[Spoilers] Chains of Harrow; Ruining my ambient as I play

[Uthael]

I just went on the Chains of Harrow questline. The missions seemed scary. Most logical choice would be to investigate remotely first. That was not an option. Never is. But stealth is! So I went on this questline full-stealth. Octavia is my favorite stealth frame. Kinda ruined the ambient with the super-light circles on the ground. Could barely see the rest so I moved according to the minimap most of the time. I suggest adjusting Metronome lights according to the ambient.

Then, there was this woman who got the mark of "defend me, I'm an objective" before she even started talking. Too soon. Plop out the Mallet and the Resonator and watch where baddies will come from. Some slim zombies started walking around. Resonator made them passively follow and they couldn't even attack the Mallet. I watched as the objective-lady was shooting them with her Rakta Ballistica.

Some time after, I found out about Rell. I didn't want to touch the thingy, but nothing was happening. Not even dialogues. Then he got angry. Then I met him. He was scary alright, but only for a second or two. Then I realized that he was passive. I was stealthed. He'd be a lot scarier if he said something along the lines of:

"Where aaaare youuuu? Come out and GIVE! IT! BACK!" *explodes a nullifier bubble accross the room*

or "Ahhhh, so pretty. But I seeee youuuuu!" *screen blurs on the edges* "Let me help you *short inhale* dieeee.", *blur expands towards the middle, the camera forces focus on him as he turns and stares at the camera (not the character). Eyes glowing as whenfirst seen*.

Anyway, the comms lit up again and I got told to run. That I can't defeat him. Well, ok.There's my exit marker. I just... Started jumping there as if I were done with any other mission. But along the way I had a familiar feeling. I remembered what it is like to be hunted. But I didn't feel that.

The apparitions along the way gave more of a zombie or a sick person feel. Their shape was too defined. Even wispy clothes such as some warframes have would have helped the ambient. Although there was one at the very end. At the exit, after Ordis picked me up. That one was giving off the feeling of not being welcome. Nice touch.

The feeling I remembered was from another game. If anyone in the studio played Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, let him express how they felt the first couple of times meeting Dahaka (guardian of the timeline guy). That was awesome. You played a cool and overpowered guy. Strong, agile and with awesome powers. But Dahaka was your one and only fear.

I want to experience that again. I hope my feedback helps.

Edit: Capturing emotions. Rell is constantly teleporting onto me. As if he figures my location out for an instant and starts ignoring me right after. Gets annoying with the AoE damage. So I just move away. Went with Inaros for the second round of emotion captures. Red Veil guys seem normal. That's ok. But those creatures with nameless health bars seem just too... Corporeal. And unarmed. It's like there's a bunch of scrawny naked black people running around me.

The music is too associative with the infested. It's not scary. It's not even creepy. Just makes me want to equip a Heat Sword, Tigris or Ignis.
Although Metronome ain't glowing no more, the area is still too dark and I keep bumping into terrain broken by the infestation. Rell keeps bugging me with damage. Too much to ignore. Have to keep moving. Even dancing around him is fine.
The Dehaka had this aura of denial for getting anywhere near him or even looking back. Anywhere he went, he'd block your way. No getting around him. He catches you. Theoretically, he was a moving wall, making the player run forward. But it's not like the terrain was collapsing or something big and hungry was chasing you. You were in the wrong and he was the SWAT team. Or the Terminator with those uncanny abilities of making lethal stuff come out of his body to impale you at range. It's not running after you. You're not worth it. But he is following in pursuit. Your time will come and he'll hunt you 'til it does.

Edit2: 3rd capture-the-emotions mission. He now deals considerable damage. That generic infested music I had heard for 100+ times already really makes this look just like another mission. And I found a friggin' Somachord tone! ... And scanned it because why not xD Please, remove those bright, hi-tech-looking objects from ambients that are supposed to feel ghastly.

Edit3: Finished it. I especially liked the wispers in early missions. How they come from different directions from the same voice. You might consider moving the close-up voices so they come from the left or the right. That would probably trigger me turning in that direction. Later, near the end, that rap-tap-tap started sounding like a broken record. A few more variations would've been nice. Maybe add an easter egg and a slight hint for it for playing with Nekros for example. Seems related to souls, dead and curses stuff. Kinda like you did with coming to Baro with Inaros.

And thanks for making this experiance free! 😄
Somewhere else, this would've been a DLC and I'd be angry over every little bug I overpaid for. Now, if you ever change this quest, I'd gladly replay it.

Edited July 7, 2018 by Uthael