Fear in virtual worlds, part III

The third part of my feature series on fear in videogames (the first one is here and the second one here).

Another game that contained a good dose of jumping moments was the original Manhunt. While most hide-in-the-shadows-and-stab-them-from-behind games do, the heavy dark atmosphere of this particular one was intensified by violent nature of the game and the presentation layer, namely noisy VHS look and dramatic camera action. Ambience was further amplified by excellent voice acting, occasional “Boo!” kind of scare, invisible demiurg scheming against the main protagonist and somewhat unpredictable enemies (the AI in Manhunt was interesting, hunting, chasing and going back to regroup). The last episode of the game, Deliverance, truly succeeded in keeping player at their toes. I don’t know about others, but enemy that can’t be killed instantly, has extremely powerful weapon and charges at the player out of nowhere definitely does qualify as scary in my book. While Manhunt didn’t really scare me to death, it was quite intense and last levels made my hands sweat.

After that there was quite some time without virtual scares – until Doom III showed up. I remember it as being quite scary, even if this resulted from cheap tricks such as lights going out, imp bursting out of the ceiling and skulls flying through the room all of a sudden. But one can’t deny the storyline, the increasingly thick atmosphere created by reading logs, hearing voice transmissions, and seeing people killed by hell’s forces – which really makes player feel like a part of space base’s population being decimated right now. I played Doom III alone at night and it made me jump more than a couple of times, although the scripted nature of the game took away some of the scare. Nevertheless, I didn’t finish the game because of difficulty level and fear effect combined.

On a side note, I had a nightmare after playing Doom III repeatedly and watching The Matrix (there was also a hint of Donnerjack in it). The two experiences combined into a dream in which I had the opportunity to play the game in total virtual reality immersion (just like in the movie, even the chair and method of connecting was the same), but something went wrong and I could not get out. I remember the fear of dying (because death in the virtual world would result in me dying for real), I also remember dodging fireballs and trying to explain situation to some other player who, unaware of the danger, cheerfully charged at imps…

My totally scariest experience, also resulting in nightmares, was actually quite a recent one, namely playing F.E.A.R. (in this case truly nomen est omen!). The atmosphere was really scary, the enemies would sometimes appear all of a sudden, player would have weird flashbacks and visions, plus add a spooky little girl haunting player every now and then. The moment when dead tortured man moves all of a sudden, the unexpected appearance of the main antagonist on the roof, the corridor slowly feeling with blood – this was the epitome of my virtual scares.

I was playing F.E.A.R. alone at my place at night with high fever, as I was really ill. It felt damn real and I actually had a stomach ache too, so my poor mind interpreted the stimuli of hurting stomach and fear together as a good excuse to enter panic mode, as if something really bad was happening. With fever weakening borders between what’s real and what isn’t, pain in stomach and hands shaking I’ve finally decided that enough’s enough, turned the computer off and went to sleep. I thought I would have a break from the thrill, however it turned out not to be that easy. I had terrible nightmares all night long, in my perception just as real as if I was still playing the damn game. Waking up from them was one of few times in my life when I was too frightened to get up and turn the light on. Truly one of the scariest game-induced traumas in my life.

Next in line of scares came the famous Ravenholm level in Half Life 2. It contained all the necessary horror ingredients – hints of danger that lies out there (“we don’t go to Ravenholm”), spooky abandoned places, atmospheric sounds and finally the horror incarnated – howling, jumping zombie-like things that would hunt me (err, Gordon Freeman). This was truly a masterpiece in scaring a gamer, even more so because of the contrast with other levels, which, while sometimes tense, provided more “normal” setting, thus making Ravenholm part stand out so much more, amplifying the effect. And speaking of the effect, whenever I heard the characteristic howling of these terrifying creatures, I was reduced to shaking jelly before the monsters even arrived.

On a side note: bonus points for Gryffindor Valve for the character of father Grigorij.

The last scary game I have played so far is not chronologically the most recent, but I just had time to finally give it a try – Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. It is the very definition of scary game, based on Lovecraft’s prose, oozing with atmosphere and containing fear-centered gameplay. In the beginning, the player does not even have any weapon and is forced to hide, sneak and run away from enemies. There is no health indicator and being hurt is signalised to player via protagonist’s heavy breathing and vision problems. Other than physical side, mental health also plays important role, with the main character losing his sanity over the events of the game. Fading or blurring vision, shaking hands, panting – the game does convey a sense of fright and horror very convincingly. So convincingly in fact, that it has joined a line of games I have been unable to finish due to being too scared to actually play it.

