Desert Nightmare (English Translation)

UPDATE: It has come to my attention that credit at least to the Silent Hill track can be found in the mp3 folder. Another artist is also credited. The others aren't so I don't know about them but at least it's not as bad as I said. This game was apparently made a long time ago, but I don't know when since there is zero information except for when the English translation was released. So I was told practices were "different" then. Still this is the first game I've played, including older games, where credits aren't listed in a Readme file or in the credits, so pardon if it all felt "off" to me.

On a road trip with your parents, the protagonist, a typical teenage girl giving her parents a headache, insists on a quick bathroom stop. You stop at a rundown old town and go into restrooms I would rather less use to relieve myself than squatting in a giant pile of sandburs but some people can't be too picky. Plus, just a quick stop, once done with her business it's back into the car giving her parents a hard time on the road again. If that were the case you wouldn't have this game here, would we? Your parents are suddenly gone, nowhere to be seen. Did they just up and abandon you, like "I'm not dealing with that bitchy daughter of ours! Let's scram while she can't see us, tee hee hee hee hee!" Whatever the case, you are now stuck in this desert town with nowhere else to go for miles either way, so you have to make do with your current residence until maybe your parents decide to have a change of heart and come back. Maybe.

Of course it's not going to be as simple as that, this is called "Desert Nightmare" after all. And right from the start the town would live up to that name. The locals, what few there are, are either hostile toward you or are just... weird, like the shop owner whose blank stare keeps following you around. Most of the buildings are locked or abandoned, and the rooms and buildings that are accessible look like they have not seen any kind of maintenance, oversight, or health and safety inspection for years (when you have a ramshackle butcher shop that's long since been disused, and the meat's been kept out in desert heat for a long time, what do you get? You figure that out). Oh and an aggressive dog blocks your path in the beginning. None of the locals could give two shits about helping out. But! There is a sign of hope! Someone normal! And it turns out he too is someone who ended up stranded in the town (a truck driver unceremoniously dumped him off here), and is not a local, what a surprise. He helps scare the dog away where you finally get to explore a little more of the town. The whole game works that way, sections of the town are inaccessible until you're able to find something to open up more and more of the map to explore. You also run into another friendly face who got stranded here, another man (hm, three normal people alone who need to work together to get out of a place that seems to be against them, two men and a young, attractive girl - this can't end well...) whose car broke down, but the mechanic who was supposed to fix it just up and disappeared, and there seems to be no way to access the tightly locked garage where the car is. So getting out of town would seem to be an issue. Hm, is there something more sinister afoot here? Or is this just a place that Gallup would rank dead last in terms of cities to visit in the country? (though I'm sure certain towns in North Dakota or Georgia would put up a good fight *Ziiiing!* And there are more states I could name from where that came from!) Well it certainly doesn't help when you run into that dog again, when... OK, now shiz just got real this time, and now would be a REAlLY a good time to try and get the hell out. If there's no car to get out, then I guess you'll just have to walk it. But, wait, what the hell, are those Guess you're pretty much screwed then unless you can find an alternate means of getting out, which unfortunately doesn't involve boosting stats of any kind, since she's stuck in an adventure game and not an RPG.

As you play through the game you can tell the influence the Silent Hill games had on the creator. Little things, like when you're character is in the run-down bathroom in the beginning looking at herself in the mirror, perhaps an homage (a nice one at that) to the opening cutscene of Silent Hill 2, to slightly more overt things, like outright using Akira Yamaoka's "Promise (Reprise)" at numerous points in the game. There's a probable chance some other music in the game was also used from third party sources. If you've never played a Silent Hill game and are unacquainted with its music then this game wouldn't help you be more informed, since there are no credits for music used in this game. Same thing with the creator's followup game, Schuld. I will save this rant for later, but this really bugs me, and I imagine it would for other people too for obvious reasons. Anyway, besides those two, the direction the story takes a bit later on also seems to take from Silent Hill's Yeah, that's another particularly nasty turn the story takes when you get to it. Save points are strange symbols a la SH, and of course the whole desolate, dilapidated town aspect, blah blah blah.

Otherwise, though, I would hardly consider this like a "2D Silent Hill" or anything of the sort (though if anyone knows of a game that could accurately be described as a "2D Silent Hill" I certainly wouldn't mind knowing about it!). It plays out very differently. The way it approaches horror is similar in how it builds dread but the atmosphere is totally different. There are no "otherworlds" of any kind here (at least none that resemble as such). The terror here is less psychological, more rooted in the external nature of humanity (that's how it would seem at least, but a certain cliche revelation at the end undermines this - again, to be saved for later). While probably not much deeper than The Hills Have Eyes or something, putting the control in your hands, having to turn the dark corners of the town, and almost always running into someone or something that's trying to kill you, the tension levels remain consistently high throughout. And unlike Silent Hill and more like most RPG Maker horror games, it's not like you can just run past and ignore, shoot down or beat to death everything in the game, you're pretty much defenseless.

