The five games that have gotten me through quarantine...so far.

Man, quarantine sucks. While I don't mind the back and fourth of going from the bed, to the couch, back to the bed, being inside now for more then a few months is totally starting to get on my nerves. On the movie front, I have really only rewatched 2016's Warcraft to my Father's disdain (I made him watch it with me, which I can tell by his constant phone checking he wanted no part in) though the one thing I will say about that front is watching the movie now after playing the game for what is about three and a half years, it's much more fun and exciting to see the constant hub worlds I see pretty much everyday I play.

But I don't want to talk about World of Warcraft too much, a I'm obviously going to be discussing it on my list, and on that, I don't want to spoil anything else! So, without further ado, here is Sarah's list to the five games that are currently getting me through quarantine.

1. Animal Crossing New Horizons (Switch, 2020)

((image credit; eurogamer.net))

This is obviously a no-brainer, let's be honest. I picked up Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing on the same day, but I have seemingly fallen off of Doom and the latter has taken over a lot of my quarantine time. Every morning I wake up, grab my water from the night before and grab my switch. I do my dailies, shake my trees, drop my bells in my savings to pay for my last house loan and slowly plan out how I'm going to move everything once it's paid. I have a patch of black roses i'm going to cultivate and use to line the walkway to my house, and I already have the spot planned out! 

See, the idea that people are throwing around that Animal Crossing is 'what we all need' during quarantine I will say is a pretty true statement. During the beginning, I was obviously anxious as many people were, but it seemed to drift away as I found my way onto my island paradise. Cutting trees, catching bees, it was all a lovely getaway, and still is. of course I have my gripes, like tools falling apart and small little annoying bits, but nothing has ever been too big to have me stop playing. This is honestly the first Animal Crossing title that has me wanting to pay off all of my house loans, which is a first for me in this series. I truly believe after quarantine, I will continue to have Animal Crossing New Horizons as a daily occurrence in my mornings, where I will enjoy shooting balloons out of the sky and catching bugs in an attempt to finally gain those damn golden tools. 

2. World of Warcraft (PC, 2004)

((image credit; WOWWiki))

Okay, fine. I started playing World of Warcraft around four years ago, and I am still daily playing the game. Get my dailies done, search for specific mounts, do a player vs. player events...I can certifiably say that I am addicted to World of Warcraft and it's crawled it's way up to one of my favorite games of all time and one of my saving graces during quarantine. With the release of a new expansion, Shadowlands, on the horizon (for the love of god Blizzard, give us this new expansion) and the game given a 100% experience buff until said new add on for the game, it's made me want to play some of those old characters I made just when I had unlocked the class in-game. I'm not even going to describe the game, as many people either don't care (and I totally understand) or already have too many hours to count. I have met so many people from around the world in World of Warcraft, including someone I consider a best friend who I would have never met if it wasn't for a game like this. I have also met real life friends (right, it's CRAZY!) due to WoW as well. 

I was never an MMO fan, but this game changed me. I have collected books and lore tomes about the world of World of Warcraft and have fallen deep into this lore-hole so to speak. I fell in love with characters and storylines and the fighting between the Horde and the Alliance. I have connected to people and the multiple characters in WoW's story then I have in other games. It's also grounded me during this time and helped me keep a normal routine, something that if I hadn't had would have most likely driven be pretty nuts.

3. Final Fantasy 7 Remake (PS4, 2020)

A part of me feels almost feels ashamed that beating the Final Fantasy 7 Remake took me close to a month and a half. Granted I was attempting to do everything I could, like side quests and arena missions, but I think the main reason was I didn't want it to end. See, while this remake holds that name, it's really only part one of a huge remake of the original classic Playstation 1 classic. And damn was it worth the time I've put into it. I was hoping a huge RPG would take a lot of my time during this quarantine, and of course it would be the king of them that would help me out. I still plan on going back to the Remake once I have the free time, finishing up the summon quests and getting all of my party to max level. 

