In this era when various imaging technologies have matured, the graphics of the game are becoming more realistic and the colors are becoming more realistic. So, think about it in turn, what would it be like if the game stopped pursuing realism and became only black and white?
"Betrayer" is such a special style of first-person shooter game, this game brings experience belongs to the "weird suspense" type, compared to the previous scary and unworthy emergencies, the appeal of this game is to create an atmosphere as the focus of the production, to let the player goosebumps fall to the ground, it can be seen that the production team wants to try a new type of horror atmosphere game.
A lifeless black and white world
This game has a very bold design: the game screen is only composed of three colors, black and white two colors constitute most of the screen, in the gray scale of the game world, and then with a small amount of red embellishment, so that even in today's game industry can be described as very rare, quite novel. The atmosphere that matches the game's eerie suspense is really a perfect match. However, some players are very unaccustomed to such a color matching method, which feels quite eye-hurting.
Cursed Lost Colony?
The game is inspired by the true historical legend of the United States, the Lost Colony. In the 16th century, when colonialism was prevalent, the British Empire sent people to colonize the island of Loanoke in North Carolina, and a few years later, more than a hundred colonists on the island disappeared, and there was no trace of them moving elsewhere, leaving only the words "CROATOAN" on a tree on the island. Many historians have tried to uncover the truth but there is little evidence to find, and it is still a suspense case, various legends have begun to be chiseled, and bizarre plots are the favorite themes of movies and novels.
In this game, the player will play as a British colonist, go to the 17th century colony of Virginia to make a living, but unexpectedly there is a shipwreck before docking, the protagonist who survived woke up on the shore, and found that the world in front of him had lost its color, and went to the colonial village alone. Not only is it empty but it is also attacked by unknown ghosts, and it is impossible to imagine that the life of reclamation and pioneering has turned into a dead and strange black and white land, and the player will explore this colorless land, understand the causes of the catastrophe, and try to escape from this cursed land.
The mysterious and mysterious earth
The game experience consists of two main components: battle and exploration, where players will look around the open map for clues to help dead spirits retrieve their memories, so as to learn the story of each place and the cause of the catastrophe. Blood stains, evidence, murder weapons, letters, and other miscellaneous items on the ground are all clues that need to be collected, and through clue collection and conversation with the soul, to piece together the story of the victim before he dies, many stories revolve around the theme of "betrayal". The production team is also very thoughtful to mark all clues on the map, without the need to search aimlessly or for fear of omission.
A parallel world of black and white
Similar to the design of Silent Hill, the game is divided into two worlds: the white world of the living / the black world of the dead, both of which are presented in grayscale. The color system of the white world is white, enemies, clues, materials, water sources, etc. will also emit red light, and the black world is mainly black, the enemy will not be prompted by red light, and the field of vision distance is greatly limited.
The two worlds present different styles, and the atmosphere of the black world is even more prominent, with limited field of vision, chilling demonic whispers, bells summoning the dead, skeletons and ghosts suddenly appearing, and every time I enter the black world, I get goosebumps all over the ground. Players will search for clues in the white world, and talk to souls in the black world to piece together the truth of the mystery.
Combat system
Although this game is very successful in creating atmosphere, it is a bit off the paint in terms of combat. The game encourages players to adopt the game of stealth killing, avoid the enemy's frontal sight, the female crouches in the grass, relying on the wind to cover the enemy, entering the effective range and then picking up the bow and arrow and silently putting it down. Unfortunately, the engagement experience is easy to become a frontal battle, because the enemy's field of vision is too wide, the map is vast, the whole crouch probe probe will be very stuffy, walking and running is very easy to find, and the sudden engagement in the black world must also be a frontal battle, making many players give up the stealth-based gameplay.
The design of weapons is also quite unbalanced, in the 17th century the world naturally will not have a strong gun available, the guns in the game are smoothbore arquebusiers, each shot to reload ammunition, reloading to first pour gunpowder into the chamber, and then use a slender stick to stuff the bullets into, close the fire cap before firing again, feel very realistic very old gun taste, but the extremely long loading time plus the characteristics of unable to sneak combat, making the gun practicality very low, Whether it is stealth or frontal warfare, it is a bow and arrow to hit the world. The jewelry design is also unbalanced, most of the video effects are too chicken ribs, but the melee power increased accessories are too strong.
Black and white vs color, different visual experience
Since black and white made some players uncomfortable, the development team later added a color rendering function. After the author turned on the color effect, it was really amazing, the original lifeless dead world was suddenly full of vitality, or only the presentation of the color world can play the power of the Unreal engine, especially the performance of the light and shadow effect is quite eye-catching. However, due to the original design based on black and white, turning on the color effect will make the color in some places less natural, the most obvious is that the shadow part is too black, but reducing the black density will make other places too bright.
Of course, the presentation of color can ruin the original game experience, and the dead black and white presentation is a major selling point of the game. However, after actually playing in color, the author found that the impact was not too great. Because when the player is familiar with the black and white screen, the atmosphere effect will soon disappear.
In addition, the black world is always presented in grayscale, and after playing in the colored white world, when entering the black world, the contrast from vivid color to eerie black will be stronger. Therefore, the author suggests that players who are interested in playing can use the full gray level to play in the early stage of the game, and the color effect can be turned on when the atmosphere effect is lightened. Players who feel that the black and white effect is eye-hurting can play directly with color, and the only thing that hurts the eyes is the gray-scale white world.
Ointment
This game is unique, the atmosphere effect is first-class, but unfortunately the shortcomings are also obvious. In addition to the balance mentioned above, the overall design of the game does not change much in the front, middle and late periods, which makes the atmosphere and fun of this game quickly tend to flatten, especially the atmosphere component of the biggest selling point, because the elements that create the atmosphere have not changed at all, making the atmosphere of horror and eerie plummet with the game.
The exploration aspect is also the same, the enemies in battle are only a few, and the scenes are all ten thousand years of forest and simple houses. However, it may also be the financial constraints, coupled with this game that is independently made, it can not ask for too much.
summary
Overall, it is a very worthwhile skit, and the unique atmosphere creation is very successful. It's a shame that the gaming experience quickly flattens out.
This work also has an experimental flavor, so the development team probably does not dare to be too aggressive, conservative funding restrictions make the game pattern a little smaller, but with the support of the players' extreme praise, I think there is a good chance that there will be a big pattern of thrillers in the future, let's wait and see.