How does one make the end of a horror game feel climactic without completely ruining the atmosphere?

[AnonymousTipster]

I haven't played too many horror games that get this right. Most mainstream horror games tend to devolve into action games, more or less, in their endgames/finale.

The older RE games did this. Hard to keep the tension up when you've got a grenade launcher, magnum, etc and plenty of ammo by the end of the game. And fleeing a secret lab or city or what have you while a self-destruct sequence or a bomb's timer counts down doesn't belong in a horror game, it belongs in a Michael Bay flick.

It doesn't turn into an action game, but even Silent Hill 2 falls flat on its face in its final battle.

I had high hopes for the first Condemned, especially when you get to the farmhouse and you spend the first maybe fifteen or twenty minutes there without even a weapon. But nope, not too long until it craps the bed. And the endgame of Condemned 2 is even worse.

Anyway, don't really have time to go through all the horror games I've played one by one, but the general trend seems to be that developers try to ramp up the action to deliver an exciting finale, but they just end up crapping on what the game had going for it.

 

[oplinger]

...Well that's just it, if a game didn't give you a epic ending with a huge fight with the antagonist or something it'd be a shitty game. Because we're ridiculous.

Really Penumbra Overture had the right idea. Even if it wasn't really the end. You go through everything, and right when you can taste something epic coming...

Spoiler

you get knocked out and the game ends.

Having the antagonist win would actually be a great way to end a horror game. If they did it well. It'd keep with the feeling of helplessness and such.

But we can't have any of that. We like to win.

 

[da-geezer]

Alan Wake's endgame was unusual; sure it fell into the cliché of 'ramping up the action', but at least it felt as if you was fighting a personification of something much more powerful than you, which you had been hunting throughout the game.

I'm a big fan of Japanese horror flicks such as Ringu and Ju-On, and their endings seem to be scarier because they've not gone down the Hollywood road of one man/woman saving the day and becoming the hero. It's scary because the protagonist is not likely to survive, which makes the scenes even more tense.

There aren't many games which take this line towards the end of a story, because it doesn't have that feel-good factor. I'd certainly be more scared at a game's climax if I knew that the odds were stacked against me.

 

[da-geezer]

Alan Wake's endgame was unusual; sure it fell into the cliché of 'ramping up the action', but at least it felt as if you was fighting a personification of something much more powerful than you, which you had been hunting throughout the game.

I'm a big fan of Japanese horror flicks such as Ringu and Ju-On, and their endings seem to be scarier because they've not gone down the Hollywood road of one man/woman saving the day and becoming the hero. It's scary because the protagonist is not likely to survive, which makes the scenes even more tense.

There aren't many games which take this line towards the end of a story, because it doesn't have that feel-good factor. I'd certainly be more scared at a game's climax if I knew that the odds were stacked against me.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Play Penumbra (Overture and Black Plague) and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. These are prime examples of how horror in games should play out.

 

[Solon_Mega]

The problem as I see it is that we tend to look at the Ending scenes to judge if they were good or bad. But it takes a hole game to make a great ending. Let me explain:

During the game your char goes through a plot, in which we get to know more about him/her and any NPCs in the story. The more emotional meaning is put in these interactions and the more suspense there is the intentions of these characters the more we are going to get involved in what happens to them.

The Char brother dies. Good game = Oh noooooo. Bad game = So what, next!
The Car overcomes impossible odds. Good game = Amazing, can't believe it! bad game = What? No archivements?

Long story short: What makes a good ending is a good start, and a good development. The same ending can have totally different meanings depending on how emotionally invested you are in the story.

EDIT: Apologies for my English. I am aware it sucks. I'm working on it.

 

[oplinger]

Play Penumbra (Overture and Black Plague) and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. These are prime examples of how horror in games should play out.

..Penumbra overture played out like a baby learning to walk. ...It was kinda scary to stand up for the first time...you don't know what you're doing...you fall over a lot..

And then you learn to walk, and...pfft, it's not a problem. You can literally run by every threat ever in the game, with no consequence. The ending was just really good. But it's not how a horror game should play out. ...well except the ice lake. ..That needs to be in more games. >.>

The real problem with horror games is once you understand the threat, it's no longer scary. And finding out the threat is a major plot point of the game. After that, it can no longer be scary unless a new threat is introduced. So it is reasonable for you to just combat the threat for the climax, rather than keep the horror going when you -know- what it's all about.

 

[Solon_Mega]

Play Penumbra (Overture and Black Plague) and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. These are prime examples of how horror in games should play out.

Funny how all the good examples in this thread come from the same developer, Frictional Games. They seem to have a good grasp on how to build a great atmosphere that as Yahtzee puts it: "Its unmatched as a constipation aid"

I've only played Amnesia the dark descent. And I still did not see the ending. But judging by how its been building up tension for me, whatever happens it's gonna be meaningful.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I think the way Silent Hill games end is pretty good. You are normally left just as confused as you were when you started the game. Yes, you survived the immediate threat to you, the main character, but that uneasy feeling of "It's (whatever It is) still out there, and can come back any time." remains. I think explaining everything at the end of a horror game tends to ruin it, because it takes away the mystery. Leaving people guessing, without leaving them annoyed, is the way to go.

 

[The Wykydtron]

The end of Dead Space 2 was pretty good with the mind battle and how they start rolling the credits early and the cool little in joke at the very end (what? XD)

Though the after the credits bit was a bit fail

 

[BuggDoubt]

main character gets cheapshot at a door. the atmosphere is one of bleak, unyielding, doom ridden terror so why break that with some sort of survival story? the main character is just some schmuck who happens to get far enough down the rabbit hole to find that this is not a rabbit hole at all (before the not rabbit removes several vital organsin a tastefully done classical music drama shot) and we were privileged to come along for the ride. finality, climactic action, exposition, AND the space for sequels in the same world. Remove the character, preserve the idea, scare the pants off and back on (repeatedly) your audience.

