Monthly Archives: September 2021

Top Ten Articles – September 2021

2021 Artwork Top Ten Articles September

Well, it’s the end of the month and this means that it’s time for my usual round up of links to the ten best articles (plus a few honourable mentions) that I’ve posted here during the past month.

This month’s articles went reasonably well, and I continued my extended series about horror videogames too 🙂 However, I still found myself grappling with the problem of running low on high-quality “unplayed” horror games in my collection – but this helped me to focus a little bit more on taking another look at “the classics” (especially the original 1999 version of “Resident Evil 3”).

I’ve also found, bought and/or re-discovered at least one or two more horror games (plus a couple of old PS2 demo discs too) since then too – I may not review that many of them, but studying them has given me an infusion of new ideas for the articles that will appear from about early-mid October onwards – so, stay tuned 🙂

At the time of writing, I’ve prepared horror game-themed articles for most of October and hope to write more (and, at the very least, I want to keep the series going through October. If nothing else, writing this series is one of the most fun things that I’ve ever done with this blog 🙂 ).

In terms of reviews, it was slim pickings this month. In addition to my usual monthly “Doom II” WAD review, the only other game I reviewed was an ultra low-budget indie “point and click” horror game called “Rabbit Hill” (2017).

Anyway, here are the lists 🙂 Enjoy 🙂

Top Ten Articles – September 2021:

Honourable mentions:

Horror Games And Censorship

2021 Artwork Horror games and censorship article sketch

Well, for this article in my series about horror videogames, I thought that I’d talk about censorship. The horror genre has always been a magnet for would-be censors, and videogames have – even to this very day – been treated more harshly by censorship boards than other forms of media (eg: compare strict PEGI game ratings to film ratings for comparable content in most of Europe…). Yet, whilst it obviously varies from place to place, horror games seem to have got off relatively lightly in terms of censorship 🙂

I’ve already talked about how the BBFC in the UK actually took a sensible attitude towards classic survival horror games when they still had the power to classify games, awarding most survival horror games more reasonable “15+” ratings during the genre’s 1996-2004 heyday, compared to the harsher ratings they got in the US and most of Europe. Yet, saying this, there were two notable later cases of formal and informal UK-specific horror game censorship during the mid-late 2000s.

First of all, the game “Manhunt 2” (2007) was released almost a year late in the UK because the BBFC tried to ban it. Although the game had some censorship troubles with the ESRB in the US, even the censored version eventually produced for the US market still initially got banned over here. The BBFC’s rationale for this was that the game was: “Distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone in an overall game context which constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing. There is sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged, in the game“.

It is hard not to see this as a case of double standards, given that – during the 2000s – the BBFC significantly reduced the historically strict attitude towards horror movies it had held since at least the video nasties moral panic during the 1980s. In 2007-2008, you could see some seriously intense and brutal horror movies completely uncensored over here (eg: “Saw III”, “Martyrs” etc…). Yet, a game – with less realistic “graphics” than a film – that was aiming for the same type of “unremitting bleakness and callousness” as these films was somehow considered too much.

Likewise, horror is a genre where violence is usually deliberately presented as being inherently ugly and horrific.  Far from thrilling the audience, the violence in many horror games is designed to make them grimace or look away. Horror genre violence is usually designed to be repulsive and disturbing, rather than exciting and empowering. So, ironically, despite being a violent genre – horror games often carry a surprisingly anti-violence message…..

Fortunately, since the BBFC is a formal body with legal authority, it’s power is balanced out by a robust and independent appeals procedure. So, about a year after it’s censored release in the US, the censored version of “Manhunt 2” was finally able to be released in the UK after a successful appeal. Ironically, now that the BBFC’s game censorship role has been replaced by PEGI – which is stricter, but has no formal banning mechanism – the uncut version of “Manhunt 2” could now, theoretically at least, be released in the UK with a likely PEGI “18+” rating if the publisher wanted.

