Soteriophobia
Fear is largely considered to be more effective when in solitude. When alone, you have to fend for yourself, but with each accompanying soul, one feels less powerless and more secure. People naturally feel a boost of confidence when confronting scary situations with multiple persons; it’s in their genes. This evolutionary trait is copied into fiction and within those it’s always considered ‘unwise’ to split up. It’s for this reason that players often find themselves alone within Survival Horror games. Whenever teammates are introduced, the fear melts away. Unless, the game also brings up other, more sinister, evolutionary traits. You see, there’s a dark flipside to social constructs. A fact largely unexplored by contemporary media. Social networks work like amplifiers, when people around you are positive about the situation, one imitates their confidence. However, when the surrounding persons are actually more afraid than you, their fear infects your morale as well, draining it like a leech. History has even taught us that sometimes a social chainreaction can mutate a mild panic into mass hysteria.
The Thing continues where the same-named cultfavorite 1982 movie ended. Unfortunately, to explain the set-up of the situation one has to spoil some of the film’s content. The motion picture detailed a mental and physical fight between the humans stationed at the Antarctic Reasearch facility “Outpost 31” and an extraterrestrial shape-shifting entity known only as ‘The Thing’. The unfrozen alien had the ability to assimilate it’s victims on a cellular level. Infection was possible by simply coming into contact with it’s blood. When assimilated, the Thing could mimic the original organism perfectly (including it’s memories, abilities and even illnesses), thus creating some intense moments at the research station. When the researchers learned of The Thing’s incredible ability, paranoia ran high. By that time, anyone could be infected, thus there was no telling who was a Thing in disguise. After a hefty confrontation (and some extremely gory scenes) the base was left in shambles and the movie ended quite ambiguously. So ambiguously in fact, that it’s still a point of discussion about who was who at the conclusion.
The game starts with the arrival of the rescue team. You are Captain J.F. Blake on a mission to find out just what the hell happened to the research station. Upon arrival you find out that there’s little left of Outpost 31. Just some derelict buildings and vehicles. The first mission serves more as an introduction to the game’s unique mechanics. As Captain, it’s your task to lead your men through the missions. We’re not just talking about telling them were to go. No, you have to keep your people armed, loaded and most importantly: sane. For example, in a wrecked infirmary (copied from the movie) there’s a mangled corpse in the corner. A gruesome sight, but probably not so intimidating to the seasoned gamer. Players get more and more desentisized by every gory scene through their horror gaming carreer, unfortunately your digital teammates don’t share that luxury. They react realistically, and become afraid or even disturbed. When pulling your teammates through particulary savage scenery, one has to pay attention to their actions and state. Sometimes your teammates will just puke their guts out when seeing a bloody mess, other times their sanity will deplete and they’ll “lose it” and start mindlessly shooting everything in sight, ending with themselves. If you take the gun off their hands, they could even opt to commit suicide by electrocution at a nearby powerbox. As Captain Blake, you can either choose to walk through such scenery alone (thus unassisted) or keep your crew in check by using adrenaline hypos on them. Sometimes it’s even enough to just pass them a bigger weapon, so they’ll feel more confident.
Trust is also a major factor in keeping your team together. Seeing as how The Thing can mimic and infect every organism, the squad could also start distrusting you or other teammates when acting particulary odd. When they suspect you are a Thing, they will stop listening, or even coordinate attacks against you. Right after Blake arrives at the Norwegian Camp (Once again a setpiece from the movie), he finds a lone engineer admist a particulary nasty scene. His name is Carter and he claims his team was killed by those “Things”, but can Blake truly trust him? You need his mechanical skills to get the electricity back up, but having seen what those ‘Things’ can do, Carter doesn’t really trust you either. He demands you prove yourself human first. Blake can prove his humanity by either giving him some weapons or fighting other Things in front of him. You could also coerce Carter into doing stuff for you, by simply aiming your gun at his head. He’ll do the job, but he won’t like it, so you’ll have to watch him so Carter doesn’t get the chance to get his revenge. But you also have to watch him for more reasons. If he gets hit by Things, chances are he’ll get infected. You’ll have to watch his behaviour carefully to detect any odd actions, because he won’t reveal his true self (he’ll keep human form and act like a teammate) until he feels like The Things have an advantage in battle. Moving through the antarctic regions, you’ll come across many lost squad members (of other teams) that could join you. They could also also distrust each other and when the tension becomes too high, fights can break out. Keeping bigger squads together can become more demanding then fighting the alien Things.
