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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