@Amalga_Heart

3 years ago

Oh geez, freaking Minecraft. You know, I've played LOTS of horror games over the years, but the one and only game to ever get a vocal fear reaction out of me is Minecraft. Which seems so darned silly on paper, but I know I aint the only one. Wont ever forget that moment. I'd only gotten the game a few weeks before... EARLY version, too, back before chickens were implemented. I'm still learning and getting used to it at that point. In-game one day, I'm exploring a cave, mining, looking for the ever-mythical diamond but not really being too clear on where to find it, surrounded by that freaky darkness and the infamous cave noises. I mine through this wall... which turns out to be very thin... and as I break the first block it turns out that a freaking skeleton was standing directly on the other side, because of course it was. Its bizarre, blocky-yet-bony appearance, plus the cave atmosphere, plus what was a horribly loud arrow-firing sound at the time (they toned that down later on, it really was way too freaking loud originally) got me good. Yelled, jumped back out of the chair, slapped the mouse off the deck as I did so... I seem to recall that the blasted thing was quite damaged as a result. Nowadays it cant really jumpscare me anymore... I know too much about the game and am fully used to how all the enemies behave and all that. But the "creepy" factor never vanished, which I think is quite impressive. And I know this is the case for plenty of other fans as well. These days, the game I'd rate as being pretty darned good in this stuff is an indie game called Golden Light. One of the strangest freaking games I've ever seen. It's a combination of first-person horror, and roguelike (so, procedural levels and whatnot). The atmosphere is *great*, and absolutely everything is very unsettling, and the weirdness just adds to it. What really impresses me is that the freaky dread never at any point fades, no matter what. The game has a real love of the idea of mimics... the store page describes itself as being partly "a reverse prop hunt", in that basically anything could be a monster in disguise. Even in situations where you've figured out that there's one nearby, and 100% know that particular object is one, there's still constant dread. Sneaking past it (usually right next to it, due to the claustrophobic levels), constantly watching it as you pass, it shouldnt be scary since you already know what it is, but you still dread the fact that it could very abruptly jump up, transforming into this horrible meat monstrosity, and lunging at you. The game is one of those where you're NOT meant to fight everything (if you defeat too many monsters the dungeon itself gets angry at you and gets way more dangerous, not to mention that weapons are super limited), so a frequent result of this is a panicked run throughout the maze, trying to get away from this rampaging thing that is now making absolutely horrible sounds. And you're alerting all sorts of other abominations too, as you go. And the sound design is *excellent*. My favorite part so far is the first boss. I genuinely could not describe... whatever the heck that thing is supposed to be. I cant think of a weirder boss. But the visual design, the surrounding lighting, the freaky way it behaves, and the unholy sounds it makes just work sooooo well. The boss doesnt jumpscare you... it outright cant. But I find it way more effective than pretty much any jumpscare. Even having done that fight many times now, it still produces that sensation of total dread (and it's just a well-designed boss fight, too!). I havent seen the other bosses as frankly the game keeps just stomping me, but I expect them to be just as amazing in that regard. Yeah, sorry, that was really long, but I'm not good at being concise and also I get really into the design aspects of this sort of thing. Good horror in a game just aint easy to do, so I think it's super impressive when a developer manages to really pull it off. Particularly when it's done in a creative way! You do excellent videos, by the way. Totally subscribed. This channel deserves way more attention than it's getting. But, that's Youtube for you...

9 |