So, on a list of free horror games comes Lasting. It is an extremely, extremely low-res game where you walk around randomly generated rooms and corridors trying to collect floppy disks. Also, there’s no way out, and there may be something in there with you.
If that sounds appealing, check it out.
I started playing it, tried staring at one of the black windows then cowered in fear of seeing something, got two rooms further, closed the game (I am absolutely a coward) and went to watch a Let’s Play, figuring that someone experienced in horror games talking while playing it for me would make it easy to handle. Instead, I watched them go insane. The first person didn’t even recognize the enemy when he first saw it, and cautiously approached, only for the screen to flash, scream, and run blindly for the next few rooms.
What’s amazing about this is how, even more than usual, there’s nothing to be afraid of. The players, despite not being wimps like me, are jumpy long before any enemy appears, and their absolute terror upon hitting a locked door during normal exploration particularly stood out to me.
Part of it is simply that they knew it was a horror game, but I don’t think that’s all of it. After all, I went into The Desolate Hospital aware it was a horror game. I think it’s that it nestled into an intersection of being just comprehensible enough to make the way you didn’t know what was going on utterly terrifying
If was a cave it’d still be scary, but it wouldn’t be as scary because long twisty caves are things that exist, but endless rooms and hallways with no purpose shouldn’t be. It doesn’t matter that it’s a videogame using random generation, it’s still creepy. And there’s a few types of furniture, just enough to give the impression there’s more to it, that there must be some sort of reason behind all this and you just don’t understand what it is. (That’s why the house is worse than similar stories about caves.)
The low resolution, similarly, is so extreme it’s scary. It doesn’t matter that nothing looks realistic because you’re so busy futilely straining to make out details that don’t exist that all your brain registers is that you can’t see what’s coming.
Then there’s the first suggestion of the monster, which is just sound. The people playing panic, running desperately from room to room despite having no idea what’s happening or if this is the way away from instead of toward the monster. And the fear of the locked doors.
There’s also the task of collecting disks, which is pointless. You’re not told why you’re getting them or if they matter, but they’re recognizable and you know that they should have a purpose.
The game is described as an experiment in claustrophobia, which I think it nailed. The room environments are just cluttered enough to impede movement without giving you any place to actually cower. The hallways are narrow and barren. The doors are all closed and need to be opened before you can continue, and some of them won’t open at all so you have to try a different door, sometimes even by going back the way you came for a room or two. And there is, of course, no way out. The moment you become uneasy, it just snowballs.
The players I watched found occasional disks and collected them out of some sense it’d make the game end, wondering how many they needed to get total. The game, of course, has no end and the disks serve no purpose.
I honestly think that you could release a game like this with no enemy at all and people would be terrified. It’s just such a perfect storm. It does not make sense, it puts you in an environment you can’t use, and it gives you no way out.
You should try Slender if you haven’t. It’s also free and horrifying, etc.
edit: On a note relevant to this post, Slender also does some interesting things with claustrophobia: specifically, it utilizes short but poignant bursts of claustrophobia to make really strong contrasts. Like the map is a big park where the only obstacles are trees, but the landmarks where the notes are found include a bathroom split into symmetrical men/women sections, a long concrete tube, and a bunch of boilers or generators that are stuck close together.
Like there’s this feeling you get when you’re walking through the park and you see something like a small building or any suddenly cramped environment that basically translates to “I don’t want to go in there.” The game forces you to, of course, and it’s very good at ramping up the tension every time you get a note, so that if you’re unlucky enough to have to go to one of those places late in the game, you’re generally pissing yourself before you even walk inside.
You should try Slender if you haven’t. It’s also free and horrifying, etc.
I think you missed the part where I freaked out two minutes in at a low-res window and ended up watching other people play instead.
I will definitely consider “playing” it via youtube, though.
I mean, full disclosure, I only collected 5 of the 8 notes on my best attempt before Slender caught me and broke my spirit. So by all means watch a Let’s Play, but I really recommend you at least try a few minutes, because the game does an extremely good job slowly increasing the tension.
