This from a man who laughs in the face of most general horror filmsFurburt said:
Buy this, it seems, if you want a scare
Amma go youtube it. I'll never buy it
Ideas for theoretical "Scariest Horror Game Ever"
- Thread starter Oneirius
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Buy this, it seems, if you want a scare
Amma go youtube it. I'll never buy it
Evil isn't just a game. It's THE Game.
Where the edge blurs between reality or fantasy.
When you click the mouse and then look out of the window to check you've done it right.
Where you're already playing it...Or are you?
Where the edge blurs between reality or fantasy.
When you click the mouse and then look out of the window to check you've done it right.
Where you're already playing it...Or are you?
Cool idea. What about cavemen horror? Like, you are a lone hunter, you are wearing furs, you are carrying only a flint spear and a bone knife, and you need to deal with horrors from the darkest depths of the human subconscious after the slaughter everybody else in your tribe?toadking07 said:
I find survival horror games as very tricky projects, in its rudimentary level video games are all about control, and horror is all about loss of control. There's a very fine line these games have to walk in order to be interesting or simply good, and if the game missteps it immediately tends to ruin the experience.
When it comes to horror, people say what scares you is the unknown, when you look at it much deeper what's scary about the unknown is whether one can deal with it or not, and it all comes back to control.
A tiger somewhere in the jungle stalking you because it's hungry can be the scariest thing ever, but when you see it in a zoo that sense of fear is immediately lost and you're left admiring the animal.
When it come to video games, the objective is always to win, and in order to do that you need the sense that you have control. For instance the reason cutscenes annoy people is because they feel they have no control of the outcome, there for there's no sense that you've really won a game or not.
So the question now is, how do you take horror which is all about loss of control and make it into a video game.
Now you can bring a lot of great examples like Silent Hill 2 or Fatal Frame, but I never felt in the end those games captured what's needed to be a true horror game. Because the sense of controls were messed up to the point I was playing the game for the "story" and not the gameplay itself....0o
Then you also have games like Dead Space and L4D that are really fun to play, but aren't scary in the slightest bit.
It's a very thin line, and it's very difficulty to say how it can be crossed well.
When it comes to horror, people say what scares you is the unknown, when you look at it much deeper what's scary about the unknown is whether one can deal with it or not, and it all comes back to control.
A tiger somewhere in the jungle stalking you because it's hungry can be the scariest thing ever, but when you see it in a zoo that sense of fear is immediately lost and you're left admiring the animal.
When it come to video games, the objective is always to win, and in order to do that you need the sense that you have control. For instance the reason cutscenes annoy people is because they feel they have no control of the outcome, there for there's no sense that you've really won a game or not.
So the question now is, how do you take horror which is all about loss of control and make it into a video game.
Now you can bring a lot of great examples like Silent Hill 2 or Fatal Frame, but I never felt in the end those games captured what's needed to be a true horror game. Because the sense of controls were messed up to the point I was playing the game for the "story" and not the gameplay itself....0o
Then you also have games like Dead Space and L4D that are really fun to play, but aren't scary in the slightest bit.
It's a very thin line, and it's very difficulty to say how it can be crossed well.
The best type of horror is not from the monster getting you. It is from the monster coming to get you. In a game, when the monster shows up: lock and load, let's kick some arse. This is why the last third of Dead Space is not scary. It's hard to be scared of the final boss unless you stop and truly think about that it is...and then you aren't afraid of it, it just makes you sick and you want to stamp it out.
Games that play with your mind are a must here - the creaks and subtle hints of a coming threat. Picture this: a long corridor, along which a crowd of people are commuting. Then, suddenly, without warning, one of the people is grabbed by an unseen force and dragged below. Then another..then another. Panic would set in amongst the crowd of dwindling NPCs and your character, and they start making crazy choices. Do you attempt to sacrifice people to the mysterious force? Do we just run? BUT STOP. What is attacking you?
The answer is that you don't know. Nothing is scarier than a story where the monster is never seen but shows its hand and shows it well. Arguably the scariest episode of Doctor Who, for example, involves creatures that are immobile when in the sight of any living thing, and of course it can't kill you...but as the episode puts it, "then you turn away, then you blink..and oh, yes it can". Cue many scenes involving characters staring at immobile but grasping and visibly ravenous enemies with watering, bloodshot eyes while scrambling for a solution to their problem.