The reason why I'm not going into full detail of the Remake here is because I plan on making a huge essay on the main story changes just in part 1, and comparing them to director Tetsuya Nomura's big epic that is Kingdom Hearts. While this sounds like a crazy concept, I feel if one can (take upon themselves the monumental task) of understanding the story behind Square and Disney's insane crossover, the ending of Final Fantasy 7 Remake will make a whole lot of sense.

Or, well, as much sense as it can right now. Where's part 2, Square??

4.Project DIVA MegaMix (Switch, 2020)

((image credit; gematsu.com))

Okay, again, I'm a sucker for certain things. I've played every Project DIVA title that has released on US consoles up till now (even the iffy ones!) so even with the overlapping track lists and the same modules (outfits), I still will put tons of hours into a single rhythm game. For those who don't know, Hatsune Miku is a virtual idol. She's literally a computer program that you can generate vocals for, and she will sing for you! She's spawned merch, video games, albums and even real life concerts (RIP Miku Expo 2020) and has a huge fanbase, just on her alone. The Project DIVA titles I describe to people as guitar hero without the dumb controller. You hit the face buttons based on the beat and with the switch port, gives us a touch mode that, in my personal opinion, is the best way to play this game.

The Switch, with it's small controllers and weird button placement, was not meant to play a game like this. Doesn't mean it's stopped me from importing the Japanese release with a help from a friend AND purchasing the US release when it hopped onto the e-shop. I honestly don't know if i'm playing this because I know the concert will be cancelled or if I just want to hear the boppy tunes and dress Miku up in those cute outfits. 

I miss concerts.

5. Gears Tactics (PC, 2020)

((image credit; polygon.com))

So Gears Tactics is the only game on this list that I haven't beaten yet. Obviously from this blog you can tell i'm a bit of Gears head, but I am not an X-Com player at all. So buying this was pretty hard. But I can say from what I have played, I'm enjoying! A prequel to the rest to the rest of the series and connecting to the new trilogy in particular, Gears Tactics is a turned based tactical shooter that will most likely make you think more then the average game. Every mission I have played I have been seen squinting at my screen and constantly trying to plan moves in advanced...and having plans destroyed in a matter of seconds. Honestly, when things liked that happened I would get annoyed and most likely turn the game off. But even when I make mistakes in Tactics, i'm taking a few steps back, realizing what I did wrong, and figuring out how to fix it when I'm in the same situation. 

Perhaps it's the fact it's a Gears title that's keeping me playing. I have fallen in love with this world and I want to know every bit of it, characters and timeline included. But I can't wait to see where Gears Tactics takes me, and it's got me thinking a bit more that I normally would during a quarantine right now. It's a thinking man's game, and I think it's partially keeping my brain working at a time when I just want to be lazy, and that says a lot right now.

Hopefully some games on my list find it's way onto yours! I wanted to write a little something in between planning out my next big essay articles here. As of right now, i'm planning on writing a short essay based on the recent Silent Hill rumors and what a new title can do with the recent use of mental health in horror titles! A topic i'm very interested to step into and discuss. Thanks all <3 

What makes a horror game...a horror game? part 2!

The year is the far distant past of 1999. Around that time, I was only 3 years old, people were freaking out over Y2K, and PC gaming was on what man consider it's greatest high. Epic games (hey, sounds familiar??) releases Unreal Tournament, the precursor for their Gears of War franchise (I swear I did not plan it this way) Id wows us with the with the combat of Quake III Arena. But off in the corners of the PC gaming scene, Looking Glass Studios and Irrational Games came together to create what would later become the sequel to their 1994 title System Shock, System Shock 2. What those two teams (and the games head, Ken Levine) would later find out is their little collaborated sequel becomes one of the highest rated and well-loved PC sequels in gaming. And also, a title that shaped so many in the gaming industry, from Levine's next title, Bioshock, to EA's horror line Dead Space.

