good morning i'm going to nerd out about my location choices in my silly henrydeclan fic because I know a lot of you aren't into games BUT i think the references are fun. note that none of these pictures are mine cause i dont have my game on me atm.
heclan land in a snowed-in backyard. that's a reference to the jacksonville, wyoming sections of the last of us (part 2). there's a snowstorm, too, so the environment is very dreary and foreboding. the interiors are about as decomposed as you'd expect.
(declan's mobile phone battery is at 7%, and goes to 6 as he uses it. that's a giggle to the FNAF style of "survive a week" gameplay)
once they come out on the other side, the weather is markedly different. it's still a/the same suburban area, but now things are looking a lot like the Hillcrest section in TLOU 2, overgrown and humid.
henry mentions that they keep looping back to the other side when they try to take a route that isnt directly down the street. that's because there IS nowhere to go: it's the classic video game thing of inaccessible areas being blocked by a stack of boxes that really SHOULD be jumpable. good old disguised invisible walls.
there's also a mess of cars blocking the path up the street, up to where henry has to specifically aim for inFecTeD breaking through the barriers of cars at the end of the chapter ^
now for the Ominous Looming Structure. henry misidentifies it at first, before amending himself as they get closer. the 'wall', so to speak, "pops in". that's a term referring to when assets just appear/load in out of nowhere as you're looking at them. a well-optimised game will try to avoid this, since it shows a lack of polish + breaks the immersion. if there's a lot of pop-in, it shows either the device running the game or the game itself is flawed severely.
the structure itself takes from silent hill (2 i think, but mostly the vibe of all the games). it's gross brick that's distinctly fleshy and grimy.
the "creepy hallway" is such a cemented trope in horror media that i could say anything from resident evil, to P.T., to the shining and still get the point across. specifically, though, i was referencing the evil within 2 (the right image is from a dark pictures game, you get what i mean when i say its a distinct trope)
they reach what seems to be a regular wall, before declan presses the pattern in a specific way that causes it to swing into another hall. henry does not notice this because he's trying not to have a panic attack. however this puzzle situation is a nod to the OG resident evil, which also has similar décor.
i didn't have a specific reference in mind for the locked door, but i was definitely thinking of some outlast vibes, like so
carrying on from that we are just fully in silent hill territory. just, bona fide nasty. places which look like they'll give you 4 never before seen strains of tetanus.
and we've about caught up to what's written out now! i didn't go too deep into the monsters/lore here, but a specific i want clear is that the whole place is a leyline-induced amalgamation of horror games, with a distinct fondness for the medium. things don't work cohesively, but that's kind of the point: it's a bunch of different properties stitched together.
of the two, henry canonically "watches video game walkthroughs," and declan is declan; so only one of them really has the background to even be able to recognise the patterns in what's going on. also, henry watches these games but he doesn't PLAY these games. he doesn't have that adrenaline/fear frame of reference either.
below i mention some thoughts about the arms used too. thank you for coming on this fun little journey with me! xx
obligatory mention that i barely know anything about g*ns ive never seen a pistol up close unless while getting mugged. BUT since we're going with a shooter game feel, i'll mention my choices for both of them.
i wanted henry to be a stealth/range build to declan's melee/close-range build.
henry uses a revolver with a long barrel and a very shiny finish. Declan uses a double action pistol, smaller for better concealed carry, and matte. probably a glock because i think GLOCK is the funniest word to say since it reminds me of chickens. his is a 9mm i THINK (i did the research but i forgot it so i WANT to say smth with 35, but i dont think that's right), so he's able to acquire ammo easier.
if i was held at gunpoint (lol) to pick a gun for henry, i'd go with a Korth because he would love to spend an obscene amount of money on things. accuracy over speed is the contrast between them: given declan's greywaren insanity i do NOT believe that man is a careful shooter.
if i DIDN'T have to be bound to like, relative realism, I would say Henry has a Mauser c96. it's a very funky looking ww2 era pistol that was very popular in China for a while and the base for Leon Kennedy's Red9 from the resident evil game. EYE think henry is exactly the type of person to have played re4 age 7 and decide to base his personality off of leon. side by sides of both below:
34 notes
·
View notes