Key Elements for THE Scariest Game Imaginable

[SweetLiquidSnake]

After looking at some threads on scary games I noticed a lot of themes, and I think we should compile as many as we can and hope that one day some developer stumbles across it and finally makes it:

A perfect game to me would be as realistic as possible:

-Detailed character creation, because its scarier when its you in the game and not some boring protagonist.

-Realistic location, like some disheveled streets or school (Condemned). I'm sorry but no one here's going to space (Dead space).

-Very little weaponry like bricks, household items and a flashlight, and make the flashlight actual take up a hand so in order to fight with both you'd have to drop it, makes for some pants sh*tt*ng fights when all you can see is the guys feet. Even give it batteries so you have to conserve light.

-If you do find a gun then make it hard to use, I'm talking slow reload times and heavy recoil, because not all of us own a Magnum.

-Very little and optional HUD so you don't have any distractions.

-Healing like in Left4Dead, where you actually have to patch yourself up but this time don't include a completion bar, just leave us guessing if or when we've healed enough.

-Unexplainable and realistic enemies. Condemned 1 it perfectly, we don't know why bums are attacking they just are.

-Definitely NO quick-time events or big flashy indicators of what to do/pick up.

Anyone got any more??

 

[ShindoL Shill]

you just described Condemned really.
that is a scary ass game, so nothing to add really.

 

[kurupt87]

Sound. Never underestimate sound.

Be it background music or the noise of hostiles sound is vitally important.

 

[AlternatePFG]

Sound. Never underestimate sound.

Be it background music or the noise of hostiles sound is vitally important.

Absolutely. Games like Amnesia are scary simply because of the sound design. Even Left 4 Dead is made scarier by it (Not really that much of a scary game but still.) but the sound has more of a gameplay purpose in that one.

 

[kebab4you]

you just described Condemned really.
that is a scary ass game, so nothing to add really.

WHAT?! I'm sorry but I take offence to that, I found fucking BFBC2 scarier then condemned o_o

OT: Darkness, lots of it, and no brightness slide bar option.

 

[Froken Keke]

I won't be scared unless I'm in actual danger.

(So kill the player if he or she dies in the game. :I)

 

[cryogeist]

Imagination.
no really...things get scarier when you have no fucking clue what it is

 

[TheCrazyAu55ie]

a game where the jumpy moments are ramdomlike their not made to happen by sciprt so that way no one knows when their coming, also i agree with the whole weapon thing very little to defend yourself makes everyone in a game go OH FUCK OUT OF WEAPONS QUICK BEAT HIS HEAD IN WITH SOMETHING OH FUCK HE"S GOT FRIEND then shit your pants and run away screaming. if they ever had that kind of stuff in a game i'd be willing to spend anythingto play it a deacently scary game with a great story

 

[obscuredlimits]

For me, the scariest and most unnerving games are when I am up against something that is infinitely greater than the character. Such as Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. There are enemies that you can kill, although eventually the enemies become so difficult that it is impossible to kill permanently. Silent Hill's environment is a great example. The town and the player are the true enemies, and the town is in truth undefeatable. Despair and horror rules supreme.

 

[Trivea]

If you combine Amnesia and Condemned, I will never go to sleep ever again for the rest of my life. Just sayin'.

Also, I don't think that there should be any weapons, really, or melee weapons that you can pick up that break after a few hits. Being helpless is a lot scarier than being able to defend yourself.

 

[The Virgo]

Where the horrors are created in your mind. No matter how great a monstrosity is, it cannot come ANYWHERE CLOSE to the player going "OH MY GOD IT'S IN THE SHADOWS AND IF I TURN AROUND I WILL DIE, WHAT THE FUCK IS IT AIEEEE!!!!" A great example of this is Amnesia.

A game could have terrible graphics, but if it entices your mind to imagine there's some unknown horror lurking around waiting to kill you, you're going to be scared. If you don't believe me, play "Barrow Hill". It's a static-screen, point-and-click, Myst-style adventure game, but GODDAMN it's scary!

'Nuff said.

 

[anthony87]

It'll have to include something like this:

http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/detail.nhn?titleId=350217&no=20&weekday=tue

Have that in some sort of gameplay form and bricks shall be shat.

 

[LordOrin]

It'll have to include something like this:

http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/detail.nhn?titleId=350217&no=20&weekday=tue

Have that in some sort of gameplay form and bricks shall be shat.

I can't figure out how to get the video to play, and now I'm RIDICULOUSLY CURIOUS 0.o

 

[anthony87]

It'll have to include something like this:

http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/detail.nhn?titleId=350217&no=20&weekday=tue

Have that in some sort of gameplay form and bricks shall be shat.

I can't figure out how to get the video to play, and now I'm RIDICULOUSLY CURIOUS 0.o

It's not a video though....

Or do you mean that you scroll down and nothing happens?

 

[scw55]

Enemies far and few between but big atmospheric build up.
However the enemies you encounter should be random, so the game has a longer horror lifetime. Terror becomes less terrifying if it becomes predictable.

Enviromental events. In Oblivion (ok this is a sandbox RPG, but the first person view add immersion to it), the thing that frightens me the most are unexpected grizzly traps that I've accidently set off. Monsters don't terrify me. They do for the first time but then they get annoying because they take effort to kill.
Oh yeah, monsters must be frightening, and not annoying/inconvenient.
Monsters must pose an immense threat.

Less is more. If you have too much horror elements like actiony bloodness then the game just goes from horror to disgusting gorefest. Players have their own ideas of what they find horrific, so using their imagination to create alot of the horror instead of showing it up-front will be economically more effective and terrifyingly.

That's inless the gamer is a twathead and sees through the rouse.

I think there should be elements of having to run the fuck away but things keep snaring you (but not too much so it becomes a pain in the arse).

 

[ChildofGallifrey]

It'll have to include something like this:

http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/detail.nhn?titleId=350217&no=20&weekday=tue

Have that in some sort of gameplay form and bricks shall be shat.

BLABOPIARGH)o(y%#A#(*Thag;lodhgpbuoia!?!?!?!?!

WHAT WAS THAT?!?! I was on Skype with my daughter when I opened that, and I yelled out loud and scared her.

Seriously, take that link, make it a game, and I will sleep no more. Forever.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

The feeling of helplessness. So many games are made unscary when you have a hugeass gun in your hands that can destroy whatever enemy that the game throws in your path.

 

[Jake Castinigen]

Or Siren.... I think that game was pretty horrifying.