Fear 2. This game gave me powerful and unpleasant physiological reactions both times I tried to play it. Liked the combat system, hated wading through blood every fifteen miutes in a helpless "agh, my controls dont work" cinematic loaded with black-arts mind-frell.
This game used knowledge of human psychology of fear an it's triggers to intentionally induce these kind of of reactions in the player. Sub-audible tones, iconic & subconcious imagery, flickering lights at specific frequencies, forced helplessness etc. Helplessness being a common thread amoung sufferes of PTSD it would seem that the game was trying to inflict trauma on me. This goes far beyond creating 'atmosphere' and mood-setting and had such an effect on me that I could not play the game.
There has been a disturbing trend in other 'mature' games to create situations where the player is made helpless, immobalized, disarmed, given an undefeatable foe, made to kill inocent people or watch them die (Prey comes to mind), commit atrocities and the like. Whats that all about? Who thought this would be fun? Who likes it when their controller goes dead and they left watching the action unfold, spectating as their avatar is hijacked?
"Try the latest hit from MindMelt: 'Helpless Victim 2' (no controller necessary) beg for your life, watch as the plot unfolds without you, wait for it all to be over. New stockholm syndrome power-ups and improved bleed-o-meter. Who needs gameplay, we deliver 50 Bigabytes of graphic virtual pain, psychological damage and a new trauma-tron 2000 engine."
