Jurig Escape (PC)

So, I can go back to special Halloween review. Let’s start with something small. Let’s go with Digital Happiness’ Jurig Escape (2010).

 

Nice creepy title screen there. There’s rumor when I was University student that there’s PC game where the player shoots pocong around. Without doubt. This is the game. I come to know exactly the game’s title from video of special anniversary of Dreadout or something like that. It’s free on steam, by the way. Digital Happiness claims that this game is prototype of Dreadout as you can see the protagonist is 90% similar to Linda Meilinda from Dreadout. Changing from gun-toting gameplay with supranatural photography a la Fatal Frame, is probably for the best because it may seem encouraging gun usage. Our country, Indonesia has quite strict gun control. Only military officers, polices, and non-military executive of government department that allowed to have gun and homemade gun is forbidden. Although there’s several numbers of mini mart robbery with homemade gun and murder case done by depressed police. But none big shootout accident like in Thailand or Philippine, fortunately. There are terrorisms involved gun and mostly bomb around 2000 but we pass from that time. By the way, Jurig escapes means Ghost escape. I like the shortcut icon is the face of sheet ghost.

 

The game starts with Proto Linda wakes on the floor inside of empty classroom. She’s surprised with handgun on her hand and instinctively throw it away. Suddenly, a creepy head falls behind her. Then she reluctantly decides to use the handgun that he threw before. Not sure, why she’s surprised having handgun in her hand even though she already wears holster belt on her hip.   

 

The control is as you probably can guess. WASD to move proto-Linda around. Mouse motion to aim/look around. Left mouse button to shoot. Holding left shit and pressing W or S button allows proto-Linda to run forward and backward. As for the HUD. On the left bottom corner there’s “nyawa” which is health indicator. She has 8 pips of health by default. Then on the right bottom corner there’s Jiwa Sesat Needed which mean Lost Soul Needed. The number of enemies you have to defeat in order to finish the game. This classroom location almost similar to the one in Dreadout 2, but the class is smaller in size.   

 

As I have mentioned before that, the enemy is pocong. The tied corpse. Our culture usually tied dead body before putting it inside the grave to minimize the dangerous potency in case it gets resurrected or zombified. Of course, that is joke. The real reason is to ease carry of dead body without coffin which is heavy and expensive. Also to symbolize the humbleness of dead person. Strong or weak. Rich or poor. We wear the humble white shroud called kain kafan, eventually when we die.

You notice that my health goes down by half because of my fault. I thought I don’t need to reload my gun. Apparently, I have to! Pressing R button should reload my gun. I know it’s common knowledge that revolver has 6 bullet capacity but it will be nice if there’s bullet count HUD somewhere so I know exactly when to reload. Pressing reload button anytime works! Linda really obeys my input to reload her gun even though her revolver is already full. Thankfully, Linda doesn’t need to put bullet one by one like in real life and the process relatively fast.

 

There’s doorless toilet with squat toilet on top of that. It’s quite common in Indonesia but I don’t like it. My legs get tired fast when I take a dump. Anyway, there’s shiny thing there. It’s life restoration item. It fixes my health by 1 pip. It’s useful but I don’t like creepy giggle sound when I pick it up. I don’t think it’s proto Linda’s doing. It’s more like the ghost giggles at me and criticize my decision to pick health restoration item. “You need that 1 pip health refill badly? Noob!”

 

Look at this bastard unable to pass through half-opened door. But I have to lure him to the right and there’s not much space there.

 

GOBLOK! EDAN! (Translation: Bloody stupid! Bloody crazy!)

Suddenly, 3 of them jump on me and one of them on top of the other. Freaking crazy! It takes like 3 – 4 bullets to defeat each pocong. So, fighting 3 at once will guarantee cost my life because I need to reload while enemies still around. No. Headshot doesn't matter.

 

I take few steps into this Ruang Guru (more or less: Faculty Office) and 2 Pocong spawn immediately. Yes, I know they’re ghost. Naturally, they can spawn out of thin air but can’t get through half-opened door. So stupid. These pocong will drop a red soul when defeated. You need to collect it but there’s scream of agony when you pick it up which gets my nerve everytime. 

 

Finally, I’m allowed to get into deeper part of faculty office. Goodness gracious. This place is freaking mess. Lots of tumbled down shelves and room separators. This bastard generous enough to spawn quite far from my position but I don’t think I can snipe him from here either because of fallen shelf or limited range of my gun. Fine. I will walk around a bit to get to him.

