I'm not a horror person. This is actually one of the first horror games I've ever completed.
It certainly scared my boots off, more effectively than really any other game I've played yet. This is because it has almost perfect atmospherics. The pre-rendered and grainy Playstation look adds to the horror. I don't think it would be as terrifying were it on a modern console.
The premise itself is terrifying. You are being chased by an unrelenting beast of a monster through the underground of Tokyo, called the "Mesh". This monster escaped from a lab (thanks, scientists), and caused a train to crash. This is the very train crash you survive in the beginning of the game, along with a schoolgirl named Naomi. There is nowhere to run except underground. In gameplay, this means you are navigating these labyrinths (with admittedly, perhaps intentionally confusing layouts) in a dungeon crawler style.
There is also a monster taking a stroll around these areas though, so you have to be on your guard at all times. Over time, the monster evolves and gets faster and faster. To make it even more creepy, there is several dead ends in these maze like areas. The trick is to duck into doors (source: walkthrough from Chris's Survival Horror Quest), this resets the position of the monster giving you a better chance to survive.
Even when I was in these rooms though, I didn't feel safe. I think that's a testament to the pervading sense of dread that this game instills in the player. It goes beyond all rationality, that you know it's not in the games program for the monster to barge in. You just feel like something could go wrong at any moment.
The horror of the game is sometimes surpassed by it's frustration, in parts. It's hard to be scared when you're frustrated, at least for me. You're fifteenth time getting felled by a monster in this game might inspire more of a "Come on!" than an "Eek!". It's nowhere perfect in game design. It also is terrifying in that it is partially an old style point-and-click (now THAT'S what I call scary).
It has the perfect, later 90's Japanese industrial horror vibe (if that is a thing), or at least what I imagine that looks like. Grainy and rusty pre-rendered graphics (in a good way), ambient and minimal spooky electronic music, and some sci-fi, biomorph flair. There's even some goofy dialogue, to give at least a little bit of relief from the almost constant darkness.
Overall, I'm happy that I finished my first horror game. I'm probably going to take a break and go back to playing some cheerful Nintendo games as usual, but I'm very interested in this developers other projects such as Despiria for the Dreamcast. I also played Lux-Pain, which some related developers have worked on (although it is a much stylistically different game).
It certainly scared my boots off, more effectively than really any other game I've played yet. This is because it has almost perfect atmospherics. The pre-rendered and grainy Playstation look adds to the horror. I don't think it would be as terrifying were it on a modern console.
The premise itself is terrifying. You are being chased by an unrelenting beast of a monster through the underground of Tokyo, called the "Mesh". This monster escaped from a lab (thanks, scientists), and caused a train to crash. This is the very train crash you survive in the beginning of the game, along with a schoolgirl named Naomi. There is nowhere to run except underground. In gameplay, this means you are navigating these labyrinths (with admittedly, perhaps intentionally confusing layouts) in a dungeon crawler style.
There is also a monster taking a stroll around these areas though, so you have to be on your guard at all times. Over time, the monster evolves and gets faster and faster. To make it even more creepy, there is several dead ends in these maze like areas. The trick is to duck into doors (source: walkthrough from Chris's Survival Horror Quest), this resets the position of the monster giving you a better chance to survive.
Even when I was in these rooms though, I didn't feel safe. I think that's a testament to the pervading sense of dread that this game instills in the player. It goes beyond all rationality, that you know it's not in the games program for the monster to barge in. You just feel like something could go wrong at any moment.
The horror of the game is sometimes surpassed by it's frustration, in parts. It's hard to be scared when you're frustrated, at least for me. You're fifteenth time getting felled by a monster in this game might inspire more of a "Come on!" than an "Eek!". It's nowhere perfect in game design. It also is terrifying in that it is partially an old style point-and-click (now THAT'S what I call scary).
It has the perfect, later 90's Japanese industrial horror vibe (if that is a thing), or at least what I imagine that looks like. Grainy and rusty pre-rendered graphics (in a good way), ambient and minimal spooky electronic music, and some sci-fi, biomorph flair. There's even some goofy dialogue, to give at least a little bit of relief from the almost constant darkness.
Overall, I'm happy that I finished my first horror game. I'm probably going to take a break and go back to playing some cheerful Nintendo games as usual, but I'm very interested in this developers other projects such as Despiria for the Dreamcast. I also played Lux-Pain, which some related developers have worked on (although it is a much stylistically different game).