Line #40 VideoGame/BarrowHill


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/barrow_hill_ancient_circle.jpg]]
2	''Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle'' is a [[PointAndClickGame horror adventure game]] created in 2006 by independent developers Matt Clark & Shadow Tor Studios.
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4	The game is set in the site of Barrow Hill, which is based on real geographical locations in UsefulNotes/{{Cornwall}}, England. Forced to spend a sinister night there, you will investigate what is happening to the local people and why an archaeological dig, led by professor Conrad Morse, has created so much unrest and hostility among the local community. During your exploration you will discover the local legends and superstitions, while using modern electronic devices like [=PDAs=], GPS and metal detectors to unfold the mystery.
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6	Like many other games of its genre, ''Barrow Hill'' has every area be only one or two steps ahead of the previous one. As such, it can take up to twenty screens to get from one landmark to another, whereas most games would only take two or three. This leads to EmptyRoomPsych, where most areas have nothing in them.
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8	Finally received a direct sequel, ''Barrow Hill: The Dark Path'', in 2016.
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10	!!Provides the following tropes:
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12	* AbandonedArea: Parts of the dig site are completely abandoned, the petrol station complete with an a running car, and a few other areas you explore.
13	* AbandonedPlayground: A small one, beside the restaurant.
14	* AbsurdlyIneffectiveBarricade: Some of the areas you can access only because the walls have vanished or been torn down.
15	* AncientTomb: It's implied that the whole Barrow Hill is one giant tomb.
16	* ArtisticLicenseAnimalCare: Emma's blog mentions her buying Wincey a mountain cake at the service station. Said cake has chocolate drops for decoration, hence would be toxic for a dog.
17	* BloodyHandprint: You find one or two in your adventures
18	* CampbellCountry: The setting takes place in a spooky Cornwall full of creepy ruins and folklore
19	* CatScare: A few in the area, especially around the dig site, the back of the restaurant, and the woods.
20	* ChekhovsNews: Actually Chekhov's ''Commercial'': one of the radio ads that plays if you leave the wireless blaring is for a product that contains one of the substances you need for the ritual offerings.
21	* CircleOfStandingStones: A stone circle in Cornwall has been breached by an archaeological dig, and the player must re-sanctify the circle to placate its guardian.
22	* ColorCodedElements: The candles in the shrine need to be lit in the proper order, based on the elements their colors represent.
23	* CreepyCrows: Crows will sometimes suddenly appear to startle the player.
24	* CropCircles: The stone circles get treated like this by some clues you find and an audio recording.
25	* TheDanza: Pirate radio DJ Emma Harry is played by...Emma Harry.
26	* DarknessEqualsDeath: Subverted, just because its dark and you can't see doesn't mean instant death here...it just means it's creepier. There are invisible walls up around darkened areas until you get a lantern, so you can't even go into them without a light.
27	* DeadAir: A radio DJ you've just phoned gets chased from her beat-up Winnebago by the stalking menace. If you hang up the phone, go back inside, and check the radio, all you hear is dead air. This can be fixed if you visit the now-abandoned Winnebago and reset the equipment to broadcast a station-identification message.
28	* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Should you run into the sentinel stone during a random event, even if you're silly enough to touch the thing you'll be incinerated like the other victims...then the game will pick up where you just were a second ago.
29	* DisgustingPublicToilet: Well, not all ''that'' disgusting in ''Curse'', but certainly unpleasant. By the second game, they're all but collapsed and very gross.
30	* DontGoInTheWoods: You should heed this advice buuuut [[IWarnedYou you don't]].
31	* EmpathyDollShot: one of the piles of ashes [[spoiler: (that used to be people)]] found near the gas station is right next to a coloring book and crayons. Note that [[spoiler: the closed-circuit video of the attack that created these ash-piles [[HideYourChildren doesn't actually show the child]] it belonged to]].
32	* EvilDetectingDog: Wincey detects the approach of [[spoiler: the Sentinel Stone]] before Emma does.
33	* EvilIsNotWellLit: Justified, its the night of the Autumn Equinox so its very dark.
34	* FeaturelessProtagonist: We know nothing about the player's character besides they were driving around rural England on the night of the equinox. In fact when using items to interact with the environment they usually just float around by themselves so the player's appendages aren't even seen then. We do see a caucasoid arm if they make the mistake of touching the sentry stone, and that's literally it.
