+Christian Neihart I think he means the LJN company, they produced a bunch of really bad console games. A lot of the Angry Video Game Nerd episodes are about them if you are interested in the shit of the past ;)
kid ran through gate "let me unlock the gate for you" either the gate was already unlocked, or the kid did not go through the gate, one cannot occur if the other already does.
I like the idea of somebody entering some parallel demon world full of evil murderous creatures and using the opportunity to be first in line for all the rides.
+Chevrium () Not entirely true. You have to walk in the intended direction, so it is better to compare it to a book that you read, and have to turn each page. or scroll down.
+Rabbit Cube Probably not. :D I like horror games but... this seems kind of boring. I mean, one of the reasons I like them is because of the mystery involved. *sighs* Oh well.
+Cool Fire Bird () Considering the story, she may have left her son in the park while going to look for the bear .... but she forgot it all, caught some rides, allegedly seeing if the bear were there, and once she came back, with or without the bear, the boy was dead from heatstroke.
*Clanking of gates turning* "I think your boy just ran into the park. I'll unlock the gates for you." *Implying gates were locked* But if gate was lock, then how did boy into park?
Just a quick note - the sprint button actually works pretty consistently. It's just that it's a toggle, not a modifier button. As in you tap it once to sprint and then tap it again to walk. You do not hold it down to sprint like in most games. And if you pay attention to the game (which sadly Jim often doesn't do in general in his videos as he's usually busy talking about something or cracking wise), it actually tells you this - see 5:11. But yes, in some parts when narration happens, you lose the ability to sprint, which I'm pretty sure is intentional.
why does she ride the octopus car ride at all? she stops it, thinks callum is on it, but instead of walking around to get him out of the car he's in, she hops into an empty car and goes for a spin! wtf?!
+J. Martinni But he only did 'cause the game told him to, when you "call out" for your son a "visual feedback" tells you were to go (that weird distortion)
+Kaziel That was my thought, too. Obviously the designers just went "oh, I have this great idea for a spooky scene!" without realizing that getting on the ride makes NO SENSE. If you were really looking for your kid, you wouldn't stop and ride a fucking ride for two minutes. The tunnel of love I can kind of understand, because the kid could conceivably get off part way through. But the octopus thing just spins; there's no reason to ride it. Remember the scene in Amnesia where you stop and play a few rounds of Solitaire while giving a heartfelt soliloquy? No? Maybe that's because good horror games don't do stupid shit like that.
I honestly stopped questioning after "your boy just ran in the park through the locked gates. let me unlock them for you." she's insane, Callum's probably dead, and this park has probably not been open for years... and if the game wasn't shit and ham handed, I'd be interested enough to play it to see if it turns out that way
Unless this game is super short,I see no reason why they have to vomit out their life's story here. Plus obviously the repetitive inconsistency: "OH NO! MY SON!…hold on,let me sit on this children's ride for like,10 minutes while trying to be deep" for the ferris wheel I would understand if she was like "maybe if I get to the top of this Ferris wheel,I'll see where Callum is",but nope! Visuals are nice though
The second she got on the ride and it started telling Hansel and Gretel, my immediate thought was "She killed the kid, she killed the kid, she killed the kid..."
That Hansel and Gretel ride was one of the most unnecessary, boring things I've ever seen in a video game. What the hell did they think they were adding to the game by making you sit through that?
+SlightlyNotorious A bit more happens during it than Jim saw. He was too busy snarking at the Hansel and Gretel story, which was obviously a side thing, to look around and catch the other things that could happen.
+SlightlyNotorious It takes only 60 - 90 minutes to complete the game, and that sequence is indeed too lengthy (even though Jim didn't exactly catch everything while it lasted). IMO this game is not worth more or less 10 bucks, but then again, different strokes for different folks.
+Alex Murray () They are what? Where do you see someone that has written something that warrants the words "they are"? "They're" is a contraction of "they are". As you are not referring to anyone in particular, I assume you are referring to Mr Forneus' "their" which is used is us as a possessive, as in "their day", "their toys", "their experience" or "their sanity". Do you really think he meant to say "they are sanity"?
Alex Murray My sanity waning? Ohhhh! You wanna play *that* way! You might think that i'm as mad as a hatter, but if you do, you are barking up the wrong tree. (Oh, and believe me, i'm always prepared for that a flawed spelling is a bait, i'm used enough to both trolls and sincere mis-spellers.) ^_^
Son's dead, she broke psychologically and keeps returning to where he died and has visions of the maniac who killed him. Have I just called the whole plot, someone who knows?
I feel like the context they give in the opening is what ruins the effect here. If she was, say, having a dream about being in the park, and that's why she became kind of aimless and was just exploring, that would make the logical issues more bearable. However when the game sets itself up with a sense of realism, and you have a goal that the player is made to believe is real e.g finding Callum, all her weird philosophical discussions become out of place.
Here I was hoping this game would be actually interesting and the first thing it does is make you walk five minutes just to make you sit through god damn Hansel and Gretel. Even the fucking swan-boat was like "can you believe this shit?" at the end of the ride.
Fun Fact: This game is made with assets from "The Secret World" MMO, a game by the same company. The whole park is a questing area and the thing that looms over you on the octopus ride is the boogey man in TSW. The studio that makes these games is currently for sale.
Cardinal Don'ts of Horror Games: Don't condescend to your audience, especially in the form of a fairy tale and/or purple prose. Furthermore, be consistent with your tone and don't telegraph your scares.
Too many devs confuse "horror" with just plain "stressful". Being made to feel irritable and headachey for a couple of hours isn't enjoyable. Tension should be a build to a payoff, a big dollop of adrenaline. Horror games like this are the equivalent of hearing your neighbours have a massive screaming row through a wall.
Okay 5mins in I'm calling son is dead. He died in the park some time ago, his body was never found, the park closed down, and the grief stricken mother is searching for her son's killer and body(although a mental block is keeping her from remembering he's dead) Anyone whose beat the game, how did I do?
Game has some promise, interesting Silent Hill like setting, decent visuals, not terribly voice acting. Just throw some actual scares in, or just something to drive the story forward.
+Jasper West There is a great scare during the Hansel & Gretel thing, which Jim missed because he was busy being a funny guy about "lol I not touching me mouse"
+Jasper West It's a standalone first-person spin-off of The Secret World. So that probably contributes to it having something of a world built up. And Funcom undoubtedly has decent voice actors on tap.