 

[Jedamethis]

I think legging it would be good, if it was done well. After all, I think that's what most of us would do in that situation...

Perhaps finding the source of whatever the problem is, then hearing...something. Being knocked to the ground, and then dropping everything and running. Running until it either catches up and kills you from behind, or you get far enough away that it recedes.

Perhaps you could even win, by leading the [whatever] into something that would kill it.

 

[Xanadu84]

In my opinion, horror games are scary when they reflect a real, mundane fear. Lets take Lovecraft: Its said that Lovecraft is scary because it portrays humankind as small, fragile, insignificant beings in a vast, uncaring and cold universe. Once the mosters are defeated, the characters are still left in a cold, unfeeling universe, and the fact that its down one tentacle monster doesn't really cheer you up that much. A horror game can end on that note. Maybe the hero is triumphant, and his life is saved, and that provides a catharsis, but the knowledge that the true horror is still alive and well makes the game terrifying. Take "The Ring" for example. At the end, sure, the lady and her son are safe. But the ghost is still out there, perhaps even more powerful because of the experience. A good horror game, I think, ends with a the monster dissapearing, only to show just how scary everything else is.

 

[CODE-D]

It can be awesome like dead space or poetic like resident evil 4(rocket launcher to the face...aww everything feels right with the world.)

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Play Penumbra (Overture and Black Plague) and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. These are prime examples of how horror in games should play out.

..Penumbra overture played out like a baby learning to walk. ...It was kinda scary to stand up for the first time...you don't know what you're doing...you fall over a lot..

And then you learn to walk, and...pfft, it's not a problem. You can literally run by every threat ever in the game, with no consequence. The ending was just really good. But it's not how a horror game should play out. ...well except the ice lake. ..That needs to be in more games. >.>

The real problem with horror games is once you understand the threat, it's no longer scary. And finding out the threat is a major plot point of the game. After that, it can no longer be scary unless a new threat is introduced. So it is reasonable for you to just combat the threat for the climax, rather than keep the horror going when you -know- what it's all about.

Actually the major problem with Horror games/films/books is that once you're brain says "I know this is fake and it won't fool me anymore" it ceases being scary. There is no real peril in games and once you start playing for the sake of playing the game loses the appeal.

That happens with any game that hands you a gun/rifle/BFG and says they are bad, go shoot. Because once you realise that you're arsenal is more dangerous then their claws/teeth/bile you become self assured. Penumbra and Amnesia were new experiences for me and in that sense I didn't have a clue what was going to happen next and what I should do if it happened. Every reaction was a gut reaction, even the bog standard oogy boogy boo moments made me react viscerally (slight yelp and frantic movements to get my character out of there).

The fact is, if you can't suspend belief you won't get such a reaction. This means anyone who plays a game and analyses it while playing automatically ruins the experience for themselves. Some games make this happen by design fault, other times its the player who approaches it like a round of TF2 or some platformer and fails to let himself be immersed. Penumbra and Amnesia immerses you. On my first playthrough for each game I did them in one sitting (2-5 hours straight is nothing really) and physical and mental exhaustion actually added to the experience for me.

 

[AnonymousTipster]

I haven't played either Penumbra game, but I HAVE played Amnesia.

And, well, while it is extremely atmospheric and it is definitely a breath of fresh air (so to speak) at a time when all mainstream horror games seem to be turning into tense action games, it is not that amazing.

To be honest the best horror game released last year was Limbo. Sure, it's a platformer, but it's unnerved and unsettled me more than any game I've played in years. The creepiness and atmosphere also last after the first playthrough. For Amnesia, not so much.

 

[Jfswift]

Metroid 2, though technically an action game is creepy as hell, right up to the end, never knowing what grotesque creature lurks around the next corner. I don't think the end boss matters really - they could have dropped a watermelon there and it wouldn't change anything.

 

[fates_puppet13]

simple
no action ramping
maybe an "shit-shit-shit-leg-it"
but what you really want is something that is seriously going to keep the gamer up at night

like say...you have to flee from a vast array of monsters or a boss or summin
due to some event that makes you lose all your good weapons
such as getting flung across a room of the floor collapsing
then to build tension by losing any indicators of satus of the player or any potential enemies
escape the threat
then build an atmosphere of hopelessness and a feeling of being trapped
onece the atmosphere is sufficiant
releace the tension with a monster attacking
lock out the players control to be as minimal
a first person camra wouldn't go a miss for this sequence
this being the few appropriate time for QTEs but should not be registered as such
here is also a good point to make the player do something distasteful like frantically hack a limb off to escape the monster
reveal a simple weapon i.e. first weapon they get (if they have one)
have a QTER to reach out and grab it
let them turn around and... cut out

yes it may seem lazy but if you built up an empathy for the character they it will leave a sense of worry and anxiety
if you place it in easily familiar irl settings you'll create a sense of dread and panic

if anyone wishes to critisize they can i pretty much thought of it off the top of my head :L

 

[Trolldor]

Horror Games need be be played in reverse. You should be a Juggernaut at the beginning, and you get worn down over time to become this frail, vulnerable thing.

 

[AnonymousTipster]

Horror Games need be be played in reverse. You should be a Juggernaut at the beginning, and you get worn down over time to become this frail, vulnerable thing.

Actually...that could be pretty awesome if done right.