Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2022-11-08 09:55 am
rionaleonhart) wrote2022-11-08 09:55 am
Entry tags:
A Man In A Hat Looking At Paintings; How About That?
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.
I absolutely hated the prologue. It wasn’t bad from a storytelling perspective; it was just very upsetting!
Due to a bug, the 'O Death' opening theme didn't play; the Curator strode through the corridor of paintings in silence. Tem and I attempted to remedy this by dramatically belting out 'O Death' ourselves. It was not quite as polished an opening, perhaps, but I think it had its own charm.
Given that the characters are stranded by a bus crash, I wondered for a moment whether they would be strangers to each other. A group of characters who don't know each other could be an interesting starting point for a Supermassive horror game.
I immediately messed up the characters' relationships because I didn't know what those relationships were. Angela made what sounded like a disparaging reference to 'your boyfriend', and I went 'He's not my boyfriend' without thinking, and then UH-OH, TURNS OUT HE ACTUALLY WAS MY BOYFRIEND and he wasn't impressed by my denial.
This is all extremely Silent Hill. I should probably have anticipated this, having previously heard that the Silent Hill series was an inspiration for this game. But it's somehow even more Silent Hill than I was prepared for.
The characters are going 'what was that accent?? was it even American?? it seemed more like something from another time than another place,' and... it's a Yorkshire accent. It's just a Yorkshire accent. I mean, as it happens, the character in question is from another time. But the accent is very much from a place rather than a time, and the place is Yorkshire.
I love that John goes 'I'm your teacher, I feel responsible for all of you' and then keeps running away in a panic at the slightest noise.
I immediately failed a 'keep calm' segment because I just saw the X on the screen and pressed it straight away, without registering that it wasn't a regular quick-time event. I need to learn not to do that, or I'm going to be in trouble.
Tem and I keep cracking up during the Curator scenes because he keeps moving and posing in such a way as to show off his perfectly sculpted arse. He keeps doing the 'boobs and butt' pose, as Tem calls it, but, instead of a young woman in a comic book, he's an older gentleman who's probably the personification of death. 'God, it's a waste to sit on that,' I commented when he eventually dropped into his chair.
At the end of the first act, the Curator told me 'you're doing well', and I went 'DON'T SAY THAT, I DON'T TRUST IT.' He evidently took this on board for his scene at the end of act two. It was not an improvement.
Curator: Some kind of weapon might be useful about now, don't you think? You really should have explored more thoroughly, you know. Too late now.
Riona: oh fuck you
I was spoiled for the ending of this game before I started playing, and I know it's controversial, but, if I'm honest, it sounds very much like my sort of thing. I'll be interested to see how it's executed.
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.
I absolutely hated the prologue. It wasn’t bad from a storytelling perspective; it was just very upsetting!
Due to a bug, the 'O Death' opening theme didn't play; the Curator strode through the corridor of paintings in silence. Tem and I attempted to remedy this by dramatically belting out 'O Death' ourselves. It was not quite as polished an opening, perhaps, but I think it had its own charm.
Given that the characters are stranded by a bus crash, I wondered for a moment whether they would be strangers to each other. A group of characters who don't know each other could be an interesting starting point for a Supermassive horror game.
I immediately messed up the characters' relationships because I didn't know what those relationships were. Angela made what sounded like a disparaging reference to 'your boyfriend', and I went 'He's not my boyfriend' without thinking, and then UH-OH, TURNS OUT HE ACTUALLY WAS MY BOYFRIEND and he wasn't impressed by my denial.
This is all extremely Silent Hill. I should probably have anticipated this, having previously heard that the Silent Hill series was an inspiration for this game. But it's somehow even more Silent Hill than I was prepared for.
The characters are going 'what was that accent?? was it even American?? it seemed more like something from another time than another place,' and... it's a Yorkshire accent. It's just a Yorkshire accent. I mean, as it happens, the character in question is from another time. But the accent is very much from a place rather than a time, and the place is Yorkshire.
I love that John goes 'I'm your teacher, I feel responsible for all of you' and then keeps running away in a panic at the slightest noise.
