Anyone who knows me knows for a fact that I love the Resident Evil franchise. I think that the games are some of the best that survival horror has to offer.
Today’s long play starts where it all began, Resident Evil for the PlayStation, in 1996. Alpha Team members are headed for the mountains northwest of Raccoon City. With missing Bravo Team members to locate, and a diabolical pharmaceutical company performing twisted experiments, it’s sure to be a nightmare.
This particular long play showcases Jill’s scenario.
I really do love this game, flaws and all. Let’s be honest, though. There are a lot of flaws with this old title these days, especially now that we have remakes and also a remastering to compare it to. By today’s standards the game is as campy as it is dated. It isn’t exactly ideal, but it is a historical icon in gaming. That’s not something anyone can dispute and for me, that’s reason enough to play it.
Tank controls and limited ammo supply is the name of the game here. The antiquated graphics leave much to be desired, and don’t even get me started on the voice acting.
Still, there’s an old world sort of charm to the original Resident Evil, and if you’re a fan of the horror medium, it’s worth a look if you haven’t played it already.
I’ve already done a full retrospective review of the game, so go ahead and give it a read if that interests you. There’s also a properly edited video of the script if that’s to your interest instead.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest, and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll catch you next time. Meanwhile, check out some of our other great content below.
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As you probably know, we’ve started doing “no microphone, long plays” of video games over on our YouTube channel. Spyro was one of the first ones we did.
Spyro the Dragon: Reignited Trilogy released for the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One on November 13th, 2018. It later received a release on the PC and the Nintendo Switch on September 3rd, 2019.
This trilogy is a remastering of the original Spyro trilogy developed by Insomniac Games. The original three games ran from the years 1998 to 2000. These games are platformers featuring the protagonist, Spyro. He’s a young purple dragon with a little bit of an attitude, and a flair for breathing fire, and flying around.
Basically these games are everything you’d come to expect from a platforming title of the early 3D era. From colorful worlds to explore, laughable antagonists and the somewhat snarky personality of Spyro himself, you’ll come to find that that these games are a product of their era in gaming.
While I wouldn’t say that the trilogy brought a new breath of life into the gameplay experience, it did at least manage to make the series accessible to a new generation of gamers around the world. Even as a remaster, the first game is just a little clunky by today’s standards. There’s no disputing that. Even so, the relatively low level of difficulty makes Spyro the Dragon a solid choice for parents with younger kids interested in gaming.
In the first game, you’ll rescue Spyro’s fellow dragons and recover all of their stolen treasure. You’ll also face up against Gnasty Gnorc, the game’s primary protagonist. If you like early 3D platformers, you’ll probably like this reignited version of Spyro the Dragon.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest, and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll catch you next time. Meanwhile, check out some of our other great content below.
With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier. If you don’t care for Patreon, and don’t care about perks, you can always support us through PayPal too… links below.
Those who join via Patreon get special perks, such as extra content, quicker updates, early fiction chapters and more.
To start with, we’ve all heard that excuse time and time again from fandom. In our favorite shows, movies, books and other media, there’s always someone who shouts two simple words into the void; “bad writing!”. They shout this before leaving the matter at that.
I’ve seen messy writing in plenty of pieces of media, I’ve seen poorly executed writing even beyond that. However, bad writing is an outlier in such a drastic way that it actually annoys me to hear this turn of phrase more often than not…
Typically a person says this if they don’t agree with a narrative decision within the media presented to them. There’s plenty of discourse to be had about how something could have been done better, sure enough. No story is flawless, after all.
In point of fact, and I say this very adamantly, I tend to find that the “bad writing” argument crops up more often when a person can’t pin down why they dislike the writing so much. That’s why I’m very unrepentant when I say that the “bad writing” argument is a misnomer for greater prevailing issues.
The issue itself could be many things. Perhaps a personal chord was plucked to make someone feel that way. A story could in fact have “bad” moments of “writing” within the material to upset a person. To someone directly and pointedly offended, “bad writing” might be a solid critique of the way a certain theme was handled… I see that argument a lot in the RWBY fandom. Certain subject matters aren’t always handled with care and concern, so that’s why the critique crops up… but really, in that example, the writing isn’t “bad” per-say, just poorly executed.
There are occasions that it could just be “bad writing” though, truth be told, because there are very rare circumstances when what lies before you is actually little more than a pile of irredeemable drivel. The issue is, that’s an oddity, not a rule… but I have located an oddity recently.
As a gamer, I’ve seen poorly contrived plot elements take a back seat for the sake of bombastic gameplay more times than not. In gaming, this is sometimes a serviceable tactic, but not always… a most recent example comes to mind in Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. You can watch our gameplay of that over on our Twitch channel…
What makes writing bad, generally comes down to how core issues present the themes in the game. To another point, I find the characters themselves generally unlikable. I find this to be the main problem in Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin.
To be pointedly clear though, this really only applies to the beginning and middle of the game. The last hour and a half, two things happen. Firstly, the cut scenes vastly improve. Secondly, the story actually gets VERY, VERY good!
However, the very good part only applies to the latter section of the game, not everything preceding it, and that’s the reason I’m using it as an example today.
In the earliest parts of the game the plot line often comes down to finding a way to cram the word “Chaos” into as much of the dialogue as humanly possible… in some cases, the story itself jumps the shark by doing a fast-forward to skip an event or two that was obviously deemed required by the writing staff.
Let me walk you through why this is “bad writing” directly on its face. Three guys meet, and immediately after introducing themselves, we get a “bro-fist” as they decide to join together. Then, directly after the very questionable act of deciding to become best buddies, we get two throw away paragraphs about what happens after, with no context or plot driven narrative to fall back upon.
