The power of flashlights

Always ... bring ... a ... flashlight!

A flashlight is one of the most important tools you can bring to any survival horror game. If you don’t have a flashlight, you are as good as dead – FACT! However flashlights also serve another purpose than just keeping you alive. It lets you see in dark places, but it also focuses your attention on a very small part of the screen, making monsters jumping out at you even more scary.

Everyone fears what they can’t see. That is why ghosts, darkness, and basements are some of the most feared things in every childhood. In survival horror games darkness is everywhere, and in it lurks actual monsters waiting to kill you. At some point some game designer decided that using darkness as part of their game would be a good trick to scare people – then some other designer decided to add a flashlight – and then Doom 3 came out. In Doom 3 you play a one handed guy, because you are only able to either hold your flashlight, OR something else in your hand. Holding both the flashlight and something else is too advanced, and that makes for some very scary moments when you hear something in the darkness, switch to your flashlight, see a monster, and then need to switch back to something to shoot with.

But flashlights are also in other games. Actually they are in pretty much every survival horror game out there. As a matter of fact i dare say that its part of the genre convention. If you don’t have a flashlight, you are either not in a survival horror game and can relax, OR you will suffer a gruesome death imminently.

So take this advice from me now and always be prepared. If you expect any kind of monster activity in your life – remember to always carry a flashlight…. and a crowbar in case you find a crate with a healthpack in it.