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At it's core Horror as a genre is difficult to make into a game simply because the easiest and most effective way to make a horror game imo is just... not make it a game. The feeling of helplessness is usually a big part of horror in general which in terms of gameplay usually means taking agency away from the player which while good in terms of a horror setting, is kinda bad in terms of actual gameplay. When the genre you're using is placed in a medium whose greatest strengths lie in a direction that is contradictory to goals of said genre, getting that balancing act right is unsurprisingly difficult to pull off. Relatedly, I genuinely think Phasmophobia is the best actual horror game I've ever played. You can go about playing each round however you want with a large amount of freedom to accomplish the goals presented to you. The horror comes from both the atmosphere provided and the ghost itself, both the knowledge that the ghost is real and can kill you and the fact you can do literally nothing to stop it once it starts hunting. It's just a mad scramble to try and get the evidence you need while hopefully none of your team dies to the ghost's hunts. Add on that a kind of soft time limit of running out of sanity at which point the ghost will just chain hunts till your team is dead or you leave is kind of just a cherry on top. Compare to any other "game" in the horror genre and generally it's just a walking simulator of some variety with extremely limited interaction and choice from the player. There is one path, maybe a couple of variants and you will follow it to the end for the "experience" rather than because it has any compelling gameplay. edit: what a page snipe
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Feb 9, 2021 00:21
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TheWorldsaStage posted:I like Layers of Fear. I really wanted to, and I started out thinking it was neat. But I dunno, my interest just gradually dwindled the more I played.
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Feb 9, 2021 00:47
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Assistant Manager Devil posted:I really wanted to, and I started out thinking it was neat. But I dunno, my interest just gradually dwindled the more I played. I feel you. It's just I've long accepted nothing is ever going to be as enjoyable for me as Eternal Darkness, Silent Hill 2/3, or Fatal Frame/2 so if something even vaguely ticklesthat 'dread horror' part of my brain I forgive a lot.
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Feb 9, 2021 01:27
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FirstAidKite posted:I like when horror games don't feel the need to be misery porn because goddamn are there some horror games that just lean way too far into the misery porn The monster is depression/abuse/alcoholism what a surprise. Ugh. How about the ghost is a ghost. How about that.
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Feb 9, 2021 03:30
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A lot of little horror games are just coming from the same traditions of the short horror story world, just a little tantilizing taste of something spooky. Like if you went into The Monkey and came out "Who would build such a contraption, what a plothole! How was I supposed to connect with these characters?" you would have an equally bad time Also a lot of gamers come into things with a "Heh, give me your best shot" stance when it comes to spooks and it's just wasting their own time at that point The Chad Jihad fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Feb 9, 2021 |
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Feb 9, 2021 03:51
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i felt satisfied with the level of spookiness in resident evil 7 tbh
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Feb 9, 2021 04:06
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Manager Hoyden posted:The monster is depression/abuse/alcoholism what a surprise. Ugh. I'm not sure what bothers me more, games where the twist is that the monster is abuse regardless of how much or little sense it makes or games where the twist is that the monster is the cycle of abuse which you will be doomed to continue because you have no choice in the matter so you'd might as well die or accept having this role foisted upon you. I can think of a few games that felt like they were ruined by decisions to just go in hard with those ideas. Sometimes Killerman is Killerman and that's okay. One of my favorite indie horror titles is Ib and that is a game that game is honest with what the horror is and is fine with the horror being abstract without trying to force the horror to be yet another "actually the monster was mental illness" scenario.
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Feb 9, 2021 04:41
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Evil Kit posted:Relatedly, I genuinely think Phasmophobia is the best actual horror game I've ever played.
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Feb 9, 2021 04:45
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Oh hey I mentioned this game in the Steam thread before realizing 'oh yeah there's a whole horror game thread'. World of Horror. The impressions were it's a better game to experience than to play. Like it's worth going through for the stories and the 1 bit body horror but the gameplay elements are shaky at best? Anybody else here with any different takes on it?
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Feb 9, 2021 06:14
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ChrisBTY posted:Oh hey I mentioned this game in the Steam thread before realizing 'oh yeah there's a whole horror game thread'. it is an extremely neat game that's well executed, but imo it lacks meat (from combat to the total amount of content) once you've done a run or two you've kind of seen it all, would love to see the dev work on the formula a bit more because the foundation of it is extremely my poo poo
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Feb 9, 2021 06:19
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Is there workshop support? Community made mysteries would be pretty great. Well probably 99% terrible furry foot mysteries but there would probably be a few normal ones.
