Dread X Collection 2

Dread X Collection 2
N/A
Metacritic
95
Steam
84.335
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.

Explore 12 horror games made in 10 days connected by a meta narrative experience you didn't expect. Step into a world of darkness and discover the secrets you didn't know were right beneath the surface. Find the tapes and unlock the mystery inside the Dread X Collection 2.

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Dread X Collection 2 system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows 7 32/64-bit
  • Processor: Dual-core Intel or AMD processor, 2.0 GHz or Faster
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 470 GTX or MD Radeon 6870 HD Series
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 10 GB available space
  • Sound Card: Standard PC Audio Card
  • Additional Notes: Be kind, rewind.
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Reviews
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Jeans And Go Man
Jeans And Go Man

Lovely Spooktober game! Even if you don't want to do all the games, do CHarlotte's Exile. I thought it was absolutely brilliant.

Spamster
Spamster

Well, as many reviews go over each individual game, I will do the same, as those reviews helped me decide. I also want to specify which games convinced me to give a positive review.

Another Late Night:
Part of me is convinced I must have missed something, because my experience with this game was essentially being sort of confused, wondering when the scary Lovecraftian stuff would arrive, and then the game ended. Even the "scary" (and I use that word in the loosest sense) things that were present were neither scary, nor did they seem to even persist, like it seemed that everything was just fine in the end? I want to think something either went over my head, or there is additional content I have missed. However, every other review I've read describes something similar.

Arcadletra:
This was the first game I played. It was a decent one to begin with, as it was not terrible, but I would rather save the best for later. Another review called it a walking sim, which I would agree with. Aside from one section which had me very confused, it's fairly clear what to do. It has some decent scares, not quite sure what was going on story-wise, apart from simping for a severely under-dressed woman. Overall not bad, but nothing

Charlotte's Exile:
This was my last game, and it's definitely one of the better ones in my opinion. It was refreshing to have a different style of game-play from the majority of games here. It's more of a puzzle game, with a mechanic reminiscent of the Five Nights at Freddy's (however it's far more manageable than that FNAF, it works to make the experience tense without overwhelming the player). The game is also one of the most polished.

Solipsis:
This is the game that brought the Dread X Collection to my knowledge. The game was spoken about in a video I was watching about space, and I despite seeing the whole game more or less I was interested in experiencing it for myself. The truth is it is a very short game, which isn't bad, but I would have enjoyed something that expanded a bit more on the concept. In terms of game-play it's quite simple, this one is really more about the atmosphere and ideas being presented. Overall, nice concept.

Squirrel Stapler:
I think this is the best game in the collection. There is a reason so many reviews are just one line about hunting squirrels and meeting "God". It is one of the longer games, and it can be challenging at times. If you fail at any point you go back to the start of the day, lengthening the experience. Still, the challenge was not unwelcome, it just took a while to get good at it. This game is also semi-serious. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's really quite disturbing.

Sucker for Love:
Very funny, and actually scary at times. It's well made and lasts long enough, but doesn't outstay its welcome. I believe it has been made into a full game, so check that out if you are a fan. It's fairly simple, but there are moments that are challenging because you don't know what to do in advance but you have a time limit and you just have to learn as you go.

The Diving Bell:
I really like ocean settings. This game was pretty enjoyable. It had a couple of cool mechanics (not necessarily just game-play mechanics). The atmosphere was pretty heavy. It was kind of dependant on fetch-quests, but they aren't too bad. I had trouble finding some items on occasion, and I got confused about how to move around the map. Pretty solid overall.

The Thing in the Lake:
So this is the game I didn't finish. From what I gather I'm not the only one. I'll go over the positives first. The art style is very well done, and probably nostalgic for a lot of people. In terms of the story, I actually don't know. It might be good, I just didn't get to experience most of it. The problems lie in the difficulty. Not the kind of difficulty like other games where you just have to get good, but the kind where you wonder around, not sure what to do, struggling to tell what is a solid wall and what is ground you can walk on (not helped by enemies which conveniently ignore solid walls), and suddenly find yourself insta-killed by something that appeared a few pixels away from you with no warning. You restart from the beginning of each chapter upon death. Every time I got to a new area, I struggled to know what I needed to do so much that I inevitably died a few seconds later. After a few deaths, a button appeared saying "Story Mode" I think, which said it would reduce the difficulty. "Perfect!" I thought. Well, I haven't got the foggiest idea what it made "easier". It seemed exactly the same to me.

The Toy Shop:
I have mixed feelings about this one. It was too long, and I think it tried to cram in too many different ideas. Having said that, most of the ideas were quite interesting. I guess the weird thing is that when I picture the beginning, middle and end of the game, I sometimes forget that they are all from the same game. The game-play is fairly basic, but it's serviceable. There were two specific moments I liked. I kind of suspected a twist from the start, but again, with how disconnected the different parts of the game felt, I actually forgot about the twist that I was expecting when it happened. The execution was pretty good though.

To the End of Days:
This wasn't my favourite. It was okay, just a shooter with a few levels. It's not very long which I was glad for. Some of the scenes were pretty cool looking, everything really falling apart. The protagonist speaks in a super dramatic action-hero sort of way, which was kind of amusing.

Touched by an Outer God:
A pretty fun shooter. You go through a few areas where enemies spawn until you can progress. You gain resources as you kill enemies and you can choose upgrades for your weapons. The voice acting was quite a lot better than what you'd usually expect from games like this. I laughed out loud at some of the protagonist's responses to what was going on. "Ouch, that's going to leave a scar" she said, blood spraying from the stump where her hand used to be. Of all the games, it's one of the more game-play focused ones, and it does a pretty good job.

Undiscovered:
I wanted to like this one, but it's got too many problems. Right off the bat, despite running all the other games without issue (except a slightly lower frame rate in some of Toy Soldier), this game never went about 20 FPS. The way the game is framed is a cool idea (kind of a found footage sort of thing), but it makes it really difficult to see where you're going. The mechanics are clunky, you have to come to a complete stop to perform actions, which had me confused for a while. As for the story itself, it's kind of lackluster. It was also frustrating that the two characters barely seem to care about the danger they are in once it starts to get weird. They just casually stroll away from the things trying to kill them. Running? Never heard of it! The big reveal didn't do anything for me either.

Dread X Collection 2:
So framing all these games is another game which serves as kind of a hub world. You have to solve puzzles to get keys to unlock the games. You can do the puzzles in any order more or less, and choose whichever games you want first or last. The visuals are low-res, but pretty good. The puzzles are pretty clever. Some are really easy, but others had me scratching my head, but not for so long that it got frustrating. It was pretty fun.

Oh, and I have to give the game extra credit because it has a skeleton with a trumpet dooting on it's Steam picture.

GLORY AND TERROR
GLORY AND TERROR

Despite claiming to have a 'meta-narrative experience', there's not really much tying these micro-games together besides the hub world. The hub world itself is actually surprisingly fun, with a handful of classic puzzles allowing you to unlock each of the games. The environment itself is well designed and it was a genuinely good addition to the collection. Being honest, I didn't really listen to what the guy was talking about after each game - something about needing to experience all of them in order to not die, maybe? The 'ending' (after you've played all the games) didn't really seem to tie into it either - but then, again, this is just the landing zone after you've played each game, so it hardly has to be exemplary.

As for the individual games, I've ordered them chronologically (i.e in the order I played them). It should be pretty clear which games i thought were great and which I thought weren't really worth the time.

Squirrel Stapler: You walk around a forest shooting squirrels, then staple them to your beloved's skin. Some surprisingly creepy moments, both in the dimly-lit house and in the broad daylight outside. The creepiness starts to wear off about halfway through, but still engaging right until the end. There's a good reason why other reviews are so positive towards this game.

Sucker For Love: Not a huge amount of gameplay as such and maybe thinks it's smarter than it is, but really well made and quite a fun parody of dating visual novels anyway. Also you get to smooch an elder god.

To The End Of Days: Schlocky 'exploitation' FPS - while the gunplay itself is passable the concept's been done before and better. Also, the alien enemies have an incredibly long and annoying death animation. Not awful, but not particularly interesting either.

Solipsis: They give away the ending within the first five seconds of playing which diminishes the scare factor quite drastically, but despite not really liking top-downs i really enjoyed the little warioware-like elements. Wish it was longer.

The Diving Bell: Slow burner but gets real spooky as the game progresses. Slightly janky controls and environment, but loved the health/stress level implementation. Gives me the same vibe as that Doctor Who episode where they're orbiting the black hole. One of the minority of games in the collection which only hints at the horrifying entity, rather than explicitly showing it, which goes a long way in its favour.

Touched By An Outer God: Arena shooter which reminds me of old flash games, in a weirdly charming way. Can be much harder than really necessary if you roll the wrong upgrades. It was worth playing but the levels get a bit samey after a while. I'm curious whether beating the game without upgrades would give a different ending, but I suspect (considering how much damage the enemies were absorbing even with terminal upgrades) this would be a huge undertaking.

The Thing In The Lake: Incredibly grating sound design and really, really obnoxious gameplay. Didn't finish it properly but after the n+1th time getting owned by RNG apes, I lost the ability to care.

Another Late Night: 'You are on a PC and someone unknown is talking to you'-em-up game where it tries to get in your head vis-a-vis some convoluted side-plot about a missing game developer. Didn't really get much out of it.

Untouched: I was initially unimpressed (especially by the kane and lynch 2-ass camera, which made me a little motion sick), but as it went on i enjoyed it more and more, up to a point. Great sound design (except for the 'resident evil 4 villager' samples, which really took me out of the whole thing), loved the seamless character change partway through. Clunky animations/puzzles and the jumpscare at the end was just unnecessary.

Charlotte's Exile: I think 'desk-based horror games' is an underexplored and underrated genre, and this ended up being one of my favourites. Good fun for the little time it lasts, and even manages multiple endings. Great stuff.

The Toy Store: Felt like an unreal engine tech demo. It was kinda neat to have different sections with different gameplay types, but the 'twist' was massively overstated and having an exposition robot explain everything right at the end was just really poor design, especially for a horror game.

Arcadletra: Absolutely no idea what the point of this one was. I got jumpscared a couple of times but mostly it's wandering around a small room trying to work out what to do next, where the answer is sometimes 'do the exact same thing you just did'.

Overall, a very mixed bag. I think the biggest weakness of the collection ties them all together - I don't particularly care for 'lovecraftian' cosmic horror in video games (which was the optional theme of this collection), partly because I think video games are not well suited to cosmic horror, and partly because I think it's extremely easy for game devs to fall into the same boring tropes over and over. Still, there's more than enough here to justify the price.

Becky
Becky

100/10 bought this just to play squirrel stapler and it was amazing I like the part where the ogre emoji appears

maestroverde366
maestroverde366

The Diving Bell, Charlotte's Exile, Sucker for Love, and Solipsis are my personal favourites of the collection. Squirrel Stapler and The Toy Shop contain some very creative and unique ideas, and Touched by an Outer God and To The End Of Days are pretty fun.

Wolfi
Wolfi

Fun anthology! Finding out what each new game would present was a treat, and breaking it up with puzzle-solving in the mansion was a great design choice. My personal favourites were The Thing in the Lake, Sucker for Love and Charlotte's Exile.

As Seen on Domino
As Seen on Domino

Overall a decent collection of games. The main story world and the house you explore is absolutely excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed messing around in it.

