Damura said:
I'm not sure why you guys are all saying Fear 1 was better or had better atmosphere... you were trapped in an office building the entire game and all they were really trying to do was startle you with random things falling over and occasionally Alma would run past and do absolutely nothing to you. It became so predictable... fight -> "scare" -> fight -> "scare".
Could somebody explain what they liked about the horror elements of the first Fear game?
*some mini spoilers here*
Lack of map variety doesn't equal a bad atmosphere and a not so scary game.... the reason why the first game will always be the scariest, and in my taste, the best game, is because it played more at home, or to a more realistic sense when the game opened up, you get the sense that you could actually be part of whats going on. Your sense of suspension for disbelief starts at as low as it can be when you start off. Which makes for a more effective scare tactic then bloody walls everywhere and ghosts popping out. Most of the game is just the atmosphere toying with you, and a few slight instances of showing little girl alma, what the first game probably failed at though is that the scares never did any harm, but on your first play through, you wouldn't know that it wont hurt you, but it plays like how someone would try to punch you in the face and stop right before it hits, causing you to flinch, of course if you do that enough times, you won't flinch anymore, that's where it failed, but at the beginning you don't know whats going to happen, you don't know if the atmosphere is just going to be the atmosphere or turn into something violent. The game goes from a normal sense of that it could be your world and like a ramp, the crazy shit starts to climb to higher points as you go on till you reach the climax, the game had a very solid pacing, my sense of suspension of disbelief wasn't swinging up and down, it was set to a solid pace where I never felt like i had to distance myself, it really drew me in.
That's what the first did to me. Now for the second game, the game even starts itself at a explosive point, so your sense of suspension of disbelief is already going to be tingling, you will be distancing yourself from the character and the game world because crazy shit is happening at the very start, so it doesn't give that sense that it could be your world, just that... its some world with crazy shit happening, I ended up not being scared once, through the entire game I had a poker face. It didn't reel me in at all, sure there was variety and the colors were there, but that was just easy on the eyes and was fleeting, it was forgettable.
The only time I ever felt a sense of uneasiness was in the school, against the white ghosts, the lack of light put me at a sense that I wouldn't be able to combat something if I couldn't see it, but the fact that the ghosts were as bright as light bulbs made it less then it could have been.
The ghouls and zombie people might have been grotesque, but it doesn't equal scary, its just an eye irritant, I don't know very many people who are afraid of eye irritants, they might be grossed out, but that's it.
To me, and to everyone that has seen many horror/scary movies should know, that the scariest thing is real life, the closest you can get your horror story to be intertwined with real life, the better, that suspension of disbelief is really hard to get past to make someone terrified rather then startled.
Now for fear 3..... yeah I don't know how they are going to make me or anyone generally terrified, suspension of disbelief senses are going to be skyrocketing from the very beginning... I have a feeling its going to play like the gears of war atmosphere at this point, where you know the world is fucked up, and your just gonna roll with it.
F. You're constantly 2 rooms behind the action, so why not give up and go home? The game is frustrating because the story doesn't move along, we get caught up chasing down characters that got killed for doing stupid things, and nothing is revealed. Worst of all, the only game mechanic is bullet time and escalating weaponry. In a better game, there should be options to avoid choke points and 'gauntlets'. I would have been happier without the automated sentries, and maybe more stealth element.
