Ideas for theoretical "Scariest Horror Game Ever"

[Oneirius]

Game design threads are done all the time, they are usually very bad, and they usually fail after two days and two pages. That never prevented anyone from opening them, so... Yeah, I guess I'll open another one for the lulz.

Here's the idea: we want to make the scariest game ever. I am not talking shock here, I am talking fear. Deep, pure, refined fear. Terrifying, horrifying, madness inducing high octane nightmare fuel the would turn players into catatonic husks/broken piles of shuddering flesh/scribbling obscene icons on the walls of their room gibbering. As usual with such projects, assume we have all the cutting edge technology, unlimited time & money etc.

What would you put in such a game? It doesn't have to be a whole idea for the game it self- it should not be and probably can't be. But give me some elements here. What kind of hero would we have? General themes of the environment? What will be the game style? What kind of music would play in the background? Themes for the storyline, perhaps?

What do you think would make for a really, really scary experience?

 

[Woffles]

Took me awhile to track down the review, but there was this review of the Resident Evil series as a whole and its current direction. It had some really good ideas to make the games scary again, most of which I would love to see happen.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.184382-A-Princess-Worth-Saving-Resident-Evil#5554530

 

[Mr. In-between]

Setting: You are me and you live in a world where only FPS & MMO's exist. There are no other types of games.

Scariest. game. ever

 

[Iron Mal]

The scariest game I could ever imagine would be one that requires you to kill yourself via ritualistic mutilation at the end with a rusty tool (by 'you', I mean 'you, the player').

I am being serious actually, it would have to be a game that you could never play more than once since one of the most prominant sources of horror is the unkown and the uncertainty of what's in that dark hallway.

If you go back for another go after you've completed the game then you know what's there, you know what to expect and you can steel yourself for (or may have just grown used to) the horrors that disturbed you the first time around.

Most things stop being scary when you know what they are and are familiar with them.

 

[Almgandi]

Plot: Day X Time XX:XX:XX and suddenly all the porn on the internet vanished

 

[temporalcrux]

A Cthulhu worshipping game. Basically a Russian-roulette religion!

"Our God is hungry, everyone draw straws..."

 

[Professor M]

A game where you're permanently ineffectual against the monsters. Not like forced stealth, I mean a game where literally the only option is to run because those things are going to get you.

It would also be good to have an ending where you aren't even supposed to live, where through out the whole game you're told you're going to die, and you spend the duration searching for ways to protect yourself and save yourself.

But there is no protection from dying, and die you shall

 

[Oneirius]

Indeed, I, too, think that there is a great potential for fear to be found in inevitability.

 

[Andy_Panthro]

For me, all you'd need to make is Alone in the Dark (1992) [http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/alone-in-the-dark] but in shiny new graphics. It already has voice acting (for the CD version anyway) and great music, just needs the visuals brought kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

 

[Wolfram23]

It would have to be dark/creepy dungeony. Monsters that were unkillable. I'm taking a bit from a game trailer I saw where you have no weapons, but since I like guns, it would be cool if you had light guns but they aren't near powerful enough to kill monsters so you can only wound them (like cause them to fall by shooting the leg) and then run and hide... and hope for the best.

Plot wise, I like the Dead Space plot and think it's pretty creepy. But a little less action and a little more "HOLY FUCK I NEED TO HIDE! AAHH!!!" Basically it could be a mostly "stealth" game.

Monsters would have to be horribly grotesque. Would be cool if monsters fought eachother in disgusting and totally gruesome ways (like ripping limbs) so you know just what's in store for you if you get caught.

There could be some thing like the monsters get fried in light so that would give you a safe haven/save point (but only real full spectrum sun light).

Imagine having to do a room puzzle to progress, but also have to avoid the scariest monsters of your nightmares while activating switches or whatever it is. Yikes!

 

[GiantSpiderGoat]

5 Grandma's one bucket.

/end thread

But more seriously. Being a young child aboard a Giant Space ship with the only other passenger is your father. You and him are flying it to Earth to dock it there and hand it over to some space company there. But along the way your ship is pulled into an asteroid and strangely you loose most of the power to the ship. Your father then see's what he thinks is another ship. He leaves you in the ship, to go check it out. Due to there only been one space suit.

While he is walking towards what he thinks to be a space ship, you as the child see bug like alien creatures following him. Banging on the computer board infront of you a Dim red light is lit. One of the creatures turns around and notices you. Suddenly half of the group of aliens break off to go find you.

Now only been a child inside a spaceship that you can not leave and one with very little power. You must find a way to survive and contact your father, hoping he makes it out alright.

The aliens can crawl on walls, are at least as intelligent as humans and are more adapted to the darkness.

