That last sentence actually reminded me of Metroid Fusion. Sure, it's for a handheld, but the scenes in which you encounter the SA-X were INTENSE. You're scared of being noticed by it, not by because of what it is, though. You're helpless, and all you can do is run, run, run.Copter400 said:
Scary games. Can they keep up?
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At the risk of being booed or whatever I have to say that I have no idea why people compare Silent Hill to Resident Evil. SH was created to be our worst nightmare come true, RE is a zombie-slasher. Yes, there are scary moments in RE, but not so many, most of the time you just feel uneasy. For me the ultimate scary level was reached in SH3, with the burning walls, loud noises, monsters hiding in every shadow. I mean come on, even with a flashlight you could barely see a few inches in front of you! The fog was so dense and real that whenever I tried to see what may come from behind it my mind would play tricks on me.
I think that new games can still be scary, but not as much as in the past. True, the graphics should allow games to be way more realistic and thus spooky, but for that you need the all-important element: fearing what you cannot see, but you think is somewhere close. BioShock had that too. I remember spending a good few minutes following a voice without knowing exactly where the splicer was. I started thinking it was just ambient sounds. After I turn around a thing jumps at me, screaming something. Turns out he was exactly behind me.
I think that new games can still be scary, but not as much as in the past. True, the graphics should allow games to be way more realistic and thus spooky, but for that you need the all-important element: fearing what you cannot see, but you think is somewhere close. BioShock had that too. I remember spending a good few minutes following a voice without knowing exactly where the splicer was. I started thinking it was just ambient sounds. After I turn around a thing jumps at me, screaming something. Turns out he was exactly behind me.
Personally, I would love to play a psychological horror game. For example, how about a game where you are sent to track down someone, just a normal, everyday person. As you follow his trail, you find pages ripped out of his journal and dropped on the ground, along with a clue of where he's headed. As you follow the clues, you find more journal pages, and when you put the journal pages together, they show a slow descent into madness, and eventually, you find body parts and blood along with the journal pages, in slowly increasing amounts. That would be an awesome game to play, provided they could somehow provide enemies.
Can they still do scary games? Maybe but as pointed out, you get a weapon, you're fine, no matter what the 5 armed 1 eyed shambling turd looks like.
My idea: Have a SURVIVAL horror game, no weapons, have a decent plot and have the gamer find ways to keep the demons/zombies/monsters/Yahtzee away from them by barricading doors or running like hell. Or if needed finding ways to kill/trap montrosities using the enviroment.
I'd play it if it were well made
My idea: Have a SURVIVAL horror game, no weapons, have a decent plot and have the gamer find ways to keep the demons/zombies/monsters/Yahtzee away from them by barricading doors or running like hell. Or if needed finding ways to kill/trap montrosities using the enviroment.
I'd play it if it were well made
I think there's no real way to judge horror games since everyone is not scared by the same stuff. Personally, I find sillouettes and noises much more frightening then some demon-thing jumping up to gnaw at your face. For this reason, I enjoy series like Condemned because they have that element.
In the end, what makes a horror game good, aside from likeable characters, decent story, blah, blah, blah, is what scares you personally.
In the end, what makes a horror game good, aside from likeable characters, decent story, blah, blah, blah, is what scares you personally.
[/quote]You've never played Dark Corners of the Earth have you?
That games did a good job of being actually scary. You have no weapons for the first part of the game and even when you do get guns there was never enough ammo.[/quote]
With a title like Dark corners of the Earth, I wouldn't have picked it up if I saw it. BUUTTT saying that if a game like that exists, it'll be worth it playing it.
That games did a good job of being actually scary. You have no weapons for the first part of the game and even when you do get guns there was never enough ammo.[/quote]
With a title like Dark corners of the Earth, I wouldn't have picked it up if I saw it. BUUTTT saying that if a game like that exists, it'll be worth it playing it.
Any Silent hill before 4 was great. 4 was..... Bad.
Dark Corners of the Earth was, aside those STUPID FORCED STEALTH SEQUENCES (and equally stupid door-latches that NEVER did what you wanted when you need it!), stunningly scary.
Eternal Darkness. Incredible sanity system.
But yeah. Horrory horror games are becoming rarer, as opposed to actiony games with creepy monsters.
I blame the recent FPS craze. Wait a year or two, real horror will start trickling down again.