+Jasper West Mr Sterling in his impatience ran past a couple of scares. I was playing this last night with the lights off and headphones on and they made me jump. I've seen a few people miss some stuff because they haven't examined everything fully which you need to do (including reading books/newspapers etc multiple times in some cases).
The Babadook is probably the best horror movie to come out in recent years. Anyway, that's all I really have to say, since the game itself here is so uninteresting.
+Matt Yoh fucking hated it. the kid ruined the entire movie for me, couldn't even finish watching it because the kid made me want to tear the veins out of my fucking wrists.
my favorite part 20 55. she yells "callem where did you go?" then she sees the photo and yells "oh I remember this photo" and the photo looks like shes been druged and her kids scared of her
I really wanna get this. The amusement park in The Secret World (same devs) was the most interesting area, and it kinda creeped me out. It's just too expensive for a 2 hour experience, so I'll wait for a sale.
+Avioto If you are playing TSW it's worth getting now because it ties in with one of the Halloween missions just released and make the experience of playing this game much more interesting. If you don't play TSW then wait for a sale and pick it up then. If you take the time to explore everything (about 90mins to 2 hours) then it's a much more rewarding experience.
I think this is the only game I've *ever* seen with a Callum as often referenced to character. Since that's my name as well i FINALLY know how people like 'Nathan' and 'John' and 'Jack' feel whenever they play a game.
They should have made this one of those old parks where you wander around looking at creepy weathered fairy tale statues. That would work better with a search for a kid. Would also remove the need for anyone to operate rides.
I burst into laughter at the way this video. Yeah, after being nearly bored unconscious at the first ride I almost skipped this video but at that point well I was already committed. I gotta say, the most exciting part of this was when you first walked into the park and for the first time we see the spherize effect and I mistook it for a giant eye opening in the bench. The first in a string of disappointing realizations. Anyway, thanks for the laugh!
Just going to make a prediction on the big twist. The protagonist is totally nuts, she was a lousy mother and lost Callum either through death from neglect or he was taken by child services. She also started working at the park soon before or after Callum was taken from her but after Callum was gone she started getting weirdly attached to other people's children. She was also the suit actor in the chipmunk that hurt/killed someone, this got her thrown into a mental asylum and due her actions the park got a bad reputation and closed down. She's only recently been released and the actual Callum would be 25 years old by now. She rides the rides and faffs about instead of searching for him because the sane remnant of her mind knows that Callum isn't really in the park. The stuff she sees might all be in her head or the ghost of whoever she killed in the chipmunk attack.
The music playing on the ride during the hansel and gretel story was Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliette fantasy overture... What were those devs implying? Das gros. Welp, that ride lasts way to god damn long. The music used also changes from the romeo and juliette fantasy overture to I think his Tempest fantasy overture. I could'n't really a spot where I could clearly identify it.
Spoopy Amusement Park Simulator 2015. *Play as a partially insane and horrible forgetful mother that attempt to find their ran away child after leaving them alone in the car. Despite the child probably still is in the car and the mother is just having a mental breakdown and imagining spoopy things. * Ride on spoopy enhanced amusement park rides that are not ASTM F-24 approved! *Features an interactive boat ride version of the story Hansel and Gretel Uncut Edition and other spoopy pointless events! *Best feature, you are always first in line and the tickets are FREE! *Yell random things to your son in attempt to find him. Is another creepy pasta from bottom of a trash bin turned into a game, once again.
"I think this belongs to Callum" Like seriously, how bad of a parent do you have to be to not even know your child's shoes? I mean, YOU bought them! Also, I love how that escalator ride at the start took SO fucking long it went from evening all the way to the deep of night! lol
Hansel & Gretel's an odd choice for the 'tortured metaphor for a mother's guilt over resenting her child' considering how much of an afterthought the parents are in that.
I feel that duck head turned around to say "You're in for a real shit show now Jimmy-boy". But seriously, the graphics of this game look like another game, but I can't put my finger on it.
+WarbossVanZwam I got the impression that it was turning around to say "Do you mind? You're screaming in my ears. Besides, it's obvious he's not real." and then it would huff in exasperation as it turned back around.
Who turned on the second ride (the spinney one with the cars)? I mean, usually I would just pass this sort of stuff of as it's supposed to work automatically but the game specifically makes you turn it off before you can get on, so it's definitely not automatic. Sure, you can say Babadook turned it on, but how did she know Babadook was going to turn it on for her? Are the woman and Babadook friends? Was the failed big Babadook scare actually just her good friend Babadook watching her have fun on the ride? Is the Babadook Callum's father and this was supposed to be a family day out? Is the Babadook a sensual lover? This raises more questions than it answers. But disregarding how the ride turned itself on, we know that it can't turn itself off (as said above, because the game makes you turn it off, showing it's not automated). When she got in the ride, what was her plan then? Was she just expecting to sit in the ride for all eternity? Was she just going to action roll out of it when she got bored? Is she just incredibly stupid and didn't think about what she would do once she was on the ride? Awful game. Doesn't tell me anything about the inner workings of the spinney car ride.
They should've had David Tennant do the voice over in the tunnel. If he could do just cause 3 then he can definitely make that tunnel sequence better and creepier.
I think the game is actually quite good based on the footage but it's one of those things that probably don't translate that well as Jim Sterling video. Some of these games are slow burners before they get to the point. It doesn't help that over 99% of horror genre is more hilarious than actually scary. I have long time called horror genre as "comedic" and "comedy."
Apparently, Atari's Haunted House remake was SO bad that developers have abandoned the idea of making scary places scary, opting instead to make happy places scary.
This game was pretty reminiscent of Silent Hill 1&2; the slow build, the detached narrative, the psychological metaphors. The swan ride was definitely too long, but each ride was building with intensity. Sure we had little reason at the beginning to become attached to the female, mother character, but that is partially because the game took a risk at not portraying a more immediately relatable male character. Yes, she had some melodramatic lines, but she delivered them very well. I'd be curious to see where It went from there. I'll take subtle over heavy handed any day. I'm a huge fan of this channel, and I'm a little surprised that everybody is trashing what is potentially a Silent Hill walking sim with a well acted female lead. I'm not saying it is anywhere near Silent Hill in quality. It almost certainly isn't, but now we'll never know. Also, considering the style of rides, THE PARK would be far better in VR. Is that how it was intended to be played?
