When it comes to Spring Into Suspense, we've covered everything from orchestral scoring to spiraling structures in video games, books, theater, comics, and film. Yet there is an entirely different school of suspense that has become synonymous with horror films.
Have you ever seen a horror film where there is a huge shocking set piece at the very beginning followed by a good 30 minutes of low key exposition? This is one of the most common horror film tactics. The opening scene--be it the shocking death of the would-be protagonist in Scream or the quick cut hit and run of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?--shows you the worst case scenario.
The sequence is over the top to draw you into the terror and telegraph what this film will ultimately be about. It forces you to pay attention and then leaves you questioning when, exactly, the next big scare will come in. It's related to the jump scare because those tiny moments are an act of misdirection to remind you of what could happen at any moment.
Unsurprisingly, this is a technique that has made the jump to survival horror games. You get a big scare scene at the start that forces you to quickly learn the controls and rules of the universe. Then the game relaxes a bit and shoots out a lot of exposition. It's effective in the moment but difficult to maintain that level of suspense.
Unlike a film that has the luxury of brevity, a game has to hold your interest for hours upon hours. A film can get away with not having the next big scare until the second act because it's only a 30 or 40 minute wait. A video game has to constantly up the odds and change the environments to maintain a similar sense of novelty and intrigue.
One recent horror game manages to pull off the hard parts with a lot of style. I Am Alive is a post-apocalyptic game where you control a man trying to reunite with his family. The city is in ruins and people are tense. Do you bet on their better nature and negotiate for safe passage or do you pull out a weapon and bully your way through the world? And what of the helpless survivors you meet along the way? How do you maintain your humanity when faced with such dire stakes?
The opening sequence of I Am Alive is one of the most frightening levels I've ever encountered in a game. You are dropped in the middle of a torn up street. Cars are abandoned, trucks are flipped upside down, and the bridge that takes you to the city has collapsed into the raging river below. You have to climb up the structure of the suspension bridge, shimmy around edges, and slowly work your way to the next section of stable road. Your body can only endure so much before it shuts down and falls from the bridge. You have to manage your resources and find. safe places to rest during your expedition. Sometimes, you have no choice but to push your body to the limit to even have a hot at survival.
This is the perfect sink or swim moment for this game. You're given a new control mechanism to manipulate every few steps, from running to pushing your limits. Then, you're left to your own devices. There is only one safe way across the bridge and the game's only hint is the inability to actually walk off the road into the water below. The camera swings to dizzying heights, never letting you forget what happens if you make a wrong move.
From there, I Am Alive takes a few moments to breathe. You're introduced to the other survivors and how you can interact with them. You see the man's video messages to his wife and daughter. You control the man as he reacts to the total destruction of his world by an unnamed disaster and, ultimately, learn to trust no one but yourself.
I Am Alive PS3These fast lessons result in a very palpable level of suspense. You never know who or what will pose the greatest risk as you explore the city. The unknown even becomes more comfortable than what you're experiencing in the moment. If you go just a bit further away from the last challenge, you might finally be safe; you never are.
I Am Alive Xbox 360I Am Alive succeeds because, no matter how familiar the mechanics become, there is nothing familiar about this world. Have you ever had to climb a wall to go up a floor at the local mall? Or pull an unloaded gun on an old woman so she'd stop shooting at you? No matter how strange the story gets--and it gets wild near the end--the world feels real enough after that opening sequence to handle the weight of any worst case scenario apocalypse action.
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