Cradle. Dear God... - TTLG Forums

Thief-Playah on 24/1/2006 at 20:11

Well, I made it through.
It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be... I was expecting to be horrified.
Not that I LIKE being horrified, mind you.
Just the undead guys doing that standing seizure thing. That freaked me out.
Turns out that they
[SPOILER]don't get up when you get near. Which I am happy about.[/SPOILER]
I kept looking over my shoulder (With the 'creep' key) for those undead guys while I was picking the locks.

But nothing absolutely horrifying. Which I am happy for.

ZeroFlight on 25/1/2006 at 03:57

[SPOILER]I really depends on how you kill 'em. If you just stab them in the back, they'll go down until you get close then pop back up... sometimes silently. The staff are another matter though.[/SPOILER]

Corida on 25/1/2006 at 14:13

Hello! I've just encountered my first dead guy in the Cradle.

You know what, System Shock 2 didn't scare me much, and recent replays of Clive Barker's Undying and Silent Hill 2 didn't scare me a fraction as much as they did two years ago... But this level leaves me wishing there was some sort of Cradle-support group I could join. :(

ZeroFlight on 25/1/2006 at 19:42

Heh, you're posting in it. :D

Dia on 26/1/2006 at 03:55

I don't know about anybody else, but it was the voices that scared the daylights out of me. The first time I heard those eerie, creepy voices I immediately turned every flippin' light in the house on! :o

I want to play it again, but I'm alone (in the house, in the dark) for the next week, so it'll have to wait.

Corida; when I encountered the first dead guy, I ran into the TV room & turned the TV on, making sure I could hear it from the opposite end of the house (I'd already turned all the lights on).

My cats think I'm nuts.

Corida on 26/1/2006 at 05:12

Well, I finished it! All without turning on a light, too, but I admit I had to have frequent breaks. I also live alone here and I swear the neighbourhood was noisier than usual. I'm positive that at 4am, something started banging on my front door.

I couldn't sleep once it was over, had to sit around waiting for the sun to rise.

And for some reason I'm dying to play it again!! :D

Dia, you should try to finish the game while you're sitting in the dark, utterly alone. :) You might be emotionally scarred for life, but the scarier the experience, the better!

Quote Posted by ZeroFlight

Heh, you're posting in it. :D

Aren't support groups supposed to give out free cookies and other comfort foods? :confused:

T-Smith on 26/1/2006 at 13:36

Quote Posted by Corida

Aren't support groups supposed to give out free cookies and other comfort foods? :confused:

Not a support group in a THIEF forum. We don't give out cookies and other comfort foods. We steal them :P

Dia on 26/1/2006 at 14:06

Quote Posted by T-Smith

Not a support group in a THIEF forum. We don't give out cookies and other comfort foods. We steal them :P

... from each other.

Quote:

You might be emotionally scarred for life...

I already am. :wot:

I really, really don't like playing the missions that have undead or haunts, but ghosts seemed easier to tolerate for some reason. The Cradle was unique in every way and made up for the lack of mobility in the game & the fact that (imho) it was way too linear.

But it still scared the livin' daylights outta me!

Rogue Keeper on 26/1/2006 at 14:40

Having played TDS for the first time just few weeks back, I couldn't wait until I get to the Cradle part. My fault is that I've read a lot about it before, here and elsewhere and I just couldn't resist peeking at some minor spoilers... so I was prepared for something, by what others have been unexpectedly freaked out.

[spoiler]
Level opening is very atmospheric. An abandoned old building, gloomy weather outside... I just missed croaking of the crows, that would add something.

The fact that the outer Cradle is completely empty is genial idea, it nicely prepares you for the horrors in the inner Cradle. Reading all the notes on treatment as well as notes from the orphans really isn't a funny experience.

Hearing that knocking from the attic was creepy, but I just proceeded up and stropped in front of the attic door, quicksaved and anticipated something TERRIBLE in the room. I opened that door... and I was a bit disappointed inside. I wasnt' scared by the loud voice of Lauryl in my head, not even by appearance of her ghost... Instead, it was kinda "uplifting" or "surreal" experience.

The Inner Cradle was the part when the real sickness begun... I hate those sound effects... damn, who is supposed to listen to that scarying crying, chidren's screaming... it's so... horrible. I had impression that the echoes of the tormented past just leaks from the walls of the building, that those moans and crying of suffering have been imprinted into the walls of the Cradle and now the walls emit them like echoes of the past. Yes. This building lives. It's conscious. That hardly describable human torment, which has occured inside, has transformed into some kind of living, omnipresent, unseen, malicious, mad entity...

The worst area are the patients' cells. I hated to explore them. Entering every one of them made me shivers, my fantasy worked on full throttle and I was afraid what signs of madness I find inside. The most touching was the cell with an urn in a crib, and you hear a baby crying in the distance.
[/spoiler]

Sound creates 3/4 of the frightening experience in the Cradle.

Overall, this level is spooky, yes. There is considerable dose of dread in it. But I wouldn't describe my overall feeling as "fear" as much as "depression". It's a very sad place. Yes, I felt quite depressed the next day after I played Cradle.

Still it's a genial level, one of the most horrifying standalone levels ever made for a computer game.

By the way, if you want to read a great article about the Cradle from PC Gamer, including interview with Null, look at this: (http://gillen.cream.org/thecradle.pdf) (6MB, but IMHO it's worth it)

I just wonder what experience would Cradle gave me if I didn't read all those Criminologist bulletins and books on Forensic Psychiatry we have in home library, since I was about 12.

For my second Cradle visitation, I consider getting some mind-altering stuff.

Corida on 28/1/2006 at 18:22

Quote Posted by BR796164

By the way, if you want to read a great article about the Cradle from PC Gamer, including interview with Null, look at this: (http://gillen.cream.org/thecradle.pdf)

Brill article, thanks for the link.