Horror Tidbits

New releases and announcements have been a bit slow as of late.  So, for this blogpost, I'd like to write a few paragraphs about some horror-themed video games I've recently taken notice of.  Two are not out yet, but the third has been available on itch.io for awhile now.

Chasing Static is an upcoming low-fi indie title that reminds me a lot of the original Silent Hill.  I've heard people online referred to it as having PS1-era graphics.  Having played the free demo, I don't quite agree.  While it's true that the textures have an intentionally pixilated quality, the draw distances is beyond what even the most optimized original PlayStation game was capable of.  At the same time, the visuals aren't smooth enough looking to be PS2 (or even PSP) quality either.  So what we're really looking at here is a retro horror game for the hypothetical PS1.5 home entertainment system.  That alone makes the game kind of creepy...sort of like if you found the media disc for this game, dust-covered and forgotten in a gloomy attic or basement - then got it to work through some sort of esoteric form of software emulation.

Aliens: Fireteam is yet another attempt bring everyone's favorite xenomorph to interactive media.  It's not out as of the posting of this blog entry, but based on previews the graphics and sound are topnotch.  The titular "Aliens" though appear to be suffering from an exceptionally  severe case of the inverse ninja strength law.  The AI, in particular, doesn't seem to consider the possibility of launching an ambush.  Granted, the game isn't done yet so it might be improved upon.  As is though, the xenomorphs have a bad habit of charging down long corridors.  From the Colonial Marines' perspective it makes for a rather nice shooting gallery...and yet there is a strange lack of tension.  In order to capture the strain and catharsis of the 1986 film this game is based on, I think the developers need to put more consideration into the pacing...otherwise it's just going to end up being a poor-man's Space Hulk. 

The Whisper In Darkness is a video game adaptation of a short horror story by H.P. Lovecraft of the same name.  Actually, it's more of a visual novel than a proper video game in that the interactive segments are extremely barebones.  Even so, this little indie title does a shockingly good job of setting the mood with ambient music and sound effects.  The text crawl has this eerie scratching noise as the words appear onscreen.  There's also sparse use of static art that looks like the work of an amateur oil painter.  This might seem like a minus except for the fact that the story is framed such that the narrator is recalling events from memory, hence the images are supposed to be the product of an unskilled artist's recollections.  Overall, it's a very faithful retelling of the original.  That might sound like a complement, but it's also means the experience is entirely linear in nature.   

There's a belief among horror fans that the genre really only works when the budget is low.  Personally, I don't think the amount of money spent really matters in terms of scare factor.  Instead, it's all about the content.  Specifically, most horror games aren't very good and yet if enough people make enough games sooner or later some will start to resonate.  It just so happens that most of those titles were made with a miniscule amount of resources.