That problem is, that jump in content reduces down to explaining the events that took place, without player related input, or even screen splash showing the event. It’s just a black background with white colored words explaining what players should have gotten to experience…
That’s it, just those two plain black images about visiting with the king, who refuses to allow them to take on their intended mission. Instead, they spend weeks together slaying monsters, and that’s it… literally, that’s all you get before the screen fades to black.
Why were they refused? Why do these supposed crystals look like giant cockroach turds? Why are these characters joining forces simply because the crystals can “sense each other” as one of the characters says they can? Why, amid what amounts to be a throw-away paragraph does it seem like a total and complete afterthought?
It feels like either pure laziness, or a decision compounded by some freakish lack of planning, or a budget crisis. Bad design, no cookie for you. Either way, the story goes on from there… a game shouldn’t feel that way, if it could in any way be avoided.
As a player, you return to these characters, who by now know each other, although we the players still know nothing of them. They’re all sitting upon a boat, complaining about how bored they are, and how they want to do the job they came for already, defeating “Chaos”.
We still don’t have a “why” for any of the above that feels reasonable, and you’d be correct to call that “messy writing” by video game standards. You’d be fair to call it lazy in general. In that singular case, where neither gameplay nor firm story-line exists yet, you could go so far as to call it bad writing. You’d even be right to do so… because at this point, we know next to nothing about these characters, or their deeper motivations.
I don’t often care much for the “show, don’t tell” rule in writing. There are times you do have to “tell” an off-screen plot element or two instead of showcasing it… but this use of “telling” is much too flagrant here. It is bad writing, firm and flat out… that’s why I fall to Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin as my foremost example of “bad writing”, because frankly, there was just no excuse.
As I said before though, in gaming, a good story-line typically takes a back seat to bombastic gameplay. To be honest, that game is very bombastic, over the top in the best of times.
According to Kresh, who is playing the game on the stream, it’s also pretty fun on occasion. Perhaps that’s a saving grace, but the story-line and the occasional direct lack of it, does hinder the game too.
I cannot personally comment on how “fun” it is to play. I can only speak upon the theatricality of the combat itself. However, I’ll say this, you’d be hard pressed to call the gameplay itself boring, as even your small, typically encountered leveling fodder have a habit to explode in bright, if ominous colors.
This tends to leave a crystalline residue of their exploded corpses in their wake… and frankly, as I said, it is bombastic. I don’t think you could call it brilliant, or even tangentially metaphorical to the plot-line at all. It has ties to the deeper themes, sure enough… but it doesn’t lend to the world building in a way that feels satisfactory. It just looks cool.
All-in-all if you need a very recent example of bad writing in game design, look no further than Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. Does it entirely ruin the game? No, not exactly. It’s still a serviceable gameplay experience. It’s interesting enough for me to watch, and for Kresh to play… so there is that at least. That said, if you want a solid narrative, this isn’t the Final Fantasy title for you… far from it.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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Hey guys, it’s Kern here with a little bit of gameplay. Dear Esther is basically a walking simulator with a heavily laced narrative focus. Due to that I won’t be diving too deep on this one, there isn’t much to explain.
Dear Esther is a first person point-of-view exploration first and foremost. Although you might also coin it an adventure game, I’m hesitant to do that. There’s really no enemies or prevailing threats. All that you’ll find here is a riveting story…
Dear Esther was developed by The Chinese Room for the PC, PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One. The game was first released in 2008 as a free to play model. Later on, the game was entirely redeveloped for a commercial release in 2012.
As I said above, the game features very minimal gameplay at best, which is why it is often called a “walking simulator” a phrase you generally either love or hate as a gamer.
Personally, I think games like these have their own value, particularly if well written prose is the goal ambition of the design from the start. Dear Esther showcases this perfectly. Really, you only have one main objective here; explore the island the narrator stands upon. While you explore around and get your bearings, a troubled man explains his turmoil and reads a series of letters to his beloved, yet deceased, wife. Details of her death are slowly revealed as you explore around the island.
That’s about it… no really… that’s the basics of the game.
It is noteworthy to state that despite the minimalist style and gameplay, the game was critically acclaimed for the story it tells. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it horror, but if you are the imaginative sort, it can be a bit unsettling.
When 2017 came around, an updated version known as the Dear Esther: Landmark Edition was released, based on the Unity engine. That’s the one I’m playing in the video.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at it’s finest, and level grinds are par for the course. ..
With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier. If you don’t care for Patreon, and don’t care about perks, you can always support us through PayPal too… links below.
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Kern’s Note: hey everyone, Ruka wrote this before the movie came out, but I’m an idiot and life happened, so it got stuck in backlog until now… but enjoy the artistic endeavor!
Hello everyone! This is your friendly Demented ferret’s artist Ruka, and today I will be talking about one of the most acclaimed franchises in video game history and now a major motion picture. That’s right folks I’m talking about the one and only Uncharted.
Thieves by Rukangle
Uncharted is one of the most recognizable game franchises in the last 15 years. With groundbreaking graphics, breathtaking designs, it is one of the best consistent story arcs to offer a fantastic ending in any video game. Naughty Dog made a game that could be loved by all who play it, and in turn, cementing their reputation as a highly respected video game developer in the industry.
Resident Evil features a fairly typical story. A rescue mission is taking place. With a string of murders running rampant across the fictional Raccoon City, it’s up to the police to find out what is really going on. In response to this, the Special Tactics and Rescue Service, or “S.T.A.R.S.” have been sent to look into the issue. Having been sent deep into the mountains, the first team has gone missing.
As an Indiana Jones inspired story, the Uncharted series reminds me of the classic PlayStation games like Tomb Raider,Prince of Persia, and Resident Evil.
