Lakeview Cabin Collection PS5 Review 8.5/10 “A Love Letter To Classic Horror” 🔪🏚️ #indieGame #IndieGameDev #GameDev

Friday the 13th, Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, all giant staples of the slasher genre. Large, masked angry men on a mission to gut mostly teenagers - but they are happy to brutalise pretty much anyone. 

Whilst watching one of these films we've all thought, ‘what a stupid man, don’t drop your weapon, and then go into the basement blindfolded after just having sex while telling everyone “I’ll be right back’, that's a great way to get killed! 

I would definitely know what to do if a hulking, masked, machete-wielding maniac appeared suddenly in my house, I’m super smart and would not panic, or give into my fear, I would 100 percent survive, and would wipe the floor with those stupid hulking maniacs.

Well, in Lakeview Cabin Collection you can put that to the test. There are several different scenarios, each steeped in various slasher influences, a cabin in the woods; on the streets of a suburban town – and space, obviously. After several instalments there is only one destination, the Leprechaun franchise did it, Critters did it, even Jason Vorhees ended up in space (the area outside of Earth’s atmosphere, not the Britpop band from the ‘90s - ed). All different scenarios where you can put your horror survival skills to the test. The games are 2D side-scrollers, where you can pick up and place various objects that are needed to complete your mission - which is essentially to survive, A wonderful array of weapons can be used, ranging from melee to guns, you even have a motorcycle in one, so you have many options to take down these villains.

The first few attempts at Lakeview Cabin Collection really sets the tone, you are told nothing, not the controls, not your goals… nothing. You have to work out everything for yourself, it does a good job of instilling the ‘dropped in a slasher film’ feeling. In my first attempt, my four characters were hacked to pieces fairly quickly, then on my second attempt, I had a cunning plan to drive a motorcycle at the killer… then dropping a massive box on top of him. 

That ended again with four more bodies. The collection can be difficult, and there’s a lot of trial and error, “the best laid plans of mice and men” comes to mind. as the times I thought that I was genius - only for it to all fall apart was staggering, I now know how Wile E. Coyote feels. 

Not only were my plans scuppered at times, but like most good slasher films, the killers have a tendency to get back up, so even if you put them down, it is not always over. The different games have a nice variety to them and though familiar, they have enough differences that you don’t get bored going through each one.

The pixel art is gorgeous, and the lighting is superb, every area has a great look with wonderful character that captures its influences but adds its own touches. The areas are genuinely creepy and contain massive amounts of tension, my eyes were always drawn to something, I really loved the look of this game.

All in all, I found little at fault throughout the multiple games, except that in the first level - where within the first five minutes my baby got stuck in a wall, and with no way to free it I had to reload, after restarting, I ended up stuck in the same wall - that wall must be cursed – but this was the only fault I found, it was a bit jarring having to reload twice in ten minutes, but luckily this never happened again. So, my advice is to avoid the wall between the bathroom and the kitchen in the first level - it is cursed and will suck you in.

SUMMARY
I had a lot of fun with this collection, though it has sadly shattered my confidence in my survival skills in a slasher situation. The games are tough and will take many tries, so be prepared to be frustrated, but if you’re willing to plough through, you will find a delightful horror experience.