Adventure, Horror and H.P. Lovecraft
By Nasos100 0 Comments
There's something captivating about an adventure game. While they have been in a decline for years ( as was the case of good old CRPGs) a few of them like the Monkey Island series continue to keep going. This particular series is a perfect example of a humorous adventure. And even though im too young to remember the time when PC adventure games were popular, i never believed adventure games would be made for a console.
However i realised that there is a rather disturbing lack of adventure horror games. The only thing that comes to mind are the penumbra series, at least overture and black plague.
These games even though they were budget titles they had their charm. When people hear budget title now, thanks to GB partially, they think of deadly premonition so i should say these 2 games were the complete opposite in terms of 'drawbacks'. Really short for one. Even though they cost something like 20 bucks they would last a good 6-7 hours, with obviously zero replay value. So most people stayed away from these games.
Now this game attracted some attention. First of all it had the bad luck to come out some time after half life 2. Graphic comparisons were made and well this game didnt fair too well compared to the kickass fps.
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth was a first person shooter / adventure, with a great atmosphere. The story of the game was great. It was based on the Shadow over Innsmouth novel by Lovecraft but there were some changes in the backstory / ending (which was based on another short story which i wont reveal for possible spoilers). These changes were great and fitted the game.
However the biggest problem with the game was the shooting. I really cant remember how was the AI bit it couldnt have been too great. Most of the time you just wanted to delve to another catacomb to find something terrifyingly forbidden that would make you shit your pants. At least there was a really basic stealth mechanic, which could be used to avoid some battles, which was your best chance anyways. This game was scary, and not the 'huge mosters with tentacles wants to chop my head off, scary'. There was gore but it would be scarse making you 3 times more scary than if it would happen under other circumstances,
5 years have passed and nothing that resembles this game has appeared. How would a game based on 'The case of Charles Dexter Ward' be? Discovering letters and reading journals of someone that died 200 years ago wouldnt make for a video game premise? It would certainly fit an atmospheric adventure though, how many people are intersted in such a story? Especially one where no decisions would be made. Personally i believe there is room in the market for something like that, but even though we may see something we can be sure that it will be another unappreciated/budget title. The question is thins: If a first person game based on these premises comes out do we want it to be a shooter? or an adventure? I wouldnt mind shooting if it involved puzzle solving but a case where you know 'this is the part where i fight' wouldnt feel right.
It feels really weird knowing no major company made a game based on the Mythos apart from the aforemented one. I mean, how many people read these books? Certainly not enough for someone to say that it feels too familiar. Under the hands of an artist everything can feel different. How do you depict a shoggoth or something as tall as a mountain??
What form does the ''burning eye with the three lobes and balck wings'' take in a video game? It would be great to witness something like that on a screen, espacially considering the fact there are no worthy movies about it. (Apart from the shit load of gore movies noone should ever watch)
I mean how do you put something like this in a video game? (thats the artist depiction of a Cthulhu Mythos figure)
Yea it may fail, and yes it wont be 'casual' and your girlfriend / roomate wont be able to 'pick up and play'.
But hope is not lost. Demon Souls was gamespot's 2009 game of the year. This game came out of the blue and won a lot of awards. Just be being crazy and requiring you to do the same shit again and again. People liked it though because someone had a vision when making this.
And thats the reason Medal of Honor will fail.
Thats what i had to say, the text is big and its meant to be read in one go for maximum results. Also this is my first blog so comments are welcome. Unless you are a troll. In which case just wait for a while and you will get your own major city when Cataclysm comes out.
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