The Common Mistakes of Horror Games

[snowman6251]

Honestly I think no music would work in a horror game. Absolutely none. Ever. If its just you trotting through a creepy building with no music then you become very aware of your surrounding and every creaking door, drafty window, and sound in nature becomes terrifying.

Also I think we've come to expect music so having none might be rather unsettling.

Also one of the creepiest music moments for me was in world 3-1 of Demon's Souls. At one point about 1/3 through the level you start to hear a woman singing. There hadn't really been any music in the level up to that point and this level already scared the piss out of me but when I heard this chick start singing I was flipping out. Best of all NOTHING happened. There were essentially no threats in the area where you could hear the music. Still scared me shitless though.

 

[Maximinn]

I disagree with the point about music. Valve showed us with L4D that signaling an event before it happens can often make that event much more scary. You can't keep a player tense and on edge the ENTIRE game. It would be exhausting. I know L4D isn't horror in the same way that Alan Wake is but I think the hearing the tank music and knowing shit is about to hit the fan is much more scary and much less frustrating than if the first you knew about it was when you got hit by a flying car.

I agree that Alan wake went too far the wrong way. The enemies weren't much of a threat since they ONLY showed up when the music was scary and after the slow motion had showed you where they were. I think a better approach would be to have the scary music creep in before the enemies turn up, and then fade out when all the immediate threat enemies have been dispatched. That way the player has to notice the new music, has a few moments frantically looking around for where the enemies are coming from, and then can't relax as soon as the music stops since there might still be one or two enemies that they missed and could still jump them.

 

[Georgie_Leech]

Another solid article, once again justifying my view that you are more than an unreasonable ass when it comes to games. However, if you don't like it when a horror game lampshades the monsters by making the music more tense, why no mention of Silent Hills's radio? It was there solely for pointing out when you were about to be attacked. I happen to have liked it, and I don't mind the music track if it's done properly (that violin in Dead Space being a notable example of not doing it right). I think the dread caused by hearing that music helps add to the horror element, by ramping up the "Oh man, what's behind that _____" to "Oh @#$^% something's about to kill me and I'm low on ammo." An interesting variation I saw... somewhere, was where the music faded out when you were about to be attacked by something nasty. I certainly found it effective, as to this day, even in games like Professor Layton, the music fading out like it does here makes me tense up like I'm about to get jumped.

 

[SantaClouse]

You know, I think there is a pretty easy fix to make quick-time event suck less; use the actual command. Using Yahtzee's example of the cops shooting at you, a perfectly good quick-time event would have been you pressing L1 + Left, to dodge the bullets. Or in Resident Evil 5, when the zombies are on motorcycles in that arena. Instead of pressing square to shoot the chain, it could have you press the in-game fire button.

Cinematic games are generally always going to have these kinds of problems, but I don't see why QTEs use such flow-breaking button.

I personally don't like QTEs but there was one game that i think did it rather well, and it's about the most "cinematic" game i've ever played. Mass Effect 2. the QTEs were simplay press right mouse button or left mouse button depending on weather it was a good or evil thing. it gave the player that sense of "even though this is a cut scene i caused that guy to get shot." or "I stopped that kid from running off to his death." but it wasn't this stupid press x then a then tap b three thousand times. and if you didn't press it in the time allowed the game still proceeded with a different outcome. I hate games like RE4 where if you didn't tap A to sprint then switch your hand and hit L+R at the same time, that's just annoying and dying forty times trying to outrun a boulder breaks what in game tension there was like a sledgehammer to a glass bust of George Bush.

 

[Tallim]

The best horror games I have played always seem to have less than ideal design decisions. Alan Wake was atmospheric but as Yahtzee says is mired by it undermining itself whenever possible.

Forbidden Siren was horribly tense, but also very unforgiving.
Haunting Ground was pretty unique in the way it played and was presented.
If anyone remembers Call Of Cthulhu : Dark Corners of the Earth, that was full of great ideas but also some bad design. The early rooftop chase was crazy but bits you had to learn by screwing up. Tense though.

 

[whaleswiththumbs]

Yahtopia!

