The Sun Goes Down: A Mother's Inferno
Free fear for all! A Mother's Inferno, created by seventeen students at the Danish Academy of Digital Interactive Entertainment in the fall of 2011, is a short, experimental first-person adventure built in Unity that is interesting despite its flaws. More variety in protagonists is an excellent way to diversify the horror genre, as promised by the trailer for Among the Sleep and where that game will put players in the booties of a toddler, A Mother's Inferno casts them as a parent. A train journey with a son and mother goes to Hell, literally and rapidly, and plunges into Dantean depths. Available in browser or to download on PC and Mac. Teaser below.
As progress is made, each carriage contains fresh horrors, some surreal, others a little too blatantly 'fires, horns and brimstone' for my tastes. There's an attempt at a control scheme that you might recognise from Frictional's work, with doors having to be dragged open rather than just clicked into a new state, but the floaty hand with which this mother grips and grabs ended up reminding me more of Trespasser's rubbery wrists.
If you're up for a bit of horror do take a look though. I found it via the fine folk at Hookshot Inc where it received much more love than I felt for it. Perhaps you shall be equally pleased by its infernal charms.
