Detention (Taiwanese survival horror)

[Shay Chaise]

For fans of: Oxenfree, Silent Hill, Asian horror movies, interactive fiction.


Having heard Sino scholar James Farley discuss this at length on The Computer Game Show a few weeks back, I was intrigued. It's a fairly straightforward slice of interactive fiction with some light puzzle elements, but with the bleak atmosphere of survival horror (plus a few good scares) and a unique setting which I've never seen before in a game.

It takes place under the spectre of political repression and persecution in 1960s Taiwan, and features plenty of allegory alongside your more traditional Asian horror tropes. With Taiwan brutally severed from Mainland China in a move reminiscent of the film 127 Hours, it deals with the little-understood perspective of those Taiwanese citizens and mainland refugees suspected of Communist sympathy and involvement, and the often dehumanising treatment they faced. It's a very interesting perspective, especially when much of our knowledge of the period is focused on Mao's own Cultural Revolution on the mainland. Even as someone very interested in Chinese history, I had absolutely no idea that something similar was happening on 'the other side of the water'.

In terms of gameplay, it's as straightforward as Oxenfree, but thankfully without as much backtracking or as much distance to cover and the high school setting provides a tight structure and series of spaces for the narrative to play out. Puzzles are reminiscent of point and click adventures crossed with Resident Evil, finding cranks and keys and the like. These elements are there primarily to keep you engaged in a different way from pressing A to move the dialogue along but there are plenty things to inspect and interact with. In a rare example of the tired trope, there are lots of diary entries and notes which I actually bothered to read, partly because they're so short and partly because they give socio-historical depth to the story, reinforcing the heavy supernatural atmosphere with the brutality of real world events.

I especially like the presentation, though. The characters are done with a kind of pencil shaded style (think of the Take On Me video, but more downbeat) and pseudo-photographic backgrounds. It's clearly cheap as chips but it's evocative of the drab, joyless political climate and they nailed the sense that there's something not quite right
at the school. The soundtrack is also excellent, with gloomy industrial synths and unnerving ambient drones, as well as some sparse traditional Chinese instrumentation. If you have ever seen the Japanese versions of The Ring or Dark Water or Ju-On, you'll recognise what they're going for here.

I haven't actually finished this one yet but I will definitely be seeing it through to the end. Would heartily recommend to fans of the genre.

[Timothy]

Wow. never heard of this and this sounds amazing. Will buy it today. Thanks for the recommendation!