And so we have reached the end of the list of the games that have managed to make my hair stand on the end. In the final episode of the series, I will write a little more about what can really make the virtual experience so frightening. Stay tuned!

Fear in virtual worlds, part II

Continuing the subject of scary videogames moments (part I is here), I must confess first that I actually missed out two games from early DOS era in my previous note: the original Alone in the Dark and Space Hulk.

While AitD sequels were a mere shadows of the original (especially the last one is catching a lot of flak in reviews), this game was really something. It required a lot of quick thinking in stressful situations from the very beginning – in the very first location player had to immediately start blocking both door and window in order not to be devoured by incoming creatures. The game included Lovecraftian elements and pirates – a combination granting success in the eyes of video game players – but above all, it delivered truly scary experience.

Also, Space Hulk. The moment when a space marine with PowerClaws (or whatever the name of that murderous device was) guarding the back of a squad falls and evil Aliens Genestealers attack the rest of your squad from behind, successive squad members monitors go offline… Combining strategy, arcade, micromanagment and horror, this game would guarantee a good dose of adrenaline to the player.

I don’t know how I could have forgotten these two games. The only possible explanation is that I played them both before I even had my own PC and I don’t have the originals on my shelf. So, let us now leave the DOS era and move towards early Windows…

The next game that managed to scare me was Blood. I was already in highschool and even though the game’s graphics don’t seem that realistic these days and theoretically I was already quite grown up, but nevertheless Blood managed to creep me out. It had really thick atmosphere, memorable monsters and great sound effects combined with unsettling music would set the ambience really well. Roaring stone gargoyles (the epic battle with first one was a tough cookie), growling underwater beasts, screams of evil cultists, with occult chanting in the background of some levels (“…pestis… cru-ento… filo… matsus…“) – I actually had to take breaks when playing this game, when the spooky atmosphere was getting to me.

On a side note, Blood remains one of my all time favourites and some time later I got used to the screams, monsters and music so much that I would be playing the game to cheer myself up, not to mention hours of multiplayer. I actually plan to write a separate post on this game alone.

Around that time I also got frightened by System Shock II, but since I have just played the demo, I don’t think it really counts. Never got back to play this one, which is a shame.

Next in line comes another incredibly scary game, namely Aliens versus Predator. Playing as Alien was spooky with weird, with strange music, unusual vision and the need to have incredible spatial orientation when walking on the walls and ceilings. Player had to watch out for marines and other hazards, but while challenging, this mode was not very frightening. The other two modes, however, were. Even as a Predator, with great health, powerful weapons at hand and vision modes facilitating enemy detection and aiming, fighting swarms of Aliens would be a memorable experience, full of moments when player jumps up. The epitome of fear incarnated, though, was playing as a Human.

The reason for this was simple – the Aliens were not scripted, but deployed in waves somewhere in the level and then would roam free to bite player, coming out from every ventilation shaft, pipe and dark corner randomly. It’s true that there were no savegames during a level, the sounds were very suggestive (just like in the movies), the vision was limited and levels were claustrophobic, but the main reason why this game was so scary was the impredictability of the threat. There was no way to guess when or where from the next attack would come, so the game would keep player at his toes all the time. And since Aliens were such killer beasts, if player missed one acid-blooded monstrosity crawling upon him from behind, the game would be over in seconds. Of course, our Marine would carry a movement detector, the beeping of which alone was often enough to start one’s heart racing, but it only covered fron 180 degrees… I admit not having finished this game due to its insane difficulty setting and fear factor.

The sequel to Aliens vs Predator was still scary, more cinematic and epic, with better story – but it was scripted, hence less unpredictable and therefore less frightening as well. Which is not to say that it wouldn’t freak me out once or twice. Or thrice…

Next comes a whole paragraph devoted to Silent Hill series. Actually, these games could have a separate post written on them. They were all about fear and uncertainety. The first one was the most bizarre of all, with worlds / dimensions / realities switching in a way that left the protagonist (and hence the player as well) totally unsure of what is happening, as well as when and where. The game took a lot from Jacob’s Ladder movie. The sequel was a psychological nightmare, with recurring motive of a girl in haunted city resembling main hero’s dead wife. The girl would die over and over again, only to reappear alive later on, leaving protagonist more and more guilty, shaken and bewildered, finally leading him to see why this was taking place. The third part was definitely less psychological and more straightforward splatter-horror-like, but with great graphics and twisted storyline it also fit well into the series’ dark univers. And let us forget about the fourth one.