35	* FlingALightIntoTheFuture: The unnamed believer in the "old ways" who sealed the key to [[spoiler: the Well's secret chamber]] into the [[spoiler: base of the cross at the ruined chapel]].
36	* FloorboardFailure: Happens when you enter [[spoiler: the barn's loft]].
37	* ForebodingArchitecture: The stone circle counts for this.
38	* FootprintsOfMuck: You find some shoe prints near an out crop of rocks.
39	* FreezeFrameBonus: Sometimes when your viewpoint passes over a window, the silhouette of [[spoiler: the Sentry Stone]] can be glimpsed, lurking outside as if spying on you.
40	* GasStationOfDoom: The most elaborate location in the game is an all-night petrol station with adjoining restaurant and garage. It's creepy and all but abandoned when you first arrive, and gets worse after [[spoiler: the monster breaks into the room where the attendant is hiding and reduces him to ash]].
41	* GhostlyChill
42	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Emma, the DJ, credits her dog Wincey with saving her life when the dog stands protectively between Emma and the Sentinel stone and is reduced to ash.]]
43	* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: It all takes place on the night of the Autumnal Equinox. The second game does too, although [[spoiler: only because Ben's sister chose the ten-year anniversary of his death to try to conjure up an explanation for what happened to him]].
44	* IChooseToStay: [[spoiler: Even though she's been traumatized by the night's events, including the death of her dog and everyone else up on the barrow except the player, Emma decides she has to stay. To make sure the guardian doesn't awaken and wreak havoc again.]]
45	* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: The radio DJ's announcements in the start of the game can be treated like this during the opening movie.
46	* PlotCoupons: The pieces of the shattered relic you need to restore and give back to pacify the Sentinel Stone, but also the offerings of the elements you need to get inside the barrow to do it.
47	* PlotDrivenBreakdown: Near the middle of the game you have to call the radio DJ you were listening to in the opening cutscene to trigger the next plot event. Because of all the mystical power in the air or something, she keeps getting cut off when she's announcing the number until you tune into her show on the [[spoiler:third]] radio you find.
48	* RoomFullOfCrazy: The archeologist's hotel room.
49	* SanitySlippage: Ben, the attendant who locked himself inside the motel office trying to hide from the Sentry Stone. You can knock on the door and get him to talk to you for a little bit, but as you get deeper into the game he starts getting more and more unhinged from fear, until he accuses ''you'' of somehow being the mobile rock that fried those poor motorists to ash out in the forecourt.
50	* ShoutOut: Emma's monologue after the climax is a clear reference to John Carpenter's ''Film/TheFog1980''.
51	** Emma herself makes a lot of ''Alice In Wonderland'' references, both during her radio broadcasts and on the station website.
52	** One of the stones from the Circle is called "Cailleach", which was the folkloric alias of the villain from the classic ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E3TheStonesOfBlood The Stones Of Blood]]". [[spoiler: The game's Sentry Stone is virtually identical to that episode's silicon-based alien menace, the Ogri. The game's lone death scene is even virtually identical to a scene of a camper getting skeletonized by touching the Ogri.]]
53	* SomeKindOfForceField: The stones that prevent you from leaving the area have a variant of energy that blocks you and ripples when touched very much like water.
54	* SmolderingShoes: Many of the piles of ash that [[spoiler: the moving stone]] leaves behind contain partially-charred remnants of the victims' personal possessions.
55	* StoppedClock: ''All'' the clocks and watches you find have stopped at the same instant, and Emma comments that her clock has, too, during one of her live on-air radio bits. The fact that one analog clock's seconds hand is trembling in place suggests that time, itself, is frozen rather than just their mechanisms being interfered with.
56	* TheEyesHaveIt: The stalking menace in ''Barrow Hill'' turns out to be [[spoiler:a mobile stone from an ancient ring of Celtic monoliths]] Ben actually calls it "faceless" in one of his rants.
57	* ThereWasADoor: How the wandering menace gains access to [[spoiler: Ben in the office]]. Understandable, considering that [[spoiler: giant moving stones can't turn doorknobs]].
58	* WavingSignsAround: The anti-dig protesters leave a lot of signs suitable for this trope lying around. [[spoiler: Too bad for them that the Sentry Stone didn't care that they were on ''its'' side about stopping the dig...]]

Context VideoGame / BarrowHill