Suffocate
Review
Ghost Stories
by Samuel Corey
reviewed on PC
Minimal Survival Horror
Every week, it seems like there is a fresh batch of horror Walking Simulators, spooky Visual Novels, and horror-themed barely-interactive movies. Now, there is nothing wrong with any of these things in and of themselves (indeed, I can think of great examples in each genre), but it's a bit of a stretch to call any of them Survival Horror. This is a shame because well-made Survival Horror mechanics can enhance scary situations as players watch with mounting dread as their resources dwindle. It allows for emergent suspense that the developers never planned, as some players run low on ammunition or healing kits and are forced to explore dangerous locations in search of more, while running the risk of getting themselves into an even worse situation.
So, given the relative rarity of Survival Horror games on the market, I'm inclined to give Suffocate a few bonus points for making the feeblest attempts at the genre. Suffocate has several resources to manage, including healing pills that restore your health, ring-pops that grant you temporary invincibility, and batteries that keep your flashlight powered. The last of these is the most promising in concept, as if you ever run out of batteries, you could very quickly find yourself helplessly wandering around the dark at an inopportune moment, making you a sitting duck for any of the ghosts that prowl the game's hallways. In practice, though, neither health nor battery power is ever a concern as the game heaps so many items on you that you will never risk running out of anything.
The other survival horror element introduced is the ability to run and hide from enemy ghosts, taken wholesale from Alien: Isolation. This can be a bit spooky the first few times you do it, but since you have no other options for combat, every combat encounter (save for one boss fight) ends in you sprinting to the nearest wardrobe, and this quickly becomes tedious. The ghosts also attack far too frequently and are far too easy to evade, a combination that robs them of any ability to frighten before long.
An Unhappy Family
The story of Suffocate follows Tanya, who is being chased around her mansion by the ghosts of her family members. As the game progresses, she re-lives different parts of her own life as well as episodes from the lives of her mother/father/sister. Gradually, both she and the player can suss out the family dynamics and personal trauma that have her spiraling through this waking nightmare.
This trauma is compelling in the case of Tanya's parents. Her mother is an abusive harpy who constantly harangues Tanya for not getting good grades like her sister Hannah, and is herself driven crazy by her husband's infidelity and the miscarriage of her first child. Tanya's father, a crooked politician in bed with the mob, is less directly abusive but is responsible for most of the priors that led to his wife's dysfunction. He's also responsible for the entire family's deaths at the hands of his less-savory business partners after he makes the bone-headed decision to try to rip off some of the mobsters he's working with. The problem is that one member of this family is obviously not as bad as the other two. Hannah might be a bit of a stuck-up bitch, but treating her as equivalent to her parents seems absurd. It's made doubly absurd as the worst things the game can find for Hannah to do all happen when she and her sister are in primary school, about a decade before the game begins!
That said, there is some depth to the characters. None of them are simply evil, and in particular, Tanya's mom is given some understandable reasons for her loathsome behaviour. At the best times, the story of this family feels authentic and depressing. At the worst times, it veers into cartoonish melodrama (seriously, it would have been enough for Tanya's father to be a philanderer who screwed his secretary in motel rooms; why does he have to maintain a secret sex dungeon in the basement of his family's house?). Even worse, the game has a bad habit of undercutting its tension and serious storyline with comedic cut-scenes featuring a baby that dances and slurps ramen. I really have to wonder why the developers thought it was a good idea to include these sequences. It's like if the Dog ending for Silent Hill 2 wasn't an Easter egg but instead an unskippable part of the main story.
A Questionable Art Style
The first thing I noticed when seeing Tanya and her mother in a cut-scene together is that great pains have been taken to make them both attractive. Normally, this wouldn't bother me much, as cheesecake is as much a part of horror tradition as gore and violence. However, there is something off about these models that makes them unsettling. I think it's a combination of the attempt as a very realistic art style and the overall poor quality of the animation that makes them both look like malfunctioning sex-dolls.
Even more eyebrow-raising is the fact that Tanya spends the entire game barefoot, never even bothering to put on slippers. You will never forget this fact while playing because even though the game is first-person, the developers have gone to great lengths to make each footstep Tanya takes sound like her bare feet hitting the ground. At a certain point, this reviewer began to dread that he was playing a very covert foot-fetish game.
Still, I was prepared to give the game a pass at the rough animation and frequently dodgy art direction. That was until I beat the game, and a lovely ending cinematic played that could boast some excellent animation and disturbing visuals that were not present in the game. Where was that the entire game!?
As always, follow Hooked Gamers on Instagram for news updates, reviews, competitions and more.
6.5
fun score
Pros
An interesting core-psychodrama about an abusive family, Story unfolds in such a way that the player feels like they are unraveling a mystery as they progress, A very unique and creepy ending cinematic.
Cons
Hiding from ghosts gets repetitive quickly, There are too many items to ever feel like you might run out, Tension is destroyed by occasional cut-scenes featuring comedic dancing babies.
