Scratches: Director's Cut (Spoilers)

Touching upon the game's music and sound.

 
Halloween this year has been an absolute bomb in regard to the media. In terms of films, TV and games getting their shit in gear i don't recall ever feeling less Halloweeny. The Box Office has a single new horror film on offer, freeview TV has nothing but Halloween 2 & 3 playing... on BBC London... and Xbox Arcade and PSN have slashed prices on a collection of possibly the least scariest games ever made. So my interest was waning. But like i do every week i checked out the Steam store... And aside from mini games titled 'Zombie Vs Other Flavour of The Month' the pickings were almost all gold... or silver... a few bronzes at a push... but certainly not material to be scoffed at. Painkiller series, Penumbra collection, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, The Bioshock Series, The STALKER collection... Not to mention gaming soundtrack royalty, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. It's safe to say that Valve actually remembered Halloween was horror related and didn't toss out a bunch of games that feature you controlling a deformed ten year old throwing pumpkins at various malformations of horror icons and hoping they don't reach your tree house or something like that. I've not seen a game do that, but i can assure you there are at least five.

So what did i buy from the Steam store that's made me come out of hibernation and start up the sound blog again? Well. I decided to break my own rules and buy an adventure game... you know, the point and click kind pioneered by the Myst series. The kind that are in fact so retro and dated in their approach to design that you can physically hear the creaking as it loads. And the reason i have a rule against them is that they demand such patience and obscure logic that i get stuck within 10 minutes. But no, i persevered and found it the most rewarding gaming experience of the year.

A typically cliched manor house?

From the offset i thought 'here we go again.' But there's some genuinely great moments in this game, some terrifying, some laughable and some downright depressing. Trust me, i write doom metal... i don't toss the 'D' word around lightly. It wasn't until i ascended the creaking stairs in this old house and saw a portrait of Great Cthulhu on the wall, alongside some of history's most horrific oil paintings that i realised what kind've pedigree this game was taking from. All the while the house is silently creaking in the background, outside i can hear the wind faintly drumming against the walls. It's not scary, it's just fairly unnerving. As you progress through the house, collecting various items, unlocking stuff, sticking your head in places you probably shouldn't (The fridge, the oven, the fuse box, the furnace, the toilet), you become increasingly aware that the house has a worrying history. Please don't read on if you've an interest in playing it through.

Through very slow detective work, you uncover the madness that took over the former occupants... through the old maid's midnight wanderings with a camera, to frenzied journals and sifting through newspapers in the old attic. You uncover truths at a snails pace - but never does it daudle on the spot. The feeling of strange dread as you enter the African Artifact Gallery, or the knot that slowly forms in your stomach when you find building plans for the house in the partly renovated attic - only to notice there's a room next to your bed room that doesn't seem to have a door... But is on the plans regardless. During the night i hear the scratches and talking from the gallery room, that have been mentioned in the journals of Mr. Blackwood, the previous owner. A guy on the other end of the phone keeps telling me it's nothing to worry about. The man who was supposed to fix the house's electricity has failed to arrive again - and this is where the game goes to great lengths to make you feel totally isolated, letters that are delivered to the manor are left by the gate, the phone's ringing is cold and hollow when heard throughout the house and the simple inability to leave is something rarely found in games. Eventually i find a lantern and some matches, which allow me to explore the house on the second night. I venture down into the basement, using a stethoscope i deduced the scratching sound was coming from down there. I climb into the building's inactive furnace (i mentioned the weird logic of these things) and crawled to the end of the piping. As my lantern slowly sputtered out i saw a human shadow move across the opening. At this point i'm starting to think the old mansion owner, who supposedly murdered his wife is still here and doing something down there.

Crawling through the furnace to witness the lurking shadow at the end is one of the greatest scares i've had in my adult gaming life.

I manage to reach the sealed room upstairs by using the window. It's a perfectly preserved nursery room with the door bricked up. There's letter blocks on the floor, spelling 'Robin.' At this point some augmented 4th have kicked in on the piano score and i'm already clambering back out the window, muttering 'Fuuuck thisssss!' I've also come across a newspaper article about the death of the family's new born son and a receipt from the local butchers for off-cuts. I also managed to locate the posessed mask that the raving journals refer to, kept hidden behind a display case in a small store room. That night i hear the scratching and talking again. I go to check on the mask, to discover it isn't there... when i turn to leave the storage room, there's a man wearing the mask, staring at me through the crack in the door. Bricks were well and truly shat, here. On the third day, things start getting wrapped up and making sense. I've found the family crypt, several bodies are missing, including the child's. I've found the birth certificate. I've found a photo the maid took of Mr. Blackwood, burying Mrs. Blackwood. Along with this i'm reading up on Blackwood's notes and those of his psychiatrist, who has something to do with the whole afair - from the notes i've worked a way to destroy the cursed mask! I do this, in probably the most anticlimatic sequence of events possible. Which only reinforces my later theory. With the curse lifted, The fate of Mrs. Blackwood established and a pressing need to leave the estate, it's time to go into the secret coal cellar and tell Mr. Blackwood what an utter twat he is.

Only when i get down there i find a heavy, bolted prison door. The one i could see through when i was in the furnace. I find a torn teddy bear on the floor, a room that reeks of urine and meat off-cuts that have been shoved through the cellar-window. I peer into the darkest corner... Two eyes open and stare at me. I'm chased out of the room by something genuinely horrifying and forget to lock the door behind me.

A suitably weird attic. It's the traces of recent movement and current use that make this room unsettling. You know you aren't the only one to have been up here recently.