Alright, three and a half minutes in, I'm already questioning this. At what point did we establish that the kid was mischievous and prone to wandering off? How did the kid get into the park if the gates were locked to the point that the guy behind the window had to unlock them? On the next to impossible chance that the developer actually will consume this and take it as criticism and feedback, here's a tip. Establish your setting and give your audience something to work off of to make certain assumptions before you try to subvert or manipulate them.
Like you said, this game has a lot of potential. The idea is great and I hope someone else has a shot with it. But the overly long and pedantic monologues are just awful. And the scares are silly. Terrible
yeah... like... if it was just her, alone, visiting the park, I could have tolerated some of the flowery musings... but considering her son just ran into the park, and is lost at night... (and I'm pretty sure she's insane, considering "your son just ran in. let me UNLOCK THE GATE FOR YOU," AND the fact that he just let her in to look, rather than get security to help...) it seems SO out of place and pretentious
Which song do you think would me the more appropriate choice to be playing during the Swan Ride segment, T. Rex's "Ride A White Swan" or Foghat's "Slow Ride"?
Shame, this game gets really good once you're in. The rides are pretty empty but they're tension building, rather than the scares themselves. Once you've done the rollercoaster, things get pretty interesting.
I accidentally left a vine of a cat hissing at a person sneezing on loop while I was watching this, and it took me ten minutes to realize the annoying looping sneeze wasn't a "sanity bending" sound effect in the game.
see with an actual psychological horror story, you need to give it time to actually mess with you. i watched chilled chaos play this game on his channel and got through all of it finding out what everything led up to. a good horror story usually takes a bit to grip you because if you go right into a monster story, there's no scare. this game shows some of the creepy secrets an amusement park might have as well as showing a woman's deteriorating psyche.
I reckon it'll be more effective, if the game started off in the park as an active functioning park and you learn the layout. And then you return later at night after everyone has gone, so it seems more familiar yet probably more realistic as a experience.
Is it actually legal to suggests that people play your game in a dark room? I remember when all games came with manuals demanding that you played in a well lit area taking frequent breaks etc...
The game looks good, the voice actress can emote really well, but the pacing (and completely bipolar protagonist) utterly kills the game. She just walks, talks, a spooky sound plays, and maybe they throw in a jump scare. Horrors are suppose to be a slow build up, but this is game is so slow it's just boring. Let's take that Hansel and Grettle story. It is clear why they throw that in, to "foreshadow" that the woman we are playing is actually a TERRIBLE mother who had lost/let her child die in this theme park. However, the woman seems more interested in riding the rides rather than finding her son. You know what would've been more interesting? If this woman jumped into the freezing water and waded through the water thinking her child is somewhere in the cave, trying to follow the sound of foot steps and slouching water. They could still have the Hansel playing, but it doesn't feel like it's being shoved into your face as FORESHADOOWWWING LOOK AT IT LOOK AT IT.
I saw this game advertised and I was intrigued by the premise of a horror game in a theme park where you could ride the rides and those might or might not kill you. Even if this game would've been Illbleed levels of goofy, that'd be more interesting than the endless monologuing that's going on while very little happens and the game becomes a big snore. I'd almost say it's worse than Dear Esther, because this game actually sounded interesting to me.
I feel like I'm one of the only people who genuinely liked Heavy Rain. Did it have problems? Yes. Was some of the dialogue stilted? Yes. Was the game stuck up it's own bum? Whole head and shoulders. But for all of of its faults I thought there was a genuine good idea and some nice execution of it even if it had a lot of Cage around it. The game actually managed to stress me out (in a good way) a lot of times and while I admit a lot of shit never gets addressed in the end it did add an air of uncertainty to how reliable any of the narrators were (a depressed possible schizophrenic, an overworked insomniac with dreams so vivid she often can't distinguish them from reality, a drug addicted VR abuser, and a dude who straight up lies to the audience) and added a bit to the mystery. Again, totally admit the game is flawed in a lot of ways, but I personally thought the good outweighed the bad.
Love how he did not even look at his left where the actual "creepy" stuff was going on during that dark ride. Would think when he heard the knock and has his vision blur over he would at least look around, but nah... And btw.. The sprint button is a toggle.. You dont actually hold it down to sprint, but instead you press it once to toggle between walking and sprinting mode.
without having seen how this plays out... lady's clearly insane, and Callum clearly isn't present. the "your son just ran in. let me unlock the gates so you can go in" bit makes both facts QUITE clear. I'm assuming Callum's dead, the mother is still dealing with shit, and this park is actually abandoned. with all that, this could've been great. but all the waxing philosophical, and random "let's fucking ride the entire ride" stuff ruined it. also... that's not a police report. or a witness statement. that's someone reading aloud from a murder novel...
This is actually based on the park in the game Secret World, the modern day horror MMO by Funcom as well. Shame they spent time on this which is rather, well meh, when they could have put more work into their current MMO and one of the few things still making them money.
I feel like this could've been a pretty great game--clearly the devs were competent at making video games--if it weren't for the really try-hard, amateur writing. It's far from the worst storytelling I've seen in indie games, but the fact that it almost succeeds just highlights how much it falls on its face. I /want/ it to be good; I want to enjoy the world and the story they're crafting. But the dialog and some of the scene staging feels more clumsy than some fanfictions and instead of a creepy theme park I'm transported back to junior college creative writing classes... I hope this studio can live up to its story ambitions someday: they have their heart in the right place. The writing just needs to be a bit more self-aware so it doesn't come off as, I guess "fake-deep" and "clumsy" feel about right. My best advice is to remember that subtlety is often a more effective way to communicate ideas than the hamfisted approach seen here; flirt with your audience. Adults are sophisticated in their communication with each other--unlike children who can just ask, "do you want your be friends? Let's be friends" to express interest or demand things like toys bluntly from those around them. When I say "adults are more sophisticated," what I mean is that people are rarely so blunt with each other. Walking up to someone and saying the words "You're attractive. Are you single?" won't net you a date. Writers should strive to use the same level of discretion that people use in their everyday lives when they navigate their social needs. Some of the attempts at "indirect communication" in this story come off like that scene in Always Sunny: "Oh whoops, oooh. I dropped my monster condom that I use for my magnum dong." I guess the other thing is to remember that golden writing rule: show, don't tell. This goes a long way in correcting a lot of the heavy-handedness caused by the blunt "telling". It seemed initially (the first five minutes?) like they were going to be "showing" a fair bit and let us piece together the park situation from the atmosphere, and to be fair they still did at times, but I was left with the impression that we had to endure a lot of "sit, pause the narrative, and have it explain backstory/feelings/whatever" as the game went on. Finally, "brevity is the soul of wit" and I think that kind of attitude will surely help the pacing and do a better job holding the audience's attention (and probably help with the first problem as well.) I understand these developers are working with a tight budget so they don't have time or money for a lot of detailed cut-scenes and set pieces that would help "show" the story instead of infodump on papers scattered all over the place (for the record, this is usually not a problem when a games does this if the dense paragraph pickups provide optional, infrequent atmospheric flavor. It is a problem when it's a major part of gameplay and the main narrative) but that's all the more reason to be "brief" and edit smartly. Getting down to the core of your ideas will often improve them anyway. Trim the fat, and leave what you can to implication. This is especially essential in horror narratives where less is always more.