12 games in this one.

Sucker for Love is legitimately the best game in this collection. Loved it so much. Perfect for what it is. Amazing art, perfect length, fun little story, good endings. Buy the full game.

Squirrel Stapler is pretty good. Memes aside, it's pretty basic but that's more than fine. It's absolutely ridiculous and doesn't take itself too seriously so the absurdity isn't obnoxious.

To the End of Day was good. It's solid if a bit clunky. It doesn't overstay its welcome which is great and it's straightforward. There's a place you need to get to and things that are trying to stop you from getting there. Blast 'em.

The Diving Bell gives me anxiety really fucking bad. Deep ocean and claustrophobia? Jesus christ. It's pretty effective with the atmosphere and the guilt tripping kinda of gets in your head. Maybe it worked too well on me...

Touched by an Outer God is an okay to good arena shooter. Level your monstrous abilities up and smear enemies or get smeared yourself. The arenas you fight in aren't the most well designed and kinda boring. Still, didn't dislike it.

Charlotte's Exile keeps you on your toes. It's a puzzle game with a timer. Decipher the Lovecraft speech to figure out how to not fuck up. It's brief, nice, enjoyable.

Solipsis was a bit of an experience. I guess? You walk around on and in the moon, stopping once in a while to catch shapes and then the game ends. Like, it's atmosphere was decent but ehhhh.

Arcadletra is just kinda there. I really didn't care much for it. It's a horror walking sim that tries to spook you and... not very well? It's not awful just... there.

Another Late Night exists.

Undiscovered is a game of two halves. First half is okay. Explore an ancient temple and learn about the conquistadors that attempted to raid it. The bottom falls out once your partner bites it. Then it's extremely frustrating to navigate because all the walls look alike and you get turned around all the fucking time while avoiding skeletons. Also your torch can clip through the walls, further throwing you off and confusing you.

The Thing in the Lake isn't bad, but it's also not particularly good. It gets extremely frustrating when you're trying to navigate the maps and then the shit that wants you dead pops out of the exit your inches away from, instakills you, and sends your ass back. The payoff isn't really worth it either.

The Toy Shop can fuck off. Overstays its welcome bad. If you're gonna do the "no saves so beat it in one sitting" thing, then at least make sure the game won't glitch you through the fucking map into an endless fall so you have to restart the game and GO BACK TO THE FUCKING BEGINNING. At least have it kill you at some point so you'll wind up at a checkpoint. Fuck. The longest game and it's a slog. Chase scenes with trial and error nonsense. Combat and gunplay that's not very good. There was one kinda cool scene where you're running across rooftops and the real world begins to peak through the drug induced fantasy world and there's a big demon watching you. That was it. Story was pretty lame too. Fuck this game.

If you're gonna get this, do The Toy Shop first. Get it out of the way. Don't be stupid and leave it for next to last. Do The Thing in the Lake too. Those were my last two games and they left a sour taste in my mouth.

The Red Dragon
The Red Dragon

This horror anthology pack has 12 horror games in it, 9 of which I enjoyed and would recommend, and about 4 that I wish were made into full games. My favorites were Charlotte's Exile, The Toy Shop, Sucker For Love (this one has now been adapted into a full game) and a new classic that I'll definitely revisit called Squirrel Stapler. All in all this bundle is 100% worth your time.

ronoferson
ronoferson

Honestly, I have zero complaints. Each of the games are made very well, and they're also all very entertaining. I bought it because of Squirrel Stapler, but the whole things is excellent!

J-Rod
J-Rod

Just as intended, I was indeed spooked. well done I say. *clap clap clap*

Asami
Asami

Easily one of my top 5 favorite horror games. Worth the money 100%

YellowBoii
YellowBoii

I Can confirm that i have PTSD of squirrels

average postal fan
average postal fan

came for killing squirrels, stayed because of hot tentacle woman dating sim

Mossling
Mossling

my personal fave collection so far

ΤΣΠΠΘ
ΤΣΠΠΘ

Another enjoyable horror anthology. The launcher has now been turned into a game; an engaging series of puzzles used to unlock the curated titles. Charlotte's Exile, Squirrel Stapler, Sucker for Love, The Toy Shop and To the End of Days are the highlights. Arcadletra is the nadir of the experience, avoid it like the plague. The rest fluctuate between decent and mediocre.

A strong sequent and improvement from the first collection.

8/10

Pluto
Pluto

I only found one squirrel before giving up. quality over quantity tho

Bag_of_BOnes
Bag_of_BOnes

My favourite Dread X Collection so far. There's a lot of gems in this one.

Loud Steel Pipe
Loud Steel Pipe

Really wanted to like some of these but most of them are just mediocre. There are a few really good ones here, Squirrel Stapler and Charlotte's exile were my two favourites. Unfortunately the rest aren't very good. All are impressive for 7 days, but that doesn't change that the collection is 15 dollars

Annoying Dog
Annoying Dog

There were more squirrels than I had bullets. God is coming. 11/10.

TUNRAX
TUNRAX

I only bought it for the funny squirrel game, I met god and I shot him.

PrinnyCat
PrinnyCat

As with my review for the first collection, I will be using my G.B.U. system (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). Before I get to the games though, I want to comment on the surrounding world that the games are a part of. I really liked the whole explore the house idea and solving mini puzzles to get more keys so games could be unlocked. The overall quality is definitely much improved since the first collection. The unlockable comic on the other hand was confusing and not really worth the one page per game once the ending was reached (my own personal opinion of course).
THE GOOD
Squirrel Stapler - Potentially my favourite of the bunch, it started off fairly slow-ish, but as the days wore on and more enemies showed up and scary stuff started to happen, it really dragged me in. As a hunting game, it did a pretty good job at not being overly hard, but not too easy either. The ending was unexpected and both freaked me out a little and made me laugh.
Sucker for Love - Another favourite, I adore unique visual novels. This one was very well made in a short time, with great art, a good voice actress and two endings, both of which are worth getting.
The Diving Bell - This one gave me the best horror vibe. The use of you having to 'type' out the reports was cool, and it really had a great vibe of the slow descent into madness of someone trapped with no way out. I also liked how things would change as time went on, and notes/items would appear or dissapear with no knowledge of who or what did it. The ending was great too.
Touched by an Outer God - A very fun and creative run and gunner, which I accidentally played 'incorrectly' my first playthrough, by just escaping the creatures and doing zero upgrades. It's much more fun to mutate yourself and experiment with weapon styles.
Undiscovered - The camera angle took some getting used to, with not being able to move it yourself at all, but I liked the idea of it being the other person in control as they were filming you exploring. I loved the easter egg, a funny tribute to their previous game from the first collection, nice touch. The growing escalation from normal ruins to more sinister surroundings was good, and the ending was fitting.
THE BAD
Another Late Night - I wasn't really sure what was even going on with this one. I guessed it was aiming to be similar to other 'play on computer and scary stuff happens on it etc' type of game, but nothing about it was sinister or scary, and I was left wondering if it was supposed to be serious or not. Not much happens overall either, although my playing it last may be why it left a bad impression after playing the more interactive submissions.
Arcadletra - This felt more like a student film/art concept rather than an actual game. I think it would have suited being in the first collection, as it felt very PT inspired, in that you walk around and nothing much happens until it does happen, but there was very little feelings to it. An experience, but not one I would really care about going back to.
THE UGLY
Charlotte's Exile - A very pretty looking game, with unique mechanics of translating symbols in order to solve puzzles. The initial jumpscare is great too the first time it happens, but as time wears on it becomes rather repetitive. If the devs had had more time for it, I think some walking mechanics/more interactive sections and more enemies would be a good idea to add. As it is, its average.
Solipsis - Another one that I think would have benefitted from more time. It was the right length, not too long, but rather uneventful for the most part and the ending was a little creepy, but overall it was lacking in something to help it pack more of a punch.
The Thing in the Lake - I loved the design for this, like a funky retro game, and the monkey in the cage was super creepy. However, I feel like the enemies could be toned down a lot, to allow for better exploration (or at the very least, difficulty levels).
The Toy Shop - I really enjoyed this, the concept and story were strange but drew me in, and the platforming wasn't too bad for a game made in a short amount of time. The major downside, however, is the fact there is no checkpoint after the big boss battle, then having dozens of enemies thrown at you with a high chance of dying and having to restart the boss. That alone was enough to put me completely off finishing it (my game bugged out and gave me the trophy before I even started the game, so I didn't have to) and prevented it from being in the 'good' section of this review.
To the End of Days - I enjoyed the music and the running and gunning, but I really didn't enjoy the almost indestructable, screaming wire monsters. They were the second worst thing from Carthanc (the first being the platforming), and I understand the shared universe storylines, but they brought a rather fun shooter down quite a bit for me.

lemon bread real
lemon bread real

You should buy this.
The puzzle house can be a bit frustrating, and some games leave a lot to be desired, but for a 10 day game jam this is a real gem and fully worth the price. My favorite games would probably be Squirrel stapler, The Diving Bell, Sucker for Love, and Arcadletra. Great mix of scary and challenging games in this pack and the only real duds in my opinion would be Undiscovered and Charlotte's Exile. These games aren't necessarily bad, and they are both really cool and different ideas in concept, but the gameplay becomes a bit frustrating and/or tedious in both cases and I think all they needed was a little more time. But that's the charm to a game jam, right? Overall I highly recommend this tho, good game.

Hollow Potato
Hollow Potato

There is a massive leap in quality and presentation in Collection 2 over the first and really holds up across all the games.

I found the first collection very lackluster, with only a few standouts. However, collection 2 is solid all the way.
Even the presentation of playing the games was interesting with the creepy house and the puzzles to unlock the games. Pick this over the first collection for sure.

Diabetus
Diabetus

This is a great horror collection

xChickenBugx
xChickenBugx

After recently playing through DXC 1,2,3, and The Hunt I highly recommend these collections for anyone a fan of horror games. I like the spooky house main hub and the collection of games this time are a lot better than the previous title.
The top three games in this collection i like the most are:
1. Squirrel Stapler (This one actually made me jump!!!)
2. Touched by an Outer God
3. Sucker For Love

La Li Lu Le Lo
La Li Lu Le Lo

I love indie games. I love horror games. The concept of the Dread X collection is RIGHT up my alley. However, after playing the fist 3 collections, I must sadly say that they are not worth the money, outside of a heavy discount. Each collection consists of a "wrapper" (A simple menu for the first collection, and fully 3D first person adventure games for the second and third collections) from which you launch the handful of games included. However, the issue is that the vast majority of games that makes up these collections, barring a few exceptions, are quite sub par. To begin with, all of the games are quite short, most taking less than an hour to beat. Beyond their length, most of the games aren't all that novel or interesting. Further still, almost all of the games are shoddily made and poorly tested with constant issues and glitches. So you're left with a handful of mediocre short-form project, the vast majority of which aren't interesting. This would be less of an issue if it weren't for the fact that there are a series of projects similar to the Dread X collections, the "Haunted PS1" collections which are available for free and contain games that are of the same quality as those in the Dread X collection, and often better to boot. This comparison if all the easier to make considering many of the developers on display contribute to both. Excluding the collections entirely, there are simply better indie horror games available for free across the internet.

Given the quality of the games on display in this collection, I simply cannot abide the asking price.