[small]edit: the ironic part is i forgot i had a ZP avatar. so now i just look like a massive fanboy, of the guy who hates fanboys.[/small]

-snip-

Anyway, good article. I find myself agreeing with you much, much more in Extra Punctuation than I do with ZP. Although I guess it is obvious why.

Because you can understand him better?

 

[MasterRahl]

Have you played Shadow of the Colossus? That game pulled off most of what God of War does with it's QTE-boss battles, without a single QTE. Not identical, but it's a start. An example of how it could be done.

Yes, it was an amazing game; loved it (besides the world being way way WAY too big). That wasn't really an action game, more so, it was a puzzle game. And a lot of the action were basically 'invisible' QTE's. Example as, jump away (over and x or something like that) when he's about to squash you. Being finicky I know, but an overall point I was trying to make was the QTE's in cinemas allow your character to be bad-ass and you get to control it!

Also you have a bad argument against me because you didn't prove me wrong. You illustrated that it could be almost similar w/o the QTE's. Yes similar, but you don't get to ninja kick one of the bosses in the face (like you do with the God of War battles) in SotC because that action isn't allowed. You get jump, stab, or shoot. And since you only used the bow when you HAD to, jump or stab. It was good, don't get me wrong, in fact I wish they did another game and improved on their idea on it. But it's no knife fight for your life.

I will give you one point that the QTE's could relate more to your usual actions. Example, the normal 'jump' button doesn't mean 'fend attack from above', instead it would be 'hold up and A' to do that.

~Rahl

 

[Formica Archonis]

I can remember a predecessor to the music shift way back in Usagi Yojimbo for the C64, though if I recall correctly the music changed not when an enemy appeared but when you pulled out your sword. Granted, you quickly learned only to do this in the presence of enemies since cutting up peasants is rather frowned upon (bad for your karma - no really), but it was still player controlled.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

Good article, but one thing caugth my eye (guess I'm just dumb, duh):
Yahtzee said at the end that action shouldn't take place in cutscenes.
This was the case (not always, but almost) in GTA IV, which he didn't like.
However, in Saint's Row 2 (which he apparently liked), a fuckload of action happens in cutscenes. Ok, I guess they're meant to establish just how badass the protagonist is, but it's still action in the cutscene.
I've no fucking idea where I'm going with this, but I just had to say it.

 

[Ronin08]

I think I have to disagree a bit with the music sentiment...sort of. One of my favorite moments in gaming (I like to call them "Fuck Yeah" moments) was when I was playing the Earth levels in Halo 3, and was about to fight the first Scarab. For a quick refresher, you enter a door, and, to your surprise, you find a squad of marines with rocket launchers and mongooses (ATV Quads) ready and waiting. You saddle up, and as you ride out the door, squad at your flank, the game's theme starts to play.

Carriers are flying overhead. There's air battles in the sky. You're riding into the heart of battle, and when the drumbeats of the main theme start, all I could think of was one thing.

"Fuck Yeah."

And I gunned the engine. The fight itself was cool, but I was much happier with that brief moment before the battle, where I really felt like I was a super soldier leading a squad of marines on a suicide mission in the middle of a huge intergalactic war. The reason this really worked for me though was partly because that music kicked in. A similar moment happens on the Ark, when you emerge from fighting on the foot out into the open, and find a Warthog waiting for you as the human army, tanks and all, is charging at the covenant horde before you. Music kicks in, The marine's shouting at you to get in, and there's another a ton of Covenant down below that need to be filled with bullets.

There's other moments like that, but I think a well-used soundtrack in an ACTION sequence can be great. In a horror scene, I agree that silence or constant music would be much more effective, but there's a reason that cinema and gaming share some elements, and that shouldn't be ignored.

 

[k-ossuburb]

Well, that pretty much sums up what made SH2 so good since it mostly avoided the mistakes said here. Especially that bit about the music.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

I'm listening to all Yahtzee's complaints, and I'm thinking "Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth."

 

[Falseprophet]

I'm going to note the Army of Darkness maxim: if you have a horror movie where your protagonist is a badass, it is now an action movie. Goes double for games.

