What's your ideal Survival Horror?

[TyranidXX]

I can't say much as my horror game experience is limited to only a small collection but what I can say is this; Dead Space was able to instill me with a sense of dread. This was most prominent when I had to fight the hunter (Damn regenerating son-of-a-b$*#h). I'm also ashamed of this because it was on easy =(

F.E.A.R, being another game in my list, was also able to instill dread. Not only was what Alma had done scary to me but she herself was scary... little Japanese girl ghosts seem scarier then other horror legends e.g Jason.

With that stated, the only other "survival horror" game I've played was Resident Evil 5... and a bit of Resident Evil: the Umbrella Chronicles and the Thing. Anyway, to be on topic, my ideal horror game is something where turning a simple corner will have a high chance of scaring the F&$k out of me while still giving me a slight hope of survival.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

I'm thinking a blend of Condemned, Silent Hill and Eternal Darkness. A first person horror adventure that makes you feel alone, vulnerable and questioning your sanity by mindfucking you, with some Cthulhu-esque flavouring.

 

[TheSnarkKnight]

My ideal survival horror game has already been made but, sadly, not as a survival horror game, or anything like a horror game at all. This is a shame because, with a couple of tweaks, it could be at the top of everybody's list.
I'll give you a couple of clues as to what it is...
*It involves in interesting use of enemy AI.
*It takes place in a maze-like structure.
*Enemies are invulnerable except in some very specific circumstances.
*Destroyed enemies respawn regardless of how many times you kill them.
*You must run around your environment collecting shit and avoiding the invincible enemies of doom.
*There's no real end to it all, except via death.
*You are nearly always defenceless and will die easily at the hands of your enemies.
*The main 'tweak' would be making it first-person instead of third-person.
Got it yet? If not, I can proudly tell you that it's...

Spoiler

A first-person version of pacman!

 

[Dr Pyramid Head]

Fortunately, some developers understand that being able to unload ten rounds of ammo into something's face isn't that scary, because even so it provides you a method of self-defense. The Clock-tower games excel at this form of thinking, and as of late, Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
All someone has to do is to watch Yahtzee's review of Amnesia. In it he explains that the makers of Amnesia understand the situation where the more you see a monster, the less scary it becomes.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Something like Clock Tower which uses its music to accentuate the creeping terror and emphasizes vulnerability, usually a single deadly and intelligent hunter enemy chasing you down. It's up to you to find and lead them to the one place where they can be slain permanently.

Having started gaming at a young age, I found my fair share of death animations/sounds I would dread every time they came near. Not because it means you start over from the last checkpoint, but just the sound and look of it. A deliberately unpleasant death animation/sound can go wrong in lots of ways, but it can also make players run and hide in fear of it (remember the countdown in Sonic when you were underwater for too long? Or Zophar's laughter in Lunar 2?).

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

<---- Hates it when you necro threads. Hates it.

OT: I love what the Source mod Underhell did, it made it feel like the monster was toying with you. You didn't see it much (when you did you would shit yourself), you mainly saw the influences it had, and you always were tensed to see it again. When you ran into it (along with shitting yourself) it would do something trippy with you, sometimes the screen would go black and you would appear in your bed.

I don't like what games like Amnesia do, where you have to rely on stealth to live. I hate stealth.