Horror videogame of the day: Project Firestart (1989)
Septeber 12, 2061 A.D. The System Science Foundation has lost contact with research vessel Prometheus, located on the orbit of Saturn's moon Titan. Agent Jon hawking is sent to investigate, with two primary objectives: recover the research logs of the genetic experiment being held and set the station's self destruct mechanism before bailing the hell out. With good reason, too: not long after docking, Hawking finds the mutilated corpse of a researcher, the word "Danger" smeared on the nearest wall with blood. Whatever went wrong with that experiment is lurking in the darkness of the vessel, waiting. Developed by Dynamix and published by EA for the Commodore 64, this might be the first true Survival Horror game, six years before Resident Evil coined the term. It really has all the staples of the genre: A slow burn, non linear narrative that gradually builds up from documents left behind (as well as some cutscenes for extra cinematic presentation), open ended exploration as a core mechanic, a combat system that encourages evasion and the managing scarce ammo, multiple endings depending on how well your performed the game's objectives, and a gritty, oppressive atmosphere dominated by silence with a splice of claustrophobia, clearly borrowing from Ridley Scott's Alien. Only true 3D is missing here. You wouldn't bat an eye at half of these design choices nowadays, but they were basically unseen at the time. Unsurprisingly, it failed on release because a lot of people just... didn't get it. It was too ahead of the curve. IIf you want to try it, remember it's still a Commodore 64 game. The presentation shows its age, it plays VERY slow and the soundscape in particular leaves things to be desired. Plus, the lack of an ingame map may take some time to get used to (it was on the game's manual). Besides that, it's shocking how well it holds up, and should be remembered for the classic it is.
Seriously, more people need to know about this game. Even with some of the frankly hilarious beats of anachronistic science fiction (the game gets cheeky with the manual containing the map by claiming it was FAXED to you), or some corny moments that wouldn't happen out of 80's game storytelling, I'm frankly at a loss as to how much it nails it where it matters, and recontextualizes the commonly known history of the Survival Horror genre. I have to wonder if Infrogames and Capcom were aware of it. Even the speedrun friendly nature of the early Resient Evil games feel inspired by Project Firestart having a time limit (in the game's story, it has been decided if Hawking doesn't show signs of life after two hours the SSF is just going to blast the research vessel to kingdom come). This game almost comparable to what the original Nosferatu is for films: it gets so much right you wouldn't believe it from so early in the medium.
