Dentention (Video Game)
Ted Hentschke
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Developed by Red Candle Games
Published by Coconut Island Games
Available on PC, iOS, and Linux through Steam
Suitable for ages 15+
This might bewilder some of you in the older crowd, but in recent years the horror market has been co-opted by the indie intellectual crowd. Yes, the genre that was built on the backs of slashers like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, and Halloween would now be considered by some as “derivative.” Guilty pleasures have become something they want you to feel genuinely guilty about. Mind you, I’m only talking about the gaming scene. It spills over a bit into film (I’m looking at you clamshell phone in It Follows), but at least movies still gleefully embrace ax murdering without shoving in a child molestation backstory.
I’m not trying to come off like some Luddite afraid of intellectual exploration. What I’m saying is that games are supposed to be fun. There’s a whole school of thought that games should just be stories. I can’t get on board with that, but not because I don’t like stories. There are loads of game stories that I like! Heck, I recently gave Batman: The Telltale Series a great score, and that’s almost entirely story stuffs. But what makes games different from things like books or movies is that whole game part. So many “interactive narratives” forget this.
From my preamble, you can probably guess what I’m going to say about Detention. Developed by Taiwanese developer Red Candle Games, Detention tells a heartbreaking story of a tortured soul trapped in the wake of 1960s anti-communist martial law. The history of Taiwan is fascinating and deep, rarely explored in western intellectual markets. I myself had no idea about the history of Taiwan until a bout of insomnia kept me up until 4 a.m. researching a joke popular in Berkeley, “Is Taiwan a part of China, or China a part of Taiwan?” For the 99% of you scratching your head, go ahead and Google it. Welcome to the rabbit hole.
Very brief recap, lots of this happened.
Detention focuses on a single life nestled in the period now known as the “White Terror.” Ray, a senior at Greenwood High School, finds herself trapped in the school after hours due to a pesky river of blood knocking out the bridge home. Things get supernatural fast. As she ventures further into the school, things get more spooky and surreal as she reveals harsh realities of her past that she must come to accept.
Ugh, don’t you hate it when this happens?
I’m being intentionally vague, since there isn’t much to Detention more than the story. This game is a solid step above walking simulators, as there are a number of puzzles that will require you to think to solve. The game gives you plenty of clues, so I can’t imagine you getting stuck. But it only keeps you somewhat engaged. There are a few enemies in the game, but all can be easily avoided by holding your breath with right click on your mouse. Around the halfway point Detention abandons the enemies completely, so it boils down to nothing more than timing puzzles.
Nothing I love more than holding right click to not die
At this point in the review, you should know whether or not Detention might be up your alley. I always feel like a prick for trashing what’s essentially a short story for not having fun gameplay, but shockingly some people expect their games to be games. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be entertained when you sit down to game. Some people have depressing enough lives, they don’t want to sit through a Taiwanese girl’s tale of self discovery in their down time.
For those of you still with me that like these kinds of narrative games, you’ll probably enjoy Detention for its unflinching look into another culture. It’s a period of time you’ve probably never heard of, but Ray’s struggles aren’t that different from our own. She wants to find herself, escape home, find love and purpose, be treated like a woman, etc. Looking through this basic human lense, this foreign culture doesn’t seem so different. You might have never heard of burning spirit money, but we’ve all had a relative that chooses silent suffering over seeking help.
Enough visual metaphor to write a whole forum post over!
While I enjoyed Detention’s story, I just felt like I was jumping through hoops. The puzzles are tackled in an entirely linear order, significantly decreasing the importance of exploration. The early puzzles are basically relay races, with only a few of the later ones being actual brain twisters. If the game completely deleted the enemies of the first half and replaced them with the puzzles of the second, this would be a far better game. Similarly, if they focused more on the enemies, providing more numerous and challenging scenarios, the game also would have been much better. Unfortunately, it just feels like a combo of half measures that make the act of unpacking the story a chore.
So by now, you really should know whether or not you want Detention. There are a few adoring reviews out there saying that the game is a triumph of storytelling, but that’s all hyperbole. I guessed some of the serious plot points about 10 minutes in. It’s certainly a good story, made way more interesting in the context of an underexplored historical period. Other than that, it’s an entirely average game. There are far more terrifying games and intriguing narratives out there. If this is your genre, you’ll really like it. If not, you won’t get past the first level.
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Game
Categorized:Horror Gaming Reviews