In each of these games there was a lot of scares, some coming from the fact that alternate Silent Hill reality was nightmarish world of rust and decay in which causality was just an empty word, but also from really unsettling monsters. An invicible monster called Pyramid Head was haunting player throught Silent Hill 2, pretty much causing me to sweat each time it appeared (not to mention the famous “rape” scene). Little shadow babies in Silent Hill 1 gave me the chills with their crying and moaning. The moment from the beginning of the game when player gets trapped in a nightmare with a crucified corpse on the fence was a masterpiece. Silent Hill 3 also had a couple of really scary moments, for example at the hospital, when player enters a wing that doesn’t exist…

There was a good amount of fear coming from the fact that rules of the game could change with shifting of the worlds (especially true for Silent Hill 1), there also was a certain amount of unpredicatibility, because the game would throw some surprises at the player every now and then. The thick atmosphere of danger was further by white static being emitted from the radio each time a monster would be approaching (quite similar to movement detector in Aliens vs Predator and equally unsettling). The visuals of the other world and monsters, incredibly spooky music by Akira Yamaoka added to the overall impression – this series gave many people some serious nightmares.

To be continued…

Fear in virtual worlds, part I

Kotaku had recently posted an article concerning spoof article on the most scary enemies of video games, which resulted in a very interesting debate in comments, in which I have also taken part in. This in turn has stimulated me to write some more about scary moments in computer games I played, but since it began to become really a huge post (not to mention me falling behind my schedule), I have decided to split it in parts in chronological order.

The very first game that really scared me was Wolfenstein 3D. It may seem funny nowadays, but at the time it was the very first game with full 3D view I played. The immersion was further strengthened by the fact I was playing it alone in a dark room of an empty building after the night has fallen. It took place during students conference, where my mother was a lecturer and I was more or less twelve back then, which also explains a lot.

The most scary element of this experience as far as I can recall was the sound of steel doors slamming shut somewhere in the distance, because that meant something out there was prowling through the level searching for me. I also knew that if “it” attacks me from behind, I will not turn around in time (turning around was a long process in Wolfenstein). What added to the sense of incoming danger was that the enemies were actually quite scary: from Gestapo officers with machine guns, shouting “Gestapo!” when they saw player to deadly zombies with machine guns sticking out of their corpse. Suffice to say this game made me jump more than once.

On a side note, epic fight with Hitler in his bunker was also quite a showdown, requiring running from the fight in order to replenish disappearing health and ammo, with Adolf H. in his exoskeleton armour chasing the player. The sense of satisfaction coming from seeing his bowels spill out from the exploding armour was immense, even more so since the fight was so intense. In these politically correct times this would not pass quality assurance or Sony / Nintendo acceptance process (vide Manhunt 2 case).

While its successor, Doom, was more sophisticated graphical-wise and contained more suspense moments, including some “Bam! Lights go out and thousand imps descends upon you!” thrills, it never really scared me as much as the original Wolfenstein. But then again, I played it with my lights on and I was quite a bit older. I remember my friend ducking in front of my PC when imps hurled fireballs at him, so I guess it was quite suggestive nevertheless. Also, I can recall a story of a student who played Doom all night in his dorm and when leaving his room next morning he saw a cleaning lady, screamed and run away – he was later explaining that seeing her in her brown clothes at the end of dark corridor caused him to believe she was an imp. I guess the fact that he hasn’t slept at all justifies him a little – the perception is a little different in such a state.

Honorable mention includes The Legacy, the old DOS game heavily based on Lovecraftian mythology. If player’s character didn’t have enough willpower, they would scream seeing zombies, their hair would rise, they would drop the objects they were holding (usually a weapon, which made fighting zombies kind of hard) or even freeze in shock. As I tend to play magical characters in RPGs, this would not be a common annoyance for me (high values of strong will), but there were some monsters which would melt even occultist’s mind (green tentacled thing for example). I actually thought it was a very original approach to creating a horror atmosphere, even though it wouldn’t scare me too much – but I have played it as an adult, because it wouldn’t run on my DOS era PC.

Next in line comes X-Com: UFO Defense, also known as UFO: Enemy Unknown. How a strategy game (sic!) presented in mere 320×200 resolution could make player twitch is beyond my comprehension, but it really did. One of the reasons might be that there was a good amount of unpredictability, both in terms of enemy AI during missions and in terms of the game rules that kept changing during the game. Atmospheric music also helped.