Woodgate
Woodgate

Better Than the First!

With games that range from acceptable to great, Dread X Collection 2 steps it up from the mediocrity of the first Dread X Collection. I liked some of these games a lot! Also there's 2 more than the first!

Here's the TL;DR:

Game Review
Squirrel Stapler 8/10
The Toy Shop 8/10
Charlotte's Exile 8/10
Touched by an Outer God 8/10
Sucker For Love 7/10
Undiscovered 6/10
Solipsis 6/10
The Diving Bell 5/10
To the End of Days 5/10
Arcadletra 3/10
Another Late Night 2/10
The Thing in the Lake ?/10

I've included some spoiler tags for information that MIGHT hinder an experience for you. They're pretty light but I want to be sure. Anyway, let's start with the good games and D E S C E N D:

Squirrel Stapler - 8/10

Squirrel Stapler is a scary game. It knows how to build tension and play with your fear in just the right places. Also, for the love of God, don't sprint in the last couple of days. I just cut your playtime in half.

The Toy Shop - 8/10

It's janky, it's got a bland UI and engine, and a boring generic horror game starting area+models. But I will say that the story intrigued me for some reason. I liked the way it was told. Everything else pretty much sucks, but that story hooked me. F♥ck the robot segments though..

Charlotte's Exile - 8/10

I like the concept of this game more than the game itself, but I also love the visuals and entries on different eldritch beings. The puzzles were cool, but the monster needed some fleshing out.

Touched by an Outer God - 8/10

Very well-made game. Not strictly speaking horror, but it's a good roguelite. Also, you can make it to the end without a single upgrade, but don't do it for your first run. .

Sucker For Love - 7/10

Degenerates like you belong on a cross.

Undiscovered - 6/10

Well put together game from TorpleDook, creator of Hand of Doom in the previous collection. The semi-fixed camera angle is a bit nauseating halfway through, but the game gets pretty interesting pretty quick.

Solipsis - 6/10

Made by the same gent who developed the acclaimed title Pony Island, as well as the less, although deservedly, acclaimed title The Hex. A polished and detailed short experience, but if you've played Daniel Mullin games before you know that's a given ;). The break sequence was interesting but it certainly took me a bit to figure out. Everything else is perfect but it is super short and lacking in the gameplay department. Nonetheless it is a 10-day title and it certainly shows, at least through those two features. I'd rather it disrupt length as opposed to quality, though!

The Diving Bell - 5/10

I like where it was going but themes of isolation are just done better in other games. This game HEAVILY reminded me of a game titled Bunker in terms of atmosphere and story, but I liked Bunker more in pretty much every way. I suggest you check it out, and see what The Diving Bell could've done better.

To the End of Days - 5/10

Made by the same devs who created Carthanc in the first Dread X Collection. The gunplay feels relatively satisfying (on the first enemies), and the protagonist is hilariously stereotypically edgy. I like this game way more than I ever did Carthanc. Well done, but get rid of the GODD♥MN rebar PRICKS already.

Arcadletra - 3/10

Timore dev game. Need I say more

Another Late Night - 2/10

I expected some kind of Welcome to the Game experience but what I got instead was a weirdly open-and-shut game. I was just starting to MAYBE get into it and then it ended? Hmm. Not sure what happened here, but it feels unfinished and odd. Play it for yourself and maybe you'll see what I mean.

The Thing in the Lake - ?/10

The Thing in the Lake was created by the developer of World of Horror. I don't think it's fair for me to rate this game. After reading the reviews smashing on this title, followed by me launching the game and hating the graphics of the 'overworld,' then dying to the gorilla after not knowing where to go, I think I'm satisfied with just not playing. World of Horror is a decent game though.

That's a Wrap!

This marks the end of my review. I'm not sure what else to say, except I highly recommend you check out the other Dread X Collections even if you were not thrilled with this one. In my experience, each collection surpasses the last. Here are my reviews for these collections:

Dread X Collection

Dread X Collection 2

Dread X Collection 3

Dread X Collection: The Hunt

Samfroggeh
Samfroggeh

This is another wonderful collection of games with added overworld puzzles. The first was a menu screen with games, this is actually games within a game.
It links back to the first game and some titles also relate back to titles in the first one which I personally found both amazing and awesome!
I'm looking forward to more from these devs.

JaisenG00
JaisenG00

A mixed bag of good and meh, although the good outweighs the bad.

Nathanx42
Nathanx42

not gonna lie, im too big of a pussy to play

Doodem
Doodem

Amazing stuff here, only complaint is that it is a little short, but it has replayability!

gabavoo chee
gabavoo chee

made me cum, becaasaue i like horror, not like whores or anyhitng

Hydrel Dacernis
Hydrel Dacernis

I think Arcadletra gave me heart palpitations, so these games are doing something right in regards to horror.

P.S. Don't play Solipsis first, it will glitch the story mode if you do. No issues besides that.

BinaryMessiah
BinaryMessiah

Score: 7/10

Dread X Collection games are a great concept. A horror house of mini-games that take 30-60 minutes to finish to unlock a larger narrative. The first game had a lot of duds and a few games that crashed and couldn’t be finished, and the same goes for this collection. There are far better games, but the duds are even worse this time around. At least there’s a larger hub world you can explore and get the games to require solving simple puzzles in a mansion you are locked in. It took me about 20 minutes to solve all the puzzles and find all twelve keys. It really doesn’t take much with some barely even considered puzzles. Each game is on a VHS tape locked in a box in the main room. You put the tape in the VCR and the game will pop up. It’s a neat concept and fun while it lasts, but you will spend the majority of your time with the smaller games. I will go through each one and let you know if they’re worth your time or not.

Charlotte’s Exile: A fun puzzle game based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu lore. You stand at a table and have a series of puzzles to solve while a giant eye constantly approaches you. You are standing in a library and you can see the eye every time you look up. It repeats a pattern in which every 3-4 minutes it will appear right in front of you and create a jump scare. It really got me the first couple of times as my skin literally crawled. However, this is all the game has in terms of scares. There is an alphabet you must decipher by reading passages in a book. Then there is a lockbox that has good ending hints and a puzzle box that requires pressing squares in a certain order. It was fun to solve and took around 45 minutes, but having to constantly look up was novel at first then just became annoying because I knew the jump scare was coming. Play.

Squirrel Stapler: A mock on Deer Hunter. The game has PS1-style graphics and you walk around a large forest hunting squirrels. There are five days and with each day a new beast must be hunted. You then staple your squirrels to your “loved one”. This is another Cthulhu mythos story. The actual hunting part is slow and gets boring fast. You have to crouch and stay still for squirrels to appear, but sometimes several minutes would go by with nothing. You can collect bullets and health, but the ending isn’t worth the pay-off. Pass.

The Diving Bell: The graphics are hideous with ugly textures and models, but the atmosphere is creepy. Another Cthulhu mythos game where you play as a crew member of a diving team that is sent to research under the sea. You then mash your keyboard to type up a report and as the days go on, you’ll slowly lose your sanity. As you hallucinate you must take anti-anxiety pills to keep your heart rate down and look away from them. The research facility constantly malfunctions and doors lock so you must find other shortcuts and take long routes around the area. It’s not very fun and the best part was reading the logs and watching yourself slowly go mad. The ending was a poor pay-off and overall it was mostly boring and took nearly an hour to finish. Pass.

Touched By An Outer God: A Doom clone that has you fighting Cthulhu mythos monsters using your hands. When you kill enemies you get parts that can be used to upgrade your hands. This game goes fast and you can finish the entire thing in about 20 minutes. You can’t acquire all upgrades in the first playthrough but the ending was a bad pay-off and after you get halfway through the game is super easy as you quickly become overpowering. The visuals upgrades are nice to see and it’s very fast-paced and fun. Due to the short length, it’s not bad. Play.

To the End of Days: A terrible first-person shooter that kept crashing on me every five minutes. You use your shotgun to kill enemies and that’s it. The game looks awful despite starting out with a fun atmosphere. It’s the end of the world and nuclear weapons are raining down everywhere. The animation is awful, the sound is bad, and the overall shooting is just amateur at best. I didn’t expect Crysis, but this isn’t it, plus the terrible stability issues. Pass.

The Toy Shop: Another game with awful visuals, terrible controls, and super floaty platforming. You play as a toy soldier who is trying to escape a toy shop. You walk around talking to people, pulling levers, escaping enemies, and in the end, you start fighting Terminator-type characters. The shooting is horrendous, worst than the last game, and I couldn’t finish the final boss due to the awful level design and terrible controls. Pass.

Undiscovered: A lost footage game that’s all atmosphere. You are filming your wife in the 1950s as you just discovered a tomb in Spain. The game is super blocky and terrible looking but that’s part of the charm. It’s a silent film so it’s in black and white and there’s lots of static and you just mostly hear the clicking of the camera rolling. As you go deeper into the ruins you only have a torch and pickaxe at your disposal. You can easily dodge enemies by walking around them, but the game has a super creepy atmosphere. It’s another Cthulhu mythos-style game. The collision detection and camera are awful, but I finished it in under 20 minutes and it was pretty cool. Play.

Another Late Night: Not really a game, just a text-based “desktop” simulator. You click around, read messages and articles that are supposed to be happening during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the game is basically a self aware mystery where you are seeing through the eyes of the developer of the game. It’s over in about 15 minutes, but it’s fun as I love desktop simulator games. Play.

Arcadletra: This was the first game I played in this collection. It’s a super weird haunted arcade adventure game. You basically click around on things that have electricity around them and it’s a Layers of Fear-style haunted funhouse. There’s a good and bad ending, but honestly, the short story makes zero sense and I only enjoyed the auditorial atmosphere the game had. It was over in about 15 minutes. Play.

Sucker for Love: This one is super neat. It’s a Japanese visual novel where you summon a female Cthulhu character, but you are in your apartment and have a book of love. Your goal is to try and kiss her before she ends the world and it’s actually quite creepy in spots. Think Corpse Party type creepy. You follow the instructions on each page by clicking on things in the apartment that correspond to them like turning out lights, wearing certain items, etc. It’s over in about 20 minutes, but it was a lot of fun and I wanted it to last longer. Play.

The Thing in the Lake: This is an 8-bit PC-style adventure game where each chapter is super short-lasting maybe a few minutes, but I hated this one a lot. You can run around the screens trying to figure out where to go and there are two killers on the loose. You can’t walk through dry grass and after a few seconds a killer gorilla comes on to screen kind of like Mr. X in Resident Evil 2. You can collect letters throughout the game, but the issue is figuring out where to go and constantly dying from the killers. I repeated each chapter a dozen times before figuring out what to do next. It just felt like a chore with little pay-off. Pass.

Solipsis: This is a short and sweet game. You play as an astronaut in a top-down perspective walking across the moon. You must find a lava tube using a tool, but halfway through the game your partner crashes onto the moon and you must find the lava tube still. You then walk down a long staircase and see parts of a creature. Without spoiling it too much the game ends once you get to the bottom. It’s over in about 15 minutes, but it’s disturbing. Play.

Not as many duds this time around, but the bad ones are super bad and not even worth grudging through. Sadly, this means without finishing all the games you can’t finish the main narrative in the hub, but for the asking price, there’s still a few hours of good entertainment here.

Sparx
Sparx

Speed review of each aspect of the collection. (This will contain spoilers) Okay so, I'm not finished yet, but I'll update as I am.

