Horror Games Megathread

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Horror Games Megathread

mysterious frankie: Jan 11, 2009; This displeases Dev- ..van. Shut up.

Morpheus posted:

Unrelated to RE4, for some reason as of late I've been getting youtube recommendations for a game and it's sequel called Fear and Hunger, and it's looks like a very interesting pair of games that I don't ever want to play.

They're basically very difficult turn-based Lovecraftian RPGs dealing with people that enter situations that are far darker and more cosmic than they could've imagined. Combat is often lethal, with an emphasis on strategy since different enemy body parts can be targeted in combat to different effect, including dismemberment. This also applies to attacks against you. Losing a leg means you're slowed, losing two means you're crawling, and no, you can't just bandage that up. At this point you're pretty screwed, but lose anything more and, well...

You have to deal with your constantly-draining hunger and mental status as you progress through the games, sometimes chests will have no loot at all (there's a coin flip whenever you search them), and enemies, who don't respawn, don't give any xp or anything so often avoiding combat is preferable. Oh you have limited saves, too. The first game uses consumable items to save, the second doesn't, but advances time when you save and there's only so much time available.

The games are dark and mature, but from what I've seen it's (mostly) justified. There aren't, like, buckets filled with bodyparts just sitting around to be edgy, but there are some hosed up situations and the game contains a content warning at the beginning for good reason. The first, set in a sprawling medieval dungeon, is probably worse for this. The second, set in a town that's been driven mad by the moon, is a little better, but there are some parts that are dark as hell.

Anyway the games are just really interesting due to that cosmic horror feel that something much greater is going on behind the scenes that takes a lot of reading between the lines to puzzle out. It makes me interested in the plots and the details, but not enough to get through the difficulty, because these are games meant for you to fail again and again until you gain the knowledge to know where to go and what to do without losing everything on the way. I wonder if this is what people who are interested in the Souls games, but not enough to play through their frustration, feel like?

Also the second game has 8 choosable characters, each with their own set of skills, and one of them is a botanist on a wheelchair that she needs to fold up in order to climb stairs, which is a unique mechanic I've not seen elsewhere.

Fear and Hunger have interested me, mainly because of the weird rear end setting, but the gameplay sounds an unfun application of a genre I normally like. I�m a lazy gamer that doesn�t like playing the same thing over and over without some more tangible sense of progression beyond knowing the lore or memorization. I�m glad someone is making stuff like this.

# ? Mar 10, 2023 16:30

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 16, 2024 11:47

Morpheus: Apr 18, 2008; My favourite little monsters

mysterious frankie posted:

Fear and Hunger have interested me, mainly because of the weird rear end setting, but the gameplay sounds an unfun application of a genre I normally like. I�m a lazy gamer that doesn�t like playing the same thing over and over without some more tangible sense of progression beyond knowing the lore or memorization. I�m glad someone is making stuff like this.

Yeah this is me 100%. It is interesting watching someone play the game who knows, even a little bit, what they are doing. It's a game that actually has some kind of knowledge-based skill to its turn-based combat, which is rare. Like, the same way someone playing Dark Souls would know when to dodge when fighting a particular enemy, someone knowledgeable playing Fear and Hunger will know the best way to take down an opponent while taking a minimal amount of damage, if any at all.

# ? Mar 10, 2023 17:16

Read After Burning: Feb 19, 2013; "All this, for me? 💃Ah, you didn't have to! 🥰"

https://www.fangamer.com/products/little-nightmares-mono-plush

Look at this lil guy. :allears:

# ? Mar 10, 2023 18:23

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Fear and Hunger also has a bad case of the Outlasts. Lotsa dongs used to convey threat as enemy set dressing, lots of arbitrary rape. There are aspects of the setting and concept I find appealing (if derivative), but it doesn't outweigh the senseless and at times sexualized grimdark. On "There aren't, like, buckets filled with bodyparts just sitting around to be edgy," the first game has an area on around level 2 of the dungeon that's straight up a big channel full of blood and piles of thousands of bodies.

