[I HAVE ONLY PLAYED CHAPTER 1]
I wanted to like this game. I really, really did.
Modern indie video games often find themselves inspired by fourth and fifth generation console games, but rarely does anyone focus on making a modern passion project inspired by games of the 70's. A person denying to remake EarthBound for that of Adventure instead had got me so excited. The fact it was a horror game only added to it. Systems like the Atari were perfect for creating uncomfortable and down right creepy ambiences. The lack of music, the most simple of graphics, the terrifying limited sound effects. When told about it, I was so fascinated at the idea of how someone would work around these holdbacks in order to create a story heavy game; something the Atari and similar consoles could physically create, but just weren't the market at the time.
I'll start with the positives:
- The use of rotoscoping for certain scenes is SUPER cool looking. I love it. It's incredibly well done, and was used enough to be successfully unsettling while not relying too much on it to tell the story. [Though I have heard complaints of this happening in Chapter 2; but nonetheless I'm just focusing on Chapter 1]
- The idea of multiple endings in a story heavy Atari game is a great way to give one an end; something that's unheard of in second generation games. The exact endings and how they were done was not my cup of tea, but the idea to have multiple endings was good.
- The cover is perfect. It immediately hooked me in, and reminds me of how these type of games had to so heavily rely on beautiful cover/manual art in order to show what the image behind the pixels you're playing is supposed to give you.
- The graphics in game are good. If I'm being extremely nit-picky, I could point out that when people walked in Atari games, it was rarely that smooth, but honestly, who cares? I liked it. The character designs of Amy and the creature that chased you were terrifying, while still sticking to what this era was limited in doing. The details are great, or lack of them that is: rooms all being one color with the black background, how flat everything looked, everything clearly thought of as in a 2D environment (you can't walk behind the house, there is no behind! What you see is what you get!)
- I liked the Latin inclusion.
The negatives:
- While the creator didn't put too much weight on the rotoscoping for story-telling, he did rely far too much on text in the game, expecting people to read walls of text in order to get a better understand of the story. There were two reasons why I didn't like this.
1) I'm fine with walls of text when they can fit the timing and theme. In Faith, the letters felt like a way for the creator to lazily work around the difficulties second generation games gave with story telling. The unknown is a terrifying thing, and with the eerie setting that this type of game gives, the lack of words that a 70's game would only add to the feeling. The constant mouthfuls only takes the player out of the moment, and showed the creator's comfortability with staying with modern tropes that don't particularly work with this era of games.
2) The format used just does NOT work graphically with the game. Block after block of text is already not something you would ever see in an Atari game; and only gets the player to start skimming parts you deemed essential. The endings having so much text about the meaning when again, it entirely erases the ominous sensation of having to figure out the visual of your ending. The reader finishes the game, only to be rewarded with yet another wall of text.
- The music bothered me an insane amount. The music is a modern trope just put into an old format because the creator doesn't know any different, and expects their audience to not either. Want to know what background songs were like back then? It's NOTHING! They NEVER had background music. The absolute most you would ever get is MAYBE a 5-second intro tune, and it was the screechiest, most awful sounding shit you ever heard. This music used in this sounds exactly what is used in NES-type games and it bothered the shit out of me that just because it's retro-sounding means that it must fit.
I could look past it all, except that the music often ruined the creepy feeling that silence would have better fit! Random dramatic music constantly playing at spooky times is such a newer thing, that insanely disappointed me. The soundlessness of second generation consoles was THE spookiest part of them, and it was just thrown out the window.
- I was conflicted on whether to put the voice they used in negatives or positives, but decided towards negatives as the more I played the game the more, and more it bothered me. Yes, some very specific second generation games had talking in them, and yes, they did sound just like how they do in Faith! I assume they used the same system they used in the 70's for the Speak and Spells, and it worked really well!
The problem is the creator once again began relying on it in an extremely modern sense again. No game spoke every single dialog out; not just because it was expensive but because even back then the voice was fucking awful to have to listen to for too long, and that's exactly what happened in Faith. The voice soon went from unsettling to just plain annoying. The Intellivision had the Intellivoice for a few select games. It would speak to say things such as "start" or "go, go, go!" or "hurry up!" Short statements. The excessive use of the voice ruined scenes that once again would have been better in silence and ruined the creepy ambiance that only hearing such a creepy robotic voice every once in a while would have done. Keeping the voice to just the creature chasing after you going "run, run, run" or just a scream from Amy would have not only amplified how terrifying the moment is, but also stay true to how the games used the voice boxes!
- Lastly, the endings. The endings had so much potential for confusion and fear of thinking "what the FUCK was that??" The beauty of simple visuals to try and understand the horrible thing happening in front of you. Putting aside the ending being spoon fed to you through the text at the end, the endings just weren't that good. They made no sense in comparison with each other, and read as the creator knowing he wanted to make multiple endings but had no idea what he wanted to exactly do, trying to pass it off as "wow these all contradict each other a lot; which can you trust?" The endings again could have pulled that off much better with no giant write up after the act.
Overall, I give the game a 2.5/5 - just below what I consider to be a game that successfully does what it's out to do. Faith is just short of reaching that. The creator made a unique game that very few people have tried to do before, which I admire. But it's disappointing when the challenges of an Atari game appear, and instead of working with them, pushing them away in order to force something it shouldn't.