The Dread X Collection 2 House: 7/10

Sort, sweet, and fitting graphics for simple horror-esk puzzles. Finished them all in around 10 minutes, and I had fun doing so.

Sucker for Love: 8/10 - Play

It was funny, and the art and VA were great. I had fun playing it through the first time, but I wouldn't play again as dating sims just aren't my thing. Enjoyed the little things you'd have to do for the ritual, and the tone shift after THAT ritual. It's short with little variety, but that's my only gripe.

Squirrel Stapler: 9/10 - Play

Whole reason I bought the collection. It's a retro graphic hunting sim with a funny yet off putting story. Day 4 was absolutely soul-crushingly hard due to the aggressiveness of the Squirrel Bears. Never really scared me, but the ending gave me a bit of a jump.

The Toy Shop: 2/10 - Skip

God this game annoyed me. It's atrocious graphics and slippery controls make it an absolute bore to play. The writing was choppy, and the twist is basically spelled out for you if you gather the poorly hidden "Candy" within the first area. It was buggy as hell, and the random forced difficulty really shines in the poorly mapped out final boss segment and the robot chase scene right before it. The game bounces all over the place, from 2d Platformer, Walking Sim, and FPS, with very little explanation as to what is going on. I have been informed that the dev was preoccupied during development, but that doesn't totally excuse the clear low effort which was put into this game.

Undiscovered: 6/10 - Play

Undiscovered is interesting. The story is a little hard to follow, and the characters are written to be overly apathetic to reanimating dead corpses and people dying right in front of them, which made them extremely unlikable by the end of the story. Was this the intention? No idea. However, I can praise the interesting FOV which the game employs, as you control a character recorded by their spouse on a video camera, making the game totally dependent on WASD until around the end. The twist was a little predictable, and the camera constantly clipped outside the map, but it was short and held my attention for long enough for me to enjoy it.

Charlotte's Exile: 7/10 - Play

I don't have much to say about this game. Probably the best looking 3d one I've played so far. The monster is a little bare-bones, but the puzzles are interesting and the story is simple yet effective.

Arcadletra: 4/10 for Horror, 3/10 as a Game - Play (bad it's good)

This game made me laugh quite a lot for the amount of deliberate scares it attempted to shove in. The animations were absolutely hilarious to me, put I'll admit that some of the jumpscares spooked me a little. The story made no sense, the mapping of where to go was confusing, and the game itself feels like a total mess. I'd play it as a joke, not as a horror game.

Diving Bell: 9/10 - Play

Oh my god did this game absolutely terrify me. It's probably because I'm not a fan of underwater scenarios IRL, but the constant feeling of dread which I experienced throughout the game was unparalleled to any other game I've played so far within the Dread X Collection. It does have quite a few bugs, and the mapping was a little confusing, but it all weirdly fit into the psychological torture which Thoss is experiencing throughout the game. The map felt small yet massive at the same time, and while the writing is a little bit cheesy, it doesn't dampen the feeling of anxiety you feel throughout the many logs you write.

The End of Days: 5/10 - Skip

This game was the epitome of mediocre. It's short, and a little bit poorly mapped, but it's fine. If you're looking for a kinda cheesy FPS game with a hilariously edgy main character, this is for you. Also, the Axe is useless, just use the shotgun the whole time.

Solipsis: 6/10 - Play

Solipsis takes a unique approach to camera positioning using a top down format unlike any other game in this collection, and accomplishes it well. I found myself a little lost during the pre-staircase segment, but not long enough for it be frustrating. Another short and sweet horror game with an interesting, though a little annoying, mechanic to understand the situation you're in. The ending is a little basic, but the lead up is tense. Nowhere near as close horror wise to a lot of the games in DXC2, but it's not something that should be skipped.

The Thing in the Lake: 1/10 - Skip

This game is as bad as Toy Shop but in a different way. Ugly graphics, but literally some of the worst player guiding I have ever seen. You just guess where you go until something murders you and you have to restart the entire chapter. I quit after attempting the second chapter around 10 times. Total skip, even worse than Toy Shop honestly.

Touched by an Outer God: 7/10 - Play

A roguelite game in a similar vain to DOOM, where you fight off eldritch horrors and get gruesome and grotesque upgrades to your body by eating the enemies dropped organs. It's creepy, it's fun, it's short and sweet. The twist was a little predictable, but I really enjoyed this one. Worth your time for sure.

Another Late Night: 5/10 - Play

Another Late Night is awfully buggy, but it's charming and funny for a "horror" game. It's a desktop simulator in which you just watch internet go wild for a while. Never really scared me per say, but I had a lot of fun just messing around in the computer. The dialogue was a little cheesy, but the game is only a few minutes long, so I'd play it for the hell of it.

And that's all! I really enjoyed this collection overall, and I'd say it's worth the small price tag to get some real gems, as long as you're able to wade through some of the awful garbage within this one too. My favorites were easily Squirrel Stapler and The Diving Bell, and for the ones to stay away from I'd say just don't play The Toy Shop or The Thing in the Lake, it's not worth the pain.

The Dread X Collection 2 gets a 7/10 from me.

craftablescience
craftablescience

Here are the games I liked, in order:

- Sucker for Love: more comedic than scary, but decently spooky. Easily the best game in the collection for me.
- The Diving Bell: the scariest game in the collection by far, very much like SOMA but without moving enemies.
- Squirrel Stapler: God is here and he does not like that you are killing his squirrels.
- Undiscovered: The only second-person game I've ever played. Yes, it is a second-person game, and the concept is really interesting.
- Touched by an Outer God: good shooter where you slowly turn into a monster. The Bad Ending was pretty predictable.
- Charlotte's Exile: more logical puzzle-solving than the others, good fun.
- Solipsis: Short but very scary. If you get stuck, remember to use the gravity measuring tool.

Here are the games I disliked, in no particular order:

- The Thing in the Lake: it's simply horrible, not fun at all.
- Arcadletra: relies too much on jumpscares, and looks (and runs) like a UE4 game.
- Another Late Night: I'm confused, is this supposed to be meta?
- The Toy Shop: it's janky and way too long.
- To the End of Days: another basic shoot-em-up. At least the enemies die in one shot, and the environment design is pretty, but there's no substance to it.

All in all, I strongly recommend buying this collection, it covers a wide range of genres so you'll definitely find something you like.

Lazarus
Lazarus

fun compilation of games. not all of them are winners but none of them are a waste of time or money

Dolkins - Master of Disguise
Dolkins - Mast…

Really enjoyed this! Lots of fun concepts and interesting stuff. 10 of the games are pretty solid with "The Thing in the Lake" being dreadful and "Another Late Night" being short and dull. Everything else is definitely worth playing and I enjoyed it immensely.

Eagle Eye
Eagle Eye

Just great. Not all games are perfect, and I prefer the later games in the way that to finish the story you only need to play all games, whilst in this one you need to complete all games.

Has some solid games in it made by devs I admire. I would recommend getting this in the year 1 bundle.

Eeeaea
Eeeaea

Not a single bad game in the mix, and the hubworld was a treat. Compared to the previous collection this one is a step forward in all respects.

Baaamboozled
Baaamboozled

* insert squirrel stapler joke here *
some of the games here I hate with a passion ( toy shop ) but there are really good ones like squirrel stapler and sucker for love which are absolutely amazing in my opinion

Sumari
Sumari

every time i think one of the games looks funny it ends up being the scariest one

Bushbasher69
Bushbasher69

I loved this game, but I hate squirrels now >:-c

Sneaky
Sneaky

★★★★☆/★★★★★ Indie Collection Masterpiece
Nearly as good as the Haunted Demo Disc 2021

However, this is a collection. How do I feel about each game?

Squirrel Stapler [★★★★☆/★★★★★] - David Szymanski
This game perfectly combines atmospheric horror with that itch I've had for hunting games since Deer Hunter 1997. Funny, engaging, and good to play while chatting about shit with friends.

Touched by an Outer God [★★★☆☆/★★★★★] - Wither Studios
This game has a lot of problems, and the upgrades system is what barely keeps it a 3-star for me. The upgrades and concept seem cool, but... The combat is floaty and unsatisfying, things just take annoyingly long to kill at times, and rooms can just go on and on and on for way too long. ...and don't get me started about the "first level"/prologue. Space between destinations for no reason, pointless shit all around, and a complete disconnect from the rest of the game. I'm actively trying to rate it down to 2-star.

The Diving Bell [★★★★★/★★★★★] - Bathysfear Labs
Anxiety, paranoia, terror... all of these are done exquisitely in The Diving Bell. Sometimes some of the dialogue is a bit worse than you come to expect, and I felt like the ending could have been handled better. But overall, an excellent game.

To The End Of Days [★☆☆☆☆/★★★★★] - Scythe Dev Team
Boring. Cheesy dialogue, shitty level design, floaty combat, only two enemy types, and nothing cool to redeem it. ...Oh, except the axeblade on the gun; that was kinda cool. ...Too bad it's useless.

The Toy Shop [☆☆☆☆☆/★★★★★] - Mahelyk
B O R I N G, cranked up to 11. Looks and plays like a crappy Unity game. One of two I couldn't make it through for an honest playthrough.

Undiscovered [★★★★☆/★★★★★] - Torple Dook
Insanely cool camera idea. Terrifying-ness would have been more so had certain objects been... "active". Got some problems, but excellent overall.

Charlotte's Exile [★★★★★/★★★★★] - John Szymanski
Charlotte's Exile is an excellent decryption and translating game that made me actually get out pen and paper, all while keeping the stakes high. Excellent.

Another Late Night [★★☆☆☆/★★★★★] - Secret Cow Level
Had some interesting ideas, but did nothing with them. Fell kinda flat, and felt a bit presumptuous. AKA, AARD but worse.

Arcadletra [☆☆☆☆☆/★★★★★] - Vidas Games
I'm breaking my rating system I hate this one so much. It's just shitty jumpscares and low-effort shit. After about 6 or 7 spooks I decided it was dumb and left. Make of that what you will.

SUCKER FOR LOVE [★★★★★/★★★★★] - Akabaka
Fun, hillarious, and a really balanced amount of spooky. Highly Recommend.

THE THING IN THE LAKE [★★★★★/★★★★★] - Panstasz
Hard. DEAD hard. ...but absolutely dripping with style I haven't seen anywhere else in a while. People shit on this game for the same reason people shit on Dark Souls: they're bad.

SOLIPSIS [★★★☆☆/★★★★★] - Daniel Mullins
Amazing... until the end. Atmospheric horror combined with the "rationalization" mechanic is beautiful.

TL;DR

[★★★★☆/★★★★★] Squirrel Stapler
[★★★☆☆/★★★★★] Touched by an Outer God
[★★★★★/★★★★★] The Diving Bell
[★☆☆☆☆/★★★★★] To The End Of Days
[★☆☆☆☆/★★★★★] The Toy Shop
[★★★★☆/★★★★★] Undiscovered
[★★★★★/★★★★★] Charlotte's Exile
[★★☆☆☆/★★★★★] Another Late Night
[☆☆☆☆☆/★★★★★] Arcadletra
[★★★★★/★★★★★] SUCKER FOR LOVE
[★★★☆☆/★★★★★] SOLIPSIS

FeyVara
FeyVara

One of the best game collections ever!!!

