5 essential pickups from this weekend’s Steam Halloween sale

Lock up your wallets, boys and girls, ’cause not only is it payday week, it’s a Steam sale weekend! And appropriately enough, what with it being Halloween on Sunday, it’s the Steam Halloween sale, running until November 1, 2021.

There are, of course, bajillions of excellent games to pick from in the Steam Halloween sale — so to help you out a bit in spending your money responsibly, we’ve picked out five of the very best titles that you should consider spending your spooky time with over the weekend. And if you have any picks of your own, feel free to share ’em down in the comments or via the Rice Digital Friday Letters Page!

Let’s dive in.

Tormented Souls

You can’t beat a bit of classic, old-school survival horror, and Tormented Souls, released earlier this year, absolutely delivers on that front. Drawing inspiration from classic fixed-camera Resident Evil and the earlier days of Konami’s Silent Hill series, Tormented Souls is a spooky adventure with excellent puzzles, frightening enemies and one of the creepiest “horror mansion” settings we’ve seen for quite some time. Check out our article on just how well this captures the feeling of PS2-era survival horror, and our FAQ if you get stuck!

The game’s recently had an update with a new outfit for Caroline and an unlockable weapon to discover, so even if you’ve already beaten the game it’s well worth revisiting.

Tormented Souls is 10% off in the Steam Halloween sale, making it just £15.29. Well worth your time and hard-earned.

Code Vein

A lot of people kind of wrote this off as “anime Souls” when it came out, but it’s a great game in its own right that is well worth exploring. Featuring cooperative gameplay with either another player or an AI partner, Code Vein features some spectacular combat encounters, an interesting story and plenty of dungeons to explore.

In contrast to the Souls games, there’s a much stronger focus on bonding with other characters in the game, which makes the experience as a whole rather less lonely. And with three possible endings to the story and a good couple of hundred hours’ worth of gameplay ahead of you — particularly if you nab the DLC addons too — then this is a good investment, especially at this price.

Code Vein is a whopping 75% off in the Steam Halloween sale, making it just £9.99. The Season Pass is 50% off too, making that £9.99 also, though most players seem to think that this is not really worth bothering with.

Resonance of Fate

If you, like many others, have been wishing there was a greater opportunity to apply your knowledge of mathematics to the role-playing games you enjoy, then Resonance of Fate is here for you! Originally released on Xbox 360 and PS3, this remastered version features improved visuals, a spectacular soundtrack and the enjoyably complex gameplay it has always been renowned for.

People joke about the complexity of this game, but you’ll find yourself getting into the swing of things in not time — and the end result is some of the most spectacular battle sequences of any RPG ever. So why not nab it while it’s cheap and give it a shot for yourself?

Resonance of Fate is 40% off in the Steam Halloween sale, making it just £16.67. Or you can nab a second-hand Xbox 360 copy for a fiver over at CEX.

Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk

Looking for a hardcore dungeon crawler that will challenge and thrill you for hours on end? This challenging title from Nippon Ichi fits the bill perfectly, featuring deep mechanics, lovely art and an intriguing, dark, memorable story. It’s one of those games from Nippon Ichi that doesn’t get talked about that much — but which everyone who has played absolutely loves.

Be warned, though, Nippon Ichi is known for its in-depth, frighteningly comprehensive progression and character growth systems — and this game is absolutely no exception. Be prepared to lose hours to this one!

Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk is 65% off in the Steam Halloween sale, making it just £17.49. If you’re someone who calculates price-to-playtime ratios, this one is hard to beat.

Castlevania Anniversary Collection

It’s Castlevania. It’s £3.99 in the Steam Halloween sale. I don’t think you need me to tell you anything else, do you? Well, all right — this pack includes the original Castlevania, Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse (including the Japanese Famicom version with the better music), Super Castlevania IV, Castlevania The Adventure, Castlevania II Belmont’s Revenge, Castlevania Bloodlines and Kid Dracula. That’s a lot of game for less than four quid.

Sadly the more recent Castlevania Advance Collection is not in the Steam Halloween sale, but that’s well worth picking up too while you’re in the mood!

---

There you have it then, we’ve spend your money for you once again. What are your own personal picks from this Steam Halloween sale? Let us know down in the comments, or pen us a letter for the Rice Digital Friday Letters Page!

^{Disclosure: Some links in this article may be affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on them. This is at no additional cost to you and helps support Rice Digital!}