Amnesia’s gameplay makes you feel weak and vulnerable, as you cannot attack the enemies; you can only run and/or hide. The game’s design is incredibly dimly lit, to create an atmosphere of tension and uncertainty for the player. It relies heavily on lighting aspects.
The gameplay system is based around staying within the light, and when you as a player are in the dark, you start to lose your “sanity”. The dark induces your insanity, which gradually grows until the player/character passes out from mental exhaustion.
This mechanic makes the player unsure what happens on reaching the peak of the insanity meter. But the player certainly doesn’t want to reach that point. The game designers play with this mechanic throughout the game and, when you reach a certain level of insanity, different effects appear, like blur or vibrations. The game design is very innovative, tricking players into scaring themselves.
Bioshock combines many genres, but it’s the mixture of horror, shooter and RPG (role playing game) that predominates. The horror aspects come into play with the clever use of light, sound and visuals -- mostly encapsulated in the enemy characters throughout the story, who are much more powerful than you, and wear incredibly heavy and daunting armour. Like in horror movies, you hear the danger before you see it. This is part of the art of semiotics where signs and symbols shed light on the events that are about to transpire.
In Bioshock, the most stressful and intensifying situation is hearing the thudding footsteps of the big bad enemies as they orbit around your current position.
The clever use of audio, visuals and gameplay enable the game designer to manipulate the player into understanding that danger is coming without revealing when the actual moment will take place.
Referring back to semiology and foreshadowing we are given signs and symbols of this imminent rising danger -- for example deep, heavy footsteps of the enemies, the music’s volume and pitch rising, and changes within the setting you are experiencing like lighting or daunting shadows. All of this culminates in moments of surprise. Meanwhile the designer is pulling the strings and guiding you through the way they have intended.
I have used intriguing elements from both games in my projects-- my first videogame The Museum has moody, emissive and ominous lighting to create an atmosphere of uncertainty for the player, heavily inspired by Amnesia.
My new project, a murder mystery game, takes inspiration from the game design, sound design, musical elements, and architecture of Bioshock, and the pick-up-and-place mechanic from Amnesia, used in my game for solving puzzles.
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