Fear...

WARNING: minor Call of Duty 4 spoiler. Look away now if you don't want to know!

....in a game has been around for a while now. From the Grand Daddy, Alone in the Dark, to recent moderns like Condemned and F.E.A.R. itself, we've been jumping out of our seats quite a bit.

Of course, fear in a game can be different things: Resident Evil scares you by making things suddenly jump out at you, F.E.A.R. used flashbacks, and weird happenings with a scary girl to freak you out, and the recent Condemned used a mix of nothing happening (which is really scary cos you start anticipating things that don't happen!) and of visceral, gory, combat with homeless people that like beating the crap out of you. It also featured one of the most pant-wetting cut scenes I've ever seen, involving a corpse and a camera "shiver"...

But yesterday I experienced something different, something that I don't remember experiencing at all, and it was such a fresh experience I was left amazed. I'm talking about Call of Duty 4, particularly the "All Ghillied Up" level that occurs in Prypiat, Ukraine.
You play an SAS Lieutenant called Price (Thanks Anmar for the correction!) who in this level couples up with an awesome sniper called Captain MacMillan. You are told to follow MacMillan's every move, and do EXACTLY as you're told. And by God do you do that...

The level has you crawling and sliding in tall fauna as you try to sneak past various Russian soldiers, taking the odd one out now and then. MacMillan doesn't pretend to be nice, he just tells you what to do and when to do it. "GET DOWN NOW!", "GO GO", "TAKE THAT SOLDIER OUT NOW", "ARE YOU DAFT?!!" when you make a mistake. And when that happens, there is no way you can survive the onslaught of soldiers and dogs that come your way, so you have no choice other than to restart.
Which makes you realise that you have to do what MacMillan says. EXACTLY as he says. Don't deviate, don't try to do your own thing. This is one level where the computer is in charge, and it knows it. Mess around and you're dead meat. Follow the orders and you might make it. And I say might because there are moments of sheer FEAR in this level. At one stage you're lied flat with your face in the mud watching a patrol of soldiers and tanks walk straight past you. MacMillan warns you that any move you do might alert them, and that you should try to predict their paths so you get out of the way early.

This last for about one minute, and for that one minute you are glued in your seat. You daren't breathe, you daren't even move your real body because they might just hear you. Staring at the grass and at MacMillan's camouflaged body you suddenly realise that you're playing one heck of a game. And you're scared. Very scared that something might tip them off or that they'll realise you're there.
By the time this is all over you take a deep breath, have a glass of water, and carry on what turns out to be an amazing level, actually one of the best FPS levels I've played for some time (including the awesome Episode 2 Finale).

And this is a new kind of fear. One where your controls are dictated by the computer, where every move might be fatal, and where, even though you have complete control over your character, you don't really because to stay alive you have to follow orders from another character. And he's a very convincing one at that - all camouflaged and using the hand signs that we've seen army people do in movies, you can't help but have utmost respect and admiration for MacMillan and his survival skills. I'm sure those of you that have played that level will agree...

"Patience. Don't do anything stupid"