In the review of What Happened, we referred to psychoanalysis and the role it plays in arts. One psychological factor that creates mental fear is the suspense originated in forgetting or not knowing what comes next: the fear of the unknown. A lot of video games and movies adopted such fears. In the article ‘Where Do the Ideas Come From,’ it was mentioned that one of the sources is books. With these premises, we are going to review a game that took its idea from a book, and like What Happened, focused on mental themes. After reading this article, check out the review of What Happened to see the similarities.
Conarium was developed by the Turkish Zoetrope Interactive and published by Iceberg Interactive for all the 8th gen consoles and PC. It is a fine work with the Metascore of 71. Conarium came out back in 2017 but it is still holding and is highly up to date. We have reviewed the PC version in Bazinegar. In Conarium, you are a scientist/professor who is lost in a research facility situated in the Arctics. Like always, you do not remember what has happened, electricity is out, and there are lots of papers and notes scattered around. Regarding the opening quote and the first object to be found, it seems the idea of the work came from a book written by Haward Philip Lovecraft.
I Can Hear Lovecraft It seems whenever there is a game whose atmosphere, story, theme, and locations are a bit diabolic and frightening, that has nasty creatures in it, has much blood, and is creepy overall, people would refer to it as ‘Lovecraftian.’ If you have ever read a book from the author, let us know more about him in the comments section below. Conarium’s atmosphere is full and robust; lighting, sound, camera, engravings, and architecture together made a dark and uneasy world where the best motive for moving is the urge/need for getting out, but not much more! Everything fits where it sits, yet the core lacks the excitement and rush that one expects from a product in this genre. The main character, Dr. Gilman, cannot jump, attack, or do anything more than running. His most action act is breaking ice/stone with a few blows of an axe.
Imagine what happens to gameplay with that character. Conarium provides very few encounters that give you a rush. All the other times you are walking around, searching for the different puzzles that are various but not really challenging. Puzzles are more driven to memory and sorting than thinking and figuring out the logic; they require more trials than calculations. They are not hard to solve. Your motive for continuing is not the action or the exciting puzzles, it is the story and the need to find the answers; yet . . .
Pigs Can Fly! Conarium adds up to its story complexity as you move forward, thus, a finite outcome is not what you get in the end. From the ancient civilizations and aliens to dark magic and myth, to brain physiology and plants’ neural life, all have been cramped into a 4/5 hour-long game. Although the writer wanted the outcome to be deep and serious, it seems somewhere half the road thing got so much mixed that a lot of the story threads were lost. Another problem in storytelling is the imbalance of narrative devices throughout the game; first, everything is on papers and notes, then it is over the radio with Dr. Faust (such a famous name!), and during the last third it is all about cutscenes with no dialogues or any language-related clues. The narrative focus is not visible.
What We See Graphics are up to date (8th gen indie), technical, solid, and detailed. Foremost, it is all about lighting; a psychic horror game that needed to enliven its atmosphere with light play, and did it wonderfully. On the other hand, these lights are reflected on models with good design and even better textures. Details such as fonts, menus, papers, notes, engravings on the walls, water, fire, dirt, are all designed for the utmost reality effect. Graphics are good and it is possible to claim one motive in gameplay is to find new places and enter newer locations.
What We Hear The sound is also technical. Sound design and music work fine in Conarium; it supplements the air and sometimes creates pleasure as if you are remembering everything in the person of Dr. Gilman. The same sound system makes so much tension and unease in other scenes that you get goosebumps. The game is made in Turkey, but the voice actors seem to be native English speakers. Apart from that, the dialogues are not corny and voice actors utter them lively. The selected voices fit the characters they represent. Also, sound effects such as water, destruction, walking/running, interacting with objects based on their material, wind, and the ambients that come from far are all fine-tuned and high quality. Sound design, along with graphics, works perfectly to create a solid and unified dark atmosphere.
You’ll Like It Conarium is a good game, has good graphics, fine sound design, nice music, scientific references, different locations, interesting architecture, and various puzzles. It is a healthy candidate for a puzzle adventure. A deep and dark atmosphere makes a solid ground for a good interactive/immersive experience. But lack of higher levels of tension and challenge, and an unstable logic for the puzzles stop the game from standing on the NO. 1 platform. Bazinegar recommends Conarium to all adventure lovers.
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