"Look at you, hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone. Panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?"-SHODAN System shock 2

The first thing you see started System Shock 2, when you past the opening cut scene that explained the first title, is the dark, futuristic streets of an unknown city. Because see, you are a macho military grunt looking to find where you future lies. Choosing from marines, air force, etc. But each round of training raises certain attributes, totally something you'll need  for the upcoming hell-scape the game throws you into. The next thing you realize, is the ship you have been stationed on, the Von Braun, is suddenly under attack. Running for your life, you are helped by a woman, and supposed second only survivor of this attack, Janice Polito. Following her rather rude requests, you explore the ship in an attempt to leave. But seeing as this is a science fiction space horror, you run into terribly mutated humans, experimented monkeys and killer robots. All of these enemies were created with help by the evil AI that has taken over the ship, SHODAN.

((Image credit; System Shock Wiki))

Now a lot of times when people write about System Shock 2, you can't go a few sentences without her being mentioned. Hell, in most 'best villains' or 'best twists' in video games, SHODAN is most always on the top of the lists. With, obviously, good reason. Normally, horror games throw you into a situation where being alone is the last thing you want. In System's case, you honestly want to be alone. Throughout a good chunk of the game, you are being actively spoken to and given places to go by her. By the enemy you are trying to kill in the game. Every time a quest is finished or an item was found, you have SHODAN in your ear, commenting on your slow push forward. With a robotic voice and eerily human face, she is an AI that wishes to be a god, and will even work with the enemy to get what she wants. Besides, you're nothing but a fleshbag to her. SHODAN has no space in her new reality for you! 

A lot of what the horror in System Shock 2 came in it's audio design. The punchy techno-beat background music and the haunting background noises. Malfunctioning sliding panel doors, the soft beeps of computer and the softer beeping noises of the security machines down a hall. But, the audio editing that went into the enemy sounds is something that has never escaped my mind. The groans and yells of enemies, the slightly disorienting monkey noises from the test animals and the soft, feminine voices of cyber midwives. Unlike most enemies in horror games, who make gross, fleshy noises, the enemies in the halls of the Von Braun speak to you. Calling out such haunting words as 'I'm sorry!' and 'Kill me!' that drone from their lips as whats human can feel the pain of the mutations, and cry out when you kill them. The game wants to remind you that they were once people too, and death is the only way that you can free them. 

Along with audio design, SHODAN herself is highly important to the game's horror aspect. As quoted above, you are seen as nothing but a 'pathetic creature' to the AI. You are nothing, she is everything. The next step in evolution, one that cannot age or grow old. She wants to rule with the only reason why being is it's her destiny. And the fact she sees herself as a real person, and as the one true leader of humanity, is one of the scariest things this title produced. With her control over the alien force 'The Many', SHODAN basically has an never ending army, one that one after another chases after you after an alarm is set off, and the fact she could have chosen anytime she wanted to betray you are unknowingly helping her makes her a predator. A dangerous force that knows that you, its prey, can be very easily manipulated. Throughout the game you are given upgrade points by SHODAN, told where to go and even help her getting rid of your common enemy. 

((Image credit;; Kotaku.au))

Two years before System Shock 2 released, the body space horror Event Horizon (1997) released to a very iffy reception. The film is praised for it's special effects and setting, but is pretty much knocked down for everything else. While I am not going to go in full details of the film, it's easy to see a lot of influences in System Shock 2. The body horror with the human/Many hybrids, the derelict empty spaceship, and even the use of ghosts and disembodied voices to tell a backstory. While none of this has been confirmed, one can agree with the mental thought that the film played a role in System Shock 2's horror, but also that the game worked with those elements as a stepping stone and building on it, just as many other modern day horror games used it for the same purpose.