Don’t worry, I’m good at immersion. That’s part of why I don’t try to build up tolerance to scary games, I really don’t like to be telling myself stop caring it’s not real, I prefer to wallow in it.
Yeah. It’s funny: there’s this mental divide for me where I’m capable of finding video games scary, but not movies. And I believe the reason is that I don’t immerse myself into movies as well as I do video games.
So, I’ve played it. I didn’t freak out because it’s hard to do when a cat demands your attention, but it is a pretty intense experience.
What the writing you can find sometimes say, by the way? All I can make out is “I am not…” The last word is too blurry.
I liked how the furniture forms patterns that almost make sense. I’ve encountered a chair near the window, facing it, and thought that someone must have been sitting there, looking outside. Then I encountered two chairs near a window, also facing it.
Also, I fell through the closed door. I think it’s a glitch. I found myself in a location of even less resolution than the rest, mostly black with white walls in a distance. The walls have doors on them, so I think it’s the outside of the building. I couldn’t enter, though. Not all doors were locked, but I was forced back if I tried to step inside.
It was full of stars.
Fun fact: I have a homebrew RPG Rooms&Corridors about a seemingly endless house composed of utterly random mundane rooms. You can find bedrooms and kitchens and living rooms and what have you, always connected by corridors which can be accessed through every exit, be it a door, a window or a hole you just made.
It was made before I’ve even heard about the House of Leaves or similar works. There is indeed something unnerving about mundane things not behaving like we expect them to do, a sense of betrayal inflicted upon you by the world itself.
Played the game the second time, ran into the same glitch.
Conditions: I followed the left wall rule of labyrinth exploration until I ran into the stick figure. I think I turned away afterwards, though still tried to follow the rule.
Eventually I found what looked like another enemy, only square. At closer inspection it appeared to be an opened door.
The door was open outside, into an empty black area. The ground is pitch-black, the sky has a number of white dots resembling stars on it. I think it could be a default background.
In the area there were two grey complex and half of a corridor. As in, a floor and one wall sarting and ending nowhere.
The grey complexes seem to be the game area covered by me. Each has a number of doors which I could open. On the inside standard rooms can be seen. Attempting to enter a door caused it to close in my face, freezing me in place. Running allowed me to move again, however.
I will now attempt to intentionally recreate the glitch and get some screenshots.
Couldn’t recreate the glitch. Additional conditions might be required.
Found the let’s play where the glitch is recorded, though (around 40s mark):
If you ever stop commenting, I’m going to assume you went back to this game and it ate you.
Well, the glitch didn’t appear again yet, even though I now play the game every day.
I am starting to doubt I’ll see it again.
I am starting to doubt I’ll see it again.
You’re tempting fate all over the place! When you disappear one day, I’m putting this on a creepypasta site.
It’s actually a pretty common glitch in 3D games. A problem with mapping which allows players to go outside of designated locations. You can see it in Gothic, Morrowind, etc.
Though it is interesting to note that typically the insides of locations don’t have textures. They are usually invisible aside from edges. Because, well, why bother working on something that nobody’s supposed to see?
Oh, well, it’s probably not important. A peculiarity of the engine the designer used, I guess.
I’ve finally managed to see the glitch again.
I was exploring the complex when I was trapped between two doors. There were two joined corridors one after another, and a room with a single door at the end. The door was locked.
I backtracked, but the door I came from was locked too. I was running between two doors for a while, until one finally unlocked. To reveal darkness outside.
Tried to make screenshots, but the game didn’t like the Alt-Tab, so I’ve managed to make only one:
http://oi60.tinypic.com/1zq34nc.jpg
There are more buildings now then before.
I backtracked, but the door I came from was locked too. I was running between two doors for a while, until one finally unlocked. To reveal darkness outside.
D:
Oh wow, gonna try this out. I was thinking of some kind of making something of a labyrinth in a visual novel. Thanks!