Saturday Casual Gaming 16: 5 Days a Stranger

Game: 5 Days A Stranger
Creator: Ben Croshaw
Platform: PC (Fullyramblematic.com)
Type(s): Adventure, Horror

I'm not going to do this often, but this is a game I haven't actually played. I saw Lucahjin play it on YouTube a couple years ago, and I fell deeply in love with the game, but I'm far too much a coward to actually play it.

That's right, guys, this is a spooky game!

The plot is thus: A gentleman-thief called Trilby breaks into a manor where there has been a suicide recently, and so he believes the house to be empty and ripe for the pickings. Once inside, however, he becomes trapped with a small group of others and the group is thrown into something like an And Then There Were None situation. I won't spoil the ending for you, but it's fantastic.

The game is the brainchild and creation of a man called Ben Croshaw. It's part of a series of adventure games. This one is called 5 Days a Stranger, and the other three games are 7 Days a Skeptic, Trilby's Notes, and 6 Days a Sacrifice. This guy is not just a good programmer (from what I can see, there weren't a whole lot of issues with trying to get puzzles to work), he's a great artist and writer as well. The games move slowly without being boring, and it's truly wonderful to see the old LucasArts/Sierra art style live on in a new generation.

One dude, guys. One man made this whole game, from what I understand.

Honestly, though, this game is creepy as heck, and if you want to get in on the story of a thief facing down an unstoppable evil in a mansion (or in space, because that's what happens in a later game... go with it), then you absolutely should.

If you're a genuine gamer and not a casual chicken like me, and you like horror games, adventure games, and you want to give this Ben Croshaw guy some attention, the page for 5 Days A Stranger is here.

Btw, Ben Croshaw's name may sound a bit familiar to you if, like me, you're a long-time denizen of the interwebs. That's because he is, in fact, Yahtzee from Zero Punctuation.

He also has novels!

I should mention that, since I'm a chicken, I've never actually played this game. In fact, I'd be too scared to. I left that up to the amazing Lucahjin and Hercrabbiness on YouTube/Twitch for that (I know I mentioned it earlier, but bear with me). The path to getting to this game was a weird one, because first I found Lucahjin, who suddenly appeared on a Minecraft Hardcore season via the PeanutButter Gamer's channel on YouTube. I was interested in the fact that the sausagefest that the Hardcore seasons had been up to this point had finally welcomed a woman in. And a funny one, too!

So I toddled on over to Lucah's Twitch and YouTube pages and saw the 5 Days a Stranger videos. I settled in to spook myself (I was having a mild obsession with scary things after watching Leviathan and loving it) and was delighted to see that the game was, in fact, every bit as awesome as I'd hoped.

I'm going to try to embed the video here, but if it's not in an aspect ratio you like, I'll also include the link so you don't have to watch it in a weird squished format or widescreen it.

Yeah. I'm not a fan of how this blog smooshes the videos, so here's the link.

Absolutely give it a watch - if you want to play the game on your own without spoilers, then stop after the first episode. Lucah is good about not spoiling the ending until the ending itself, so it's a fun watch.

I think that'll do it for me.

You may be wondering why I didn't post more screencaps - that's because I don't have any. They're all on Croshaw's website, and I'd rather you guys give him a peep :)

Go Enjoy Something!
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