rionaleonhart | Understand The Palm Of My Hand.

Maybe I should watch a Let's Play of Until Dawn, I found myself thinking recently. I've heard it puts a lot of emphasis on choice and consequences, and that's something I'm interested in: how the same videogame can tell different stories on different playthroughs. Let's look some videos up.

And then I remembered that I hate horror, but it was too late. BYE, SLEEP. I tried to stop watching, but then I realised I'd never be able to put this story behind me unless I got some sort of resolution to it, so it looks like I'm locked in until the ending.

(The specific Let's Play I've been watching is this one by the Scary Game Squad, in case any of you are fans of the 'a group of teenagers go to an isolated lodge, HORRIBLE THINGS HAPPEN' brand of horror. If you are not a horror fan, be more sensible than me and steer clear; it contains gore, jumpscares, decapitation, scary chase sequences, scary nothing-happening sequences etc. The commentary's pretty good; it's not grating, for the most part, and they joke around but still take things seriously enough for them to remain scary. They're also endearingly invested in keeping everyone alive. There's one character they all dislike, and they joke a couple of times about leaving her to die, but then she gets into terrible peril and they spend the whole chase sequence yelling encouragement at her. 'Go, baby girl! Go, baby girl!')

I feel you can probably tell a lot about a person by the scenes they choose to rewatch. In Until Dawn, there are a handful of scenes I keep coming back to. One of these scenes is 'Mike and Sam meet each other in the lodge, the first friendly faces they've seen respectively since all hell broke loose'. That's perfectly respectable. I probably 'ship them. Fine.

(I have a feeling that I started 'shipping them before that scene, which is odd, given that I'm, er, not sure they'd interacted on-screen on any previous occasion. I was delighted when they actually met up. I have such low expectations of my pairings. 'It'd be nice if these two could be in the same room at some point.')

To my slight concern, the other scenes I've watched multiple times on assorted different Let's Plays are:

- Mike finds his girlfriend semi-conscious and thinks at first that she's dead.
- Mike gets his fingers caught in a bear trap and has to amputate them with a machete.

Apparently Mike is just one of those characters I want to see suffering physically and emotionally, so I suppose it's good news for me that he's in a horror game. Maybe it's because he looks and acts a bit like Nathan Drake. I love both Mike and Nate, but in a scary way that means I'm happiest when they're bloodied emotional wrecks.

(There's one Let's Play where the player gets Mike's hand caught but really doesn't want to amputate his fingers, so he keeps trying to make Mike prise open the trap instead. On the first two attempts, the trap snaps shut again. The third time, Mike whimpers before he gives it another go. It's great. I'm the worst person in the world.)

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[in case any of you are fans of the 'a group of teenagers go to an isolated lodge, HORRIBLE THINGS HAPPEN' brand of horror]

See, now I just want you to watch an Oxenfree LP, or possibly several Oxenfree LPs, because it's a game which remembers if you've played it before and will alter things subtly on replays. It's more of a big abandoned island than an isolated lodge, but it has fun teenage characters and a bunch of interesting relationships and angst! Also, it's all atmospheric and creepy, and not jumpscares and gore.

Here is where I'd be helpful and link you to some Let's Plays, but... the first one I watched was actually CohhCarnage's, and while Cohh is an excellent streamer, all of his YouTube stuff is taken direct from his Twitch.tv stream, which means it's full of him greeting new subscribers and his Twitch overlay going off with sound effects and stuff. Which, if you're not used to it, is REALLY QUITE DISTRACTING. (I can kinda tune it out these days, but possibly it's not what you want to look into for never having seen him before and watching a moody, immersive story-based horror game.) (I mean, heck, Cohh's Oxenfree playthrough starts out with one of his cats stepping on his soundboard and triggering a drumbeat.)

This second-run playthrough by zaghy2zy is cool, though, especially because it has no commentary, and this is a game that actually works really well with a no-commentary LP. But you should watch a first-time-through playthrough before watching the second-time-through one, because yeah.

BUT I'M SO BAD WITH HORROR. I genuinely had to look up spoilers for basically everything in Until Dawn, because I was too freaked out to keep watching when I didn't know what was going on. I am interested in games that remember whether you've played them before, though; that was what drew me into trying Undertale.

I AM ALSO SO BAD WITH HORROR. I tapped out of trying to watch the Until Dawn playthrough when Mike was going to switch on the generator, because I could not cope with the possibility of a jumpscare. Believe me, I feel you on this.

But Oxenfree is so lovely! Unsettling, and occasionally distressing, but also lovely. I highly recommend it. (Plus: no jumpscares and gore. Maybe those are my issues, but I cannot overstate how much I appreciate horror with no jumpscares and no gore.)

I've been pondering why you would have attempted to watch Until Dawn at all if you knew you couldn't handle jumpscares, and it's just struck me: were you drawn in by the prospect of someone named Sam undergoing horrible trauma?

...you know, it's entirely possible.

I occasionally try to watch LPs of Five Nights At Freddy's because I find the mechanics and development backstory really interesting, and because Markiplier's reaction compilation is utterly hilarious (despite being made of jumpscares; it's all pretty well telegraphed and played for laughs, which defuses the tension somewhat. I don't think I've ever even made it to the first jumpscare in a FNAF playthough.

By which I mean, it may also be a mechanics thing? Or a fascination with choice-based games thing. Or an interest in finding new LPers thing. Or possibly I'm just very foolish when it comes to horror.

THE WORLD MAY NEVER KNOW.

Somehow I didn't reply to this to commiserate with you over Five Nights at Freddy's terror! I tend to enjoy Dan Howell and Phil Lester's Let's Plays, so I tried watching their Five Nights at Freddy's videos, and it was a HORRIBLE MISTAKE. I wouldn't be able to play those games if you paid me.

I'm really hoping they'll play Until Dawn at some point. It's a great game to watch lots of different people play blind, to see their reactions when they screw up and get people killed. Play Until Dawn, guys. Hallowe'en is coming up. You know you want to. Well, I want you to, which is basically the same thing.

I never did watch Oxenfree, but I remembered your recommendation and I went 'hey, can I come over and play it?' when

th_esaurus picked it up! I'm now just past finding Clarissa at Fort Milner(? I'm probably getting the name wrong), having decided to meet up with her before Ren (sorry for leaving you waiting, Ren; I hope you're all right). I've posted an entry over here.

Until Dawn is one of those things I expected to like (I'm a big horror fan) but never thought I'd love this much. The characters are amazing, and the just...unffff. Yes. I've replayed it about seven times all together now.

Mike is definitely the stuff of love. He's my favorite too, though I also have lots of love for Chris as a very close runner-up. He has the most obvious character arc (though Jessica has a pretty good one too, IMO) and is so much more than he first appears. I dig it. I pretty much ship Mike with everyone except, like, Matt and Ashley. Emily too, I suppose, though I think they have a pretty interesting relationship.

It's such an interesting concept! And I think it takes real steps forward for interactive storytelling in videogames, although in other respects it draws attention to how far there is to go. I'm really interested to see whether games in the future are noticeably influenced by it.

I'm entirely in favour of Mike/everyone, even if Mike/Sam is where my heart lies. And the scene where Chris breaks down after the saw-on-a-rail incident is one of my favourites.

Understand The Palm Of My Hand.

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