PEGBRJE: Hidden Folks and PAGAN: Autogeny
The only thing these games have in common is that they’re side by side in the bundle. That’s it.
Hidden Folks is an interactive puzzle experience crafted by Adriaan de Jongh, an indie developer out of the Netherlands known for experimental games and a contract software, and a few other developers that assisted with the project. The game boils down to searching for certain objects or characters on a given map in a ‘Where’s Waldo’ style environment, where everything is intentionally crowded and layered to hide the objectives. Upon finding the required amount of characters (as labelled at the bottom), players move to the next environment and continue onwards. If players get stuck, each character or object has a clue written as backstory, such as how a character is being attacked by bees or trying to get a wifi signal.
Hidden Folks fills an incredibly specific niche that had previously been left in a disappointing state: the ‘Where’s Waldo’ series of video game adaptations were disappointing back during the first launch, and the only successful adaptation was back in 2009 by Ludia. It’s a simple yet highly effective game mechanic, engrossing players for hours as they pour over dozens of images attempting to locate a pesky truffle or person. Hidden Folks takes this to the expected interactive level of allowing players to click on objects to reveal what may be behind them, or cause chained events to find the next character on their list. It gives depth to an already fulfilling mechanic, especially with the little added hints to assist players if they get stuck or just want to read some funny lines about the characters.
The sound design is the unintentional highlight of Hidden Folks for me personally. All of the sounds are done with Adriaan’s mouth. All of them. It’s hysterical to click on bees and just hear ‘BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ’ or people chanting incoherently as you’re attempting to open a door for them to go through. It doesn’t add anything mechanically to the game, but the atmosphere and general flavour of Hidden Folks becomes much more fun and corny because of it. It had me constantly clicking everything I could just to hear what bizarre sound would be associated with that object, and since there are a dozen areas to visit in varying locations, the sound effects are numerous.
I don’t have much else to talk about with Hidden Folks as it’s simplicity and silliness is the best part about it. It’s a game to pick up, search for some characters, have a laugh while doing so and then quit if you have other things to do. If you are looking for some ‘Where’s Waldo’ searching but with proper interactions and hilarious sound effects to accompany them, Hidden Folks is definitely the game for you.
PAGAN: Autogeny is a first person shooting adventure title by Oleander Garden, a solo indie dev who seems to specialize in unsettling landscapes and abusing my childhood fear of 90s FPS titles. Players take control of a nameless protagonist, thrust into an abandon train station of sorts that is fuzzy and almost deadly silent. Bizarre assortments of items are found throughout this starting area, such as a tarot card, estrogen, scrolls, and a sword — but no clear cut objective. So you begin to explore, going downstairs or outside depending on your fancy, and learn of the unsettling nature that is this world that you have spawned in. For me, I found my way into the basement until the sound design caused me to panic in fear, and an unintentional jump scare that wasn’t even a jump scare caused me to nearly lose my mouse. So if you’re wondering, no I didn’t finish a playthrough of this game.
Without explicitly telling the player anything, Pagan succeeds at setting the stage of the world as abandoned, yet filled with a plethora of seemingly randomized enemies. I only encountered two enemies in my entire run, and both of them scared the daylights out of me, which is brilliant executed with just how terrifying the soundscape is. The weather is the only thing players hear for most of the game, with the subtle beginnings of music when you approach something unique. It creates panic, the sounds getting louder and louder as you approach this new object that you cannot yet see, wondering if it is an interactable that will give an item, or a demon that will tear you to pieces. The only way to find out is by taking the dive, and that’s where the second part of what makes the atmosphere so chilling begins: the old graphical style and draw distance.
Pagan plays on the fears of the unknown by utilizing the 90s FPS technique of making the draw distance short, causing the vision to mostly just be of fog. This forces players to actively approach the first outline they see in a room or area, or else it can’t be seen clearly. This might be because of my aforementioned previous experiences (Star Wars: Dark Forces was the most unintentionally terrifying game of my childhood), but I am so easily scared by things I cannot see clearly. Add on the haunting sound design and it’s the only excuse I can actively state as to why I couldn’t finish what apparently is a multi-ending title.
PAGAN: Autogeny is a world that is filled with dozens of rejected MMO items and set pieces all wrapped up in a 90s aesthetic that feels specifically designed to make me too scared. There’s an aura amongst the world that suggests that you aren’t just here because it’s a video game, and how you are interwoven into the game is something that keeps drawing me back into trying the game out. If you are a braver person than I, which isn’t very hard if I’m honest, PAGAN: Autogeny will give that semi-nostalgic rush that one might be looking for with a unsettling atmosphere and twist. The whole game is designed to be empty, yet hostile towards the player in every way, and if you are up to the challenge it seems like the perfect Hallowe’en special to give a whirl.
Not me though, I’ve already got nightmare flashbacks, so I’ll be sitting this one out. I’ll root for you from a distance.
