Horror in multiplayer

[dmonkoff]

So, dead space 3 will be out on february 5th, it will have coop and we all know, that from the horror standpoint it will be pretty bad.
But can you do a horror game that will have multiplayer and will be scary at the same time? I think yes.
The problem of the multiplayer is that you don't feel alone anymore.You run with your friend, killing everything around you, joking around and that totally kills the atmosphere.But what if you make the player fear his companion?
For example, two guys walking in the corridor.Then you kinda separate the players.They are in the same corridor, but for each player, their companion was taken by AI.They don't see the transition and AI continues to repeat the actions of the player for some time.Then, at some point, AI attacks them.One of them asks "Why did you attack me?" and the other answers "I didn't...".You see how you can play with it?This will make the players nervous, because the won't know who is real and who is not.And this is where fear comes in.
I don't think it would work in split screen mode but in online multiplayer this should work really good.
What do you think?

PS Guys, english is not my native language, so if you see some stupid mistakes don't be grammar nazi.

 

[dimensional]

What actions would the A.I be repeating unless it really repetitive if you are in contact you should be able to tell when its the A.I and when its your partner or even if your not, as how closely can an A.I mimic a real players actions they would probably be a bit too good or bad all of a sudden or slightly more formulaic than usual. If they did make it work im not sure it would be so much scary as annoying allies suddenly turning on you for no reason at random times would annoy the hell out of me anyway.

Maybe as a one off it could work and would be quite clever in some ways to pull that kind of trick but you would also have to make it so they need each other as whats to stop them just killing each other at the start to stop hassle later on? or even bother entering a multiplayer game if your partner is suddenly replaced by A.I anyway? Of course if you did need each other to succeed then the A.I killing you would be incredibly annoying. You need them to complete the level but they also kill you at random points forcing a restart, Checkpoint or whatever to try and do it again without the same occurance.

 

[OurGloriousLeader]

Adversarial horror multiplayer could work - have a bunch of human players as soldiers or just normal people, and have one or two other players as some sort of supernatural element that can kill them in various horrific ways. I think there's a few mods that do this (The Hidden?) but no mainstream games spring to mind, I guess L4D vs is the closest.

 

[dmonkoff]

It would just take the commands player do and repeat them.If player pressed forward, the player will go forward.Basically, play will still be in control of the character, but at some point the character could go full pscyhr not full pscyho it could just dissapear, which is quite unsettling too.The point is to make the player nervous, and I think it's the best way to do that.

 

[xShredd]

Believe me, while you think that this is a good idea to add the fear element into the game, it really won't and will become very tiresome and annoying in a short time being. In my opinion there are really no scary nor good horror games that has been released, and I don't think that they would be successfull with implementing that into a co-op game.

 

[MrBenSampson]

I think it would be better if something were to happen that seperated the two players, possibly making one of them helpless and in need of rescue. Vent the atmosphere in a room with only one of the players inside, and it would be up to his partner to restore the air or open the airlock. One of the players could be taken by a creature, and his partner would have to pursue and kill it. Some enemies could require one of the players to be bait, while the other player delivers the killing blow or sets a trap.

The problem with my ideas is that the developer would have to make a seperate campaign for the co-op. The co-op in DS3 sounds like they're allowing one of your friends to hold your hand as you play, although it's not much of a horror game to begin with. I played through the demo in single player, and even though it was fun, it wasn't the least bit scary.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Proper horror in a multiplayer setting is pretty much impossible. Traditionally anyway, I would love if someone came up with a completely new spin on horror focused on multiplayer. It would take so much work to refine though, a half hearted, rushed or unthoughtout version would completely suck.

The sort of friendly atmosphere of playing with friends is almost diametrically opposed to horror. Proved by Killing Floor I would say. Playing Killing Floor alone is actually quite scary whereas playing with friends it's just fun. You aren't alone against the horde anymore, you're in this band of asskicking badasses arguing over guns and asking for just an extra £50 plsplspls!

 

[NightmareExpress]

A large part of horror is the feeling of being isolated and cut-off from all forms of assistance.
You can come across other people, but they're largely not very helpful and whether or not they're actually "real" or normal is another possibility.

When you bring another (very capable) person into the mix, a large degree of what makes the environment and situation scary disappears. Some would suggest separating the two players, but I think that would just lead to frustration rather than fear.

It's hard enough to make a "good" horror game, I reckon it's damn well near impossible to make it good and multiplayer.

 

[daveman247]

Adversarial horror multiplayer could work - have a bunch of human players as soldiers or just normal people, and have one or two other players as some sort of supernatural element that can kill them in various horrific ways. I think there's a few mods that do this (The Hidden?) but no mainstream games spring to mind, I guess L4D vs is the closest.

I think fear 3 did this as well. Some players became "the reaper" and could possess other enemies that were running wround the level.


A similar idea is a mode in counterstrike (called double-agent?) where one player is the double agent and has to kill all the other players. Without being caught and killed themselves.


So basically if they could do a horror- themed this (any player could be the monster) and it could work Paranoia would be the main factor i guess.