I’ve been aware of DARKFIELD’s immersive audio experiences for a couple of years now, but whenever one of their live shows has previously been exhibiting in the UK, it’s usually been showcasing in London only. While this isn’t exactly deal-breaker, it has meant that I’ve not always been in a position time-wise to get down South and check things out.
However, seeing that DARKFIELD were coming to Bradford this week (very much my neck of t’woods) with their latest project as part of the BD: Festival, I pretty much immediatley booked a ticket right away.
For a bit of context, DARKFIELD describe ARCADE as:
…the latest immersive audio experience from DARKFIELD, but this isn’t an ordinary arcade and these are not ordinary arcade machines. Every machine offers you the chance to enter the world of the game and choose your own unique journey. As you guide your avatar through a world ravaged by endless war, there are many routes you can take and there are many different outcomes.
With this experience being set totally in the dark, and delieverd to the listener via a pair of closed-back headphones…I naturally don’t really have anything I can visually show of ARCADE here! As the experience is stylised take on the choose-your-own adventure format, I also don’t want to spoil anything major in case you want to things for for yourself. If you will permit me to lightly tread into very mild spoiler territory though…
…then let’s just say I found myself in quite a range of exciting moments during my 30-minute adventure in the dark. These ranged from an intense gunfight, a rendevious with an old flame at a fancy resturaunt, a high-speed car chase and an unnervingly quiet section, set in an industrial backroom, which was suprisingly intense. While the particular ending I arrived wasn’t exactly what you might call a happy ending…it was, nontheless, still a lot of fun!
As you might expect with an entirely audio-led experience, ARCADE’s sound design and mix were really well done. There’s some great moments of audio working in tandem with haptics too (I’ll leave that to your imagination) which were very effective at pulling you into the story at key points. It did feel a little intense at times (particularly at moments of failure), and I felt that the brief tutorial drops you in just a tad too quickly without a lot of time to get fully acclimatised to the pacing and controls. But overall, it sounded great and I had a great time!
ARCADE is heading to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival later this year in August, so if you’re fringe-bound and into interactive audio, then I’d say absolutley give it a try.
(P.S. If you’ve read this far, Dear Reader, and you do decide to play ARCADE yourself, then here’s a tip free of charge: DO NOT ANSWER THE DOOR WHEN YOU FIRST WAKE UP! You can thank me later 😉)
