Totally agree. I'll never forget that moment in Silent Hill 2... most utterly terrified I've ever felt playing a game, made even more scary by the lo-fi, muddy sound effects in the distance.
Jimquisition: The Ugly Secret of Horror Games
- Thread starter Jimothy Sterling
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I'm always more scared at pixalated weird looking monster, than "realistic" textured monster. Because the pixalated monster is usualy also poorly animated thus it looks really inhuman! And you can't expect how it might behave (mostly because of poor animations).
Funny thing. Hm!
Funny thing. Hm!
You're totally missing the point here.SecretNegative said:
The point is that things are often more frightening to us on a base level when they look alien or strange, or nestle themselves in the uncanny valley. Hence why stop motion's jerky movement is more scary to a lot of people than modern 'real' looking CGI.
Here's a wonderful example:
To me the old Medusa is a million times scarier than the new one.
I can see the argument with films, but I'm afraid I don't with games. Low budget films looking more gritty and realistic because of having to use prosthetic and whatever else makes sense.
Shit looking games just look shit. Whereas the film looks closer to something almost-real-but-slightly-off, the game looks nowhere near real, or just too "off".
If a (good) horror game was almost photo-realistic then it would wipe the floor with a (good) horror game from a decade ago. Which is why I was a little surprised when you brought up Amnesia, since I'd consider that a good-looking game even from a technical standpoint.
Shit looking games just look shit. Whereas the film looks closer to something almost-real-but-slightly-off, the game looks nowhere near real, or just too "off".
If a (good) horror game was almost photo-realistic then it would wipe the floor with a (good) horror game from a decade ago. Which is why I was a little surprised when you brought up Amnesia, since I'd consider that a good-looking game even from a technical standpoint.
I disagree with the assertion that bad graphics = scary. More likely, memories of graphics seen as a kid (which now look bad) = scary. I remember being far too young and playing the demo for Resident Evil on the PS1- absolutely shat myself. Horror games are scarier when you're young, and that memory (with it's associations) has stuck around.
I do however agree that that the art direction, the use of shadows and tension etc. make a truly scary game, and that Dead Space fails at this because the developers seem to have spent more time prettifying everything than scarifying it. My main issue with modern horror games is that they give the player too much power. Fighting 3 monsters when you only have 2 bullets is scary. Fighting three monsters when you have practically unlimited arc-welder ammo is not.
Part of me still thinks that in the future people will look back at this generation's games and say, 'Man, games were scarier when they looked like shit (compared with the awesome-wizzo graphics we have today)' and be just as mistaken as Jim is here - they're just misremembering from their youth.
I do however agree that that the art direction, the use of shadows and tension etc. make a truly scary game, and that Dead Space fails at this because the developers seem to have spent more time prettifying everything than scarifying it. My main issue with modern horror games is that they give the player too much power. Fighting 3 monsters when you only have 2 bullets is scary. Fighting three monsters when you have practically unlimited arc-welder ammo is not.
Part of me still thinks that in the future people will look back at this generation's games and say, 'Man, games were scarier when they looked like shit (compared with the awesome-wizzo graphics we have today)' and be just as mistaken as Jim is here - they're just misremembering from their youth.
I think I disagree with Jim on this one. The important thing with horror is provide atmosphere which most games today skip on the way to providing action thrills.
The tension and fear in Resident Evil don't result from it looking ugly but from the fact that you only have 4 bullets and you can't aim for shit.
The tension an fear in System Shock doesn't arise from low polygon count but from the fact that your gun breaks all the time and monsters keep reappearing and the environment keeps making noises that make you scared to open any doors.
Doom3 fear results because you can't shoot and see at the same time.
Amnesia is terrify because monsters sneak up on you and all you can do is run and hide.
Modern horror remakes don't fail because they have pretty CGI quite the opposite. The CGI is ugly and cheap while 80s horror plasticine effects were state of the art. It's the CGI that looks unreal and unconvincing while the man in the Xenomorph suit is terror inducing because he casts believable shadows by virtue of his real physical presence. Additionally actors in horror knock off's are all so young and attractive that
I think a HD game could be truly terrifying. Imagine if the developers of the Aliens vs Predator series switched gears and made Alien the game. A game with the mutiple threats of the Alien, the Android and the Company computer. A game where you, Riply have to get as many of the crew off alive as possible. All in HD. Scared?
The tension and fear in Resident Evil don't result from it looking ugly but from the fact that you only have 4 bullets and you can't aim for shit.
