I enjoyed the video game “Green Hell” so much that I challenged myself to illustrate its appeal.
This was originally written in Japanese and translated into English.However, I am not good at English, so I wrote it by machine translation and looking up dictionaries, so there may be some mistakes in the text.
I thought that the algorithm of this site might not be able to understand the content of the article with only images, so I will describe it in writing as well.
What is Green Hell ?
This is an open-world survival game where the goal is to escape from the jungle alive.I thought this video game was similar in many ways to the movie “Jungle (2017)” starring Daniel Radcliffe.
What the movie and the video game have in common
- HORROR of wildlife such as ants, jaguars, and skin parasitic larvae
- DIFFICULTY of obtaining food.
- DIFFICULTY of maintaining sanity in a crisis situation.
- THREAT of humans in conflict.
This video game shows us how difficult it is for “civilized” people to survive in the jungle.
1. Mystery of exploring lost memories
The main character, Jake, visits the jungle with his wife, Mia, for research and investigation.However, an attack by natives separates him from his wife and he loses his camping gear and some of his memories.On his way to explore the jungle to find his wife, he discovers many suspicious traces, including an abandoned camp, an uninhabited village, and many human bones.What happened in the jungle? Where is Mia?These various mysteries motivated me to play this video game.
2. Trying and Error to Survive
Jake has lost part of his memory from the incident and has no knowledge of survival that he knew before.Because of this, the game player learns how to survive by groping.This survival practice was an intense experience for me.
Treating festering wounds with maggots, using ants to stitch lacerations, all seem painful.Since the medicinal properties of most plants are unknown, when I got sick, I would try unknown herbs, which led to food poisoning that further aggravated my condition and many deaths.It was a lot of trial and error for me, but I enjoyed it very much.
3. It is interesting to think about nutritional balance.
This video game has four different macro-elements in food.These are water, protein, carbohydrates, and fats, and adequate intake of each of these will affect your maximum strength and endurance.Using only a single food that is easy to obtain will result in an imbalance of macro-elements, so a variety of foods had to be used.
Carbohydrates were plentiful in fruits and mushrooms, and these were frequently available on foot, so I was well supplied when I was exploring.However, when I built a camp in one place and stayed there for a long period of time, I needed to go to distant places to forage or farm because food resources would be scarce.I enjoyed the new experience of having these challenges arise as my style of play changed.
4. Lots of cute animals
Many fascinating animals live in the jungle.
The capybara is one of the cutest animals, and it soothes the worn-out spirit of survival. Their meat is nutritious and their bones can be used for crafts, so there is no waste whatsoever.They are an idol of the jungle, good to look at, good to eat, and good to use.
The Poison dart frogs may look very adorable, but they are just as poisonous as their name suggests.Touch them with your bare hands and you risk death, even if you are in good health.
There are many other animals that appear in the game. You will spend your time in the jungle, sometimes comforted by them and sometimes frightened by them.
5. Cool Crafting
The crafting in this video game is not fancy but very realistic.As I drew in the SketchNote, you need a lot of materials and crafting tools to make iron tools.Iron tools are useful but not essential to complete the story mode, so game players have freedom of choice.Players can make them or not, I thought this balancing was great.Indeed, if a man looking for his missing wife starts building a kiln for iron making, it means he is not seriously interested in finding her. LOL
6. Tension brought about by enemy natives
In this video game, there is the biggest threat other than animals: humans.
They are the Waraha Tribe, very aggressive natives.They are really scary.Japanese comedian and survivalist Jimon Terakado once said, “THE most frightening animals I encounter in nature are humans.”
Yes, humans with their wisdom, will, and persistence are the scariest.If you encounter them, armed with spears and bows and in a clique of several people, a split-second decision to fight or flee can mean the difference between life and death.
The first time I played the game, I was walking through the jungle when suddenly a bow and arrow stuck in the ground at my feet, which really surprised me.This situation reminded me of something I had seen in the Japanese mockumentary TV show “Hiroshi Fujioka Expedition” and I had to run for my life.
I also had the not-so-happy experience of bumping into the Waraha tribe when I returned to camp, because I had been using the campfire for a long time and the smoke had revealed their whereabouts.
If you are not well-equipped, it is best to hide in plain sight and run for your life, as you will be outnumbered and outgunned in a fight.However, once you are equipped with the right armor and weapons, you can take advantage of the river, the difference in elevation, and other geographical features to take the fight one-on-one and have a chance to win.Defeating them will bring a return worth the risk, as you can obtain durable items such as bows, arrows, spears, and knives.
These Waraha tribe members are a nuisance in a good way, adding tension and excitement to the gameplay.
7. Multiplayer
This video game allows story mode to co-op in multiplayer.I completed the game with my wife and enjoyed it so much that I played it by myself for a long time afterwards.
These are the 7 attractions that I found interesting in this video game. This is the first time I wrote a long article in English. Thank you for reading to the end.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
