Pediophobia
Gamers can only experience digital fear through the imitation of situations they can relate to, or atleast imagine. A component which mimics a scary element appearing in real life. This is also the main reason why every survival game let’s you control a human(oid). It’s doubtful that scary virtual situations would be as effective when you would control a different organism. However, it is known that to create fear, one has to generally avoid the expected path. The beauty of virtual mimicry is that one only has to divert slightly from the original to create a surreal experience. Games set certain rules that their reality must adhere to in order create immersion. If those rules aren’t set, a player would be unable to identify a diversion, making the entire experience confusing. However, fear can also be amplified by letting these digital mimicries mock the expected and when perfected, it can create a brilliant mind-boggling moment.
Condemned is a relatively new entry into the world of survival horror. It’s always interesting to see how these new franchises hold up against the old powerhouses, because this is the genre where unexpected is best and delving into a new concept could be an extremely creepy endeavor. Condemned definetly delivers this, mostly because it changes several fundamental aspects which alter the average survival horror feeling. First-person action entries are scarce in a domain dominated by third persons, but that’s not the only refreshing element: The gameplay consists mainly of melee fighting. Close-quarter fighting feels brutal and personal. To make it an even more visceral experience, the camera choreography perfectly fits with the movements. Your viewpoint gets smacked left to right as would your head in such a situation. The blunt trauma aspects are extremely well done as camera choreography, enemy physics and sound direction add up perfectly. Fighting just feels incredibly and intensely realistic and it’s definetly a unique approach into the hole of horror.
In the game’s prologue a serial killer murders your partner plus an accompanying officer in cold blood and all evidence falsely points towards you being the culprit. The federal bureau is now after you, questioning your mental health. As FBI agent Ethan Thomas, it’s your job to track down this serial killer, known as The Match Maker, in order to cleanse your name and of course to bring down this prominent criminal. The killer himself has a penchant for staging his victims and uses mannequins (which he maims slightly) to create a certain horrific set. You don’t have many leads, so you’ll be using your technical investigation equipment on whatever you can find.. This inventory includes equipment to obtain fingerprints and DNA samples, sometimes you’ll use a simple UV light in order to follow a normally unseen bloody trail. Condemned uses the data collection moments to break up the tension, although sometimes you can be attacked while investigating.
Because curiously enough, the game’s city has experienced a recent abnormal spike in criminal activity. The deranged and dangerous are seemingly crawling out of the woodwork. When encountering them, you won’t be able to take them into custody or simply handcuff them. No, these are frantic fights to the death. The enemies will use anything as a weapon (as can you), prying pipes, planks or even signs from the walls to use against you. There’s more ‘off’ about them then just their behaviour though. Some actually seek the boundaries of what you’d expect from human appearance. Not just unkept, but absolutely vile and grotesque. And although most act humanlike, some seem to be able to crawl rapidly like an animal. Are you fighting the supernatural or has Ethan simply lost it?
After finding a particulary rewarding lead, Agent Thomas takes the subway train to Bart’s Department Store. It’s an old abandonned warehouse which still houses many mannequins and (of course) many criminals. The Match Maker seems to take the mannequins he uses in his murders from this place, but there are still plenty standing around. Armed with whatever you can get your hands on (literally! From clothes rack to plastic mannequin arm!), Agent Thomas slowly walks deeper into the building, hair on your neck standing on end, because Condemned does a perfect job of delivering that moody athmosphere. Most criminals will try to ambush you by jumping out from behind corners (and aim to smash your head in with a common item), but some try a more surreal approach;
Dressed up like mannequins (Or are they really mannequins that have come to life?) some criminals stand completely still until you reach them, hiding among the unanimated lifelike dolls. Waiting for you to come near and so they can assault you. Some just suddenly start walking towards you at a gentle pace, which is particulary disturbing to see. When moving through the department store, you never quite know which humanlike plastic person is real and which one is a fraud. Most gamers will start hitting all mannequins they come across, just to be sure, but what those gamers don’t expect is that the game is going to turn things up a notch…
Fighting your way through the creepy building, you naturally grow a fear for the humanlike dolls. After yet another fight, hot on the trail of the MatchMaker, you come across another row of mannequins, placed unlike you’ve seen before. It seems like they are standing guard, side by side, over some hole. A creepy sight by itself, but most players will quickly move on ony to be confronted by something more freightening. As they inch forward, their digital vision is slowly getting hazy and then…FLASH. Something happened. You don’t see anything ahead of you, but you know that something must have happened. You turn around in fear, and you stare right into the face of a mannequin, suddenly inches away from you. In fact, there’s a whole horde of them standing really close.
In fear you hit them, but nothing happens, they stay frozen in place. You can’t pass them either so you slowly walk away from them. Another flash! You turn around again, now the mannequins are even closer. But when looking at them, the grotesque plastic people stay immobile. They slowly seem to corner you into a shopping window, without moving themselves. You break the window, another bright burst of light! If you dare looking behind one last time, before you jump down, you’ll witness the group of mannequins have come closer yet again, watching. Watching as you jump down to safer levels, away from the insanity of this frighteningly fantastic moment.
Creativity isn’t dead and this moment proves it. There is still so much room to scare people. Blow them out of their safety zones. Analyzing this moment shows the true genius of the creators, who carefully created this scary segment. One of the reasons why it’s such a succesful scare, is because the game never gets fullblown insane, Ethan only experiences visions which slightly divert from reality, but there’s never an absolute drop into madness. It’s just a dimensional hiccup it seems. So the general theme is real and brutal, but by putting in supernatural elements, the horror creeps under your skin far more easily.
Another keycomponent is the implied threat those mannequins pose. Had the game simply treated them as background objects that suddenly moved, one would probably be less scared of them. Now there’s a chance one of them would be an assailant. They could be part of the background, but they could also be an enemy in disguise, making you fear every mannequin in general. You’ve also been conditioned that every humanlike character is evil, specially if they are right behind you. So seeing a humanlike creature suddenly inches away from you, seemingly teleported out of nowhere, triggers an instant scare. But what really underlines the fright, is their origin. You don’t know what they are. Are the moving mannequins really dressed-up humans, or are they living dolls? You simply don’t know what to expect. They breach the game’s concept of enemy structure and because they appear so close to the player, they also become an oppressive threat. The final reason why it simply works so well, is because it’s a unique moment. It’s in this section alone that the mannequins move without walking. Never before and never after. It’s a diversion that is unpreceded and unfollowed, without warning and without goodbye. It just happens.
Moments like this show us that a mild alteration of the expected is plenty to provide a scare, but let’s not forget the timing. You have to build up the player’s expectancy. Make them fear the general threats, then throw a curveball. Doing this moment too soon would be far less effective, as the player would still be getting used to the rules the game follows. By adhering to reality most of the time and going insane only sparingly, one can truly cram the fear into the minds of the gaming.
Mockeries
- Copies of real objects with different characteristics than expected.
Pediophobia – Fear of false representation of humans