Folgers Incest
Folgers Incest

press left click to staple squirrels to your wife

Lukas
Lukas

worth the price, genuinely good games.

frostux
frostux

If you loved the first game, you'll love this one too. The framing is a little different: you have to explore an old mansion and collect keys in order to unlock the titular collection of games. I think it's a fantastic change of pace; just big enough to create an interesting atmosphere, but not so complex as to steal the show.

The games themselves are a hodgepodge of concepts, showcasing a variety of technologies and genres within horror. Some hits, some misses. But overall, a really solid collection that dares to go where other games do not. That’s really the best part here -- ideas and experiments that don’t need to justify themselves too much in order to be realized and published.

Highly recommended if you enjoy weird horror games.

Bee_ss
Bee_ss

i almost killed my grandpa because i screamed so loud, 10/10

reorse
reorse

Touched by an Outer God is what Bioshock Infinite should have been.

Mr Ben
Mr Ben

Overall I think I preferred the selections from the first Dread X collection because there were some real gems there, but there were some really bad games in that collection too. This feels like a more well rounded collection with fewer lemons than the first collection... So make of that what you will. I do think that both collections are definitely worth a look for any horror fan - especially if they're on offer (around 50% off).

Overall I'd give this collection a 7/10 but have also given individual scores below:

The Diving Bell - 8/10
Amazing atmosphere! Seriously stood out amongst the other games. Game was a little buggy at times, but it was all forgiven. The main negatives are that the puzzles/tasks weren't really too challenging and I never really felt too much of a threat, so it definitely had room for improvement. I genuinely feel like this game could be a really good full length game if there was more to the tasks and there was more of a real threat pursuing you.

Sucker for Love - 8/10
Ever wanted to date a squid god? No?? Me neither, but this game's definitely got you covered if you do! Didn't expect to like this game as much as I did, but it's really good. Great blend of lovecraftian horror and comedy.

Charlotte's Exile - 8/10
I really enjoyed this! Decryption/puzzle solving and lovecreaftian horror combined... what's not to love?!

SOLIPSIS - 8/10
Another game that I really liked! Atmospheric, unique and has a great mechanic for rationalisation. I'll never look at the moon the same way again...

Squirrel Stapler - 7/10
GOD IS COMING IN 5 DAYS! You're a hunter and you have to hunt squirrels each day... because your wife's a bit cold and wants a warm squirrel sweater (or something like that). Each day gets harder with day 5 being the last. Great atmosphere, pretty creepy in parts and not terrible to play but it was a bit of a grind for me at times - especially with the last day!

The Toy Shop - 7/10
Most other reviewers seem to HATE this game, but I kinda liked it! Combat was a bit clunky and I think that they should have focused more on the toy shop and owner rather than having the story diverge in the way that it does, but I definitely thought the game idea showed promise and the earlier parts were well executed.

Touched by an Outer God - 6/10
I actually thought that this game had real potential at first and the upgrade system is really cool... but as other reviewers have said, the combat just isn't that satisfying.

Undiscovered - 4/10
Some really good ideas, but I just couldn't get over how difficult they made character movement. I think a big part of the issue is the camera angle, but I'm sure they could have found a work around to allow for better movement whilst keeping the novelty of the camera.

Another Late Night - 3/10
Some interesting ideas, but nothing special and a bit too slow/uninteresting.

Arcadletra - 3/10
Meh... Jump scares galore! No real substance to the game. Quite quick to run through though.

To The End Of Days - 2/10
Everything about this game was really bad. The voice acting and dialogue reminded me of an edgy 14 year old trying to be really dramatic. The game play was rubbish. The enemy and map design was rubbish. I can't really think of any positives to be blunt... Not sure why I'm even giving 2 other than the fact that it was playable and I didn't encounter any bugs.

The Thing In the Lake - N/A
I didn't get on with the art style or game play of this game. I got the achievement without needing to play the game through so I never bother to pick it up again. Based on what I played, I'd give it around a 3/10, but because I didn't play it through completely it's not really fair of me to score it.

SalvageET
SalvageET

Dread X Collection 2

Since I've waited until I was done with all four collections before writing the reviews, I can safely say that this collection is my favourite. The hub world, its atmosphere, puzzles, narrator and the story? They're all simply phenomenal. Honestly, this game is worth buying solely for the hub world, but I digress. Games are also the scariest among all four collections in my opinion. They're all high quality, polished and pure horror oriented. My favourite game in all four collections is also in this collection. While the next two collections are also pretty good, they both felt underwhelming with just how good this one's games and hub world was. Reviews of individual games below should hopefully explain why I felt this way about Dread X Collection 2.

Another Late Night

A pretty boring game that simulates an average teen's computer's desktop. Least scary game in the collection by far, not sure why developers chose this theme for a horror game collection. Cool rat pics tho. 2/10

Arcadeletra

Calling this game scary is like calling your 1998 Corolla fast because it's falling off a cliff. It's filled with jumpscares and loud noises, which is a shame because I think the environment had the potential to be extremely unnerving even without loud noises and jumpscares. Though I suppose I can't complain since I asked to be spooked upon buying the collection. 4/10

Charlotte's Exile

I really liked this one. It's an eldritch horror/puzzle game where you decipher an old language by using an encyclopedia to save your SO. Puzzles were really well thought and fun to solve, the atmosphere was great. Only issue I had was lack of horror elements. Though I'd still love to play more games like this by the developer. 9/10

Solipsis

Another good one. This is a top-down horror game where you're an astronaut who's measuring the gravity on a planet's surface until things go south. It reminds me a lot of Darkwood, especially with the camera angle and the astronaut's field of view. It manages to scare you without any cheap tricks despite having many opportunities to do so, and rationalising mechanic is brilliant. Though the game is really short, even for this collection. 7/10

Squirrel Stapler

Star of the collection and possibly the entire series. Squirrel Stapler is like one of those bargain bin games, but good. You play as a hunter. Squirrels of the forest are beautiful, your wife is not. So naturally you kill the squirrels and staple them on your wife to make your wife beautiful as well. Gameplay is really fun, exploring the world for awesome squirrel fun facts and inspirational sub-stories is also great. Usually I'm not the type to go exploring in horror games, but I couldn't hold myself in this game. Just buy the damn collection, this game by itself makes it worth it. 11/10

Sucker For Love

A dating sim based horror game. You're a Redditor who hasn't touched grass in the past 4 years and try to summon an eldritch goddess to smooch her. Though once the summoning is completed, you realise getting laid won't be as easy as you thought it would. It's a nice little game, I honestly wasn't expecting to be scared by this, but was proved wrong. 8/10

Diving Bell

Scariest game in the collection in my opinion. You play as the captain of a submarine who inadvertently caused his crew members' deaths. You try to keep the submarine running while writing logs for the company that you work for as the captain. It's absolutely phenomenal and has the best atmosphere I've ever seen in a video game. 10/10

The Thing in the Lake

A 2D Gameboy styled horror game where you go camping with your friends but get caught in an unfortunate set of events. Mechanics are well thought and the game is scary, but it's really, really, REALLY repetitive and infuriating. First chapter was interesting, but after that, I just wished for the game to be over so I could progress the main game. Even though game makes it crystal clear that there's an alternate ending you can get, I didn't even want to bother with it because it felt like another chore. Hard pass. 2/10

The Toy Shop

Clunky, yet scary and charming. You are a toy soldier who is brought to a toy house filled with other toys in a world that's overseen by an enormous creature simply known as "The Shopkeeper". To reach the capital of this land, you must go through countless corrupted toys who will attack you on sight. Shooting is quite inconsistent and the only boss in the game is extremely unenjoyable to fight but apart from those two complaints, this is a pretty great game. Would love to play a more polished full version of it. 7/10

To the End of Days

A sequel to my least favourite game in all of the Dread X Collections, Carthanc. Luckily for us, it's nowhere near as bad as Carthanc, but still has many issues. First of all, game is not scary at all. There is only one section that developers intended to be scary, and that section also has everything that was wrong with Carthanc. Incredibly dark area accompanied by invincible, fast and loud enemies =/= scary. It's just infuriating. It also had some major performance issues despite looking worse than a lot of games in the collection. It does have its positives though. First of all, I loved the weapon. A shotgun with an axe as its stock, what else could you ask for in this world? Main character reminded me a lot of the protagonists of retro boomer shooters, and gameplay was fun. 5/10

Touched by an Outer God

A really creative game with a rogue-lite weapon system. You use your left hand to send projectiles to fight from a distance and your right hand to get up close and personal with enemies. Using the enemies' loots, you can upgrade both of your hands for more firepower with some mutually-exclusive upgrades which increase the replay value. 7/10

Undiscovered

A found footage game in second person camera where a husband and wife explore antic ruins that were discovered by Spanish Inquisitors centuries ago. As you go deeper in the ruins, you learn more about what happened to the inquisitors and uncover the secrets of this place. I loved the camera work in this one, since she is the one who is recording and this is a found footage game, you see everything through the wife's point of view but control the husband with tank controls. Atmosphere is pretty unnerving and well done too. 9/10

GigaMatt
GigaMatt

Games to play and think about your life.

*TaKamoto_
*TaKamoto_

squirrel stapler is the best one, trust me

10/10

Diablery
Diablery

Squirrels can debone a human male in under 3 hours.

DefiledCorpse
DefiledCorpse


The out of 10 rating for these titles were given in relation to one another and previous Dread X Collection titles

THE MANSION

The world traverse and puzzle mechanics to make the games start is pretty cool. It reminded me a lot of the old Tomb Raider on the PS1 and how you had to find and solve puzzles spread through the mansion to access new areas.

SUCKER FOR LOVE

Fun idea that broke the tension from the other horror games. HP Lovecraft has to be rolling on his grave after seeing thicc Cthulhu.

Rating: 10/10
Length: less than 30minutes

THE TOY SHOP

Boring game that I only finished for the achievement (which I later found out that you don't actually have to do). The game has a really bad story and generic/trash gameplay.

Rating: 2/10
Length: 40min

TO THE END OF DAYS

Cool concept, a comet is going to hit the earth and cause a mass extinction. You're trying to get to your wife and kid before the inevitable end of the world.
Very impressive considering how fast these are made and how small the dev teams are. This title totally needs a more polished stand alone game.

Rating: 9/10
Length: 20min

CHARLOTTE'S EXILE

You try to save your wife from a Lovecraftian dimension. it's basically a long puzzle game with 2 endings.

Rating: 6/10
Length: 15min

UNDISCOVERED

This is a found footage type of game played from the perspective of a cameraman. You explore some ancient South American ruins that hold a dark secret within them.

Rating: 7/10
Length: 20min

TOUCHED BY AN OUTER GOD

Search for your dad in a post apocalyptic world. Story is not that interesting but it would be cool if this was a rogue like game (you can also just run to the exit and skip the fighting)

Rating: 8/10
Length: 20min

SOLIOPSIS

Shows how terrifying the hollow moon theory is if it were true. What would be waiting for us there? Why would it be empty? Was it always like that?
The way you have to help your character rationalize his thoughts was really cool.