 

There! I can kill him. I mean exorcist him. Yeah. I notice there’s poster behind the pocong is our national heroes in The Beatles (color) cover album. They’re: Tuanku Imam Bonjol on top-left, Sultan Hasanuddin on bottom-left, and Pangeran Diponegoro on bottom-right. Lastly, on top-right is Sultan Iskandar Muda, I think.  

 

“Yang tidak berkepentingan dilarang masuk”. Unauthorized personnel forbidden to enter. Don’t tell me what to do, stupid sign! I have gun with unlimited ammo and you just stupid sign. Ok! This door can’t be opened. It’s just another wall. Moving on then.

 

There’s exit door on faculty office. But I need 3 more lost souls collected to open it. I get distracted by this school sign. SMU Harapan 5 Bandung. Jln Bilatung no. 5 Bandung. From quick search I know this school’s name and address is parody of SMUN 5 Bandung (Public High School 5 Bandung) which located in Belitung Road. Belitung is name of island east of Sumatra. As Bilatung, that’s maggot in Indonesian. Dreadout involves maggots at some point so this kind of foreshadowing. Anyway, as I distracted by this sign a Pocong ambushes me from left side. Scout_sf12_badmagic09

 

Hah! You spawn at the wrong side, stupid git. I have the high ground! What the heck? How you able to hit me when I’m up here! Scout_negativevocalization03.wav

 

The last pocong spawns near chair that’s under light, not far from that bastard that able to hit me even though I have high ground advantage. So, I go back to the faculty office and go to the exit door. Yes. It looks demonic but also silly because he has cross-eyed expression and tongue sticked out. Then I abruptly return to the main menu. No congratulation screen or credit roll. The game just ends as I reach the exit with all enemy’s souls collected. I though the exit door kills me while my health is only 1 pip. However, I reply the game, reach the exit door with 5 health pips and the result still the same. So, this is really the end. Let’s wrap things up then.

Digital Happiness’ Jurig Escape (2010) is rough yet serviceable short game. The control is fine. The flashlight follows the body instead of aim, which something that you may get used to. I believe the gun shooting is intended for the game because it’s simple to program. But kudo to developer to put more effort to change the gameplay from the gun shooting into photo shooting which feels more reasonable and family-friendly. The pocong will spawn after you walk near their spawn point, which is sensible for ghosts do that but quite often they give you so little space to engage with them safely. I wish I have shotgun instead of revolver pistol, for stronger close-range gun. But handgun is already super luxury in Indonesia. Another alternative for relatively allowed gun in Indonesia is hunting rifle for bird but it’s more cumbersome for close range combat and deal less damage than handgun, I think. As for the pocong themselves. Sure, they’re scary and iconic Indonesian ghost. But how do they exactly put misery on you. Their limbs are tied and what they can do is basically hopping or maybe some teleportation. They’re less flexible to attack than Jiangshi which has free arms even though stiff due to rigor mortis. Jiangshi can grab you and sink their teeth on your neck. As for pocong, I’m not sure what they can do. Staring at you very hard, I think. Then just don’t focus on their eyes. All I can think what Pocong can bring misery to you is: headbutt you, body splash on you, or do drop kick. The game settles with the first method. The real horror of this game come from the sound. There’s always shrilling sound in this game which nerve-wrecking for me much like in Kuon. Moreover, there are creepy laughter when picking up health item and cry of agony when picking up enemy’s soul.

 

Sure. I can recommend you to play Jurig Escape (2010). It’s free on steam and very short game. The question is: is your bravery big enough for to overcome the game’s scariness, though? This game is not for those with weak heart! I tell you.

 

[Demo] Tombwater (PC)

Today, I review at demo version of Moth Atlas’ Tombwater (2025). With name like that, I expect good time and nothing else. 

What a peaceful view of train in wild west. But there must be trouble afoot otherwise it’s called tranquil west instead of wild west, right?

 

Hello, not Clint Eastwood. Right of the bat, the game starts with train robbery. The guy near the safe named Nickel manages to open it only to find it’s empty. This is a trap! My guy is that guy with black sideburns. As far as I know, he’s nameless. I will call him Bashburn in honor of one of muscular guy armed with sledgehammer that I killed in Kagero.

 

My crime partners have left me behind, toward left passenger car. I have to follow up them. So, I can use D-pad to move around. Holding L2 (which is Left Trigger) and right joystick to aim my gun. Pressing R2 (which is Right Trigger) to shoot. I don’t usually use controller to play PC game. I prefer using keyboard. It feels not right not to use W,A,S,D and mouse. But screenshot proofs that I used controller back then. Maybe because I need to use controller in order for my headset to work so I might as well as use the controller for this game. The headset can no longer work when I connect it directly from my laptop. But again, I always use controller when playing Rogue Legacy and I have better gameplay experience when I use controller in Curse of The Dead Gods. So, whatever.

