Song of Horror is an episodic adventure in which adaptive artificial intelligence will keep us in constant tension.
The fear of darkness is as old as the very existence of the human being. The light allows us to know our surroundings, analyze it … We live by day and use the night to rest in our safest refuge.
But the shadows escape our control. We don't know what lurks in the dark, and we don't trust what it hides until we have no control of what it hides. This basic fear is the foundation on which many horror video games have been built, such as the Silent Hill saga, where the cursed people hide a dark and perverse dimension. Song of Horror, from the Spanish studio Protocol Games, builds its terror from the most basic fears: loneliness, darkness, the unknown. The editor Raiser Games, who brought us in 2018 Out of the Box, has published this adventure of exploration and puzzles in which the most instinctive terrors and uncertainty are the biggest threat.
Song of Horror is an episodic adventure for Windows PC whose first two chapters (lasting approximately 4-5 each) premiered on Halloween. With the third episode announced for December 13, today we are talking about a very ingenious proposal, which takes the most classic and effective elements of terror to bring us an original game both in its mechanics and in its own behavior. In it, we find elements inspired by several classic and modern horror works, from the Lovecraft universe, through Silent Hill and a quiet place.
At the mercy of the Presence
Daniel Noyer, an editorial worker, goes to the home of writer Sebastian P. Husher to retrieve his latest manuscript. The author has been missing for several days and the search will not be satisfactory: Daniel himself also disappears, victim of a supernatural force. Thus, the first episode begins with the search for the unfortunate Noyer in the gloomy mansion. To do this, we will have four initial characters subject to permanent death; If we lose everyone, we must start the episode again.
Of course, the investigation of the house will be done in the dark and at night, and our only and inexhaustible source of light will be a lantern or candle according to our character. The map will be our great ally, in which the name of the locations and points of interest will be noted. The control of the character is similar to that of the classic Resident Evil, directing the character based on the perspective of each scenario, and although it may not be as comfortable, in the end we will end up adapting. While we explore, we must illuminate the objects so that they can be detected, and we will also take an inventory that will help us gather information about the fateful fate of the Husher and solve puzzles that will take us to Daniel's whereabouts. It is necessary to keep our eyes open to any clue, since the most trivial will lead us to the resolution of riddles. Likewise, with the inventory in hand and the objects that can be seen in the environment, we will come up with multiple ways to solve a puzzle, although only one of them will be the right one, and not precisely the most logical and quick one.
Of course, we will not be alone. Shortly after making our first advances in exploration, we must begin to deal with the Presence, an evil entity that lurks in the dark and will seek to catch us at all costs. This is where adaptive artificial intelligence comes into play, and that is that it will look for the most propitious moment to attack us, with a frequency based on the level of difficulty chosen. In the first episode, there will be two types of encounters: in the first, the Presence will try to enter a room, manifested in a mass of darkness with multiple claws. Here, we must struggle with the door to keep it closed, for which we will build strength before slamming. In the second minigame, the Presence will chase us and we must take refuge in a hiding place of the house, previously identified during our exploration. Inside the safe place, we must reassure our character, pressing the Space key at the beginning of each beat of his heart until he returns to the usual rhythm.
Also, we must be careful as we move through the mansion. Before crossing each door, we will have the possibility to hear what is behind and we will soon find out that any sound is the announcement of a certain death for the curious. In case of hearing difficulties, we can opt for visual signage to distinguish in which doors there is noise. We will also make decisions as if going out of a specific window or checking the contents of a bathtub and the wrong choice will mean an irreparable loss.
In the second episode, we will explore the antique shop where the damn music house that caused the Husher mansion disaster and so many other people was sold. Here the Presence manifests itself in two ways: a blind monster that will detect us with the slightest noise, and before which we must hold our breath; and a quick procession of shadows that will run through the corridor, before which we must look for a door, force it to enter in time and hide until it is safe to leave.
The skills of the characters affect their ability to resolve meetings with the Presence. Thus, the stealthiest will better evade the blind monster, while the strongest will be more likely to escape from the struggles at the door, the faster will flee more easily and the more serene will reestablish their heart rate without much difficulty. The special abilities of each one will give him a very useful advantage: thus, Alina's radio will be able to interfere when the Presence is near, and Étienne will write down in his diary those tracks that may go unnoticed. At the narrative level, it is curious to discover the information that each character provides in relation to the place explored: Sophie will talk about her relationship with her ex-partner Daniel, while Alexander will be able to read the texts in Russian and Erica, daughter of the owner of the antiquarian, will live An adventure with a more emotional intensity.
The terror of the unexpected
Undoubtedly, Song of Horror poses a terrifying experience thanks to the uncertainty of not being able to anticipate attacks or sudden scares, since these are also random in each game and in very unexpected places. The sound also plays an important role, in which silence is combined with a slow music in which more strident notes burst. In each room, even after having traveled it dozens of times, we will be tense at every step, with the ear attentive to any sign of danger. In addition, backtracking will be inevitable, so we can never have a safe place to be safe from presence. And we can not even save the game before trying a decision and load if we were wrong: the save only and always occurs when leaving the game.
The visual section of the game is taken care of in the smallest detail and supports the continuous suspense: the realism of the characters themselves, the elaborate lighting and a fixed camera that maintains a tense balance between what we observe and what is out of our sight. The environment contains a wealth of disturbing details that deserves a thorough exploration: sinister paintings, children's toys of doubtful aesthetic taste, etc. The writing of the texts – although the font may be too small for a certain audience – is a delight, especially when they reproduce the voice of a character in one of their letters, where the authenticity of the variety is respected of records.
Song of Horror, however, would be a perfect game if not for its technical failures, which would make the measure of repeating a chapter less unfair if we lose all the characters. Randomness is not always fair, and Presence has attacked us in some places where escape was virtually impossible. We have also encountered an occasional failure that has prevented us from moving forward until we have restarted the game. However, we have confidence in a game that knows how to surprise the player to each chapter, and that is that the antique shop brings a lot of freshness with respect to the mansion. We hope that new surprises and terrors bring us the third stanza of a captivating horror song.
