BioShock used a plethora of sounds to create an eerie dystopian atmosphere. From the 1950’s music playing constantly in the background to the occasional screams and other environmental noises, BioShock rarely if ever leaves players in complete silence. By contrast, Gone Home uses very little noise to create an eerie, unsettling atmosphere.
Sound, whether it’s screaming enemies or music cues the player in on something important happening. The music is a big indicator to what is happening. The 1950’s music works to create an eerie retro atmosphere while the more orchestral music builds up during more crucial moments of the narrative such as when a cutscene is occurring. Enemies are often identified auditorily. They are engaging in conversations the player can hear from far away with their voices getting louder as they are approached. Atlas’ voice is another cue that the player should be doing or looking for something.
Silence in BioShock is often an indicator of there being no immediate threat. It appears to be a time when there is a break in narrative of the game. Because of this, moments when there is little to no sound are when players are free to explore (and arguably encouraged since there are advantages to collecting first aid, money, recordings, etc.) the general setting before continuing the story. It’s not exactly easy, or possible in the case of cutscenes, to look in trash cans or loot corpses when there is a danger such as someone yelling and running at you with a weapon.
Gone Home, is strikingly quiet compared to BioShock. The primary sounds in Gone Home are Sam’s voice and a thunderstorm in the background. In Gone Home, the player is thoroughly exploring each room of the house for the next clue, for the next thing that will trigger a sound to fill the striking silence.
Atlas and Sam are similar in the way they are both sounds that let the player know they are progressing in the narrative. However, Atlas is a signal the player is going to have to do something whereas Sam’s voice signals the player did something.
Control over sound was another interesting aspect of both games. Sound is prevalent in BioShock while silence is given at specific moments of rest. There are tasks the player has to complete in order to get a break from sound. In Gone Home silence is more prevalent and the player is the one making the noises when they explore the house. The player has more control over sound such as being able to play tapes or turn the TV on and off.
How did you all feel about sound in BioShock and Gone Home? How did the sound in either of the games contribute to the game? I found myself overwhelmed with sound in BioShock only to find myself wishing some/any sound would appear and break the silence in Gone Home.
I have very little experience with first person games (I think the only ones I have played are a bit of Portal and TF2 awhile ago), so I was really aware things like footsteps or the sounds you make when you jump; they stuck out as reminders that the character is the shape of a person and not a floating hand.
In Bioshock, the alarm sounds contributed greatly to the stress while playing, probably increasing the perceived pace or difficulty of parts; the same can be said of lots of gunshots (again, little fps experience).
Storywise, I liked how the soft background music or audio of Rapture before it's fall is really unsettling. I had just finished killing the doctor…
Thank you for your post! You raise good points about he usage of sound in both games. I especially like your point about silence in Bioshock symbolizing safety, since only when you can't hear splicers are you actually safe from attack. I also think that the designers play on this idea incredibly well through uses of sound that aren't dangerous. For example, more than once I've thought I heard a voice in the ambient 50's music, and the most consistent jump scare the game offers if when you accidentally get to close to a Circus of Values machine and trigger its (incredibly loud) audio. In Gone Home, I found the audio comforting. At first I was scared by the weather…
I definitely got the desire to have sound break the silence in Gone Home too. I think it was actually a pretty clever use of the horror genre and atmosphere because Sam's voice ends up really acting as a relief - it relieves anxiety over the potential (though non-existing) things lurking in the darkness and knowing that Sam is still there and her story keeps going.
Talking about whether or not Gone Home is a horror game or not, I feel that the sound plays a large role in making the distinction. With the eerie quiet and lack of many other sounds, the game definitely plays into the horror genre, creating a creepy atmosphere and making the player fearful of what could be around the corner.
Thanks for sharing! I definitely feel like sound was such a huge factor in how I was experiencing the games. As I played through Bioshock, I definitely felt my interpretation of the story was guided by the sound - similar to discussion in class about how genre may be primed by certain tropes - I found myself being more immersed in a dystopian reading of the game as a result. Adversely, for Fun Home, the silence helped ground the game in realism for me - making it all the more effective and disturbing.