It’s spooky…
The prevailing theme in October is usually horror games due to the strong influence of Halloween on pop culture. In keeping with Destructoid’s annual tradition of blog writing in October, the theme is related to scary games. Just as this year’s “Hello Darkness” prompt suggested, it revolves around games that solicit feelings of dread and horror. However, are games of this genre the only games that solicit these types of feelings?
If you think about it, scary games are designed to be one thing above all, and that is to be as uncomfortable for the player as possible, while at the same time providing enough room for the players to willingly delve deep into the non-comfort zone.
It is clear that horror games are not the only games that can extract you from your comfort zone. Many games of different genres attempt their best to simultaneously upset and cajole the player to invoke alternate feelings of frustration and helplessness, while also providing moments of pure joy and victory. Some games, like Papers Please, don’t provide the slightest form of joy or release.
But outside of challenging games – which is a form of discomfort that is pivotal to gameplay to a certain degree – there are also those games that aim to harass the player in unique and inventive ways.
The survival genre is built on the concepts of scarcity and continuous maintenance. The idea that resources must be scavenged to be consumed regularly, and that there may be a possible shortage that leads to failure. Note that the possibility of shortage may simply be suggested and could be a very remote possibility, but it will affect how the player reacts to the game.
This concept is brilliantly used in a game I am playing now, The Banner Saga. In this game, you oversee a caravan of warriors for most of the time. This caravan consumes resources that deplete with each passing day. Resources can be bought using experience points that can also be used to buy items and upgrade characters as well. These scarce resources force you to juggle three different priorities, creating a situation where the player must debate within themselves.
When an event happens that mentions half the supplies could be poisoned, you must balance the risks of that being true vs. the risk that poisoned supplies would kill off some of your warriors. There is a distinct possibility that none of this could matter. You might have more than enough supplies. However, until you know for sure, the illusion of scarcity raises the stakes so much that you become more invested in the game.
Other games aim to be emotionally, morally, or even viscerally uncomfortable. Sometimes, games try to transmit these feelings through the gameplay itself. Adding layers that cause tensions, difficulty, discomfort, or any other negative feeling. Often, this is where receptions can widely vary.
For instance, the animal character in The Last Guardian was designed to ignore the player in the early game, becoming more responsive as trust is built between the two. This is the feeling I got from the game, and one I think was true to its message and concept. However, some people found that degree of unresponsiveness annoying, and they didn’t appreciate this relationship between story concepts and gameplay.
I found the way the boy’s relationship with Trico developed to be organic, others found it confusing and tedious.
This is usually where developers need to be careful to differentiate between being difficult or uncomfortable and being plain tedious. As with many horror games, you usually fail if you scare players away from playing your game. You want to be scary, but also provide enough hope so that the player want to progress.
Recently, Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding was released to mixed reviews, despite its respectable 84 Metacritic score, where even reviewers who gave it high scores used adjectives such as “boring,” “tedious,” or “pretentious” to describe its gameplay and story. Since I haven’t played the game, I will not attempt to make any statements about the game itself, but rather its reception.
I think similar to how The Last Guardian was received, not all players will engage with Death Stranding’s gameplay with the way some of the reviewers (or even Kojima himself) wished them to. How someone can receive a game and interact with it is difficult to control (which is why some games opt for over-long tutorials that ensure the players know how to best play the game).
In the end, games that aim to discomfort, horrify, or otherwise upend the established norms all face an uphill battle. By definition, their attempts could fall flat, be too successful and off-putting, or simply become tedious to go through.
It’s a tight balancing act, and I don’t think you can include every demographic in that balance easily, but I think games that push the envelope make gaming more interesting as a whole, even if I end up being bored to tears playing Death Stranding three years from now.
- I guess it was only natural for Shoggoth2588 to write the first blog.
- Unresolved business can refer to dealing with your backlog, but with The Rambling Gamer, it was more about dealing with his internal ghosts when playing Metal Gear V.
- This is a case where the writer couldn’t actually finish their unfinished business. Riley1sSpook wasn’t able to finish Fallout 2 but still managed to enjoy it.
- OmegaPhattyAcid is the first on the bandwagon with this Cblog arguing that “Fear” is the real “Darkness.”
- Cavemanlegend talks about The Prototype.
- I guess both Dying Light and Hollow Knight (hey, that rhymes) have some “Darkness” in them just as The Aspargoose writes.
