The Squadron of Shame HorrorCast

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Pete, Mark, Calin and Alex get together for a discussion of all things horrific and horrible, taking in Corpse Party, Home, Lone Survivor, Amnesia, Penumbra and other spooky treats.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS for all of the above from the outset.

Be sure to leave a comment below or in our G+ Community.

All music in this episode is from Corpse Party: Blood Covered.

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[Pete’s note: Apologies for the huge delay between our recording of this in November and it finally getting uploaded — real life happened a bit. Due to the long delay between recording and publishing, some things we mentioned as “coming soon” (like the sequel to Corpse Party) are now actually available. Curiosity still sucks, though.]

@cgrajko Excellent. Excellent. Optimal conditions for the Amnesia experience. Feel the fear flow through you. Beige said this to me, and now I’m telling you: your nerves will steel themselves the farther you push yourself into that place. Keep going!

@redswir1 @unmanneddrone I really like the look of that game. Heard about it a while ago. I don’t know why, but I haven’t been on a grognard kick for a long time, hell, I barely even touched Empire/Napoleon Total War or Civ V. WHAT’S WRONG WITH ME?

I was just playing Amnesia while I’m home alone, and my house just had a power outage not too long ago. I am also incredibly sleep deprived.

I think I may have broken my brain.

For anyone else playing Amnesia, I would suggest you don’t play it while you’re ridiculously sleep deprived to the extent that your house makes weird noises it’s not actually making and you hear Pyramid Head dragging a giant sword along the ground, even though it’s just someone outside.

@mjpilon I forgot about that! Go for it! Turn off the lights, immerse yourself in tension and fear (and relief), cower outside of a room for a while, whip open doors, or slowly peek in, whatever works for you, and keep going forward. Also acceptable, is turning off the game to deal with those horrible feelings… just as long as you go back.

@cgrajko @bowlisimo As promised earlier this year after our secret santa, I will *attempt* to play Amnesia as a Halloween challenge. I am REALLY not a horror guy but I’ll try for the Squad.

On a related note: Are people still interested in doing that again this year? It’s early to discuss it but writing that just made it come to mind

@cgrajko Please do! Make it a Halloween challenge? Amnesia will test your will to continue on like no other horror game out there.

I think my personal Halloween game will be RE4 (PSN), and whatever crazy hijinks TF2 gets up to.

@feenwager This should be a fun challenge especially with so many of us planning to follow through.. It might easier to put the lists elsewhere for “official” purposes but personally I think we need to insure most of the discussion and interaction occurs here on the Box… just seems right to me.

@Bowlisimo Okay…. I pledge to play Amnesia this coming October. I may need you to keep me honest however.

@angryjedi @scribl I can definitely understand the sentiment regarding AC. So far, the only one I “kept” up with so to speak was Brotherhood. I played AC2 almost a year after it came out and Revelations is still sitting here. The series still pulls me in, so I’m not tired of it although the reports on Revelations make me wonder if that will change. However, the prospects of AC3 keep me excited over the long term.

Like @Bowlisimo said though, I would never marathon through them…. that would be insane 😉

There’s at least 3 of you now who have listed Amnesia. October, all of you, do it for Halloween. I can throw in my free Steam copy for someone else if you do it…

Amnesia is ridiculously effective at generating that really visceral type of paranoia that good horror games do so effectively.

I am going to load it up again in a little bit, and I was thinking of doing so right now, but as I was going through my library on Steam, I heard a door down the hall slam loudly. It was enough to give me pause and make me feel that I may not be able to handle Amnesia at this moment in time. I’m sure it doesn’t help that I’ve been on a horror kick lately and watched In the Mouth of Madness before falling asleep last night, but Amnesia is intense.

Also, as a way of getting us completely off track, I wanted to mention a podcast I started listening to recently: HP Podcraft. As you may have guessed, it’s a podcast that takes a look at Lovecraft’s works and discusses them based on not only the individual stories but also their context. For anyone who is a fan of Lovecraft, there’s a lot to like here. There’s also a lot to be desired, but I’ve never seen anything like it, and I know at least a few of the Squaddies would dig it. Although I’ve read almost all of Lovecraft’s stories, I’m rereading them in order to follow the podcast. Since the bulk of his stories are relatively bite-sized, a podcast is almost the perfect length to discuss short fiction. Anyway, I know we have a few people running around here who would dig this sort of thing

@cgrajko I think @redswir1 put it best, Amnesia = “No way I’m going in there: the game”. Every time you fearfully peek around a corner or hang out in front of a door while you psych yourself up to open it, that’s the game’s atmospheric magic succeeding. But keep going! Your nerves will naturally steel themselves over time. The experience of your descent and having made it through, despite your instincts, will stick with you. I guarantee the conclusion won’t dazzle and amaze, but that really isn’t the point.

