amount of time, but that's cool too.

We finally get around to talking about how The Evil Within 2 is an amazing, unsung gem of the eighth generation. We discuss its many quirks, from amazing open-world gameplay to a villain that can only be described as "Cutie Hannibal." You couldn't make this stuff up, even if you were injecting CBD straight into your neck like our guy Sebastian does!

Retro Month winds down as we check out Carrion, a unique twist on the Metroidvania formula that has you playing as the monster - an amorphous predatory blob hell-bent on turning a perfectly good space station into a blood-splattered mess of exposed wires and gore. What a jerk!

Retro Month takes a modern detour as we check out Faith, the Atari-style horror game developed by Airdorf Games and released in 2017. James thinks it's a masterpiece and Ali thinks it has more in common with the flawed-but-fascinating game we covered in the NES Horror episode.

We take a look at a few licensed horror games on the Nintendo Entertainment System and find a surprisingly ambitious cross-section of ideas that predict where the Survival Horror genre would eventually go. In this pre-history of horror, we're checking out Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and Monster Party. Turns out some of the crappy platformers on the NES have more going on under the hood!

Retro Month Begins! Episode 73 finds us discussing a handful of Horror games that were available on the Sega Genesis, the 16-bit console favored by the cool kids who smoked cigs and watched R-rated movies. We are mostly talking Devilish, Decap Attack and Haunting Starring Polterguy but - as per usual - it goes all over the place.

We run through The Dread X Collection, a new virtual game jam inspired by PT and sharing some similarities with the Haunted PS1 Demo Disc. We talk about the highs and lows of the collection as well as why we love bite-sized indie games - especially after a summer of epic-length disappointments.