Free Roaming Survival Horror

[Cory Legros]

So I heard in that in the very early stages of Alan Wakes Development that it was going to be an open world type of game and that got me thinking about exactly what that kind of game would look like.

I actually thought up a few examples like Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare and Fallout 3's DLC point look out but I still feel like its a pretty much a novel idea.

What kind of future do you think games like these have?
If you were going to make one yourself what would it look like?
List more more examples and what you think about them if you can.

 

[trymantha]

free roaming and horror are like ice cream and Tabasco sauce, great alone but why would you mix them?

 

[tehweave]

free roaming and horror are like ice cream and Tabasco sauce, great alone but why would you mix them?

You've never had tabasco flavored ice cream apparently.

 

[MarcFirewing]

It's had to say with Free-Roaming and Survival Horror. That's kinda like Silent Hill even if it did have a linear aspect to it you still got to go a lot of places. It can be done great if it was done properly. Especially with the need to hide in places every now and again to get away from 'the killer' or something.

But this has to be well executed.

 

[googleback]

Alone in the dark 5 had a go but that was just tacked on.
something like I Am Legend would be cool if done right.
What about Dead Rising?

 

[scnj]

There would have to be a randomly occurring invincible enemy or somesuch to keep you on your toes and keep the game tense. Horror very much relies on pacing, which is hard to pull off in a free roaming game.

 

[Gneekman]

When I read "Free-Roaming", "Survival", and "Horror" in the same sentence, what comes to mind is... Minecraft.

 

[Radeonx]

Alone in the dark 5 had a go but that was just tacked on.
something like I Am Legend would be cool if done right.
What about Dead Rising?

Dead Rising isn't a horror game at all.
Any game that lets you run around in a ballerina outfit while wielding two chainsaws on a stick is in no way horror.

 

[Vern5]

When I read "Free-Roaming", "Survival", and "Horror" in the same sentence, what comes to mind is... Minecraft.

I have a feeling that Minecraft is probably the closest thing available as a free-roaming survival horror game. It's like if I am Legend took place in the wilderness.

This gives me an idea. Minecraft needs an alternative single player mode that generates a city with building's of varying hights and sizes. It wouldn't need to look great so long as it has streets, tall buildings and a park. Just imagine how war-torn that city would look after several days of avoiding zombies, cannibalizing building material to make safe-houses and creeper explosions.

 

[DevilWolf47]

I think before we talk "Free-roaming survival horror" someone is going to have to remind these motherfuckers what a real survival horror game feels like.

As for the actual implementation... it sounds difficult to execute. Yeah the total lack of an objective, trying to find out just what the fuck is going on while escaping from monstrosities sounds good in theory, but not enough people know how to take a proper minimalist approach with such a style. Without a feeling of powerlessness and isolation, survival horror rarely works, and with clear objectives and definitive answers you go from survival horror to sci-fi. I just don't see it happening with our current level of talent.

 

[smearyllama]

Rogue Survivor, a Roguelike RPG for the PC.

I suggest it, since it's freeware, and a blast.

Also, DooM the Roguelike is sort of survival-horror.

 

[Ulvai]

Ummm... S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was something like that.

 

[Harry Mason]

Survival Horror is dead, rest it's soul.
I'd like for a new survival horror game to come out, PERIOD. Whether or not it's free roaming is a secondary concern.

That being said, I can't believe no one has mentioned Deadly Premonition.

 

[voetballeeuw]

I think Dead Island is going to be like that.

 

[Seives-Sliver]

With Free-Roaming and Survival Horror together, it would be a lot like Silent hill, the only problem is that a free roam game needs people to populate it and places to go, whereas survival horror has relativly few places that you can enter, all of which are terrifying, and most people you meet are either angry, crazy, or off. Dead Rising is very close to that actually, you had zombies all around, there's the survival part, a mall that was open to everyone and you could explore, and psychopaths trying to kill you along with people that were distraught with what was going on, horror. Dead Rising 2 was even closer introducing a barter system, but I digress. A game like that would be hard to make, and if it was made it would be difficult to sell mostly due to noone knowing really how to handle a game like that.

 

[Mr Companion]

Ummm... S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was something like that.

Yeah my advice, go play S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl. I am no weak willed yellow bellied coward but there is something about the atmosphere in that game that is just terrifying. Its not just me, I tested it on a friend in daylight accompanied by me and another friend, same results, constant jumping at the slighted provocation and unbearable tension. And as for free roaming, you can speedrun to the end of the game in under ten minuets while the standard playthrough time is over 10 hours. You can kill almost any npc you want and the difficulty is legendary.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I don't know about that. Silent Hill was like that until it became linear, but I think the closest you will get is something like S.T.A.L.K.E.R., god that was a pain in the ass to type, and that had a pretty good take on it.

Personally I think survival horror is dead, and it sucks because it's my favorite genre.

 

[Ulvai]

Ummm... S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was something like that.

Yeah my advice, go play S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl. I am no weak willed yellow bellied coward but there is something about the atmosphere in that game that is just terrifying. Its not just me, I tested it on a friend in daylight accompanied by me and another friend, same results, constant jumping at the slighted provocation and unbearable tension. And as for free roaming, you can speedrun to the end of the game in under ten minuets while the standard playthrough time is over 10 hours. You can kill almost any npc you want and the difficulty is legendary.

I prefer Call of Pripyat personally, but if you REALLY want to get your pants brown, get SoC and put AMK mod on it. That's serious. For one they added random blowouts like in Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat.
Imagine: Blowout is coming, you have 45 seconds to get to nearest cover. You run like hell and get in some abandoned railway tunnel just in time, but then, a psy strike darkens your vision, at which point you hear blood-suckers breath (or, worse, chimeras growl) - right behind you. Nothing scripted, but after this, you pause the game to get a breather. And change underpants!

 

[Dr. Feelgood]

I don't think that there could technically be such a thing. In survival-horror games, the events that occur are typically scripted, that would make the horror element difficult to create.