@impynickers Grats on building a new PC, long may it kick the shit out of games. Coming up on the 4th year of my rig, which is like 60 in hardware years. Crossing my fingers on Deus Ex:HR. Please, little dual core, stay strong!

@unmanneddrone *Ambient temperature, 87.2 degrees. All systems optimal* Owlboy looks cool and kinda nostalgic for Genesis/SNES. Demo downloaded. Nothing much to report on X3:TC, been conscripted to fight the Kha’ak (facepalm). Starting to realize giant slow moving death ship is bad for escorting. R&D has begun on a less potent, but faster frigate-like alternative.

@cgrajko I feel you man, game has THE ATMOSPHERE and it’ll cause the dark specter of dread to get up all friendly like with you.

First time I saw something I near jumped out of my skin, then it wasn’t even real, but hell if I didn’t make it more then another 2 rooms before I had to quit.

I haven’t even made it to a monster yet, and I had to turn it off.

@cgrajko I am right there with you sir. I couldn’t bring myself to beat it by myself, so I enlisted a group of trusty survival horror veterans to endure the dark descent with me. Pretty well every saturday night we have been huddled infront of my friends projection screen passing off control when someone begins to panic.
We did this with a couple of the SIlent Hill games, and it creates an interesting group excorcize in puzzle solving. Amnesia has proven most terrifying though, some of the reactions from people are just priceless while playing. I recall in panicked moments everybody yelling, telling you what to do. Meanwhile my friend Allen while playing would be screaming his ass off. It was hysterical. What a game.

@cgrajko We do it out of love ❤ basically, this:

How far'd you get? Did your abode become particularly well lighted at a certain point? 😀 I'll totally admit I wussed out somewhere real early, though I've been feeling the itch to go back in.

Thanks a lot for recommending I play Amnesia all by myself with the lights off. Also, by “thanks a lot” I really mean “holy fuck you are all evil, and this game is really scary.”

I’ll back both of them and also say that if you are having any doubts about playing or continuing to play it watch the video red posted, consider that it’s fairly late in the game… and ask yourself what sort of game could do that to a cadre of dudes on skype.

but yeah, it sounds like you have some idea of what to expect… keep us posted 8)

Also: @redswir1 Does your pickup of the DE:HR ‘demo’ mean your done with DE 1? What did you think?

@cgrajko Yes, absolutely. That’s the best way to play it. In fact, go in cold. Don’t watch the video @redswir1 posted. The less you know about what is ahead, the better the effect the game has (which is arguably the whole point).

@beige Watch The Sword of Praxus completely shred this late to the party Xenon battle group in 1080p. Sorry about the Chatty Cathy computer lady.

Holy shit those of you who have Amneseia on Steam boot it up now. They added a new mini campaign somehow related to Apeture Science.

• Death = game over.
• No focus on hoarding tinder boxes and lantern oil.
• More monsters and you die in one hit.
• You should be able to save a prisoner in each area, but I haven’t manage to do so yet.

@bowlisimo Don’t forget about Overlord.

Broke S.T.A.L.K.E.R. out last night. I think I’m hooked. The slow, exploratory “play how you want to play” nature of the game is just what I need right now. I may chase it down with Far Cry 2 on the 360.

Amnesia was also spinning for a bit. I may to start that one over with the Mrs. because she seemed pretty bummed that I played it without her. First impressions are OK. Glad there’s no combat. My character’s a whiny little bitch, though. They’re only 6 inch long hissing cockroaches, dude. Step on ’em.

Just got to the final boss. I do not blame you if you skip it and YouTube the ending. Motherfucker I did not play the entire game on Survivalist up to this point just to knock it down at the last part.

What makes it worse is that after finishing the part immediately preceding this, I was thinking “wow, that was a pretty smart way to do a ‘final boss’ in the context of a game like Dead Space. I’m sure glad they didn’t tack on a traditional boss at the end, like so many other games that didn’t have or need bosses…”

@bowlisimo Last I checked Amnesia does have a Mac and even a Linux version.

Oh, and I also finished the Dragon Age Origins base game today. The Archdemon was actually one of the easiest bosses in my experience. Now I just need to figure out the proper order for all this DLC-expansion-save-game crap.

@bowlisimo Yeah, much like AvP, I do believe you can tout firearms of various shapes and sizes and still have a very tense game. While having to concede that you’re not only dealing with melee NPCs down in those access tunnels and bomb shelters, I still say the atmosphere is unnerving and – true to the mainstay idea of horror – your life can be ended just as quickly.

