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I think I've made this post here before, but every horror game that features combat needs to start where Condemned: Criminal Origins did and go from there. That's the only game I've ever played where the combat itself was a major feature of the horror, where I was the most unsettled when I was actually fighting something.
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 17:34 |
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# ? Jun 2, 2024 23:14 |
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Halloween Jack posted:I'm a rather casual gamer, and in my experience, the major point of argument I've had with friends about horror games is the idea that few gameplay options and limited, frustrating controls actually makes for a better horror game. I think the idea is to induce panic, emulating something like fumbling for your keys to open a door, but the problem is that it rarely is panic inducing. It's just creating an arbitrary blocker even when you know what to do instead of letting you make mistakes naturally. Silent Hill's controls aren't great for combat, but the actual combat is just "look at thing and hit the button and win now", so instead of being panic inducing it's just this other god drat thing you need to fiddle with while winning. I feel like SH3's level design was better at inducing panic than its controls. You're frequently moving forward, so you can reasonably run from something and expect it to not show back up again, but so many of those levels are cramped so you will have to get close to or otherwise deal with the monsters in some way. Also it removed (most of) those town sections, which were just garbage empty nothings the moment you realized you always run faster than the monsters. Honestly though, I don't really think Silent Hill or Resident Evil made the decision to have tank controls because they were bad or frustrating. I think they were just the go to solution for handling locked bizarre camera angles at the time. I think people read too much into the controls not being conducive to combat. edit: People do that poo poo with the bad voice acting too. GYROMANCY TGLT fucked around with this message at 17:41 on Sep 28, 2018 |
# ? Sep 28, 2018 17:39 |
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Cardiovorax posted:See, this is a really hard and difficult debate because "horror" isn't a genre in the sense that you can define it on the level of gameplay, the way you can really easily draw the line between RTS or RPGs or Action Shooter games. A horror game is defined by how the player feels about it, not by how it is played. Which is why people generally use "Survival Horror" to describe the "mechanical" genre even if the game isn't actually scary. Games only really being categorised by mechanics and not narrative is something that annoys me quite a bit.
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 17:40 |
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I really think sometimes that maybe someone should try to find a way to make movie horror labels map to games somehow, because if I had to put a name to it myself, I'd say Condemned borders on splatter almost more than on horror. The Condemned series are amazingly good and fun games to play, but they're also kinda niche in their own way, because they've got very heavy action elements that wouldn't appeal to the type who thinks Silent Hill is what horror games should be, for example. [edit] TGLT posted:Honestly though, I don't really think Silent Hill or Resident Evil made the decision to have tank controls because they were bad or frustrating. I think they were just the go to solution for handling locked bizarre camera angles at the time. Cardiovorax fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Sep 28, 2018 |
# ? Sep 28, 2018 17:40 |
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Cardiovorax posted:See, this is a really hard and difficult debate because "horror" isn't a genre in the sense that you can define it on the level of gameplay, the way you can really easily draw the line between RTS or RPGs or Action Shooter games. A horror game is defined by how the player feels about it, not by how it is played. If RE4 isn't horror, it's not because it has smooth gameplay, but because of the amount of resources it gives you, the resource management, and some plot elements that are arguably over the top even by Resident Evil standards. (Namely the bit where Salazar's castle is also a Temple of Doom style rollercoaster inside a volcano.) I'm playing through Dead Space right now, and I find that while it does have money and equipment upgrades, it's handled in such a way that I don't feel like I'm killing monsters for fun and profit and dutifully checking for pocket change under every couch.
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 17:46 |
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Halloween Jack posted:If RE4 isn't horror, it's not because it has smooth gameplay, but because of the amount of resources it gives you, the resource management, and some plot elements that are arguably over the top even by Resident Evil standards. For what it's worth? Resident Evil 7 has really good shooter dynamics, but it gets the balance far far better and actually scares the poo poo out of me and most people. Try that if this is your kind of thing, it genuinely is just that much better than 5 and 6.
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 17:54 |
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The first dead space was actually really good with pacing and set pieces. Then it gives you that tiny room and the loving rhino thing fight. E: RE7 chat, that stopped being a horror for me right about the time I started doing donuts in that dudes garage.
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 17:54 |
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Well, Resident Evil always has been about the cheesy B horror, soooo...
