I love Lovecraft. I really do. His style isn't the greatest, but the fear and paranoia his work evokes is something I can really admire. Anything Lovecraft inspired draws my interest, and right now I've stumbled upon Eternal Darkness for the Gamecube.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not playing it. I can't play standard video games worth a damn. The only games I can actually demonstrate skill is We <3 Katamari and Katamari Damacy, and that's not something you brag about. Instead, for the games I want to see but can't play myself, I watch Leg's Plays, and there's one youtube user who specializes in playing horror games blind, in other words, he plays on the hardest setting and has never played the game before. It makes it really amusing, and he also does pun runs.
When it comes to Lovecraft and video games, it's nothing new. They tried to do a direct adaptation with Call of Cthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth, which is pretty faithful, but disjointed and bad gameplay. I thought it was fun because I knew where the material came from, but the player was very frustrated, he didn't do his reading. The Amnesia series also incorporates Lovecraftian details, sacred artifact that changes shape and colors mysteriously, horrible monsters, crippling fear that's measured and is a part of the game, and a climax that's otherworldly.
However, I think I've found my favorite so far, which is Eternal Darkness. It was made in 2002, so the graphics are kinda funky, but you play as several characters in time periods that are all strung together though a greater conspiracy that's out of humanity's hands. There are mini monsters that you can kill with spells and a sword, but underneath it all are the push and pull of three greater monsters, and they just scream Cthulu. It's got a great atmosphere, and also has a sanity meter but I like how they handled it. In Amnesia, since it's first person, your vision goes blurry, crackling sounds, and your movements slow because of it. In Eternal Darkness, it's third-person, so I was apprehensive of how they would portray the insanity.
Well, they had fun.
It's different each time, so there is no way to predict what you will see or hear. Typically the walls will bleed and you might hear a baby crying, but don't worry, that is not the extent. At one point, your main character starts to go insane and when she enters a room, she walks a few steps, and her head flys off and lands on the ground with a sickening squish. You can still control her, and she runs, headless, until her arms fly off, and then her body explodes. The screen flashes, and your character is in one piece and she begins to sob because of what she saw. Another instance is randomly, a menu screen will pop up and it will say "Thank you for playing" and you'll think that the game ended prematurely, but it's just another way to break the fourth wall when dealing with insanity.
Long story short, I really liked the way they handled it.
Another Let's Play I'm watching by the same user is Rule of the Rose. So far, it's Silent Hill-ish, and it was banned in a few countries, and so I'm interested to see where that comes into play.
As the horrors continue, so will my updates.
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