Day 230 - Pretend its not There
Horror, PS1, Short and Free ·
Sam’s Take:
I should have made a tag for PS1 lookin’ horror games 200 days ago. There are so many of these that I usually just skip them when scrolling by to pick a game. Today though I picked Pretend it’s not There purely from the title. I assumed it was a horror game where you just had to act like you’re not in a horror game, and that seemed kind of interesting. Why not give it a shot.
I was kind of right. In Pretend it’s not There, you play a boy coming home from school, but you notice there is a monster following your steps. You intuit that if you pretend the monster isn’t there, it can’t do anything violent. Your goal is to complete your evening routine of eating dinner, and cleaning your toys without looking at the monster for too long. You even have to do math homework:
While all this is happening, the monster can spawn in random corners of the house. Looking at him for a split second is fine, as long as you turn away, so the game isn’t really about difficulty. In the opening scene you see the character you control have terrible posture, looking at the floor, and as the game goes on you start to adopt the same posture. It’s easier to avoid the monster if you keep your viewing angle close to the ground. I’m embarrassed to say that this game got to me a bit. Navigating the house, knowing the monster is right by you and pretending it’s not a problem is genuinely spooky. I was wondering how my avatar was going to deal with this in the long term. Can others see the monster? Why does my mom pin her notes on a random wall instead of the fridge? I felt gross and creeped out for a bit while playing, and that’s much more than I can say for most of this PS1 genre.
The general above-averageness of this game makes the ending all the more disappointing. I’m going to spoil it right now, so if you are interested in playing, do so now.
Your mom comes home, and sees the monster. The monster jumps at her and snaps her neck, then your character cries. It makes sense, but the game had a mystique built up before. It elevated itself by not showing its hand, but then suddenly the monster isn’t a metaphor for repression, it’s not just a personal boogeyman, it’s just a monster who kills you when you look at it. None of those other ideas are better, a reveal of any one of them would be annoying, but Pretend it’s not There loses the one thing making it interesting the second the monster becomes… just a monster. Before the reveal, it was everything at once. The unknown is scarier than any monster, we’ve learned this lesson a thousand times.
I think this gimmick is ripe for another attempt with some slightly stronger writing, and maybe a little thought going into what a monster that just follows you but does nothing until you look at that means, what exact kind of fear that’s tapping into. It’s a good gimmick, and this is a fine proof of concept, but there’s something deeper to tap into here.
Recommend: Sure
Replay Percentage Chance: 3%
Time Played: 12 Minutes
Skeeter’s Take:
I like the concept of a monster that you can’t look at. I would probably be singing this games praises had I not seen this same concept in SCP: Containment Breach years ago:
I’m sure there are other examples that are older than this one, I just so vividly remember that pasty mother fucker lumbering through those metal corridors and staring at the ground.
I got very similar feelings from Pretend it’s not There. I like the idea that this kid thinks it’s in his imagination. I don’t understand why he knows he can’t look at the thing. I know the monster keeps asking “Can you see me?”, but I don’t think I would be able to figure out an otherworldly entity that quickly.
Anyway, there’s a good use of sound with the monster’s breathing letting you know it’s there and where it is, and thankfully the game lets you have small portions of him in view. It’s a pretty good effect. Fairly unsettling. I think the monster’s design is so bland, there is no way it’s not a free asset. I don’t feel like the concept of not being able to look at the monster was utilized to its full potential. The monster mostly just stands there and you can’t look at it. It would have been fun to see the monster in some more varied positions, and seen the mechanic expanded on, but I get that this is just a short free game somebody made with their hard work and time.
I am so tired of doing menial, everyday tasks in these PS1 horror games! I don’t want to have to cook my fucking pizza or clean up my toys, damn it! I don’t want to clean the dishes, and most of all, I don’t want to do fucking MATH:
I get the idea behind it is to draw the player in and immerse them, but it rarely works for me. I end up just feeling like I’m doing exactly what I’m doing: CHORES.
I was disappointed by the ending reveal. It’s mostly my fault, I think, as I hyped myself up for something that didn’t happen. When Mom comes home, she’s staring at the ground as she comes through the door. My brain immediately thinks “Holy shit, she knows about it too, but neither of them can acknowledge it, so they go about trying to live their lives normally and the chore list was actually used purposefully to display this. Wow, this game really surprised me!”
And then Mom turns around and stares at the monster which comes over and snaps her neck.
Man. I was disappointed! Again, I set up all those expectations myself in my brain and then was disappointed when they didn’t happen. But I do think that there is a sort of notion in horror that killing=scary since death is a terrifying thing, but I think the threat and fear of death that the monster imposes is scarier than the monster killing. Imagine living with that thing watching you and waiting for you to slip-up for months or years. You can’t just leave as it seemingly follows you, so you’d have to adjust your whole life around not looking at this creature. One wrong glance in the rearview mirror while driving and you’d be gone. You’d have to cover up any windows since you wouldn’t want to catch a reflection. You couldn’t really go outside or see friends for fear of putting others in danger. And you’d have to listen to that thing breathe like an asthmatic day in and day out. Does it sleep? I don’t know, but I know you need to. We aren’t even certain of what its intentions are. It might not be trying to kill anything! This thing just existing would cause total chaos to your life.
I think that’s why I was let down. Had the mom just kept her head down and had a normal conversation with her son, I think the implications would have been a ton of fun.
WHY’D YOU KILL HIS MOM DUDE THAT WAS FUCKING COLD THAT’S MY REAL ISSUE BRO I WAS JUST TRYING TO SOUND SMART AND ANALYTICAL BEFORE BUT MASK IS OFF NOW MAN I’M CRACKING MY KUCKLES, TAILS, AND SONICS WHAT THE FUCK THAT WAS FUCKED UP NOW I HAVE TO SIT HERE AFTER THIS REVIEW AND JUST BE MAD ABOUT IT BRO THAT KID IS AN ORPHAN AND THAT THING ISN’T LOOKING TO ADOPT OK JUST LET THE KID HAVE A MOM WHERE IS THE DAD
Recommend: Ehhh, I’m like… extremely lukewarm on this. Stick a toe in?
Replay Percentage Chance: 3.1%
Time Played: 15 minutes
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