The Rise of Indie Horror

Similar to independent video games in general in the last few years, which has roughly been booming since around 2008, the rise of independent horror games was soon to come afterwards. And boy have we been spoiled regarding quantity, and also a few quality based titles.

Like with the other genres, the indie horror can be explored for new ideas, designs and such to tackle into, allowing for new user experiences to appear. Thus if you agree that mainstream horror video games are scarce, consider diving into this new world of opportunities.

At this point, there are so many indie horrors already available that I will never be able to experience them all it seems. It's just a matter of knowing which ones are worth playing, and which ones try too hard to scare you. And this can be hard to judge because horror is very important in regards to visuals and audio, so reading or watching reviews can spoil you very quickly.

With examples such as Amnesia, many gamers including me have already been introduced properly towards independent talents. Today, it's time to review 3 random chosen indie horrors of which I have heard good things about. Without knowing their overall reputation, let's dive in:

One Late Night

One late night, a worker is working overtime in order to finish a report by monday. As the night grows darker, it becomes apparent that stranger things keep happening, and eventually, it becomes clear that you are not alone tonight.

One Late Night is a short trip into uncertain borders despite being inside a recognizable office. Unfortunately, the controls and interaction could had been better, and the speed of moving around should have been a bit faster for a more streamlined experience.

I understand that when fear develops, movement can go slower, but not at this constant pace, come on. However, later on, I figured out the controls, and found out that you are able to sprint for a little while. So excuuuse me. But the controls are still stiff.

The horror slowly and somewhat in a subtle way develops with objects moving around on their own and sudden sounds being made in the office, until the supernatural reveals itself quite in an unnerving way.

Rating: 6.4

The Forest

The Forest, a very generic name, is an open world survival horror esque upcoming video game. As a lone survivor, the emphasis is upon surviving in a heavily forested landscape. Sooner or later, it becomes clear that cannibalistic mutants occupy random area's, and they are highly interested in you.

Mechanics involve gathering resources so that you can combat poverty by eating wild fauna, build simple homes, keep warm and insert traps to keep the mutants away. Should you get caught, then you are brought into a dark cave. Supposedly, it's the storage area where they keep their food, because all kinds of human victims hang around here(haha) in order to get eaten.

The Forest's pre-alpha version was played, because it is still in development. I gave it 3 playthroughs, and basically, I died differently each time. First time was because lack of food killed me. Second time was because I fell downwards through the game world inside the dark cave, no clip style. And the third time, the mutants killed me outside.

The performance of the game's processing power was badly designed, because not only was it slowing the gameplay down, it did the same to my personal computer as well. Also, many objects seen randomly pop in and out of existence.

Basically, The Forest has a lot to build on still, aside from these negative aspects, how long can it keep people interested with gameplay and mechanics like this? I am aware of the similarity between it and Minecraft, but I wonder...

Rating: Undetermined

Kraven Manor 

It's a very short length, but Kraven Manor is tightly designed and well polished. The background lore and current plot are quite vague, but immersion is well in attendance, and your available movements are similar to Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

Your objective is to collect scale models of rooms inside the manor in order to get further into the building and uncover whatever awaits you at the end. The climax is poor in explaining anything, but I was impressed by how you were escaping. And the very end is a nice touch of horror.

The best feature about Kraven Manor is the unique enemy in the form of movable mannequins. In fact, they are possessed by evil spirits. What's even better is that at first they seem motionless, but once you look away, they will close in on you!

It's similar to that infamous scene in the first Insidious movie with the ghostly family, or that particular scene in the original Condemned: Criminal Origins, also featuring mannequins. It's something different and unusual in usage, which is good.

Kraven Manor is well done to experience at least once. Something that was weird to experience was the successful sound playing whenever you were progressing. It reminded me of a very similar sound in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

Rating: 7.0