- The Zelda series is known for having darker themes in the background, and this blog by Eggrollbuddy looks like a good analysis of those themes in Link’s Awakening.
- Ironically, OmegaPhattyAcid also closes out the Bloggers Wanted prompt with a final blog about the darkness and horror in the Halo series.
Amnesia is a horror game that made me so uncomfortable I couldn’t finish it.
A- TroyFullbuster waxes lyrical about Dtoid’s own robot, the busy bee Chris Carter.
A- Skazfest writes a blog celebrating the unique Game Cube controller.
S- It looks like Kerrik52 is back with his weekly reviews of past games in his Traveller in Playtime series:
- I guess this month’s reviews will all be horror-themed, such as this review of The Suffering, a PS2 action-horror game.
- Still in the same era, check this review of the first Fatal Frame, which still holds up to this day.
- Cold Fear starts well but doesn’t deliver through.
- The final Kerrik52 blog of the month is not about a horror game, but MediEvil is a proper Halloween themed game.
S- Lord Spencer continues reviewing the supposed best games of the Sega Saturn system:
- The Shining series went into many genres, and in my review of Shining in the Holy Ark as part of my Saturn Reviews series, I thoroughly didn’t enjoy its foray into First-Person RPGs.
- Taking a break from the Retro Sanctuary top 100 list, I reviewed Astal, which was recommended by another Dtoid member, and I found it to be extremely boring.
S- Nior is doing a Command & Conquer retrospective series:
- The third blog in the series is covering C&C: Tiberian Sun.
- And then we get to the highly regarded Red Alert 2.
S- Osc is continuing to report the progress of his game development.
Many people enjoy survival games, some find them incredibly tedious, and different games sometimes get different reactions from fans and detractors of the genre.
S- Aurachad is streaming some stuff.
S- Boxman214 writes about his complicated relationship with Halloween.
T- GreatTrickyShitGreat (what a weird user name) gives his thoughts on Wing Commander.
T- Check out this fan-made Sonic fighting game which eastyy recommends.
T- TroyFullbuster writes an analysis of the surviving popularity of Super Smash Bros. Melee.
T- Asphalt Legends is apparently the “arcade racer of this generation” as per Skazfest’s blog.
The Banner Saga wouldn’t be as good if not for its elements of scarcity and the uncomfortable choices it asks you to make.
P- Lovebuzz is previewing BIGHARDSUN, as a survival-indie game that he is involved in making.
D- Calvinbrine continues his talk on how to develop the perfect 2D Metroid.
D- In an epic effort, ABowlOfCeareal continues writing some interesting balancing suggestions for the Super Smash Bros. cast:
M- PhilsPhindings continues his excellent series where he looks for similarities between famous video game tunes and other music from different sources:
- I would have guessed that Phil would focus on scary tunes for this month, but he opened his blogs with this Super Mario tune.
- One Final Fantasy game that wasn’t featured yet is IX, but that changes with this blog.
- And then Metroid is featured for the first time.
- Then back to Final Fantasy again.
- I was wondering when Donkey Kong would get a shout out here.
- Checkout Debussy’s influence on one of Final Fantasy V’s best tracks.
- A Luigi’s Mansion tune, just in time for the release of the third game in the series.
- Then back again to Final Fantasy V, which has an underrated soundtrack compared to its peers.
- I would not have guessed this blogging series would explore the music of a Barbie game.
S- Burglekutt not RiffRaff reviews the PS4 Gold Headset and thinks its mostly fine.
S- Ras Rauf reports on the opening of the new Nintendo Tokyo store.
R- I can also get as pissed as VeniceCivilian when I get a bad roll playing Civilization.
V- Checkout this video made by TroyFullbuster looking at Easter eggs in Luigi’s Mansion 3.
Some people will enjoy awkward controls and massive backtracking, others might be bored out of their minds.
F- Sorry, but these short blogs by Aurachad are no longer making any sense.
F- This may be a charming blog, but it is still too short to be in the Cblogs.
F- The Cblogs is not the place to ask for in-game support, but you can always try the Qposts.
To celebrate the recap of the entire month, give a hand to the following bloggers:
Topsauced Bloggers:
Comments of the Week and Band of Bloggers Team of This Month:
Be Lucky
Blog Count: 64