Dark Corners of the Earth was, aside those STUPID FORCED STEALTH SEQUENCES (and equally stupid door-latches that NEVER did what you wanted when you need it!), stunningly scary.
Eternal Darkness. Incredible sanity system.
But yeah. Horrory horror games are becoming rarer, as opposed to actiony games with creepy monsters.
I blame the recent FPS craze. Wait a year or two, real horror will start trickling down again.
1. Fast zombies in HL2 were pretty scary, because you could hear them coming a long way off, they jumped around a lot and evaded your attacks, they could push you into groups of other zombies or off buildings, and they were damn scary looking.
2. System Shock 2 remains the scariest game that I have ever played. It's basically Bioshock+Half-Life. It's relatively easy to get a copy of it online now (look for the HOTU version), just make sure you visit Strange Bedfellows and get all the graphical improvements. It's mostly the sound, though.
3. Speaking of Valve again, Left 4 Dead seems to be survival horror done right.
http://www.left4dead411.com/left-4-dead-preview-index
The only problems that I see with this game is that you almost need to have a friend over playing it with you, and there's no PS3 version
2. System Shock 2 remains the scariest game that I have ever played. It's basically Bioshock+Half-Life. It's relatively easy to get a copy of it online now (look for the HOTU version), just make sure you visit Strange Bedfellows and get all the graphical improvements. It's mostly the sound, though.
3. Speaking of Valve again, Left 4 Dead seems to be survival horror done right.
http://www.left4dead411.com/left-4-dead-preview-index
The only problems that I see with this game is that you almost need to have a friend over playing it with you, and there's no PS3 version
There is a new zombie survival were all you do is survive, there are very little guns, mostly melee weapons, you can also combine items to create weapons, like spears, traps, but of course there is a catch, find your girl friend objective, but its optional, but thats better then having to find the cause of the zombies.
http://www.deadislandgame.com/
http://www.deadislandgame.com/
The horror genre is too important to die out. Take it from Lovecraft, horror is ?a composite body of keen emotion and imaginative provocation whose vitality of necessity must endure as long as the human race itself.? Its expression will never die out in any particular medium; it just needs to hinge on a proper sense of mystery and a sense of helplessness in the face of a semiotically significant antagonist.
One of the key problems of making a decently scary horror film, which applies doubly to games, is the visible monster dilemma.
A lot of horror films go to he last possible moment before showing you the full "horror" of the monster- witness the monster POV shots, or scenes where a flash of the arm/claw/tentacle/maw at work, whilst the grisly results are central to the shot.
The full appearance of the monster is reserved for a later point not only because of the way that terrible, blatant latex or CGI effects cheapen an otherwise scary scene, but more because the theme in most monster movies is fear of the unknown (or the dark side of the familiar, known world)
I would cite the differences between the first 2 Alien films (Alien3 onwards can go die a lonely death, preferably in a fire of some kind...) is the extent to which the beast is seen. The same beastie, whilst definitely higher quality than many contemporary creations, is simply not so scary when visible, en masse, and opposed by a black ops team in stand-up winnable firefights as it was when it jumped out of hatches and picked off the civilian crew of a spaceship one by one. Hence Alien = Horror, Aliens = Action.
Obviously this is a difficult problem for horror game designers to tackle- without the visual of the monster, players have nothing to aim at and may not even know when they're supposed to be scared unless some other methods are used.
Zombie movies tend to run opposite to the trend- Zombies are often seen from early on, but I think that revolves more around the escalation into a world-of-the-dead scenario- the horror comes not from the individual scariness of the undead (any able-bodied adult can outrun and/or outfight them 1-on-1) but their crushing force of numbers, the isolation from external human contact (and the inevitable thinning of the survivor group, including inevitable "turning" scenes) and the growing despair of the central characters ever getting out alive.
This may explain the popularity of zombie-survival horror games. Personally, I think a game based on the tabletop RPG All Flesh Must Be Eaten or Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide would be good to see. Games like GTA:San Andreas, Boiling Point, Stalker, Just Cause et al. have given us the sort of mechanics needed for a free-roaming game set over a huge expanse of terrain, where the challenge is provided not by the usual arms-race/ firepower inflation but by wiping out supply posts throughout the course of the game, as the infestation spreads. Make it so an individual has to consider the real time spread of the infection (best of all if this is something (s)he can affect through actions- the decision of who to save in real time would make the game horrific and add replayability) and populate the remaining bastions of humankind with interesting, memorable NPCs.