Like many games before it, the Unchartedseriesholds 3 main pillars of gameplay aloft; Combat, area traversal, and puzzle-solving. Set in a traditional action puzzle game the game allows us, the player, to complete a single track series of levels with linear gameplay and in a 3rd person perspective style.
The story follows a wise-cracking, treasure hunter, Nathan Drake voiced by Nolan North. He’s skilled in combat and a knack for history and finding himself in trouble.
With the help of friend and business partner, Victor “Sully” Sullivan voiced by Richard McGonagle, they journey in search of treasures lost to history. On the way, they encounter several other characters to help them along on their journey. Like Chloe Frazer voiced by Claudia Black, is an Indian-Australian treasure hunter and thief for hire with a business and former love interest of Drake and Elena Fisher voiced by Emily Rose, is a headstrong and intelligent journalist, foreign correspondent, and love interest to Drake.
Together they embark on a journey into the unknown and its dangers to try and prove if the stories of legends are more than just stories. The developer for Uncharted is one that surprised me.
Hello everyone, it’s Kern here offering you up past live stream post. This is a game we recently completed over on our Twitch channel, and is now archived on our YouTube channel as well. Yep, that’s…
I will admit it took me a good minute to realize that the developing studio, that brought us Crash Bandicoot and Jax and Dexter, some of the most iconic childhood games, was behind this masterpiece of a game.
Established in 1984, Naughty Dogmanaged to create a franchise to join the technology changes that Playstation 3 brought in its wake. Both on the critical and commercial aspects, with well over 50 awards by different gaming publications and have sold well over 41 million copies worldwide and becoming the face of PlayStation.
It also opened the doors to show that they are capable of more than just cartoon-style gaming. From its graphics and storytelling, it helped elevate and ultimately evolve the game experience and how a game should be made. It is because of this that Uncharted is deemed as one of the most successful games of all time.
For years there has been fan-made trailers and videos circulating the internet, from who should play what character and what story should they try and continue the series, but it was actor Nathan Fillion’s 2018 Uncharted a fan film, 15 minutes long live action of the game, that made the loudest noise when it came to the possibility of bringing the game to the big screen.
Now after years of rumors and possibilities it became official, Sony Entertainment has chosen Ruban Fleischer to direct, alongside a star cast to interpret these unique characters. With Spider Man’s: “No Way Home” actor Tom Holland as Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as Sully, it makes us wonder where in the timeline will this movie is taking place, and will it choose to follow the story, the game has provided us or will they give it their own Hollywood twist.
It is no surprise to anyone that such a well-rounded and acclaimed game made its transition towards the big screen. It joins the ranks with other fellow major games like Tomb Raider, Resident Evil among others trying to break into a totally different industry and let me tell you it can be hard at times. It might be because the games have set up the story so well, its transition to the big screen, tends to be a bit difficult.
I believe this has to do when developing the story and characters in a movie form, the time is what makes it difficult. If we were to compare them to let us say, The Witcher series, based on another video game, it makes a world of difference, since they have the time and are able to flush it out with more detail.
What does this suggest to the masses? If the Uncharted movie triumphs on the big screen, we could see a boom of console games-based movies in our future, in hopes to have a market similar to that of Marvel and DC.
Uncharted has a way of keeping you entertained, in a way not many games do, at least for me. This is my kind of game. Entertaining, funny, witty, and with a hint of history. For me, the fate of the movie varies a bit, here are my key questions;
Can Tom Holland step out of the shadow of Peter Parker?
The chemistry between Drake and Sully is an important part of the series, and in doing so, will Wahlberg deliver on this character?
Will this movie stand on it self or will it hope for the actors to carry the story?
I guess we will have to see when the movie hits theaters on February 18, 2022. Until then, if you guys find yourselves interested or curious about anything I said, please don’t hesitate to leave me a comment below.
If you like this content, please consider supporting us on Patreon, and follow us over on our Twitchchannel for gaming-related content, where I make an appearance via chat, well like always, this has been Ruka of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest, and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you around! Until then please be sure to check out our other content below.
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Hey everyone, it’s Kern here. Welcome to a new year, hopefully this one goes better than last year (laughs nervously). There were a lot of ups and downs in 2021, and a lot of things that kept me super busy.
Who really knows what the future holds? Other than we’re going to try to start off the year strong, it’s anybody’s guess. We’ve got games to play planned for the stream, and Ruka has more “arts-and-farts” to show off. Expect another one of her photography posts later this week. That should be fun.
More anime and gaming reviews are incoming. I haven’t had the time to sit down and really work on them given the holiday season, and the fact that I’ve been fighting off a case of strep throat… yeah, that’s been fun… I am a homing device for that bug, I swear…
Also, expect a few more introspective type posts in the near future. I’m feeling a bit reminiscent recently. It happens in the early months of a new year. I find myself just sitting and reflecting a lot about my life and where I might like it to go… it’s a funny thing, really… always full of surprises.
One thing that I think I want to go back to doing is the occasional solo late-night streams. I don’t know, I’m still thinking about it, but I might do that again, if you have an opinion on that, let me know.
In any case, strap in tight, the year has just begun… I hope it’ll be a good one.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest, and level grinds are par for the course. See you next time. Until then, check out some other great content below.
With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier.
There is a $1 tier, perfect for blog readers, so don’t hesitate. Join today!
Warning: The game I’m reviewing today is called “The Static Speaks My Name”. This game contains mature themes. Mature Content: This game deals with the concept of suicide… it’s not too overly dark or graphic, but the theme is looming and present. Kern’s Disclaimer: This is not just a typical little indie title, it has a narrative that needs to be handled with care and respect. Know that going into it. One more time for the people in the back. This game is NOT for young or impressionable gamers. If you have delicate sensibilities regarding the content warnings above, maybe just don’t read this review or play this game.I won’t be held responsible if it triggers the absolute crap out of you.