But let’s just celebrate them both. Both have atmospheres head and shoulders above their peers. Amnesia has, of this moment, sold almost 200,000 copies! Nice work, Frictional.

Well, gotta get back on Amnesia sometime. Shit.

Ok guys, I survived playing through Amnesia: The Dark Descent and I think it’s important that I link back to what Rampantbicyle and Beige said, because I agree wholeheartedly with them. It’s not perfect by any means, especially toward the end, but would it help if I told you that this indie game has a certain sequence of events that turned out to be one of the most memorable gaming experiences for me in the past few years? There’s shit from that game that probably will stay with me long after The Wasteland or The Normandy has long since faded from memory. Just sayin’.

Pick it up when it drops below $20 again (I believe there is a demo as well).

@beige Flooded Cathedral, fucking A. Brings back traumatizing childhood memories of Creepshow 2’s “The Raft”.

@bowlisimo Haven’t touched it. In favor of my rental of Blood Stone and somehow getting back on X-Scape – one of the two notable DSiWare games to come out this year.

I’ll… I’ll do what I can though. People tell me to at least play to the store room, and that it’s okay if I quit there.

@Redswirl How are you doing in Amnesia? I just made it to the refinery, and shit is threatening to start getting real. I can’t play that game for more than like 20-30 min at a time and maybe clear through a little bit of a location. Which sucks because you have to MOVE, but the game is designed to make you cautious. It’s simultaneously awesome and frustrating, especially since I think I overused the tinderboxes in the beginning of the game and now they don’t give me any. The lantern runs out super fast and I feel like I’m on track to get to a point where I have no more light and have to start over. If the game can somehow keep me just on the edge of running out then I’ll have to call it genius, but if it’s too easy to run out of everything so early, then I’ll have to call it horseshit.

Hold on to those things if you can manage it.

@kentdoggydog Welcome, sir! May you feel at home and add to the discourse at your leisure.

I can’t comment on Amnesia, but I can comment on my possible predilection for the almost polar opposite of the scarce use of atmospheric sound effects. It might be argued that a constant sound is a negated sound within the idea of normal/abnormal aural balances…but in the case of, say, Aliens Vs. Predator, the constant ping of the motion tracker is one of the most harrowing and tense effects I’ve experienced.

I agree, though…the isolated noise spike amidst a realm of relative silence is a classic and almost always effective.

Hi guys. I’ve been lurking for a while, but the Amnesia discussion has (appropriately) brought me out into the light. As much as I’ve enjoyed it, I feel it falters by having TOO much going on. Here’s a paragraph about it that I wrote recently:

There is a moment in Silent Hill 2 that best captures what I think is the main problem with Amnesia. One of the most prolific actions performed in Silent Hill 2 is that of opening, or attempting to open, doors. The locked door sound effect of Silent Hill 2 becomes one of those sounds that will permanently occupy a small corner of your brain, resisting all manner of alcohol consumption. At one point, when you attempt to open a particular door, the aforementioned locked door sound will play, followed immediately by a loud and extremely jarring sound from SOMETHING on the other side of the door. I’m fairly certain that this is the singular instance of this event, and the fact that it only occurs this one time makes it one of the more memorable scares in that game. Some people remember Pyramid Head raping a mannequin, but it’s the rattle of a door handle that keeps me huddled under the covers. By contrast, Amnesia often has multiple instances of doors flinging open by themselves within a single level, and it constantly assaults you with the creaking of floors, doors, or other unseen activity which I quickly became desensitized to. The restrained use of sound effects, or, more appropriately, effective use of silence in Silent Hill makes the eventual breaking of it that much more frightening. Equally important, once this sort of activity has been established, is the silence presented between these events which slowly builds tension in the player, making them dread each subsequent action, like the simple act of opening of doors in this example.

Sounds like it’s working its magic on you guys, though. Any thoughts?

@bowlisimo I’d imagine the brain dead would swagger down into the catacombs and holler something like:

“Woohoo, Cabala. Come git sum, Grizzle, yessir. I’m-a waitin’!”

Unfortunately, Red is right on the money, you guys. This game is killing me, almost literally. It’s amazing how efficiently Amnesia wears you down mentally. Every night I load it up full of piss and vinegar, and by the time I quit (or flee as the case may be) I find myself cowering in front of every door, for who knows how long, deciding how best to avoid the horror that probably isn’t even behind it. The level of dread is so constant and overbearing that it takes like ten minutes just to come down from it afterward. Scratches is the last game I can remember that evoked that emotion so strongly.

