The sound, graphics, and story of Scratches are amazingly realistic. I haven’t felt that unique of a fear in my life. That Realistic of a fear. A fear that’s sting is extra deep because you have real-life experience with it. But it seems this extra vivid realism ended up destroying the puzzles of the game for me which is sad because the puzzles are what distinguish a game from just a movie or comic book.
- I wake up from my slumber to the sounds of scratching emanating from the fireplace, and upon investigation find out someone is living beneath me in some hidden basement. My curiosity to solve this mystery is so great it snuffs my fear to run and I stay to figure out the answer to all the questions I had discovered during my hours exploring. But during my adventures I came across so many puzzles whose solution was so counter intuitive that it stole from the rhythm of the game. The environment and story of the game were so well executed I wanted to know more and more, but the flow of puzzles were so detrimental to any form of common sense it destroyed any possibility of being truly immersed in the fear of the game. As soon as you progressed into the story, sucked back into the fear of the house, some puzzle’s ridiculous solution jolted you right back out of the reality leaving you with thoughts like “Why the hell would I open a can that way when I had a hammer handy the whole time?”.
Why would you be willing to climb a rope down the side of the house in rainy weather to access a hidden room through it’s window, but not go outside with an umbrella to see if a newly discovered key fits one of the surrounding buildings. This discrepancy is for the storytelling, but it totally takes away from the realism of the story it’s trying to tell. Anyone crazy enough to do the former would have no qualms with the latter.
- I am in a dark room with a lantern. I try to investigate a corner but I can't because it is too dark. Instead of being prompted to find some outside source of light as to save oil for my lantern, all I say is “the corner is too dark”. Any natural reaction would be to move the lantern over to the area that was too dark to allow investigation, but the purpose of the conundrum was to force me to find an outside source of light which is understood, but the means by which this was communicated was well below any form of logic.
- I need access to a can of oil to fill my lamp. the lid on the can is tightly shut and rusted rendering it inaccessible by hand alone. but I have on me a hammer and a knife. either one is capable of opening the can with only the slightest effort. but the game forces me to use a small boring tool to poke a hole into the side of can to then effectively fill my lamp. This method is the least effective and most counter intuitive method. Also I had to highlight the body of the can, not the lid section to perform the boring act correctly. All these restrictions seem so trivial. If I was really there, and I really needed that oil, I COULD obtain it the way the game forces me to if I was creatively stupid, but I would most likely pry the damn lid off with the hammer or knife. I would actually choose the hammer way first because I wouldn’t have to poke a hole in the side of the can effectively destroying it, just in case I could use it later if needed. I feel the game for the sake of realism, should allow for various methods of completing a task as long as they are realistic in nature. And I think it is anti-climatic as a puzzle to have the answer be something as trivial as poking a hole instead of prying the lid off with a hammer. There should be more focus on maintaining a realistic feeling of being stuck in haunted house by making the puzzles a part of that reality, not some pointless battle between a can.
This tactical dumbing down could in a way be a form of difficultly. Shuffling through your tools to find the way the games deems correct. But as I have said, this also greatly dumbs down the realism of the game. You are no longer pitted against the elements present in the game, but the game itself, and since the game is made by a person, you are in a sense battling against some guy’s version of what logic should be. This all seems oxymoronic because the purpose of the game is to make you feel like you aren't playing a game but are in another reality. A truly immersive experience could be attained if there was allowed some level of intuitive freedom to the gamer in how he manipulates the digital environment to solve a puzzle.
I have an example of this:
In the game Tomb Raider Legends (the revamped version you can digitally download) on the first level, there is a big room with a catapult. This catapult's purpose as designed by the game is to shoot boxes up to another level which you then use to hold down some switches to open a door on the other end of the room. Simple. But also there is on another end of the room, high on a ledge, is a silver statue. it isn't a part of the puzzle in the room, just a side item that if collected unlocks stuff. I like unlocking stuff, so I made it my mission to get it. But I had a problem, I couldn't jump high enough to reach the ledge. Then I had an idea. I catapulted the three boxes available in the room, until they were on top of each other, which then gave me the height I needed to reach the ledge. It.....was...not....easy. It was so laborious that it didn't seem the natural way to get the silver statue, but after about an hour, it worked. I got the statue and then traversed the room to the open door. Before I continued on, I noticed from the view from the door that I could have traversed a series of holdings to make it to the statue. I didn't need to do it the way I originally did. BUT I was still able to. The game allowed me to achieve my goal the way MY brain assessed the environment. I felt accomplished. The feeling that keeps you coming back to games. Accomplishment but in your own way. With a little more thought and planning Scratches could have given me the same feeling.
I don't like that I write this about Scratches because IT IS DAMN SCARY!!!! Very well made game in that aspect. I wish I could say the same about the puzzles.
If you are going to go through the hassle of hand crafting an entire alter-reality, take an extra day/month/year to assure the rest of the game doesn't take you out of it. Simple.
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