Not COMPLETELY defenseless though. Before going into that, let's talk about what you'll be doing in through most of the game, which is, yep, exploration and puzzle-solving. Not all just inventory-related either. Some are logic-based ones, involving matching colors or shapes to corresponding numbers, things of that nature at least (ones that usually unlock a door of some kind), and even an environmental puzzle, involving pushing mine carts. Now none of these puzzles are especially taxing on the brain, especially if you're an adventure gaming veteran, but they manage to be well-designed, thought-out and used appropriately. They don't drag the game out while still providing more variety than the usual RM horror game. Ah, and there's another kind of puzzle in the game, the puzzle of FIGHTING FOR YOUR GODDAMN LIFE. Yeah you will face more than one hostile entity in the game, more than a few in fact, and surviving involves acting quickly, observing your environment, checking for items on the ground or in your inventory. You can stall the enemy in various ways, throwing an oil slick in their way, for example, with the goal of escaping, trapping the enemy or even killing them. Sometimes you'll enter a room, and are given a few choices of places to hide (pick the right one for your sake! This one is pretty much trial and error, but not frustratingly so, like Paranoiac's hiding system was). Killing them when you're supposed to doesn't involve brute strength but rather quick thinking (and probably stupidity on the enemies' part). A couple examples: It's this gameplay variety that involves thinking, exploring and always keeping on your toes and acting quickly that makes this game really work. The atmosphere of desolation, rot, decay and death, the persistent and creepy music (whoever made it, again, later on that), and the story which despite collapsing on itself toward the end (again, later) at least manages to ratchet up the tension until then, the story getting grimmer and grimmer as you go on. Another nice surprise is that the game is of pretty decent length too, compared to most RM games like this at least. Unless you're good at figuring things out quickly this isn't a game you'll likely finish in one sit-down. Unless you're sitting down for a lot of the day, then maybe, but I'd say at least two or three sit-downs (one sit-down counting for the length of the usual short RM adventure game - say, Schuld, the creator's followup title, which is much shorter than this - I'd say this is about three or four Schulds worth in length, at least for me it was). Although part of that could be due to another problem I have with the game, and now here's where the complaining and the reason why it gets only a 3 and not higher begins.

First problem: there is a lot of meandering in this game. I like that the town is of a decent size and open to walk around, but even more I found myself just confused as to what I was supposed to be doing, interacting with everything to no effect, trying to find items I couldn't, pacing and pacing and pacing and I was just growing increasingly tired of it. I had to resort to the walkthrough at one or two points. Unfortunately, for those points the included German-only strategy guide did not translate well over on Bing or Google's translators so I had to look at a YouTube playthrough to find out what I was missing or doing wrong. I can't remember what these were exactly, but I felt annoyed more than anything. This is a similar problem I had with the game Mermaid Swamp, lots of open real estate, but very specific objectives that I was never clear of and found myself pacing for ages until I stumbled upon the solution or looked it up. Whether this is the fault of the game or me I suppose that's up for you to decide. If you could get through with no trouble then I suppose I'm just really bad at these kinds of games.

Now, the story. It is for the most part really good, one that draws you in. However there is one aspect that is just such a cliched and tired trope that I thought was exhausted by bad 90's kids films about Native Americans and protecting nature and the land and shit. So yeah, there is an Indian chief somewhere in the beginning who draws a symbol on your inn door. He tells you it is for your protection, and doesn't say anything more, then disappears. OK, let's see where this goes. He makes his appearance every now and again, and it pretty much turns out he is the wise, old magic Native American and recounts to you three (in a tepee but of course) what happened to everyone:

I don't know. I liked the fact there is a history to this that dates way back (with old newspaper articles and everything you find in abandoned homes) and how this thing that's happening spreads almost like a disease (). But the explanation behind it all is so cheesy, and the magical Indian spirit guide just doesn't help matters. You know what, keep the newspapers and the cited "reasons" for what happened, but leave it more ambiguous and therefore unsettling by getting rid of both the Native American spirit guide and the entire end sequence (which more annoying than anything, especially since every game over results in hearing your character shriek at the top of her lungs - if I die in a game, it should remain nothing more than a setback, a set of trials and tribulations, depending on hard you want it to be - it can be frustrating for its difficulty, but it shouldn't be annoying because of what you have to hear EVERY TIME it happens - same problem I had with Mad Father, your character lets out an annoying scream when you died/game over'd), replacing the latter with, something else, I don't know, and the former... well, there doesn't need to be anyone in his place, really. So the story has a lot of good and even great moments but a lot of bad ones too that nearly hurt the game.