With regards to slow-motion headshots - it's silly, but a lot of people like it. There's a whole honkin' demographic of people that play games just to shoot stuff, and they get a thrill when said shooting gets highlighted. It's like a sticker on an A+ quiz. The sticker isn't good for anything, and might even be said to be a waste of perfectly good paper and adhesive. But we like it anyway.

How about including an option to turn that time-wasting stuff off for the rest of us? Then you make everyone happy.

For the record, I like spectacular kill-shots in games, but not when they break the game's flow a la anime stock-footage. For a boss fight, maybe. Bit-Part Demon #39 doesn't need an Oscar-worthy performance. His head crumpling like a smashed pumpkin in real-time is just fine.

As a scientific fact, you can't keep the same music on without the player becoming so used to it that he/she doesn't notice it at all. The scary music would become normal music.

It pains me to say this, as a musician and as a lover of film scores and video-game music since the original NES Castlevania and Mega Man games, but maybe horror games shouldn't have music then. Hollywood movies of the last 30 years or so have become allergic to silence: every scene needs to be awash in either: a) dialogue, b) some pop/rap/rock song, c) an oppressive Hollywood-sounding score, or d) explosions. Sometimes silence, or just background sound, is more effective.

 

[cauby]

agreed with almost everything on this article.Except the part about games based on movies.Didn't yahtzee said once that Spiderman 2(based on the film) was good?
Anyway,yeah the music turning up when monsters appear should be banished,really.When i played RE4 (not exactly horror,but you get the point)I always knew when to ready my weapons because,all of sudden the invisible DJ god started the creepy music.Same thing in Dead Space,Silent Hill and many other games.

 

[Dectilon]

The music transition thing is even more annoying to me in non-horror games. Oblivion is actually a pretty good example. I'm strolling through the woods, minding my own business when suddenly a tiny wolf attacks me. The music immediately switches to its end-of-the-world tune for the 3 seconds it takes you to kill it and promptly goes back to ambient forest music.

It's incredibly jarring and I want it gone. Either just add a light nuance to it, or just make a music piece that can work for more than one very specific situation.

 

[wadark]

I agree with everything except the comments about absolutely NO action in cutscenes. While it is a little lame if it happens too much and too often (see Devil May Cry), sometimes there are things you can do in a cutscene that you can't do in normal gameplay. You can have a much more action packed fight in a cutscene because the movements and things aren't strictly limited by the games controls. You can have acrobatic maneuvers and such in a cutscene that are much MUCH harder to do in gameplay.

As far as QTEs, I think they can be great for making sure that the player is involved in the action-cutscene, and not just watching. But I do have one gripe about most QTEs. Ironically, Shenmue, the game that practically invented QTEs, did it best in that the buttons you're pushing actually correspond to the on-screen events. Pushing a "LEFT" QTE made you character move to the left, pushing the "A" button alawys made you character perform a kick, etc. God of War, by comparison, had comepletely random QTEs, the buttons you pushed had no relevance to the moves that Kratos was performing.

So I think if you make the QTEs actually correspond to the action, and you don't overuse action-cutscenes, they can be used to great effect.

 

[Chirez]

Does Yahtopia need enforcers?

 

[L4hlborg]

As a scientific fact, you can't keep the same music on without the player becoming so used to it that he/she doesn't notice it at all. The scary music would become normal music.

It pains me to say this, as a musician and as a lover of film scores and video-game music since the original NES Castlevania and Mega Man games, but maybe horror games shouldn't have music then. Hollywood movies of the last 30 years or so have become allergic to silence: every scene needs to be awash in either: a) dialogue, b) some pop/rap/rock song, c) an oppressive Hollywood-sounding score, or d) explosions. Sometimes silence, or just background sound, is more effective.

I like that. I was trying to think of creative solutions here, but I guess I was too brainwashed to even concider silence. Great idea. I don't understand why you feel pained as a musician, silence is as important as the sound, since sound would have no meaning without silence.

 

[Falseprophet]

I like that. I was trying to think of creative solutions here, but I guess I was too brainwashed to even concider silence. Great idea. I don't understand why you feel pained as a musician, silence is as important as the sound, since sound would have no meaning without silence.

It only pains me in that I don't like denying musicians and composers paying gigs. Otherwise, I totally agree--silence is often golden.