Zero Punctuation: Outlast 2

[Casual Shinji]

So does this mean we can finally put this shitty horror sub genre of 'Oooh, look at me, I'm so defenseless -- ain't it scary' to bed now? Which yes, I do still count Resident Evil 7 amongst. Can we finally go back to proper horror games in the vein of classic Resident Evil and Silent Hill?

 

[demoman_chaos]

So..... is there an explanation as to why the camera can record the hallucinations? I mean, the camera is not attached to his brain so anything his brain makes up isn't going to be on film.

 

[darkrage6]

So does this mean we can finally put this shitty horror sub genre of 'Oooh, look at me, I'm so defenseless -- ain't it scary' to bed now? Which yes, I do still count Resident Evil 7 amongst. Can we finally go back to proper horror games in the vein of classic Resident Evil and Silent Hill?

I wouldn't count RE7 since it goes for more of a Grindhouse horror vibe.

 

[Saelune]

So does this mean we can finally put this shitty horror sub genre of 'Oooh, look at me, I'm so defenseless -- ain't it scary' to bed now? Which yes, I do still count Resident Evil 7 amongst. Can we finally go back to proper horror games in the vein of classic Resident Evil and Silent Hill?

Being able to defend yourself takes away alot of the fear though. If you can pick up and use weapons, it should really just be so you can see how useless they are.

Any fantasy RPG would be its own horror game if you could not slash and zap everything to death.

(I kind of wish they would make a fantasy horror game, that is basically just Skyrim, but you never get past level 1)

 

[ToastyMozart]

So does this mean we can finally put this shitty horror sub genre of 'Oooh, look at me, I'm so defenseless -- ain't it scary' to bed now? Which yes, I do still count Resident Evil 7 amongst. Can we finally go back to proper horror games in the vein of classic Resident Evil and Silent Hill?

Being able to defend yourself takes away a lot of the fear though. If you can pick up and use weapons, it should really just be so you can see how useless they are.

Any fantasy RPG would be its own horror game if you could not slash and zap everything to death.

(I kind of wish they would make a fantasy horror game, that is basically just Skyrim, but you never get past level 1)

Yeah action horror is really difficult to get to work as actual horror. A ton of horror is reliant on a feeling of vulnerability or intimidation, which racking in another round of .45 ACP tends to alleviate.

If you make the weapons too weak to be effective than they might as well not be there at all and the development effort could have been better spent elsewhere, if you make them too effective then you run into the Dead Space issue where the game immediately turns from "tense horror scenario" to "wacky limb-tossing escapade" the moment you find a gun, and if you make them handle like garbage you run the risk of the game being more frustrating than scary (especially on PC, where clunky aiming is just rage-inducing).

The best answer I can think of is to have ammo be very scarce, but if you're the type who saves all their good items for a hypothetical boss encounter then you just end up repeatedly dying and reloading saves until all the tension is lost. Plus it's still like giving the player a security blanket.

I think defenseless horror is probably the way to go if you want an actual horror game, rather than an action game with a spooky coat of paint, it's just tricky to pull off well.

 

[Arnust]

Speaking of helicopters in survival horror, I think RE1 and RE7 are the only games in the entire series to not have a one crash or explode.

In RE1 didn't you see a crashed one from Alpha team?

 

[fractal_butterfly]

If you can pick up and use weapons, it should really just be so you can see how useless they are.

Like they did in Resident Evil 7. No matter how often you shoot Pa Baker, he will always come back. I think it is ridiculous to not be able to fight back in any way. In Outlast you can't even shove your enemies away. They are just human beings. Even the pansy-ass protagonist would be able to do something, when frightened and cornered.
It's the old problem of games again "Don't tell me what to feel, MAKE me feel it."

 

[Casual Shinji]

So does this mean we can finally put this shitty horror sub genre of 'Oooh, look at me, I'm so defenseless -- ain't it scary' to bed now? Which yes, I do still count Resident Evil 7 amongst. Can we finally go back to proper horror games in the vein of classic Resident Evil and Silent Hill?

Being able to defend yourself takes away alot of the fear though. If you can pick up and use weapons, it should really just be so you can see how useless they are.

Not if it's to an obnoxious degree. See Outlast, and apparent Outlast 2 as well. I'm okay with making the player feel relatively weak in the face of danger, but there needs to be SOME edge you have over the enemy. And I don't count just running around and hiding as one of those, at least not in these types of games.

In what little I've played of Outlast I was more pissed off and annoyed then scared, because the person you played as could've even struggle, kick with their legs, or fend off with their arms. These are basic human responses to being attacked and the protagonist couldn't even manage THAT.

I see Resident Evil 7 as being in the same ballpark, hence why I've decided to ignore it, but it atleast gives you some weapons no matter how shitty they may be, and gives you the ability to struggle free if grabbed.