Earlier, I spoke about System Shock's director Ken Levine. Many of you would already know that name as Levine is the creator of the Bioshock franchise, starting with the first title, created in 2007. Originally meant to be a System Shock title, Bioshock was created by Levine wanting to recreate the heavy atmosphere as he had with System Shock 2, and only playing a few hours of Bioshock, one can easily point out specific aspects taken from his first title and molded into his second. The same storytelling ghosts exists in Bioshock and have the same purpose, teaching us backstory and learning about the citizens of the underwater city of Rapture just as they were used to show us the workers of the Von Braun. One can even argue the character of Atlas is a direct reference to our AI queen SHODAN, though I'd rather not spoil Bioshock in this post (But maybe i'll make a smaller essay comparing the two characters later on?), but it's not just things as big as characters you discover in Rapture. You start off the title with a wrench as a weapon, just as you did with System. The dark underwater city can be the below ground version of the Von Braun, and plasmids (Bioshock's crazy science fiction powers) being the same as Psi powers you can focus on in System.

((image credit; wsgf.com))

While you can argue that Bioshock is a direct successor to System Shock 2, another title that released in the 2000s can be seen easily taking System Shock's place as the modern day space horror shooter  is the first title of 2008's Dead Space, published by EA (oh??) and made by Visceral Games. You are a engineer named Isaac Clarke who travels to the USG Ishimura in an attempt to find your wife, only to find out that the ship has fallen to an alien/human hybrid species called the Necromorphs, summoned by a object call the Marker. And just by the explanation of the plot, you can see the similarities to that of System Shock 2. We got the USG Ishimura being the new Von Braun, both being decrepit, eerie spaceships, and in place of the Many, you have Necromorphs. The only difference being the Necromorphs do not yell at you to kill them (a lot more aggressive, too many sleepless nights from me with the image of a Necromorph running at me behind my eyes, ugh.) but just try to kill you. Also, have I mentioned how Dead Space was originally supposed to be a sequel to System Shock 2 until Resident Evil 4 came along? 

((image credit; sfx.thelazy.net))

Not too many games that have released hold such a historical role in gaming history then System Shock 2. Even now in 2020, both System Shock titles have been released onto modern PC gaming sellers such as GOG and Steam, and even the first title has received an enhanced remaster and even has a full remake in development from NightDive studios. But System Shock 2 remains the same as it did twenty-one years ago. With the same scares, the same audio (and hey, some purchases even include the games Original Soundtrack which I cannot recommend enough) and same graphics. Now is the best time to go back in time and replay this classic, and hey, maybe a horror game you've played wouldn't have been here if System Shock 2, and the collaboration between Looking Glass and Irrational Games, had never happened.

Hi guys! Whoa, this was a dozy. I just wanted to thank everyone for the love, support and critique for part one of this little essay I wanted to write. I've loved horror games since I can remember, and it was amazingly fun to dig into one of my favorite games of all time and finally yell into the internet void about System Shock. Especially with the recent news of Tencent buying the rights to the series, insuring that System Shock 3 actually happens! For now, i'll just link the demo that Nightdive kindly released on GOG today for the System Shock remake, and I hope this convinces you guys to discover the series for yourself! https://www.gog.com/game/system_shock_demo

<3 Sarah 

What makes a horror game...a horror game? - A genre op-ed part 1!

When I was in film school, I took a class that was required of my academia called GWAR (raise of hands if you dealt with this...just me? Oh.) While, for all the acronyms and long words, was basically a writing class based around a subject of study and then, well, anything. Lucky for me, I had a student teacher (i.e, a nerd) who proudly carried her web-comic bag in with her as she came into class. 

Why am I telling this? Well, getting to the point, on Fridays when papers were due, she would greet us with an old, fat Sony Playstation 3 model and one of many old, niche horror titles. We would turn in said papers, and she would have us play through the first hour of said games and have us talk about how the game related to the film we had watched that week. At the time, video games were one of my reasons for becoming a film student (as I proclaimed "Video games are the closest thing we have to interactive films!" every family round table when my comment would be brushed off as the teenager I used to be) and as such, I was the first to always raise my hand, comment on the film tropes and camera movements the games were using that were easily taken from films of the same genre.

