@zfubarz said:
@lord_punch said:
@xceagle:
But at that point, the game just ends up feeling like wish fulfillment without any real conflict. Thus, all of the suspense, intrigue, and creepiness is merely contrived manipulation by the developers who aren't confident for this story to stand alone.
Why is it ok for pretty much every Book and Movie with a romantic theme to build in tension and false dread? Why is it suddenly a bad thing when a game makes you nervous of every new room you explore and then be pleasantly surprised by love and hope winning out? Using the very medium, and the typical tropes of that medium to keep you in suspense until the last possible moment? If it was all obvious and straightforward then the whole experience would be nowhere near as engaging. Anyway you're getting ragged on enough already, sorry.
Jesus that Oscar stuff is great/awful, when I got to the room behind the servants quarters, and saw the child's height markings and the toy horse in the dark room I had step away for a bit while all those little bits and pieces of that side story came together. I didn't get the Kennedy connection but it makes a lot of sense, Layering in so much depth and complexity in a side story is a hell of a thing. The marriage troubles, his drinking getting worse in the new home, his fall back job as a Tech Writer going downhill, his reaction to Sam's sexuality, it all fits together so damn well.
Hell even the fact that Sam and Terrence liked the same porn was a weird funny little touch.
The dread, tension, and suspense that I am referring to is of the thriller or horror variety. I don't think it's fair for the developers to utilize horror/thriller tropes to sell a story that has NOTHING to do with the horror or thriller genres. There can certainly be tension and suspense in romantic stories or family dramas. Even dread. Movies like Ordinary People and American Beauty utilized those wonderfully. But never in a million years would you ever place either of those films in the horror or thriller category.
I think it's disingenuous for Fullbright to lure gamers in with a dark experience which results in a story that warrants very little of that darkness. It comes across to me as them not having the confidence to tell a romantic, dramatic story, and feeling they need to dress it up as horror or suspense for it to work or to interest gamers.
And maybe they're right to be concerned in some way. I mean, despite the quality of the writing and the voice-acting being truly exceptional, the story of Sam and Lonnie is VERY slight. They get together, Lonnie might go into the Army, she doesn't, they run away together. And that's it. That's a very basic, uneventful story for us to be piecing together. Yes, we get interesting info about the activities of the other family members, but it's still not much. For me, personally, I did not feel like I received a full experience, if that makes sense to you. It's like I spent the whole game piecing together the first act, the storytellers forgot to create the rest of the story, and rushed to the end in the best way they thought they should.
That's my take, at least. Looking through the reviews and at the various forums, I seem to be in the minority on this one.
I can respect that take on it, and you are probably right in some regards, they knew full well they wouldn't reach as many people with a straight love story but who's to say it's wrong of them to use your mind against you, they also never claimed that this was horror or thriller game, they just said "You come home from Europe and something is wrong" All of us brought that horror/thriller vibe with us.I look at it more like this, the game starts super creepy in a classical sense, dark stormy night, big, empty, strange, creaky house. Then they quickly drop hints that something is wrong (which it is). Answering machine with the terrified girl, notes about Sam's creepy old neighbour friend and the loose cables near the TV, the haunted/psycho house rumours. SOMETHING is wrong in this house, with your family.
It plays on human nature very well by creating that sense of dread and mystery, I don't know about anyone else but I know I occasionally worry about people I care about for totally dumb reasons, somebody doesn't come home on time, isn't answering their phone and I know they left the place they were, if the weather is bad it's even worse. You call them every 15 minutes, you start browsing the local news station more and more often. Paranoia and fear are part of animalistic human nature.
Then the game starts to fill in some blanks, you learn more and more about each potentially bad situation, The general fear becomes more specific, more directed, and also more personal, you start to care and empathize with the family. While all this is happening though the game has been shifting your fear, you're less and less scared of the standard horror tropes and more of what's gone wrong with the family while you were off galavanting around the world. Did your parents get divorced? Has your dad become an alcoholic? Is your mom having an affair? Was your dad abused as a child? Are you going to find one of their bodies around the next corner?
All of this happens super subtly as well, and you get out what you put in, if you dig into every nook and cranny you'll get more to support your fears, and more to resolve others, until right up to the end and you don't know for certain what you're gonna find in that attic, hell maybe you don't even want to look. I think that fear is much more intense and personal than any jump scare or gross out, I think the thought of losing a loved one, or losing every stable thing in your life is a lot more terrifying than somebody cutting out their own eyeball, or some fictional machete wielding maniac.
Over the course of 3 or so hours you learn everything about this family, the family dynamics, the importance of each person, things that even they don't know about each other, most importantly you see how close to the brink they are, How wrapped up in their own problems and lives they are and how that is hurting each and everyone one of them. You learn how any little nudge against any one thing could have led to disaster, divorce, death, abduction, suicide, bankruptcy, you name it. That initial dread was misplaced, but totally valid. So much could have gone wrong and some things have gone wrong. In the end though, love and hope prevail, everyone is happy, or fighting against the odds to be happy. Sure it's no happily ever after, but it might be, and usually in life that's all any of us can hope for.
That's my take on it anyway. I won't say it's any more valid, or that it was perfect but I will say to my life experiences the game definitely felt relevant, honest, heartfelt and refreshing. Sorry you felt mislead, but like I said from the get go we all brought that on ourselves, personally I'm glad I did.
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