In Hollowbodyan early 2000s-style third-person survival scary video game by Nathan Hamley (the solo designer behind Headware Games), the real horror comes not from its horrible beasts, however from occupying a world where routine individuals are stopped working by the system and delegated pass away.
Hollowbody is a tribute to the PlayStation 2-era classics that assisted specify the category. It likewise includes a “tech-noir” spin; believe the very first couple of Silent Hill video games, particularly Quiet Hill 2and a touch of Blade RunnerIt goes heavy on environment, relying nearly totally on tension-building instead of action to produce a sense of palpable anxiousness. And while the video game reanimates PS2 graphics, it does not subject you to tank controls (unless you desire them, then there’s a toggle for that, sickos).
It’s embeded in the not-too-distant future in a messed up city someplace in the British Isles, years after the area was struck by an expected biological attack and later on bombed while under quarantine. A short intro mentions corruption and conspiracy around the real occasions of the disaster. The preliminary attacks targeted cities “afflicted by financial difficulty and wickedness,” and the impacted locations were walled off to consist of the spread of any contagions– however not before individuals considered to be “high worth” residents were permitted to get away to a synthetic island with a suspiciously utopic name (Aeonis).
The video game opens with a group of researcher-activists who have actually assembled at an entry website to among the exemption zones, where they prepare to enter search of responses. After among them, Sasha, goes missing out on, her partner Mica sets out in a hover vehicle to discover her at any expense.
It’s in this early series that we truly see the tech-noir part of Hollowbody‘s description come through: Mica gazing out the big glass window of an apartment or condo neglecting a largely jam-packed city à la Blade Runner 2049; zipping in between high-rise buildings in a flying guest car; having a saucy discussion with a smart navigation system. Naturally, Mica crashes on the trip in, loses contact with the someone who can assist her and needs to make her method towards Sasha on foot.
Headware Games
After that, the tech-noir bit slips primarily out of focus till it swings back around at the end of the video game, and Hollowbody handles the more standard survival scary mold of ‘science experiment turned regional termination occasion.’ There are some touches of that unique tech-infused vision– at one point, Mica passes a broken-down mech the size of an apartment, and there’s a radiant kids’s toy in one space that looks slightly robotic– however it’s not precisely prevalent. Mica’s individual gadgetry and the styling of the stock menu function as the only genuine suggestions of that angle for the majority of the video game.