Analysis of the horror song. Classic horror returns

Stimulus games and the Spaniards of Protocol games invite you to live an old-fashioned horror experience, reminiscent of the classics, but sprinkled with new, more modern and attractive mechanics. Welcome to Spanish survival horror, welcome to Horror song.

The story

The story begins with the death of the acclaimed writer Sebastian P. Husher, with his family and domestic workers in his mansion. Worried, his editor sends an assistant to investigate the facts and find out where he is Husher. The following is a chain of events leading up to the discovery of a horrible and incomprehensible being known simply as “The Presence” who seems to be behind it all and the cursed look of a music box. As can be seen, the story already has a classic cut and which, with its setting, evokes the stories of Poé O Lovecraft.

In this case, the story does not have a clear or defined protagonist, it is a choral game. Horror song present several playable protagonists in each episode of the story, and each has their own strengths and weaknesses that can help or hinder depending on the circumstances. Characters can die, and they will die forever. This makes each player’s game unique and different and requires caution. As we will see later in other sections, the endless possibilities that this and other factors give to the game are the defining characteristics of the title.

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Horror song between classicism and modernity

Horror song does not hide its sources and as soon as we take the first steps in the game, we see one more than obvious influence on the already mythical game of the French Infogrames: Alone in the Dark. The story and the gameplay lay their foundations there. The mysterious mansion, interacting with objects to solve puzzles and adopting the fixed camera system in some rooms are clear references.

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But the Madrilenians of Protocol gamesThey didn’t just use this great benchmark of terror in video games. The map system to guide you through the scenarios is traced to that of silent Hill. We can also observe clear influences of resident Evil, Zero Project or even movie elements such as The legend of the house of hell (John hough, 1973) on Fighting spirit (Tobe Hooper, 1982).

But if he took so many elements from other works, one could think that it is about a “restarting” of each one of them. Nothing is further from reality.

Presence AI and innovations in survival horror

Far from being a copy of many games, Horror song introduces some novelties in the genre. Running away and surviving the Presence will lead to some sort of quick events which can be of two types. One of them will allow us to force a door closed when the Presence wants to enter the room we are in. In this case, we will have to be precise and push at the right times without tiring our character. In the other, more spectacular case, it is when darkness surrounds us and we have to temper our nerves and our heartbeat if we do not want to be absorbed by the evil.

The five years of development of the title are also noted in the artificial intelligence with which “Presence” is endowed. Open a door X times, turn on X switches, spend X seconds searching for a room or checking for objects in a specific room, whether walking or running, etc. All of them are factors that will determine the appearance of the presence at a certain time and in a certain place. Often times, these are just scares in the form of a door slamming, a spark from an electrical connection, a device turning on, or a light going out. But these facts will make you focus and a new mechanic will emerge. When we have felt the slightest sign of presence, we can stay at the door and listen if there is something strange in the room before entering. And risk finding certain death

These elements are totally innovative in the survival-horror genre and bring more tension and atmosphere to the game.

Appearance and graphic and sound environment

The graphics are the part where this game stands out the least. We can’t talk about hyperrealistic graphics or huge resolutions or images. It is a game with average graphics quality, but sufficient. Highlight the richness of the decorations in the details and the good atmosphere they give off in the different chapters. Added to this are the close-ups of some puzzles, the level of detail of which is also quite remarkable.

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Regarding the sound section, it improves much more, the noises and sounds are very successful, helping to create an atmosphere. The musical composition also has a good level. And is each piece has its own tone, its background melody. But when The Presence decides to appear, its theme begins to resonate, cut everything else. We recommend the use of headphones to further enhance the experience.

Conclusion Horror song

Any fan of survival horror adventure games will appreciate this title and we can only recommend it.

The game has several levels of difficulty, especially with regard to presence. The puzzles stay the same, choose whatever difficulty you choose and these will definitely get you thinking and they aren’t overly easy.. This added to the fact that this is not a game with excessive action and only a few specific moments of frenzy, it may not make it suitable for today’s more action-packed survival enthusiasts. It’s a title for all audiences, but maybe it’s nicer for an audience of around 30 and who likes graphic adventures.

Since then The game’s subtitle for “Fear the Presence” is very well chosen, as the feeling that something bad is surrounding us and stalking us around every corner, is something we feel constantly. From the Xbox zone We can only congratulate the Madrid studio for Protocol games for setting the bar so high and for “insisting” on exiting the game despite having two Kickstarters failed before the game could be started.