The other case of horror game censorship in the UK was actually a type of informal censorship. I am, of course, talking about the fact that “Rule Of Rose” (2006) never got released in this country 😦 It wasn’t formally banned by the BBFC… because they didn’t even get to see it. Before the game was even released here, our tabloid newspapers stirred up a moral panic about it – where they printed false allegations of potentially unlawful content that the game supposedly contained. It didn’t. Yet, the publisher was scared off from releasing the game in the UK. For context, PEGI only gave the game a “16+” rating when it was released in mainland Europe.

And the UK seems to have got off lightly when it comes to censorship of horror games! One of the most surprising things about horror game censorship is how strict it is in Japan – of all places. Even though this country is home to two of the greatest franchises in the history of horror games – “Resident Evil” and “Silent Hill” – the CERO ratings board in Japan famously takes a strict policy towards gruesome moments in videogames. Even non-horror games, which often get an uncut “18+” rating in Europe, can sometimes apparently have their goriest moments heavily toned down in Japanese editions.

Interestingly, before CERO was founded in 2002, Japan actually seems to have been one of the more liberal countries with regard to horror games. Most famously, the 1995 SNES horror game “Clock Tower” was only released in Japan probably due to Nintendo’s over-zealous censorship policies in the US and Europe. Likewise, the original “Resident Evil” (1996) received a completely uncensored release in Japan but had a couple of FMV sequences censored in the US and Europe.

Still, an interesting twist is that Germany – renowned for its strict game censorship – actually seems to be relatively lenient towards the horror genre… sometimes, at least. I can’t remember where I read this, but – given the USK’s ultra-strict policies about fictional violence in videogames, horror games where the player is unarmed or under-armed and has to run and/or hide from monsters (rather than fighting them) may actually be treated a bit more leniently in Germany than elsewhere. A good example of this is the 2014 game “Alien: Isolation”, which got a USK “16+” rating in Germany, but a higher PEGI “18+” rating in the rest of Europe.

Likewise, even during the censorious 1990s/early-mid 2000s, horror games in Germany seem to have got off relatively lightly when compared to other genres. Because the USK famously takes a much stricter view of interactive violence against human characters (sometimes resulting in German editions of classic action games that replaced their human enemies with robots), the undead zombies and mutant monsters that were a feature of classic survival horror games may possibly have worked in their favour. Even so, some classic “Resident Evil” games still suffered mild-moderate visual and/or gameplay censorship in Germany though.

Of course, horror games can sometimes get censored for different reasons than fictional violence.

One famous example is a “walking simulator” horror game called “Devotion” (2019). The formal and informal censorship this game suffered centre around a political joke found in a background detail. Even though it only seems to be officially banned in China, major well-known online game shops from both the US and Europe still don’t sell the game at the time of writing due to the controversy surrounding it.

Another example is how most editions of the original “Resident Evil 2” (1998) suffered a small amount of visual censorship after a company threatened to sue Capcom over an image on in-game vending machine that vaguely resembled one of their products.

Still, the irony with horror games is that censors can sometimes completely miss the point. Far from depraving players, horror games rely on the fact that players have moral standards and the capacity for empathy in order to be frightening or disturbing.

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Anyway, I hope that this was useful 🙂

Save Point Designs In Horror Games

2021 Artwork Save point designs in horror games article sketch

Well, for this article in my series about horror videogames, I thought that I’d talk about save point designs. Although most horror game save points do pretty much the same thing – allow the player to manually save their game in specific locations – their visual and/or practical design can really add something to the atmosphere and style of a horror game.

The most famous examples of horror game save points are probably the typewriters in the classic “Resident Evil” games (1996-2004). Unlike many other horror games, saving your game with one of these requires you to use consumable ink ribbons. These limit the number of times the player can save, adding suspense whilst also pushing the player to carefully search and explore in the hope of finding more ink ribbons. It’s a harsh gameplay mechanic, but it is consistent with the way that these games strictly limit the player in all sorts of deliberately nerve-wracking and/or strategic ways.