I wanted to like this game. I really, really did.
Modern indie video games often find themselves inspired by fourth and fifth generation console games, but rarely does anyone focus on making a modern passion project inspired by games of the 70's. A person denying to remake EarthBound for that of Adventure instead had got me so excited. The fact it was a horror game only added to it. Systems like the Atari were perfect for creating uncomfortable and down right creepy ambiences. The lack of music, the most simple of graphics, the terrifying limited sound effects. When told about it, I was so fascinated at the idea of how someone would work around these holdbacks in order to create a story heavy game; something the Atari and similar consoles could physically create, but just weren't the market at the time.
I'll start with the positives:
- The use of rotoscoping for certain scenes is SUPER cool looking. I love it. It's incredibly well done, and was used enough to be successfully unsettling while not relying too much on it to tell the story. [Though I have heard complaints of this happening in Chapter 2; but nonetheless I'm just focusing on Chapter 1]
- The idea of multiple endings in a story heavy Atari game is a great way to give one an end; something that's unheard of in second generation games. The exact endings and how they were done was not my cup of tea, but the idea to have multiple endings was good.
- The cover is perfect. It immediately hooked me in, and reminds me of how these type of games had to so heavily rely on beautiful cover/manual art in order to show what the image behind the pixels you're playing is supposed to give you.
- The graphics in game are good. If I'm being extremely nit-picky, I could point out that when people walked in Atari games, it was rarely that smooth, but honestly, who cares? I liked it. The character designs of Amy and the creature that chased you were terrifying, while still sticking to what this era was limited in doing. The details are great, or lack of them that is: rooms all being one color with the black background, how flat everything looked, everything clearly thought of as in a 2D environment (you can't walk behind the house, there is no behind! What you see is what you get!)
- I liked the Latin inclusion.
The negatives:
- While the creator didn't put too much weight on the rotoscoping for story-telling, he did rely far too much on text in the game, expecting people to read walls of text in order to get a better understand of the story. There were two reasons why I didn't like this.
1) I'm fine with walls of text when they can fit the timing and theme. In Faith, the letters felt like a way for the creator to lazily work around the difficulties second generation games gave with story telling. The unknown is a terrifying thing, and with the eerie setting that this type of game gives, the lack of words that a 70's game would only add to the feeling. The constant mouthfuls only takes the player out of the moment, and showed the creator's comfortability with staying with modern tropes that don't particularly work with this era of games.
2) The format used just does NOT work graphically with the game. Block after block of text is already not something you would ever see in an Atari game; and only gets the player to start skimming parts you deemed essential. The endings having so much text about the meaning when again, it entirely erases the ominous sensation of having to figure out the visual of your ending. The reader finishes the game, only to be rewarded with yet another wall of text.
- The music bothered me an insane amount. The music is a modern trope just put into an old format because the creator doesn't know any different, and expects their audience to not either. Want to know what background songs were like back then? It's NOTHING! They NEVER had background music. The absolute most you would ever get is MAYBE a 5-second intro tune, and it was the screechiest, most awful sounding shit you ever heard. This music used in this sounds exactly what is used in NES-type games and it bothered the shit out of me that just because it's retro-sounding means that it must fit.
I could look past it all, except that the music often ruined the creepy feeling that silence would have better fit! Random dramatic music constantly playing at spooky times is such a newer thing, that insanely disappointed me. The soundlessness of second generation consoles was THE spookiest part of them, and it was just thrown out the window.
- I was conflicted on whether to put the voice they used in negatives or positives, but decided towards negatives as the more I played the game the more, and more it bothered me. Yes, some very specific second generation games had talking in them, and yes, they did sound just like how they do in Faith! I assume they used the same system they used in the 70's for the Speak and Spells, and it worked really well!
The problem is the creator once again began relying on it in an extremely modern sense again. No game spoke every single dialog out; not just because it was expensive but because even back then the voice was fucking awful to have to listen to for too long, and that's exactly what happened in Faith. The voice soon went from unsettling to just plain annoying. The Intellivision had the Intellivoice for a few select games. It would speak to say things such as "start" or "go, go, go!" or "hurry up!" Short statements. The excessive use of the voice ruined scenes that once again would have been better in silence and ruined the creepy ambiance that only hearing such a creepy robotic voice every once in a while would have done. Keeping the voice to just the creature chasing after you going "run, run, run" or just a scream from Amy would have not only amplified how terrifying the moment is, but also stay true to how the games used the voice boxes!
- Lastly, the endings. The endings had so much potential for confusion and fear of thinking "what the FUCK was that??" The beauty of simple visuals to try and understand the horrible thing happening in front of you. Putting aside the ending being spoon fed to you through the text at the end, the endings just weren't that good. They made no sense in comparison with each other, and read as the creator knowing he wanted to make multiple endings but had no idea what he wanted to exactly do, trying to pass it off as "wow these all contradict each other a lot; which can you trust?" The endings again could have pulled that off much better with no giant write up after the act.
Overall, I give the game a 2.5/5 - just below what I consider to be a game that successfully does what it's out to do. Faith is just short of reaching that. The creator made a unique game that very few people have tried to do before, which I admire. But it's disappointing when the challenges of an Atari game appear, and instead of working with them, pushing them away in order to force something it shouldn't.