Rating: 10/10
Length: 20min

THE THING IN THE LAKE

Really didn't like this one. The mechanics and gameplay just don't match my interests.
The pixel art was really cool though.
Unfortunately, I could bring myself to finish it :/

Rating: N/A
Length: N/A

ANOTHER LATE NIGHT

Narration based game. Gave me creepy pasta vibes.
You're on a virtual computer and you play a game that has been making people disappear all over the country. you soon find out that the game is actually as test to recruit people with a certain set of
skills

Rating: 5/10
Length: 5min

THE DIVING BELL

You're the last surviving member of a underwater research facility. You slowly descend into madness seeing you dead coworkers float outside the windows thanking you for releasing them and asking for you to join them in the depths.
The game starts to hint towards a Lovecraftian monster (which seems to be a theme with this collection) that made our protagonist go mad and caused him to sacrifice his partners.
Pretty cool concept and this is at least on the top 3 games of this collection.

Rating: 10/10
Length: 20min

ARCADLETRA

You receive a package that when opened seems to be a portal to another plane of existence, a woman's voice keeps
crying out "please help me". In your efforts to try and help her you feed cables to the hole but whenever you do it, you must overcome a videogame themed trial while being stalked by a Cronenberg monster.
The game had some good jump scares but it's very VERY loud.

Rating: 4/10
Length: 15min

SQUIRREL STAPLER

You're a hunter killed his wife and her skinned, rotting corpse isn't as beautiful as it was before. So, in order to make her look good you go hunt squirrels to staple on her before god comes to meet you in 5 days.
I know it sounds weird but this one is actually one of the best games in this collection.
It did overstay it's welcome, 3 days would've been the sweeet spot since the gameplay becomes so repetitive after awhile.

Rating: 9/10
Length: 25min

Overall opinion

Dread X Collection 2 (much like the first one) has some gems buried between all of the other dirt.
I recommend it but only if you're able to buy it at a lower price like I did. Some of these games are definitely worth the price and carry the collection on their back.
Looking forward to give Dread X Collection 3 a try.

Noed gamers suck
Noed gamers suck

Great Old One pussy got me acting strange

Ln'eta ahf' art l' mgepkadishtu nilgh'ri

War
War

Improvement over the first collection, exploring the house and the comic is much more engaging then the mirror and odd flavor notes. 11/12 games I found actually enjoyable enough to finish, but two of them keep on crashing my entire computer, I was lucky to finally beat one of them but due to still needing to beat the game to continue the house narrative, seem still few will fully experience it all. (Maybe if you had to just beat ten games, or play a game for so long if you couldn't fully beat it, it still progressed the house)

Findar18
Findar18

Another solid entry into the Dread XP franchise. Quite a lot of existential horror, of which I am always a fan. One or two dropped balls, but overall a worthwhile experience. I'm a big fan of these compilations, as they expose me to genres I generally wouldn't play much otherwise. Sucker for Love and Charlotte's Exile are two I probably enjoyed the most, and before playing this I probably would've never played anything like them.

dang
dang

This is easily the best entry in the franchise so far. So many memorable games in this collection, even if there are still a few clunkers. The Diving Bell is dripping with moody maritime dread, Daniel Mullins kills it with Solipsis, Charlotte's Exile is a satisfying puzzler, Sucker for Love is a loving and genuinely funny turn on dating sims, and the end of Squirrel Stapler spooked me so bad that I woke up my wife in the next room.

Zelfsbolt
Zelfsbolt

It's Dread X, what more needs to be said?

Vexas
Vexas

6/10 my wife hasn't left me yet

Orangutang
Orangutang

Rating from worst to Best:

12.) The Thing In The Lake: I hated this one, easily the least fun one here. The art style is cool, but it's just annoying every time I die because the monkey spawned in an area I cant properly loop it, or some other bullshit, then restart the whole chapter over again.

11.) Another Late Night: It's fine, I didn't really care for it one way or the other, kind of nothing to me.

10.) Undiscovered: More a style piece than anything else, and its a pretty interesting one.

9.) Arcadletra: The girl's voice acting is actually pretty unsettling, along with her just whimpering randomly.

8.) Diving Bell: This game did blue ball me pretty hard because I thought it was gonna be a real typing game, but it was just a spam the keyboard to type game, but besides that it was pretty neat.

7.) Solipsis: Short and sweet moon horror. I love using the moon in horror, and the rationalize mechanic is dope, could have been used a couple more times maybe.

6.) The Toy Shop: It's a bit all over the place, but the thats kind of what makes it cool, from its Haze-like story, to the 2D platforming, and the guns. Also that tall dude is cool, wish he was my friend.

5.) To the End of Days: I was preparing for the worst since I thought Carthunk was absolutely terrible in Dread X 1, but this was a pretty fun schlockey fps. The shotgun feels good, but why do that when you can just wait around a corner for goons to come up to you and you can split them asunder with your axe. Main character is fun.

4.) Sucker For Love: You goddamn know I wanna smooch that squid girl.

3.) Charlotte's Exile: The idea of translating an unknown language letter by letter is cool and it was fun to do. The creature who slowly stalks up on you provided the biggest scare of the collection because he is just so loud when you get him. The last puzzle could have been a bit more specific with its instructions.

2.) Squirrel Stapler: Probably my favourite looking one in this collection. That style is just so goddamn. The hunting part is fun, maybe a little too long, but hey, still fun to me.

1.) Touched by an Outer God: This is the real winner of the bunch for me. The idea of the mechanics behind this one is just shit I love. I want a good evolution game, now this ain't exactly a super crazy in depth thing like E.V.O. Maybe if it was fully thought it it could have a bunch of different evolutionary paths, but its a solid fucking base. Definitely has the most potential out of a game I would enjoy. Only complaint I really have is that the feedback on hitting enemies with melee kind of sucks.

Dani Filth
Dani Filth

This collection is overall better than the first one — there is a hub world to provide context and insert some unique artistry into the otherwise completely disconnected experience. Charootte's Exile has some interesting gameplay, and as a hypnosis hobbyist, I can't help but appreciate Another Late Night and its fairly realistic depiction of what a post-hypnotic suggestion might 'feel' like.
To the End of Days was really cool with its presentation, and managed to provide a climactic ending after less than half an hour of playtime, so I kind of wish that it was full game. Touched by an Outer God was pretty neat, too.

Kramer Da Pimp
Kramer Da Pimp

Not all the individual games are winners, but the passion behind this project is clearly visible. Play a collection of horror mini experiences bound together by a house full of puzzles, each puzzle needing to be solved to unlock a new mini experience. Visually, each game varies quite a lot, including in quality and gameplay, but Dread X Collections are always more than the sum of their parts. I found this one to be much more scary on average than Dread X Collection 1, but didn't hit the same level of highs to me as Outsider or Summer Night in that first collection. I'd still give this a solid 8/10 though, and definitely recommend you pick it up if you can on sale, you'll get around 7 solid hours of spooks if you don't rush or take too much time.

DarkJuda
DarkJuda

Another batch of little horror experiences from the Dread X publisher.

Squirrel Stapler: A five days hunting trip in the forest. Good game, but hunting squirrels takes forever.
Touched by an Outer God: I think I haven't understood this one. Interesting but confusing.
The Diving Bell: Manage and repair an uderwater research lab. Not really a looker, but quite interesting and well done. Typing the reports is a chore though, even at max speed.
To The End Of Days; Classic fps with clunky controls. Not much to say. Playable.
The Toy Shop: Very experimental. Some part adventure, some part FPS. Neither is very well designed but as a whole, the game is at the same time a weird and great experience. I loved the backstory a lot.
Undiscovered: Explore old ruins. Very nice experience. The game is a second person adventure game, which is quite disturbing at first, but well polished.
Charlotte’s Exile: Translate an old message written in the elder gods' language. Very well polished. Feels like a tiny AA game. I'm not into "detective games", but this one was a pleasure to play.
Another Late Night: You discover an old story on an old computer. Didn't find that one really intersting.
Arcadletra: An arcade game playroom that holds a lot of dreadful secrets. Very nice horror trip.
Sucker for love: Enjoy a date with an elder god. Very funny and very well done. Can't wait for the full version.
The thing in the lake: Tried multiple times, but the game never launched.
SOLIPSIS: Explore the moon searching for weird stuff. Not much of a game, more like a little weird expercience. Very nice though.
The game hub: Explore a PS1-like spooky house with a lot of secrets. Very well done, very enjoyable.

My favorites: Sucker for love, Charlotte's Exile, Undiscovered and the game hub.

D:
D:

squirrel stapler is amazing and and there is a few other really good games

rode-kruiden,lapolka?
rode-kruiden,l…

My brain has fallen and it can't get up

Felis Silvestris
Felis Silvestris

Still awesome like the first one, unique games, cool puzzles, great horror games.

julesdbd
julesdbd

Games so spooky I can hardly play them, I love it.

y0LAs
y0LAs

Support indie devs and get inspiration for your beginner projects.
Keep in mind these were made in ten days, but still I enjoy these short and peculiar experiences.

SinderSalmon
SinderSalmon

I replay this exclusively to make close friends play Squirrel Stapler and Sucker For Love.
Sucker For Love got it's stand alone debut, I'm waiting for Squirrel Stapler 2 David.

Tentacles
Tentacles

the shopkeeper game made me feel physically ill, liked everything else though

adistantecho141
adistantecho141

This game is not only a fun game, but a fun scary game as well, rather your playing a sucker for love trying to get some of that lneussy, or trying to figure what thing is in the lake, with a whole lotta games to play, kinda hard not to buy it.

Combine™
Combine™

For a long time i was out of the horror genre since i mostly couldn't find anything to play as i feel i've played it all, but this game right here bought me back into the genre hungry for more. 12 games from 12 different developers all sharing their insane minds on how they view the horror genre is really really interesting and worth your time because when some of them leave you wanting more, you know they've done a great job.

The hub you're also placed in, basically a manor with puzzles to do and each puzzle you complete gives a key to unlock the game of your choice to play and i loved that alot as it made me want to explore the manor to find every nook and cranny, even if lore related.

Highly recommended for fans of the horror genre as if some of them don't grab your attention, i know some others definitely will.

Big Chungus
Big Chungus

Worth it for The Diving Bell alone.

Toilet_Wine_Connoisseur
Toilet_Wine_Co…

You know u r in for a gud thyme when even the hub area spooks the shit out of you

ohionic90
ohionic90

very nice
fuck thing in the lake

Hiasä
Hiasä

Dread X Collection 2 is a huge stepup from the first collection.

Now there is a house, with small puzzles. The hub is well done and feels well integrated with the idea of a game collection.
The voice actor does a good job.
the comic that you get with the house puzzles is ok( not my thing, but ok).

I give my short opinions on each individual game here:
-Touched By An Outer God: Fun game, good style and gameplay. It has 2 endings.
-To The End Of Days: a fine short Fps. ( The devs made probably one of the worst games in the previous collection. It is good to see them make a fine game in this collection.)
-Sucker For Love: Interesting twist on the Dating sim genre. Great visuals.
-The Toy Shop: slightly below average experience. Very rough in the shooting aspect. Shooting is not great, your flashlight has a very limited distance, which lets you see the enemies only shortly before they get you. The twisted reality idea is good though.
-The Thing In The Lake: terrible game. Lot of instant death situations. no checkpoints.
-Solipsis: One of the best. This game has great visuals and an interesting idea, that is well executed.
-The Diving Bell: Great underwater horror.
-Undiscovered: Good Game. The ancient temple exploration in 2nd person is a cool idea.
-Arcadletra: below average. Idea and gameplay didnt grip me.
-Another Late Night: bad game. Nothing much is going on and it has a gamebreaking bug.
-Charlotte´s Exile: One of the best. It has 2 Endings. A very good puzzle game, that is polished.
-Squirrel Stapler: good weird game. You certainly staple squirrels and god is watching...

