Which

 So, there I was. It was 1 o'clock in the morning, staring at my computer screen after a long night at work, and I decided I wanted to play something scary. Now, when I say scary I don't mean the likes of slasher ultra-violent torture-porn that a lot of people associate with "scary" nowadays. No, I mean something that will mess with my brain, make me get genuinely creeped out.

I have been a long-time fan of game franchises like Silent Hill and Fatal Frame, games that don't rely on violent images or loud noises to get you to JUMP whenever something scary happens. No, these games do what I enjoy most about the horror genre; they let you scare yourself. Through use of creepy music/sounds and unnerving setting they create an atmosphere that makes the player feel uncomfortable and almost unsafe. Psychological horror, I think is what they call it.

Now, I have played pretty much every scary game out there, or so I thought. I made a thread on a gaming website I frequent, asking the community to suggest some scary games to play. Most replied with games I had played before, but there was one that named a game that I had never heard of. The game was called WHICH. It is an independent game, created by one man, and it is free to download. I took the bait, downloaded it, and started to play.

This is where the game starts. No menu, no loading, no nothing. As you move the mouse, you see some writings on the wall next to you that gives you a hint.

This tells you how to move with the arrow keys (or wasd keys I found). After seeing this, I realized that this is how I'm going to find out how to play the game. As I explored a little bit, I found that I was in the lower level of what seemed to be a house. I walked into the kitchen of the house and found another clue.

This means that you interact with things using the left mouse button. As I started to open and search through the various cabinets and cupboards in the kitchen, I found the first key, labeled "1".

I finished searching the kitchen, all the while hearing what sounded like a heart beating, just behind the wall of cupboards. As I left the kitchen and headed up the stairs, I could no longer hear the beating heart.

When I reached the top of the stairs, I walked down a hallway and discovered a series of doors, labeled 1,2,3, and the last had a picture of what looked like a head. I used the key that I had found in the kitchen, and opened door number 1. The first thing I noticed in the room was a rather large drawing on the wall, and the math nerd inside me rejoiced!

After seeing this (not really knowing what it meant at all), I searched the room for a little longer, finding nothing. After exploring the house for about 20 minutes, I was able to find the key to door number 2. All the while searching I thought to myself just what was so scary about this game? Granted, the house gave me the creeps. The only thing I heard was my own footsteps, and the beating heart whenever I'd go into the kitchen. But, if that was all that was going to happen, I was kind of disappointed...

This was soon alleviated by opening door number 2. For those of you who plan on playing this, I will only say that a woman is found inside.

After meeting the woman, exploring the house a bit more, and finding some key items I was able to finish the game. The whole of the game took me just under an hour. But when the closing title showed, I was honestly thoroughly creeped out.

There were parts of the game when I seriously got goose-bumps all down my back. I don't know if it was the fact that it was then about 3 o'clock in the morning and I was playing the game with headphones on and in the dark, but I got what I was looking for. I had to watch an episode of the Simpsons just to get it out of my mind hahaha.

I did find out that the game has multiple endings. I played through another few times and tried to get the other ending, and after quite a while of searching was able to make it happen. After seeing the other ending, the game went from good to fantastic!

I have to thank the creator of the game, Mike Inel. He managed to create a game that was actually successful at being scary. Just goes to show that awesome graphics, a high budget, and a big development team are not needed to make a great game. Can't wait to see what this guy comes up with next. During the game, if you search around you can find a little "easter egg" which tells you who made the game and how he made it.

Even though the game only lasted about an hour (I can get through it in a matter of minutes now that I know where things are), I was very very impressed with it.  To anyone who would like to try it out themselves, here is the free download link. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good genuine scare. Be warned, the violent content does get a bit high towards the end, but nothing too serious.

Chuck DEFINITELY approves.

PS: For those of you that want to see the game in action, I've recorded myself playing quickly through the game. Although, I REALLY recommend trying the game out yourself first, and maybe just use my video as a helpful walkthrough, because the game will lose a lot of it's creepiness if you just watch a video of it. Just download it, turn of the lights, put on some good headphones, and have fun.