Horrorshow
On the Boingboing.net bump of a third party article, I decided to try a few recommended horror games.
Using the Unreal Development Kit, "Erie" was disappointing. There is little support for the game, the engine itself appears to run terribly on a laptop, and there are no menu options for optimizing the game. (Actually, almost no menu options. It begs the question why was a menu included at all?) A "help" option would have been helpful. Also, being able to customize the kybrd layout could have made the game more playable. In the end, the rendering issues made the game unplayable which is most disappointing the story itself seemed worth an investigation.
(One of the options the "menu" does include is for reviewing the notes your character has acquired in game. This seems essential, as when received the notes tend to to flash blurrily on screen, resolve for a split second into images with words on them, and then the protagonist apparently shoves them into a pocket for safekeeping. However, the note reviewing via menu is merely a cruel mockery. The notes are displayed smaller and more illegible than when first picked up. There seems to be an option to magnify the display, as the pointer has a + (plus) sign in the middle, but fiddling with the mouse produces no magnification at all. Scouring the internet for screen capture images also proved fruitless.)
http://www.desura.com/games/erie
http://kurtcoppersmith.wix.com/erie
*
One of five stars. Inefficient, has one monster which you encounter so quickly you do not have time to be scared of it/reason you should run the opposite direction. As a result it kills you and you get a close-up view of a floppity rendering mistake for about ten seconds or so. Maybe there were intended to be meat-carving noises, but it just quietly flops around on the screen, failing to encompass any aspect of horror apart from that someone wasted part of their life making this game.
The second (more playable) game I tried was "Imscared". Like a combination of shoddy Wolfenstein 3D (yes, a game from about 20 years ago) and a bottom bucket "Zork" clone (so far as game world). Despite some issues, it was fully playable. Parts of its beyond the fourth wall design did not seem to function as intended (I gatherno means of knowing for certain). Nonetheless, the game is small in bytes as well as play time, so I would also recommend giving it a trial. Apart from the graphics being too low end to make it very endearing (the game does foster imagination, but equally as much confusion over the vagueness of objects/rooms) my primary issue with play was the sound. The protagonist's footsteps were nigh-agonizing.
Also, I give Imscared a bit of additional credit as English does not appear to be the original language it was compiled in.
http://gamejolt.com/games/other/imscared-a-pixelated-nightmare/10058/
***
Three of five stars. Not entirely scary but scary enough and with just a hint of art and subtlety to make it stand above a project some kid made and insisted his friends play. Also, it did not waste my valuable time, apart from one or two frustrating "adventure game" moments of play.
Using the Unreal Development Kit, "Erie" was disappointing. There is little support for the game, the engine itself appears to run terribly on a laptop, and there are no menu options for optimizing the game. (Actually, almost no menu options. It begs the question why was a menu included at all?) A "help" option would have been helpful. Also, being able to customize the kybrd layout could have made the game more playable. In the end, the rendering issues made the game unplayable which is most disappointing the story itself seemed worth an investigation.
(One of the options the "menu" does include is for reviewing the notes your character has acquired in game. This seems essential, as when received the notes tend to to flash blurrily on screen, resolve for a split second into images with words on them, and then the protagonist apparently shoves them into a pocket for safekeeping. However, the note reviewing via menu is merely a cruel mockery. The notes are displayed smaller and more illegible than when first picked up. There seems to be an option to magnify the display, as the pointer has a + (plus) sign in the middle, but fiddling with the mouse produces no magnification at all. Scouring the internet for screen capture images also proved fruitless.)
http://www.desura.com/games/erie
http://kurtcoppersmith.wix.com/erie
*
One of five stars. Inefficient, has one monster which you encounter so quickly you do not have time to be scared of it/reason you should run the opposite direction. As a result it kills you and you get a close-up view of a floppity rendering mistake for about ten seconds or so. Maybe there were intended to be meat-carving noises, but it just quietly flops around on the screen, failing to encompass any aspect of horror apart from that someone wasted part of their life making this game.
The second (more playable) game I tried was "Imscared". Like a combination of shoddy Wolfenstein 3D (yes, a game from about 20 years ago) and a bottom bucket "Zork" clone (so far as game world). Despite some issues, it was fully playable. Parts of its beyond the fourth wall design did not seem to function as intended (I gatherno means of knowing for certain). Nonetheless, the game is small in bytes as well as play time, so I would also recommend giving it a trial. Apart from the graphics being too low end to make it very endearing (the game does foster imagination, but equally as much confusion over the vagueness of objects/rooms) my primary issue with play was the sound. The protagonist's footsteps were nigh-agonizing.
Also, I give Imscared a bit of additional credit as English does not appear to be the original language it was compiled in.
http://gamejolt.com/games/other/imscared-a-pixelated-nightmare/10058/
***
Three of five stars. Not entirely scary but scary enough and with just a hint of art and subtlety to make it stand above a project some kid made and insisted his friends play. Also, it did not waste my valuable time, apart from one or two frustrating "adventure game" moments of play.