children of the forest Not for the faint of heart. There are corpses, cannibals, mutants with a row of teeth all over their torsos, and a whole host of other horrors. But nothing like the terror of a single finger.
If you think this is going to turn into a big pile of filth, I’ll clarify.fingers, or fingersSecond The problematic ones are the game’s friendly NPCs, Kelvin and Virginia. And, most of the time, these two are more than happy to help.
Kelvin will gather resources, build structures, and in special cases chop down the treehouse you’re trying to build. Virginia, on the other hand, can’t be commanded directly, but give her a gun and she’ll use an apparently unlimited supply of ammo to decimate enemies.
However, despite their inherent usefulness, they View – It makes me shudder.
I can vividly recall the first time they exhibited this deeply disturbing behavior. It was the middle of the night, and having been besieged by the enemy before, I abandoned my much-desired beachfront property and retreated into the woods. I’m building a tree house and hope being off the ground will protect me from further attacks.
I was resting, standing in near darkness, illuminated only by the faint violet glow of the campfire and my portable mini flashlight. Kelvin is just as roaming as Virginia (I don’t believe he doesn’t chop down treehouses), and she’s in and out when she feels like it.
Suddenly Virginia raised her hand and began pointing at something in the darkness. A few seconds later, Kelvin followed suit. They didn’t say a word, just stood there, hands up, fingers pointing at something in the darkness.
The sound of cannibals running through the bushes was enough to break the tension, but the moment before that, my stomach sank and my mind was filled with nightmares. The Children of the Forest have never been the same since.
I don’t know why, I’ve never seen either of them point to before that. Maybe a hotfix for the game triggered a switch, or maybe I just got lucky. From a gameplay standpoint, this makes sense, since the alternative is to have your companions stand around while enemies move closer. If so, you can bet the game’s Steam forums will be filled with people complaining about their incompetence.
However, the functionality is implemented in such a strange way that it’s impossible (at least for me) not to be affected by it. From that moment on, both continue to point out what they perceive as a threat. Sometimes they point it out individually, while at other times it’s a team effort.
Usually, they’re right. Something in the bushes was trying to eat my face off, my head and shoulders apart, or both. But even though I could see exactly what they were referring to, even in broad daylight, I still felt that chill.
I’d love to blame Donald Sutherland and his performance in 1978’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” That infamous pointing and howling may have made its way into the meme, but it still retains its power. And, as a fan of that film, Virginia and Kelvin’s midnight hour probably reminded me of that memory.
However, there is more. Unlike Sutherland’s scenes, there’s no malice in their actions and no overt sense of urgency. They weren’t spinning around in circles, jumping up and down, they were just…pointing. If it was for me, Body Snatchers style, it would have had a lot less impact.
The absence of accompanying shouts is a big factor. Both Kelvin and Virginia have their own reasons for being silent, as they have been traumatized both mentally and physically. So, in the universe, it makes perfect sense for them not to be able to express their concerns.
But, perhaps due to Children of the Forest’s Steam Early Access status, that concern doesn’t show on their faces. The mismatch between their blank expressions and the message they’re supposed to convey only adds to the sense of error.
There’s something old and original about pointing too. I can imagine it being commonplace long before humans had any approximate language. Of course, some members of the ape family use this gesture regularly.
Admittedly, as a huge horror fan, I tend to find things disturbing. One of the fundamentals of fear is that whatever comes to your mind is scarier than anything you can put on a screen or on paper.
In the original The Haunting of Hill House, you never see something banging outside your bedroom door, but your brain tells you it’s (literally) the worst thing you can imagine. When the Children of the Forest NPCs started pointing and pointing silently, my mind told me that something unspeakable was coming at me slowly.
Is this unreasonable? Yes, but fear isn’t necessarily rational, and often isn’t. Subnautica had a similar effect on me. I know logically that I’ve seen every creature it has to offer. But there was something lurking deep in my gut, something I hadn’t encountered yet.
If that wasn’t enough, the inaction of the Children of the Forest’s NPCs makes things worse. This was before I gave Virginia a gun, so I didn’t see her firing at anything in the dark. They do dodge enemies, but I haven’t seen them point and run at the same time.
So, they just stood and pointed without saying a word. Even if your head isn’t ten to ten, it can create a disturbing picture.
But, as weird as it is, it’s not entirely out of character for the Children of the Forest. While its menu theme is ’80s-inspired, it doesn’t channel that era as strongly as it could, but there are other eerie horror elements woven into its DNA. Developer Endnight (formerly SKS Games) counts Cannibal Holocaust and The Descent as influencers, so maybe they know exactly what they’re doing by implementing this disturbing act.
And, compared to some of their NPC companions, (I’m looking at you, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim), Kelvin and Virginia are a real step up. Maybe I should see this habit as a small price to pay for them not being scary. But as long as the children of the forest keep pointing at me, I’ll keep worrying about what I might not see.