 

[Hstgonzo]

A 40k horror game where you get the REAL horros of the warp. Whisper of temptation, warped flesh, true madness and the game screwing with you ala Eternal Darkness.

 

[Oneirius]

5 Grandma's one bucket.

/end thread

But more seriously. Being a young child aboard a Giant Space ship with the only other passenger is your father. You and him are flying it to Earth to dock it there and hand it over to some space company there. But along the way your ship is pulled into an asteroid and strangely you loose most of the power to the ship. Your father then see's what he thinks is another ship. He leaves you in the ship, to go check it out. Due to there only been one space suit.

While he is walking towards what he thinks to be a space ship, you as the child see bug like alien creatures following him. Banging on the computer board infront of you a Dim red light is lit. One of the creatures turns around and notices you. Suddenly half of the group of aliens break off to go find you.

Now only been a child inside a spaceship that you can not leave and one with very little power. You must find a way to survive and contact your father, hoping he makes it out alright.

The aliens can crawl on walls, are at least as intelligent as humans and are more adapted to the darkness.

Can totally, completely see it in front of my eyes, made by the guys who made "Spirited Away". Awesome idea.

 

[TylerC]

Starting of a game, in a nice suburban town, as a little kid. You're playing on a swing set, with your friends, and family sitting on the back porch. Suddenly you hear thunder, but it's not thunder...then everything gets bright (from atomic bombs) and you then fade into the present day, as one of the few survivors, eventually the game brings you to that same suburban town, and that same swing set from the beginning of the game. Or is killing children over the top?

Oh well, you scour the world, looking for other people to unite under one roof, to settle in the small but unaffected areas. You'd use your hands, knives you may find, and broken guns, which you could use to create new weapons with other weapon parts. But of course these would be unreliable, and you'd have to use things like rocks, or old ammo for bullets (sort of like Metro 2033). The enemies would range from survivors descendants that evolved into eyeless masks, with slits for their mouth and noses, but they'd have razor sharp teeth. They live in the darkest areas, and without the need for eyes, their other senses are sharpened. To wild animals, that you could barely tell what they used to be. And even some predators that are damn near impossible to kill. Will you go hide, or risk your life and weapons for a chance of food and fat from the animal, along with weapons that may be stuck in its hardened flesh.

On that last point, you'd always need to find food, water, shelter, and fuel to burn - such as animal fat, or oil, or lighters you find in bombed out buildings. Without a place to sleep you risk being attacked or robbed at night. Without food and water you can't survive, you're health drops faster and you move slower. In some places where the sun doesn't shine, or if you find yourself in a cave, or a subway station, or if its at night and your looking for shelter, you'll need a light and fuel to burn.

To make things even worse, you won't only have to collect random items to find to equip as armor, but clothing too, as some places are below freezing, while others are to hot for your coat and pants.

Animals and other enemies would fight each other over food and water, so you could wait and kill the weakened victor, or maybe even sneak around them.

That's all I have for now, and obviously a lot of this seems cliched, but I find that whole I NEED clothes, weapons, shelter, and food to survive, really intriguing.

 

[HT_Black]

First and foremost, subtlety is a must. Do you remember that scene in Dead Space when you're in the elevator and you see the hunter lurching down the far hall? Or the playground scene in Metro 2033, where if you look to the left, you can see a dark one watching you before leaping away? The best way to induce brick-s******g is to convince the player that they're being stalked without the enemy ever showing up-- because once they'ce actually appeared, they can be killed. You can only run from a shadow.

 

[Brandon237]

The scariest game I could ever imagine would be one that requires you to kill yourself via ritualistic mutilation at the end with a rusty tool (by 'you', I mean 'you, the player').

I am being serious actually, it would have to be a game that you could never play more than once since one of the most prominant sources of horror is the unkown and the uncertainty of what's in that dark hallway.

If you go back for another go after you've completed the game then you know what's there, you know what to expect and you can steel yourself for (or may have just grown used to) the horrors that disturbed you the first time around.

Most things stop being scary when you know what they are and are familiar with them.

One way to counter this would be a "variable system" so that the game difficulty can change slightly and most encounters only have a 1 in 3 chance of happening.

It should be a game in which ammo is scarce and all the fights are hard, but not impossible. Having to think adds immersion. One of the reasons dead space failed at horror is because after half the game I was tearing through enemies like a chainsaw in a newspaper factory. Your weapons, upgrades, new suits and rapid skill increase turned the game into a slaughter fest.

The game should always be slightly challenging, the variable system could even apply to the lesser boss fights, resulting in a: WTF? that wasn't there the first time!!! That could surprise all but veterans of a certain game.

 

[Blimey]

Silent Hill 2 + Fatal Frame + Eternal Darkness = The most get-in-your-head-and-fuck-about-with-it game ever. Hell, I don't even know if I'd play that shit, it'd just be far too intense.