Of course, that's not a game, but imagine one that exploited that. How about my idea: a PS3/Wii (motion sensing) exclusive. You're trapped with an ongoing, invulnerable threat, and must find a solution, and it's constantly hammering on the door, chasing you through open space and screaming for your flesh. You can drop the controller at any time and that will stop the monster in its tracks, but you'll get no closer to fully escaping your torture. So do you dare to pick up the controller and open yourself to attack but also to potential salvation? Or do you hurriedly turn off the console and tell yourself you'll be able to face it tomorrow..?
Games that play with your mind are a must here - the creaks and subtle hints of a coming threat. Picture this: a long corridor, along which a crowd of people are commuting. Then, suddenly, without warning, one of the people is grabbed by an unseen force and dragged below. Then another..then another. Panic would set in amongst the crowd of dwindling NPCs and your character, and they start making crazy choices. Do you attempt to sacrifice people to the mysterious force? Do we just run? BUT STOP. What is attacking you?
The answer is that you don't know. Nothing is scarier than a story where the monster is never seen but shows its hand and shows it well. Arguably the scariest episode of Doctor Who, for example, involves creatures that are immobile when in the sight of any living thing, and of course it can't kill you...but as the episode puts it, "then you turn away, then you blink..and oh, yes it can". Cue many scenes involving characters staring at immobile but grasping and visibly ravenous enemies with watering, bloodshot eyes while scrambling for a solution to their problem.
Of course, that's not a game, but imagine one that exploited that. How about my idea: a PS3/Wii (motion sensing) exclusive. You're trapped with an ongoing, invulnerable threat, and must find a solution, and it's constantly hammering on the door, chasing you through open space and screaming for your flesh. You can drop the controller at any time and that will stop the monster in its tracks, but you'll get no closer to fully escaping your torture. So do you dare to pick up the controller and open yourself to attack but also to potential salvation? Or do you hurriedly turn off the console and tell yourself you'll be able to face it tomorrow..?
Nice, could also play on the idea that man is not the top of the food pyramid, or that there are some of prehistoric horrors that exist at this time too. I wish I could find it but I remember hearing about some developer that was playing around with a caveman game idea, but I don't remember it exactly now.Oneirius said:
Also, great points brought up by the ^above^ comments!
@Normanslander It is a very hard thing to balance, making the game hard but not too frustrating, making a player connect with their character enough to fear for their safety in the game. I think a slow and ultimately unstoppable enemy is probably scarier than a fast enemy you can kill with a few shots. Obviously this thread wouldn't really exist if it was easy to make a horror survival game.
@KitAlexHarrison Your last idea is an interesting one, and it could be done a little similar too and work well I think. I'm not sure if the wii/ps3 can detect if you're holding the controller or not, but it could probably work just the same if you had to face the enemy and walk backwards, but whenever you moved, it moved, and it moved just a little faster than you. So there's a drama of if it's going to reach you before you reach the door.
@Aptspire I had to look up the 'Water of Mars' but I knew about the 'Dont't Blink Angels' and something just like that would be perfect! Monsters that do more than just your basic charge and attack are what more games need! Something that acts unexpectedly. Like a creepy enemy that just follows you around closely. He does attack you unless you trigger him somehow, maybe a random control button that if you use that action he'll attack? making players afraid to do certain tasks in front of him?
Another thing to think about on that note is the Like Like from Legend of Zelda. Now I can't say I know all the enemies of the tLoZ world, but this one reminds me of my friends and I desperately trying to avoid this thing and shouting like crazy when it got too close. Not because it was all that tough, but because it ate your shield. That was something as a player we were afraid of.
How would I design the scariest horror game ever? Hmm, that's a good question.
Well, it would be in this old Northumberland mansion.. and you would be this guy in a hat... fighting these dudes with-
Ah, it's probably easier to say it would look exactly like this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.182918].
