Dead Rising / Dead Rising Deluxe

The first game that I wanted to analyse in response to this brief was Dead Rising or Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster. The visual effects and audio used within the cutscenes of the game relate well to the horror genre and elevate the horror tone within the game whilst highlighting a comedic playstyle. The use of blood splatters, zombies and a plethora of guttural groaning works well with the story and helps to set the scene of the game, emphasising the panic, fear and urgency of the game and its characters, you can see all of these working in effects throughout the gameplay however it is present at this part of the game playthrough until 23:10 - https://youtu.be/Abm55pbKkmg?t=1294 and https://youtu.be/Abm55pbKkmg?t=1961 

I believe that the designer implemented an array of visual effects and audio to build up a sense of fear and terror to the situation that the player has set themselves into, this concept also continues throughout the game to add consistency and also to enhance the horror experience as the game progresses, the visual effects add a level of depth and detail to the scenes building immersion and cementing the idea of horror and zombies. I believe that clever use of a mix of audio and visual effects can create a well detailed atmosphere adding to the horror theme as most atmosphere is made up of visuals and then further enhanced with audio, I will look to use visual and audio effects in my design as I also believe that audio and visuals will help to emphasise my horror theme and also help to build immersion placing the player directly into the experience, I will add a natural soundscape such as pipes creaking, wind and creaking doors and floors to add sense of immersion and horror to the group project. In addition, I will aim to add blood splatter or something similar as I have found this to be a recurring feature in many horror and FPS games. 

In terms of FPS features that stand out to me, I would say that the game does not mainly focus on this genre and so the features that stand out are inventory and pickups within the game and levels, these features make the game interesting because the inventory adds a block or level of difficulty to the game, the player can only hold a certain amount of weapons so they will have to plan out their approach to an enemy encounter or boss fight. I will look at adding an inventory system or some form of bullet capacity to my game in order to replicate the normal gameplay of an FPS and to also add a level of difficulty. Furthermore, another interesting feature is interactable and pickup items, almost every item in the mall is able to be used as a weapon by the player, this adds diversity to the weapons and also attack approach and I think that something similar may work in our group game. I think that I can use a pickup feature in our group game for the player to pick up ammo and reload their gun, this would also hit the FPS criteria and in turn would add to the previous feature of ammo capacity.

The story of Dead Rising / Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is fairly easy to understand at first but the story spirals off into many branches depending on act outcomes from different missions and side quests. The main story line is: The story follows photojournalist Frank West who is caught in the midst of a zombie outbreak in Willamette Parkview Mall, he must uncover the truth about the outbreak whilst trying to survive the infestation and rescuing as many survivors along the way before escaping in three days time on a scheduled rescue helicopter, releasing him from the nightmares of the mall. The story unfolds to become fairly multi-layer and the story is told in a creative way throughout the gameplay. The story is shown in many ways, these are cutscenes explaining the next steps in the story and also the development in the case of the outbreak, walkie talkie communications, communications are used by Ottis and these detail different side quest objectives and where they can be found.

Also, the watch and map are a key way of portraying the story and keeping track of objectives, the map shows all of the objectives currently activate with a short paragraph explaining what will be learnt from the mission as well as where the mission can be found, in addition, scoops and case files of each section of gameplay can be accessed in a menu this menu shows all past objectives and future objectives each with their own unique title and small description showing the development in the story. I believe that all of these are creative yet useful ways at showing the story to the audience, they can easily see active missions and also past missions showing the key details that were learnt from the objective and how that will help with the future objectives. I will look to adopt a similar visual objective finder in my design as I believe it gives the player a clear and concise outline of the story at that point and helps to keep track of the current situation and mission in play.

The PEGI rating of Dead Rising is Pegi 18, the story and gameplay fits perfectly with this Pegi rating as the game includes a lot of violence, the player can pick up almost any object in the mall and smash zombies with them watching their blood splatter all over the walls and floor. In addition, the story fits well with the Pegi rating because the story of the game is to explore the mall and survive to uncover the truth about the zombie outbreak before escaping in three days on a rescue helicopter.

The story is full of strange characters ranging from a deranged shop owner to a bloodthirsty butcher, these characters are just the start of a an array of weird characters that can be encountered throughout the game and this fits well within the age rating because all of these characters in one way or another try and kill Frank but in the end they are all slain by the player. I was not surprised that this game was given a Pegi 18 rating because of the horror, gore, fear, violence and also strong language, I believe that most horror games full within this Pegi rating, although some fall outside this age rating, I feel that my favourite horror games are in a Pegi 18 category because of the intense horror and themes.  

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Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

The second game that I analysed was Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. I chose this game because of the horror theme, dark tone and also FPS features. The game uses similar visual and audio effects to that of Dead Rising, blood splatters can be seen throughout the game and natural soundscape audio can be heard creating an eerie atmosphere. This game also opts to adopt a darker tone and colour scheme compared to the bright colours of Willamette Mall in Dead Rising, this in turn helps to build the horror and terror because shadows, enemy movement and reflections are almost indistinguishable against the dark lighting and textures of the assets. All of this can be seen in this section of gameplay: https://youtu.be/LRFm6fOcw2w?t=1441 

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These design features are becoming a recurring theme in the horror genre and so I will adopt some of these design choices in my group project, I will add a soundscape that is made up of organic sounds to create fear, horror and eeriness to the atmosphere and I will also adopt the violence and blood particles in order to portray the simulation of violence. I will look into adding sound and audio into Unreal Engine in upcoming experimentation and hopefully I will be able to add this to my final game.