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 17:57 |
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Cardiovorax posted:It's really because, in a lot of ways, they are one of the best ways to deal with full-360-degrees freedom in a pre-rendered scene like early RE titles used. Tank controls existed before analog controls did, so the idea of rotating your character in the direction you want to move instead of only being able to move at 90 degree angles was actually pretty ingenious. I think comparing how Silent Hill 1 handled that opening alleyway scene to how something like Sonic Adventure handles movement and camera, just period whatsoever, is illuminating. Also yeah, I think people arguing the tank controls are an intentionally bad stylistic choice forget that the first dual analog controllers for the PSX came out less than a year before RE2.
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 17:59 |
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TGLT posted:I think comparing how Silent Hill 1 handled that opening alleyway scene to how something like Sonic Adventure handles movement and camera, just period whatsoever, is illuminating. Also yeah, I think people arguing the tank controls are an intentionally bad stylistic choice forget that the first dual analog controllers for the PSX came out less than a year before RE2.
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 18:14 |
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DeathChicken posted:Eh, it seems like 1/2/3 are all considered good and 4/5/Shattered Memories usually fall under the internet thing of "This is either an okay thing buried under unfortunate problems or a terrible abomination that kicked my dog and cut off a part of my penis, there is no in-between" syndrome. I hear theres significant exploration on the consequences of circumcision in the series
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 18:18 |
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dogstile posted:E: RE7 chat, that stopped being a horror for me right about the time I started doing donuts in that dudes garage. What I like about this section is that, for a while, you feel empowered, being able to run this guy over repeatedly, it's awesome. Then he disappear. Then he rips off the loving roof (which made everyone I've seen play it jump), and as you start driving around the garage, the game made me think "Oh poo poo, did i gently caress up? Am I going to die now? Oh poo poo oh poo poo oh poo poo" right until you ram into that girder. Which is a good sense of horror for me.
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 19:07 |
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The invisible bugs, Dr. Salvador, and the blind Wolverine dudes were plenty scary in RE4. Especially when you get trapped in that little prison with one
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 19:27 |
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Bogart posted:The invisible bugs, Dr. Salvador, and the blind Wolverine dudes were plenty scary in RE4. Especially when you get trapped in that little prison with one
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 19:32 |
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Resident Evil 4 definitely had its moments. The creepy mutterings of the villagers, the first time (and second time, and third time) you hear a chainsaw rev up, making GBS threads your pants when a villager's head explodes into a flailing parasite, finding the documents on the Regenerators and getting that immediate sensation of "he's right behind me, isn't he?" Resident Evil in general was rarely about atmosphere, for me personally; it was always those "thing crawls by the window real fast" moments. Sewers aren't inherently creepy, the knowledge that there's absolutely gonna be some kind of hosed up monster down there, though, inspires dread. For me RE4 was like, the peak--it hit those jump scares, those thrills, those moments of dread the hardest they'd been hit since maybe RE2, while also letting me play a human that didn't have a lovely turning around disease (or a psychological aversion to knee high fences) RE5 then proceeded to lean way, way too hard into playing supercop but that's a different rant
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 19:54 |
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Lunatic Sledge posted:Resident Evil 4 definitely had its moments. The creepy mutterings of the villagers
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 20:08 |
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I'm looking to buy a pc horror game as a gift, what's good in the last year or two for someone who dug soma/vanishing of Ethan carter
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 20:28 |
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I really liked Detention, although it's a point and click, not an FPS thing
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 20:37 |
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Jonathan Fisk posted:I'm looking to buy a pc horror game as a gift, what's good in the last year or two for someone who dug soma/vanishing of Ethan carter White Day remake.
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 20:52 |
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Jonathan Fisk posted:I'm looking to buy a pc horror game as a gift, what's good in the last year or two for someone who dug soma/vanishing of Ethan carter It’s not strictly horror, but if they liked Ethan Carter they will probably really dig What Remains of Edith Finch. The Penumbra games and Amnesia too, of course.
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 20:56 |
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Too Shy Guy posted:I think I've made this post here before, but every horror game that features combat needs to start where Condemned: Criminal Origins did and go from there. That's the only game I've ever played where the combat itself was a major feature of the horror, where I was the most unsettled when I was actually fighting something. Condemned really sold it's grungy combat super well, the sound design was on point and most all the weapons being in disrepair meant they could really put the effects on when you swung them into someone.
