I was thinking about this while reading in another thread about games that scared people to the point of not being able to continue playing. Of course, you had your usual answers: "Amnesia made me shit myself." or "Condemned and their damn psycho manequins!" But I noticed that a lot of posts had portions of the games that dealt with some under-water segment or some segment involving water period. Now, I don't claim to be immune to this (as a matter of fact I still get panic attacks when I hear the jingle that tells you that Sonic is drowning if that tells you anything) but is water really that off-putting to gamers as a whole? Or am I the only one that cringes in half terror when I see pixelated H2O?
Is water really THAT scary in our video games?
- Thread starter Brutalis317
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Can I just ask if you've actually played the 'water' level in Amnesia?
I'm sorry but...fucking hell.
It's used as a device to amplify the invisible. It's extremely clever, in my opinion. It's not the water that's scary, it's the entity which expresses itself in it.
...or something like that haha.
But yeah, 'that' bit in Amnesia was an exceptional piece of work in gaming craftmanship, I feel.
I guess terror is subjective though. So mmh.
...if any of that made sense...I'm not sure.
I'm sorry but...fucking hell.
It's used as a device to amplify the invisible. It's extremely clever, in my opinion. It's not the water that's scary, it's the entity which expresses itself in it.
...or something like that haha.
But yeah, 'that' bit in Amnesia was an exceptional piece of work in gaming craftmanship, I feel.
I guess terror is subjective though. So mmh.
...if any of that made sense...I'm not sure.
pixelated H2O doesn't bother me at all, however I would like a pee in the pool option in a video game every now and then.
Ive never found it scary but I have never played Amnesia so dont know what thats like, usually my reaction to water used predominantly in a game level or section is noooooooo! because I strongly suspect the next bit will be horribly tedious and boring as memories of things like sonics underwater levels (labyrinth?) and Ocarinas water temple fill my mind or even tomb raider 2s abyssmal (ass cam) water sections.
Sometimes they are done well but its not rare for them to turn out to be a chore that needs to be got through to get to more fun bits at least for me anyway so I guess I would call water in games more of a nuisance usually than anything scary.
Sometimes they are done well but its not rare for them to turn out to be a chore that needs to be got through to get to more fun bits at least for me anyway so I guess I would call water in games more of a nuisance usually than anything scary.
In my case, yeah.
I have a mild phobia of deep water. Basically, if I can't see the bottom, I don't want to be in it. I don't freak out or anything, but it makes me distinctly uncomfortable. After all, there could be anything down there. That sometimes extends to video games (same as how some people don't like playing games with giant spiders in them).
I've said this multiple times before, but I still think that an underwater survival horror game would be fantastic. Drifting through the water to the sound of your own filtered breath, catching glimpses of a great, formless, tentacled mass sliding through the dark water, so large that your feeble light source only illuminates a fraction of its body.
Go on, tell me that wouldn't work.
I have a mild phobia of deep water. Basically, if I can't see the bottom, I don't want to be in it. I don't freak out or anything, but it makes me distinctly uncomfortable. After all, there could be anything down there. That sometimes extends to video games (same as how some people don't like playing games with giant spiders in them).
I've said this multiple times before, but I still think that an underwater survival horror game would be fantastic. Drifting through the water to the sound of your own filtered breath, catching glimpses of a great, formless, tentacled mass sliding through the dark water, so large that your feeble light source only illuminates a fraction of its body.
Go on, tell me that wouldn't work.
Water usually makes you a thousand times more vulnerable. That's what makes water scary. If you go in that water, you don't know what's there. and all your good weapons don't work.
Fucking raptor alien laser death fish or some shit, armor plated, with big freaking teeth. And you're this fleshy pink blood sack armed with a knife and the movement speed of a snail in salt.
It's pretty scary. Unknowns and stuff.
Fucking raptor alien laser death fish or some shit, armor plated, with big freaking teeth. And you're this fleshy pink blood sack armed with a knife and the movement speed of a snail in salt.
It's pretty scary. Unknowns and stuff.
it's scary in sonic, I have always hated water in that game because when the timer starts to count down you find a air pocket but the air bubble will come after you have already died. there is a game on the xbox live arcade (not sure if its on playstation) that had a good idea but the gameplay sucks. I can't remember the name other than Deep in the name but its a underwater shooter.
Water has a history of damning a level into being bad, this is only because it hinders us. To be fair, it would be cool to have a dead space 2 DLC set in some underwater thing (an aquarium maybe)
One of the only things that makes me totally lose my shit is the way deep water looks. It doesn't matter if I'm looking at the deep end of a pool, the continental shelf, or the dark water in that one pipe level in Super Mario Bros. 3 that you fall into. It's not so much what's in the water, but the way it's dark and heavy and you drown in it. The water you have to swim in in Half Life 1 and 2 probably freaks me out the most.
I hear about the fears of facing water and this is the first thing that comes to mind...