Great, I pre-bought this and was looking really forward to this as it is funcom :) Now though I think it will join the bought-but-never-played collection :( This game seems very dull for funcom, though your commentary luckily made this video fun to watch :)
The drones they throng on mossy seats, the squeaking door will always squeak. Two up, two down we'll never meet, so merrily trip forgo my side. Please leave us here, close our eyes to the octopus ride!
Well this is a good example of lugoscababab discobiscuits. Concerned mother calling out for her child worriedly taking time out of her little search to wax philosophy and nostalgify about the bad old days when her child was around and stopping this search even more to go ride carnival rides. Just...brilliant storytelling there folks. just excellent.
Jim Sterling videos used to be a cool glass of water after a trek through the desert that is UA-cam. Mom and Dad used to tell me that I'd be dreamin if I found a good video producer. Well I found Wonder Land. But the longer a dream goes on, the more of a nightmare it becomes. Jim's videos were like electric shock, because that how joy is. It's electric. I can't handle it anymore. But that happens, you drink too much water, eventually you drown.
Jim: This was a waste of my time!
Swan: U wot m8?
You know an amusement park is going to suck when the welcome sign has the LJN symbol
+Dylan Oh By LJN, do you mean: Laughing, Joking Numb Nuts?
+Christian Neihart I think he means the LJN company, they produced a bunch of really bad console games. A lot of the Angry Video Game Nerd episodes are about them if you are interested in the shit of the past ;)
Daruma I know. Hence the joke.
+Christian Neihart Oh. Somebody should check my sarcasm detector in that case :D
Oh no my child is missing. Better get on these theme park rides.
+Stuart Morgan She can have more kids, but when is she ever going to have an empty theme park all to herself ever again?
+Barry Hood Reasonable.
kid ran through gate "let me unlock the gate for you" either the gate was already unlocked, or the kid did not go through the gate, one cannot occur if the other already does.
I like the idea of somebody entering some parallel demon world full of evil murderous creatures and using the opportunity to be first in line for all the rides.
This game has about as much interactivity as an audio book.
+Chevrium () Not entirely true. You have to walk in the intended direction, so it is better to compare it to a book that you read, and have to turn each page. or scroll down.
***** someone help I'm being Cyber-Pwned online by an epic troll
Calling it, son is already dead, died at the park in an accident that she feels guilty about.
+Cool Fire Bird I'm not even sure it's meant to be a surprise.
+Rabbit Cube Probably not. :D I like horror games but... this seems kind of boring. I mean, one of the reasons I like them is because of the mystery involved. *sighs* Oh well.
+Cool Fire Bird () Considering the story, she may have left her son in the park while going to look for the bear .... but she forgot it all, caught some rides, allegedly seeing if the bear were there, and once she came back, with or without the bear, the boy was dead from heatstroke.
+RubberyCat ...Why is she getting on the rides at all?
+Cool Fire Bird So it's the whole unreliable narrator thing again? Sigh. People love chasing after Silent Hill 2, don't they?
*Clanking of gates turning*
"I think your boy just ran into the park. I'll unlock the gates for you."
*Implying gates were locked*
But if gate was lock, then how did boy into park?
Teleportation my friend. Teleportation. :P
Just a quick note - the sprint button actually works pretty consistently. It's just that it's a toggle, not a modifier button. As in you tap it once to sprint and then tap it again to walk. You do not hold it down to sprint like in most games. And if you pay attention to the game (which sadly Jim often doesn't do in general in his videos as he's usually busy talking about something or cracking wise), it actually tells you this - see 5:11.
But yes, in some parts when narration happens, you lose the ability to sprint, which I'm pretty sure is intentional.
why does she ride the octopus car ride at all? she stops it, thinks callum is on it, but instead of walking around to get him out of the car he's in, she hops into an empty car and goes for a spin! wtf?!
I don't understand why she got on the Octo-thing. Did she just give up looking for her son? He clearly wasn't on it so why did she get on?
+Kaziel Because Jim decided to ride it?
+J. Martinni But he only did 'cause the game told him to, when you "call out" for your son a "visual feedback" tells you were to go (that weird distortion)
+HelloQro No, that weird distortion shows all points of interest mainly. It's the same around those reports he doesn't need to read necessarily.
+Kaziel That was my thought, too. Obviously the designers just went "oh, I have this great idea for a spooky scene!" without realizing that getting on the ride makes NO SENSE. If you were really looking for your kid, you wouldn't stop and ride a fucking ride for two minutes. The tunnel of love I can kind of understand, because the kid could conceivably get off part way through. But the octopus thing just spins; there's no reason to ride it. Remember the scene in Amnesia where you stop and play a few rounds of Solitaire while giving a heartfelt soliloquy? No? Maybe that's because good horror games don't do stupid shit like that.
I honestly stopped questioning after "your boy just ran in the park through the locked gates. let me unlock them for you."
she's insane, Callum's probably dead, and this park has probably not been open for years... and if the game wasn't shit and ham handed, I'd be interested enough to play it to see if it turns out that way
Unless this game is super short,I see no reason why they have to vomit out their life's story here.