This idea that things can only be scary if you can't defend yourself needs to stop. It'll lead to developers taking the easy way out with games like this.

And while I'm at it, bring back some motherfucking character to these games. Are we really not tired yet of nameless first-person protagonist, typically with amnesia, trapped in spookhouse?

 

[Naldan]

I would love a Jesus Christ's Passion VR Edition. That would indeed incentivice me towards buying everything needed, if done gory (read:right).

 

[BrawlMan]

Speaking of helicopters in survival horror, I think RE1 and RE7 are the only games in the entire series to not have a one crash or explode.

In RE1 didn't you see a crashed one from Alpha team?

In terms of actually seeing it happen. In the first game, you only see the aftermath. RE0 shows how the crash went down, if I remember correctly. You are right about it appearing, because I forgot about it.

 

[go-10]

a friendly dog with the voice of Bob Ross would be really nice

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

 

[Blazing Hero]

Seriously though if the dude was smart he made a copy.[/QUOTE]

Me thinks you have gotten a bit lost friend. Unfortunately your princess is in another castle. =P

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.949989-Reddit-User-Finds-Starcraft-Source-Code-Gets-Rewarded-by-Blizzard-When-He-Returns-It

 

[C117]

I kinda wonder why all the cults that kidnap a woman because she's about to give birth to the Anti-christ/devil's spawn/Nyarlathotep/whatever always have to be such arseholes about it. Personally I would have them just invite the miss over, maybe lure her in with a letter or email like "Congratulations Miss X! You've won an all-expenses-paid vacation at our pictoresque locale in Bum-f*ck-upon-alley!" Or if you actually have to kidnap her, you treat her like an esteemed guest, 'cause she's going to give birth to your lord and saviour so you'd want her to be in her best shape for when the moment arrives.

I'm just saying. Would make it easier, and would also make it harder for people to figure out that you were up to no good.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I kinda wonder why all the cults that kidnap a woman because she's about to give birth to the Anti-christ

Because it's Wednesday, and league bowling night is on Friday.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

Seriously though if the dude was smart he made a copy.[/QUOTE]

Me thinks you have gotten a bit lost friend. Unfortunately your princess is in another castle. =P

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.949989-Reddit-User-Finds-Starcraft-Source-Code-Gets-Rewarded-by-Blizzard-When-He-Returns-It[/quote]

RIP my internet cred

Thats what I get for opening up everything I want to read in separate tabs and being too lazy to close them when I'm done

 

[shrekfan246]

EDIT: Apparently the connection betweeen story and hallucinations, from Wikipedia:

Spoiler

Blake begins suffering from progressively more disturbing hallucinations based on his childhood, all while being pursued by a grotesque monster. The hallucinations gradually reveal a night at Blake and Lynn's Catholic elementary school and one of their childhood friends, Jessica Gray, and the events surrounding her death. Blake and Jessica, while staying late at their school, are caught by one of their teachers, Father Loutermilch, who is implied to have been molesting Jessica. Loutermilch sends Blake away, but as Blake is about to leave the school, he hears Jessica's screams and sees her being chased. Blake discovers her to have fallen down a staircase, breaking her neck, with Loutermilch at the top of the stairs. This reveals that Jessica's presumed suicide by hanging was a cover up by Loutermilch, and the monster that has been chasing Blake throughout the school is a perverse, twisted version of how Blake sees the priest.

That's one of the laziest connections I've ever seen. I'm getting the feeling Yahtzee was right about the game being written by 15-year-olds.

 

[4Aces]

The setup makes no sense. A Christian death cult AND a pagan death cult, in the same rural area? How many people do they think live out there?

Oh, it gets much, much worse. With hundreds to thousands dead, power coming from no apparent source, a revolver shown to you 3 minutes in, presumably with 5 rounds still in it (one was used to exit the game early by an NPC that new the script), this was just a big jerk-off session with more reading than the library of congress. Most of that is meaningless gibberish holy gibberish to make it seem as if there is a point. By the end of the Outlast 2 you are just wanting it to *all* end, so I guess they failed. I am still wondering how that many people can live in a valley without proper roads, phone lines, or any sort of police reporting to family members that do not live in the valley saying they have not heard from dear old neckbeard dad. Even for rural america, it pushes past immersion breaking by 30 minutes and then romps straight into larceny, when you realize this is about a 2 hour walking scenic tour that is just full of copy & paste mechanics to drag it out. Hate to be someone that actually paid full price for this garbage - and love the YT'er for saving us from it.

For the sake of fairness, I am still a little butt-hurt from actually getting suckered into buying the original, given the total lack of answers. I hate mystery boxes, and would love to actually meet JJ Abrams and ask him how detective novels are so popular if we all want endless mystery (and toss in a "you wanker" for good measure).