Survival Horror For The Sightless - Perception Follows A Blind Protagonist

[Fanghawk]

Survival Horror For The Sightless - Perception Follows A Blind Protagonist

The Deep End Games' Perception is a unique kind of survival horror, where a blind protagonist uses sound to her advantage.

One of the biggest principles of <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/survival%20horror?os=survival+horror>survival horror is that sometimes what you don't see is scarier than what's in front of you. If that's the case, what would a game be like where you can't see anything all? Perception is one Kickstarter project hoping to take this concept to its logical end. Created by former Irrational Games dev Bill Gardner, Perception puts you in the shoes of a blind woman exploring an abandoned mansion - only to find that something inside tracks every sound she makes.

Perception tells the story of Cassie, who tracks down a mysterious mansion that has plagued her with visions. Despite being blind, Cassie is able to navigate her surroundings using a kind of <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/daredevil>Daredevilesque echolocation. Everything that creates sound in the mansion, from leaking pipes to wind leaking through open windows, leaves a temporary visual impression she can track to its source. Failing any audio stimulus, Cassie can simply thump her cane on the ground to briefly "see" what's around her. But there's a catch - a creature called the Presence also follows sound and can home in on Cassie's cane if it's used too often. To avoid it, Cassie must set "sound traps" that will lure the Presence away until she solves the mansion's mystery.



Perception's mechanics aren't solely limited to echolocation. Cassie still can't make out certain details of her surroundings, and will need her smartphone to translate letters to audio, or call a friend describe various objects. As the story unfolds, Cassie will eventually be able to move through time to different generations, revealing what happened to the house and its inhabitants. Gardner wants to use these elements to give Perception a unique, first-person narrative comparable to Gone Home - another indie game <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131855-Update-Ken-Levine-Speaks-Gone-Home-BioShock-Share-A-Universe>with Irrational connections of its own.

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All told, Gardner is seeking $150,000 by June 25 to make Perception a reality, and has already reached 10 percent of the goal. It will be still be some time before the finished product is available, if at all, but if it looks as creepy and imaginative as the gameplay trailer? We may have yet another solid survival horror entry on our hands.

Source: <a href=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/perceptiongame/perception-3>Kickstarter, via <a href=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-05-26-perception-is-a-new-horror-game-from-some-of-the-people-behind-bioshock>Eurogamer

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[LysanderNemoinis]

Well, here's hoping the game doesn't sell itself as a creepy, atmospheric horror game and ends up being a political circle jerk like Gone Home.

 

[Valok]

Okay, not gonna lie.

The hole basic concept of it just sounds (pun intended) fucking amazing. I'm not a horror guy but I'm definitely keeping this one on the radar now.

P.S Voice actress to me though was... "meh". Bearing bad almost (the monologue just sounds imo too casual, "cheesy" even perhaps?).

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Well, here's hoping the game doesn't sell itself as a creepy, atmospheric horror game and ends up being a political circle jerk like Gone Home.

I don't recall gone home ever being pegged as a horror game. It was from the get go an experimental title on environmental story telling. People (3rd parties) talked about it being somewhat creepy but that wasn't the intent of the game.


Also "turns out the protag is gay which caused issues with her family" isn't exactly being political. I mean, are we just going to label all slice of life stories "political" or just ones involving gays or minorities?

Nor is building a narrative around such a premise a "circle jerk". The feverish hatred towards the game and calls of pretentiousness and pandering... now that is a circle jerk. as is the adoration the game received as being some sort of landmark in gaming.

 

[Silence]

This looks really cool. I want to play this.
Would support if I had the money.

Just hope she doesn't narrate the whole game like this. I didn't found it bad, but it was a little too much.

 

[The_Darkness]

Hey, I thought of that concept!

