If you’ve been paying attention to Game-Wisdom over the last year, then you know that I’m a huge fan of games that push the survival horror genre in interesting directions. Sadly, AAA development has been moving away with a focus on “action horror” leaving people like me with few options on how to get scared.
But Kickstarter is once again showing that people still want to pursue niche genres and designs that aren’t being seen much and horror is definitely one of them. A few months ago it was Among the Sleep and this time we have Middle of Nowhere, which looks to be a survival horror game with a strong emphasis on the word “survival”
Middle of Nowhere:
Middle of Nowhere is being worked on by newly created studio VisionArts with this being their first game and kickstarter project. The plot is that players control Isaac Newman, who his brother went missing after traveling to a strange town to help cure a little girl. Isaac decides to go to the town to find his brother and uncovers a place where reality has become distorted and monsters roam.
From the description on the kickstarter, VisionArts is aiming for an emphasis of survival as much as horror. Players will have to build shelters to recover health and be very conservative about how aggressive they are. As ammo for guns is rare outside of buying it from safe havens, but it will cost a lot.
What’s an interesting choice is that while the game will be about survival, according to the developers they want to tell a story. Normally survival mechanics are found in open world or non linear games, but telling a story does require some linear progression.
There is a demo available on the kickstarter page to show off the gameplay that they have in mind.
The concept that VisionArts is describing reminds me a little of Stalker: Shadows of Chernobyl — where players had to fight and scavenge for supplies needed to stay alive. Now I know that some of you may not associate Stalker with the horror genre, but the game did have its moments.
The design and mood of the underground areas provided a great change of pace from the action above ground and delivered some very tense moments. If Middle of Nowhere can deliver on an evolution of that design then I think we’ll have a real winner.
But as with any kickstarter, I do have some concerns from the general concept. I hope that there are more enemy types than the ones mentioned on the kickstarter as horror is all about introducing new threats and situations to the player.
Speaking about horror, I am worried about the pacing of the game. Horror, both in video games and in movies is all about creating a suitable pace. There needs to be highs and lows to keep the player from becoming accustomed to any particular situation.
While the player is going to be weak through the use of survival and limited weapons, one worry I have is how strong can the player become? One thing about Stalker was the fact that there was a tipping point in terms of power. Eventually through weapons and equipment, the player reached a point where the horror aspect died out due to the sheer power the player had access to.
Even though the kickstarter says that players will have to scavenge for weapons and supplies, I do wonder if there will be a similar tipping point of power when the player has no situation that they can’t win.
On the flip side, if the player stays in a weaken position for the entirety of the game, then that can also backfire. Where the player will become acclimated to being weak and won’t find the game scary but tedious.
I had a similar situation in Amnesia The Dark Decent. Where instead of getting scared at the enemy encounters, I just became bored as there was nothing I could do outside of run or die.
Given the fact that the developers want to tell a story, I hope that the game will feature enough unpredictability to keep the player guessing as if not, then the game will become like other horror titles and will just be a onetime play through.
VisionArts is definitely going big with their first game concept and attempting to prove to the major developers that survival horror can still work. And I hope that they do succeed as any new take on survival horror is always a worthwhile endeavor in my book.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62qxHcSsdMc[/youtube]