I immediately failed a 'keep calm' segment because I just saw the X on the screen and pressed it straight away, without registering that it wasn't a regular quick-time event. I need to learn not to do that, or I'm going to be in trouble.
Tem and I keep cracking up during the Curator scenes because he keeps moving and posing in such a way as to show off his perfectly sculpted arse. He keeps doing the 'boobs and butt' pose, as Tem calls it, but, instead of a young woman in a comic book, he's an older gentleman who's probably the personification of death. 'God, it's a waste to sit on that,' I commented when he eventually dropped into his chair.
At the end of the first act, the Curator told me 'you're doing well', and I went 'DON'T SAY THAT, I DON'T TRUST IT.' He evidently took this on board for his scene at the end of act two. It was not an improvement.
Curator: Some kind of weapon might be useful about now, don't you think? You really should have explored more thoroughly, you know. Too late now.
Riona: oh fuck you
I was spoiled for the ending of this game before I started playing, and I know it's controversial, but, if I'm honest, it sounds very much like my sort of thing. I'll be interested to see how it's executed.
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.
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As an American, that is so realistic I'm cringeing right now.
That is hilarious!
Wait is this game based around some guy from Medan? As in city where I am right now? ...I know this is almost certainly not the case, but is it?
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One of the actors is British, although he's playing an American character, and I suspect the creators had fun making him say, 'She talked in this really weird accent. Was that even American?'
Wait is this game based around some guy from Medan? As in city where I am right now? ...I know this is almost certainly not the case, but is it?
Alas, no; it's set on a legendary ghost ship named the Ourang Medan, or Man of Medan. I think about the game every time you mention Medan, though.
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I absolutely love reading your experiences of horror games, because I know I couldn't possibly handle playing them myself. I'm thoroughly fascinated by Silent Hill 2 and think it's a really great piece of media, but there's no way I could ever. The closest I've got is playing through Whispers of a Machine, which was more sci-fi than horror but had horror elements, and Kathy Rain which was right on the edge of how disturbing I can handle. I did really enjoy the mobile version of Oxenfree, though - I think playing it on a smaller screen kept it from being too overwhelming for me.
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'Huh, I've never heard of either of these games. I wonder what they are. I'll just type Whispers of a Machine into Google, and...'
[WHITE NOISE]
Anyway, I just bought both of them. Whoops. I wish I'd thought to check whether they were available on other platforms; apparently Kathy Rain is available on Switch, and I prefer to play on console. But somehow the Steam listings completely hijacked my brain and I bought them immediately.
I'm glad you enjoy my tales of horror games! If my suffering can bring joy to others, it's worth it.
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I can't wait!!! I will warn that they are both Just A Little Bit Weird about women having children - but I did enjoy both of them a great deal regardless! (I played the director's cut of Kathy Rain; not sure which version you bought, but the story seems to be the same in both.)
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(Anonymous) 2022-11-08 07:51 pm (UTC)(link)-timydamonkey, who is a big fan of point and click adventures
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I'd love to hear what point and clicks you've played and exchange notes if you're so inclined! 💛
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(Anonymous) 2022-11-10 05:30 pm (UTC)(link)Oh dear, you might regret asking that a little bit – I can talk for England about point and clicks! I’m sure I’m missing some, but here’s a fairly conclusive list, loosely grouped:
LucasArts Adventures:
Secret of Monkey Island
LeChuck’s Revenge
Curse of Monkey Island
Escape From Monkey Island
Grim Fandango
Sam and Max Hit the Road
Maniac Mansion
Day of the Tentacle
Full Throttle
Loom
(I guess Grim Fandango and Escape From Monkey Island aren’t technically point and clicks – though you can in the remaster of Grim Fandango – but I think thematically they still count.)
Telltale Sam and Max Games:
Sam and Max Save the World
Sam and Max Beyond Time and Space
The Devil’s Playhouse
(These were originally released episodically before being released as full seasons under the above titles.)
