Michigan: Report from Hell is a
Survival Horror video game developed by Grasshopper Manufacture for the Playstation2. The player controls a cameraman of the Zaka TV news crew who are investigating the strange goings on in Chicago after it's covered by a mysterious fog along with sound engineer Jean-Philippe Brisco and one of six reporters.
The game is played from the first person perspective as the cameraman, rather than take actions himself,
highlights objects for the reporter to interact with, or enemies for her to shoot. If the reporter is killed, the game will skip to the next level where you meet with a new reporter.
Despite some graphical hiccups, God-awful voice acting and a mediocre story, the camera viewfinder perspective adds a level of immersion, and the game serves as a fairly unique experience, as expected of a Suda51 game.
This series provides examples of:
- Anticlimax Boss: The "final boss" and apparent source of the outbreak turns out to be a spastic, mentally challenged man who simply runs back and forth flailing his arms while you shoot him to death. You know this is a Suda 51 game when they use a Big Lipped Alligator Moment for the final fight.
- Anyone Can Die: And you can let them.
- Asshole Victim: If you let her be, Anne.
- Black Dude Dies First: Inverted, Brisco's the last person you see die in the game. Technically second to last if you count the Player Character.
- Captain Obvious: Brisco. Just Brisco.
- Contrived Coincidence/Dangerously Genre Savvy: Some people note that the characters just seem so aware of their surroundings, to the point that, in a part where Justine, a woman you're trying to save, is shackled to a billiard table, everyone immediately comes to the conclusion that they have to put in missing billiard balls to help release Justine. Their course of action was correct.
- Downer Ending: No matter what ending you get, the protagonist dies via assassination (the only difference is his attitude toward the whole thing), leaving the entire thing unexplained and information undisclosed.
- Driven to Suicide: Brisco
- Escort Mission: The whole game; the player character usually can't die himself, but must protect his reporter.
- Giant Spider: A glowing, Australian sized one will jump on, bite, and kill the second reporter unless you knock her out of the way. If spotted early enough it will run off.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Nina allows a monster to eat her so she can blow it up from inside and the cameraman and Brisco can escape.
- Idiot Ball: The characters are prone to stupid moments. Very prone.
- Immune to Bullets: Any monster bigger than a leech.
- Karma Meter: The player can earn "Immoral Points" for actions such as shoving people, allowing the reporter to die or filming strangers in mortal peril rather than putting down the camera to help them.
- Kill 'Em All: No one survives this experience.
- Male Gaze: Similar to Dead Rising, you can earn Erotic Points from recording areas of interest.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The game implies it's genetic tampering causing the monsters, but you see several signs of the supernatural, as well.
- Multiple Endings: But the protagonist dies in all of them, when he's about to reveal what happened.
- Mockumentary: A playable variant.
- Monster Misogyny: The monsters will only attack the female reporters, ignoring the cameraman and sound technician.
- When you get the male reporter Mark, though, the monsters go for him too.
- No Export for You: The game was never licensed for a US release.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog
- Timed Mission: The player has until his film runs out to complete each level, but since they are usually given just over 30 minutes per level, it's rarely an issue.
- Too Dumb to Live: Certain characters go by B-Movie logic, so...
- The Un Reveal: The cameraman is shot before he can disclose who's behind everything,
- Vagina Dentata: A prominent monster type appears to be this.
- The Virus
- Vocal Evolution: Inverted, the voice acting gets worse over time.
- Artistic License - Biology
- Artistic License - Geography: There is a level that takes place in a camping lodge on the mountains somewhere in Chicago. While it is a big city, the nearest mountain range to Chicago is a few hundred miles away, in the east parts of Ohio and Kentucky (and even there, it's a stretch).
- If it's taking place in Chicago, it's not in Michigan.
- "Michigan" refers to Lake Michigan. For some reason.
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