Plus obviously the repetitive inconsistency:
"OH NO! MY SON!…hold on,let me sit on this children's ride for like,10 minutes while trying to be deep"
for the ferris wheel I would understand if she was like "maybe if I get to the top of this Ferris wheel,I'll see where Callum is",but nope!
Visuals are nice though
Legion2323 fair 'nuff
+Royally Major From what I'm reading about it it's pretty short actually
The second she got on the ride and it started telling Hansel and Gretel, my immediate thought was "She killed the kid, she killed the kid, she killed the kid..."
XD
That Hansel and Gretel ride was one of the most unnecessary, boring things I've ever seen in a video game. What the hell did they think they were adding to the game by making you sit through that?
+SlightlyNotorious A bit more happens during it than Jim saw. He was too busy snarking at the Hansel and Gretel story, which was obviously a side thing, to look around and catch the other things that could happen.
+SlightlyNotorious It takes only 60 - 90 minutes to complete the game, and that sequence is indeed too lengthy (even though Jim didn't exactly catch everything while it lasted). IMO this game is not worth more or less 10 bucks, but then again, different strokes for different folks.
They needed some attractions for the player to ride i guess. The game is based around a themepark after all!! :D
+SlightlyNotorious Taking the walking out of a walking simulator doesn't leave a whole lot left to be honest.
+SlightlyNotorious Let's Play fodder
I make people watch Jim Sterling Videos to mess with their sanity.
+aaronWgamer My friend showed me his chin chin video lol. That's how he introduced me to him
*They're
+Alex Murray () They are what? Where do you see someone that has written something that warrants the words "they are"? "They're" is a contraction of "they are". As you are not referring to anyone in particular, I assume you are referring to Mr Forneus' "their" which is used is us as a possessive, as in "their day", "their toys", "their experience" or "their sanity". Do you really think he meant to say "they are sanity"?
You fell for that bait pretty hard Mr.Cat, you seem slightly uneasy. Maybe you're sanity is waning?
Alex Murray
My sanity waning?
Ohhhh! You wanna play *that* way!
You might think that i'm as mad as a hatter, but if you do, you are barking up the wrong tree.
(Oh, and believe me, i'm always prepared for that a flawed spelling is a bait, i'm used enough to both trolls and sincere mis-spellers.)
^_^
I thought walking simulators were bad, now I know the true horror. Sitting simulators.
Thanks Jim for turning the brightness up! Very much appreciated.
Son's dead, she broke psychologically and keeps returning to where he died and has visions of the maniac who killed him. Have I just called the whole plot, someone who knows?
+Kilaknux yes actually. nice
I fucking knew it. Indie horror games are getting predictable as fuck.
I feel like the context they give in the opening is what ruins the effect here. If she was, say, having a dream about being in the park, and that's why she became kind of aimless and was just exploring, that would make the logical issues more bearable. However when the game sets itself up with a sense of realism, and you have a goal that the player is made to believe is real e.g finding Callum, all her weird philosophical discussions become out of place.
Jim would you PLEASE pour lukewarm gravy onto your bare chest in one of your videos?
+ablationer I second this, Jim.
Here I was hoping this game would be actually interesting and the first thing it does is make you walk five minutes just to make you sit through god damn Hansel and Gretel. Even the fucking swan-boat was like "can you believe this shit?" at the end of the ride.
If people could stop yelling for me, I'd really appreciate it
Wait she dreamed of being her son's sister?
ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Fun Fact: This game is made with assets from "The Secret World" MMO, a game by the same company. The whole park is a questing area and the thing that looms over you on the octopus ride is the boogey man in TSW. The studio that makes these games is currently for sale.
Cardinal Don'ts of Horror Games: Don't condescend to your audience, especially in the form of a fairy tale and/or purple prose. Furthermore, be consistent with your tone and don't telegraph your scares.
Too many devs confuse "horror" with just plain "stressful". Being made to feel irritable and headachey for a couple of hours isn't enjoyable. Tension should be a build to a payoff, a big dollop of adrenaline. Horror games like this are the equivalent of hearing your neighbours have a massive screaming row through a wall.
Okay 5mins in I'm calling son is dead. He died in the park some time ago, his body was never found, the park closed down, and the grief stricken mother is searching for her son's killer and body(although a mental block is keeping her from remembering he's dead)
Anyone whose beat the game, how did I do?
Game has some promise, interesting Silent Hill like setting, decent visuals, not terribly voice acting.
Just throw some actual scares in, or just something to drive the story forward.
+Jasper West There is a great scare during the Hansel & Gretel thing, which Jim missed because he was busy being a funny guy about "lol I not touching me mouse"
+Lofty Skinner Ah, interesting.
+Jasper West It's a standalone first-person spin-off of The Secret World. So that probably contributes to it having something of a world built up. And Funcom undoubtedly has decent voice actors on tap.
+Ryan Speck I really liked the secret world, as mmorpgs go, i thought it was really interesting.
+Jasper West Mr Sterling in his impatience ran past a couple of scares. I was playing this last night with the lights off and headphones on and they made me jump. I've seen a few people miss some stuff because they haven't examined everything fully which you need to do (including reading books/newspapers etc multiple times in some cases).
Jason? JAAASSSOOOON!... Why? Because EMOSHUNS
(Also 3:55 reminds me of a Willy Wonka/Jimmy Saville abominations)
How many _polygons_ is Emotion?
Answer: Emotions are polygons because polygons are emotions
Press X to EMOSHHHUNNN
EMOSHAUNS!
GIVUH ME MILLIONS OF DOLLAIRES
I just realized this is a spin off of The Secret World. There was a haunted theme park in that game.
he ran away after realizing that his mom named him freaking Callum.
Callum? Ja-son? Maaaaaarrriooooo?
SHAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWNNNN!!!!!
Leon!
+Chris Buchanan SNNNNNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE
+FlyingSquirrel Miiiiiiiike!
+Chris Buchanan Jessiiiiica!!
The Babadook is probably the best horror movie to come out in recent years.
Anyway, that's all I really have to say, since the game itself here is so uninteresting.
Babadook was fuckng dope! So fucking good
+Matt Yoh fucking hated it. the kid ruined the entire movie for me, couldn't even finish watching it because the kid made me want to tear the veins out of my fucking wrists.
+Matt Yoh The Babadook and Crimson Peak are easily the best horror films in the last 10 years.