I enjoy indie content, particularly when it pushes the conventional narrative limitations of media in an interesting way. The game I’m reviewing today does strictly that. Before I begin my review though, I do hope you didn’t disregard my content warning above. If you did, scroll back up and read it first.
The thing that sets this game in a different category from other indie horror titles, is that this game is less “terrifying” and more along the lines of “tragically unsettling”. I wouldn’t call it a horror game per say, because I don’t find it scary in the traditional sense, nor unnerving in the general one. Rather, this game dives deep into the realm of psychological horror in ways I rarely ever see.
It’s not scary, it’s chilling. Thematically speaking, “The Static Speaks My Name” is a short title, but far from a sweet little package. The game is more of a “narrative experience” than a game itself. Actually, I’d hesitate to call it a game because there is a clearly a narrative to be found here, but there’s not a whole lot of “gameplay”. The price is right though. As of writing this blog it is completely free on steam, and the time investment to complete the game is minimal.
The fact that it will take most people about ten minutes to to complete it says enough on its own. Honestly, you can beat in it half that time if you really wanted to rush it. Now, while some people may find the length lacking, the content isn’t. What you’re given in that short time isn’t anything to scoff at.
When you begin the game, a brief prologue begins. Surrounded by a dark space, you’ll see something in the distance and you’ll have to walk closer to it. As you do, you’re given three things. A name, an age, and a cause of death. When you get close enough to what is basically that floating cloud in the middle of a dark expanse, you enter into the body of a man, and you live out is last moments alive.
The beeping alarm drags the man from slumber and he awakens to a home that’s just a little strange. Everything seems just a little out of place and just slightly out-of-sorts.
As a first-person game, you play as a man named Jacob Ernholtz. As a player, you soon put the pieces together to find out more about this man, and his final decision. To be clear though, the game isn’t all doom and gloom. It’s not all awfulness caked in pure and unbridled cynicism. If it was, I wouldn’t have enjoyed it.
Actually, “The Static Speaks My Name” does something else. It attempts to tell a story that has little to do with the event that ended this man’s life, and more to do with his final moments that preceded it. This game is not an analysis nor a deconstruction of the prevailing topic at hand. It’s not even about the physiological nor social conditions at play when ones goes about making such a choice.
Rather the game carries a heavy undertone with the concepts of obsession more than taking one’s own life. As though the pictures hanging upon the wall act as an all consuming focus that Jacob Ernholtz couldn’t possibly escape a fascination with. He isn’t a good man in the slightest, which only further makes it hard to relate with him on any level. I’d say that that fact alone is what makes it a horror title. It isn’t the inevitable end that makes the game so unnerving to me, it’s the character you play as, and just how disturbed he obviously is.
Just take a look at the image below as a hint to just how obsessed he is with that one painting and the painter behind it. I assume you could extrapolate all kinds of meanings from this if you really cared to, but as for me, I don’t care to try at all… really, just playing as the guy is enough for me to be unsettled about just what in the hell could have been going on in his brain.
As for gameplay, it’s just a game about slowly twisting mundane moments in this one man’s life. Cleaning the microwave, admiring his collection of paintings among the wall, or eating his pet shrimp. Simple details, really. However, it soon becomes clear that this is the point of the game, the simplicity beyond horrific spectacle, which the game cares very little for. it doesn’t glamorize it’s core themes, but rather, it seems to spit upon the idea that typical cliche’s about depression needs to be continued on in ways we would normally expect.
They’re tired, they’re dusty, they’re old and we don’t need them. The game seems to say this, to exemplify that notion in every act, The game doesn’t spell things out for you concisely, there is no neat or tidy conclusion, and you won’t be likely to find yourself re-playing the game more than once to pick to pieces every little detail.
Once is enough, and the slow spiral of madness seemingly induced by paintings upon the walls is truly macabre in notion, but not quite in a way that inspires empathy or compassion… especially after you notice just what else this man keeps in his house.
The fact of the matter is, what makes this game notable, is that it inspires a gambit of emotions. There’s dark humor mixed with tragedy and although it is sad, dark and pretty disturbing, I find that it is a fitting end to this short game.
Now, onto the “static” concept and the idea of seeing other “static deaths”. If you look at the reviews, or commentators on Steam you see that notion brought up often enough in their reviews section. Here’s the thing, I’m glad we only have one story. One glimpse, one looking-glass, and that’s all. I don’t want more than this, and I’m glad that we don’t get more than that.
The reason for this is because while I do think that perhaps more “statics” would have been interesting, I believe it would have made the game rather unpalatable in the long run. There’s only so much of this grittiness that anyone can take, and there comes a time when a compelling point to explore these concepts crosses a line too far.
If this game had been any longer, if it had explored too many more deaths or the disturbing minds behind them, it wouldn’t have just crossed the line for me. In fact, it would have trampled all over it and left a big steaming pile of dung in its wake. The solo developer, Jesse Barksdale, was wise not to take this narrative, or this game that far.
So, I guess the final question is, do I think you should play this game? All in all, if you can handle these sorts of themes, it might be worth your time to play it. Keyword being might. Once again, it’s short and it’s free. Those are low barriers to entry, so long as you can swallow down the core themes, which is the much larger, prevailing question. I can’t answer that, and to me that remains the ultimate conflict.
I think “The Static Speaks My Name” is an interesting narrative experience. However, I don’t think most people would “enjoy” playing as as such a disturbed man who eats his pet shrimp and has a nasty little propensity to obsess about a single painting. Honestly, give it a try if you want to take a dive down into that kind of character. If you have no interest in that, then this game is not for you… keep away from it.
This has been Kernook from The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time. Don’t forget to check out our other great content.
