Developer: Dan Pinchbeck N-Game
Website:thechineseroom.co.uk
This mod for Half-Life 2, made by University of Portsmouth researcher Dan Pinchbeck (creator of the bizarre Dear Esther mod), is one of the most disturbing game experiences around. Set in a seemingly desolate mental institution, it tackles the topic of Korsakoff’s Syndrome, a rare form of psychosis that renders sufferers unable to distinguish between fantasy and reality.
On the surface this is a first-person melee combat game. But that’s the least remarkable thing about it. Your enemies are a swarm of smoke monsters who dart towards you at an alarming pace. Fragments of a conversation between your character and his doctor play out, enlightening and confusing in equal measure. And that’s without even mentioning how the environment gradually dislocates around you, until eventually you’re balancing on wooden planks above a never-ending void.
Pinchbeck has some strong opinions on how horror should be approached in games: “You have to take some risks,” he says, “to deliberately and cruelly shove the player out of their comfort zone. If they can’t relax into the normal expectation-action-reward loop, you’re in business. “The Shining isn’t frightening because of Jack Nicholson with an axe. It’s because every time Danny is pedaling around the corridors, he hits a corner and you have no idea whatsoever what’s going to be around it.”
F***ed up moment: After you ask why the lights are out, the doctor says: “The paramedics were unable to find his eyes. We think he may have eaten them.”
