My favorite works of horror are all built upon the foundation of three solid principles: a strong sense of place, clearly defined consequences, and an ability to create expectations while simultaneously defying them. It doesn't matter if it's Halloween, The Colour Out of Space, or Silent Hill -- the medium makes no difference. These three elements are at the core of every work I consider to be truly horrifying, so it's with that in mind that the upcoming PC title Routine has piqued my interest.
Unveiled at last year's Gamescom, Routine is the first work from the UK-based Lunar Software. It's a survival horror game set in an abandoned lunar base. Yep, that's a pretty strong sense of place. And there are no extra lives in the game -- permadeath means that one wrong move, and you're starting over. Well, those are some clearly defined consequences. And just take one look at the trailer, and you'll see that Routine is filled with the unexpected. It's this last element that left me searching for answers, and who better to turn to than Lead Artist and Designer Aaron Foster.
1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF FEBRUARY 11 | IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE!
A Video Game Time Capsule
Cover Story: What would aliens assume about humanity from holding a controller?
A
liens have been picking up our radio waves for years. The further away from Earth they are, the older the songs they're listening to. This was illustrated nicely in the opening scene of the 1997 film Contact--as the camera pulls away from Earth, traveling the length of the galaxy, recordings from earlier and earlier in human history play out. The soundtrack goes from Spice Girls to A Flock of Seagulls to, at Venus, Nixon's "I'm not a crook" speech. Rag time jazz and old-timey radio ads fizzle out to nothing by the time we reach the Eagle Nebula.
Director Robert Zemeckis may have taken some artistic liberties with that scene, but it nevertheless raises an interesting question: how would extraterrestrials interpret our culture? The Voyager space ships that were launched in 1977 each carry a Golden Record that contains sounds and images meant to convey the fabric of our world to alien life forms in the distant future. A message from then-president Jimmy Carter reads:
"This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe."
In terms of creativity, particularly world-building, I find that the game developers that nail those the best are the Japanese and the French. So it comes as little surprise to see big Japanese publisher Capcom sign small French developer Dontnod and their debut action-adventure game, Remember Me. What is surprising is how instantly risky the game looks, though not necessarily because of creative ambition. Rather, does Remember Me even fit the label of "Capcom game?"
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