VideoGame Tense and engaging, if frustrating
This quartet of freeware games are good examples of how to make horror games using amateur tools, though they also show some of the pitfalls. They use well worn tropes (haunted house, monster on a spaceship, mad cults summoning their god) but the details liven up the story and imbue them with mystery and atmosphere; with one exception I will get to shortly.
The graphics are simple, but well stylised and expressive. My main problems with the art are how well-lit everything is (some shadows would suit the mood) and how everyone's stiff posture when talking can make conversations look unnatural.
The stories improve greatly over the series. 5 Days A Stranger has a lot of silly stuff, starting with the protagonist, but a strong mystery makes it work; it's just more a pulp adventure than horror. 7 Days a Skeptic is the real weak link: the plot relies on rampant stupidity, there's no mystery to solve, and the ending is nonsense. Trilby's Notes however learns from past mistakes and uses clever gameplay to create a genuine feeling of dread. Then 6 Days A Sacrifice neatly ties them all together.
The interface and puzzles are where my frustrations come from. Every click opens up a clunky menu. Some clickable objects are only a pixel or two wide; use a mouse, not a touchpad. Dialogue flashes on the main screen in an odd font, which can be difficult to read, and can't be scrolled back. Each game but the last will spring surprise deaths with no warning to save. And I had to go back and forth across the maps many times, often with a lot of tedious clicking, as I searched for the next usable item. Interestingly, I found the text parser of Notes to be no worse than the point-and-click interface of the other games.
Above all, the puzzles. They can be very clever, and the final puzzle of Notes is sheer genius. But each game at some point had me scrambling for walkthroughs. There is always a logic at work, but it can be very obtuse. It would help to have more guiding hints, say in dialogue. Other freeware puzzle games like Ib avoid these flaws.
Overall, they are worth playing. But do so in release order, not that of the download folder.
VideoGame it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts
Relying more on atmosphere, psychological terror and jump scares than cheap gore and swearing demons and whatever other horror cliches pervade the genre's climate today, the Chzo Mythos is pretty much the pinnacle of freeware horror, and a damn good series of games in its own right. Even though it didn't start out as a series as such, Croshaw did a pretty fine job, all things considered, to tie the early games into the larger series arc. Certainly worked out better than most "real" creators' attempts at this, that's for sure.
Gameplay-wise, there's hardly anything revelatory, but that's just the way I like it. The gameplay should always be a light distraction from the atmosphere, story, or humor the title otherwise has to offer, anyway. There are some puzzles that are a bit "out there", but most are right clever, and they often avoid the Fake Longevity often provided by the occasional Moon Logic Puzzle. This being said, fake longevity does often rear its ugly head in the form of copious, repetitive backtracking (though often, thankfully(?) mitigated by the intense atmosphere).
One and all, the games feel deliciously homespun; while never "cheap", they certainly hearken back to the '80s and '90s DOS era of horror adventure games. In fact, the low-res graphics outright enhance the horror in that a lot of the characters and things get a bit of an Uncanny Valley effect. Though I was never a fan of Lovecraftian horror, Croshaw tempers it with enough realism, humanity, and humor to balance things out.
The games are also pretty fascinating from a meta-standpoint. You can see the artist growing between each installment, be it with more detailed graphics, more realistic dialogue, or, lest we forget, protagonist Trilby's growth from obvious and detached Mary Sue to a broken, quivering wreck. The series reaches its peak with the third installment, which is one of the most harrowing horror games there is. The fourth installment ties things up to mixed success (not to mention a Downer Ending from hell) but is a worthy finale.
Though freeware, the many charms of the series definitely outshine a good number of games made by "real" companies that demanded money for it. Sadly, it also marks an artistic high point for Croshaw—displaying qualities here that are definitely above average—that's yet to be surpassed by anything he's done since.