C9 Review IGMC 2015 Submission: The Initiation
Cloud Rating:
This one was an unexpected surprise. I'm pretty much a grammar nazi (even though sometimes I should criticize myself, I nowe) and it was hard for me to get past the spelling and horrible grammar of this submission. I realize that English was not the author's first language and that I'm basing my opinion for these reviews on originality, creativity, fun factor, and replayability NOT readability. So after I did get over the hard to read-edness (in honor of this submission I'm going to forgo proper words) and actually focused on the game itself I realized that this was actually a pretty fun, albeit short game.
Upon running the game, a creepy piano number starts playing along with a picture of what looks like the little ghost girl from The Ring with blood splatters on her face:
Sets a really good creepy vibe. That girl creeps me out. Good thing it was 5 PM when I started playing. Nice and bright outside.
The game starts off with a short introduction for each of the characters. The author went to great lengths to ensure each person had their own personality type and did a very good job of keeping the bio of each one short and sweet.
So we're here to investigate this abandoned, military, psychiatric hospital for a school club? I wonder if they needed parental signed permission slips for this?
Anyhow, we all walk in and start to look around. After reading a note or two one of my friends seems to freak out and run off in search of more notes. He must have some strange fetish for notes to make him run off by himself in a haunted mental institution just to find his next crumpled paper fix.
After some searching around, we finally find him.
Tom! There you are! Then next thing I know *SQUASH*! What looks like giant bowling balls just smashed all my friends (Still haven't really figured that one out. Maybe someone can leave a comment below and help me out here?).
Next I wake up in a really spooky room by myself. This room alone will give me nightmares for the next couple days at least:
The atmosphere of this game is spot on. It really puts you in a mood of dread. The combination of the horrific graphics, jump scarish sound effects, haunting ambient noise, and spooky background music used in The Initiation is in near perfection. I really like the way when the "voice in your head" talks there is a quick, short, staticy sounding burst, for example. Kudos to the author there.
After exploring this part of the asylum for awhile, I found the Velma-ish girl and went off in search of more clues. By this point, the story is starting to come together a little more and I'm genuinely intrigued. The author really draws you into the story (though they would definitely benefit from a native English speaker to pretty up their dialog).
The next part really got me into the gameplay. The friggin' jail cells scene. OMG, those ghosts that chase you while you're trying to find where the key to the jail door is... SO HARD! It doesn't help that the key is placed in a random cell each play through and a couple of those ghosts move with near lightning speed (good thing they didn't have the intangible-enough-to-move-through-walls ability). Timing your moves to try to get around them is VERY challenging and after about 8 attempts, it was very rewarding to finally get away from them unscathed.
All-in-all it was actually a very fun game with a compelling, haunting storyline. The premise of the story is very compelling as well. Finding the different clues and figuring out what you needed to do next really added to the investigative aspect. And the plot line is one I hadn't heard of before and is very interesting. To me anyway. And for that I am giving The Initiation 3 clouds!
