The Lovecraft FPS': Forgive me Father.

 If you don't know, FPS stands for First Person Shooter. A type of game genre where the viewpoint is from the eyes of the character and the gun sticks out in front of the player to simulate holding a gun. This makes it easy for the player to point at the enemy and shoot them akin to reality. Many games have you take cover and hide from enemy bullets but the better versions, called "boomer shooters" after the "age" they dervive from, allow you to dodge bullets by slowing down time, using powerups or avoiding projectiles. At this time, we are looking at a shooter boom that has flooded the market with dozens of such games. "Forgive me Father" is one of the older titles but still has a unique draw to it. You play as either a priest or a reporter in the mid 1920s looking for a family member in the midst of Lovecraft country. Standard enemies such as fish people, Lovecraftian monstrosities, and the ever-annoying cultists stand between you and the goal. Enemies and objects are 2D in a 3D world giving them a paper cut-out look. Mix that with the "kapow" and "splat" effects that go off with each kill and you have a game that feels like a living comic book. The story narrates in a similar way with only the protagonist or the narrator speaking and explaining whats happening after each event. But the game allows you to experience the world as well through scattered story pieces that hide clues to what happened to the residents and what the villian's plans. A few easter eggs are sprinkled in referencing other games such as robes belonging to cultists in "Dusk" and I laughed out loud when I saw "Redrum" dripping off the walls in an earlier level. Each level has a quiet tune in the background that picks up when the enemy attacks going from a peaceful dirge to a violent rock oppera. 

And of course, you have the arsenal. You have your standard pistol, shotgun, machinegun, sniper, and other type weapons including my favorite (I kick myself for not thinking of this earlier) the thundernomicon. Each weapon can be upgraded such as the shotgun bullets bouncing off the walls or the sniper harpoon firing three shots instead of one. The problem comes with what vibe the game is going for. Often I find myself outgunned or overwhelmed by large forces and my weapons feel woefully inadequete. It doesn't help that the only way to save is to see an old drunkard who hangs out at certain checkpoints. It's not a bad system but many of these older FPS' relied on quick saves the player could use at any time. One slip and you go back to the checkpoint or worse, you have barely enough health for the next encounter. It's a stressful game that demands the player play smartly which isn't a bad thing but it's hard to go in guns blazing when the rock music kicks in and you have four shotgun shells left. You don't feel powerful, you feel like a survivor which is either what the developer was going for or a testament to how bad I am at the game. You swing from avoiding traps such as explosive monsters that run at you to rooms filled with fireballs chasing you down. It's like the game combines two genres and jumps back and forth to throw you off. It would be one thing if I were expected to expect traps but this game seems to delight in tricking the player. In game I've had enemies sneak up behind me and take a chunk out of my health or end me without me hearing a thing. Of course enemies make sounds but those moans and groans often don't come fast enough to warn you of the impending danger. One mistake can cost you a fortune in bullets and health. The game ends up being frustrating rather than empowering.

Take for example this really cool level where a mob of followers attack you. You're on a hill in the woods at night when large group of weak enemies attack you. The problem isn't them, it's the torches they carry. Throughout the level you see torches on the ground that are beacons to safe points that have ammo and health, usually guarded by cultists. The enemies are weak enough that you can slice through several with your knife in one shot but they also carry lamps tricking you into thinking that it's a safe area. Worse still is how the enemy is spread out. Their torches can hide behind trees and you'll end up passing them in the dark only to get a knife in the back. You think it's a good time to whip out the machinegun and blast them away, and that is a method I tried but I ended up wasting ammo and missing so many cultists that I used more ammo while trying to hunt them down. There's nothing worse than being killed by the weakest enemy that you didn't see. Another example is the sewer level which houses these deep one monsters that hide underwater and can't be shot until they come up for air. You have to wait and dodge them and the enemies in front of you to stay alive. Any big weapon like the thundernomicon is useless in these tight quarters and your pistol barely does enough damage. The shotgun, using two slugs with each shot, depletes way too quickly making it's ammo precious. I fell like the developers nerfed the ammo flow after making the game since the bullets bounce around. Mind you, I'm playing on "Hard" mode but now that I'm used to it I can't go back to "Normal" mode because it's too easy. I play most shooters on "Hard" for a challenge but this time I think I've screwed myself. 

With all that said I would still recommend the game but that wasn't what I wanted to talk about. As I was playing I wondered what this game would be like if it was set in an Edgar Allan Poe setting. Gothic structures in the 1800s. Post Civil War setting. Orangutangs and people of the House of Usher emerging from their tombs to grab the player. Why isn't there such a shooter? Maybe because rifles took two minutes or so to reload or perhaps that the revolver was 5 years away from Edgar's death. These are things that can be over looked by games but I see more and more games featuring Lovecraft and I'm more than happy to play them. But I wish designers would expand on the mythos of the world of horror. I've written before that there are many authors who go unrecognized, a fear that I share, but it takes only a few hours of searching to find other authors who are not Lovecraft. True, his work is recognized and this huge infulence on the culture of America is something he dreamed of having when his work was first published, but many other authors lie dormant in their graves waiting for their work to be found and ressurected. Who knows what games or terrors lie in wait.