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Feb 9, 2021 06:22
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Not sure about Workshop, but there is mod support. It supports at least items, characters and individual events. Not sure about entire mysteries, but I'm guessing yes. The entire thing seems very set-up to support community content.
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Feb 9, 2021 06:24
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Manager Hoyden posted:The monster is depression/abuse/alcoholism what a surprise. Ugh. it's because everyone tries to write James Sunderland again or because it's a
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Feb 9, 2021 08:14
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Cardiovorax posted:Phasmophobia is astoundingly good at being a terrifying experience while having a real game structure to it. It's only flaw (to me) is that it's purely multiplayer, but otherwise it's really everything I want a new indie horror game to be. I’ve sunk a whole bunch of hours into phasmophobia playing solo. I would absolutely recommend it.
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Feb 9, 2021 08:35
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I mean, you CAN play Phasmophobia solo, but, uh, I wouldn't. World of Horror is built from the ground up to be modular and moddable. When you're starting a game there's an interface where you choose which unlockables to use, and the UI is boxes of cards in a game store, like you were buying a card game and choosing which expansions to get. Everything is a "card" not because it's actually a deckbuilder but just because that's the way the modularity is framed. Custom events have been in for awhile now, and custom enemies were added in October. The plan is that eventually you'll be able to make everything up to custom Mysteries. Right now the game's in a bit of a limbo because the dev's disappeared again like he did last summer when he moved; I'm sure he'll turn up again at some point, though TBH I feel like I've already well got my $15 worth and new updates are cake. You might check the subreddit for info on already-released mods, though be aware that some of them aren't coded quite right; I downloaded some custom events awhile back that I had to go in and debug because they had errors in them. The Discord has multiple channels for modders, so you might poke around or ask there.
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Feb 9, 2021 09:08
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Pope Guilty posted:I mean, you CAN play Phasmophobia solo, but, uh, I wouldn't. Why wouldn’t you? I play primarily co op with friends and it’s a good time, but it’s also a very spooky game to play solo too and as long as you avoid asylum to avoid the painful walks back and forth to drop equipment (and maybe prison or high school depending on where the ghost is), it’s still a ton of fun.
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Feb 9, 2021 09:25
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Imagining a M.R. James game where you're an upper class academic in the early 1900s that's cataloguing archives or documenting the architecture of some desolate old building or just casually desecrating a tomb when you accidentally anger a supernatural force. Or maybe something more general which implements the Jamesian idea that a good ghost story should be something that the reader could Imagine themselves stumbling into through no fault of their own.
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Feb 9, 2021 09:39
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I wish there was an actual good game about being in the wilderness looking for cryptids. I know there was a not so good one I tried a while back that was a bit too clunky and honestly seemed not finished.
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Feb 9, 2021 09:46
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TheKingslayer posted:I wish there was an actual good game about being in the wilderness looking for cryptids. I know there was a not so good one I tried a while back that was a bit too clunky and honestly seemed not finished. Pokemon Snap
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Feb 9, 2021 09:59
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Jack Trades posted:Pokemon Snap Touche. Then I change my statement to a game about hunting cryptids that's creepy as all hell.
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Feb 9, 2021 10:04
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TheKingslayer posted:Touche. Pokemon Snap
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Feb 9, 2021 10:09
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 Yeah and I don't play games with no future. I thought it was a bug but no, no voice acting. No music. Why do I do this to myself? This game's going to drive me to go back and finish Evil Within.
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Feb 9, 2021 14:22
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Lifeglug posted:Why wouldn’t you? Too spooky.
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Feb 9, 2021 14:53
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I still love Phasmophobia but I want more small-to-medium maps. The bigger ones are fun for a bit but once the novelty wears off they can be a big ol' slog.
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Feb 9, 2021 15:23
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Did Phasmophobia ever get original assets?
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Feb 9, 2021 17:01
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Not that I'm aware, but considering that it's a tiny project and they'd have to remake literally every bit of content that already exists from scratch for it, I'm not seeing it realistically happen. Maybe for the sequel, if there is one.
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Feb 9, 2021 17:03
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drkeiscool posted:it's because everyone tries to write James Sunderland again The thing about sh2 is that you can read it both ways and any ratio inbetween. It's totally in his head while he stands looking into that mirror. Or it's really happening because Silent Hill is some hosed up nexus of spooky that is just playing off his inner torment. The most common reading is 50/50 where it's James' hosed up mind that triggers the very real anomaly of Silent Hill. The current trend of everything being 100% metaphor is indeed underwhelming. Layers of fear is the best example of this. Yes, its a very artsy, pretty interpretation of the unraveling of a mind. But it goes out of its way to tell you that none of it actually happened. It just willingly kicks out the legs on any other possible readings. Regarde Aduck fucked around with this message at 17:13 on Feb 9, 2021 |
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Feb 9, 2021 17:06
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Phasmophobia is pretty cool but it really doesn't have much in the way of legs because each job is very predictable and a lot of tools vary wildly in usefulness. The thermometer is basically the #1 ghost finder while the motion/sound sensors are basically worthless and the parabolic microphone is unwieldy and also useless. I think it'll be better after some patches but I rarely want to play it lately because it's not very scary or exciting. It's mostly just "wave the thermometer around, find the cold room, drop items in that room until you get enough clues, leave" and or guess when something doesn't work for some reason which is frequent.