+el chewbaccabra I love that kid he made me laugh.
+el chewbaccabra Tends to happen with kids in horror movies. Or just movies in general. Or life.
my favorite part 20 55. she yells "callem where did you go?" then she sees the photo and yells "oh I remember this photo" and the photo looks like shes been druged and her kids scared of her
Oh, shit. Shes a mother, Immm a mother..
My child has a Mr. Bear, They have a Mr. Bear.
Its so life like I cant handle it.
+ShinOpaque Oh God I just found out the deep message.
Shes a mother. Theres is a bear. Shes wants to protect her child. Mother Bear.
Tarik Afflick
Please, my mind cant handle so much blowing without proper foreplay!
"This game may attempt to gaslight you."
Funcom sure knows fun!
I really wanna get this. The amusement park in The Secret World (same devs) was the most interesting area, and it kinda creeped me out. It's just too expensive for a 2 hour experience, so I'll wait for a sale.
+Avioto That park was my favorite part of TSW.
+Avioto And it seems they reused all their assets from TSW's amusement park to make this, just creating a few extra things.
+Harokn Well, to be fair, it's the same park, of course they were going to use the same assets, as are in-universe the same thing.
+Avioto >The Secret World (same devs)
How far they've fallen; and I knew things looked familiar with this game.
+Avioto If you are playing TSW it's worth getting now because it ties in with one of the Halloween missions just released and make the experience of playing this game much more interesting. If you don't play TSW then wait for a sale and pick it up then. If you take the time to explore everything (about 90mins to 2 hours) then it's a much more rewarding experience.
I think this is the only game I've *ever* seen with a Callum as often referenced to character. Since that's my name as well i FINALLY know how people like 'Nathan' and 'John' and 'Jack' feel whenever they play a game.
They should have made this one of those old parks where you wander around looking at creepy weathered fairy tale statues. That would work better with a search for a kid. Would also remove the need for anyone to operate rides.
I burst into laughter at the way this video. Yeah, after being nearly bored unconscious at the first ride I almost skipped this video but at that point well I was already committed. I gotta say, the most exciting part of this was when you first walked into the park and for the first time we see the spherize effect and I mistook it for a giant eye opening in the bench. The first in a string of disappointing realizations. Anyway, thanks for the laugh!
... At the way this video *ended, is what I meant to say.
Just going to make a prediction on the big twist.
The protagonist is totally nuts, she was a lousy mother and lost Callum either through death from neglect or he was taken by child services. She also started working at the park soon before or after Callum was taken from her but after Callum was gone she started getting weirdly attached to other people's children. She was also the suit actor in the chipmunk that hurt/killed someone, this got her thrown into a mental asylum and due her actions the park got a bad reputation and closed down. She's only recently been released and the actual Callum would be 25 years old by now. She rides the rides and faffs about instead of searching for him because the sane remnant of her mind knows that Callum isn't really in the park. The stuff she sees might all be in her head or the ghost of whoever she killed in the chipmunk attack.
The music playing on the ride during the hansel and gretel story was Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliette fantasy overture...
What were those devs implying?
Das gros.
Welp, that ride lasts way to god damn long.
The music used also changes from the romeo and juliette fantasy overture to I think his Tempest fantasy overture. I could'n't really a spot where I could clearly identify it.
Spoopy Amusement Park Simulator 2015.
*Play as a partially insane and horrible forgetful mother that attempt to find their ran away child after leaving them alone in the car. Despite the child probably still is in the car and the mother is just having a mental breakdown and imagining spoopy things.
* Ride on spoopy enhanced amusement park rides that are not ASTM F-24 approved! *Features an interactive boat ride version of the story Hansel and Gretel Uncut Edition and other spoopy pointless events!
*Best feature, you are always first in line and the tickets are FREE!
*Yell random things to your son in attempt to find him.
Is another creepy pasta from bottom of a trash bin turned into a game, once again.
"I think this belongs to Callum"
Like seriously, how bad of a parent do you have to be to not even know your child's shoes? I mean, YOU bought them!
Also, I love how that escalator ride at the start took SO fucking long it went from evening all the way to the deep of night! lol
I liked the Hansel and Gretel part...
Hansel & Gretel's an odd choice for the 'tortured metaphor for a mother's guilt over resenting her child' considering how much of an afterthought the parents are in that.
the only issue I had with this game was the fact you needed to play the secret world to understand the ending
I feel that duck head turned around to say "You're in for a real shit show now Jimmy-boy".
But seriously, the graphics of this game look like another game, but I can't put my finger on it.
+WarbossVanZwam I got the impression that it was turning around to say "Do you mind? You're screaming in my ears. Besides, it's obvious he's not real." and then it would huff in exasperation as it turned back around.
+WarbossVanZwam Reminds me of one of those hidden object games. Even has kinda the same plot.
+WarbossVanZwam
If it isn't the same engine used in The Secret World I'll be genuinely shocked.
Bioshock Infinite?
Who turned on the second ride (the spinney one with the cars)?
I mean, usually I would just pass this sort of stuff of as it's supposed to work automatically but the game specifically makes you turn it off before you can get on, so it's definitely not automatic.
Sure, you can say Babadook turned it on, but how did she know Babadook was going to turn it on for her? Are the woman and Babadook friends? Was the failed big Babadook scare actually just her good friend Babadook watching her have fun on the ride? Is the Babadook Callum's father and this was supposed to be a family day out? Is the Babadook a sensual lover? This raises more questions than it answers.
But disregarding how the ride turned itself on, we know that it can't turn itself off (as said above, because the game makes you turn it off, showing it's not automated). When she got in the ride, what was her plan then? Was she just expecting to sit in the ride for all eternity? Was she just going to action roll out of it when she got bored? Is she just incredibly stupid and didn't think about what she would do once she was on the ride?
Awful game. Doesn't tell me anything about the inner workings of the spinney car ride.
They should've had David Tennant do the voice over in the tunnel. If he could do just cause 3 then he can definitely make that tunnel sequence better and creepier.
Why not have Tennant voice everybody in this game?
+Alex Haines They should have just turned the tale into "David Tennant and Gretel".
Jim's Hansel and Gretel commentary is my favorite thing I've heard all week. Thank you for that, Jim.
This is set in the world of The Secret World? TSW has a haunted amusement park, it's better than this and also way WAY better written.
