The Evil Within and the Importance of Game Association

During the summer of 2015, I revisited a few games that; having been released in the previous year, had eluded me for whatever reason. The Evil Within was one such game.

I'm quite aware of the games that get released and I know how well theyve been received. So I knew that (at least through major outlets), The Evil Within had a mixed response from Gamers. Some loved it, some not so much. In a time where I had little money, it probably wasnt a wise investment for me to gamble my money on something that I might not enjoy (I'm usually quite good at knowing what I enjoy). So I didn't buy it. Thankfully, a year later, The Evil Within is great. I actually found it extremely intense to play, like to headache inducing, but in a good way. It's definitely reminiscent of Resident Evil 4; one of my favourite games of all time, but focused more on survival horror. Ammo and Health packs were scarce, enemies took plenty of damage and the environment seemed far more cramped; creating a claustrophobic experience.

During my time with The Evil Within, I was preparing for my Driving Test. This as you can imagine, was a particularly stressful time, where The Evil Within was possibly not the best choice for calming my nerves.  I managed to beat the game a few days prior to my test. This however, managed to come at an ill-opportune time as I was also waiting for the release of the Phantom Pain, which was the same day as my test. As I waited, this left me without anything to take my mind from the impending test, causing the pressure to build similarly to the intense pressure of The Evil Within.

On the eve of my test (and the Phantom Pain, of course), I could hear my brother playing some music whilst he worked. The song was “Clair De Lune” a classical piano piece performed by French composer, Claude Debussy. Whilst, this slow and soft piece of music played, I began to relax and my headache went away. Where had I heard this music before? Well it was not but a few days earlier whilst playing The Evil Within.

During the Evil Within, the intense pressure and threat of imminent death around every corner made me particularly careful. That pressure built greatly on my mental strength, as I couldn’t bear the thought of having start an area again. Throughout the game, this piece of music “Clair De Lune” would be met with a sudden burst of excitement and rush, quickly met by a deep calmness. The music would emit from save rooms as inside these rooms you could save, as well as unlock additional resources and purchase upgrades. More important than any of these, was that it was also a safe room; where enemies literally couldn’t get to you. This bought valuable time to reassess and invigorate mental wellbeing, before getting back into the nightmare. Sure enough, I kept expecting one of these rooms to turn into a trap where a boss would come and smash me into pieces. You’ll be thankful to learn, this never happens; partly due to it not making sense story-wise but also Gameplay-wise.

Something I had never completely considered when designing games was Game Association. I have of course, some experience with this – Allies being Blue and Enemies being Red. But to associate a song with something so prominent in the game as being safe; something which in most games is a menu where the player presses Save or Buy; it changes a player’s outlook on the scenario at hand; particularly in a survival horror setting. For example, whenever (and I mean whenever) I would hear “Clair De Lune” playing, I would immediately run to the door, and couldn't wait to be greeted by the creepy nurse (who even being creepy is not at all creepy compared to everything outside). This often meant I would bypass resources and potentially enemies just to create my next “checkpoint”. This process of Gameplay was exceptionally powerful for me as the player. I believe it’s because this kind of feedback is most often triggered by player interaction, and not by me hearing the music from a couple of corridors over. I didn’t have to run to the door, but as a logical next step; it made sense for me to do so in order to feel as though I was making progress, whatever the outcome as soon as I left the room would be. These save rooms also allowed me to test out areas knowing I would die, just to see the traps and enemies that were lurking beyond; this ultimately calmed my nerves more so.

So in future, I will incorporate as much Game Association into whatever games I decide to make. And yes, by the way, I passed my Driving Test.