Horror stories have been told since the ancient Greeks’ time. Stories of witches, vampires, demons and death already existed back then. We have come from spoken tales to written ones, from Hippolytus’ myth to Lovecraft’s Call of Cthulhu and million others along the way. The human race has experienced an infinite amount of horror fiction, especially on paper. Luckily for us, horror writing doesn’t show any intention of going away anytime soon. Although the genre has evolved across the centuries and has found new mediums –like video games–, creepy tales still have their unique charm and ways of making us feel terrified through the written word. Luckily for us, we can find incredible reading experiences outside of books, such as in gaming.
An example of this can be found in the original BioShock. BioShock presented crucial plot elements in 122 obtainable audio logs. This is obviously different from written files, but the main idea –discovering the story from external sources– remains the same. There is such an intriguing story to be revealed, about remarkable characters and personalities (the city’s founder Andrew Ryan, Frank Fontaine criminal’s mind and the Little Sisters’ mother, Ms. Tenenbaum), while exploring the depths of Rapture. The foundation of this underwater city crowded with “maniac people” has so many secrets, lies, betrayals and disputes of ideologies that stick with you long after you finish the game. Atlas’ words will always stay in my head, no matter what: “I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. These people will liberate themselves.”
So what’s new about ‘FAITH’? Actually, nothing. Opposite to BioShock, it only offers letters, without any narrator reading them for us. Just some grey words over a black background, with no thorough handwriting or style. Even worse, the font used is like a ‘pixelated’ Comic Sans, perhaps the true horror in all of this. However, the charm in FAITH letters is right in its simplicity: it’s effective and honest. It doesn’t need to reinvent anything to tell a brief, but compellingly spooky story.
While supernatural it may be, FAITH’s story which isn’t a complex one. In fact, it’s pretty simple. ‘Something happened to Amy Martin, the daughter of a married couple who lived in a mansion inside a deep forest. It ‘apparently’ has to do with a demonic presence, and so, as expected, a priest goes there with the intention of stopping the evil forces behind Amy’s “incident”. It all went to hell (literally) and it’s our job to see what really happened. The priest left letters for Karen, his loved one, to let her know what was going on. We find these by using our crucifix against objects or elements which seem a bit awkward or has a contrasting color with the scenario. There isn’t many elaborated metaphors or poetic descriptions in the letters. Just the raw facts and actions that took place in this tragedy, with the exasperating feelings of the authors. You can feel the stress of the priest in every line he wrote:
“We spoke briefly, although it was frustrating to talk to her (or it). I experienced a bit of deception from the demon. During our conversation, she uttered my mother’s first name and in other instances spoke perfect Latin. I called for help from the others. But nobody came. So I raised my crucifix and began the rite again.”
Another good example of engaging writing is Amy’s mom, who feels devastated because she doesn’t know what on earth she can do to help her daughter, while at the same time she has to protect her twins in a house she doesn’t feel secure in anymore. You can read her emotions, feel that pain and suffering in only a few lines:
“I don’t feel safe in my own home anymore. I hear voices outside around the house at night. I don’t let the twins go out in the woods to play because I’m afraid of what’s out there. The house itself feels stressed, distorted… slanted somehow. It’s like I’m walking through a carnival fun house.”
Every letter feels like a small jigsaw piece to a dismal and disturbing puzzle. A puzzle that we never finish, one that we never get the whole picture of. This lack of clarity feels like a good call, because frightening tales tend to lose their impact and intensity when everything is explained. Give me some context to know what I’m doing and why, then explain or give me an approximation of a reason why this creepy shit is happening and that’s it. Leave the rest to interpretation or ambiguous. After all, you wouldn’t remove the mist of Silent Hill, now would you? A little of this feeling of not receiving all the information happens with some of the last letters, when one is incomplete, it has erased keywords or empty spaces. We can also see it in a special one with red font, avoiding the name of the “specter” that took Amy. I strongly believe this is a way of making your story stick in your spectator’s mind –unless you continuously fill the gaps with nonsense crap. Don’t do that, please.
Last but not least, I want you to know that there are five different endings in the game, and each of them has a unique “article” to read and finish the story. Without spoiling anything, some of them are pretty interesting stuff: the one I got first actually made me doubt everything that happened and made me ask about the real nature of my character. I felt I knew him and his true intentions, but maybe I just imagined what I wanted. Like we often do in real people, you know?