+MrFutago87 Yeah, they've been making noises that they want to do spinoffs from TSW.
Doc Eon I can see why but why this? You could do so much awesome stuff with TSW.
+MrFutago87 One of the Goosebumps books took place in a creepy Amusement park.. this just made me want to read that again.
+MrFutago87 I want my Daniel Bach Adventures goddammit.
+MrFutago87 I'm pretty sure they used the assets from TSW's amusement park too. It had all the same components.
Being named Callum this made me feel so weird my name isn't in many games...
I think the game is actually quite good based on the footage but it's one of those things that probably don't translate that well as Jim Sterling video. Some of these games are slow burners before they get to the point. It doesn't help that over 99% of horror genre is more hilarious than actually scary. I have long time called horror genre as "comedic" and "comedy."
I'm gonna be honest, I really enjoyed the Hansel and Gretel ride XD
Jason... Jason... Jason...
Apparently, Atari's Haunted House remake was SO bad that developers have abandoned the idea of making scary places scary, opting instead to make happy places scary.
This game was pretty reminiscent of Silent Hill 1&2; the slow build, the detached narrative, the psychological metaphors. The swan ride was definitely too long, but each ride was building with intensity. Sure we had little reason at the beginning to become attached to the female, mother character, but that is partially because the game took a risk at not portraying a more immediately relatable male character. Yes, she had some melodramatic lines, but she delivered them very well. I'd be curious to see where It went from there. I'll take subtle over heavy handed any day. I'm a huge fan of this channel, and I'm a little surprised that everybody is trashing what is potentially a Silent Hill walking sim with a well acted female lead. I'm not saying it is anywhere near Silent Hill in quality. It almost certainly isn't, but now we'll never know. Also, considering the style of rides, THE PARK would be far better in VR. Is that how it was intended to be played?
Alright, three and a half minutes in, I'm already questioning this.
At what point did we establish that the kid was mischievous and prone to wandering off? How did the kid get into the park if the gates were locked to the point that the guy behind the window had to unlock them?
On the next to impossible chance that the developer actually will consume this and take it as criticism and feedback, here's a tip. Establish your setting and give your audience something to work off of to make certain assumptions before you try to subvert or manipulate them.
Alright, the story begins at 8:42 and finally ends at 14:52. That's over six god damn minutes of Hansel and Gretel. What the fuck game?!
+ArdensAnima Corrected. Thank you citizen for serving your country well!
+George Sears Yes. They are watching the video. The plan is in place.............MR. PRESIDENT
Like you said, this game has a lot of potential. The idea is great and I hope someone else has a shot with it. But the overly long and pedantic monologues are just awful. And the scares are silly. Terrible
+TheLonelyGoomba I read that in your voice.
yeah... like... if it was just her, alone, visiting the park, I could have tolerated some of the flowery musings...
but considering her son just ran into the park, and is lost at night... (and I'm pretty sure she's insane, considering "your son just ran in. let me UNLOCK THE GATE FOR YOU," AND the fact that he just let her in to look, rather than get security to help...) it seems SO out of place and pretentious
It's really strange, these games that feel like they tried and yet failed so miserably because they can't get the most obvious shit right
I absolutely loved playing this 2 hour experience. And I also absolutely loved watching you play it and cried laughing! You are amazing lol
Thank you for setting the brightness up. It improves this video series tremendously.
Which song do you think would me the more appropriate choice to be playing during the Swan Ride segment, T. Rex's "Ride A White Swan" or Foghat's "Slow Ride"?
9:09 Oh my, look at his chopper!
I can't believe you missed that opportunity Jim.
I think he needs to get that looked at.
Shame, this game gets really good once you're in. The rides are pretty empty but they're tension building, rather than the scares themselves. Once you've done the rollercoaster, things get pretty interesting.
I accidentally left a vine of a cat hissing at a person sneezing on loop while I was watching this, and it took me ten minutes to realize the annoying looping sneeze wasn't a "sanity bending" sound effect in the game.
My name is Calum... should i be concerned? o-O
+Taloscal Well.. it is a pretty awesome name. I wouldn't be a concerned if I was you.
+Taloscal
Can't you spell your own name or can you spell it with only one L as well?
lampenpam there's a few variations of the name
Callum is Scottish
Calum is Irish
there's also variations with the K
mine is the irish one.
+Taloscal "Callum come over here sweety!"
+Taloscal No you shouldn't be concerned, 'cause now we don't have to look for you!! HEY GUYS, I FOUND CALUM!!! :D
This game would be fascinating if I hadn't heard the story of Hansel and Gretel before.
I stay up all night to watch Jim's videos he releases early in the morning.
You deserve a cookie.
*kid runs through gates*
okay ill unlock the gates for you
....okay.....?
see with an actual psychological horror story, you need to give it time to actually mess with you. i watched chilled chaos play this game on his channel and got through all of it finding out what everything led up to. a good horror story usually takes a bit to grip you because if you go right into a monster story, there's no scare.
this game shows some of the creepy secrets an amusement park might have as well as showing a woman's deteriorating psyche.
Exposition: the game
This made my pogs shiver.
I reckon it'll be more effective, if the game started off in the park as an active functioning park and you learn the layout. And then you return later at night after everyone has gone, so it seems more familiar yet probably more realistic as a experience.
Ha! Ha! "Don't let people 'Gaslight' you." What an awesome reference for that context! Jim knows his classic movies.
Is it actually legal to suggests that people play your game in a dark room?
I remember when all games came with manuals demanding that you played in a well lit area taking frequent breaks etc...
The game looks good, the voice actress can emote really well, but the pacing (and completely bipolar protagonist) utterly kills the game. She just walks, talks, a spooky sound plays, and maybe they throw in a jump scare. Horrors are suppose to be a slow build up, but this is game is so slow it's just boring.
Let's take that Hansel and Grettle story. It is clear why they throw that in, to "foreshadow" that the woman we are playing is actually a TERRIBLE mother who had lost/let her child die in this theme park. However, the woman seems more interested in riding the rides rather than finding her son. You know what would've been more interesting? If this woman jumped into the freezing water and waded through the water thinking her child is somewhere in the cave, trying to follow the sound of foot steps and slouching water. They could still have the Hansel playing, but it doesn't feel like it's being shoved into your face as FORESHADOOWWWING LOOK AT IT LOOK AT IT.