With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier.
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Hey everyone, it’s Kern here, and today I’m bringing you more archived content from previous live streams. Over on out Twitch channel Kresh completed Call of Cthulhu, so that’s what you’ll be getting today.
Now, for those of you who don’t know, Call of Cthulhu is a fusion between a role-playing game (RPG) and the survival horror genre. Developed by Cyanide and published by Focus Home Interactive on 30 October, 2018. This game is the epitome of existential horror at it’s finest, but it isn’t particularity scary compared to other games that would be considered “horror” by nature. It’s more “creepy” or “unsettling” than scary. You might even say it is atmospheric more than anything else.
Kresh Plays Call of Cthulhu
The gameplay footage accompanied by our commentary can be found on YouTube and Twitch. If you like more content like this, please be sure to follow us on our other channels too. Kresh managed to beat the game in two parts.
The game was developed for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2018. Roughly a year later it saw a release on the Nintendo Switch. The game boasts a decently crafted narrative, heavily inspired by the written works of H. P. Lovecraft, a man made famous for his weird and often unsettling fictional stories.
The storythat the game is heavily inspired by, also named “The Call of Cthulhu“ was first publicized in February 1928. Later the story and universe would be adapted into plenty of other forms of media, such as table top role-playing game in 1981. That’s not the only renditions and retelling of the story we’ve seen though. In 2005, a silent fort film was even made, despite the fact that many considered “The Call of Cthulhu“ an entirely unfathomable project to produce, and unable to be filmed besides… but the movie is out there if you care to look for it.
So then, other other swaths of media aside, what is “The Call of Cthulhu“ video game about and what it is like? Well, let’s take a look.
The plot is fairly standard. The year is 1924, you play as a private investigator Edward Pierce, a man that suffers greatly from bizarre nightmares that become more vivid as time goes on. He is both a war veteran and a man of many vices. Notably, he self-medicates with sleeping pills and alcohol. How you choose to handle these vices will impact your gameplay experience, by the way… more on that later.
In any case, Edward is called upon to study the mysterious case surrounding the tragic Hawkins family. Apparently they’ve all died in a fairly violent fire… or have they? Edward must find out the truth.
Your only clue to go by is a an oddity; the picture painted by the supposedly crazy mother. Even weirder, it was painted shortly before she died. Now it’s Edward’s job to go to a place called Darkwater Island, and untangle this baffling mystery. I don’t want to spoil too much here, but it has a decent story. It all depends in how you choose to play and the choices you make. As for gameplay itself, that’s a mixed bag. You’ll find elements of “investigatory type” games laced deeply within the horror setting you find yourself in. A lot of mystery games use this sort of system, particularly when horror is closely ties to it.
Of course, this means dialogue options. Now, I don’t personally care too deeply for wide range of dialogue options myself… particularly when a few options are locked behind a skill tree. Obviously there’s a market for complex dialogue wheels and the illusion of player choice, but all games have some sort of “on rails” experience to them when you really start scrutinizing the matter…
Generally, I find complicated wheels that have options hidden behind a skill tree to be a cheap argument for “replay value” at best, and flat out annoying at worst. Beyond that, though, most games that use these sorts of systems aren’t the type that I’d typically replay with any regularity anyway. That’s just a personal preference. The system isn’t too clunky, if you’ve played Mass Effect or any game like that, you know basically what you’re in for.
It’s not awful, it’s just not my preferred method of narrative progression. Speaking of the narrative though, let’s discuss the aspect of sanity. Since that is one of the most paramount features in the game when it comes to driving the narrative, it merits a discussion.
Depending on choices made throughout the game, such as your dialogue options, the way you’ve explored the areas and all of the events that affect your sanity gauge, there are four possible endings total. However some of them are more desirable than others.
The more insane you become, the more likely the “darker” endings will be. Kresh managed to land a fairly gruesome one in our footage, but there are other endings too, if you manage to make the correct choices early and often… I will say this, due to the nature of this game none of the endings are what one might call “happy”, it is a horror game after all.
Sanity management, skill trees, careful conversational choices, and stealth action all play a decent part in the greater narrative. There is some combat, but not a whole lot. You’re better off hiding than attacking things, unless of course, you’re meant to attack them. A few key encounters come to mind, but I won’t spoil them here.
The Call of Cthulhu isn’t a bad game, all thing considered. It’s not far and away amazing, but it’s not god awful. It’s a solid experience and narrative is worth the ride if you can pick it up on sale.
You’ll probably enjoy the game far more if “cosmic” type horror and further reaching and looming existential dread appeal more to you than jump scares and mindless gore. Give it try, you may like it.
This has been Kernook from The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed the content and will be in search of more like it. If so check out our other content below, and don’t forget to follow is on our other platforms.
Lady Dimitrescu from Resident Evil Villagecould have been my absolute favorite character in the entire game. Instead, she became the character I came to hate the most. I’m so saddened by this, because I was so sure we were going to receive a deep and compelling character. I saw such a great promise in her. Now, I just feel that she was not the character I hoped she would be.
To be absolutely honest, I find her to be a flat our offensive character on principle. The issue is, as a villain she shouldn’t have been offensive in the very specific way she turned out to be.
Yes, her character design is absolutely the sort of representation we need in gaming. Women aren’t often portrayed as strong and assertive. At least, not nearly as often as we gamers might like.
I can respect her for that, but what I can’t do, is pretend she’s a good character when it comes down to dialogue.
Listen, she’s a man-hater, plain and simple, and the issue with her is that she could have been very compelling to have in Resident Evil Village with that mindset. However, it didn’t end up compelling, because the way she displayed that hate was just resolute mindlessness.