While you're investigating the latest crime scene, however, you begin pursuing a man you believe to be the suspect through the derelict building, culminating with him getting the drop on you, killing a police officer with your gun, and tossing you out of a third story window.
When you come to, you are on the verge of being charged with policeman's murder. After making a narrow escape, you set out to clear your name while tracking down the man who framed you. What you find is one of the most sinister villains in recent memory, set against the backdrop of a city brought to its knees by widespread, unexplainable violence and an ever-increasing undertone of a macabre, supernatural presence pulling all the strings.
Condemned: Criminal origins was a landmark title not only for its unparalleled writing, atmosphere, pacing, and subtlety, but for conveying these things so well by breaking free from the tedious and counter-effective conventions by which the survival horror genre has always been held back. I hold up the writing, level design and characterization in this game as some of the best in gaming history.
Its sequel, Bloodshot, attempted to take a game about serial murder and beating hobos to death and make it darker and edgier. The result was decidedly less impressive, and the series is pretty much dead because of it.
Well, it would be in this old Northumberland mansion.. and you would be this guy in a hat... fighting these dudes with-
Ah, it's probably easier to say it would look exactly like this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.182918].
Condemned: Criminal Origins is an amazing game in which you play Ethan Thomas, an investigator with the Serial Crimes Unit of the FBI. Simply put, you hunt serial killers, the latest of which has been dubbed 'the Matchmaker.'Oneirius said:
While you're investigating the latest crime scene, however, you begin pursuing a man you believe to be the suspect through the derelict building, culminating with him getting the drop on you, killing a police officer with your gun, and tossing you out of a third story window.
When you come to, you are on the verge of being charged with policeman's murder. After making a narrow escape, you set out to clear your name while tracking down the man who framed you. What you find is one of the most sinister villains in recent memory, set against the backdrop of a city brought to its knees by widespread, unexplainable violence and an ever-increasing undertone of a macabre, supernatural presence pulling all the strings.
Condemned: Criminal origins was a landmark title not only for its unparalleled writing, atmosphere, pacing, and subtlety, but for conveying these things so well by breaking free from the tedious and counter-effective conventions by which the survival horror genre has always been held back. I hold up the writing, level design and characterization in this game as some of the best in gaming history.
Its sequel, Bloodshot, attempted to take a game about serial murder and beating hobos to death and make it darker and edgier. The result was decidedly less impressive, and the series is pretty much dead because of it.
Like a Ninja Gaiden level difficulty psychological game? Comes with a strait jacket too right?Manji187 said:
Here's and idea for you to judge: what if instead of playing with the universal, basic fear every human has of being completely alone, we try instead to focus on the dissonance of being suddenly alone after getting used to being with people. Say, the game is about a person who is haunted by strange blank areas of his memory from when he was a child that he simply cannot remember. Now, things that might be related to his very specific, very suspicious amnesia start happening again. He is trying his best to live his life normally, but he also starts visiting an experimental psychologist who tries to help him with hypnosis and hallucinogenics and stuff.
So the game is divided to two big parts: in one, you live the life of the man in the real world. You wake up in the morning. You go to work. You talk to people, you sleep with your girlfriend, stuff like this. Sort of like Persona 4, if you ever played it. A life simulator.
But try as you might, you can't ignore the holes in your mind, and the things that might dwell there. Horrors that only you can see will sometimes appear. Unexplainable, terrifying phenomena will become more and more frequent as the days pass.
When you need release from the nightmare that your life has become, you go meet the doctor. And when you are heavily drugged and hypnotized, you enter in your mind to a strange, alien, terrible realm full of monsters. In the this black place, you are alone. There is an eerie silence. No light anymore, not the sound of people speaking or cars going down the street.
It's just you, and the darkness, and whatever lies within.
You can hit the emergency button any time, of course. You start screaming and crying and twitching and the doctor wakes you up from the dream-state just before that giant caterpillar with the baby face and the vagina for a mouth manages to eat you.
But if you escape your fears... how will you ever beat them? The player has to reach a balance: to spend just enough time in the "waking world" to let off some stress and regain his senses(the character never gets actually injured, of course, so only mental health is in danger here) but when he is back to full power it's once again time to dive into the nightmare in order to figure out what is going on.
