Latest Confinement Games

This past year I've strongly reconnected with my gaming side, since there was not much else to do sometimes.  I'd like to comment on a few of these games that I've played or I'm still playing.

 

 First, there are the Resident Evil saga. With plenty of time and seeing as we were in lock-down, I decided to get myself most of the resident evil saga games, from 1 to 7. There are other spin-offs, of course, but some of them I never really finished or played properly. Others were just re-maked recently, and seemed like a good idea to replay all of them. They have faults, but it's one of the first horror games I played and it's still fun to revisit and check it. For them though, I've decided I'll write a post for each one, and here I'm just mentioning them for the moment. I will just say that it took a while to get through all of them...

Then, Control. I've talked about Control before and it's still awesome, but recently there was some new DLC. I've done the first part and it was as good as the rest, introducing some new mechanics and being overall really good. Now I've heard that the second part of that DLC includes a section that ties with Alan Wake, and I'm very curious to play this soon, as Alan Wake had lot of potential but it was at the end that this potential shined, to then be left hanging and unfinished, with the protagonist still stuck in a nightmare dimension of some type. I don't know what will happpen in the DLC, but I'll be happy to try it soon and see if there's some closure finally.

 A game that I also talked before about but that I left unfinished was Alien Iolation. This game was very very scary, as mentioned, and playing it required a special state of mind. However during this period I finally played it for longer periods and more seriously. Once I got into track, I have to say that it's still scary, but also a bit frustrating and a bit too long in the end. There were sections that felt a bit repetitive, and also there's a limit to "and then things got worse" can happen without being tired about not catching a break ever. Nevertheless the game is still pretty good, and I consider it as a horror masterpiece for sure. I was very glad to finish it I have to say....

For a while now I've heard good things about the Doom remake that was published some years ago. This year Doom Eternal was also published, a continuation of the other one, so I decided to give the first one a try. Doom would correspond, by number, to Doom 4. I've played 1st and 2nd, of course, and they're classics. I didn't play the 3rd one because at the time I didn't feel like playing as much, and what I've heard is that it tried to be more like survival horror, something that Doom should not be. Well, I have to say that this new Doom recuperates very well the spirit of the first ones. It's brutal, it's fast, and it's a lot of fun. Playing it feels like dancing, you don't stand in one place for a second and you transition from enemy to enemy, from gun to gun, in a complicated pattern of jumping/shooting/evading/crushing that feels organic and challenging. It's not an easy game, but it feels rewarding. 

I've started Doom Eternal recently, and it looks amazing and more open, with lots of things to explore, but also the difficulty seems ramped up even more and I'm struggling a bit with that. I didn't get stuck that fast with the previous Doom. I believe this is not ideal in any game, but well, we'll see. It does have even more mobility and tools, so I'd say it's a more complex type of dance. Also, plot-wise it lacks a bit of connection between the two games. I don't know if there were expansions or something that I missed, but original Doom and original Doom Eternal should be enough to understand what has happened in a linear way, and currently they're not, which detracts a bit. Still feels like a good game though.

As part of promoting their new game shop, Epic games have been giving awesome free games, and one of them has been Civilization VI. I didn't play any other Civ games, although I've heard a lot of good things about them, so I gave it a try. I have to say it's quite addictive, quite complicated and well, overall awesome. I understand a lot better now what other people have been saying about them. It's a complex strategy game with different paths to victory (science, military, religion, culture...I feel I'm missing another one. But you get my point), although some seem easier than others. It has a crazy amount of options and combinations, and it's turn based and rather long, I'd say. But well, I've played a couple of games against computer and yeah, definitely recommending it if you like strategy and civilization-building. Reminds me in a good way of the table game 7 Wonders.

For Christmas, in my new place we got some credit to buy in amazon as part of a Christmas basket. I took the chance to get some of the games I comment here, plus I also got Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2, a remake of the skateboarding games. I played 2 and 3 when I was a teenager and I really loved them, 2 more than 3 I have to say but 3 was still rather good. I know that after 3 it got all weird, but the original idea was simple, amazing and good. You just have different scenarios with goals, and 2 minutes to do them. This version has much better graphics, although I remember the scenarios as if they were the same, because of how immersive the original was. You have a selection of skaters to use, you can max up their stats, and in the end you get a video of the real-life skater doing cool stuff. The things you do inside the game are quite unrealistic, but it's still really enjoyable to do different tricks, combine combos and mess around. One thing that helps a lot is that the soundtrack of the games was quite amazing, and it motivated you into doing tricks. It's a game where you keep learning how to do increasingly more complex goals, and while simple it's strangely compelling. I've finished all the main goals already of all the stages, but there's still plenty of secret goals, and skater videos to unlock, and it feels relaxing and fun to play it.

Finally, I'd like to talk about Hades. Hades is a rogue-like slash-them-up game, similar to Bastion. It has an isometric perspective, you control the son of Hades, Zagreus, trying to escape the greek Underworld, armed with a sword or some other special weapon, and you find random rooms with random monsters. When you die, which is normal, you appear again in the underworld where you can interact with the people there before trying to escape again. Every time you may recollect certain items and experience that may make your life easier, unlock new weapons and in general get better, so next time you get further. What's more, that's a bit of a spoiler but even when you finish the escape successfully, you end up dying again and having to repeat the whole thing, around 10 times to reach a point where the main plot is "complete", while leaving subplots and branches to investigate. That may seem tedious but it's not. It has amazing art, great voice acting, the gameplay is intuitive and fast and never boring, and every time a number of gods give you special boons to help you and the different combinations are quite interesting and change things quite a lot. The plot is developed between escape attempts, and characters are rich and interesting. This game is an independent game that has received quite a lot of praise, and it's very well deserved. Also, the developers of this game have folowed rather ethical practices, so I'm more than happy to support such things. I really recommend it.