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 21:37 |
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It also managed to be really fun to play while effectively reinforcing the horror, partly because while it was controllable and fun and skill based, your enemies were really erratic and individually could be quite dangerous unless you abused the hell out of the hypertaser when you had it. Hell, by being dangerous, they made it more fun, since it actually felt like a victory when you managed to club down another giant hobo.
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 21:42 |
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Of the original Condemned, I really only thought the puppet factory was scary, per se. The rest is grungy and visceral as all get-out, great atmosphere, but a bit too fast-paced and heavy on the action to really let that oppressive horror-type sense of anxiety grow for me. And, of course, once you get to the Super Saiyan shouting powers, all bets are off.
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 22:04 |
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Cardiovorax posted:Of the original Condemned, I really only thought the puppet factory was scary, per se. The rest is grungy and visceral as all get-out, great atmosphere, but a bit too fast-paced and heavy on the action to really let that oppressive horror-type sense of anxiety grow for me. Both those things were Condemned 2. Condemned 1 didn't have super powers (beyond like, the usual videogame resistance to damage and being able to heal using painkillers) or a puppet factory.
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 22:11 |
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The first game had a lot more thematic spooky levels, the ending farmhouse is still creepy as hell.
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 22:14 |
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Appreciate the recommendations y'all. I think he's played through the old amnesia and penumbra games but I'll give the rest a look!
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 22:19 |
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thebardyspoon posted:Both those things were Condemned 2. Condemned 1 didn't have super powers (beyond like, the usual videogame resistance to damage and being able to heal using painkillers) or a puppet factory.
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 22:21 |
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Yardbomb posted:The first game had a lot more thematic spooky levels, the ending farmhouse is still creepy as hell. However out of left field the goddamn stick fighting demon was, the fact that you have to kill it with a shovel and ripping its face off in a burning barn really sold that conclusion.
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 22:23 |
Cardiovorax posted:Really? Huh, coulda sworn. They're generally similar enough that I'm of mixing them up in my memory. On the upshot, that means Condemned 2 was also the one with the motherfucking undead grizzly bear, which was utterly pantswetting enough to make up for super-voice shenanigans. That should be in a spoiler tag if this game was not lost to time forever :/
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 22:26 |
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Yeah, an unkillable monster in a book is easy to make interesting compared to an unkillable monster in a game. Also one thing that occurred to me. How often do the instant kill monsters thrown at you get to show off? Show off ( and this is the important part) Outside of a canned kill cutscene against you or hapless NPCs. While nowhere near horror, guilty pleasure game "Breakdown" on the old Xbox had essentially "What if. Tyrant was sephiroth from the waist up?" as the stock unkillable until boss fight guy. What stood out to me was a point where after you had to do a bunch of dodging around instant death laser trip mines, he just casually walks through the explosions without even paying attention to their existence. This garbage game, stumbled rear end backwards into the missing ingredient so often skiped out on "horror" games. Where it's 10% effort in "when they are not killing you" and 90% effort "We get to kill an NPC or player now!" Why don't more games have them do sweet poo poo like flipping past turret fire in pursuit of the player? "These turrets will slow them down! It worked in ALIENS... oh. Oh poo poo " (Prey's turrets are made of balsa wood a stiff breeze will knock over, so don't really count there) Getting to show off in any way but "Surprise! Now someone is dead!" would also helping to reinforce WHY your super murderer is contractually unkillable in a way that feels deserved. Accordion Man posted:The chaingun guy and especially the frickin' Regenerators too. RE4 was the more thrilling kind of horror than the chilling kind. Because while it's WILDLY impractical to the point of being self destructive. The fact you can kill them without the gimmick makes a huge, HUGE difference in mentality. Even if that would involve upending an entire suitcase full of grenades and shotgun shells until you finally kill them by accident. It makes you feel smart for using the thermal scope, because it is the "Practical option" rather than the "Only option." Meanwhile, running from the 'regenerator' in Dead Space until the inevitable cryo freeze was the least scary thing in that game to me. "Well, this guy is doing nothing interesting. Hurry it up with the inevitable cryo freeze or whatever already, we get the point" Section Z fucked around with this message at 23:35 on Sep 28, 2018 |
# ? Sep 28, 2018 23:29 |
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I thought you fried the regenerator in a jet engine exhaust flame in Dead Space and not froze it
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# ? Sep 28, 2018 23:48 |
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szary posted:I thought you fried the regenerator in a jet engine exhaust flame in Dead Space and not froze it Though for whatever reason I'm often more scared of trash monsters than the setpiece or intended big deal monsters in games. The psychic monkeys in System Shock 2 sent me fleeing in confused terror, twice. Meanwhile giant spiders were met with irritation even as my organs dissolved from turbo poison. Section Z fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Sep 28, 2018 |
# ? Sep 28, 2018 23:55 |
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Alien Isolation also did that well, where your first early threats are people with guns who will kill you pretty easily. Then once the alien enters the picture, if any gun toting humans happen to be in the same room with it you get to watch as the Xenomorph swats them all around like yarn balls.