Even back then, I was afraid of swimming because my father was a crappy swimming instructor (just threw me in the deep end and then fished me out). Now my fears were following me to my favorite video game character. When I first jumped into Hydro City, I was like, "Aww, man. I'm going to drown a lot."
In any case, the feeling of diving into water without any real sense of confidence that you will not drown is a fear that does not need to be nerve racking to make you nonetheless pity your character when you unsuccessfully lead them back to the surface or find some method to prolong their underwater prowess.
Even back then, I was afraid of swimming because my father was a crappy swimming instructor (just threw me in the deep end and then fished me out). Now my fears were following me to my favorite video game character. When I first jumped into Hydro City, I was like, "Aww, man. I'm going to drown a lot."
In any case, the feeling of diving into water without any real sense of confidence that you will not drown is a fear that does not need to be nerve racking to make you nonetheless pity your character when you unsuccessfully lead them back to the surface or find some method to prolong their underwater prowess.
I think most water hatred in games comes from the simple fact that water levels are usually the hardest and/or most annoying with their unique control schemes, altered physics and rarely seen enemies.
There are some honestly great scary water moments in games too though. Hydrophobia used water to great effect in various ways (which is only right given the name of the game). Also, some of the underwater sections in the Tomb Raider series are just brilliant for their fear factor. Watching that air meter empty none too slowly as you race to navigate through traps and twisting corridors is extremely tense.. and even more so when you realize that once you've hit that switch you have to go all the way back again without being able to take a breath.
There are some honestly great scary water moments in games too though. Hydrophobia used water to great effect in various ways (which is only right given the name of the game). Also, some of the underwater sections in the Tomb Raider series are just brilliant for their fear factor. Watching that air meter empty none too slowly as you race to navigate through traps and twisting corridors is extremely tense.. and even more so when you realize that once you've hit that switch you have to go all the way back again without being able to take a breath.
Well, don't like water in games and it's because I've played games. See, the water itself is not a problem, it's just that probably 3 out of every 4 games put annoying and nasty mosters in it (well, that was an old ration - it may have changed lately). And to top it off, not only is the monster ugly and vicious but also you're at a disadvantage in the water - you can be attacked from every direction, you are slower, your fighting will most probably be affected (not all weapons may work, or their performance may be reduced), vision would also be affected, you (usually) have a limited air supply and there comes a choice between breathing (plus the extra swimming to the surface) or fighting. All that just amplifies how hard, and hence "scary" the monsters you put in there are. And as I said the monsters themselves aren't fluffy bunnies.
This is called a bone leech
It is most commonly found in water.
And you cannot get it off, so it's a sure death. Well, unless you decide to blow yourself and survive and whatever else is around there (like more bone leeches) doesn't finish you off.
It is most commonly found in water.
And you cannot get it off, so it's a sure death. Well, unless you decide to blow yourself and survive and whatever else is around there (like more bone leeches) doesn't finish you off.
Do people actually believe that stuff about our wildlife or is just a running joke?DustyDrB said:
'Cause it's really not that bad here.
Granted, there are ants that can kill you and a bite from most of the snakes means a visit to the emergency ward and I found one of these creepy motherfuckers [http://api.ning.com/files/a9W9JQFbr1wVa1CxeQ10EodttwpnlR-Lv1Me7ZQGTh3W4CdFO3MXhCigGUczmmCu5Tzu9EBAya1RJa387xUva0nzNRMz1rOx/huntsmanspider.jpg] in my shoe yesterday, but really, it's not as bad as people make out.
Arrrghhh....why did I click...Zhukov said:
If I found one of those in my shoes, I'd probably have to crash at a friend's house for a few days while my terror subsided.
Yeah, it's mostly just what I hear about the spiders that makes me not want to go to Australia. Snakes don't really bother me. I beat one to death with a very large stick last week when I found it slithering around the yard in a spot where my dog likes to play.
But the view on your wildlife is probably a result of people like me who spend way too much time browsing the Encyclopedia of Life.
Like all horror I think it is entirely dependent on the person. I have a friend who doesn't like the sea, and she can't stand underwater sections in games. Me? Water doesn't seem scary, unless you chuck Cthulhu in there.
As people have said above, the water is just a tool. My college psychology class used water as an example when we were studying fear. Water is effective because humans function very poorly in it (how's that for irony, being almost entirely composed of it, and depending completely on it), we can't breathe it, our vision is severely hindered, our locomotion is very ineffective in it, and we know very little of what dwells in the deep. This is also why movies like Jaws were so scary in their time, and I'm not sure I recognize hydrophobia as an actual phobia, because a phobia per definition is irrational. Being afraid of water is not. Speaking only for myself, I'm very comfortable with water, I grew up with it, and it doesn't bother me, even swimming in water thousands of meters deep (it was awesome), but I can definitely see how people are uncomfortable and why game makers utilize it.