And now the one I've been waiting for, I'm sure you all have too. What I'm talking about of course is the subject of using third-party music for games. Now I don't have any inherent problems with this myself; if it's free, non-commercialized content you're putting out then I think fair use should be extended toward these, if it can be shown that the music used is not easily replicable to the degree of gaining the same satisfactory results of getting the song from a legit source, or that only a sampling of it is used and not the whole thing, and therefore no "harm" is done to the artist (I don't believe this harms anyone anyway to begin with, but this is my attempt at an argument meeting somewhere halfway between the "FUCK EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING" pirates (the terrible kind that were too cheap to pay for a cent for past Humble Bundles, and even used the HB website itself to host their pirating activities, which means not only did they not pay anything at all but actually cost the website in bandwidth use - how astonishingly petty) and the "ALL TORRENTS AND DOWNLOADS OF ANYTHING ARE BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD" music industry lobbyists that shut down perfectly legitimate sites and throw ridiculous fines and criminal charges at people who download or upload stuff, even if those sites are great resources for lots of other things like, say, music or films you cannot find anywhere and the RIAA, Universal Music Group, and MPAA probably have absolutely no clue even exist, let alone have anything to do with - oh and they typically make the money off the artists anyway who in too many cases see barely a dime of that money). Whether video criticisms on YT, Let's Plays/Long Plays, and even free RPG Maker games, such things should be allowed and pissy music industry drones and YouTube's horrible moderation and ID tag system should not be stifling creative applications of previously made material.

So with all of that said, the only thing that should be done in return is that you give some credit to the artist who made the music used in your game or whatever else. In this case however nowhere in the Readme or in the end credits does the creator even credit where any of the music came from (and makes the same mistake in the followup game Schuld which also uses third party music sources). I find it really irritating when indie game makers do this (others that come to mind - a lot of Amnesia: The Dark Descent custom stories, even the decent ones, and Afraid of Monsters: Director's Cut and maybe the original version, which blatantly uses like half a dozen tracks from Aphex Twins Selected Ambient Works II in a row from the title screen til you gain control in the game, and in the ending ruMpel, the creator, credits himself as, among a ton of other things, the "music maker" but forgetting to mention all those Aphex Twin tracks he used - sure there is original music used in the game made by him that is quite good, but facts are, he didn't make all of them, and when your game opens with those Aphex Twin tracks so prominently, not acknowledging his songs in the credits is kinda dickish). For one thing, someone might hear a piece of music they like and if it wasn't made by you, then they'd probably want to know who made it, and it deprives this person the opportunity of tracking down the song and artist used. Also, it's just a courteous gesture, y'know? Giving credit where credit's due, acknowledging the artist's existence, all that jazz, including jazz musicians too. Doesn't matter if it's a well-known song or one hardly anybody knows exists, just do it. It's not something that should take any effort on your part. If you know how to put together an end credit sequence, then you should know how to add a few more lines of text into it.

I don't know if he left out the music credits because he thought it would put him in a legal bind, somehow, since it's doubtful that Akira Yamaoka's tune was used with full permission, but I doubt that's the case. What I'm saying is it doesn't matter if you're using free-to-use or not-so-free-to-use or may-or-may-not-be-free-to-use-who-the-hell-knows music, credit ALL of it, that goes not just for the maker of this game and his followup Schuld, but for everyone. Unless you were given permission to use someone's music and for some reason they ask you not to credit them, or you simply don't know where the source is from (it happens, lots of unsolved musical mysteries out there) please do so. Thanks.

And in any case, the Yamaoka track should have been used for testing purposes only and scrapped when the actual game was released with something similar but not as familiar. I mean "Promise (Reprise)" at this point is such an iconic tune and exclusively associated with Silent Hill now, it's practically impossible to separate the two. It's like the Super Mario Bros. theme song of horror games, and it's incredibly distracting when it plays, and it plays a surprising number of times. It may "fit" the tone of the scenes it plays, but really, as I said, something different should have been used, either a more obscure tune, or, if well-known, not one that is directly associated with anything else but itself. Schuld, the followup, was much better in this regard, even if it doesn't credit the artists, and also features Satie's "Gymnopedie," which I really don't like (my I'm Scared of Girls review goes into more detail =about my distaste for the piece). I don't know what this German game-maker is up to next, he is definitely a strong talent, and I hope he continues to grow and improve his game-making and storytelling abilities, but most of all, credit any and all music not made by you somewhere. The Readme file, end credits, opening credits, even hiding it as a sheet of paper listing names found in a treasure chest would be better than what we have so far. AznChipmunk, who translated this and Schuld to English, and did quite a good job at that (despite finding exactly two areas per game left untranslated :P) might want to relay this information to him, if possible.

I come away with a game that provided a satisfactorily fulfilling experience, but not one that isn't fraught with some annoying elements and is not something I'd bother revisiting anytime soon. Well, then again, there are a very select few games made that I bother to revisit a second time or more - they have to offer some incentive to do so, and this is a linear horror game like most others. But I'm glad it was as full-fledged as it was, in that it took its time to tell its story, allowing for greater length and more content, and with no shortage of different situations to deal with, whether it's one of several types of puzzles, outwitting an enemy in one way or another, or looking for a key item (many times quite literally a key) needed to make some progress and allow for more exploration, or just moving about in dark and dangerous areas freaking yourself out and preparing for the worst. So, overall, good job!

Oh, the title of my review. Well, when you think about it, doesn't anyone else think of Fallout when playing this? I mean, you got I can't be the only one to have noticed a similarity, right? Right? Either way, this is a place that should have been wiped out a long time ago by righteous brothers in power armor with miniguns, gatling lasers, plasma rifles and maybe even an alien weapon if someone got lucky and found one beside a crashed UFO somewhere.