At first rules were clear – it’s us humans versus little gray men. We use weapons to kill each other, mano a mano, when we shoot down their vessels. But then the aliens would then terrorize the cities and bring deadly Cyberdisks with them! Fighting with numerous alien foes was a tough cookie, but we would learn how to do it with only minimum civilian casualties. And that’s when a new race appeared – all of a sudden I had to battle a different kind of enemy, the one that could fly (Floaters), at night, keeping an eye on civilians. The in-game darkness became much more threatening now that I wasn’t sure what was hiding in darkness anymore. Couple of in-game days after that fight, aliens retaliated and attacked me in my own base, my soldiers scattered randomly in different rooms, aliens roaming free through the corridors of our own hideout! Still, it was all but a prelude.

The first real horror was another mission to counter alien terror in one of the Earth cities. New alien type, the Snakemen, brought a deadly pet – the Chryssalid. Breeding in a manner of H.R.Geiger’s Alien, infecting both civilians and my soldiers, who would in turn into Chryssalids and start devouring next victims – this enemy was terror incarnated. On first encounter my battle-hardened squad was torn to pieces in just a couple of turns.

At this point I must say that during many missions I have actually grown attached to my soldiers, recognizing their individual skills and remembering their names. Seeing them die one by one was a really shaking experience. As a result, I would replay the mission adapting the approach of US Army in Iraq – upon seeing anything suspicious move inside a house, I would bombard it with explosives. Civilians? Oh well, bad luck. My men come first. Still, even this tactic wouldn’t spare me some nasty encounters – and Chryssalids were very quick beasts. Researching Plasma weapons and flying armours alleviated the fear of the Chryssalid a little, but these monsters were still dangerous.

Just when I got used to changing conditions and new alien types the game would throw at me, I thought that things couldn’t get worse – and I was once again proven wrong. With arrival of Ethereals, the master race behind all the alien invasion, the Psi combat was introduced and it quickly turned the rules upside down. The toughest of my soldiers would panic, shoot their comrades in berserk frenzies, drop armed grenades or even totally succumb under alien control. I remember one particular mission where the only thing I could do after saving in a particularly bad moment was the damage control – after many failed attempts, I managed to save half of my man, most of them wounded. Spooky music, night missions and unseen enemy unknown decimating my teammates – that was the very definition of the word “scary”.

Then Diablo came and rocked my world. The thick atmosphere of something evil boiling underneath a cathedral in a small village of Tristram was incredibly dense. The stories told with excellent voice acting were adding to it. One recurring motive was that of a cruel demon called The Butcher. Crippled kid who lost his leg to it, old drunkard telling the story of how it slaughtered his brothers-in-arms and breaking to cry, dying soldier at the cathedral entrance – player could feel that there was a savage beast out there, waiting for his next prey. This introduction alone was enough to feel chill. When the beast rushed towards me snorting “Argh, fresh meat!”, I almost had to change the armchair cover. And trousers. There were many other monsters in Diablo, including the main evil boss in hell, there were many other spooky moments as well, but nothing compared to that moment of opening the door to bloody hideout of a blood-thirsty demon.

To be continued…

Fear in virtual worlds, part I

Kotaku had recently posted an article concerning spoof article on the most scary enemies of video games, which resulted in a very interesting debate in comments, in which I have also taken part in. This in turn has stimulated me to write some more about scary moments in computer games I played, but since it began to become really a huge post (not to mention me falling behind my schedule), I have decided to split it in parts in chronological order.

The very first game that really scared me was Wolfenstein 3D. It may seem funny nowadays, but at the time it was the very first game with full 3D view I played. The immersion was further strengthened by the fact I was playing it alone in a dark room of an empty building after the night has fallen. It took place during students conference, where my mother was a lecturer and I was more or less twelve back then, which also explains a lot.

The most scary element of this experience as far as I can recall was the sound of steel doors slamming shut somewhere in the distance, because that meant something out there was prowling through the level searching for me. I also knew that if “it” attacks me from behind, I will not turn around in time (turning around was a long process in Wolfenstein). What added to the sense of incoming danger was that the enemies were actually quite scary: from Gestapo officers with machine guns, shouting “Gestapo!” when they saw player to deadly zombies with machine guns sticking out of their corpse. Suffice to say this game made me jump more than once.

On a side note, epic fight with Hitler in his bunker was also quite a showdown, requiring running from the fight in order to replenish disappearing health and ammo, with Adolf H. in his exoskeleton armour chasing the player. The sense of satisfaction coming from seeing his bowels spill out from the exploding armour was immense, even more so since the fight was so intense. In these politically correct times this would not pass quality assurance or Sony / Nintendo acceptance process (vide Manhunt 2 case).