Daedalic:
Edna and Harvey: The Breakout
Edna and Harvey: Harvey’s New Eyes
1954 Alcatraz
The Whispered World
Deponia
Chaos on Deponia
Goodbye Deponia
The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav
Memoria
Black Mirror Series:
The Black Mirror
Black Mirror 2
Black Mirror 3
(There is a remake of the first game but I’ve not played that as for the many faults that the first game has, it does have an atmosphere and an interesting plot that I don’t feel a remake could properly capture.)
Grouped By Not Really Being a Group Group:
Overclocked: A History of Violence
Alter Ego
Kathy Rain
Whispers in the Machine
Lamplight City
Siberia
Chinatown Detective Agency
Gray Matter
Lacuna
Unheard
Thimbleweed Park
Still Life
Longest Journey Series:
The Longest Journey
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
Detective Grimoire Series:
Detective Grimoire
Tangle Tower
To the Moon Series:
To the Moon
A Bird Story
Finding Paradise
Impostor Factory
Wadjet Eye:
Blackwell Series:
The Blackwell Legacy
Blackwell Unbound
Blackwell Convergence
Blackwell Deception
Blackwell Epiphany
Non-Blackwell Wadjet Eye Series:
Resonance
Shardlight
The Shivah
Unavowed
Technobabylon
Strangeland
Gemini Rue
Primordia
Games I Intend To Play But Haven’t Got Around To Yet:
Return From Monkey Island
The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow
I am happy to talk about any, take recommendations about any more, or answer any queries about any of these games if they’re new to you and you want more information/any applicable warnings about specific titles etc.
A lot of the adventures I play – but not all – have a horror atmosphere sort of theme as that seems to be how modern adventure games work, but like you, I can’t handle too much horror and I also can’t handle not knowing whether or not I can die in each game – and if I can die, I have to know how to help me avoid it. I can play RPGs etc no problem, but I have to know with adventure games whether or not death is on the table or I just can’t cope. Creepy game sound atmosphere can also set me off! The only one of these games I didn’t finish in relation to not coping with the creepy atmosphere was Overclocked: A History of Violence, which is very obscure, has an interesting premise, but it just really creeped me out!
Other than that, I’ll add that it’s perhaps a stretch to consider Unheard a point and click adventure, so I will give a bit of context on that – it’s basically an audio game where you get a very rough floor plan, have to identify voices with names and work out the answers to several mysteries/puzzles. You do a lot of rewinding through audio but you can physically move around on the map to “hear” what is going on in the room that you’re in and only through hearing all the disparate conversations will you get a clear idea of what is going on.
-timydamonkey
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To be fair, look at the comment section of any non-American YouTuber and you'll see remarks along the line of, "why are you talking like that???? lmao speak normally," so... that's pretty accurate. Hopefully the words 'I don't have an accent' never leave any of the characters' mouths.
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(Anonymous) 2022-11-08 08:01 pm (UTC)(link)I did watch The Quarry as an LP semi-recently, that's another Supermassive one - I wondered if I'd see it on your journal around the time it came out!
Speaking of accents: The Excavation of Hob's Barrow came out recently and that has some very Northern accents which makes me very happy. (Trailer with voice acting samples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-1C_9RQJb8) I read the Dave Gilbert piece as well on directing it, which was quite interesting: he is American, and so said that occasionally he had to check whether dialogue had typos etc with the actors if it was a British turn of phrase. He said he also when casting would check with the writers which had an authentic Northern accent and which was badly put-upon accent. Sounds nice for a game that was mostly directed over Zoom or such an equivalent - the voice cast are mostly British. The cast had some nice things to say about the direction on Twitter. (There are also some interesting videos of the voice acting sessions here: https://www.youtube.com/user/davelgil/videos The one with the little girl is quite intruiging!)
-timydamonkey
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The games are shorter and lower-budget than Until Dawn, which makes sense, as Until Dawn had Sony's funding behind it. (In exchange, though, the Dark Pictures games are priced lower than a title like Until Dawn or The Quarry.) The writing's not as snappy and the characters aren't as well-defined. I would agree that they're not as good as Until Dawn.
