Stephen King once wrote that there are three levels of terror: gross, when blood and guts are everywhere; The horror, as the king put it, “unnatural, spiders the size of bears, dead and walking, is then something with claws that grabs you by the arms”; And terror: “When the lights went out, and when you feel something behind you, hear it, feel it breathing against you and you turn around, there is nothing.” King believed that terror was the best emotion of the three, and it was the one he always tried to evoke in his readers. And make no mistake, terror is an emotion. Horror is something you experience. Terror is the work of the mind, the imagination of what is not there, of what may be under the carpet or around the corner. This is what you survive. Karma: The Dark World has its horror, yes. But it is primarily about terror. And what’s more, it is Good to this.
There were times during my approximately two-hour demo when I was playing at night, with my headphones off, and I had to stop and breathe. Horror games generally don’t “scare” me. I don’t jump in, don’t shout, don’t scream. I know the tricks. But it was two in the morning and I was tired and lonely and wearing headphones and something inserted itself into my brain and when I had to climb into that vent to enter that blocked off red room, I decided that that was enough for the evening.
Karma is full of those little moments where you don’t want to move forward, you don’t want to witness, but you have to. Karma takes place in an alternate history of 1976, and you step into the shoes of Roam agent Daniel McGovern. They call Daniel Nightcrawler. An employee of the ubiquitous thinking office Lewiatan Corporation, he spends most of his time in other people’s heads. When my demo started, he was sent to investigate Sean Mehndez, who had been accused of stealing something from the Winston Research Institute. You are to investigate this, as well as an “unusual incident” that occurred in the clerk’s office at the same time. Sounds, as Daniel notes, quite routine. This is not.
Big Brother is watching
The world of Karma is distinctly dystopian, and you’ll notice how bad everything seems right off the bat. Some people have TVs for their heads. Everyone has a social level, and every minor infraction is recorded, catalogued, tracked and held against you – even things as seemingly insignificant as a stain on your work uniform or applying makeup during work hours. Telespresences requiring user IDs, in the shape of floppy disks, are linked to the social level and hang in every room. The all-seeing eye of Leviathan is watching you. None of these things were explained in the demo I played. It didn’t have to be; You understand it immediately, the way you understand a weight hanging around your neck, the same way you understand a noose. This world exists evilwhich only adds to what’s to come.
Karma is game one and only adds to the fear that creeps in on you as you play. You’re always aware of what you can’t see, what you need to look away from to progress, what might happen if you do. Daniel’s investigation starts innocently enough. You explore the Research Institute, connecting what happened and solving basic puzzles. You need an ID to open the storage room, so you’ll put in the code by reading the diary entry and using it to find the clue you need in the world. But soon Horrors™ begins to creep in. “Don’t Look Back” appears on the wall as you move the path of delicate away. If you do this, you will see… something, a person, a shape, a spirit, appear and then disappear. When you examine recording offenses, some… things with too much leg seem to be in the picture. Something is deeply wrong here.
Karma also creates fear in more subtle ways. Musical stings that appear and then disappear as suddenly as they came, seemingly at random. Room lighting. The damaged area you want to explore. It always feels like you’re getting closer to something for you to witness, and often you won’t want to. Daniel even moves slowly, bulky, as if he knows he shouldn’t be here, that getting promoted will take him to a place he doesn’t want to go.
Splinters in the mind’s eye
The most memorable moment of my time with karma came after I found evidence of Mehndez’s crime. When I went to return it through the pneumatic tubes that dispensed my orders, I saw Mehndez walking like a ghost, down the hall. I followed him and he led me to a dim room with a single door. When I entered, I found myself in what could best be described as Twin Peaks Black Lodge: red curtains everywhere, mannequins, family around the table. It took me a moment to realize that I was seeing Mehndez’s memories – his life, maybe his fears. Something. I read about his daughter, saw her room, and when I returned, they moved in front of the TV and eventually led me to the elevator collapse. I came down.
What followed was one of the most disturbing sequences I’ve ever experienced in a horror game. Alarm bells hanging from the ceiling, coming off. Bodies covered in some black goo, mannequins splattered with blood, lying haphazardly along Gurneys. I found out what happened to Mehndez, his wife, his daughter. I watched their home fall apart; I stuck my hand into the computer and watched as the man hit it with his arms, it exploded; I walked into the office and watched it go wild, the mannequins cowering in fear. At one point I turned around, tried to walk differently, and suddenly they all followed me, hands, forcing me to move forward. Sometimes the greatest horror is being forced to watch. And I thought of an epiphany. And the voice said “come and see” and I looked.
I saw these mannequins floating, I saw the black industry covering the floor, I saw Mehndez’s house crumble further, I found out what happened to his family. And curtains around me, always red curtains. Then back to the office, answering the call, silently before. “War. Peace. Freedom. Slavery. Ignorance. Force,” said the voice on the other end. I recognized the words. Orwell. 1984. Big Brother is watching you. And I followed them, followed them, until I reached an office where I could pass through screen and saw a large eye that was watching me and I saw that eye grow more eyes and I watched it follow me as I climbed the stairs I didn’t see anything three a door leading nowhere, and another call, and I answered, and someone, a woman, told me she was sorry, that none of this was supposed to happen. And I walked into the door in front of me, and something followed me, something that barely I saw it, but it scared me, and I fell. And then Daniel woke up and I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding on to.
Was it real? Has this happened? Was Daniel imagining this? Did it matter? Like him, I experienced this and will remember these images, real or not. We may be haunted by what seem like dreams, unreal, uncanny, evil. Horror lives there. In the mind. My Demo has passed more, but terror is best experienced, so I will end here and say Karma: Dark World beckons you to see. And if developer Pollard Studio can deliver that feeling, that fear that forces itself, that terror that you feel, throughout the rest of Karma: The Dark World’s Runtime, then that’s a journey I’ll be elated to experience. My eyes are open.
