What's your ideal Survival Horror?

[Exius Xavarus]

If this kind of thread has been made before, I have not found it yet, so forgive me if something like this has already been done.

I would personally like to play ones that are meant to actually scare me. The ones that are geared to cause fear and suspense with every room you enter. Silent Hill and Penumbra are among my ideal Survival Horror games, even though I haven't gotten to play Penumbra yet.

Resident Evil was one of my favorite horror survivals, and I love playing them, but Resident Evil 4 and 5 seem to deviate from what Resident Evil used to be. They don't scare me, or make me reluctant to move into that next room because I don't know what could be around the corner, just ready to attack at the turn of a dime. You just...go into rooms, guns blazing and killing everything in sight. I feel like there's no real fear anymore. That's just me, though.

I would like to see one that plays with your mind. Uses your fears against you to create a nightmare all your own, and uses those fears and those nightmares to create a sense of fear and anxiety that makes you wonder just what lies around the corner, whether it be an ally, ready to aid you in your escape, a foe, ready to remove your head at any possible chance, or nothing at all.

I'm not really into the FPS Horror Survivals, like F.E.A.R. and F.E.A.R. 2. Granted they're both well done games, I just don't find them very fun. Same goes with action horror games. So I ask you, my fellow Escapists:

What's your ideal kind of Horror Survival?

 

[Judgement101]

Take Mafia II and make it really dark and foggy, then you have Silent Hill 2 so basically SH2

 

[AceDefective]

I want one were your a Jewish guy/girl running around escaping Nazis in WW2 Poland
That would be pretty scary to some of us

 

[WrcklessIntent]

Okay for me atleast Dead Space scared the crap out of me and i didn't want to go to a new area cause it meant more monsters to kill.

 

[VincentX3]

Something that's dynamic and adapts to you're physiology. Not the cheap scares, the one's that make you feel there's something there or going to be there, even if it doesn't exist.

It always changes, so it would never be technically the same twice.


F.E.A.R is pretty good too. When Alma poped out of the air-ducks while you were inside I think I skipped a heartbeat.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Okay for me atleast Dead Space scared the crap out of me and i didn't want to go to a new area cause it meant more monsters to kill.

I played that game once. I had extreme difficulty keeping any ammo. I don't remember too clearly, but I think I was once told I could remove limbs with a melee attack. I never mastered that technique. Needless to say I didn't last long. :l

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Something that's dynamic and adapts to you're physiology. Not the cheap scares, the one's that make you feel there's something there or going to be there, even if it doesn't exist.

It always changes, so it would never be technically the same twice.


F.E.A.R is pretty good too. When Alma poped out of the air-ducks while you were inside I think I skipped a heartbeat.

I'll give it that, F.E.A.R. was a pretty scary game, not knowing what Alma could be up to, or where she could be. But I'm terrible at FPS games, so I didn't get very far without losing interest or getting frustrated at being unable to advance the game. Also, I don't mean to sound like I'm hijacking your post, but you kinda described my ideal Horror Survival, in a better manner than me. xD

 

[Chasom]

I would like a game that builds a character through pre-release movies, Alan Wake style, but shows how good thier perfect life is. Then out of no where him/her is flung into a dark world without weapons. hunted by demonic versions of loved ones s/he would run and build defenses out of junk. No guns all psycological terror with limited and last second fighting.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

Condemned 2, now that is survival horror.

 

[Gigaguy64]

I loved the Survival Horror in Dead Space.
I wish it would have messed with your mind a bit more but, the constant clanging of pipes, seeing a Necromorph run around a corner, getting ready for a fight, and then not fighting just wondering "When will it attack when will it attack when will it attack", being able to be attacked almost Anywhere doing almost Anything...
It was a freaky and disturbing experience.

 

[Eumersian]

If it literally makes me jump from my seat or soil myself, I would find it adequate as a horror game. Now, for the survival element, there should be enough resources that you can stand to be a little over the top, but you must also be required to think ahead, or everything will suck.

 

[squidbuddy99]

A game that terrifies the player using the least amount of effort it can. True horror comes from the mind. If we see a room full of hideous monsters, they cease to become scary since we know what they are. If we see an oddly shaped bush in the dark, we immediately think of the worst possibilities. I think a true horror game could get away with having a whole level with only a few enemies, but the entire level is filled with ominous silhouettes.

 

[Chasom]

That sounds like a party in whatever part of our mind causes fear

 

[Extraintrovert]

Most important of all, it must be in first person. No peripheral vision and more relation with the player character equals more effective scares for me. Secondly, the actual scares must be intermittent and contrasted with moments of safety and security. I suppose it is why I find levels such as Ravenholm (Half-Life 2), City 17 Underground (Episode One), The Cradle (Thief) and Ocean House (Vampire: The Masquerade) so terrifying, because they are drastically different to the rest of the game. Thirdly, don't go overboard; it's no good to have things popping at me the entire time, as I will become desensitised. Maintaining an atmosphere is more important than scaring me directly, as my imagination will do the rest. Finally, fuck with my head in every way possible. This includes standard scares such as noises caused my things that aren't there and glimpses of things that dissappear soon after, as well as scares unique to the genre like messing with the controls and field of vision.

For an example of all of these, watch this short video:

 

[USSR]

I swear, I post this on every one.

Penumbra.

It will fuck your shit up.

EDIT: I'll be in with the cool kids and add a video too..
Peer pressure <.<..

<youtube=oouAYrnTn4U>

 

[Blue_vision]

I can appreciate a really scary survival horror game, but I don't really like being genuinely frightened that much. So I like a Survival horror game that I can put on and take back off, where all the horror is little jumpy horror. Silent Hill 2-4 each kept me up till 4 in the morning for a month, which is one thing I just don't get about the horror genre.

I also like to be able to think more deeply about my horror into the technical aspects of it, so I'd say that Dead Space is probably the best Survival Horror game for me yet.

 

[Skorpyo]

I swear, I post this on every one.

Gonna start with that too:


I seriously hype this HL mod all over these forums, but it never gets any recognition.

Try this game already, people. It is actually GOOD.

 

[Blobpie]

Well i want something to hunt me that i don't know what it is, can't see it clearly, can't kill, etc.

Preferably something in the first person, so i can only see in a more limited perspective; then mess with said perspective.

Keep me vulnerable, able to fight back but just barley so that i'm afraid to fight.

Let me be able to hide, and let me be creative with it. But do not make all hiding places equal.

That's i want, to be a normal person in a video game... not a badass with a bicep larger then his head.

 

[XSA37]

I want a game where my survival feels hopeless at almost all points. (Ex: Dead Space on the hardest difficulty, L4D2 Realism) However, I don't want to do something completely unrealistic. If I was in L4D2, I wouldn't leave the safe room. There are plenty of food and supplies in there to sustain me for quite a while. I would rather be forced to survive a-la I Am Legend. Where the only things between me and the enemy are the defenses that I construct to keep them out. I don't want to have challenge simply because I have to run everywhere, but because I have to stay in place, conserving ammo and preparing for the inevitable final stand.

In addition, I would like the game to end. Possibly with me defeating all of the enemies or simply being rescued from my current position and taken to a safer place.