This game compared to Dead Rising has a first person perspective, this perspective adds more immersion to the gameplay experience because you are tricked into thinking that you are the character, I believe that the designer decided to adopt a first person perspective for precisely this reason, to enhance the horror experience. Compared to other Resident Evil games that often adopt a third person view, this game in the franchise features little enemy encounters, this is likely due to the fact that the designer wanted to go for a more environmental horror experience, the level design and environmental design alone are both scary enough to create a horror atmosphere and theme. In our group game we will probably adopt a similar approach, we will add AI NPC’s to meet the FPS restrictions but we will try to create a detailed environment that shows the horror and eeriness instead of placing a load of NPC’s into the game and calling it a day, we will do this to expand the horror theme and to also take a different approach to the horror genre.

Resident Evil 7 doesn’t really have any standout FPS features, except that of item management and also immersive combat. Just like Dead Rising, Resident Evil has an inventory system except that the player is unable to interact with every item, instead they have pre-programmed pickups that are either used for combat or story building. As I said previously I like the idea of item management because it adds a level of difficulty and planning making the game more interesting because you will have to plan the importance of items. In our group project I will adopt a pick up system that allows the player to read documents which will add to the story and narrative design, the story will build as the player reads the documents. The story in turn is presented through pick up documents and readable emails this helps to establish the next objective and to also understand the lead up to the gameplay story.

The next feature is immersive combat, the game has close up combat the player hands can be seen constantly when fighting an enemy this adds to the immersion and FPS and makes the game interesting because you can see the detail of the combat and this helps the player to believe that they are the character in the game, this adds immersion to the experience. I will adopt a first person perspective to achieve a similar result because I want to enhance the horror experience as most as possible.  

The PEGI rating of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is Pegi 18, the story and gameplay fits well within this Pegi rating as the game includes a lot of gore and bloody violence, the player character encounters a lot of violent scenes and characters at one point the players arm is cut off with a chainsaw and in another a person's head is decapitated with a shovel revealing the top part of the characters head. In addition, the story fits well with the Pegi rating because the story of the game is to go looking for your missing wife in an abandoned house in which she was babysitting the children of the family, through the story you learn that the family Baker are in fact murders and enjoy eating the remains of humans, and that your wife has been infected with a virus and has been subject to experimentation by the family whilst in captivity. The objective is to escape with your wife whilst making difficult decisions along the way and learning the truth about the family, the virus and also your wife. The story is littered with inhuman characters and mutants each adding to the horror theme and enhancing the weirdness of the story and the family. I am not surprised that this game was given a Pegi 18 rating because of the gore, fear, violence and also strong language.

Bioshock

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The third game that I wanted to analyse was Bioshock, although Bioshock is not classed as a horror game I believe that it features some elements and also has a unique combat system that is rarely seen in similar games. The game features jump scares, blood splatters and also an organic audio design, these add to the horror of the game however, this is not the main focus. In this section of gameplay you can see that a jumpscare is present, this is not the first time or even the last: https://youtu.be/5AkYix-enbQ?t=1091, they are placed in several points in the game all at unexpected times adding to the scariness of the gameplay.

I believe that the designer opted to include jumpscares in the game because the citizens of Rapture (The main city in the game) have all become mutated and no longer have the same thought capabilities as they would have done before the nutation, so they hide and prey upon anybody that explores the city creating a scare for the player. I will also adopt jumpscares in my group game instead I will use shadows to achieve this because the dark lighting will create a more eerie effect when a shadow can be seen moving across the background of the environment,

In addition to this, you can see that just like in Resident Evil and Dead Rising the designers have chosen to include blood particles, this adds realism to the game and makes it more real for the player adding to the horror theme. In addition, just like the other games it creates a more immersive environment because you would expect to see at least some blood scattered around the environment in a spooky city or house. As I have said before I will also include blood in my group game because I feel that it is necessary for a horror FPS. Just like the previous two games an organic soundscape can be heard, just like in Resident Evil footsteps, water running and pipes creaking can be heard in this game adding to the horror and eerie feeling and dark tone, I will also go for an organic soundscape when it comes to my group project.

I chose this game to analyse because of the unique combat features, the player is able to unlock genetic enhancements from vending machines using coins that can be collected throughout the game, the genetic enhancements can be used alongside gun combat and this allows for a mix of gameplay because the player can freeze and enemy and then shoot them repeatedly before the time runs out on the freeze. Also, the player can use turrets that will shoot the enemies allowing the player to explore the area or also shoot the enemy to reduce the time taken to defeat said enemy.

I really enjoy this feature because of the different capabilities that can be achieved from different enhancements, this makes the combat interesting and not just a general FPS shooter. Although this combat system is one of the best in any game of this genre I feel that it would not fit within my group game because we are trying to aim for a different style of horror FPS and these genetic enhancements would not fit within the story of the game, however, in future projects I may want to adopt a similar combat design.

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The PEGI rating board has given Bioshock / Bioshock Remastered a Pegi 18 certificate, I believe this is the case because the gameplay contains a lot of references to violence and often depicts certain violent acts such as beheading and also general violence against human like characters, blood effects are also accompanied with the kills and violence adding to the gore experienced. In addition, the game features hacking and advanced weapons that can be skillfully used alongside player abilities to create havoc and destroy all of the enemy AI.

The story fits perfectly with the age rating of the game because the story sees Jack (the main character) crash from a plane into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, upon search for land he finds an underwater city called Rapture, which has since fallen into disrepair since the Civil War. In the city Jack must fight for his survival against Rapture's mutated citizens using all types of weapons and genetic enhancements in search for a way to return to the surface. The story is told through audio diary logs that can be found throughout Rapture, these tell the story of the city to the player and prepares the player for upcoming objectives. In addition, the second character Atlas also guides the player through the game highlighting key points of interest and stories from the past.