Jonathan
Jonathan

Squirrel Stapler is a masterpiece. Squirrel Stapler Pt. 2?

Teacup
Teacup

Da baby'iuss what in there and i need it and i want it bouncing at max speed

Saint
Saint

Very good can start here or dread x 1

Jazzy
Jazzy

A few really good games, a couple that were just, kind of fine, and a few of them were really, really bad. If you want to actually play through the story/hub section, I recommend doing the shitty ones first. Arcadletra, the Thing in the Lake, and Toy Shop were just... So bad. Get them out of the way first.

However, the rest of the games in the collection are at least decent and managed to be scary in a legitimately entertaining way. Solipsis is very interesting, Charlotte's Exile was a very fun experience, and Squirrel Stapler definitely took the cake for a truly fun horror experience.

In short: Slog through the crappy ones, and the rest of the experience will be worth it!

Phrogg
Phrogg

Bought it for squirrel stapler, and ended up really enjoying most of everything else. Really great collection and i anticipate playing the next one.

FriedBakedFish
FriedBakedFish

Killed some Squirrels.
Met God.

Gay Rat
Gay Rat

My wife needs squirrels. She needs too see GOD.

jks
jks

only good game was squirrel stapler and i was walking around for what felt like forever trying to find one last squirrel to one tap, i have a love hate relationship with this game.

Crispy Toast™
Crispy Toast™

just like taco bell, it's bad for my heart and makes me shit myself.

David_Sh
David_Sh

I enjoyed discount Sam "Serious" Stone with a shotgun axe (which is funny because Serious Sam is already a discount Duke Nukem). Aside from that, Touched by an Outer God is probably the most enjoyable game here, though all entries are very good.

EL Pollo
EL Pollo

On the strength of Squirrel Stapler alone, this one is pretty strong. Then add on Sucker For Love, Charlotte's Exile, The Diving Bell, and The Thing In The Lake. The end result is a stronger collection of games than the last with some real gems.

fallout3210
fallout3210

I'll sum this up for you quickly. If you're interested, buy it only on sale. Be prepared that most of these games are bad.

That being said, let's delve deeper into each individual game. Some small spoilers ahead, but nothing too big. Ratings are from (1-10).

(2/10) Vidas Games - Arcadletra: This game takes you into an Arcade/Video/Electronics store. Everything is left fairly vague about why you're there and what's going on. You move some objects around and discover that a ghost is living in an arcade cabinet and needs help. So you do some things, see a weird monster, and eventually meet this ghost (in the machine?). This wasn't very good. Some of the "puzzles” didn't make sense and things became repetitive at one point. Voice acting questionable.

(1/10) Secret Cow Level - Another Late Night: I did not like this game. It felt like a rushed idea that just wasn't fully fleshed out. The game puts you into a mock computer operating system where you read some articles about a missing game developer. As you're doing this, the computer starts asking you questions about yourself and psychoanalyzing you. You would think this would culminate into something (like in the game The Talos Principle (play this instead)), but it did not. After a few questions, the game just ends. What's worse is that in the computer's files, you think you'd find some spooky photos or info, but instead you just find irrelevant junk photos. This was a hugely wasted potential opportunity to do something scary.

(3/10) John Szymanski - Charlotte's Exile: A small puzzle game where you decode a journal in hopes of saving your spouse from ELDRITCH HORRORS. I wanted to like this game, but it did something I absolutely hated and won't forgive it for. It had one extremely loud and inappropriate jumpscare while you were reading a book. This is enough for me to not even recommend playing it because... The game itself is boring, the font that was used is very difficult to read, the voice over doesn't match the tone of the game (nor does the voice actor seem to be startled by the jumpscare that happens). Also, the tone of the text doesn't match the Lovecraftian horror being presented (why would someone write "sorta gross" in the Necronomicon to describe some eldritch horror? Has the dev even read any of the baroque wording Weird Horror fiction contains?). After all this slogging, the final puzzle requires you to read from a very badly written set of directions with bad punctuation. This makes the whole thing more time consuming and confusing than it should be. The payoff for completing all of this is text on a screen. Yup, that's all you get for this tedium and egregious jumpscare.

(6/10) Daniel Mullins Games - Solipsis: A game where you’re an astronaut studying the geology of the moon. Things take a turn for the worse, and you end up journeying into unexplored moon territory. I enjoyed this one because it was short and sweet, and I wish more games in this collection were this scope/quality. My only gripe is that the ending could have been a bit better.

(8/10) David Szymanski - Squirrel Stapler: Ah, now we’re getting to the good stuff. In this game, we are a squirrel hunter who staples dead squirrels to a corpse. Things become creepier each day, and everything ends in a crescendo of weirdness. One of my favorites of this collection.

(8/10) Akabaka - Sucker for Love: A dating sim where you summon a female cthulhu for the purpose of kissing her. One of the better ones of this collection that many before me have already talked about. That being said, I want to say two things about this game. One; you can play this exact game for free on steam, just search for it. Second; the dev team also made a full fledged and more expanded version of this game. Check them out!

(6/10) Bathysfear Games - The Diving Bell: In my humble opinion, one of the better ones here. It takes place in an underwater facility where you are a scientist trying to escape while trying to repair the facility and avoid bad stuff that makes you go insane. The vessel you’re in is creepy in its own right, and the whole experience reminds me of Event Horizon in some ways. Not bad!

(5/10) Panstasz - The Thing in the Lake: It’s hard for me not to mention anything Panstasz does without extreme bias. You see, this is the same developer who made World of Horror which is a game I love dearly. I look at this game as a sort of early concept to some of the ideas that WOH has, mostly visually/musically. This game takes place over a series of days at a derelict resort, and each day you play as a different survivor. The last day is the most important, as this explains the story and what’s really happening. My only gripe is I found that this game may have been a bit too challenging and unfair, as there is a specific enemy which can kill you in cheap ways, making you start over when you were already 15 minutes in. It becomes immensely frustrating, even on the “Easy” setting. I know this frustrating aspect may ruin it for many, but I still recommend giving it a try and seeing the different endings.

(3/10) Mahelyk - The Toy Shop: A game where you are a soldier in a land of toys tasked with stopping infected people. Overall, I did not like this game. It was too long and tedious with way too much text to read through. Another big issue is 90% of the game is pitch black, and the flashlight they give you has a cone and depth area of 3 feet. Probably the worst flashlight made in human history. The premise and story was fairly interesting though, I'll give it that and it may warrant a higher score but... I just wish the actual gameplay would have been better.

(2/10) Scythe Dev Team - To the End of Days: One of my most disliked games from Dread X 1 was the one by this dev, which was “Carthanc”. This team thought it was such a great concept that they would make ANOTHER game set in this world with the same obnoxious monsters! Fun! This is a first person shooter where you are tasked with escaping your apartment from a meteor headed to Earth (like that would help…). Oddly enough, the meteor doesn't hit Earth, but instead it sends a bunch of aliens down. The same obnoxious screaming aliens from Carthanc! This game overstays its welcome and I was happy when it ended. Why does the protagonist sound like Serious Sam and have cheesy one-liners? Why is synth retrowave music playing that competes against the tone of what this game is trying to convey? Why am I more frustrated than anything? Why is this so long? Why is everything so dark and the flashlight complete crap? Indeed, these will be questions you will be asking yourself.

(9/10) Wither Studios - Touched by an Outer God: I played this last, not knowing what it was, and was kinda blown away. I really loved this, and it’s my favorite of the collection. Your goal in this game is to escape monsters and reunite with your father. However, once you kill monsters, you can devour their parts and upgrade your body as a weapon to better kill these monsters - becoming quite the monster yourself! You have three sets of upgrades: a hand gun, body armor, and your melee claw. Each of these can be further upgraded to give you special abilities for each, and to my pleasant surprise there were quite many! If any of these games needs some sort of full release it is this one. It felt most like a real game, and not just some 10-day botched together mess - like so many others in this collection.

(2/10) Torple Dook - Undiscovered: In this game we are archaeologists exploring ancient ruins in what appears to be Mexico. The unique aspect of this game is its 2nd person view. Meaning we control the main character through the eyes of someone else. Does this work out well? Absolutely not. This game gave me a mild headache. The controls were terrible and slow, and I really could care less about the story. I was extremely surprised Torple Dook made this considering he made one of my favorites from Dread X 1 - Hand of Doom.

squints
squints

Usually, Game Jam collections are hit-and-miss. This one is hit after hit.

Okay, sure, Squirrel Stapler and Sucker for Love are headlining the concert, but all of them were enjoyable.

Quite a lot of video game for $10.

Guybrush3pwood
Guybrush3pwood

I'm going to do a shortened tier list for the games included in this pack and then give an overall score at the end. Can't promise it'll make sense but here you go.

S Tier:

Squirrel Stapler - A simple yet fun hunting game with a horror twist. Love the graphics, gameplay is fun and challenging and the story is pretty wild.

Touched by an Outer God - Fantastic art-style visuals, interesting story, multiple endings and a pretty neat twist (though you'll likely see it coming). Would love to see this fleshed out into a full game.

To the End of Days - Loved this one. First thing I want to mention is the top-notch animation. Interesting story. Fun gameplay. Only two enemies but they're interesting and fun to shoot. Voice acting isn't great with the main doing his best Max Payne impression. Another one I'd love to see fully fleshed out.

Sucker for Love - I don't usually enjoy weeb stuff but this was a surprise as I did not expect to like it. Creepy and humorous at the same time. I really enjoyed the concept. Simple, yet fun.

The Toy Shop - I'm torn whether to put this in S or C, because for a game made in 10 days, there's a lot here. It's really impressive. Great graphics, fun gameplay, and the perspective switch actually came as a bit of a surprise. The story is cliche though and I'm not sure I fully understand it, but given how much of a game is actually there, I have to put it in S. If this were an actual tier list, it would probably go in A, but I just can't bring myself to put it in C.

C Tier:

Solipsis - Interesting concept, nice graphics, but I struggle to even call this a game. The gameplay is slow and boring and you just don't do much. The story isn't all that great either.

Charlotte's Exile - Decent story, fun puzzles (although one in particular you can guess your way though. Some quality scares but there's one event which renders the game over...but doesn't indicate this and allows you to keep going...only to find out you can't finish the game. Pretty fun overall!

Undiscovered - Very interesting story, but not much to do except walk around and read stuff. There are enemies but you can't fight them. I dig the whole "camera" aspect of it though, the sound is pretty awesome and it weaves a neat little tale.

The Diving Bell - Cool concept, neat graphics, a bit of a fetch quest but the story nails it pretty well. My biggest complaint is how buggy it is, but hey, 10 days, I'll forgive them.

F Tier

The Thing in the Lake - Probably the worst game of the bunch. It has a lot going for it - cool Macintosh era graphics, great sound - but it's difficult, and not the fun kind of difficult, but "what the heck am I supposed to do" difficult. It's the only game from this collection that I didn't finish.

Arcadeletra - Interesting visuals can't save what is essentially a walking sim with a paper-thin plot and not much to do. Some decent jump scares but other than that, bleh.