Well, okay, more accurately, I thought of a similar game where you could only see ghosts in mirrors and had a small mirror strapped to your shoulder, so only noticed them when they were already behind you... This actually looks much better than my idea

Anyway, count me in. Alien Isolation (which I loved) meets Gone Home (which I also loved) meets Echolocation (which is actually a thing [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_echolocation] that people really can do - not to that extent though). I'm sold.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Colour me intrigued. I really like how it is done but it does make me wonder if I could take a whole couple of hours of that limited display palette. Then again Outlast wasn't a visual spectacular and that had me hooked. Might be one of those games that is really good to play in bursts, rather than a protracted sitting.

 

[Ambitiousmould]

I'm not a horror person. I'm easily frightened and that feeling will linger for days. So normally I don't play horror games even though they can have some interesting and intriguing things. I might make an exception for this though. It might be worth it.

Mechanics wise it reminds me a little of a game (I can't remember the name) where you played as a blind monster and had to locate your prey using sound alone. Obviously you needed a surround sound headset or speaker arrangement, but still.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Looks pretty interesting but the teenspeak puts me a little off. Anybody else?

 

[Aerosteam]

I'm not really sure. In a game where sound has such a presence and is relied on so much, the bit in the trailer where she opens the door and gets freaked out by the moths there was that *BAM! SCARY NOISE!* thing. It feels really out of place unless there's a person behind her doing all the sound effects all the time.

 

[karloss01]

The voice over put me off, I really hope she doesn't sound so dense and uninspired; not quite sold on the blind aspect either.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Oh for fucks sake. Just call it Daredevil Year 1.
Or Bat Simulator.

 

[Metalrocks]

it sounds interesting and certainly something different. will keep an eye on it. she sure talks a lot but i think i can deal with it.

 

[FalloutJack]

I had an idea for a game like this once. Kudos for implementing such a device into a game.

 

[sephthewind]

This concept was done back in '09 in an indie game called "Devil's Tuning Fork". Though for as far as I got (never got around to finishing it) nothing ever chased you, it was mostly platforming. It still had a creepy atmosphere though, and you were saving children that to you looked like giant stuffed animals that would cry out for help in the darkness.

It's still available for free on their website, and I've wanted someone with the resources to make a full experience with that mechanic ever since so I'll definitely be watching this one's progress. I agree with everyone above that's saying the voice-over is very uninspired, but hopefully that was just for the trailer.

I'm not really sure. In a game where sound has such a presence and is relied on so much, the bit in the trailer where she opens the door and gets freaked out by the moths there was that *BAM! SCARY NOISE!* thing. It feels really out of place unless there's a person behind her doing all the sound effects all the time.

This all the way, for this game to be any good they'll have to put a ton of care into every sound effect and audio cue they use. Then if they do that right, this game could be amazing.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

I wouldn't call it unique, I'm fairly certain I have seen two separate games based off of exactly the same idea (both of these were horror, I'm sure there were more that were just platforming or whatever.) I guess the call a friend/translate letters into words (I'm assuming through pictures, or something) sound pretty cool, but the big bad scary ghost looks like another normal baddie. A lot of horror games do what perception seems to be doing, mainly because it works. They have a way to navigate or move, or see (in the case of Amnesia) or progress or whatever, but doing so causes the bad person to react/follow you or whatever. It works well enough because of the tension of having to use something but knowing that something will likely get you in a scary running chase, or killed.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I mean, are we just going to label all slice of life stories "political" or just ones involving gays or minorities?

*implying that it hasn't already started*

But...why include minorities if you aren't going to make it political? What's the point?

More seriously, can someone include minorities without it becoming political?

 

[Silence]

I mean, are we just going to label all slice of life stories "political" or just ones involving gays or minorities?

*implying that it hasn't already started*

But...why include minorities if you aren't going to make it political? What's the point?

More seriously, can someone include minorities without it becoming political?

What.

Hopefully the game is playable by actual blind people as well.

I thought about this as well. Would be really cool. I think they have to have really good and realistic sounddesign for that to work, but I would love it if it was actually that accurate.