I can catch up with Nickel on next passenger car but we’re blocked by those gunmen. However, Nickel quickly runs for the open door on the south and I should follow him.

 

I jump out of the train safely. I don’t see Nickel around, strangely. But I find the first bonfire! There’s message “Sit at campfire to heal and replenish your refillable item. Most enemies will also return to life.” This is another Soulslike, huh?        

Pressing circle button to dash that consumes stamina. Yep. Definitely Soulslike.    

 

I can or rather must use dash to jump over the chasm. But in the other side of the chasm is group of enemies waiting to ambush me! Engineer_negativevocalization01.wav  

 

Through Ghost Town and I end up in cemetery where I meet Flintwood West. He suffers heavy injury though he can still walk out of here. Flintwood tells me to split up and lay low. Harsh life of desperadoes.

Ok. Why there’s ghost lady with bright light as head as soon as Flintwood leaves? I like to shoot at her but Bashburn refuses to fire the hog leg.

 

Approaching the scary entity, starts the class choice with various stats and starting equipment. Soldier seems closest to warrior class. Gunslinger should be must-pick up because of the wild west setting. There’s class with lowest stats and worst starting equipment called Nameless, which is similar to Drifter in Hellsign. In the end, I choose Spellblade because I’m weird like that. Also, spellblade is my favorite class in Rogue Legacy.

 

After choosing my class. The game skips to this place called “Presidio Alto”. The message says that this place is the midway of the game. It’s very rare demo game that gives the player a taste on 50% in the game. The only example of demo did that kind of thing is Doom 2: Hell on Earth, which gives demo on Map 27 Monster Condo. That’s what I remember.   

 

I get trinket not far from the entrance. Now, I need merchant to sell this thing.  

Oh! There you are. Once again, I find the merchant not far from entrance. Bonfire also there too. I don’t find hostile yet. Or Nickel.  

 

The merchant sells guns, shovel, and eyeballs? Oookay?

 

Then I got hit by bunch of arrow slits because I want to get something shiny there. The karma of me playing Kagero and Deception 3 and liking them. Turns out it was just Bandit Aster. Stupid flower!

 

Now I can level up in bonfire. There are only 3 stats that I can level up. Life is health point. Endurance is stamina. Lastly, Lucidity is resistance to madness. That’s vaguely useful.    

Then I die by this massive Freddy Kruger. The bastard attacks me relentlessly as he saw me on the courtyard ahead and he’s not even in my dream.

 

So, I left something behind when I die. Definitely Dark Soul thing. I didn’t notice that my remain can heal me. I always destroy/pick/whatever my remain to regain my money and experience to fill my level up bar.

 

I learn my lesson not to take the courtyard north of bonfire and get inside the building where I got shot by array of arrow slits. However, I died by bunch of possessed bandits. I must be more careful fighting them. Shooting my gun requires bullets. Attacking enemy with sword refill ammo reserve but it costs stamina. I still need to get used to this unique gameplay.

 

This time, it goes well. I just need to be more stealth and not trigger all of the enemies. Aha! I notice some enemies explode when die. Cheeky gits!

 

Speaking of cheeky gits, look at those mugs waiting to ambush me and one of them man a cannon. Thank God, this game has Top-down view otherwise I can’t see this blasted ambush. I take care of them and I can fire the cannon. Although I don’t see the benefit doing that.

I operate this lever to reveal a shortcut! Typical Dark Soul like game.

 

Suddenly I trap in big room with bunch of bandits and the blasted Freddy Kruger. I die! This room is blocked with vines that sprout suddenly. So, the only way out is to kill all the enemies first and the vines vanish.

 

Maybe I need to buy something from the merchant. There’s ivory handgun that can freeze enemy. Then there’s this fire shotgun which reminds me of Burnastikk in Warhammer 40K Shootas, Blood & Teef. The goods here are worth my money.

 

Hey! WHAT THE FREAK! This is safe place. You can’t attack me here! This is serious violation to safety standard in video game!   

I bought the shotgun but also shovel because I’m not wise. The shovel is heavy and lacks of range and attack power compared to sword. Ok. I figure out that I can use shovel to dig ground and throw it forward with R1 (Right bumper). Then this strange bar appears and filled. I see. That bar is madness bar. It will fill whenever I use ability. So, instead of using mana or MP cost, ability will fill madness bar. If the madness bar is fully filled, I can’t use any ability anymore until I rest at bonfire.

It doesn’t make sense that using shovel to dig fill madness bar instead of -you know- depletes stamina bar. So, I imagine Bashburn isn’t exhausted when using shovel to dig. Instead, he goes mad/angry when does that because he wants to smack someone with shovel instead of digging for God’s sake!  