Another Late Night - I actually though this was going to be the worst game of the bunch until I played Lake, but that game angered me and this game...if you want to call it that...is just dull. You don't actually do anything. I'm not even sure what the point of it is. You answer some questions as part of the game and maybe I answered incorrectly but...I don't know...nothing happens. At all. Other than "people go missing, here are some questions, oh wait, they were found, the end" I'm not sure what happened here.

END OF LIST

The main game where you solve puzzles to acquire the tapes is a ton of fun. If I were to put just that section on the list, it would go in the S tier. Very well done.

Overall, fantastic collection. I would say there are way more hits than misses. If I had to give it an overall score I would say 8/10. It's fascinating to see what people can do in 10 days.

Ok, this is too long. I'll close with this:

Best Game - Touched by an Outer God (But Squirrel Stapler was a close second)
Worst Game - The Thing in the Lake
Scariest Game - Charlotte Exile I guess
Best Concept - Squirrel Stapler

Stop reading this and buy it already.

julian.ratzenboeck
julian.ratzenboeck

~ DIFFICULTY ~

▢ No Difficulty
▢ Easy
🟩Normal
▢Hard
▢ Impossible

~ PLAYER BASE ~

▢ Everyone
▢ Kids
▢ Mature
🟩 Casual Players
▢ Tryhards
▢ Pro Players

~ GRAPHICS ~

▢ What Is This?
▢ Acceptable
▢Good
🟩 Great
▢Beautiful
▢ Masterpiece

~ SOUND/MUSIC ~ (Using Headphones)

▢ Bad
▢ Nothing Special
🟩 Good
▢ Great
▢ Beautiful
▢ I´m Gonna Cry

~ STORY ~

▢ This Game Has No Story
▢ Like Playing "Candy Crush" For The Story
▢ It´s Alright
▢ Well Written
🟩 Epic Story
▢Thinking About It, When I Sleep

~ PRICE ~

▢ Free
🟩 Underpriced
▢ Perfect Price
▢ Could Be Cheaper
▢ Overpriced

~ LENGTH ~

▢Very Short (0-2 Hours)
🟩Short (2-20 Hours)
▢ Average (20-50 Hours)
▢ Long (50-200 Hours)
▢ VERY Long (200-... Hours)
▢ Multiplayer/Neverending

~ FUN ~

▢ I´d Rather Watch Grass Grow
▢ Hard To Enjoy
▢ Repetitive
▢ It´s Okay
▢ Fun To Be Had For Sure
🟩The Kind Of Fun You Will Remember
▢ Life Changing

~ WORTH BUYING ~

▢ No
▢ Wait For A Sale
▢ Yes
🟩 I Can´t Recommend It Enough

~ FINAL SCORE ~
8.9/10

TrevorMason117
TrevorMason117

Another anthology, another set of games to play. Since I gave my introductions last time, I might as well jump in as simple as sound. I liked this one. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it, but I liked it. Overall, the anthology here suffered from the lack of any truly outstanding games, games that could've had more to them, or games that were either abysmal or boring or unplayable. Yet for the good games here, it's still worth a try.

Puzzle House: This is the wrap around for the game and unlike the first Dread X, you have a story to tell here and a house to explore in order to solve puzzles and watch tapes on the TV which are the games themselves. Without a doubt, this game is a direct mirror to V/H/S and I wonder if that was intentional or not. It was a cool story to tell, but the way it ends is very underwhemling and I wish there was more to it than what was there.

Arcadletra: This is the one game of the anthology that freaked me out the most. It was a weird visual acid trip that never lets up until the credits roll. I say put on some headphones for this one and make sure you don't break your chair from jumping up and screaming. Good game.

Solipsis: Another cool short game that tells a nice story. I don't have much to say about this one other that it's a goodie. Not outstanding, but good.

Squirrel Stapler: This is easily the most boring game I've ever played. You play an intentionally bad hunting simulator for an hour all for a two minute jumpscare. It reminds me of The Empty Wake in V/H/S/94, but unlike 94 where you wait ten minutes, it's an hour of tedious boredom that would put you to sleep before it scares you. Sitting through an hour of yawning isn't worth that amount of time at all to get to the scare and I'm surprised that this is from the same guy who made The Pony Factory in the last game since they're both polar opposites from each other. If you want to play a slow burn thriller that isn't boring then play We Never Left in Dread X 5 instead. Two minutes of greatness doesn't automatically turn the rest of the game into a masterpiece.

Sucker for Love: The most hilarious game in the series so far. For an anthology centered around the theme of Lovecraft, this is the one to take the cake for that theme. Even if I don't like dating sims, this game was a funny way of doing it and you'll have a good time with this one. Fun for the whole family.

The Diving Bell: A great short game to showcase the horror of the Lovecraft theme. Only problem: The ending sucks. Good game, but an unsatisfying ending to cap off the story.

To The End of Days: For game made by the devs of Cathartic, this was a very fun game to play. The gore was great, the shotgun was great, the music is great, the filters are cool, the levels are fun, and you get to murder the Cathartic enemies as well. I do wish this game had a better ending to home things in, but for what it is, it's fun.

Touched by an Outer God: An interesting story that has a repetitive Doom clone strapped to its back. I love the story at play here, but it would've been better as a short film rather than a game for the Dread X Collection. However, blasting Doom Eternal music while playing this makes it 10 times more fun so at least you can do that before the end. Plus, the enemies are way too bullet-spongy for their own good.

Undiscovered: Another interesting game. I don't have much to say about it honestly. Jump in and take my word for it. Could've had more for it, but it's not bad.

The Toy Shop: The standout game of the anthology. Without question. You have a fantastic story and a fun game to play. Sure, there's bugs and animation glitches that Unreal has sometimes, but if you can get past that, you have something special on your hands.

Another Late Night: I honestly don't know what to say about this one. It was like Scream, but it was confusing and weird. I can't tell if I like this one or not so go into it as you want.

Charlotte's Exile: I didn't like this one very much and it's due to subjective taste. Puzzle games are not for me and this one didn't impress. I was confused most of the time even with a friend in a Discord call helping out. If you like puzzle games, this one is for you. If you don't then skip it.

The Thing in the Lake: This is my least favorite game of the entire series. Apparently I'm not alone in that either since a patch came out for the game that automatically gives you the achievement when you start it up. I don't blame Dread XP for doing that since this game is nearly impossible to finish unless if you're a player who 100%ed Crash 4. The visual style is ugly and the level design is confusing because of it, the audio design is terrible, and the controls are also terrible. Why make the Sprint function tied to the Shift key in a sidescroller with no keybinding menu? The game also has RNG encounters that would often get you killed right when you're about to leave an area. The game is so annoyingly difficult where even Story Mode is a laughing stock since it doesn't help. The fact that Dread XP had to patch this game so players can skip it due to how bad it is says everything you need to know about The Thing in the Lake.

So there you go, there's my thoughts on Dread X Collection 2. A good game, but keep in mind that some of the games in here may not be all up to snuff. And that is expected with anthologies so I guess it's a normal day in the office.

SuS
SuS

I loved this Dread X Collection. One of the best they have made. Would Recommend Strongly.

Dnny99
Dnny99

I enjoyed the first collection very much, but I must say this one is leagues better. The quality of the games is much higher, possibly due to the extra three days of dev time they had this time around, and the hub level is a fantastic addition. The great games this time around are Charlotte's Exile, Solipsis, Sucker For Love (much to my surprise), The Diving Bell, The Thing in the Lake, and Touched by an Outer God, which is an impressive 50%. Squirrel Stapler, The Toy Shop, To The End of Days, Undiscovered, and Arcadletra are all good. Which leaves Another Late Night as the only stinker. My one overall complaint, to which I will leave vague as to not single anyone out, is having voice acting isnt guaranteed to be an improvement. I think a few of these games (and things in the hub) would have been better off silent. I have a lot of thoughts about these games, so I may edit this sometime in the future.

bred boi
bred boi

collection of spooky games. i absolutely loved squirrel stapler, solipsis, diving bell, and touched by an outer god. i couldnt figure out the thing in the lake, but it seems really good! sucker for love is fun and im glad they made it into a larger game, this version is more of a demo of the real game. another late night was fun. arcadeletra was playable. toy shop and undiscovered were sluggish and glitchy. mostly fun games and definitely worth it!

Aveilein
Aveilein

Solid collection of mini horror game (demo?), not all of them are good, The Thing in The Lake made me quite frustrated, and Squirrel Stapler just bore me.

My favorite is probably Arcadletra, this give me quite a bit of spook, and Sucker for Love, the concept is just so interesting.

TinkyWinky
TinkyWinky

One of the endings was kinda lame in one of the games :/

Funnymouth
Funnymouth

feels like finding hidden gems in the bargain bin. good stuff, occasionally scary.

Sir Goobius Gunkel III
Sir Goobius Gu…

stapled squirrels and kissed cthulhu. what else do you need to buy this game?

HELLO THERE!
HELLO THERE!

Killing and stapling squirrels to your dead wife makes God come.

The more you know...

Son of a submariner
Son of a submariner

This is a bundle of different horror games from different developers, stringed together through a main hub with a nice meta story and nice little riddles. A mixed bag, but an interesting one.

My review will be updated along the time I write:

The games:
Arcadletra: Surrealist fun right up my alley

Touched by an outer god: Quick and dirty, stylish, brutal arena shooter with working, nice plot. Very good. An hour of fun with replay value!

Succer of love: Great game, funny, short, lovely, horrific, horrible - get actually touched by an outer god in a special way ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Solipsis: Short ten minutes with intuitive gameplay that relies completely around creeping, cosmic dread. Great!

Charlote's Exile: A bit puzzle box, a bit paranoia simulator with a LOT of Lovecraftian Mytho's going on. quite a nice and clever game. Keep something to write nearby!

The diving bell: Short, sweet, works fine. Claustrophobic and learned form Insomnia

To the end of days: Atmospheric, apocalyptic shooter. Not Good. Not bad. One lighting effect in this is great, though.

Don't listen: Not even a demo. Boring concept, boring execution, not much thought put into it.

The thing in the lake: Interesting premise, interesting garphics. Way to frustrating from beginning to end. You always have to replay the whole chapter when failing. The game does a good job with retro game horror, but this feature should've stayed burried in the ninteies.

Squirrel stapler: Interesting. Looked weird and nice. Plays like a chore. Unfortunately. Bad game.

The toy shop: Utter dogshit. The concept and play with the graphics and aesthetic is clever and intriguing. But the gameplay is not well thought through, frustrating, boring and buggy.

Among these games, good, bad and mediocre, one truly stands out: Undiscovered which is a master class in story telling, aesthetics, gameplay and horror delivery. Truly great. Also the only game I have played that nails second person perspective perfectly!

Tiananmen_Square1989
Tiananmen_Square1989

An enjoyable collection of short horror games. The puzzles needed to unlock each one are simple, yet fun.
I recommend you try Squirrel Stapler first.

Pepple
Pepple

Games ranked from worst to best (Six onwards is why this review is positive)

12: The Thing in the Lake
11: The Toy Shop
10: Another Long Night
9: To The End of Days
8: Arcadletra
7: Touched by an Outer God
6: Undiscovered
5: The Diving Bell
4: Sucker for Love
3: Charlotte's Exile
2: Solipsis
1: Squirrel Stapler