Song Of Horror
Can’t get you out of my head
Something could go wrong at any moment. In horror, we always expect something around the corner, but in Song Of Horror it’s hard to predict when the scares will come thanks to The Presence, a twisted AI that chooses when to deploy frights like someone following you around the supermarket and blowing a tuba when you pick up your fruit.
Spread across five episodes originally released separately on PC, Song Of Horror centres on a music box that plays a tune that curses those who hear it to be terrorised by The Presence. When publishing assistant Dan Noyer hears it while trying to find missing author Sebastien Husher, he attempts to track down the box’s origins and find a way to free himself from its grasp.
Each episode takes place in a new location, and even though Dan’s the one labouring under the curse, each has its own set of characters you choose from to play as. They’re a nicely diverse bunch of nationalities and ages, which adds to that horror movie flair. The mechanics change with each location, so, for example, you have different light sources to navigate the dark environments, from torches to lighters (and yes, you have to hit
i multiple times to strike the latter). Characters also have special items, like scented candles that slow your character’s heartbeat if their fright level rises too much, a walkie talkie that buzzes when The Presence begins to stir, or a music player that helps them stay calm when hiding.
HOME ALONE
As you pick over the detailed environments, individual heroes will have insights that fit their character. For instance, electrician Alina Ramos might have ideas about restoring power to a seemingly abandoned family home, while Erica Färber might be useful when exploring her father’s antique shop after dark. Some appear in multiple episodes depending on whether they survived or even took action in previous ones.
Should your character perish, they’re gone for good, and a surviving one will have to pick up where they left off (unless you’re Dan, in which case you’ll need to start the episode again). You can toggle this off on the easiest difficulty, but it’s worth keeping as it’s used inventively. Starting with a new character isn’t just a matter of picking up a dropped backpack of items to continue; the way the level changed when you solved puzzles previously could come back into play to frighten someone retreading those first steps, and the fates of the characters you lost might affect what happens later.
Death can come easily. Simply opening a door at the wrong time will see your hero grabbed by the ghoulies. The Presence has multiple ways of mounting an assault, with more introduced over time. You need to listen at
Simply opening a door at the wrong time will see your hero grabbed by the ghoulies.
doors before opening them to check if it’s on the other side, rush to others to close them before it can barge in, or hide under a table when it begins to seep through the walls. And that’s all in the first level. Later additions feel less interesting, but these less situational ones often return at just the right time to give you a good scare.
Every confrontation involves a timing minigame that’ll try to throw you off with spooky happenings. Different stats mean some characters are more proficient at staying cool under pressure, or stronger at holding down doors, but it’s the time pressure that will really get you.
BLOODY ROOTS
Protocol Games hasn’t been shy to acknowledge its horror inspirations, with each episode nodding towards a different videogame series, from the Alone In The Dark-style opening house to an abandoned abbey that tips a monk’s hood to Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
And so each location feels distinct. They’re not all hits, however. The game is varied enough that there are some misfires (like weird graphical glitches in the prologue), and for every clever puzzle there’s one that is annoying (though ironed out here compared to the original PC release), and there are more than a few instances of overdone backtracking. But even so, in delighting in variety Song Of Horror manages to feel fresh in a crowded genre, The Presence and permadeath ensuring it feels like its own thing.