Luckily there’s another way to prove that a person is human, so that any doubt gets lifted. While walking through the snowy regions behind Norwegian Base together with two newly acquired teammates, Carter and Cruz, you’ll meet another stranded soldier in the cold. He’s packing a flamethrower (the only true weakness of a Thing) and tells you to keep your distance. Pierce is his name and he doesn’t believe you are human and the only way to prove it is to grab a couple of bloodtests and perform them in front of them. Out in the snow, Carter, Cruz and Blake have to battle through multiple hordes of smaller Things, but they eventually reach the bloodtests and take them back to Pierce. Blake looks Pierce dead in the eyes as you choose to perform a bloodtest. Blake’s going to show you what he already knows…
First Blake uses the bloodtest on his own arm. No reaction, you’re clean, but Pierce still distrusts the other two team members. Luckily you still have another bloodtest and you use it on Carter. The glass in the bloodtest breaks! A reaction! Before you even know it, Carter’s true identity emerges and he transforms into a humanoid Thing. Startled, you start firing at it, but the player’s firepower can only weaken the monstrosity. It takes Pierce’s flamethrower to fully kill it. Unfortunately, before you can coordinate a succesfull attack, things get even more frantic. Cruz Things out as well! Both of your former teammembers are now hideously deformed monsters and you have to battle them with your new crewmember Pierce. It’s a total switch of alligment and expectations. The fact that your teammate’s weapon is the only way to truly destroy them makes it all the more stressful. Hopefully you’ll make it through the battle without much damage and you can move onto the next frozen location. The Thing-Turning in this scene may be scripted, but it’s a perfect example of what can happen during normal unscripted gameplay. Situations wherein you thought you are in control drastically change as your teammates reveal themselves to be enemies at the most dreadful of times.
The best aspect about it is the interaction with the NPC’s. They generate an unique blend of tension. The level of dynamic interaction Blake has with them is incredibly impressive. The key component, paranoia, is so well integrated into the game, that every simple gunfight could escalate into pure madness. You’ll often find yourself distrusting certain crew members and at that point it’s your decision what happens next. You could just let them be until they reveal themselves, using them as valuable assets, but they often turn in the worst of situations. You could also just pre-emptively kill them. Blow their brains out and hope they were infected. But when you are wrong, your remaining teammates will lose all faith in you and you’ll risk a coordinated attack against yourself. You could also do it in private, taking one member to execute/backstab with you, while leaving the others behind so they don’t witness the events. Unfortunately, if you don’t know if you’ve left behind human squadmembers or Things-in-disquise squadmembers, the infection may spread behind your back when you are away. As you can see, there are many possibilities to manage the team. Just make sure your own paranoia doesn’t get too excessive or you might end up by yourself, and the game becomes much harder that way (and in some places impossible). The fear is also amplified due to the team’s realistic reactions. Sure, dark and gloomy corridors can bring a creepy athmosphere, but seeing other NPC’s reacting to that environment is so much more intense. Their comments and actions really build-up the tension.
Games generally pit you against the hostile forces alone. Squad based games generally lack the finer aspects of social psychology to elevate the experience. Complaints are often bad AI or poor voice-acting, but the truth is that gamers generally feel less scared when they got a teammate on their side. A crucial ingredient is often missing; your team doesn’t react to the surroundings. They might comment on the situation, but rarely do they behave realistically. By integrating squadmanagement into the coregameplay and paying attention to their personalities, you can create fear even when you are not alone.In fact, when playing properly the tension grows with each obtained teammate. With it’s extremely unique mechanics, the game creates many terrifying moments by relying on simple social psychology: The more souls, the scarier.
TeamTension
- stress gained due to the unreliable behavior, or unknown allegiance of your squadmembers
Soteriophobia – Fear of dependance on others