Lady Dimitrescu is many things, but she’s not supposed to be reduced down to a nitwit, and that’s ultimately what happened. When you listen to her speak for any length of time it becomes clear. Her insults are gender based more times than not, being prefaced with the word “man” in some way, shape or form.
Worst still, we know she has passed this ideology down to her daughters. Even they are very much obsessed with the concept of gender based ideologies, that just don’t have meaningful extrapolation.
Do we really need a reminder that our character has “man hands”? Does him being a man somehow lessens his complete and total existence? Is this really the best insult a person of such high bloodline and education can make? Is she really that lacking when it comes to turns of phrase?
Well, no, she shouldn’t be. She shows she can be far more than that. Yet, she doesn’t become more than that. That’s ultimately my problem with her…
Look, I get it, she’s a villain, but that’s the issue. She gets reduced down to a stereotypical woman angry at the male gender for seemingly no good reason. Lady Dimitrescu is supposed to be a very intelligent woman, thoughtful in her words and deeds. In short, she’s not a total and complete idiot. Yet, this is the best dialogue that they could come up with?
This is not the first time an issue like this has cropped up. It won’t be the last. A notable example is in Last of Us 2, showcasing a transgender character being horribly mistreated based on a performative interpretation of how they wished to be identified. A large contingent of the trans community, myself and Kreshenne included in that wide and diverse spectrum, took great issue with that.
Now Kreshenne hasn’t played Resident Evil Village, and and can’t speak to it meaningfully, but I have played it and I can speak to it.
I can’t in good faith have the issues that I do with the handling of Last of Us 2, unless I take those same issues with Lady Dimitrescu when referencing the male gender. It all comes down to the same problem. A complete and total lack of care when considering how best to handle the character.
I’ve done my research. Plenty of blog posts out there explain Lady Dimitrescu as a character. They go into detail, and I’ve looked for clues I may have missed. I just don’t care for how she was handled.
Her hatred of men doesn’t help the narrative in any meaningful or heartfelt way. It only does damage. I don’t mind seeing difficult topics handled in games, but they must be handled with careful consideration, and Resident Evil Village failed to do that.
When you reduce insults and slander down to gender continually without any real need to do so, it is absolutely flat out bad writing. I don’t care what gender a character is, when insults are reduced down to that level, it makes everyone doing it look bad.
Lady Dimitrescu is not above this, and she really should be. She is tall not only in stature, but in personality and refinement. Even in combat, she fights with poise and grace until her final form. She is an aristocrat of the finest order, proud of that esteem, and her three daughters.
She is orders of magnitude above the other sorts of people our main character has faced before, and that alone should be intimidation enough. Yet, there is still something more. She hungers for more favoritism from Mother Miranda, and she’ll go to great lengths to get it.
She’s smart, cunning, and more powerful than she lets on. It is very heavily implied and shown that she is an intelligent woman. Apparently Dimitrescu maintained an almost feudal-like rule over the peasantry near her castle. Yet, for all of those amazing qualities, we see so little of them.
What little we do see is bogged down by her constant use of gender based insults. Unfortunately, we have no clear and obvious reason for her to hate men. Still, she treats the male characters she’s around with disgust and vitriol with no discernible reason for her to do this.
She doesn’t clearly voice a reason why she seems to look down on men, only that she does. It’s too heavy handed to place it aside. If you’re not speed running through the game, you’ll hear some of those insults more than once.
If you were like me, taking your time to play the game, you stayed in her domain long enough to hear those ideologies more than a few times. These ideologies coming from Lady Dimitrescu herself, and all three of her daughters.
Having one female character like that is one thing. Having four women in the same vicinity with that ideology is a bit problematic, don’t you think?
Lady Dimitrescu looks down to men like children, or the pure scum of the earth, some notable quotes are “Ugh, just another simple little manthing.” and “Stupid manthing! You won’t live long, even if you run!”oh, and let’s not forget the best one: “Oh, so gauche. What do you care for bread and circuses? The manthings suffering is assured, regardless.”
Look, here’s the sad part of all of this. She actually had the vast potential to be a far more compelling character. We see hints of it beneath it all. My absolute favorite line shows just how well educated she is, and just how cunning she can be when she says this:
“The man is of no real use to anyone else, and my daughters do love… entertaining foreigners. Furthermore, I can assure if you entrust the mortal to House Dimitrescu, my daughters and I shall deliver to you the finest cups of his slaughtered blood.”
There, see that? An insult, a threat, and a promise all encapsulated within the confines of her station and abilities. She can still see herself as a superior, but she does so in a thoughtful and meaningful way.
Now, that is a compelling villain. This is the sort of dialogue that shows just how prim and proper she can be, with that incredible ruthlessness we expect from her. It’s classy, it’s “well-to-do” as expected from an aristocrat. Above all it shows, her true grace and intellect as a ruler.
It shows how she was able to rule over the lands for so long, before becoming infected by the mold. It is characterization that is paramount for her, and we get too little of it.
We should have had more of that sort of dialogue. Grim promises, deeper threats to our livelihood, and a grace all her own. All of that from a ruler who doesn’t take idle shit from anyone.
Instead, a lot of her repetitious vocal lines fall under those before mentioned gender based insults, and that’s just sad. It diminishes her in a way that is well and truly a letdown, because she could have been so much more.
In attempting to defy stereotypes, Lady Dimitrescu become one of the worst ones a female antagonist could be. She became a mindless man-hater, with no real explicable reason for why that is, or what drives that deeper hatred of men in general.
We can’t assume she isn’t one. All we see is Dimitrescu talking down to her brother, or down to the main player character himself. There’s no other male for her to defy the precedent she sets for herself in a useful way.
It’s just so sad, because if those lines had been handled with just an ounce of care and mindful foreshadowing, she could have been one of the best villains to ever show up in a Resident Evil game.