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# ? Sep 29, 2018 00:20 |
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DeathChicken posted:Alien Isolation also did that well, where your first early threats are people with guns who will kill you pretty easily. Then once the alien enters the picture, if any gun toting humans happen to be in the same room with it you get to watch as the Xenomorph swats them all around like yarn balls.
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# ? Sep 29, 2018 00:23 |
Condemned deserved a better sequel, but it's clear that the same creative minds that made the first game had had the second game in mind the whole time. We got lucky. ...I've got an effortpost brewing about agency, player role, combat and horror games, but I need to think on it some more. Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Sep 29, 2018 |
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# ? Sep 29, 2018 00:25 |
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It's not so much horror as it is "Aaaaaah" action, but RE6 lets it's big recurring enemies do fun stuff. Ustanak, the hulking Leatherface nemesis dude in Jake and Sherry's campaign is really agile despite being a big ole juggernaut, leaps across a big gap and starts climbing a building to keep after you, jumps across helicopters to pursue you during a chopper flight, pretty much nigh indestructible and survives all sorts of hell to keep coming back, including squaring off with a huge cave driller you're driving up on him with. Ubistvo, also in Jake and Sherry's, is a freaky meat+bone chainsaw armed monster that has the same sorta deal, one of the highlights of their encounters is when you're steering a boat through this crowded channel in china, by this point you already busted him up once and he dunked off into the murky water, but then you see this weird light moving through the water real fast and start seeing power lines and towers come down, obviously as that thing's racing through the water and sawing down foundations still after you. Whatever gripes people have with that game, I've never seen someone mad about the crazy, creative enemies.
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# ? Sep 29, 2018 01:13 |
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Yardbomb posted:It's not so much horror as it is "Aaaaaah" action, but RE6 lets it's big recurring enemies do fun stuff. Ustanak, the hulking Leatherface nemesis dude in Jake and Sherry's campaign is really agile despite being a big ole juggernaut, leaps across a big gap and starts climbing a building to keep after you, jumps across helicopters to pursue you during a chopper flight, pretty much nigh indestructible and survives all sorts of hell to keep coming back, including squaring off with a huge cave driller you're driving up on him with. Ubistvo, also in Jake and Sherry's, is a freaky meat+bone chainsaw armed monster that has the same sorta deal, one of the highlights of their encounters is when you're steering a boat through this crowded channel in china, by this point you already busted him up once and he dunked off into the murky water, but then you see this weird light moving through the water real fast and start seeing power lines and towers come down, obviously as that thing's racing through the water and sawing down foundations still after you.
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# ? Sep 29, 2018 02:22 |
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Section Z posted:I actually skipped out on playing 6 beyond about the first hour or so? And those sound like great examples Too bad the game they're in Isn't Good
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# ? Sep 29, 2018 03:10 |
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It's fine.
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# ? Sep 29, 2018 03:21 |
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# ? Jun 2, 2024 23:14 |
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Yardbomb posted:Condemned really sold it's grungy combat super well, the sound design was on point and most all the weapons being in disrepair meant they could really put the effects on when you swung them into someone. yeah. id love to see monolinth make another condemed in the style of 1. hell, they could just start over with the story. that game was spooky as gently caress at points.
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# ? Sep 29, 2018 03:54 |