However, the anthology does some really interesting experimentation with mechanics. Until Dawn's approach is 'a character can't die until they're no longer required by the plot, and the ending is always the same; the only difference is the number of survivors'. The Dark Pictures games take a more ambitious approach to branching; different characters can step into the necessary story roles as required, meaning there's less need for specific characters to have plot armour, and different climaxes and endings can play out depending on your actions throughout the game.
I also think some of the Dark Pictures games come under fire because people don't like the twists and try to claim they somehow make the games objectively bad. The twists are absolutely fine! They're perfectly respectable horror twists, and it doesn't make the games bad if they're not to the tastes of every player.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that, if you enjoyed Until Dawn and The Quarry, it may be worth at least giving the Dark Pictures a try. They might lack a bit of polish, but they're interesting experimental endeavours in the choices-and-consequences genre.
I'll probably play The Quarry eventually! It takes me a while to get around to Supermassive games because I'm such a scaredy-cat, but Tem's determination to make me play them for xyr amusement is getting me to pick up my pace. Did you enjoy it?
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(Anonymous) 2022-11-09 06:32 pm (UTC)(link)I experienced The Quarry as an LP (well, it was a live stream actually) and it was an interesting way to experience it, because the game has finally realised that people like to play and enjoy these games together (see: yourself and Tem) and you can play it as multiplayer, assigning different people to different characters. It will then cue in at scene openings who needs to play. They had 4 people playing, with the characters split between the 4 of them (hilariously unevenly as, as you may expect from this developer, characters don’t all have the same amount or length of scenes and some had more characters than others). It did make very good viewing, though, because not only did you hear discussion but you also got, “I can’t believe you got my character killed. I didn’t get them killed, you did!” “I’m sorry!” Or: “I can’t believe my character wants to bang my other character.” :D
I probably preferred the plot beat of Until Dawn, but I’d say it’s definitely still worth checking out.
-timydamonkey
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The Dark Pictures games also have a mode where you can assign people different characters; it seems like fun! What I find particularly fascinating is the online co-op multiplayer mode, where two players each play different characters at the same time and experience different things. It's particularly interesting in Man of Medan, where different characters sometimes perceive the same scene in completely different ways.
This means that, in single-player mode, other characters are sometimes making choices of their own (which would be made by a real person in the online co-op). They make those choices based on how you've played them up to that point, which is pretty interesting!
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LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL incredible
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Taylor actually has two different monster types, depending on how Tanya dies in the 70s. I didn't know this when I played, so I told my friend at the controller that the prologue choices didn't matter, only to discover that we had a totally different demon that the Scary Game Squad got. It was a really pleasant surprise, and one of my favorite parts!
If you do House of Ashes, I recommend going into it blind. My whole friend group did, and the best I felt about the game was when I had no idea what was going on and was excited to find out. House of Ashes also has one of the only moments in the Dark Pictures series that I thought was anywhere near as frightening as when Jess gets pulled through the window in Until Dawn.
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I told Tanya to climb down the drainpipe and I regret it. Absolutely horrifying. It's haunted me for days.
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That said, if characters and story are my top 2 priorities for a Supermassive game, monster design is number 3 because the Wendigos were so good. All the creatures in the Dark Pictures games are pretty fun to look at (and be scared by), but I think that Little Hope's are the most frightening and have the best movement.
I think that going down the drainpipe is a better decision than going back into the house, but only marginally. It's like trying to pick a good fate for Josh--there isn't one. :(
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I don't normally dislike characters, per se, but I just could not jive with Taylor. I found her extremely annoying. I really enjoyed being able to play as two older characters though! Overall, I felt like the timey-wimey stuff, coupled with the ending, made the game a little... bloated, thematically.
I can't wait for you to get to House of Ashes! It's so good! Easily the best cast in the series thus far. I have ships and feels and have no one to share them with.
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Overall, I felt like the timey-wimey stuff, coupled with the ending, made the game a little... bloated, thematically.
The timey-wimey stuff definitely feels a bit out-of-place, even if the 'being pursued by your own murdered self' concept is interesting (and makes for some memorable, horrifying monster design). There's slightly too much going on in this game; it does feel a little unfocused. That said, it's doing an excellent job of scaring the absolute shit out of me.