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

A little update on some changes to our patreon. Head to patreon.com/zerobrightness to check it out!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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