Can Gothic Literature and conventional media be applied to video games?    by Jone

The gothic fiction which is also known as gothic horror is a genre of literature that can trace its history back to the 1700’s. Gothic’s origin is often linked to “The castle of Otranto” by British author Horace Walpole. During its evolution it’s been through multiple revivals and is currently very popular due films such as twilight. Video games however have been playing with the gothic imagination for much longer. In this article we will look at Clive barker’s novel and video Game “Undying”.
The game and book follow the same story line. Set in 1920’s Ireland, the story sees protagonist and player character Patrick Galloway moving through a series of endeavours to rescue his friend from his personal childhood based torments. The story evolves through a selection of stylised locations all of which are made with a gothic style. Ancient cloisters, crypts and old Edwardian and Victorian locations. The locations explained in the book and shown in the game lead to a cove which explains the torment of the island itself.
When considered in it s own field, Undying is a bit of a rainbow of experiences. Both in a positive and negative way. Merging and recombining differing elements from gothic literature to form a surprisingly solid and interesting core. These changes of theme within the horror of Undying are also backed up by other creative elements such as the game’s music, which often shifted its mood with exploratory choices made by the player, to the benefit of the game’s atmosphere. Composer Bill Brown praised the rest of the game’s creative whole for allowing his contribution to flourish: ‘The interactivity allowed in the games opens up the opportunity for an evolution of music over the course of the gameâ