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Mar 10, 2023

# ? Mar 10, 2023 18:28

sigher: Apr 22, 2008; My guiding Moonlight...

CuddleCryptid posted:

They have done a great job on the remakes so far.

Not with 3.

# ? Mar 10, 2023 18:46

CuddleCryptid: Jan 11, 2013; Things could be going better

sigher posted:

Not with 3.

I'll admit that I didn't play much of 3 in the past so I don't have a good frame of reference but I did enjoy the remake to play it through a few times.

# ? Mar 10, 2023 18:48

veni veni veni: Jun 5, 2005

TheWorldsaStage posted:

Not gonna lie I was hoping for a more horror vibe

They brought horror back with 7 but made 8 actioney and re4make seemes to have held on to the more actiony parts of itself. We'll see, but not a day 1 for me.

I thought as action horror the RE4 remake feels very effective. The villagers feel proper intimidating and not just like cannon fodder. It's just a different kind of horror.

Something like RE 5 and 6 completely loses sight of being horror, but I don't think RE4 does. Especially with what I was able to play of the remake. I feel like the new Resi games, as well as the remakes vary in their emphasis of action vs horror, but in a way that feels very consistent, like they all belong in the same series. RE4 remake plays very close to RE2 remake, it's just got some extra moves and a lot more enemies.

# ? Mar 10, 2023 20:08

veni veni veni: Jun 5, 2005

Read After Burning posted:

https://www.fangamer.com/products/little-nightmares-mono-plush

Look at this lil guy.

drat I am tempted to buy these but I wouldn't know what to do with a plushie. THose are great though

# ? Mar 10, 2023 20:10

happyhippy: Feb 21, 2005; Playing games, watching movies, owning goons. 'sup; Pillbug

Mr E posted:

Play illbleed.

Kewl. Kewl. Kewl. Kewl

Never heard of this game until it was in a Games Done Quick slot, and its defintely a weird gem of a game.

# ? Mar 10, 2023 20:11

CV 64 Fan: Oct 13, 2012; It's pretty dope.

Is Little Nightmares 2 good? There is a bundle for like 8 bucks on xbox.

# ? Mar 10, 2023 20:11

Morpheus: Apr 18, 2008; My favourite little monsters

Disposable Scud posted:

Is Little Nightmares 2 good? There is a bundle for like 8 bucks on xbox.

It's a pretty good sidescrolling puzzle platformer, yeah. Spooky, good creature design, definitely worth 8 bucks.

Discendo Vox posted:

Fear and Hunger also has a bad case of the Outlasts. Lotsa dongs used to convey threat as enemy set dressing, lots of arbitrary rape. There are aspects of the setting and concept I find appealing (if derivative), but it doesn't outweigh the senseless and at times sexualized grimdark. On "There aren't, like, buckets filled with bodyparts just sitting around to be edgy," the first game has an area on around level 2 of the dungeon that's straight up a big channel full of blood and piles of thousands of bodies.

Well, poo poo, all the footage I had seen of the first game didn't include that part. Everything has been dark, sinister dungeons or the silent town and woods of the second game.

Mind you I'd still say that's better than random buckets of legs just, like, against the wall. Looks kinda like a sewer? Anyway, fair enough.

Morpheus fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Mar 10, 2023

# ? Mar 10, 2023 20:18

CharlestonJew: Jul 7, 2011; Illegal Hen

Fear and Hunger is basically FATAL in video game form

# ? Mar 10, 2023 20:33

veni veni veni: Jun 5, 2005

Disposable Scud posted:

Is Little Nightmares 2 good? There is a bundle for like 8 bucks on xbox.

I love both little nightmares games personally. Great art direction with some really creepy character designs. short and sweet little spooky puzzle platformers.

# ? Mar 10, 2023 20:35

Shastahanshah: Sep 12, 2022; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Mr E posted:

Play illbleed.

I think at some point I had Illbleed and Haunting Ground confused because oh my god is it not what I expected :lol:

I don't know if it's good or not but it certainly is the most.