I don’t know how far I am, but I guarantee if you have an overactive imagination, this game will destroy you. Unless, of course, you’re not afraid of anything…or you’re brain dead. Man, it’d really pay to be brain dead down there in the dark…

Thanks, Beige, I hate you!

@RedSwirl Good to hear Amnesia is living up to its reputation. I’d love to indulge, but until my upgrade in a couple of months, being saddled with the nightmare that is Intel express integrated graphics atop a measly Celeron M, it’ll have to wait.

Just a heads-up for those interested, Apache Air Assault demo dropped on the Euro PSN and Live last night. And holy hell. This is the kind of masochism I can get behind. Platformers, not so much, but flying a gunship in realism mode is a white-knuckle cocktail of fear and thrill. Not to mention keeping it aloft and stable long enough to belt out a salvo of Hydras, then switch to your chaingun for a bit of delicate truck-and-soldier shredding. Some of the best radio chatter I’ve heard in a game, along with such a care for authenticity.

Between this and RUSE, to see games that were ostensibly of the PC dominion make it successfully over to console is glorious.

Barely an hour and a half of Amnesia The Dark Descent. Shit. I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to do this man. It’s basically “No way I’m going in there: the game”

I’m not even playing “the way it’s supposed to be played. It’s daytime (but the blinds are closed) and I’m not playing with headphones (thought of waiting till I got my A40s). Shit man how long is this game?

In the middle of the first Penumbra game now. Man, this game completely nails something I’ve wanted to see for a while now: an atmospheric pure adventure game built on today’s tech. This really is the true modernization of the survival horror.

I hope to see more traditional adventure games in this vein. I want them to show up on XBLA and PSN or somehow reach the console space. Frictional’s statements of Amnesia 36k lifetime sales being just enough to keep them in business kinda makes me wish they’d get picked up by EA Partners for a real production. Actually I’d be interested in seeing that happen to quite a few Eastern European devs.

@bowlisimo

I’ll be right behind you this weekend, depending on whether or not I decide to get through the Penumbra games first.

That’s it, I’m going into Amnesia after Beige and Lynette…if they’re still alive. The lights are going out. If I don’t make it back by Halloween, inform my next of kin (no, you can’t have my stuff).

Just whatched a couple Amnesia videos. Do I need to wait until I make a decision on dolby digital headphones before I play this game?

I’m going to preface my comments about the Giant Bomb thing with this: I don’t really like the Bombcast. I don’t see it as being terribly different from the glut of other podcasts that are floating around. As a result, this decision probably means something different for me than it does for the folks who actively listen to it regularly.

I’m with @beige and @bigdaddygamebot on the donation front. I gladly gave $50 to This American Life last year, because I like it a lot, and I felt that it provided me with $50 worth of enjoyment last year. I could have donated way less and still felt in the clear, but I had the money, and I wanted it to go to a service that I appreciate. That said, This American Life actually engages in journalism. Reporters find, write, and refine stories. Unless I’m missing something, this is a bit different than the Bombcast, which of course has a presence at E3 and whatnot but largely sits around talking about games. It’s cool that people enjoy it, but I’m not in favor of rewarding it. I mean, I sit around bullshitting about games every now and again on a podcast, and I wouldn’t dream of attempting to monetize that content, nor would I ever try to monetize content on my site (*cough* http://www.newgameplus.net *cough*).

The parallel I draw between myself and the folks at Giant Bomb who make a living off of this is clearly facetious, but there is so much good free criticism and gaming news from under the radar sites that it is tough to justify paying for something I can get elsewhere. I would, however, throw down a donation for A Life Well Wasted. Make of that what you will…

I’m really glad that people are picking up and enjoying Amnesia. I haven’t actually purchased the game yet, but I have been following it in earnest for the last few months, and I have played the demo, which is fantastic. As a matter of fact, you should all play the demo: http://www.amnesiagame.com/#demo
Frictional games is one of those companies I really adore, because they put out their stuff for PC, Mac, and Linux (and they allow you access to all 3 by purchasing the game.) This isn’t as big of a deal now that I’m not dual booting Linux anymore, but it is still cool that they’re looking out for everyone.

@rampantbicycle hit on pretty much all of the high points that I would bring up, but she’s absolutely right. It takes a lot of cues from Gothic Fiction and feels like a video game version of Lovecraft with a lot of nods to the type of atmosphere Henry James builds in something like The Turn of the Screw. The sound design is absolutely fabulous, and there are a lot of little touches that I appreciate but won’t mention for fear of spoilers.