''Resident Evil'' (1996) typewriter screenshot

This is a screenshot from “Resident Evil” (1996), showing the warning message that appears when you use a typewriter. Each save uses up one of your limited supply of ink ribbons.

The visual design of these save points is also interesting. Although old typewriters seem like a logical thing to find in the creepy old mansion from “Resident Evil” (1996 & 2002), they seem a little bit out of place in the more modern and/or futuristic settings found in many of the sequels. Still, the anachronistic strangeness of seeing a 1930s-50s style typewriter in a building from the mid-late 1990s/early-mid 2000s makes it stand out even more. Yes, these save points are also often signposted in other ways – such as eerily relaxing background music and/or the presence of an item chest – but the “out of place” visual design has made the typewriter an instantly recognisable feature of the classic “Resident Evil” games.

On the other hand, the save points in “Project Zero”/”Fatal Frame” (2001) are very consistent with the theme and setting of the game. Since this game focuses on using an old camera to exorcise ghostly monsters, the save points are also shaped like larger old cameras mounted on tripods. Not only do they allow the player to stock up on weaker types of film if they are running low, but they also contain a small indicator light too. Unlike a lot of other classic survival horror games, monsters can actually enter save rooms in this game… and if they do… the blue save point light will turn red, preventing the player from saving until they have defeated the monster. It’s a really evil and harsh piece of game design, but it does add a certain “Nowhere is safe!” feeling of suspense though.

Save point in ''Project Zero'' (2001)

This is a screenshot from “Project Zero”/”Fatal Frame” (2001). It’s a bit difficult to see, but notice the small glowing blue light on the camera in the corner of the room. This means that there are no ghosts nearby and the save point can be used.

Interestingly, the classic “Silent Hill” games (1999-2004) have very little consistency in the design of their save points – with the only vaguely common feature possibly being the colour red. Even then, it’s a very muted shade of red/brown in the first and fourth games – but the second and third games will often use much brighter shades of red in order to make their save points clearly stand out at a glance within gloomy and muted locations. Needless to say, this bolder colour choice is good game design. It makes it a lot easier for the player to notice and use the save points.

Whilst the save points in the first and fourth games are just ordinary notepads/notebooks, and the save points in the second game are random red rectangles, only “Silent Hill 3” (2003) puts some serious creative effort into the visual and narrative design of it’s save points. In this game, not only are the save points intricate occult sigils (which are either scrawled in blood or have an ominous red glow) but – whenever you find one – the main character will actually comment about how strange looking at it feels. Although this seems like a random detail at first, it actually links into the plot of the game in a really clever – if subtle – way too.

''Silent Hill 3'' (2003) save point text

This is a screenshot from an early part of “Silent Hill 3” (2003), showing the main character reacting to a save point.

Likewise, in a really clever call-back to “Silent Hill” (1999), you can also find a couple of the notebook-style save points from that game and actually read what the main character wrote in them. This is a really cool detail that not only adds depth to the story of “Silent Hill 3”, but also retrospectively adds a bit more realism to the save points from “Silent Hill” too.

''Silent Hill'' (1999) save point text in ''Silent Hill 3'' (2003)

This is one of the “Silent Hill” (1999) notebook texts that you can find in “Silent Hill 3” (2003). It’s a really cool detail.

Still, this isn’t to say that the other “Silent Hill” games don’t do creative things with their save points. One interesting feature of “Silent Hill 4” (2004) is that there is literally only one save point in the entire game. It is placed in a hub area that you can return to both during and between levels. This is a rather clever piece of game design because, not only does it make it easy to save between levels, but it also allows the player to save during a level… but discourages it by forcing the player to trudge all the way back to the hub area every time. This allows for a “Resident Evil”-style feeling of suspenseful limited saves, whilst also reducing the player’s frustration by technically allowing them to save any time. It’s a “best of both worlds” type of thing.

