So let me make one thing perfectly clear. I don't like scary movies. I don't mean that in a derogatory way. Scary movies just aren't scary anymore. Growing up, I have watched a plethora of scary movies and the older ones just were scarier to me. Exorcist, Amityville Horror, and many others. Those scared me WAY more than anything that has come out in the 2000s and up. So I just don't get scared that easily. Not until I played scary games. And there are some horror games out there that actually induce the feeling of fear through many tactics. Games like Phasmophobia, Outlast, and Alien: Isolation gives you all sorts of anxiety and any other type of fear you can think of, to scare you. But you keep playing anyway. You keep going through the games in order to beat your fears, to overcome them, till you reach the point of finding out what the entire story was about. This leads me to why Westwood Shadows is such an amazing game that I really would recommend to anyone who plays horror games. This game, like many other games I have played, can be found on G.ROUND in its pre-Alpha stage.
Now I am very understanding of the concept of opinions being subjective. Some people just believe that some things are scarier than others. What is scary to me, may not be scary to you. So some games just may seem less scary than others. And I get that. Westwood Shadows isn't an original game in the genre. It's a First-Person view Horror Puzzle game in which you have to find clues in order to progress the story. There are tons of games out there that do this, right? Yes, yes there are, so I am going to touch on what I enjoyed the MOST out of Westwood Shadows, starting with the opening credit scene. This opening credit started the mood of the game using a rather amazing song tied in with some great voice acting showing you, a police officer answering a call from dispatch to check out a disturbance from a house in Westwood. As you get there, you see the house looks condemned, but there are lights on all over. You get a flashback scene of a crash that killed your wife and son, very emotional. This is where the story begins as you show up in what looks like the front door of this house.
Inside this home, there are the typical bloodstains, mess, locked doors, and more throughout. You end up grabbing a flashlight that doubles as a UV light and now you have to go solve clues in order to find the inhabitants of the house, a husband and wife. Finding notes and clues that get you one step closer to finding answers. In games like this, it's all about the story. It's all about the narration. These are important aspects to keep folks wanting to play more. To dive deeper into the game. At certain parts, your character will call out announcing that he is a police officer and if there was anyone there. It's little things like this that I enjoyed about this game. Wish such a good emphasis on little details like this, it made the feeling of me being in this house and being anxious, greater. I was immersed in the environment.
Now we got a story and we got puzzles and a good world-building design that encompasses this game, so what more does one need to generate genuine fear? If you are saying the sound, then you have no idea how correct you are. The music, the sound effects, the consistent creaking in the floorboards as you are walking against them, THESE are the true gems that caused things like this to happen to me.
I cannot stress how many times I have said in many of my reviews that I am a very audio-focused person. Sound is very important. If you do not have good sound in a video game, it can KILL the experience for me. In Horror games, the sound is especially important because you have to give the eerie feeling that a person is trapped in this location. I could give you tons of science and ideology and theories on why and how sound affects the human brain and moods to induce all types of emotions, but I feel like most people know this already, especially game developers. So when I say the sound in Westwood Shadows had produced so much anxiety in me because I was looking for SOMETHING in the game to jump out and try to scare me. I mean this to my very fiber and being. The game had me on tense. I was just WAITING for that first major jump scare of this pre-Alpha, and it came from an outside source, not from the game and THIS is the kind of adrenaline-pumping experience that makes a Horror game good.
Couple a good story, good narration, good puzzles, phenomenal (I use that word a lot) audio, and very beautiful level design, you get yourself a great game that I personally love and would recommend to anyone who wants a new horror game to add to their collection. Westwood Shadows started out and look like it is continuing, to look to be a great game to play. I for one don't play many horror games, though I have played a lot of them, it's not my go-to genre, but playing Westwood Shadows has made me feel like maybe I should play more on my Twitch streams. This game has reminded me how much fun it was to get scared. Though I have a hard time playing First Person view games because I get motion sick so easily, this game was amazing to play and I loved every second of it. And I wouldn't mind finding out how the entire story weaves and connects and narrates the main character, his family, the missing couple and how it all webs together. Westwood Shadows is looking to be an overall great experience.
Westwood Shadows is developed by the team over at RedSoup Studio and they have a Kickstarter coming soon that you can check out to help them build the game or show support. As I said in my last article, I love Kickstarter and what it has done for the gaming community and culture. Showing support from fans is just a great thing. So make sure you follow and keep an eye out if you want to support them in their endeavors. You can also find them on steam as well, so make sure you check them out there.
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