So I am way late on the bus to this, but I recently played and finished FEAR, mostly because I want to know the bits of the story in time for FEAR 3. That said I am rather disappointed in the game, as I never felt scared while playing, and I'm not hard to scare, Ravenholm (from Half-Life 2) makes it hard for me to move forward and there were times I spent ages huddled up in a corner because I heard a headcrab zombie in the area and I didn't want to be surprised by it, even though it wasn't a major threat to me. So I found it weird that a game that freaked out the guy that played through part of Ravenholm for me did not scare me at all. So I want to make a list of it's faults and some ideas that might make it better, and I would like your help, because I believe an action-horror game is possible and can be excellent.
One of my friends responded that FEAR had you play as a dual-wielding, time-slowing, badass that did flying and sliding kicks, and that it wasn't a great way to make the player scared. I disagree, I think if you had the character be a badass doesn't necessarily make the player not feel vulnerable. But it does bring up an issue
Time slowing- The time slowing mechanic is an integral part of the gun play, and it helped make the guns feel dangerous and powerful, as you could see the impact of individual shots. But it undermined the horror aspect, in the first expansion they introduced a creature that was invisible except for the glowing-red eyes. Normally these kinds of enemies scare the hell out me. In Ravenholm, not seeing a headcrab and having it leap at me from the corner of my freaked me out. But in FEAR when these guys end up surprising me I just slow time and aim my shotgun at their head. Getting scared also has the effect of making me jump and sending my aim at the ceiling on the computer, or crouching on accident, which made things worse, fear itself was a powerful disadvantage. Perhaps take the time slowing mechanic out of the players control sometimes, like if every once in a while it activated like the spider sense when danger was near, and then rarely activated for no other reason than to mess with the players heads
They advertise a hallucination- you HUD flickers and the box at the top says Incoming: Unknown. Also they only happen when you are alone. What they could do to liven things up is to have a hallucination occur in the middle of a pitched firefight then have you end the hallucination in the middle of the room, with all your enemies dead in some horrific ways.
The health system- knowing exactly how much health you had seemed poor, I can understand not wanting to have regenerating health in a horror game, it makes all of your mistakes count. But knowing that I had a lot of health and medpacks made me feel more secure. This worked in Half-life 2, because the poison headcrabs made your health irrelevant, a single bad mistake could easily kill you.
Firepower- The fact that most of the time I had a particle weapon that could turn enemies into clouds of fine red dust, that I kept just in case the shit hit the fan made me feel unafraid. Sticking me with a weak weapon like a pistol or having something knock me over and have me struggle desperately for my life at close range could help this.
Use Squad members more effectively- Give me a squad to oversee, then gradually get picked off one by one due to monsters, for extra guilt and fear make a few of them avoidable by the players decisions of skill.
Have an enemy be batman- Not literally of course, but when I played Arkham Asylum I got the feeling that Batman was like a monster that a large group of people with guns were terrified of. This is also a part of the Half-Life 2 mod The Hidden: Source, in which one player controls an invisible, cannibalistic monster that hunts and kills a squad of well trained and equipped agents. The feeling that you are being hunted can dramatically increase the tension.
So what do you all think, anymore ideas? Are any of my ideas bad?
One of my friends responded that FEAR had you play as a dual-wielding, time-slowing, badass that did flying and sliding kicks, and that it wasn't a great way to make the player scared. I disagree, I think if you had the character be a badass doesn't necessarily make the player not feel vulnerable. But it does bring up an issue
Time slowing- The time slowing mechanic is an integral part of the gun play, and it helped make the guns feel dangerous and powerful, as you could see the impact of individual shots. But it undermined the horror aspect, in the first expansion they introduced a creature that was invisible except for the glowing-red eyes. Normally these kinds of enemies scare the hell out me. In Ravenholm, not seeing a headcrab and having it leap at me from the corner of my freaked me out. But in FEAR when these guys end up surprising me I just slow time and aim my shotgun at their head. Getting scared also has the effect of making me jump and sending my aim at the ceiling on the computer, or crouching on accident, which made things worse, fear itself was a powerful disadvantage. Perhaps take the time slowing mechanic out of the players control sometimes, like if every once in a while it activated like the spider sense when danger was near, and then rarely activated for no other reason than to mess with the players heads
They advertise a hallucination- you HUD flickers and the box at the top says Incoming: Unknown. Also they only happen when you are alone. What they could do to liven things up is to have a hallucination occur in the middle of a pitched firefight then have you end the hallucination in the middle of the room, with all your enemies dead in some horrific ways.
The health system- knowing exactly how much health you had seemed poor, I can understand not wanting to have regenerating health in a horror game, it makes all of your mistakes count. But knowing that I had a lot of health and medpacks made me feel more secure. This worked in Half-life 2, because the poison headcrabs made your health irrelevant, a single bad mistake could easily kill you.
Firepower- The fact that most of the time I had a particle weapon that could turn enemies into clouds of fine red dust, that I kept just in case the shit hit the fan made me feel unafraid. Sticking me with a weak weapon like a pistol or having something knock me over and have me struggle desperately for my life at close range could help this.
Use Squad members more effectively- Give me a squad to oversee, then gradually get picked off one by one due to monsters, for extra guilt and fear make a few of them avoidable by the players decisions of skill.
Have an enemy be batman- Not literally of course, but when I played Arkham Asylum I got the feeling that Batman was like a monster that a large group of people with guns were terrified of. This is also a part of the Half-Life 2 mod The Hidden: Source, in which one player controls an invisible, cannibalistic monster that hunts and kills a squad of well trained and equipped agents. The feeling that you are being hunted can dramatically increase the tension.
So what do you all think, anymore ideas? Are any of my ideas bad?