Although modern indie survival horror games sometimes opt for checkpoint saving, a few games still carry on the tradition of using save points. These will often be thematically consistent with the locations found in the game. For example, the school-themed horror game “The Coma Recut” (2017) allows the player to save at certain chalkboards that they find. Given how common these are within a school setting, it results in a surprisingly forgiving saving system where the player is never too far away from a save point at any given time. Although this gets rid of a lot of frustration, it does reduce the suspense slightly when compared to older survival horror games.

Another interesting example can be found in “Remothered: Tormented Fathers” (2018) which uses ornate mirrors – with a metronome in front of them – as save points. Not only can the player save an unlimited number of times, but these save points also allow the player to heal too. However, this generosity is balanced out in several hilariously evil and/or cruel ways.

First of all, the mirror begins to crack whenever you use it to heal – implying that it can only be used a limited number of times. Not only that, there are very few save points in this game and they are often quite a distance apart from each other. What this means is that, if you want to save or heal, you often have to make a long… and dangerous… journey. And I’m not exaggerating about the “dangerous” part either. Although the area directly in front of a save point seems to… maybe… be safe, almost everywhere else most definitely ISN’T! So, there’s a genuine risk of losing your progress if you decide to travel to a save point.

All in all, horror game save points are interesting things. They need to be unobtrusive enough to feel like a realistic part of the game world, but they also have to stand out in an instantly-recognisable way. Some horror games will use them to reassure the player, but other horror games will do harsh or cruel things with them in order to add extra suspense. I guess there are no real “rules” when it comes to save point design, but the creators of scary horror games will usually put a lot of careful thought into what the save points look like and how they work.

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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂

How “Remothered: Tormented Fathers” (2018) Makes Hiding Scary

2021 Artwork Remothered Tormented Fathers (2018) hiding article sketch

Well, for this article in my series about horror videogames, I thought that I’d talk about an indie horror game from 2018 called “Remothered: Tormented Fathers“. In particular, I thought that I’d take a close look at how this modern-style “run and hide” survival horror game makes hiding feel scary. If you haven’t heard of this game before, it’s a slasher-movie style game set in 1970s Italy, where a character called Dr. Rosemary Reed finds herself trapped in a creepy old mansion with a roster of vicious killers.

The gameplay is inspired by a game from 1995 called “Clock Tower” (which I haven’t played) and this is one of those modern horror games where the player’s ability to fight back is heavily restricted in order to add more suspense. Although “Remothered: Tormented Fathers” is a game that focuses more on slow-paced stealth than on frantically running away, it is one of the most intense horror games that I’ve ever played. The tension, suspense and dread is palpable throughout the game – and it doesn’t fully go away whenever the player dives into one of the game’s many hiding places either, but why?

First of all, when the player hides, the camera switches to a limited first-person perspective… and then restricts the player’s view even more. In virtually every hiding place, your view will be obstructed in some way or another – whether it is blocked by doors, furniture or even the degree that the camera can be rotated, the player can’t see literally everything in the surrounding area.

First-person perspective hiding places in ''Remothered Tormented Fathers'' (2018)

Here are screenshots of two hiding places from “Remothered: Tormented Fathers” (2018). As you can see, the player’s view is deliberately restricted by furniture.

Not only does this visual restriction increase the suspense by making it more difficult for the player to tell whether or not it is safe to emerge, but placing visual obstructions in the close foreground also creates an intense feeling of claustrophobia too. These hiding places feel really small, cramped and restrictive. Although the player is safe, the game makes no secret of the fact that they won’t progress unless they place themselves in danger again.

There’s also the sound design too. Instead of peaceful silence, you’ll hear the main character hyper-ventilating and/or muttering things like “This can’t be happening!” in a panicked voice. Not only is this inherently disturbing, but it also helps to maintain the suspense by constantly reminding the player of the danger they will face when they inevitably have to leave the hiding place. It also mirrors the type of acting found in a typical slasher movie too.

But the game does something even creepier than this with its sound design too. Given how heavily the player’s view of their surroundings is restricted, they will often have to rely on audio cues in order to work out whether or not it is safe to emerge. When a villain is nearby, you can hear their footsteps and the creepy things they mutter to themselves whilst hunting you. But – and I’m not sure exactly how this works – the game often seems to make the villain sound a lot closer than they often actually are.

At a guess, the game probably measures the distance between you and the villain very literally when deciding how loud to make the sound effects. In other words, if there is a door or wall in between you and the villain, then the game possibly ignores it completely and plays the effects at the same volume as they would be if the villain was right next to you. Given how little you can see from the hiding places, this really creates an intense feeling of imminent danger. There were nights when I’d try to play this game, but end up nervously hiding for ages because I genuinely didn’t know if it was safe to emerge or not.

In addition to this, hiding places aren’t the instant refuge that you might expect. Yes, if a villain literally sees you entering a hiding place, then they will pull you out of it fairly quickly – but that’s not all. If you make a mistake and find yourself fleeing in terror, then you can usually run faster than the villains. However, if you get a little bit of a headstart and duck into a hiding place before they’ve had a chance to see you, then you aren’t completely safe.

Not only does the main character sound audibly exhausted at a time when you want complete silence, but the villain will then walk right up to the hiding place and begin to closely scrutinise it. In a cruel twist, you then have to play a short mini-game that relies on keeping a steady hand. Given how much your heart will be pounding and your hands will be shaking, this “easy” game can quickly become a lot more difficult and suspenseful than you might expect.

Of course, hiding places are only one way to hide in this game. During ordinary third-person perspective gameplay, you can also crouch behind corners and objects in order to hide from the villains. This is quicker and also allows you to see much more of the surrounding area too, but it is still incredibly scary.

Hiding behind a corner in ''Remothered Tormented Fathers'' (2018)

This is another screenshot, showing Dr. Reed crouching behind a corner at the bottom of a staircase. Sorry about the low quality of this screenshot, I had to turn the graphics settings down a lot in order to get this game to run on my PC’s integrated graphics.

Why? First of all, you are a lot less safe than in a dedicated hiding place. If a villain spots you, they can chase after you in an instant. Secondly, being able to see a larger area is a mixed blessing because there are also more places where danger can emerge from, so you have to be even more vigilant. Finally, you probably won’t know the exact limits of the villain’s vision – so, whilst the shadows and gloom can hide you, it can be difficult to tell what is a safe distance to do this from until it is too late…

Of course, “Remothered: Tormented Fathers” is far from the only horror game to do clever things with its hiding places. Another famous example can be found in “Outlast” (2013) (SPOILERS) where the villains will often make a point of conspicuously opening and/or examining every other visible hiding place nearby whenever you hide. From the mid-late game footage I’ve seen online (and, yes, I was too scared to actually play more than an hour or two of that game!), the villain never actually checks the player’s hiding place – so this is an entirely “psychological horror” type of thing, but it certainly seems ridiculously terrifying.

So, yes, the scariest horror games will often even make something as “reassuring” as hiding still feel noticeably frightening too.

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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂

Time Loops And Horror Games

2021 Artwork Time loops and horror games article sketch

Well, for this article in my series about horror videogames, I thought that I’d talk briefly about time loops. I ended up thinking about this topic after finally getting round to watching a brilliant time loop-themed dark comedy/ horror movie from 2017 called “Happy Death Day”. It’s a surprisingly funny, occasionally scary and thoroughly creative twist on the kind of “ironic” slasher movies that were popular during the mid-late 1990s/early 2000s. But this isn’t a full review of the film. I mention it because it made me wonder if horror games have done something similar.

