The Multiverse

**W. Rabbit** · Posted On: 5/14/2012 10:16am

Originally Posted by Hiro Protagonist

You guys need to explain me the appeal of the Dark Tower series.

I think the best horror (e.g. Lovecraft) is where the logical, sensible backdrop of the Universe we know gets thrown to the wolves, literally, and we see what crawls out of the abyss towards us...that's the scary stuff. What happens when you find out that your whole perception of reality is a lie, and what lies underneath it would drive a man insane?

The Dark Tower (literally) represents the connection point between what we see as our Universe and all the other ones...a vast majority of which are so alien and terrible to us that they'd drive us mad in a beautifully, erm...Lovecraftian way. In King's multiverse, there are Serious Baddies from other dimensions constantly trying to destroy ours....that's good horror that you can take in a million different directions (which again is the theme of TDT, and why most of King's works tie into this story).

That was the sense I got from TDT series...partially it was Stephen's homage to the greatest of horror classics, right down to the parts about toothed, slithering, oozy things in the darkness.

Combine that with King's love of cheese, and it becomes a bit tongue-in-cheek. But from a writer's perspective, this has always what made King unique and stand out from the crowd.

**Kovacs** · Posted On: 5/14/2012 11:37am

Originally Posted by Tzadqiel

@Kovacs I still think Silent Hill 1 and 2 are great in that respect. Yeah you get a gun, but not many bullets. Alot of running and hiding and seeing a large man with a Pyramid for a head do horrible things to a headless corpse. Good times.

That's what current survivor horror titles are getting wrong, the heroes tend to be super macho, well prepared and have a buddy in tow. All the things that make for great action but no so much for scares. The worst the predicament the protagonist can be in the scarier te game usually is.

**Kovacs** · Posted On: 5/14/2012 11:42am

Originally Posted by Colin

HOLY **** @ The attack of the fishermen.
That was one of the best pieces of gameplay in any game, ever.

That game was full of scary ****. A stand out for me was being chased across the rooftops on Innsmouth by the entire town, unarmed and as you crash through that bedroom there's a guy in bed with a hideous mermaid who screams. It's a throwaway scene that lasts a second but it's details like that which made it such a great game.

Why it's sequel was never finished or the franchise carried on I have no idea, I guess it did t sell.

**Colin** · Posted On: 5/14/2012 11:51am

Kovacs, we are talking about the same scene :D
It begins with you going to sleep upstairs in the Tavern, and being woken up in the middle of the night by the lunatics trying to bash the door down.

**Kovacs** · Posted On: 5/14/2012 4:23pm

Got it. I read that as Fish Men, those massive dudes that storm the side of the ship later and butcher pretty much everyone.

I need to get this game again.

**downtime** · Posted On: 5/14/2012 5:10pm

Originally Posted by Goju - Joe

Larry Niven's tales of known space universe is pretty fricken awesome from the sheer scope of imagination from Ring World to Integral trees.

My jaw just hit the floor.........Integral trees is one of my all time favorite books. But whenever I mention it people give me that blank look like WTF are you talking about.

**Colin** · Posted On: 5/14/2012 5:10pm

Originally Posted by Kovacs

I need to get this game again.

me too..

**downtime** · Posted On: 5/14/2012 5:25pm

I always enjoyed The Forgotten Realms in AD+D and Dragonlance to a lesser extent.

Shadow run although not really an entire universe is pretty decent.

Big Warhammer 40k fan though.

Lately Steven Kents clone series has had a decent universe going on.

And I was/ am big Farscape fan.
The Riddick universe was good up until the last movie.

**Goju - Joe** · Posted On: 5/15/2012 12:51am

Originally Posted by downtime

My jaw just hit the floor.........Integral trees is one of my all time favorite books. But whenever I mention it people give me that blank look like WTF are you talking about.

Integral Trees is a great book with a terrible title, Smoke Ring is not much better.

But as far as imaginative universes Larry is a fricken king

**Goju - Joe** · Posted On: 5/15/2012 12:54am

Also the world of West of Eden by Harry Harrison is pretty awesome, in a world where no metorite wiped out the dinaousaurs and the evolved into a species who use biological technology encountering humans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_of_Eden

I need to re read this.