While its successor, Doom, was more sophisticated graphical-wise and contained more suspense moments, including some “Bam! Lights go out and thousand imps descends upon you!” thrills, it never really scared me as much as the original Wolfenstein. But then again, I played it with my lights on and I was quite a bit older. I remember my friend ducking in front of my PC when imps hurled fireballs at him, so I guess it was quite suggestive nevertheless. Also, I can recall a story of a student who played Doom all night in his dorm and when leaving his room next morning he saw a cleaning lady, screamed and run away – he was later explaining that seeing her in her brown clothes at the end of dark corridor caused him to believe she was an imp. I guess the fact that he hasn’t slept at all justifies him a little – the perception is a little different in such a state.

Honorable mention includes The Legacy, the old DOS game heavily based on Lovecraftian mythology. If player’s character didn’t have enough willpower, they would scream seeing zombies, their hair would rise, they would drop the objects they were holding (usually a weapon, which made fighting zombies kind of hard) or even freeze in shock. As I tend to play magical characters in RPGs, this would not be a common annoyance for me (high values of strong will), but there were some monsters which would melt even occultist’s mind (green tentacled thing for example). I actually thought it was a very original approach to creating a horror atmosphere, even though it wouldn’t scare me too much – but I have played it as an adult, because it wouldn’t run on my DOS era PC.

Next in line comes X-Com: UFO Defense, also known as UFO: Enemy Unknown. How a strategy game (sic!) presented in mere 320×200 resolution could make player twitch is beyond my comprehension, but it really did. One of the reasons might be that there was a good amount of unpredictability, both in terms of enemy AI during missions and in terms of the game rules that kept changing during the game. Atmospheric music also helped.

At first rules were clear – it’s us humans versus little gray men. We use weapons to kill each other, mano a mano, when we shoot down their vessels. But then the aliens would then terrorize the cities and bring deadly Cyberdisks with them! Fighting with numerous alien foes was a tough cookie, but we would learn how to do it with only minimum civilian casualties. And that’s when a new race appeared – all of a sudden I had to battle a different kind of enemy, the one that could fly (Floaters), at night, keeping an eye on civilians. The in-game darkness became much more threatening now that I wasn’t sure what was hiding in darkness anymore. Couple of in-game days after that fight, aliens retaliated and attacked me in my own base, my soldiers scattered randomly in different rooms, aliens roaming free through the corridors of our own hideout! Still, it was all but a prelude.

The first real horror was another mission to counter alien terror in one of the Earth cities. New alien type, the Snakemen, brought a deadly pet – the Chryssalid. Breeding in a manner of H.R.Geiger’s Alien, infecting both civilians and my soldiers, who would in turn into Chryssalids and start devouring next victims – this enemy was terror incarnated. On first encounter my battle-hardened squad was torn to pieces in just a couple of turns.

At this point I must say that during many missions I have actually grown attached to my soldiers, recognizing their individual skills and remembering their names. Seeing them die one by one was a really shaking experience. As a result, I would replay the mission adapting the approach of US Army in Iraq – upon seeing anything suspicious move inside a house, I would bombard it with explosives. Civilians? Oh well, bad luck. My men come first. Still, even this tactic wouldn’t spare me some nasty encounters – and Chryssalids were very quick beasts. Researching Plasma weapons and flying armours alleviated the fear of the Chryssalid a little, but these monsters were still dangerous.

Just when I got used to changing conditions and new alien types the game would throw at me, I thought that things couldn’t get worse – and I was once again proven wrong. With arrival of Ethereals, the master race behind all the alien invasion, the Psi combat was introduced and it quickly turned the rules upside down. The toughest of my soldiers would panic, shoot their comrades in berserk frenzies, drop armed grenades or even totally succumb under alien control. I remember one particular mission where the only thing I could do after saving in a particularly bad moment was the damage control – after many failed attempts, I managed to save half of my man, most of them wounded. Spooky music, night missions and unseen enemy unknown decimating my teammates – that was the very definition of the word “scary”.

Then Diablo came and rocked my world. The thick atmosphere of something evil boiling underneath a cathedral in a small village of Tristram was incredibly dense. The stories told with excellent voice acting were adding to it. One recurring motive was that of a cruel demon called The Butcher. Crippled kid who lost his leg to it, old drunkard telling the story of how it slaughtered his brothers-in-arms and breaking to cry, dying soldier at the cathedral entrance – player could feel that there was a savage beast out there, waiting for his next prey. This introduction alone was enough to feel chill. When the beast rushed towards me snorting “Argh, fresh meat!”, I almost had to change the armchair cover. And trousers. There were many other monsters in Diablo, including the main evil boss in hell, there were many other spooky moments as well, but nothing compared to that moment of opening the door to bloody hideout of a blood-thirsty demon.

To be continued…