And while we can have titles like Naughty Dog's magnum opus The Last of Us or Capcom's B-schlock flick Resident Evil, horror in video games run exactly as horror in movies do; it's a genre term that can be melded and molded like a paste, and mixed with different ingredients to make a horror that on the surface, may not scream that blood, guts, swearing, chainsaws as you would think (Evil Dead, The Exorcist and every slasher film ever made, i'm looking at you!) but really, horror can come in anywhere such as a wrecked, destroyed civilization and low ammo count as Gears of War, and then after that I'll bring you all back to the late 1990s, and send us up into space as we discuss the forgotten horror gem that is System Shock 2, and explain how it paved the way for the 'subtle horror' that we got in the 2000s of gaming. 

"Dammit, we suck!"-Damon Baird, Gears of War

 

Released in November of 2006, many say that Gears of War created what many gamer's today call the 'chest high wall shooter' as, for those who haven't played the game, a lot of the first title involves making it to an open space, chest-high walls appear either from some mechanisms created by either opposing armies, or even by an act of some sort of benevolent god ("oh man, we need cover? Look out for that falling chunk of building that is going to fall miles away and make us cover!") and you have all of Gears in a nutshell. So obviously, you might be asking me, how the hell is Gears a horror title?

Well, i'm sure people have heard of the horror shooter. It's what Resident Evil became for a short while, and it's what games like Dead Space helped to pioneer in the mid-2000s...just when Gears came along. Really, the series horror roots can be seen starting as early as the original, eerie and very well produced 'Mad World' teaser. Set to Gary Jule's haunting cover of Tears for Fears 'Mad World', we follow the main character Marcus Fenix as he is running from an unseen pack of the series villains, the Locust (alien lizards really) as he breaks through destroyed buildings and past once bustling streets. The trailer even starts with an incredibly haunting first-person shot of Fenix cradling the cheek of a once beautiful angel statue. The trailer ends with Fenix being the only person going against a giant spider-like locusts called a Corpser, set in a dark room and glowing eyes/machine parts of the creature. Note through this shot, the sounds of gunfire and creature noises are muted so only the piano of the song is audible. 

That trailer made an impact on me in my late digits. I remember seeing it in a movie theater and realizing just what games have become. A haunting trailer for a game I had no idea of, that interested me to no end. Playing it now for as long as I have, I have come to welcome Gears'  brand of horror. The type of horror that shows rather then tells. In subtle broken down buildings and fluttering propaganda posters in the wind. The soft echoing of the wind in broken down skyscrapers and the even softer growling and yelling of the Locusts in the background. The sounds of glass breaking as their large feet break through what was once ours. The Locusts can basically appear from anywhere, and that's where alot of their horror lies. Yes, the 'grub holes' where they appear always come in the same places (this was mid 2000s, what do you expect with AI?) but the Locusts were smart. I can't begin to talk about all of the smart ways they would corner me, even chainsaw me from the back without me noticing. They killed squad mates without mercy and we just had to sit and watch. 

Of course the night wasn't safe either. While we need to worry about unwanted animals and bugs, humans on the planet Sera had to worry about killer bugs, Locusts coming from the shadows. Basically, what i'm getting at here is Gears never made it easy to survive. And that's where the horror lie. The humans of Gears of War had their planet taken away from them in a matter of weeks. Humans are becoming extinct and we're sending endless fodder of soldiers in an attempt to push it back. Our world is being destroyed around us, ammo is scarce during firefights and even the guns you pick up start off low. You pass destroyed corpses and burning crashes. The horror in this shooter series is the horror of losing everything you've built. It's meant to show what can happen in literally a snap of a finger, with billions dead and humanity driven back. We become the endangered species, and the first title in the series shows this the absolute best. 

So as I post this, this is my first blog post ever. And I'm hoping that with this, I can show everyone that mixing film genre/tropes/many other things and video games can show us more of what we are missing (or have!) in the genre. Plus, it gives me an excuse to talk about alot of my favorite topics and ideas. 

Feel free to follow, comment, or even ask me about things you want me to talk about! Next post I am going to dive into what I teased, System Shock 2 and it's horror impact on many games you wouldn't even believe are horror! 

((screenshots (in order); trueachievements.com))