The tension an fear in System Shock doesn't arise from low polygon count but from the fact that your gun breaks all the time and monsters keep reappearing and the environment keeps making noises that make you scared to open any doors.
Doom3 fear results because you can't shoot and see at the same time.
Amnesia is terrify because monsters sneak up on you and all you can do is run and hide.
Modern horror remakes don't fail because they have pretty CGI quite the opposite. The CGI is ugly and cheap while 80s horror plasticine effects were state of the art. It's the CGI that looks unreal and unconvincing while the man in the Xenomorph suit is terror inducing because he casts believable shadows by virtue of his real physical presence. Additionally actors in horror knock off's are all so young and attractive that
I think a HD game could be truly terrifying. Imagine if the developers of the Aliens vs Predator series switched gears and made Alien the game. A game with the mutiple threats of the Alien, the Android and the Company computer. A game where you, Riply have to get as many of the crew off alive as possible. All in HD. Scared?
Oh God... was that the near-endless staircase descent in the Silent Hill history society? Brrrr... and once you get to the bottom... you jump down hole after hole, seemingly right into the bowels of your own personal hell. -.-MiracleOfSound said:Totally agree. I'll never forget that moment in Silent Hill 2... most utterly terrified I've ever felt playing a game, made even more scary by the lo-fi, muddy sound effects in the distance.
Anyway, yes, older horror games seemed to be scarier... and I know this is technically an anachronism, but they cheated their way to uber-scariness. The very first Silent Hill, for example, was from that era when not only did everything rendered in 3D still lool like total arse, there were also other graphical limitations, like that weird fog effect in the distance. So what did SH1 do? Incorporated that very shortcoming into its lore! Brilliant! Awkward controls and crappy combat? You're not a battle-hardened marine, you're some regular dude with no combat training, so tough luck for you!
Not to mention that to even begin your descent you had to venture through a Pyramid Head-shaped hole in the wall.Sonicron said:
Things we can't identify definitely are scarier. In Half Life 2 Episode 2 there's a part where a zombie is hiding behind a door, but it doesn't make the usual zombie sound. It makes this strange impish growling that was never once played until now. In the commentary they said that most play testers were too scared to approach the door and would even throw stuff at it to make the mystery monster come out.
Admittedly, this doesn't necessarily have to apply to just horror. Proper art design for any game in any genre makes the game better regardless of shiny graphics. A lot of modern games, not just horror, fall flat because they focus on making it look good than making a proper game with good aesthetics.
.... ...MiracleOfSound said:
...
...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! The memories, make them stop! Can't deal with that kind of horror now!!
Dear God, the original Pyramid Head is one of the most frightening creations in the history of mainkind. o_o
We'll have to agree to differ on that one I'm afraid.SecretNegative said:
Funny enough, Fallout 3 is the game I've gotten the most near heart attacks from and I associate that with the jerky, grotesque animations of the Radscorpions and Mirelurks.
I think game design will trump graphics, whether it's pretty or not. Things are never quite so scary when you have a simple solution at hand, like a loaded shotgun. The first real horror game for me was Alone In The Dark, because it had threats that require something other than brute force to deal with. There were even a couple that had no solution, forcing you to avoid them as much as possible. Games that force you to have limited resources also work better than those that allow you to become a walking arsenal (hence, why Resident Evil is scarier than Dead Space). True horror taps into the player's own sense of helplessness in the face of overwhelming threat.
He sure was. I love how every scary thing in that game is scary because it represents something else!Sonicron said:
He is right, especially with movies. Modern horror is to clean and shiny, the characters played by good looking actors and no one in it looks like a normal person. Even the geeks in modern horror have 6 packs and look good looking.
Stop motion animation is super unsettling he's totally right, although I don't think ugly games are scary because they're ugly. People these days are just vain graphics-whores who won't touch anything unless it's the best looking game on the market. People with lower budgets could never hope to make a graphically stunning game so they work on sound design and art direction.
Back in the day, "...we don't go to Ravenholm" was scary and beautiful, the fact of the matter is, you need people who care about what they're doing to make an atmospheric horror game/section not shitty graphics. And I don't think the people at EA or Activision have much passion anymore. They just wanna bust out a pretty game, with shallow story and tight controls.
Back in the day, "...we don't go to Ravenholm" was scary and beautiful, the fact of the matter is, you need people who care about what they're doing to make an atmospheric horror game/section not shitty graphics. And I don't think the people at EA or Activision have much passion anymore. They just wanna bust out a pretty game, with shallow story and tight controls.