Any designer who makes this is welcome, providing they break me off a free copy.
EDIT: Having looked at the Dead Island site, it's on the way to the sort of thing I had in mind, but without the kind of scale I had in mind: picture that over a map the size of San Andreas or larger with distinct towns which you can watch fall one by one or fight to defend.
Outposts run by biker gangs, survivalists, the National Guard or what have you, where might makes right and you may have to compromise your moral viewpoint to get that safe bunk, box of shells or even tinned food.
THAT'S survival horror
A lot of horror films go to he last possible moment before showing you the full "horror" of the monster- witness the monster POV shots, or scenes where a flash of the arm/claw/tentacle/maw at work, whilst the grisly results are central to the shot.
The full appearance of the monster is reserved for a later point not only because of the way that terrible, blatant latex or CGI effects cheapen an otherwise scary scene, but more because the theme in most monster movies is fear of the unknown (or the dark side of the familiar, known world)
I would cite the differences between the first 2 Alien films (Alien3 onwards can go die a lonely death, preferably in a fire of some kind...) is the extent to which the beast is seen. The same beastie, whilst definitely higher quality than many contemporary creations, is simply not so scary when visible, en masse, and opposed by a black ops team in stand-up winnable firefights as it was when it jumped out of hatches and picked off the civilian crew of a spaceship one by one. Hence Alien = Horror, Aliens = Action.
Obviously this is a difficult problem for horror game designers to tackle- without the visual of the monster, players have nothing to aim at and may not even know when they're supposed to be scared unless some other methods are used.
Zombie movies tend to run opposite to the trend- Zombies are often seen from early on, but I think that revolves more around the escalation into a world-of-the-dead scenario- the horror comes not from the individual scariness of the undead (any able-bodied adult can outrun and/or outfight them 1-on-1) but their crushing force of numbers, the isolation from external human contact (and the inevitable thinning of the survivor group, including inevitable "turning" scenes) and the growing despair of the central characters ever getting out alive.
This may explain the popularity of zombie-survival horror games. Personally, I think a game based on the tabletop RPG All Flesh Must Be Eaten or Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide would be good to see. Games like GTA:San Andreas, Boiling Point, Stalker, Just Cause et al. have given us the sort of mechanics needed for a free-roaming game set over a huge expanse of terrain, where the challenge is provided not by the usual arms-race/ firepower inflation but by wiping out supply posts throughout the course of the game, as the infestation spreads. Make it so an individual has to consider the real time spread of the infection (best of all if this is something (s)he can affect through actions- the decision of who to save in real time would make the game horrific and add replayability) and populate the remaining bastions of humankind with interesting, memorable NPCs.
Any designer who makes this is welcome, providing they break me off a free copy.
EDIT: Having looked at the Dead Island site, it's on the way to the sort of thing I had in mind, but without the kind of scale I had in mind: picture that over a map the size of San Andreas or larger with distinct towns which you can watch fall one by one or fight to defend.
Outposts run by biker gangs, survivalists, the National Guard or what have you, where might makes right and you may have to compromise your moral viewpoint to get that safe bunk, box of shells or even tinned food.
THAT'S survival horror
Hats off to the guy who said Clock Tower, I was actually thinking that game the whole time I was reading this. That SNES game was TRUE Survivor Horror. You couldn't defend yourself, just run. No guns, no knives, no breakable weapons. Just running. AND, it even had parts when you were getting chased where your character would be paralyzed by fear and you had to mash a button to get yourself unstuck as this psycho, deformed thing crawled toward you with giant hedge clippers.
If you couldn't mash those buttons, you got to watch yourself die.
If you couldn't mash those buttons, you got to watch yourself die.
I was just going to mention that, That looks like something ripped right out of a Stephen King book, and yes it looks scary (hence the developers being Remedy, makers of Max Payne)SwiftVengeance1224 said:
I always thought Max Payne was scary, I mean the dreams of course he had.
I also hate the new Silent Hill 5, they made THAT actiony too, with it's more combat based controls. Best scary game for me would be FEAR, just that little girl, pop-up pictures and moments that make you go OMG!
the last game to truly scare me was FEAR, before that Silent Hill 2. I am looking foward to Project origin
For me silent hill slowed down at 3 and ended at 4. That being said from i prefer the original silent hill over silent hill 2 however becasue i was youngish at the time and was much harder and scared the crap out of memccormick said: