Paper Man: Chapter 1 Review: It's a good game, but not for everyone

Paper Man, a Chinese-style horror game recently developed by Beijing Litchi Game Studio: The first chapter (Paper Dolls Original) received much attention. The game was released in VR last May, praised by players for its high-quality graphic details and intense horror atmosphere. The developer also made a non-virtual device version this year to share with more horror game lovers. We have experienced the game in advance and would like to chat with you about your thoughts on this domestic horror game.

Take joy out of fear

Before talking about this game, we want to talk with you briefly about horror games - this game industry in the eyes of ordinary people, horror games and other games are completely different, it seems to be created at the beginning to bring fear to the player, rather than joy, but in fact, the biggest reason is that you may not be suitable for playing horror games.

This is not nonsense. Different people respond differently to the emotion of fear, as Joel Cohen, a professor of marketing and anthropology at the University of Florida, and Edward de Andrade, a professor at the University of California, demonstrated in an experiment to support the idea that humans can also experience pleasure when they are frightened.

In the experiment, they set up two control groups, one "like" horror movies and one "dislike" horror movies, and conducted four experiments. The two groups of volunteers filled in the "positive and negative emotion scale" after watching horror movies. According to the traditional view, the "negative emotion level" of the group of volunteers who liked horror movies should be smaller than that of the volunteers who didn't like watching horror movies. As a result, however, negative emotions increased in both groups.

In another experiment, volunteers watched a horror movie while a staff member suddenly inserted a natural scene into it. The results showed that when the nature clip was presented, the "liking" group suddenly experienced a decrease in both fear and happiness, while the control group -- the "dislike" group -- experienced a sudden decrease in fear but an increase in happiness.

The results tell us that people who enjoy scary games can actually get as much pleasure from the game as they do from fear, which some people may not understand, but it's true.

Chinese traditional terror elements

The best and most unique point of the game "Paper Man" is that it is completely piled up by Chinese terror elements, and what are the Chinese wind terror elements? Very simply, unlike the zombies and mutated monsters in Western horror games, the shadows that kept us awake at night in childhood, the gods and ghosts that grandparents and we told seemed to be confident, are truly traditional Chinese horror elements.

The game includes ghosts beating walls, hanging ghosts, paper money and other widely spread traditional terror elements, but also includes a part of the "side door", such as evil bronze mirror, King Kong peg, tiger head brass bell and so on the history of the real existence of things, when you walk through a broken paper paste Windows, hear a sound of wooden door came from the low "squeal" sound, the heart can not help but some hair, And this strong horror atmosphere is the production team attaches great importance to the details of the players to bring surprises.

In addition to the details of the depiction, the production team will be many traditional elements of the ghosts and gods into the game system, in the opening room, players need to collect scattered paper ingots, gathered together to "bribe" to the ghost to solve the puzzle elements, very faithfully restore the "money can make the ghost go" this old proverb.

Money makes the world go round

The game's archive system is also unique, players will find a safe house after the initial exploration, and why can this safe house in the ghost haunted by the ancient house to keep a clean? Because of the presence of Bodhisattvas, when the player first enters the room, the narrator will tell you that "this room seems to be sheltered by the gods and is not attacked by ghosts". This safe room will be the safest refuge for the rest of the game, and how to save it? It is to take a stick of incense and light it and offer it to the Bodhisattva.

Archiving point of the refuge of Avalokitesvara

The archiving system is exactly the embodiment of the originality of the production team. There are already two incense sticks burning in the incense burner, and the third one is the third one. In the traditional incense ceremony, the first one is placed in the middle, the second one is placed on the right side, and the third one is placed on the left side. Perfect respect for traditional customs. This is a detail that is difficult for the player to see, and it is the attention to these details that shows the craftsman spirit of the maker of this game.

Pay attention to the traditional customs of the incense movement

Easy to use puzzle difficulty

The game's puzzle system is very pure, and the puzzles require the player to make judgments through logic. Take the first room as an example, the player first needs to find a match to light the candle, and then use the burning candle to get another puzzle element, interlocking, puzzles one after another, and the game's puzzle props are not all available immediately, some props you even need to complete one or more puzzles to be used. This also reinforces the logical thinking that players need to use when playing the game.

For the setting of the scare element, in addition to the gruesome scene, is the uncertainty behind each wooden door, when the player looks for the key to open the door, the door will suddenly be "creaking" open, it is likely that behind the door is hiding a hideous ghost waiting for you to trigger a failure or death QTE, The human fear of the unknown such as "what is behind the door", for example, will be reflected in the exploration scene to promote the plot, after all, the number of ghosts will not be small in the plot one by one and the player "intimate contact".

The solution to the puzzle can not be said to be too difficult, but as a story-oriented horror game, it is more important to be valued for the ability to "tell the story", rather than set a difficult problem to make the player mad. In the "story" point, "paper man" through narration and hidden in the fragmentary clues to the player to collect, in the end pieced together the story of the old house, this work can only say in the plot started, roughly introduced some characters, and the relationship between these characters did not do in-depth answer. After all, this is only the first chapter of the story, and if we want to know more about what really happened in the old House, we have to look forward to future chapters to give us the full picture of the story.

By no means perfect

Since it is a game, no matter how much attention to detail it pays, it can't avoid some flaws. When I was playing, I got stuck in the first room for half an hour because I couldn't find a key item. This is precisely because the scene layout in the game is very realistic, almost every cabinet is full of bottles and cans or books, every drawer can be opened to search, but this sense of reality also allows the player can only rely on the emergence of interactive tips to determine which props can interact, and which cannot, which for the player experience needs to be enhanced. After all, in the original virtual reality equipment you can grab almost every cabinet placed on the arrangement, but for non-virtual equipment players, in the limited lighting conditions, it is very difficult to distinguish many exquisite and unmarked items, so often happens to repeat the search of the drawer that has been viewed to increase garbage time.

A cupboard full of props

The protagonist's excessive weakness makes people very unfit, the only skill sprint also has the shortcomings of short duration and long cooling time, in the face of the ghosts in the game, once the player makes a mistake, he has to start again, and in the middle and late game, too many maps and wooden doors without special marks can easily lead to players getting lost, in the environment of being chased by ghosts, Every time I open the door, it will be a thrilling psychological game.

For a transplant work, it is really satisfying to complete such a highly restored work, the game process is about ten hours, slightly thin, if the player focuses on collecting clues and elements to piece together the truth of the year, the time will be increased, but in the prologue story, collecting all the clues can only get a limited plot, more players need to sort out the story context.

There's a long way to go

To sum up, this work for Chinese horror game players should be a rare meal, for players who have never enjoyed horror fun, we do not strongly recommend you to play this game, but for players who love horror games or want to exercise the courage to experience the thrill of heartbeat, The price of tens of yuan, the duration of more than ten hours, the careful detail characterization, the carefully created scope, the interlocking clues and the twists and turns of the plot are all combined together, and you are worth experiencing a good work.

As a horror game, the short play time, the plot details still need to be refined, and some reasonable points are the reasons why I think it needs to be improved, but in the setting of the storyline, the rendering of the horror atmosphere, the interaction between the player and the environment, and the highly detailed restoration of traditional Chinese elements, it is worth the brave player to try it out.

Of course, this work wants to occupy a place in the horror game industry, there is still a long way to go, the rise of domestic horror games is not overnight, and this work can not explain anything, but we think that whether domestic horror game producers have the artisan spirit of the work is the key to the real rise of domestic horror games in the future, if you feel a little hot one day, Turn on the game and try a bowl of cold plum soup that will evaporate your summer heat.