As she is, only her looks will stand the test of time, her characterization will be too easily forgotten. That’s a real shame, isn’t it?
Well, that’s just my opinion. I know it will likely be an unpopular one, but that’s my view. In any case, this has been Kernook of “The Demented Ferrets”, where stupidity is at its finest, and level grinds are par for the course.
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Hey everyone, it’s Kernook here. In case you don’t know, I’m not just a blogger. I’m also streamer on Twitch along with my good friend Kresh. Together, we’re known as “The Demented Ferrets” and we play games several times a week.
Today I want to talk about something that hits very close to home for me; accessibility as it applies to gaming. This is why I thought it prudent to do another “brick post” today.
This time I’m going to give a bit of background on Dyspraxia, what it is, and how it can get in the way at the worst absolute times. Gaming is certainly one of them, hence the post.
Gamers tend to talk about new improvements while disregarding the old, but both have a place. The important little matter of nuance that has been lost in the greater discussion. This is a complicated topic when it comes to gaming, so please bear with me.
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First though, a brief primer on the subject. Dyspraxia is a form of developmental coordination disorder, also known as a “DCD“. I was born with it. It’s fairly common as I understand it. Although, I don’t have any personal friends who have it. That being said, there are plenty of famous people who do speak about it openly.
Daniel Radcliffe is a noteworthy actor that has spoken publicly about the disorder. He is someone I believe most people will have at least some familiarity with, given his role in the Harry Potter series. That’s why I use him as the example, but there are many more.
Now, before I continue, you need to understand that Dyspraxia has a very wide spectrum. Some people with the disorder are very low functioning. For others it would be very hard to tell they have it at all.
The disorder hinders motor skill coordination in children and adults. It may also affect speech. It is a lifelong condition, there are no cures. Dyspraxia is a fairly distinct disorder and it can affect a person in many ways.
Why does this matter? Well, I have Dyspraxia and I’m a gamer. You kind of need to have good motor skills to play a game. It’s how you handle the controller, so it matters to talk about this kind of thing in the gaming community.
Accessibility is a word thrown around a lot in the gaming sphere, and often times with negative connotations involved with it. You can put your knee-jerking to the side though. I’m not here to bash developers. I’m hear to talk about my love of gaming when in relation to the disorder itself.
Accessibility is not the same as making a game easier, or in any way “watered down”. No, that’s just flat out idiocy. What makes a game accessible is merely just a wider range of options presented to the player. Therefore, when I am speaking of accessibility here, I am speaking from my personal lens.
My lens will not be your lens, even if you have Dyspraxia. Our level of severity regarding certain symptoms may be vastly different. The one thing I want to make clear here, is that gaming is not inherently inaccessible, and we need to think of accessibility in gaming differently.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach. The fact that gamers sometimes assume something needs to be added to a game merely to make it accessible at all… well frankly, that just shits all over the discussion in the first place.
It needs to stop, and we need to widen our perspective. Accessibility shouldn’t be a list of “must haves” or “bells and whistles” tacked onto a game as an afterthought. That is not accessibility, that’s being an asshole.
Rather, when we discuss accessibility, we should discuss it’s confines and trappings. Accessibility is always a two way street. Balancing careful planning with a mindfulness to your core player base is the key to success.
An afterthought for the sake of brownie points is never the goal. It should never be the goal. Do not tack on stupid things, just because people scream that they want it. Instead, carefully consider just who your game is made for, first and foremost. Then, after you have that clear idea in mind, think about how you might be able to include others based on that.
Accessibility does not include superglue and a prayer. They should not feel like options slapped onto a game like some sort of deranged clown car. They shouldn’t feel as if they’re bursting out sideways and cockeyed.
For example, when it comes to Dark Souls, I’d say that when it comes to pure gameplay, it is very accessible despite the difficulty. From a point of motor control, I’d say it holds up well. Yes, it’s a hard game. It’s supposed to be.
Just because it’s hard, that doesn’t make it inaccessible inherently in that very specific instance. When you discuss how accessible and game is, it’s all comes down to specific instances.
The game is difficult, but also carefully crafted. You can do battle at a distance, you can plan your attacks. With the multitude of ways that a player can broach fights, I would not say that the gameplay itself is at all “inaccessible” based on motor function. Merely that the game can have a large barrier to entry in other ways.
Under this one lens, it is therefore accessible. However, that is just one lens, and someone may in fact disagree.
Dyspraxia can hinder a person’s ability to participate and function in everyday life. Education, work and gainful employment isn’t always easy for people who have it. A large amount of the time you end up with Dysgraphia or Dyscalculia on top of it. However, that’s an entirely different set of issues, and I won’t be covering those.
What I will say is this. It is imperative that a gamer considers the games they play, and understand the confines of those games. What an accessible MMORPG to me, for example may be different than what you consider to be so.
Final Fantasy XI is a great example of an accessible MMORPG for me. Yes it’s old, and yes it feels a bit dated. That being said, skill in this game relies entirely on knowing what you’re doing. It isn’t exactly a “motor skill” heavy game.
Knowing what the enemies do and how to counteract them is half the battle. There are no quick time events, and there is no jump button. You have no need to handle blinding floor spit aoe’s that you might find in games like WoW, or FFXIV which are also MMORPG’s.
When I thinking of end game raiding, I think of all the mechanics that just turn out to be a pain in the ass. That being said, I call what would be vanilla Rift the pinnacle of end game raiding. The best, and most fun raiding I’ve ever had in a game, for me personally.
This is merely because even if a fight was difficult and AoE’s were tossed all over, I was never just flat out blinded by a boss I was fighting.
