2011 In Review 06: there is nothing left

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Gizmog
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2011 In Review 06: there is nothing left

Post by Gizmog »

In only his second game, ShakeyAir made the best horror game in OHR History. "there is nothing left" is a bone-chilling look at the psychology of a school shooter. The difficult subject matter of an alienated youth turning a gun on his peers is presented effectively without seeming exploitative or trashy. A few simple textboxes introduce your plight, and then the game starts.

It's hard to express how effective the atmosphere is in words. The music and animated background make you uneasy to begin with, your enemies are only vaguely humanoid, representing the alienation your character feels. Hurtful text appears at the bottom of the screen, perhaps reflecting bad memories of the protagonist. One by one, the enemies slowly open their mouths, and begin to emit a mechanical buzz. Once they all three get going, you recognize that the buzz is mechanical laughter. "ha.. ha.. ha.." they say, and it's this laughter that actually hurts you. Even as you kill them, their faces contort into an eerie smile and more appear to replace them, looking angrier and angrier but still all they do is laugh. There's no fear or respect from them. Eventually their laughter is too much, and the "protagonist" apparently shoots themself.

Very dark subject matter for an OHR game and very effectively conveyed, the only shortcoming with the game is that it doesn't seem to have anything to say about these serious issues of alienation and bullying that it brings up. Perhaps the point is that the hero is being too thin-skinned and that his retaliatory actions are a futile and self destructive gesture? The game does little to convince you of anything, instead opting to just be scary which it accomplishes in spades. "there is nothing left" is a great example of how even a short game can be effective and memorable, though a little more social commentary would've been nice.

Score: 9/10

2011 Score (per January 26th): 77/100

Part of Gomey's 2011 Year In Review
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Last edited by Gizmog on Wed Jan 11, 2012 3:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
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