 

That's all for the moment, I'll try to write posts for the Resident Evil games soon :)

True Horror

We have been playing Alien Isolation for a bit now, in small doses.

It's one of the greatest games I've played in a while.

It's also mind-numbingly terrifying, to the point of nervous breakdowns.

Alien is one of the greatest horror movies ever created. The other movies are not true horror movies any more. There are good action movies there (well, in some of the cases), but they are no longer pure horror. The first movie manages to be scary every time you see it.

The secret for a movie, and for anything, to be scary, is to not reveal too much. Our imagination fills the voids quite nicely, and we can always imagine really bad things. I think Stephen King mentions that if you fully show a 10 meter mutant monster, people will always breathe relieved and think "well, it could have been worse. It could have been a 100 meter mutant monster".

To do good horror movies, you need to know this and to know about atmosphere. You need to hide the scary things, because our minds will do the rest, but you also need a situation where we, the spectators, feel always tension in the air, danger close by. The place needs to be claustrophobic, as if there's no escape from whatever lurks in the dark.

Alien did all this perfectly, while also being gory for the time, and I believe it's an example of movies as art, an example to follow.

Games, as a new media, are still evolving. However, they tried to make horror as well, now for some time.

Horror in games is achieved slightly different than from movies.

First of all, the game needs to be immersive. If you feel detached from the protagonists, you will not be scared much. You need to stop noticing glitches, bad graphics, and acting issues. If the game does not manage to do that, it will hardly be scary.

For example, in the first Silent Hill graphics were laughable, and the fog was a method to avoid having to show you a full map that the game was unable to draw. However, the game managed to make you forget about all this details by being really scary and immersive.

A second point, very important, is that you need to feel threatened. Resident Evil games (the original ones, not the ones after 4 were they became action films like so many other Hollywood productions) were supposed to be scary. However, some of them failed in that, especially the second one. Most of the time you had abundance of ammunition and powerful weapons that could take care of most enemies in 2 or 3 shots.

Silent Hill 2 is  a great game, and its horror is mind horror, very psychological. The game leaves you exhausted and broken (but in a good way!). However, I was not scared as much after noticing most enemies were not very dangerous, some of them didn't even hurt you sometimes and your weapons and health items were also more than enough most of the time. The game is great, and part of the psychological effect was based on that too, but your personal safety of the character does not seem to be very threatened.

Third and fourth points are the same as in movies: You need to show little, and you need to have great atmosphere. For example, Resident Evil shows you the gory zombies, and they may jump-scare you, but looking at them is not threatening. Hunters are another topic related to the second point, but their looks are not scary, because you just see them hanging around. Silent Hill is much better at this: You can see the monsters more clearly, but it's hard to figure out what they are. Faces are covered, movements are erratic, the whole thing seems blurry. By the end of the game, some enemies are merely shadows, hardly visible but deadly.

As per the atmosphere, Resident Evil goes for the use of creepy music and sound effects, while Silent hill uses some jump-scares, noises in the background and really creepy scenery.

So, what about Alien Isolation?

Well, for a start, the game is beautiful, and its on 1st person, so you are quite immersed on it form the start.

Second, you have no effective weapons against the alien. Against some enemies you could be successful, but not like in a proper shooter, mowing down waves of critters. You need to sneak around, you need to keep your items, and you need to avoid encounters whenever possible. And you need to keep well away from the alien. It will kill you, period.

Third point, in this game, was masterfully done: In most situations, if you see the alien up and close is way too late for you. Just now we were playing, and we were running from the alien in plenty of places. But in all these places, we never saw it. We could hear it, crawling on the tubes above us. Walking on some floor. Bleeping on the motion detector, running around and advancing us using shortcuts. At one point we saw its slime pouring slowly from one conduct on the ceiling, while the motion sensor indicated us something was right around the corner, and we could hear it reacting to the bleeping noises, coming closer to us. And we never saw it, not even once. The first time we had a good look on it, in a cinematic, it was not a scary. It went down a tunnel, it killed some stupid humans that were making noise, and it left. and you could see it moving, like some kind of big cat, and from far away it was not especially scary. However, these last minutes where the bleeping and the steps kept following us were absolutely terrifying.

We hid in a closet for a moment, to gain some seconds of air, and when we checked the motion sensor to see if it was close, we could hear the bastard reacting to it and moving. When we left the closet I was sure it would jump on us from one side, but it was even worse...we never saw it. We had to wait for a car to arrive, and the alien was running around, and never saw it. But we were expecting it all this time....it was fucking terrifying.

Finally, the atmosphere. In this game, everything imitates the original ship from the movie, the Nostromo. The technology around you is from the eighties, and everything bleeps and makes modem noises. The ship is dark, and is full of shadowy corridors, ventilation shafts and ceiling openings. You can hear steps, you can hear doors opening, under you, behind you, on top of you...you can hear the ventilators of the air system, and the consoles, and the elevators.

You feel inside the ship. And you have no escape. And something is hunting you.

It's awesome.