Interestingly, there is only one truly famous example of a horror game based on the idea of a time loop. I am, of course, talking about the elusive “P.T.” demo from 2014. A demo for an upcoming “Silent Hill” game that got cancelled, the only way to actually play it was to have owned the right console at the right time (and downloaded it before it was removed from the online store). It’s a game that I – along with many horror game fans – haven’t directly played.

Still, I have seen lots of online footage of it and was even fortunate enough to play a 1990s-style “de-make” of it a while back. Anyway, the basic premise of it is that you play as a nameless person who is stuck in a hallway that loops around on itself (in addition to changing in subtle ways) whenever you try to leave it. Time also seems to be frozen and it is strongly implied that you are trapped in some kind of haunted purgatory in order to atone for monstrous crimes.

Although it was clearly influenced by “Silent Hill 4: The Room” (2004) – a game revolving around a man waking up repeatedly in the same locked apartment, which changes as time progresses – “P.T” turned the vaguely time loop-like elements of that game’s structure into an explicit feature of how the game worked. In “P.T”, you are trapped in a repeated cycle of time that, it is implied, lasts less than a minute in real-time.

And “P.T.” is literally the only major example of a time loop-themed horror game that I could find. Yes, I’ve probably missed some lesser-known indie horror games based on the concept (after all, “P.T.” inspired… a lot… of indie horror games) and I also read somewhere that a famous 1990s horror “point and click” game includes a time loop as a plot element, but explicitly time loop themed horror games seem to be surprisingly uncommon.

Yet, saying that, virtually all horror games – by their very nature – include time loop elements. Although I touched on this idea in an earlier article, horror games that don’t include “permadeath” will – like the movie “Happy Death Day” – throw the main character back to an earlier point in time whenever they die. If a horror game has checkpoints or a saving system, then it can potentially result in time loop-like experiences. Seriously, trying to play a tough segment of an older survival horror game and failing repeatedly can really feel like being trapped in a time loop.

Even horror games with “permadeath” or no saving system whatsoever can still feel a bit like this too. After all, restarting the entire game after getting a “game over” can still feel like a time loop. The “run and hide” horror game “Monstrum” (2015) has no saving system, but prevents itself from getting too monotonous by randomising which monster the player will be fleeing from during each attempt at the game. This adds a bit of unpredictability to the repetitive attempts, and is also mildly similar to a technique – changing things during each loop – that “time loop” horror movies often use to prevent boredom.

A horror-themed action game from 2016 called “Devil Daggers” also includes “permadeath” – and uses something mildly evocative of another editing technique used in “time loop” horror movies too. I am, of course, talking about how these horror movies reduce boring repetition by, in later loops, skipping over the earlier parts of the loop via a rapidly-edited montage instead of showing everything. Although every attempt at playing “Devil Daggers” plays out in the same time scale (without any jump cuts etc...) a typical attempt at the game will only usually last for a few minutes at the very most. After all, there is no way of “winning” and the game scores you on how long you can survive. Given the difficulty level, even reaching three minutes takes a bit of practice (and the practice makes the earlier parts feel quicker/easier after a while too). So it feels like a rapidly-edited montage, even if time moves at a constant speed.

Like in “time loop” horror movies, there is usually a way to “break the loop” whilst playing horror games. If you complete the game, then you have broken the loop. After all, the game is over and the main character’s story has reached its conclusion. Yes, many horror games include “new game plus” modes, allowing you to repeat the game with some extra stuff but – on a basic level – completing any horror game is similar to the main character of a time loop movie “breaking the loop”.

So, perhaps explicitly time loop-themed horror games are such incredibly uncommon things because they aren’t that different from the typical experience of playing an “ordinary” horror game.

Well, for this article in my series about horror videogames, I thought that I’d talk briefly about time loops. I ended up thinking about this topic after finally getting round to watching …… Sorry, I couldn’t resist 🙂

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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