Michigan: Report from Hell, released as Michigan in Japan, is a survival horror game developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and published by Spike. Directed by Akira Ueda, and planned by Goichi Suda the game focuses on a news crew for the fictional Zaka TV, dedicated to covering strange phenomena. The game is unique in the sense that it is played almost entirely though the viewfinder of a camera; and the game is lost if the player runs out of film before solving the mysteries in a mission.
Although the word Michigan by itself usually refers to the State of Michigan or less commonly the University of Michigan, the game takes place in Chicago, Illinois, and is named because the game's phenomena centers around Lake Michigan.
PLOT:
In Michigan, players take the role of a rookie cameraman for ZaKa TV, the entertainment division of the powerful ZaKa conglomerate. Accompanied by Brisco, an outspoken sound engineer, and Pamela, a reporter, the player is sent to investigate a mysterious mist that has descended over the city. The player quickly discovers that the mist is somehow transforming people into fleshy, leech-like monsters with human limbs. Pamela is attacked by the creatures, and is later found in the process of transforming into one. The player, Brisco, and a new female reporter are sent to investigate the source of the monster outbreak.
GAMEPLAY:
Michigan is played from a first-person perspective, as viewed through the recording lens of a television news camera. Players take the role of the cameraman in a news crew, and are accompanied by a reporter and a sound engineer boom operator as they explore the game's locations.
The main method of interacting with the environment in Michigan is to "tag" objects. This draws the attention of the reporter to them, causing her to interact with the object. In combat, players can "tag" an enemy to get the reporter to attack the creature with their weapon. Players can also attack an enemy directly by ramming it with their bodies, although this has limited effectiveness.
The purpose of the game is to film interesting footage by pointing the camera at objects and events of interest, such as documents, monster attacks, and live locational reports given by the reporter.
Players can earn three types of points in the game; "Suspense", "Erotic", or "Immoral". These points are determined by the player's camerawork and what events or objects they choose to focus on. "Suspense" points are the most standard, earned for good camerawork and the recording of interesting events. "Erotic" points are earned for filming up the reporter's skirt, and videoing pornographic magazines lying around the game's levels. "Immoral" points are earned for filming negative events, such as people being attacked by monsters, instead of trying to stop them. The type of points the player focuses on determines which of the three endings they receive (the identity of the player's character, the cameraman, differs in each ending).
The game is notable for multiple action events where the player can determine the fate of various secondary characters. Most prominently, the player's action or inaction can cause the reporter to be killed in a mission, in which case the reporter is replaced by a new character, and the player automatically skips ahead to the next level. Other than the character's death, and the inability to play the rest of the level, players are not penalized for allowing their reporters to die, and can even quickly skip to the game's ending by allowing each of their reporters to die as soon as possible.
CHARACTERS:
* The Cameraman: The player character, a rookie cameraman for ZaKa TV. He is a silent protagonist, who does not speak or appear during the course of the game, until the game's conclusion. His appearance differs depending on the ending the player receives.
* Jean-Phillppe Brisco (voiced by Greg Irwin): The outspoken and excitable sound engineer/boom operator, Brisco will accompany the player throughout the entire game. Unlike the reporters, he cannot be killed during normal gameplay.
* Ann Anderson, Carly Reis, Justine Rhoades, Paula Orton, and Mark Bockwinkle (voiced by Lynn Harris, Terry Osada, Peggy Woo, Rumiko Varnes, and Chris Koprowski): Five reporters for ZaKa TV. If one of them dies, the next in line will replace them as the player's reporter in the next level.
* Pamela Martel (voiced by Bianca Allen): The player's reporter in the game's first level, and ZaKa TV's star reporter.
* Nina Valkov (voiced by Rachel Walzer): The game's only non-random reporter. Nina appears in her own level, and serves as the player's reporter in that level regardless of the fate of previous levels' reporters.
* Deborah: The cold and mysterious chief of ZaKa TV. She sends several ZaKa TV crews to cover the monster outbreak without warning them of the dangers involved. Brisco believes that she is partially responsible for the monster outbreak, but whether or not this is true is never established during the game.
MANUFACTURER'S DESCRIPTION:
Nobody knows how and why this nightmare started. The whole city is covered in thick fog and rotting dead corpses are littered everywhere. As a member of the Zaka TV scoop team the player is sent out on a mission: find his disappeared colleagues and search for the truth behind the myst... and try to get back alive!
In this groundbreaking survival horror the player is placed behind the video lens and will have to resolve many challenging puzzles while filming all the horrors which take place before his eyes.
Features:
* Interactive game scenarios
* Get scoops for suspense, eroticism or immorality points
* More than 15 hours of play
* 5 different endings
* 20 different game areas
FEATURES:
- First person perspective.
- 3D graphics
- Cartoon graphics
- TV, Horror & Mystery themes.
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