I love playing video games and this has been an interest since childhood so I was excited to read this book and delve into the gothic video game and explore the incredible darkness.

I love video games as a whole and enjoyed the Gothic elements in a lot of video games. This had everything that I was looking for and enjoyed the way this was done and was well researched. I thought Christopher Carton has a great writing style and it was written perfectly.

I enjoyed this exploration of gothic video games, although it didn't feel to me as if it was organised like a history of the genre, more a history of the difference franchises within the genre. Many of them I had heard of, but I was surprised how few I had actually played (basically just Baldur's Gate, Dishonoured, Thief and Darkest Dungeon!) and some of the ones I expected to feature (eg Silent Hill) were only mentioned as an aside when talking about other games. I think I expected there to be more games mentioned, and perhaps less detail about some of the ones that were. I enjoyed the book and it has given me some ideas for new games to check out.

All in all, a reasonably good reference guide and introduction to games that fall under the gothic genre conventions. Each entry is a short blurb with accompanying screenshots to give the reader a better idea about the various games.

Unfortunately, I was hoping for a deeper analysis of how each game falls into—or plays within—what we understand of the gothic genre. If you have a reasonable grounding of popular games since the release of the NES, there's not a tonne to learn. This is easily a better introduction to gothic video games than a comprehensive history.

The History of the Gothic Video Game by Christopher Carton is a stunning journey through the genre that gave us pure art, fear, an extensive puzzle solving ability and a resistance to jump-scares, well, almost.

Castlevania, Devil My Cry, The Alice Series, Bayonetta to Dnte's Inferno. Whether you reminisce about 16 bit or revel in 3d and hi-res, this book is a fantastic journey through the evolution of the Gothic Video Game. The chronological nature of each category makes it into ideal reference material for after you have indulged in all of the dark and dastardly delights within!

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I loved that MediEvil was featured in this book! I still have the PS1 disc! I absolutely loved this game and although not as dark as other titles featured in this book, I was so glad it received an honourable mention! Ee that made me smile!

Shortly thereafter turned into an eek moment when I remembered Haunting Ground "shudder" - in a good way! If you play a game to be terrified, a la Silent Hill, Resident Evil, (Contemporary games such as Lethal Company even), then seeing Haunting Ground in this book will have this effect and I was thrilled! I was also delighted to see Resident Evil Village as it has one of my favourite Game Noir characters of all time, Lady Dimitrescu)

The writing style is informative and engaging, very well researched and a great reference book for any ardent Gamer, especially those who have grown up alongside the genre and those who want to delve deeper into the grass roots of Gothic Video Games, especially wen taking into account the section on the impact of video games. This book would also be a perfect research source for any potential game developers coming into the industry

Absolutely brilliant and a great read

Thank you to Netgalley, Pen & Sword | White Owl and the author Christopher Carton for this stunning ARC! My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own