To put it simply, what do you like about Horror Games?
Reply to this post, answering the following questions:
What do you like about Horror Games?
What don't you like about horror games?
If you could add anything to a horror game, what would it be?
Thanks for your time. =d
ID:265864
 Aug 23 2008, 2:30 pm
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Aug 23 2008, 2:32 pm
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Kaioken
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Just note there's been a very similar topic(s) before, if you search for em you're going to quickly find some info and opinions on this.
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Like this one?
Horror Games | |
I'd already read that one. As it is interesting and a good source of information, I think it's outdated, being over a year old.
This is why I want some information about what people think now about horror games, after the apparent hit game Resident Evil 2 that people are currently playing. | |
What do you like about Horror Games? Atmosphere, realism, and eyecandy. What don't you like about horror games? Difficulty and frustration. If you could add anything to a horror game, what would it be? An immense amount of gore? There are plenty of horror games without gore though. | |
ADT_CLONE wrote:
I'd already read that one. As it is interesting and a good source of information, I think it's outdated, being over a year old. Resident Evil Online 2 isn't a horror game, it is an action game, with zombies. Anyway, a horror games needs atmosphere. Empty, dimly lit places, maybe with blood splattered over the place (making it look like something bad happened). The use of proper sound is also important, most horror games/films are not nearly as scary if you mute them. Make proper use of sound effect (maybe every now and then you hear something that goes bump in the night, just to get players a bit alert?) combined with creepy ambient music. As for the horrors I am facing... If I am armed with 20 weapons, thousands of ammo and can gun down hundreds of them at a time... Not scary at all. However, if I am confronted by one of them and end up flailing around like a mad man just barely surviving, MUCH scarier. The feeling of hopelessness basically, the feeling that makes me not want to run into enemies, and when I do the feeling that makes me want to run a s fast as I can, not confront them. Though most people have never heard of it a horror game called Illbleed initially followed this idea. You started with no weapons at all, and when you were walking around you literally had to look at every suspicious looking thing (lights, paintings on the walls, even a sink in a bathroom once), because without looking around things could and usually would jump out of these suspicious things (the painting could come alive, the lights could fall on you, a hand could come out of the sink and grab you) and mess you up. When you finally did get a weapon it was a baseball bat, and trying to kill enemies with it was pointless, it was easier to hit them 2-3 times to knock them to the ground, then run. Those are the things I like and want in horror games. What I dislike is too much action. When I am running around gunning down enemies by the thousands that is not scary, that's just another action game. If I were making a horror game I would add what I mentioned above. The game would probably play more along the lines of a detective/mystery game with little action. But it would sure as hell be scary! | |
I don't really think BYOND can pull off horror games well in a aspect that it would ever instill fear into my heart. I have tried some of the so called "scary" horror games on BYOND and wasn't impressed.
As far as a horror game on BYOND goes, I'd like to see a lot of blood and a lot of weapons. Most horror games I've played, I played they because I either like the subject "Ghosts, Zombies" or because it had over the top violence. I don't like the fact there are so few horror games to begin with. | |
What do you like about Horror Games?
Roleplaying features, and interactive players that have different roles as enemies and civilians. I like the hopelessness and the confused/unknowing feeling, those are the best. Say your with a group of people hiding in a room that is locked shut so noone gets in or out, you have a gun 7 bullets and an axe. You've seen people get turned into crazy creatures that kill things, and anyone in that room could turn. People will start to turn on eachother and kill them. Its best to mess with there minds. What don't you like about horror games? Too much action really, cause then its not a horror game. The harder the enemies and the weaker you are the better so it makes you go in hiding. If you could add anything to a horror game, what would it be? Roleplaying, very in-depth AI if there is one. And great graphics/sound ^^ | |
What do you like about Horror Games?
Being desperate. I absolutely love it when you have to run for your life. Also, being scared in the most unexpected moments. Confusion, as well... freaking awesome. The environment around the player-- the background story, the way the rooms look, the way the players act. What don't you like about horror games? Frustration-- when I die, I dont wanna say, "I SHOT HIM IN THE FACE 5 TIMES! COME ON!". Instead, I'd like to say, "Damn, I almost had him! Crap!". Also, not too much action-- as in, no RAMBO M60 KILLING SPREE scenes/parts. Not sure if I'm clear enough. If you could add anything to a horror game, what would it be? Add anything? Hmm. Not sure. I believe F.E.A.R. was a great game, but if it had a BIT less action, I believe it would have been the scariest game ever. (Come on now, guys. If you have played F.E.A.R., you can't deny that those invisible guys are scary as [heck]!). | |
Thanks for the replies. The game I am creating is focusing around lighting and music ALOT.
Though what you were saying about starting with no weapons is a very good idea. I was thinking of a more you pick up your weapon selection then fight, though that idea sounds way better, and I'll incorporate it in the game. =d | |
What do you like about Horror Games? Pretty much what everyone else said; suspense, unexpected encounters with horrible things, music that adds to the mood, maybe even music that changes as you get closer to danger to a darker sort of style. What don't you like about horror games? The end. They never make these sorts of games long enough. If you could add anything to a horror game, what would it be? midget with giant scissors. Wait, that's been done.... Seriously, though, the original Clock Tower (for the Super Famicon, not the Playstation release we got (which was actually the sequel)) was one of the best scary games I've played. I think something like that would work wonderfully on BYOND. | |
The invisible ninja things were pretty hectic to face off against, but you encountered them too infrequently. I think it worked in that coming across them multiple times would degenerate from the scariness of them - making them just another enemy to plough through, but I think Monolith went too far the other way. A couple more encounters with them would have been an improvement. I kind of agree with the too action-ey argument. Although it is an FPS, when it boils down to it. A horror-based FPS, but a run and gun FPS nonetheless. If you think about it, it's about as linear as any other standard FPS out there. Still a great game though, all things considered.
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To break the three questions/answers format:
I think that horror is too broad of a genre to encompass under one catch-all heading. Horror can be considered as any game that causes a sense of "horror" in the player, be it through psychological trickery or horrifying depictions of gore and suffering, or as any game that uses occult/folklore as its principle inspiration. For example Doom could be considered a horror game, as could the original Alone in the Dark, despite the fact that they're two completely different approaches to the genre. Likewise, ZAS is technically a "horror" game, in that it deals with hordes of undead, although I (as the creator :P) would call it a sim or management style game. Not a genre that you'd immediately associate with horror. | |
It's for those reasons that I find horror games a lot more scary than horror films. When watching a film you're fundamentally detached from the characters. Sure, characterisation can make you empathise, but you are still just watching events unfold - whatever happens is up to the discretion of the scriptwriter and director and therefore you have no active say in the matter. However when playing, say, a survival horror, you have a vested interest in the outcome. Your actions dictate the outcome. To me that causes a whole different level of immersion - if I cause my character to die, I feel a lot more remorse than watching some Hollywood actor bite the dust at the hands of a psychotic/zombie/alien antagonist.
EDIT: Ok, so this post was supposed to be in the Horror Games thread. Either I'm being dim or it got moved, but either way it doesn't make a whole lot of sense in this thread... | |