Sanity Meters
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
I have to agree. If a character is feeling something that the developers want the player to feel, adding something as over the top as a meter is a big mistake. If it's done right, the player should be feeling that emotion anyway.
I have to bring up Bioshock 2 as an example of a morality choice done right, (ie. without being punished or rewarded, with no meter in sight.)
SPOILERS XXX Near the end of the game when the bombs start to go off, (and even a little bit before that), you walk into various rooms with people rocking back and forth on the ground, holdings their heads and shaking. That posed a big question to me when I played. The people who I was observing hadn't provoked me in any way. But they could just as easily stab me in the back the second I turned around. Making the decision to let them live was a very difficult one, which was why I loved it. XXX END SPOILER
I have to bring up Bioshock 2 as an example of a morality choice done right, (ie. without being punished or rewarded, with no meter in sight.)
SPOILERS XXX Near the end of the game when the bombs start to go off, (and even a little bit before that), you walk into various rooms with people rocking back and forth on the ground, holdings their heads and shaking. That posed a big question to me when I played. The people who I was observing hadn't provoked me in any way. But they could just as easily stab me in the back the second I turned around. Making the decision to let them live was a very difficult one, which was why I loved it. XXX END SPOILER
Eternal Darkness is the prime example of how the mechanic should be used, though, I have to admit, the biggest flaw it's that it gets old easily.
I didn't know about Eternal Darkness. That's a pretty neat idea, if only as cheesy as Mr."YOU SEEM TO LIKE MARIO SUNSHINE" in Metal Gear over there
I like the Eternal Darkness approach the most of the bunch but I think sanity meters should be invisible. Don't tell us how sane we are, that way when crazy shit happens I'll be like "Holy shit what the fuck" rather than "oh my sanity is low".
Also I think if your sanity gets too low the game should start conjuring things like fake enemies that disappear when you attack them or something like that. Get you to be unsure as to whether or not you want to use your ammo on the monster as it might be fake.
Also I think if your sanity gets too low the game should start conjuring things like fake enemies that disappear when you attack them or something like that. Get you to be unsure as to whether or not you want to use your ammo on the monster as it might be fake.
Oi, it's called, "Metal Gear Solid." And that was a stroke of genius mind you!GrinningManiac said:
I think Eternal Darkness uses the sanity meter in the best way possible. Actually making the player think they're insane the first time they see an effect is awesome.
I still agree that the player's reaction should be the only real "sanity meter", but incorporating Psycho Mantis-like effects can really draw a player in.
I still agree that the player's reaction should be the only real "sanity meter", but incorporating Psycho Mantis-like effects can really draw a player in.
Gotta agree with everything you said about Lovecraft these days. Yeah, I still love his work, but it doesn't really scare me, or make me tense up. I can only imagine how scared shitless I would have been if I could have read it back in the days before humanity started to succeed in ruining the mystery of the universe.
Sanity bars kind of irk me. Part of me thinks its a good way to make a horror game more difficult, therefore making it scarier. But at the same time, as you said, a good horror game should actually have me feeling what the player character feels.
Good article though. Any time you write about a survival horror game, I love it, as its my favorite genre.
Sanity bars kind of irk me. Part of me thinks its a good way to make a horror game more difficult, therefore making it scarier. But at the same time, as you said, a good horror game should actually have me feeling what the player character feels.
Good article though. Any time you write about a survival horror game, I love it, as its my favorite genre.
That American McGee's Alice comment was one of the funniest things I've seen all day.
Oh, and, yeah, when you think about it, the meter in Indigo Prophecy was a tad stupid. But, you know, great game and all.
Still, I think there might be use to sanity meters, provided they don't use them to plug cheap effects like the one in Amnesia.
Oh, and, yeah, when you think about it, the meter in Indigo Prophecy was a tad stupid. But, you know, great game and all.
Still, I think there might be use to sanity meters, provided they don't use them to plug cheap effects like the one in Amnesia.
ah, eternal darkness, the game I replayed atleast 4 times to get all the runes and to get the "real" ending, and oh how many times I ended up walking around a room with blood on the walls, limbs falling off and sudden body burst and then the infamous deleting save files 'cause they are corrupt...I like Eternal Darkness, good game 
Oi, it's called "Metal Gear Solid Snake." And that was a stroke of MADNESS mind you!JaymesFogarty said:
I have to agree that Amnesia's sanity meter wasn't particularly well implemented.
However, it did serve a purpose. It discouraged the player from getting a good look at the monsters. And if you did try to get an eyeful your vision would go blurry anyway. It also added a little bit of complexity to the whole hide-in-the-shadows thing.
However, it did serve a purpose. It discouraged the player from getting a good look at the monsters. And if you did try to get an eyeful your vision would go blurry anyway. It also added a little bit of complexity to the whole hide-in-the-shadows thing.
My favourite sanity effect in Eternal darkness was after beating an episode being told "the story continues in the sequel!". Modern game designers apparently didn't notice it was a sanity effect and started copying away...
Lovecraft was a cheap pulp author back in his day, maybe his works just were never scary.
Lovecraft was a cheap pulp author back in his day, maybe his works just were never scary.
Sanity meters never worked in the original Call of Cthulhu pen & paper game either. It's basically a way to force a horrific cost out of player characters whose default reaction would be to sleep through the utter boredom that informs the first 90% of your typical Lovecraft module. And in Arkham Horror, the sanity meter is essentially a second health meter (neither of which can go to zero), only it's also your mana pool for spells.
I love story based games and have never gotten behind forth wall breaking HUD devices like the sanity or good/evil meter.
I think for narrative sanity to work in a game is to not have the player know when the character has gone insane (my logic is that crazy people don't know their crazy). Narrative sanity should work with changes in the characters behavior, ranging from subtle actions/irrational responses to normal situations/and the more extreme in having full blown visual and auditory hallucination and not just like the ones seen in Eternal darkness, A game could employ phantom enemy's that only effect the character and cannot be kill or even fought.
I think for narrative sanity to work in a game is to not have the player know when the character has gone insane (my logic is that crazy people don't know their crazy). Narrative sanity should work with changes in the characters behavior, ranging from subtle actions/irrational responses to normal situations/and the more extreme in having full blown visual and auditory hallucination and not just like the ones seen in Eternal darkness, A game could employ phantom enemy's that only effect the character and cannot be kill or even fought.
I think the main problem with them is that in the lovecraft books people didnt go insane just because it was scary it was because the beasties operated on a different set of physics or similar that a human brain just couldnt cope with obviously this would be difficult to bring into a visual medium
I am in agreement. The experience totally threw me. i placed my controller on the floor and he moved it... HE FUCKING MOVED IT USING THE POWER OF HIS MIND :OJaymesFogarty said: