Dread X Collection: The Hunt Reviews

Axis Mundi the GOAT

Dread X 4 isn't too bad overall, but is noticeably lacking in quality compared to prior releases. Uktena 64: decent game. It's got some humor and charm and the gameplay was good. 7/10 Axis Mundi: I liked the premise and the gameplay wasn't too bad. It's a cool idea that should be expanded upon. 7/10 Black Relic: a frustratingly slow and boring game. Conceptually, it feels cliche, especially considering torple dook already made a game kinda like this one in dread x 1. 1/10 Rose of Meat: it's bold and different, which I respect. It's also an occasionally frustrating and unpleasant experience. 4/10 Seraphixial: I'm not sure how this even got on to the collection. This is a really bad game, one of the worst to come out of Dread X overall. The idea is unique, I guess. 0/10 The Fruit: This one had potential for sure, but it was tedious to play. 4.5/10 The House of Unrest: it's mechanically solid and doesn't overstay its welcome or waste time. I liked it, but I can't help but think that it could have been better. 7/10

So far on my journey through each of these in order I'm surprised to say I think this is my least favourite. As an overall experience, I appreciate them going for "quality over quantity" here with seven more elaborate and lengthy games but the overarching problem is with one or two exceptions even the games I really enjoyed in here overstay their welcome imho. Sometimes that;s because mechanically the game is clunky and slow (black relic) sometimes its because the levels are just super large so you;re running across emptiness a lot (most of them tbh) and in the worst case it's because the design is tedious and fetch quest heavy with lots of going to a to get to b to go back to a to get to c, etc. Probably the most disappointing aspect though was the wrapper this time around. I had high hopes for the very Thing inspired setting but it just completely falls flat and is wasted. The map is way too big and empty, and there's really nothing to progression aside the very end when there's one sort of puzzle you have to solve under pressure. You just go to a room, pick up a thing that lets you go in another room, maybe creepy music or a sound effect plays, but nothing actually happens until the end. But tbh that wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for how obnoxious and terrible the writing and character is, I really don't get the tone the author was going for here or what I'm supposed to feel for them or anyone in the story and why I should even care. The character you play as just spends the entire game reacting with practicelly zero shock and alarm to seeing horrific sights, and even just cracks cringey jokes instead. The recordings make this seem like its supposed to be about resolving a family conflict but while thats happening the recordings also just mention in passing with zero gravitas that oh oops we unleashed some deadly creature that could destroy life? It feels like they had this idea to make it more serious, immersive and gritty, but then basically gave up when that got hard and instead made it a troll. Like LOL it's spooky here but hey we like to have fun in the hunt too! It's not that it had to take itself seriously, I loved the wrapper and back and forth in collection 3, but that was tonally consistent and felt thought through, this just feels like they phoned it in. So you're probably wondering why I still recommend it, well that's because (on sale at least) I still think it's a neat experience worth having to play through all these games and see what they have to offer, even if they aren't perfect. And a couple of them are great despite the whole overstaying their welcome thing. All in all, the least fun I had with these collections on a whole - even though in some ways its the most polished and I really dug some of the game, because it just felt stretched too thin. Though to be fair I should say that kinda goes the other way to, in that there are no real duds here, so there's that? So here's my rundown: Great: Axis Mundi The Fruit Neat: The House of Unrest Black Relic Uktena 64 Not bad, but not for me: Seraphixial Rose of Meat One more to go! Let's hope they turn it around.

I think this is one of, if not, the weakest of the Dread X collections. It has the least games and the quality isn't there either. There's only 2 of them I actually liked, so I don't think I can recommend this collection. But I did really like House of Unrest and Uktena 64. The Hub is not great in this one either. Especially the ending sequence. You basically have to abuse hidden animation skips to even finish the story legitimately because the devs didn't think players would close a door behind them. The Good: House of Unrest Uktena 64 The Decent: Axis Mundi Rose of Meat The Bad: Black Relic The Fruit Seraphixial