Discendo Vox posted:

Fear and Hunger also has a bad case of the Outlasts. Lotsa dongs used to convey threat as enemy set dressing, lots of arbitrary rape. There are aspects of the setting and concept I find appealing (if derivative), but it doesn't outweigh the senseless and at times sexualized grimdark. On "There aren't, like, buckets filled with bodyparts just sitting around to be edgy," the first game has an area on around level 2 of the dungeon that's straight up a big channel full of blood and piles of thousands of bodies.

Fear and Hunger seemed a bit interesting but was a pretty much immediate pass for me. The second one was a bit better about that stuff from what I saw, but it still has some of it.

There's some pretty cool ideas though, like having RPG fights but you can drop traps and make ranged attacks on the over world. I think someone with a little more talent could make something really cool with stuff like that.

# ? Mar 10, 2023 20:41

worm girl: Feb 12, 2022; Can you hear it too?

Morpheus posted:

Yeah this is me 100%. It is interesting watching someone play the game who knows, even a little bit, what they are doing. It's a game that actually has some kind of knowledge-based skill to its turn-based combat, which is rare. Like, the same way someone playing Dark Souls would know when to dodge when fighting a particular enemy, someone knowledgeable playing Fear and Hunger will know the best way to take down an opponent while taking a minimal amount of damage, if any at all.

These games are not like anything else out there and that alone is really valuable, but they're not intended to be something that will be engaging or fun to everyone. The dev seems perfectly happy making a game that some people will really love rather than one that everybody will like.

As for the content, it is very gruesome and at times really heavy, but I wouldn't compare it to Outlast. I don't want to put Outlast down since I think it's a very effective haunted house experience, but narratively it's mostly just cruelty without any purpose beyond selling the spooks. Fear and Hunger is doing something that has a little more depth, and uses its AO content partly to make a case for the artistic merits of the genre itself. It heavily invokes Berserk, openly referencing it at a few points, and the first game is pretty much working with the same palette - so if you feel like Miura managed to thread the needle, you'll likely feel the same about this series.

Fear and Hunger 2 is a lot more restrained with its content, and mechanically it's less punishing and better designed overall. I'd recommend it as the entry point if you're interested - they're connected but not directly, and playing them out of order won't hurt the experience of either. Just make sure you pay attention to the content warning at the beginning of the game. They aren't kidding.

# ? Mar 10, 2023 20:46

Sakurazuka: Jan 24, 2004; NANI?

Started Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, seems like classic Fatal Frame but drat the controls are twitchy, guess it still beats playing it on a Wii lol also some extremely PS1 looking textures everywhere.

# ? Mar 11, 2023 00:32

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Is or is not "severe anal bleeding" a status effect in Fear and Hunger.

# ? Mar 11, 2023 00:32

CharlestonJew: Jul 7, 2011; Illegal Hen

Discendo Vox posted:

Is or is not "severe anal bleeding" a status effect in Fear and Hunger.

they say anal circumference is a dump stat but I don't think this is what they meant

# ? Mar 11, 2023 01:03

man nurse: Feb 18, 2014

Sakurazuka posted:

Started Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, seems like classic Fatal Frame but drat the controls are twitchy, guess it still beats playing it on a Wii lol also some extremely PS1 looking textures everywhere.

Yeah the controls are just ever so clunky since they�re basically modified from a Wii control scheme. Couple that with the traditionally slow movement of FF and I can see it being off putting. Game looks nice all things considered but textures definitely can look their age under scrutiny.

It�s still better than 5 and I�m glad we got it properly localized. I�m having fun with it.

# ? Mar 11, 2023 01:05

man nurse: Feb 18, 2014

btw in FF 4 there�s a cursed doll hidden in basically every room that you can take a picture of as an optional collectible. The ring will turn blue if you�re properly centered on it. I have fun hunting for them in first person whenever I�m in a new area.

# ? Mar 11, 2023 01:08

Sakurazuka: Jan 24, 2004; NANI?

First thing I did was save up for the book that tells you where they all are, turns out its almost every room lol

# ? Mar 11, 2023 01:29

Read After Burning: Feb 19, 2013; "All this, for me? 💃Ah, you didn't have to! 🥰"

man nurse posted:

btw in FF 4 there�s a cursed doll hidden in basically every room that you can take a picture of as an optional collectible. The ring will turn blue if you�re properly centered on it. I have fun hunting for them in first person whenever I�m in a new area.

Hidden ~~Mickeys~~ Yūrei. :haw:

# ? Mar 11, 2023 01:43

CuddleCryptid: Jan 11, 2013; Things could be going better

The demo for RE4 turned me off it a little bit. It felt a little bit... try hard?

Like instead of being able to choose to jump out the window in the first building it's now a mandatory cutscene. The dog is already dead when you find it in the trap. The chainsaw automatically appears but if you go in the shotgun building it appears again. It's just kind of going "hey remember when" a bit too hard.

# ? Mar 11, 2023 03:19

Read After Burning: Feb 19, 2013; "All this, for me? 💃Ah, you didn't have to! 🥰"

CuddleCryptid posted:

The demo for RE4 turned me off it a little bit. It felt a little bit... try hard?

Like instead of being able to choose to jump out the window in the first building it's now a mandatory cutscene. The dog is already dead when you find it in the trap. The chainsaw automatically appears but if you go in the shotgun building it appears again. It's just kind of going "hey remember when" a bit too hard.

I remember in the original, the first time I played, I accidentally avoided barricading myself in the cabin and instead just shot/knifed everyone who approached me at the entrance. This apparently avoids the chainsaw man and is considered an alternate, "smart-yet-cheap" way to beat that section. Apparently that option is just...removed in the demo? I hope that's not indicative of the whole game, although I only played RE4 until El Gigante (it was my ex's copy) so I'm not sure if there are other sections that let you approach in multiple ways later down the line.

My partner absolutely agrees with you!

Read After Burning fucked around with this message at 03:30 on Mar 11, 2023

# ? Mar 11, 2023 03:27

Oxxidation: Jul 22, 2007

salvador spawns the same way as in the original. you get a normal spawn if you linger in the main town area too long and a cutscene auto-spawn in the shotgun house

# ? Mar 11, 2023 03:58

CuddleCryptid: Jan 11, 2013; Things could be going better

Oxxidation posted:

salvador spawns the same way as in the original. you get a normal spawn if you linger in the main town area too long and a cutscene auto-spawn in the shotgun house

Its been a bit since I replayed RE4 but I'm 95% sure it doesn't if you just stand around because I remember specifically avoiding picking up the shotgun til after the bell so that a chainsaw wouldn't spawn.

# ? Mar 11, 2023 04:05

Gaius Marius: Oct 9, 2012

CuddleCryptid posted:

Its been a bit since I replayed RE4 but I'm 95% sure it doesn't if you just stand around because I remember specifically avoiding picking up the shotgun til after the bell so that a chainsaw wouldn't spawn.

He spawns down at the end of one of the paths out of the village after a minute or something

# ? Mar 11, 2023 04:06

Captain Hygiene: Sep 17, 2007; You mess with the crabbo...

Other stuff aside, I'm hoping That Dog is actually still in the game. It just feels off enough that I think they're loving with us ahead of time, it would feel weirdly mean to kill it off before you even get there when it seems like they're still keeping a fair amount of the original's schlocky feel.

# ? Mar 11, 2023 04:10

Read After Burning: Feb 19, 2013; "All this, for me? 💃Ah, you didn't have to! 🥰"

CuddleCryptid posted:

Its been a bit since I replayed RE4 but I'm 95% sure it doesn't if you just stand around because I remember specifically avoiding picking up the shotgun til after the bell so that a chainsaw wouldn't spawn.

Yeah, in the original, I didn't fight my first one until leaving, uh, what's his name's house, the bald giant with the beard.

According to an RE4 wiki (again, this is for the original, so no worries about spoilers for the demo/remake):

quote:

If the player attempts to leave from the way they came in, one spawns along with two villagers in front of the gate. This one drops 10,000₧. A different one will spawn if the player enters the house with the Shotgun and triggers the cutscene. This one will drop a Ruby. The first one will not appear if the other one has spawned. The second one will replace the first one if he was spawned (It is possible to kill the first one, enter the house, and kill the other one).

Do it my way and you can avoid spawning both of 'em. :blastu:

Granted, you'll be low on funds, so it's not necessarily a pro strat or anything, just something I accidentally discovered the first time I played.

TheWorldsaStage posted:

Haven't been able to get much farther in Paranormasight, but goddamn I've gotten a few curveballs. I'm loving the time I have gotten with it

I can't wait to check it out, I'll be picking it up after I finish Fata Morgana.

# ? Mar 11, 2023 04:22

TheWorldsaStage: Sep 10, 2020

Haven't been able to get much farther in Paranormasight, but goddamn I've gotten a few curveballs. I'm loving the time I have gotten with it

# ? Mar 11, 2023 04:23

Len: Jan 21, 2008; Pouches, bandages, shoulderpad, cyber-eye...

Bitchin'!

Captain Hygiene posted:

Other stuff aside, I'm hoping That Dog is actually still in the game. It just feels off enough that I think they're loving with us ahead of time, it would feel weirdly mean to kill it off before you even get there when it seems like they're still keeping a fair amount of the original's schlocky feel.

flashbacks to re7 beginning hour

# ? Mar 11, 2023 04:31

Oxxidation: Jul 22, 2007

i keenly remember the non-special spawn salvador because he is the one that first claimed my head, many long years ago

# ? Mar 11, 2023 04:32

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

I was working through my reading backlog, and it included a 2017 retrospective interview with Josh Sawyer. Among other topics, there's discussion of the canceled Obsidian Aliens RPG that I thought the thread may find interesting:

quote:

The Aliens RPG was famously canceled. Can you open up about that at all?

JS: Cool. I thought it was going to be super cool. I want to say that it was Travis Stout who... he was a designer here for several years. He, I think, wrote up the initial pitch for it. So one of the things that I was most interested in exploring was the spacefarers who are now the engineers in the rebooted Aliens universe. That's what I wanted to explore and focus on. In terms of mechanical stuff, it was really focusing on a large group of companion characters who are working together to try to survive.

In my mind, the Alien setting is fantastic for a roleplaying game because I think about characters and character interactions. Especially the first two films, I think you can argue that all the films are about these relationships but Alien and Aliens at their core are about these human relationships and how people respond to stress and break down and help each other or turn on each other and all these things. That's what I think makes for great drama in a roleplaying game.

I liked the idea of coming into some environment where really it's not about, "Oh, I'm going to meet a world full of NPCs to talk to." I think that's what a lot of people think about when they think about roleplaying games, is like there's a big world and there's 200 NPCs and they all have dialogue. The way I thought about an Alien roleplaying game was that it's you and a small group of survivors and that is it, and it's about your relationships developing as you're like, "How do we survive? How do we get out of here? Who's on my side, who's turning against me," and all the dynamics of that.

People saw the leaked footage where it was about primarily, like a third-person, and obviously it was really rough but it was like a third-person exploration shooting mechanic. You had two companions with you at any given time and a handler. The handler would help sort of manage what was going on and call out things for you and your two support people would do various tasks like cutting through doors or setting up turrets or things like that or hacking. That was really the whole vibe of the game.

You weren't thinking in terms of, "How can I make really scary aliens?" You were thinking in terms of the scene from Aliens where Hudson is going, "Game over, man! Game over!"

JS: Yeah. Don't get me wrong. That was also very important and we did put a lot of work into lighting and sound and all that sort of stuff. I think in the leaked footage you can see where we have those little stingers or things moving and sounds playing. We did try to convey the horror sense. That was always the mood that we wanted to convey. But in terms of the mechanics we wanted to bring across, we wanted to think about the human interactions and how you manage this group of people and how they try to work with you or against you over however many hours it would take you to get through.

Was the atmosphere and the character interactions the thing that you were most proud of on that project?

JS: Yeah, I think so. What I really love about Alien is that it's a very small cast and you get to know those characters at a deeper level and you see them each break down over time. It's also really great because it's this kind of like blue collar space horror movie.

What I liked about Aliens, and this is something I think James Cameron does very well, which I'm just going to say I don't think Ridley Scott actually does very well: James Cameron does a good job of introducing a lot of characters in a brief amount of time and establishing strong characteristics that you remember about those characters. In Aliens, when you meet Vasquez, Frost, Hicks, Hudson, these people, some of them don't have a whole lot of screen time but you get enough to know something about them and to have a connection with them.

I liked the diversity of all these different characters. You got military people, you got company people, and you got blue collar workers. That's kind of the idea for the classes. We're sort of forming, like these are the sort of people that you're with. I was really most interested in establishing a range of these people from all over the world: different ages, backgrounds, really diverse appearances, because I think that's really important, because we weren't doing anything fantastic. We were doing something that's more grounded sci fi like Alien and Aliens, which was to try to bring out a lot of character just from using things that didn't look like costumes. They were like, "These are the clothes that this person wears." We put a lot of work into that and I think it was coming along really well.

Cool. You would have been stuck on a planet, the aliens are coming, kind of like Aliens, right? Just like, "How do we get out of here?"

JS: Yeah, and figuring out what the heck was actually going on on this planet and focusing mostly on the spacefarers, the engineers and what their deal was.

# ? Mar 12, 2023 21:47

Glagha: Oct 13, 2008; AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAaaAAAaaAAaAA
AAAAAAAaAAAAAaaAAA
AAAA
AaAAaaA
AAaaAAAAaaaAAAAAAA
AaaAaaAAAaaaaaAA

Finally got around to playing House of Ashes with some friends and that is definitely #1 for me in Dark Pictures games. Like I enjoyed the series well enough but this is the first one that I thought was just an unmitigated good rear end game.

# ? Mar 13, 2023 15:27

man nurse: Feb 18, 2014

Jesus Christ Fatal Frame 4 just had to have one of those infuriating sliding tile puzzles

It sucked rear end in Resident Evil 4 and it sucks here!

Yeah let�s just kill all the loving momentum and have you sit here dicking around with a puzzle that has no clear cut solution, just trial and error until you give up and play something else or magically get it right.

Fuuuuck

# ? Mar 13, 2023 15:42

Sakurazuka: Jan 24, 2004; NANI?

It's funny cos there's one earlier which is just spin the blocks round, lulling you into a false sense of security then they hit you with a real 5x4 sliding puzzle block.

Fortunately I trained on the DC version of Tech Romancer so it didn't take very long.

# ? Mar 13, 2023 15:45

man nurse: Feb 18, 2014

I can�t even find a guide that just gives you the movement solution. I�m not smart enough for this!

# ? Mar 13, 2023 15:46

Captain Hygiene: Sep 17, 2007; You mess with the crabbo...

Ugh, that's my slide puzzle nightmare. Hopefully there's somebody on youtube solving it without 10 minutes of trial and error beforehand!

# ? Mar 13, 2023 15:51

Hel: Oct 9, 2012; Jokatgulm is tedium.
Jokatgulm is pain.
Jokatgulm is suffering.

I haven't gotten to that part yet, but if it's a standard tile sliding puzzle there are generisolvers on the internet that you just put the blocks into and generate a solution, really helpful when playing older games because gently caress doing then on my own.

# ? Mar 13, 2023 15:57

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 16, 2024 11:47

CuddleCryptid: Jan 11, 2013; Things could be going better

People always joke about terrible, nonsensical locck mechanisms in horror games but if I came across a secure door with a sliding tile puzzle irl I might just leave.

# ? Mar 13, 2023 16:15

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Horror Games Megathread

«‹›902 »