SokolMusic's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Insanity 2]

I played this game years ago, and it has been long over-due for a review from me since I posted a review for the first game calling it good, but yet amateurish.

EvilKris took the concept and art of the first game and dialed it to eleven for this one. The art is absolutely amazing, and yet grittier than if you took a rusty angle-grinder to the abandoned set of a SAW movie and went ham on it.

The story was extremely captivating; I was wanting to know more and more about this Dr. Friendly, and about the sick, twisted experiments he did on unsuspecting people.

The designs of the creatures have been etched into memory; I haven't seen anything as memorable and as horrifying as the Necromorphs from Dead Space (which I found out EvilKris drew inspiration from, but yet kept it fresh and original). The part where Peter was hiding from that wolf-hybrid creature behind the curtain and left a little too early still scares me to this day.

Also, the gameplay is much better in this one; it plays more smoothly and isn't as difficult if you are in it for the story and design.

All in all, this is one of the best flash point-and-click games I've ever had the pleasure of playing. And to find out that EvilKris is not only planning on remaking the games, but has ideas for a third is quite exciting. Seriously, I would pay full price for a completed "The Insanity" trilogy (or even one game at a time).

The fact that a movie (or series) on par with Se7en, Aliens, or the Thing hasn't been made based off of this game is absolutely criminal. It's also disheartening the fact that EvilKris isn't a more well-known artist.

EvilKris, if you are reading this, I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors.

EvilKris responds:

thanks! I do pop in from time to time to read the comments.
Encouragement helps, some people don't think of it as anything but prose on a digital page, but it definitely stokes the fires. much appreciated.
well, you picked a good time to wonder what ol' EvilKris is up too. I did have a long break from games but for the last couple of years I've been diving right back in, and have two new (horror) titles almost ready to go live. I've formed a team with another talented dev, and plan to release an anthology of horror games under that banner of 'SlaughterWare', some of which will undoubtedly be the 'Insanity' remakes.
We're right at the zenith of our production capabilities, going kamikaze gung-ho, and I eta the first game demo should be out by about this time next month.


https://discord.gg/JhhzHUr9AD
if you're interested. Some of the other games have intriguing stories too, not quite magnum opus lvl of the Insanity but still...there's a Steven King-esque quality to them I personally like.

The discord is a little dead but we (the team) are on there all the time, discussing progress on the hidden channels. That's also where I'm most active, anyway. Ciao!

[Alice is Dead - Ep 1]

Surprisingly good point-and-click game! That old-timey music was a very nice touch as well.

[Feudalism II]

Fun game, and an improvement over the first one. However, there are some misspellings, glitches, and the game gets repetitive and boring real fast.

[Feudalism]

Really fun RPG game! It does lack some strategy elements though and I was annoyed that there was no recognition given after you conquer all of the territories.

[Reincarnation: LTETR]

Great addition to the Reincarnation series!

[The Insanity]

Good story, creative and graphic visuals, decent audio, and immersive gameplay.

This is a decent point-and-click horror game that has a bit of an amateurish feel to it.

EvilKris responds:

lol very true! I will endeavour to make the revamped 3d version that I'm working on more polished.

[Killer Escape 3]

The second weakest of the "Killer Escape" series. This one and the fourth (which I bought) left me with more questions than answers, and not in a good way.

There weren't really any jumpscares, (unless you want to count the alien charging at you at the beginning, which was a very weak one) the puzzles were too easy, and there wasn't much storytelling going on in this game.

The graphics were good though, it was fun and intriguing enough to play completely through, and it was a nice change of atmosphere from the derelict blood-filled rooms of the serial killers encountered in the previous games.

I think that starting with this game, is when Psionic Games started going downhill (besides Ghostscape 3). His later games (in my opinion) started loosing artistic creativity, coherent plot, and replay-ability fun. I do know Psi tries hard to make good games, but that's just my opinion of the more recent games he released.

[Killer Escape 2]

Another fantastic game by Psionic Games!

I rank this game as good as the first of the "Killer Escape" series, but there were a couple of things in this game that made it stand out from the first:

The antagonist; Abby Lintworth was a great, sadistic, and twisted villain. She had much more backstory than the Burner, and was a lot more psychotic. Finding out her backstory was really immersive.

Game length; completing this game took longer than the first, but most of that was from me asking the computer questions and reading the notes and newspaper clippings found. It did take me longer to find things than the first game, but not too much longer to be a turnoff.

Graphics were great, SFX was awesome, I was not disappointed at all by this game.

(The note in the "Living Quarters" linking this game to a well known serial killer was an interesting bonus.)

[Urbex]

Probably my favorite game from Psionic Games.

I was surprised at how long the game actually was, which was a plus in my opinion. I really enjoyed the grainy, realistic 2-D backgrounds that enhanced the atmosphere greatly. I enjoyed the B-Movie plot, while a little on the ridiculous side, still made some sense (using insects to solve world hunger isn't a new concept, look it up).

Also, I was impressed at how Psi was actually able to make a housefly (albeit much larger in size) appear scary and threatening. Quite the creative concept!

What I really like about Psi's style in storytelling is that he leaves just enough gaps in it to allow the player to fill them in with their own interpretation of what occurred.

All in all, a great point-and-click game that I will continue to enjoy playing every year.

[Killer Escape]

Tough to decide whether this game or its sequel is the best in the "Killer Escape" series. Gritty, brutal, intriguing, and intense; this game was short but fun to play.

The graphics were fantastic; had a gritty, abandoned-facility vibe to it that really set the atmosphere to the game. Voice-over for the killer was pretty good, and the SFX was very fitting. Of course you couldn't play a horror game without experiencing a jumpscare, and Psi delivered. All in all, a classic horror point-and-click game in my opinion.

As I said before though, I really like the 2-D games Psi made before he switched to 3-D. There was a more artistic, atmospheric vibe to them that I don't get from his more recent games.