For me, the worst offender in this regard is FFXIV. To me, though I do like it, it is very inaccessible as a game in many ways. For me boss battles in FFXIV are not a matter of simply getting good. Sometimes they are a matter of stupidity. Occasionally, I just can’t see what the hell is happening. There is literally too much crap everywhere.
I have golf balls for eyes sometimes, hence the spelling errors that occasionally slip into blog posts. This is also why I tend to use a medium font, and not the “default” that is included in the editing tool.
When I think of a game that isn’t accessible, I think of a game that is stupidly difficult for the sake of it. Or a game that might have had a very small team, and therefore couldn’t hope to factor in gamers such as myself in the first place.
Sometimes artistic choices are enough to make a game somewhat impossible for me to play. Those games have a fan base, and those games don’t include me. This also includes games like Undertalewhich is primarily black and white, and terrible for me personally.
It took me a year to play and beat the game. This is not to say it isn’t a good game. It is to say the game is not accessible to me as a player. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. It just hurts my eyes, and the way you play the game doesn’t help.
However it was such a massive hit that I played it merely to have a perspective upon it myself. That it isn’t a good one personally, doesn’t detract from it objectively. That’s a key distinction to make here.
All in all, people with Dyspraxia are not a monolith. There are a huge list of symptoms, and if you care to look at them, do so understanding that is a very fluid disorder. No one will ever have “all” the qualifiers, because the list is just too large.
So, why does this matter? Well, to me gaming matters. Therefore, my heart can only go out to others with motor skill impairments that inhibit them from fully enjoying a gaming experience the way they might like.
When we play games we see “game over” screens more times than an average player. Sometimes, these are just for dumb reasons. Perhaps a boss doesn’t choreograph what it’s doing very well. Perhaps in games that don’t allow you to turn off quick time events, you kiss your butt goodbye on those several times over.
However, if you don’t have some sort of motor impairment you might think we’re just bad gamers, or that we’re just flat out stupid. It’s not that, not really. It’s just that how we experience the game can and will be different from yours, and our ability to play the game reflects that.
This is why I actually love the Resident Evil and Silent Hill series of games. Particularly the ones with tank controls. In my latest review of Resident Evil 2 from 1998, I brought the matter up directly by saying this:
“If you think tank controls absolutely suck, you’re in for a bit of bad news. They’re just as clunky as you recall them to be. Now, I’ve never had an issue with tank controls myself. For my personal situation, tank controls actually make the games easier to play, not harder.
There is a very direct reason for that. Given my Dyspraxia, which is a motor skill disorder, having limited movement allowed me to have better control over the character. I didn’t need to be careful of subtle movement, because the characters only move in very particular ways. When it comes to my thumb being clumsy, the game just didn’t pick that up. This meant I could pay closer attention to my environment, and not what my hands did of their own accord without my noticing. While I love tank controls, I do understand that most people hate them.
For me personally, it’s not a downside. Objectively speaking though, it very well could be. I won’t overlook that just because of my nostalgia or personal situation. “
If you want to read a few of my reviews for the resident evil franchise, you can do so here:
See, this is what I mean by we need to broaden our idea of what accessibility really means. Tank controls actually help me. I’d love if more games have them, and that’s why I love a lot of retro titles. Do I expect them? Absolutely not, but I would very much like to have them.
To me, they would be an accessibility that would improve gameplay.
The point I am trying to make is that this whole accessibility discussion has vastly jumped the shark in many ways. It is true that not all games will be accessible to all people, and it will be impossible to attempt to make it that way.
However, it is also true that using that as a blind excuse is just pure laziness. Nuance matters, and we’re starting to lose that.
Final Thoughts
If you are experiencing trouble as a gamer, I have just one bit of advice. Before you start pounding on the gong of accessibility, take a breath and look at all that gaming has to offer. There will be a game or two that will suit you. There will be a genre that allows you to love gaming.
Once you find those games, you can open your eyes to the other games like it, and the much deeper world that gaming has to offer. Instead of just focusing on the usual complaints, we need to think out of the box. It’s better for everyone, and that’s the whole point of accessibly in the first place. To reach as many people inclusively as possible.
It isn’t just about controller layouts and game overlays. It’s not just about including new add-ons, fonts, colors, keybinds, or multi-lingual subtitles. It’s about the larger scope of the experience we have as gamers.
Sometimes it’s about playing the inaccessible games to understand what needs to change, instead of what we simply want changed.
We need to be discussing ports and revivals of older titles. We need to consider that there are already a wealth of games suited for us that might need to be brought back onto current software. Perhaps some of these titles need to be brought back to life or brought over to other platforms.
Perhaps a gamer can’t play a Mario or Zelda title on a Nintendo Switch, but could play that very same title with a different sort of controller found only on PC, or by a third party company. We need to be discussing this too, and look at all of our options.
We need for developers to be our partners, not our enemies. We need fellow gamers to hear us out before biting our heads off.
These are the sorts of discussions we need to be having. These are the ones that should pervade the larger narrative. When we think of accessibility, need to consider tank controls and other methods of control in general too.
Hopefully you love gaming as much as I do. Hopefully I’ve given you something to chew on. Perhaps the next time the word accessibility comes up in context with gaming, you’ll look out of the box too.
If you’re an aspiring developer, or one from a huge studio, reach out to gamers. Sometimes that alone is enough. Nine times out of ten, we’re okay that a game doesn’t have something, if there’s a good reason not to include it. Knowing why a feature isn’t in a game is sometimes enough for us.
Sometimes just being talked to, so we’re included, is all that we need. Sometimes all we want is to be heard. We don’t want to feel useless, or that we’re just shouting into the void.
Communication is the first step, and it’s one that needs to continue being made, so yeah… do that developers, really. That first step will be an answer to a great many problems. After that, creativity is your foremost tool. Use it, and empower all of us.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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