 

I can defeat the Freddie Kruger easier with the fire shotgun although it costs 2 bullets per shoot. What the heck? Sniper’s laser pointer in wild west era? Now, that’s the real madness! Also, I notice there’s Sadako on lower ground on the west. Soon or later, I have to deal with her *sigh*.

 

I find the sniper. He can’t shoot me from there. But I can’t climb up to his place yet. Stalemate! Spy_autodejectedtie01.wav

 

Not every enemy is hostile. There are a bunch of enemies who do nothing other than covering their ear in fear or disturbed. You can still kill them for experience and money though.

I return to the merchant again to buy charm which can only be equipped on the bonfire. There’s this charm that allow you to deflect bullet with melee weapon? What’s this John Woo’s rubbish?

 

Eventually, I’m on same ground as the Sadako and we fight. This is the second time I fight Sadako in wild west era besides in Dark Adelita. I don’t know why bandits over there become wild and destroy the barrels. Maybe they’re excited with our fight.

 

I arrive at platforming section. Moreover, there’s some platforms that fall when stepped. There’s no button to jump. What should I do? Oh, I can dash through pit.

 

Finally, I acquire climbing gear. Now, I can climb on rocky wall like the one on the most right and also near that damn sniper.

 

Now, I know why the merchant sells scary eyeballs. I can cultivate eyeball on bonfire to acquire magic spell! How dumb of me weird that I know about magic spell just now when I already have 1 spell because my class is Spellblade. Magic spell and use item the same slot, so you can only do either casting magic or using item, excluding healing item which is healing flask on slot that’s activated with triangle button. Using magic spell or combat item is done by pressing square button. Be sure to equip it properly on main menu.

 

The spellblade already has grave finger magic which summons undead hands from ground. Reminds me of Jedah Dohma’s super Finale Rosso from Vampire Savior and Tsuchi Jogo magic in Kuon.

After long venturing…

I’m trapped in cell with conquistador ghost but I have this magic called “Fusillade” that summons ghost gunman to fire their ghost gun. Engineer_sf13_influx_big01.wav

Defeating this ghost rewards me with Spanish Fort key which is mandatory key item to progress.

 

The fort leads to this dark mine. Don’t mind that Ctulhu head statue. I find this ember that said to make me stronger! Heavy_sf13_influx_big04.wav

 

The mine filled with shadow demon and this flying maggot. I miss the outside.

 

Then there’s this puzzle where I need to put the correct symbol as seen on pillar on previous screenshot. Simple yet likeable puzzle.

Eventually, I meet the first boss: Kansas Stilton himself. He’s just big guy swinging pickaxe and does Naruto run really hard. Compared to conquistador ghost, Kansas is less eldritch or even interesting looking even though he can throw black magic every now and then.

 

It takes several attempts to defeat him. You can spare or kill him. I choose to spare him because he’s not that interesting to kill. Anyway, the witch named Adelaide is probably responsible for this madness. Look, guys! He says the title “Tombwater”. Clap! Clap!

Because I spare his life, Kansas gives me key to storage room that hopefully contains useful provisions.

 

As I move beyond the boss area and hopefully find the storage room, I encounter Max the developer. He says that this is the end of demo. This is the second times I meet representation of Developer that tell me the demo is over, besides in Clockwork Ambrosia. I’m not upset. It’s just felt bizarre. By the way.....WHERE'S NICKEL? DAMMIT!

Anyway, let’s end this.

Moth Atlas’ Tombwater (2025) is my first experience with Soulslike with top-down perspective. I know there’s another Soulslike with Wild West setting besides this game, which is Blood West but in First person perspective. Maybe I will review it someday after I reinstall it. Anyway, Tombwater is pretty good game. It mixes gun shooting and melee pretty well. There’s no logic reason why melee attack refill bullets other than for gameplay context. The game is partially top-down shooter and that’s solid reason for me to give it A grade recommendation. In addition to weapon there’s trinket, item, and magic spell. They all mix well into the combat. The combat challenges feel various and not boring. Ranging from Freddy Krueger, Sadako, and sniper. One thing that I hate from the combat is some bandits that explode when die. Feels cheap and bad. I like to mention there’s barrel of explosive that can help you both in combat or to unlock shortcut. The music kind of nonexistence from what I remember except in dark mine with horror atmospheric music. The sound effect is fairly good.

 

Summary: It gets pass on my wishlist   

I know that the game already has full version of it but the current financial situation doesn’t permit me to buy it. So, it remains on my wishlist. Anyway, you should give it a go!