The tribal connections and the cursed mask were red herrings, absolutely. From all the evidence collected throughout the game - the child was born with defects, courtesy of Mrs. Blackwood taking too much thalidomide during pregnancy. He was locked in the coal cellar and fed off-cuts from the butcher. Mr. Blackwood had blamed it on the cursed mask - and the game convinces you of this for the first two thirds. The child eventually kills Mrs. Blackwood, and the maid photographs her being buried after what we assume is murder. Mr. Blackwood dies of stress two years later (so the clippings say.) So with what began as a supernatural story is cleverly unwound to be a drama, which shows the destruction of a family. By the end i was pretty heartbroken for them. The final ending scene reveals what the scratches were. Young Robin, locked in the cellar. Each night he was slowly scratching through the brick and dirt, trying to get out. For what must have been a decade or more.

It's safe for me to say i've not experienced anything quite like it. Sure i've seen films do this kind've thing - but it's always handled with no sentimentality or any subtlety. The act of slowly uncovering the mystery without any other characters being present is a testament to the medium and the writing behind it. I genuinely felt pity as i found Mrs. Blackwood's shallow grave and witnessing Robin's shambling movements in the closing minutes of the game.

I should probably get onto the sound of the game... I always go way off the mark.

Scratches' soundtrack (and sound design) is done by a guy going under the name Cellar of Rats. From what i can find on him he's exclusively an adventure game composer. What struck me about the music was its neutrality and minimalism. It's not particularly effective until you make your 15th trip through the hall, dragging a muddy shovel or being blocked by everyone you attempt to call for assistance or information. The music pairs up with the atmosphere and together they slowly become opressive and weighty. Like i said earlier on, there's a very 'oh here we go again' problem at the start of the story, and the music doesn't help - lonely cellos that seem to know only the darkest, saddest parts of baroque-era requiems and pianos that linger between dorian, minor and augmented. It always sounds like Jazz when i do it, so respect to Cellar of Rats for managing this. The music overall suffers from Mark Snow/X-Files/Millennium syndrome, in that there's virtually no dynamics within each track. But almost by accident it relies heavily on this and it pays off. Once the music finally subsides you're left with nothing but the sound of the wind outside, the cold ticking of a grandfather clock and the sounds of your own movement. The stillness of the place, i think, is largely created by the almost drone-like music and the vast gulfs of silence it leaves behind it. The music cues generally come and go as they please, ocassionally chiming in when you discover places for the first time or seemingly creeping in to accentuate how you're feeling.

Despite the music playing such a huge part in Scratches, i only found it overwhelming and overly noticeable twice. Both times i felt it was entirely appropriate though. Firstly during the frightening scene in The Furnace (track is titled 'The Lurker') where a brass section came out of nowhere, playing in 5ths and 6ths. Somehow i got confused and got stuck in the furnace with that music grinding out for a good 30-40 seconds, horrible feeling. The next ocassion was on day two when a storm was raging outside, the phone was ringing... and i realised i was going to be alone for another day. The cellos creeped in again and i just felt like i was part of the story, trapped in the setting. The minimalist approach i was talking about; there's really only music and diagetic sound. There's no drones or sweeps, no hits or rises. It's all done with the music and real-world sound effects. This somehow increases that feeling of isolation. There's very little in between, which takes you in extremes of both sound and silence.

My primary gripe with Cellar of Rat's work here is that the sound effects do not sit in the environment particularly well. I understand that most modern games have some degree of evironmental acoustics simulation built in, which saves the game designers having to put different footsteps in for each individual room or space. The Scratches team obviously don't have that are their disposal and have had to reach a comprimise. As a result of this, There seem to only be a few different footstep samples, depending on stone, wood or carpet surfaces. And these never quite get the vibe of the space they occupy. The same can be said for doors opening and closing. The sounds feel very restrained and very muted. Perhaps this is deliberate - but i can't see why when things like the clock and telephone are designed to be so cold and cavernous. To some it may add to that unsettling atmosphere, to me it just felt a little careless.

Your 'charming' room is beset with a miserable view, grim wallpaper and angry portraits. You constantly feel you are under the gaze of something old and unfriendly.

The dialogue is also very hit and miss. The game is set in England, with a main character from Providence (little nod to Lovecraft there) who can't seem to make his mind up. I think it's part of the character, but it just sounds forced. Jerry is the most consistent character, always sounding distant through the telephone and maintaining his accent. All of the acting feels a little too posh and it kind've adds a 'twee' icing to the game that it could definately do without. Had they used actors with natural accents i think the game's presentation would be improved. Dialogue tends to be mixed fairly well... aside from the retired policeman i could barely hear over the music "I'll have to call you back, mate - i cant hear you." The loose end is, again, your main character. He sounds like a haunted grandfather clock, telling ghost stories with a pillow over his face. He's so warm and fluffy i almost wanted to hug my monitor. And he only really speaks by the telephone, in the hallway - so a little ceramic chill to his voice would've been nice.


Other than these petty gripes i can barely fault Scratches for its inginuity using a very old medium. I'm going to take a lot of things away from this game. Namely it's story and harrowing conclusion. The way it paced itself is something i'm not going to forget, i'll be adding it to my own writing. The music and sound i'll keep in reference, but music-wise it's very hard to adapt something that sounds like this into anything else. It has such an obvious macabre about it that suits the scenario so well - and put anywhere else would feel hackneyed and cheap. Here is where it belongs. I won't soon forget!