Tem and I are currently playing Little Hope, the second game in the Dark Pictures Anthology. By which I mean I’m playing Little Hope while Tem watches and laughs at my escalating alarm. I can’t handle horror and I don’t know why I keep playing these horror games.
We’re about halfway through; we’ve just had the Curator scene after crossing the derelict bridge.
( Notes on The Dark Pictures: Little Hope. )
I played Man of Medan in a single sitting, but I'm playing Little Hope more slowly. The problem with this, it turns out, is that I obsess over it between play sessions, can't resist looking up discussion, and end up running into spoilers and hints.
Supermassive horror games really have a way of working themselves into my head. I started playing Little Hope three days ago, and I've already dreamt about it multiple times.
I suppose Supermassive games feel particularly high-pressure because they have lasting consequences in a way that most games - even most horror games - don't. In most games, if I mess up and a character dies partway through, the game will end and I'll be allowed to go back and fix my mistake; my failure isn't written into the narrative. In Supermassive games, if a character dies because I messed up, they're dead, and the story will continue without them.
Supermassive aren't the only developers of narrative games with choices and consequences, of course! The Life Is Strange series and Detroit: Become Human are also games where your actions have a lasting impact on the narrative (and are also extremely stressful). But Supermassive in particular really have stressing me out down to an art.
We’re about halfway through; we’ve just had the Curator scene after crossing the derelict bridge.
( Notes on The Dark Pictures: Little Hope. )
I played Man of Medan in a single sitting, but I'm playing Little Hope more slowly. The problem with this, it turns out, is that I obsess over it between play sessions, can't resist looking up discussion, and end up running into spoilers and hints.
Supermassive horror games really have a way of working themselves into my head. I started playing Little Hope three days ago, and I've already dreamt about it multiple times.
I suppose Supermassive games feel particularly high-pressure because they have lasting consequences in a way that most games - even most horror games - don't. In most games, if I mess up and a character dies partway through, the game will end and I'll be allowed to go back and fix my mistake; my failure isn't written into the narrative. In Supermassive games, if a character dies because I messed up, they're dead, and the story will continue without them.
Supermassive aren't the only developers of narrative games with choices and consequences, of course! The Life Is Strange series and Detroit: Become Human are also games where your actions have a lasting impact on the narrative (and are also extremely stressful). But Supermassive in particular really have stressing me out down to an art.