What do you think?
So the game is divided to two big parts: in one, you live the life of the man in the real world. You wake up in the morning. You go to work. You talk to people, you sleep with your girlfriend, stuff like this. Sort of like Persona 4, if you ever played it. A life simulator.
But try as you might, you can't ignore the holes in your mind, and the things that might dwell there. Horrors that only you can see will sometimes appear. Unexplainable, terrifying phenomena will become more and more frequent as the days pass.
When you need release from the nightmare that your life has become, you go meet the doctor. And when you are heavily drugged and hypnotized, you enter in your mind to a strange, alien, terrible realm full of monsters. In the this black place, you are alone. There is an eerie silence. No light anymore, not the sound of people speaking or cars going down the street.
It's just you, and the darkness, and whatever lies within.
You can hit the emergency button any time, of course. You start screaming and crying and twitching and the doctor wakes you up from the dream-state just before that giant caterpillar with the baby face and the vagina for a mouth manages to eat you.
But if you escape your fears... how will you ever beat them? The player has to reach a balance: to spend just enough time in the "waking world" to let off some stress and regain his senses(the character never gets actually injured, of course, so only mental health is in danger here) but when he is back to full power it's once again time to dive into the nightmare in order to figure out what is going on.
What do you think?
I don't think that inevitable death/doom/destruction is the way to go. If it's inevitable, it wouldn't frighten them. If a death was involved, it would have to be sudden and unexpected. That said...
If you really wanted to invoke fear, you would need something psychological. Say a man sees his family murdered by some type of creature. That would be just a bit unnerving. Say, instead, you watch an opening sequence of a loving father with his family. He comes home from work, they eat dinner, they are, for all intents and purposes, a happy family.
Then, he comes home, and sees them brutally murdered in front of his eyes. That shocks the player. Then, one of the monster/enemy/things (great use of words, right?) think that they see something. They begin to search for him. You have to hide, but you know it won't do for long because they are turning over furniture with ease looking for you. They rip off closet doors.
The player feels that they will be found. Just then, they leave the house, convinced it was nothing. The player comes out of hiding. It was a trick... two left, but one remained. You are unarmed, and you know that you can't fight. You are trapped in a small house, but you can't leave because two more are outside, waiting. Something that gives a sense of hopelessness, but where you still have to try and think and escape.
Just my thoughts.
If you really wanted to invoke fear, you would need something psychological. Say a man sees his family murdered by some type of creature. That would be just a bit unnerving. Say, instead, you watch an opening sequence of a loving father with his family. He comes home from work, they eat dinner, they are, for all intents and purposes, a happy family.
Then, he comes home, and sees them brutally murdered in front of his eyes. That shocks the player. Then, one of the monster/enemy/things (great use of words, right?) think that they see something. They begin to search for him. You have to hide, but you know it won't do for long because they are turning over furniture with ease looking for you. They rip off closet doors.
The player feels that they will be found. Just then, they leave the house, convinced it was nothing. The player comes out of hiding. It was a trick... two left, but one remained. You are unarmed, and you know that you can't fight. You are trapped in a small house, but you can't leave because two more are outside, waiting. Something that gives a sense of hopelessness, but where you still have to try and think and escape.
Just my thoughts.
Who says the player character needs to see it. Maybe have only one (seemingly) minor NPC sees it instead.MelasZepheos said:
Of course, it's handiwork still remains gruesomely visible. That'll ensure a sleepless night or two. kihihihihihihihi...
Bonus if things happen that seem humanly impossible.
I haven't played too many horror games, I'll have to give you that. Some of the games I've played and like did have really fucked up parts - Max Payne, for example, when you're on drugs... Of course, when I played it I was like 10 so the effect might have been different but running through snow falling down over nothingness, forcing to crawl over unreal tubes suspended over that nothingness and hearing endless psychotic laughing of some deranged man talking about a fictional comic book character from the game (it was something about killing people with baseball bat) while someone is crying and being beaten on in the background. That was pretty freaky.
