Musical Dark Descents: sonic immersion in psychological horror games

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• Isabella van Elferen (Utrecht University)
• Wednesday 23 January 2013, 17:00-18:00
• Recital Room, Faculty of Music, West Road.

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Psychological horror games (PHGs) revolve around one thing only: fear. Situated in dark dungeons and featuring invisible terrors, these games not only frighten players but also play with and upon their fear. PHGs are especially notorious for the sections in which gameplay is interrupted by “insanity effects”. In these highly disturbing sequences, the game’s main character is revealed to be psychologically unreliable, often because of past trauma. Insanity effects often influence the avatar through visual and sonic “hallucinations” or the occurrence of paranormal events. More importantly they also test players’ psychology by breaking the fourth wall: through seeming corruptions of the software or the interface, the graphics become blurry, the soundtrack gets distorted, the console may seem to delete saved games or even to have crashed. In game reviews the soundtracks to PHGs are often highly rated and assessed as vital parts of the games’ frightening effect. This is not surprising, as these games are often visually very dark, so that the player has to rely more on sound than in other games. My paper explores the ways in which soundtracks contribute to the dark play in PHGs through a study of the mechanics of musical immersion. As an extensive analysis of Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2010) will show, the shift from external fright to internal psychological terror is achieved sonically through a blurring of the distinction between “outside” and “inside” sounds. This musical form of dark play leaves the player immersed in insanity only: her own insanity as well as that of her avatar.

This talk is part of the Faculty of Music Colloquia series.

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