Spigot
09-07-2009, 06:37 PM
As summer vacation nears its end and everyone buckles down for a productive fall, we take a look at a cautionary tale about working too hard, albeit in a haunted mansion!
SCRATCHES
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3530/3897868395_89f52dde36.jpg
Year: 2006
Platform: PC
Rating: Surprisingly Spooky
# of Players: 1
Scratches is a horror adventure game that doesn't look like much to begin with. The production values are decent for a budget title, but won't win any awards. That said, it is one of the better horror games to come out over the last few years.
I won't give much away in terms of the story, but in a nutshell, you play as Michael, a writer who moves into a house to try to work on a follow-up to his last bestseller. While there, the house's checkered past comes to light and you'll find yourself unraveling the mystery behind the former owner's disappearance while trying to avoid his fate.
You play Scratches from the first person perspective that many adventure games have adopted over the past decade or so. This isn't my preferred style when it comes to adventure games, but in Scratches case, the shift to the first-person perspective helps to heighten the tension. Where the game truly shines is in the environmental audio. You'll hear scritches and scratches as you go through the rooms of the house, always just on the periphery of hearing. It's an incredibly effective way of ratcheting up the creep factor of the game, much like the way Silent Hill could turn simple footsteps into a dreadful aural nightmare.
64lHWOCLn70
Scratches can run directly off the CD, which is nice for those of us with less than Crysis-level PCs. It is also pretty cheap. I found my copy for $7 new! I don't tend to get scared very often by games, but Scratches is still one of the creepiest games I've ever played.
SCRATCHES
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3530/3897868395_89f52dde36.jpg
Year: 2006
Platform: PC
Rating: Surprisingly Spooky
# of Players: 1
Scratches is a horror adventure game that doesn't look like much to begin with. The production values are decent for a budget title, but won't win any awards. That said, it is one of the better horror games to come out over the last few years.
I won't give much away in terms of the story, but in a nutshell, you play as Michael, a writer who moves into a house to try to work on a follow-up to his last bestseller. While there, the house's checkered past comes to light and you'll find yourself unraveling the mystery behind the former owner's disappearance while trying to avoid his fate.
You play Scratches from the first person perspective that many adventure games have adopted over the past decade or so. This isn't my preferred style when it comes to adventure games, but in Scratches case, the shift to the first-person perspective helps to heighten the tension. Where the game truly shines is in the environmental audio. You'll hear scritches and scratches as you go through the rooms of the house, always just on the periphery of hearing. It's an incredibly effective way of ratcheting up the creep factor of the game, much like the way Silent Hill could turn simple footsteps into a dreadful aural nightmare.
64lHWOCLn70
Scratches can run directly off the CD, which is nice for those of us with less than Crysis-level PCs. It is also pretty cheap. I found my copy for $7 new! I don't tend to get scared very often by games, but Scratches is still one of the creepiest games I've ever played.