By the way, sprint is a toggle.
I saw this game advertised and I was intrigued by the premise of a horror game in a theme park where you could ride the rides and those might or might not kill you. Even if this game would've been Illbleed levels of goofy, that'd be more interesting than the endless monologuing that's going on while very little happens and the game becomes a big snore. I'd almost say it's worse than Dear Esther, because this game actually sounded interesting to me.
I feel like I'm one of the only people who genuinely liked Heavy Rain. Did it have problems? Yes. Was some of the dialogue stilted? Yes. Was the game stuck up it's own bum? Whole head and shoulders. But for all of of its faults I thought there was a genuine good idea and some nice execution of it even if it had a lot of Cage around it. The game actually managed to stress me out (in a good way) a lot of times and while I admit a lot of shit never gets addressed in the end it did add an air of uncertainty to how reliable any of the narrators were (a depressed possible schizophrenic, an overworked insomniac with dreams so vivid she often can't distinguish them from reality, a drug addicted VR abuser, and a dude who straight up lies to the audience) and added a bit to the mystery. Again, totally admit the game is flawed in a lot of ways, but I personally thought the good outweighed the bad.
I thought the duck head turning was quite good, just me tho?
8:40 - 14:50 , main character enjoying a water-ride through an old fairy-tale, kid stilling missing by the way... if you forgot lady!
8:02 "Ride Swan"? Don't you mean "Ride A White Swan"? :)
4:52
So, wait. She got into Silent Hill?
Love how he did not even look at his left where the actual "creepy" stuff was going on during that dark ride. Would think when he heard the knock and has his vision blur over he would at least look around, but nah...
And btw.. The sprint button is a toggle.. You dont actually hold it down to sprint, but instead you press it once to toggle between walking and sprinting mode.
without having seen how this plays out...
lady's clearly insane, and Callum clearly isn't present. the "your son just ran in. let me unlock the gates so you can go in" bit makes both facts QUITE clear. I'm assuming Callum's dead, the mother is still dealing with shit, and this park is actually abandoned.
with all that, this could've been great. but all the waxing philosophical, and random "let's fucking ride the entire ride" stuff ruined it.
also... that's not a police report. or a witness statement. that's someone reading aloud from a murder novel...
This is actually based on the park in the game Secret World, the modern day horror MMO by Funcom as well. Shame they spent time on this which is rather, well meh, when they could have put more work into their current MMO and one of the few things still making them money.
I feel like this could've been a pretty great game--clearly the devs were competent at making video games--if it weren't for the really try-hard, amateur writing. It's far from the worst storytelling I've seen in indie games, but the fact that it almost succeeds just highlights how much it falls on its face. I /want/ it to be good; I want to enjoy the world and the story they're crafting. But the dialog and some of the scene staging feels more clumsy than some fanfictions and instead of a creepy theme park I'm transported back to junior college creative writing classes... I hope this studio can live up to its story ambitions someday: they have their heart in the right place. The writing just needs to be a bit more self-aware so it doesn't come off as, I guess "fake-deep" and "clumsy" feel about right.
My best advice is to remember that subtlety is often a more effective way to communicate ideas than the hamfisted approach seen here; flirt with your audience. Adults are sophisticated in their communication with each other--unlike children who can just ask, "do you want your be friends? Let's be friends" to express interest or demand things like toys bluntly from those around them. When I say "adults are more sophisticated," what I mean is that people are rarely so blunt with each other. Walking up to someone and saying the words "You're attractive. Are you single?" won't net you a date. Writers should strive to use the same level of discretion that people use in their everyday lives when they navigate their social needs. Some of the attempts at "indirect communication" in this story come off like that scene in Always Sunny: "Oh whoops, oooh. I dropped my monster condom that I use for my magnum dong."
I guess the other thing is to remember that golden writing rule: show, don't tell. This goes a long way in correcting a lot of the heavy-handedness caused by the blunt "telling". It seemed initially (the first five minutes?) like they were going to be "showing" a fair bit and let us piece together the park situation from the atmosphere, and to be fair they still did at times, but I was left with the impression that we had to endure a lot of "sit, pause the narrative, and have it explain backstory/feelings/whatever" as the game went on.
Finally, "brevity is the soul of wit" and I think that kind of attitude will surely help the pacing and do a better job holding the audience's attention (and probably help with the first problem as well.) I understand these developers are working with a tight budget so they don't have time or money for a lot of detailed cut-scenes and set pieces that would help "show" the story instead of infodump on papers scattered all over the place (for the record, this is usually not a problem when a games does this if the dense paragraph pickups provide optional, infrequent atmospheric flavor. It is a problem when it's a major part of gameplay and the main narrative) but that's all the more reason to be "brief" and edit smartly. Getting down to the core of your ideas will often improve them anyway. Trim the fat, and leave what you can to implication. This is especially essential in horror narratives where less is always more.
Play it again Jim with the Benny Hill theme playing full blast it does wonders to the games atmosphere.
"I have to find my son, better fuck around with all the rides first."
Mother of the year
Great, I pre-bought this and was looking really forward to this as it is funcom :) Now though I think it will join the bought-but-never-played collection :( This game seems very dull for funcom, though your commentary luckily made this video fun to watch :)
The drones they throng on mossy seats, the squeaking door will always squeak. Two up, two down we'll never meet, so merrily trip forgo my side. Please leave us here, close our eyes to the octopus ride!
Well this is a good example of lugoscababab discobiscuits. Concerned mother calling out for her child worriedly taking time out of her little search to wax philosophy and nostalgify about the bad old days when her child was around and stopping this search even more to go ride carnival rides.
Just...brilliant storytelling there folks. just excellent.
Wow, umm jump scare park? I guess so.
*Bumper cars go crazy. One almost hits you and leaves*
"Uh huh.... cool".
You should finish the game, it gets MUCH better on the second half!
Jim Sterling videos used to be a cool glass of water after a trek through the desert that is UA-cam. Mom and Dad used to tell me that I'd be dreamin if I found a good video producer. Well I found Wonder Land. But the longer a dream goes on, the more of a nightmare it becomes. Jim's videos were like electric shock, because that how joy is. It's electric. I can't handle it anymore. But that happens, you drink too much water, eventually you drown.