Other then that, there's always the cheap startling option... And of course, the whole "distant stalker" thing can become really creepy in the right environment - I remember playing one of the early AvP games, probably the first one, the beginning of the human campaign. At one point you had to restore power to an elevator and, well, use it to lift yourself against a practically flat cliff into further passage. It's very dark and empty... But as you almost reach the "top floor", you notice Aliens climbing this absolutely vertical cliff. They're too far to actually hit, you can only see them from afar - there are only like 2 or 3 of them. They keep their distance, slowly climbing behind you... And then you're finally further into some kind of dark corridor, and you can barely discern various ventilation shafts around you, and you KNOW that aliens will come through them sooner or later and still hear those 2 pursuit you from outside.
Okay, I still haven't pitched an idea... How about this: It'd start out as a fairly usual supernatural horror game. There is a handful of survivors, and some really creepy, fucked up monsters that seem really threatening. But at some point into the game, you realize that the monsters aren't what you should be really afraid of, it's your own fellow survivors that are the true horror. And you probably end up fleeing them or murdering them in a graphic display of gore, your victims both being innocent and at the same time menacing - and the sense of danger has to be VERY real, and the same for the acts of violence against them.
Basically, yeah, huge twist - you end up hunting down your fellow survivors and end the game killing the last one in some small exposed room or building with see-through walls/ huge windows. There's a lightning storm and whenever there's enough light you can see true lovecraftian horrors pressed against the windows. Then you kill the last survivors and wonder... Am I still the survivor? Or am I one of the monsters? Of course, for more freedom there could be more paths to the game - you could try to avoid the other survivors even after seeing then obvious evidence of them trying to kill you. But that would make you even more hunted, both by the strange monsters and the survivors. Or you can back away from the deed only to be backstabbed by the other survivor, possibly then continuing playing from his or her point of view.
In short, the premises would be: It's dark, strange and "shitting bricks" level of fucked up and unreal. The people seem real and the writing should make real attempts to make you care about other "survivors". But in the end the real monster is the player, and all that is done from a perspective of a helpless game, not some kind of cold blooded hunter one can consider oneself in certain FPS or semi-horror games.
How about that?
Other then that, there's always the cheap startling option... And of course, the whole "distant stalker" thing can become really creepy in the right environment - I remember playing one of the early AvP games, probably the first one, the beginning of the human campaign. At one point you had to restore power to an elevator and, well, use it to lift yourself against a practically flat cliff into further passage. It's very dark and empty... But as you almost reach the "top floor", you notice Aliens climbing this absolutely vertical cliff. They're too far to actually hit, you can only see them from afar - there are only like 2 or 3 of them. They keep their distance, slowly climbing behind you... And then you're finally further into some kind of dark corridor, and you can barely discern various ventilation shafts around you, and you KNOW that aliens will come through them sooner or later and still hear those 2 pursuit you from outside.
Okay, I still haven't pitched an idea... How about this: It'd start out as a fairly usual supernatural horror game. There is a handful of survivors, and some really creepy, fucked up monsters that seem really threatening. But at some point into the game, you realize that the monsters aren't what you should be really afraid of, it's your own fellow survivors that are the true horror. And you probably end up fleeing them or murdering them in a graphic display of gore, your victims both being innocent and at the same time menacing - and the sense of danger has to be VERY real, and the same for the acts of violence against them.
Basically, yeah, huge twist - you end up hunting down your fellow survivors and end the game killing the last one in some small exposed room or building with see-through walls/ huge windows. There's a lightning storm and whenever there's enough light you can see true lovecraftian horrors pressed against the windows. Then you kill the last survivors and wonder... Am I still the survivor? Or am I one of the monsters? Of course, for more freedom there could be more paths to the game - you could try to avoid the other survivors even after seeing then obvious evidence of them trying to kill you. But that would make you even more hunted, both by the strange monsters and the survivors. Or you can back away from the deed only to be backstabbed by the other survivor, possibly then continuing playing from his or her point of view.
In short, the premises would be: It's dark, strange and "shitting bricks" level of fucked up and unreal. The people seem real and the writing should make real attempts to make you care about other "survivors". But in the end the real monster is the player, and all that is done from a perspective of a helpless game, not some kind of cold blooded hunter one can consider oneself in certain FPS or semi-horror games.
How about that?