I had originally planned for the next yarbus text-based experience to release to be Dr. Evil's Funeral, which was going to be somewhat spooky. I didn't like the direction I went with it so most of it has been scrapped and I'm retooling it for a different experience. Instead, this month's text-based experience is going to be Murder at Powers Manor, which will be a murder mystery. I enjoy writing these. I don't have an accurate count on how many people have played them because of various reasons, but the fact that it is any amount makes me giggle a little.
In the spirit of October (voted the calendar's spookiest month by the majority of yarbus.online users), I want to ramble a little bit about different spooky things in non-horror games that I like a lot. I'm not really much of a horror fan, so for me when I think about creepy video game stuff I always think of unexpected creepy video game stuff. I think I'm going to make a couple posts like this as stuff comes to mind.
In Hitman Contracts there is an easter egg where there's a ghost in the mirror of a hotel room.
On it's own it isn't particularly scary or anything. Within the context of the game, though, I think it is pretty fun. Hitman Contracts is half an original game, half a remake of levels from the first Hitman game. The narrative context for this is that Agent 47 has been gravely wounded by the police after an assassination and you, the player, are going through the memories rushing through his mind as the painkillers set in. On a metatextual level, the audience is supposed to realize that these memories are not accurate retellings of different assassinations and are warped by drugs and bloodloss.
The game plays with this in some fun ways. Things are particularly darker, grimmer, and, at times, more grotesque than the other games in the series. It really becomes noticeable when you get to the levels that are remakes of levels from Hitman Codename 47. These missions have been subtly altered in aesthetic and tone, such as each one taking place on dark and rainy nights.
The ghost easter egg takes place in a mission in a hotel. In the original version of the level, this hotel is just a hotel. In Hitman Contracts, a floor of the hotel has been closed off as a crime scene. The moment that you walk towards the crime scene tape, the music suddenly switches to a more ominous drone (more ominous is saying something too, this is the music that plays for most of the level) and the hall turns grey. There, you find a cop who is guarding the room and insists that there was just an accident and nothing else. Long story short, you go into the room and you find a dead guy in the bathroom with his ghost in the mirror. This is a great easter egg in my opinion because it makes sense within the greater narrative. These are not the actual events of the assassination, just how 47 remembers them as he's dying. I feel like a lot of easter eggs in games tend to take me out of the experience instead of being integrated into the narrative or setting.
Ravenholm is super cool in Half Life 2. I think it is the coolest level in the game. Or, at the very least, the most memorable. I like the mechanic of seeing the pipes on the side of the buildings wiggle and clang as the zombies crawl up them. I like Father Grigori. I don't have much else to say besides the fact that this well-liked part of this well-liked game is well-liked by myself.
One of the earliest YouTube videos I have a memory of watching was a "scary easter eggs in video games" video and it had these scary GameBoy Camera faces in it. They still kinda creep me out but when I first saw them at the age of whatever, I was so scared that I had to stop watching the video. I don't think the devs meant for it to be creepy.
Next time I post I think I'm going to write about the Cyberpunk 2077 serial killer sidequest. And maybe I'll talk about that game in general. That's all.