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Feb 9, 2021 17:11
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Glagha posted:Phasmophobia is pretty cool but it really doesn't have much in the way of legs because each job is very predictable and a lot of tools vary wildly in usefulness. The thermometer is basically the #1 ghost finder while the motion/sound sensors are basically worthless and the parabolic microphone is unwieldy and also useless. I think it'll be better after some patches but I rarely want to play it lately because it's not very scary or exciting. It's mostly just "wave the thermometer around, find the cold room, drop items in that room until you get enough clues, leave" and or guess when something doesn't work for some reason which is frequent. Get on the beta branch if you’re not, a bunch of stuff has changed, along with the thermometer nerfs. I think the last main patch was like December maybe, whereas the beta is updated maybe every 2 days or so.
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Feb 9, 2021 17:31
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"Not very scary" seems like a weird take, considering how I've seen a lot of people react to that game.
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Feb 9, 2021 17:37
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Cardiovorax posted:"Not very scary" seems like a weird take, considering how I've seen a lot of people react to that game. It’s not very uncommon when you sink a bunch of hours into the game. It’s a very mechanics focussed game that becomes somewhat predictable over time. I occasionally get a good spook out of it but it does really lose a lot of its tension after you’ve played it a bunch.
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Feb 9, 2021 18:11
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Cardiovorax posted:"Not very scary" seems like a weird take, considering how I've seen a lot of people react to that game. It really isn't scary if you've run through each scenario a dozen times. It's very scary if you are a new player playing with other new players, trying to figure out how everything works. Of course that's true for every game, especially when you're minmaximg and working out the math of which mechanics are most efficient. Unfortunately there's no way to recapture the new player feeling.
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Feb 9, 2021 18:11
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I suppose that's fair, yes. If you do it often enough for long enough, anything would stop being scary.
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Feb 9, 2021 18:14
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the curse of being a horror fan. the more you like it, the less it works for you
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Feb 9, 2021 18:19
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Honestly I kind of value that phasmo isn't that scary because it makes it easier to play in VR but it could use a little more tension and unpredictability to the ghosts. Like, a consistent issue is being unable to get them to just show their drat faces for a second so you can get a picture. Like, you spend a ton of time not seeing them at all, and then they only show up to attack you which is actually the least scary portion of the job because you know exactly when it's happening and what they're doing. The lights start blinking and the front door slams shut and you just run into another room and hide until it's over. There's also the issue that some of the mechanics are very opaque. It took forever to convince a friend of mine that running around saying the ghost's name in the dark was actually extremely counter productive. Her rationale was "hey everyone stop being wusses let's get this ghost to appear so we can get evidence already instead of standing around for an hour" but all that does is make the ghost attack which doesn't count as ghost activity, and prevents you from doing other kinds of investigation because you're forced to run constantly. I dunno it's a fun enough game but once you play it enough (which isn't really that much play) you've kind of seen everything and the fear of the unknown goes away once you understand the mechanics. That, and you HAVE to understand the mechanics because the game certainly doesn't surface to you what crucifixes actually do, for example. Doing the thing that would occur to most people (hold onto it for protecton) is actually the last thing you should be doing with it
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Feb 9, 2021 18:41
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Oxxidation posted:the curse of being a horror fan. the more you like it, the less it works for you That's why all the best horror games are PS2 ones with terrible controls
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Feb 9, 2021 19:49
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Sakurazuka posted:That's why all the best horror games are PS2 ones with terrible controls PS2 had games with good controls?
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Feb 9, 2021 20:21
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Okami had pretty good controls, I thought.
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Feb 9, 2021 20:22
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Jack Trades posted:PS2 had games with good controls? That...Japanese Resident Evil-like horror game whose name eludes me at the moment (you play three character going through a shrine that's been taken over by monsters) had camera-relative controls with the option to use tank controls, and it was pretty good. The fighting sucked, but that's something else.
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Feb 9, 2021 21:03
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Kuon I guess
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Feb 9, 2021 21:26
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