It's October, the month
of Halloween! Which means it's time for the obligatory look at
things on the spookier end of the spectrum! As such I'll be spending
this month looking at films, games, anime, and television shows with
more of a horror theme.
I thought I'd start
with an old game back on the Playstation 2; it was known as Fatal
Frame in the United States, and
Project Zero in the
rest of the world. I'll be referring to it as the latter for the
remainder of this post.
Beware!
There may be some minor spoilers up ahead.
Project Zero
is the story of a girl named Miku Hinasaki, and her perilous
adventure in an old, dilapidated mansion. Miku's brother had gone to
the mansion to investigate the disappearance of his mentor, only to
go missing himself. With all other avenues of help dried up, Miku
goes to the mansion herself, in the hopes of personally solving the
case of her brother's disappearance. Only to find the place crawling
with all manner of hostile apparitions. The only thing that can hurt
them is the Camera Obscura.
That's
right, your only weapon is a camera. There is no pulling out bigger,
and badder weapons, and no rocket launchers. Whilst there are
different types of film, none of them really carry the comforting
feeling of seeing your character carrying a large firearm.
The
mechanics of how the combat works help to add to the tension. In
order to get the maximum effectiveness from your camera, you have to
keep the ghosts in frame for a few seconds, which means allowing them
to get closer. This forces the player to try and hold their nerve,
in a great example of risk versus reward gameplay.
Really,
the camera is symbolic of the game as a whole. It represents the
fact that the player is not some macho marine, who will get a
increasingly larger assortment of guns, in order to blow up the
monsters. You are a lone civilian, with only a tiny camera to
protect from the horrors you will encounter. It creates a sense of
vulnerability that most horror games can't, or won't, inspire in
their audiences.
This
sense of dread is accentuated by the controls. Miku does not run
very fast, and she is not very agile either, turning somewhat slowly.
Now whilst some players may find this frustrating, and found that it
only added to the experience, and helped to heighten the sense of
tension. Again, you are not an almost superhuman badass, you are a
normal person in over their head. If you're looking for an
experience where you can eventually mow your way through the hordes
of darkness, then this isn't the game for you.
The
mansion will also throw all sorts of fiendish puzzles and riddles
your way, actual puzzles that require some amount of thought to
solve. You will find hints and tips scattered about the place, but
it will never simply give you the solution. That said, western
gamers may have to put a little more thought into things, due to the
game being translated from Japanese making some of the riddles a tiny
bit more difficult to decipher. However, it's never really a big
problem.
The
visual design lends itself well, both to the atmosphere of the game,
and to the gameplay. The environments are dark enough to be scary,
but not so dark that it becomes impossible to see where you are
going; which is a mistake a number of modern horror games make. The
lighting in general is well done creating some unnerving
environments, whether it be the flickering candlelight creating
creepy shadows, or even the moon casting an eerie, pale light over
everything.
Their
is also a good use of colour. Many horror stories in various mediums
forgo bright colours entirely, in favour of a duller palette; but
Project Zero uses them
to great effect. Deep reds are an obvious choice, but there are also
warm yellows, and even blues and greens. The bright colours help to
give a sense that this world has been lived in, and contrasted with
the darker colours, creates the impression of a fall from grace.
Not
to mention that they help to draw the eye, guiding the player towards
important objects or areas, without being blindingly obvious.
The
monsters are also incredibly creepy, drawing on quite a few classic
Japanese horror tropes, including a few that don't regularly get seen
in the west. Their appearances create a mixture of both pity and
fear, heightening the horror by emphasising the fact that even the
monsters are victims. The way they carry themselves shows them to be
broken in a terrible manner. The sounds they make call attention to
this, often being moans of pain, or pleas for help, or even sometimes
apologies.
Sound
wise, there are no big tracks that try to intimate you with sheer
noise, or anything like that. The came is mostly content to allow
for the sounds within the scene to convey the creeping dread, whether
it be the creaking floorboards, or the moans of an approaching ghost.
Overall, I found this much more effective than if they had used a
dramatic theme or scare chord, every time an enemy was about to
appear.
Unfortunately,
one of the downsides in this game, is that the characters themselves
do not really seem to receive much in the way of characterisation.
It is not so much the script as the way they say it, and how they
react to things. Miku never really shows much other than fear, and
all of the characters speak with a very subdued, flat tone, that
makes it difficult to tell what emotion they are supposed to be
expressing. Of course, with it being the Playstation , body language
would have been difficult for them to get across.
We
also learn even less about Miku's brother, due to his limited screen
time. In fact, the one we learn the most about is the main
antagonist, but saying anything about that would be giving out
spoilers.
This
is made up for however, in the fact that the mystery behind the
Himuro mansion is an intriguing one, and it is genuinely satisfying
to unravel it piece by piece. I don't want to spoil anything, so I
will leave it at that, just in case my readers want to play the game
for themselves.
Overall,
this is one of my favourite horror games of all time, and one of the
few that have genuinely unnerved me. So I can definitely give this a
hearty recommendation.
Until
next time,
PhoenixAct.
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