AOOFAD and Silent Hill 3 Exciting Explosion Review

AOOFAD and Silent Hill 3 Exciting Explosion Review

Yeah this took about five minutes to whip up.

There are two things that make good video games. Likewise, good video games are good because of the same two things: atmosphere and mechanics. Without these two elements a game is either bad, or not a game in my opinion. Things like story can be found in a book, graphics in movies or television, but mechanics and atmosphere are unique to the interactive medium.

That’s not to say a good game can’t have a good story, or a bad game has it’s graphics to blame. I love the Phoenix Wright games for their story, and I love seeing a painstakingly rendered historic city stretch out before me in Assassin’s Creed. But these are just contributions to a whole, facets that catch the light and bend it towards the center of something that’s worth seeing or isn’t. That’s what we’re all about here, right?

Mechanics and atmosphere. Games like Tetris are good because of their mechanics, games like Jet Set Radio are good because of their atmosphere (it’s basically a barebones Tony Hawk clone made awesome by style and FUNK). Games like the Fallout series are good because of their synthesis of the two elements. The atmosphere influences the gameplay and vice-versa. I mean, you wouldn’t scrounge and pick up every little piece of scrap and ammunition unless it was the apocalypse, right? The point is, the two elements can be present alone or together, and with that said I arrive at the review proper.

All of Our Friends are Dead. Yeah.

I played this at about the same time as Henry, and I wasn’t going to write anything about it at first. But then, I noticed how sparse all the other writings on the internet were on it, and I entertained the fantasy that this humble little blog could be the leading source of words on this fascinating little game. I can see why people write about this game mostly in recommendation, most people haven’t heard about the game and you don’t want to influence their perceptions. Just call the game weird and cool and call it a day.

All of Our Friends are Dead is very cool. That’s reason enough to play it, but it’s also free and takes up only about a half hour of your time. The thing is barely a video game, really, if not for its obscenely good atmosphere. You have WASD movement with mouse aimed firing of a single gun and there are about five or so enemies. Also, spikes and key card doors. So… this game isn’t much in the mechanics category already. But man, that atmosphere. Holy Shit. This is the reason people write all their little blurbs and recommendations. It’s like if Lovecraft made Contra, or if that guy who made Blame! made Super Mario Bros. In other words, FUCK context.

The world is made of just red and dark. Mountains in the distance and static in the air, it’s all done in this pixelization (which my auto-correct tells me is actually “idealization” whoa man!), which may have been out of necessity. Regardless, it causes this discomfort. It’s a game that’s constantly tugging at what you should feel. Gore and faceless mannequins populate this way too big world. Everything is lonely and distant. It’s what hell must be like for the emotionally needy. It’s what hell must be like for the sane.

You’re character is dropped and thrown all around the decreasingly organic world up to the final boss type thing. You break its shield shoot its heart, and then you get a poem and a loop back to the beginning. Maybe it is hell.

So, yeah. Silent Hill 3.

I’ve been meaning to play this game for most of my adult life. It’s strange how often it would flit in and out of consciousness. Every couple of years I would go on a righteous crusade to procure a copy, look up its price on Amazon, see it was still at, like, 50 bucks man, and wait another couple of years. Finally, the present occurs, I run through a game in a week (waiting until it’s dark before I play) and then I finish. The end of an era. Watch the credits, pack up, go home, and sit in silence while staring at a wall and sipping microwave tea. It was like someone I’d known for years (gone to high school with, chatted a couple of times about classes maybe got a ride home with them and watched a movie with them), met me out of the blue one day and called me a word I was sure never existed, then ran away, pushing people into bushes. I couldn’t quite grasp what the fuck just happened.

What the fuck just happened.

Anyways, I tried going into the game knowing nothing (do you know how hard it is to avoid spoilers for a game that’s been out for almost eight years? (not that bad actually)). But really there are some things you should know. You’re Heather Mason, daughter of Harry Mason from SH1, and you’re a scared little girl who gets violently fucking raped and killed by any given enemy in the game. The story is barely “set” in Silent Hill, and the game isn’t as psychologically oriented as Silent Hill 2 was. Think direct sequel to Silent Hill 1, and you’re good. Beyond that, everything is told by the game naturally enough.

Based on mechanics alone, the game is decent. Probably the best classic survival horror game I’ve ever played, beating out even RE: Code Veronica (I’m a glutton for them emblems). The puzzles are logical, the riddles just puzzling enough, and the combat is adequate when you have to fight. Though, really you should be running away lest you encounter the aforementioned rape/killing. So, the game is good as a game. It’s nothing that Silent Hill 2 wasn’t but its strengths are in its logic. Oh, a key opens that door? And that key is the store room? Where the key would naturally be? Mind. Fucking. Blown. There’s even an emblem that’s revealed to be totally useless. Things get stranger later on I suppose, but even then it’s natural game logic (of course Tarot cards unlock the final door Satan’s Vagina).

But, like AOOFAD, Silent Hill 3 is masterful at manipulating your emotions. We’ve got some terrific voice and mo-cap acting from the female lead, a compelling little narrative to pull you along, and some of the scariest public places this side of, well, Silent Hill. Though lacking in the psychological subtext of SH2, this game is better at making you care. At the very least, I can guarantee you will know what just went down at the end.

Both games are really cool to just play and enjoy at face value. Enjoy it for a few hours and never think about again. But they both also have their secrets, their dark underbellies that’ll keep providing as long as you keep pulling. I could write for hours about what I believe these games are about, but I’m only here to give out the numbers. For doing what they do best, both games get our highest ranking, 1 out of 1.