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Anna is great. One of the few games that actually disturbed me. It basically takes the Sanity system from Eternal Darkness but it's actually scary because they don't telegraph when they'll happen. You'll turn around and notice that details you just examined aren't there anymore or that objects were moved around. Or maybe you'll hear breathing behind your back and turn around AND gently caress I ACTUALLY YELLED A LITTLE BIT. It is an obtuse game but seriously read the journal, it has some pretty obvious tips for most of the puzzles. The difficulty is knowing how the game wants you to work them but I was never confused as to where I was or what I should be working towards. There's only maybe a dozen "maps" in the game. Now let me tell you about my other favorite game, Scratches.  On the outskirts of Rothbury is the Blackwood mansion. In 1963, shortly after returning from work in Africa, the esteemed Mr. Blackwood was charged with the murder of his wife. Dying from a heart attack, Blackwood passed his mansion on to Dr. Milton who disappeared without a trace. A decade has passed and truth turns to legend. You are Michael Arthate, an author with a case of writer's block. Your business partner purchases the mansion hoping to inspire your next book. As you explore the mansion you find Blackwood's diaries detailing his disturbing business in Africa. A secluded tribe. Ritualistic sacrifice. A stolen artifact behind a boarded up room. You're troubled by nightmares and the sound of beating drums. Sounds beneath the floorboards... scratches.   Scratches is a first person adventure game. Everything is static 2D so there's no 3D exploration. It has some of the pixel hunting trappings but overall it's closer to Gone Home than 7th Guest. You have to solve puzzles to progress (especially a devious one near the end) but the focus is on exploring the house and the journal is super helpful (if you ever get stuck, use the phone which is usually required to advance time). What makes Scratches so effectively horrifying is that you're all alone. You never meet another human being. There are no jump scares, no closet moments, nothing can kill you or impede your progress. The game is moody, atmospheric, and never makes clear what the source of the disturbance is. For a game with no monsters I thought Scratches was one of the most effective horror stories in a video game.
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Jul 5, 2014 14:56
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Accordion Man posted:The best thing about Scratches is that nothing actually happens until the very end of the game. Eternal Darkness was the same way with its main framing location. Not just that but you're not even sure anything happened. You basically waved sludge on a stick in front of a mask and I felt incredibly stupid after doing so.
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Jul 5, 2014 17:48
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I felt Alan Wake was a missed opportunity. It drags on a bit too long and combat gets repetitive but I enjoyed the mash up Twilight Zone/Twin Peaks writing. Really conflicting opinions about the game and the way it ended. What's interesting is that it was originally going to be open world but they scrapped the idea when they couldn't get it to work. And you can see elements of it in the semi-open environments and clunky vehicle sections. I imagine Deadly Premonition is what Alan Wake would have turned into if they kept in that direction. Firstborn posted:Remember Overblood? A weird little game that had touches of Resident Evil and System Shock. Dude is alone on the planet with aliens and I think the most he had was a handgun. It was fun in a time on PSX where anything could get published, no matter how weird or obscure. This is one of the first Playstation games I played and I remember being incredibly confused by everything. But really the only thing I remember from it is Pipo and when Adventure Time came out the character BMO brought back those dark memories. al-azad fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Jul 5, 2014 |
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Jul 5, 2014 19:58
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Open world and horror can and should go hand in hand, they just need to get their priorities straight. They need to stress that you're super vulnerable, that fighting enemies is a bad idea, and stress the importance of having secure shelter to keep out the raging hordes of locals. Abandoning your camp and running should be a viable and encouraged option. I've seen some videos where the actual player is a little freaked out because the enemies would be standing in their periphery or stalking them through the forest instead of attacking. Unpredictable enemies is an element of horror games (and games in general) you don't ever see but it's an effective tool to scare the player. I found Sir, You Are Being Hunted to be a pretty intense game. It's not scary but hearing the buzzing and whirring of a hunting party behind you or the ominous sound of an approaching balloon is enough to get my heartbeat racing.
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Jul 5, 2014 20:48
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For me, Silent Hill's biggest weakness was how powerful it made you. Melee weapons are still the best way to take out the slow, plodding enemies and you can avoid the flying guys by running in a zigzag pattern. The atmosphere was top notch. I really hated the sewers with the lizards hanging on the ceiling and eventually the invisible monsters. Not the teddy bears, though, they're the cutest of Silent Hill's monsters.
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Jul 10, 2014 19:36
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The Souls games never got to me but I played King's Field (From Software's first game and the precursor to Souls) for the first time last year and for an ugly, clunky, slow PS1 dungeon crawl it hit all the right notes. You start practically naked on a dark island. You're not told what to do or where to go. There's no map (yet), no friendly NPCs, no friendly areas to rest. The first monster you encounter is the huge kraken. You see its glowing red eyes first before the entire thing comes into view. It will kill you in one hit if you approach it. It just stands there, looming over you, daring you to loving steal its dragon crystal. You even have to maneuver past it to reach the other side of the island and it'll follow you slowly, taking ineffectual swipes as you try to walk past. The entirety of King's Field is like this. Even when you get a bunch of items and spells the game will always remind you of your mortality by throwing a deadlier trap or bigger monster your way. There are a few NPCs, all literally faceless, that walk around like stiff marionettes and tell you cryptic clues. Stuff about a ghostly king, an apocalypse dragon, elemental lords, and fire ghosts. The levels are huge so one moment you're walking through an abandoned fortress then you fall through a trap door and you're in the cavern of giant termites. Nothing makes sense in this world but people actually live here and that's what makes it scary. The world design is like an old school Dungeons & Dragons nightmare dungeon. Everything is hostile but just on the periphery of darkness are small pockets of civilization. For a game that runs at like 5 frames per second it's really haunting. I recommend Arx Fatalis as well. It's ugly, poorly written, and clunky to play but the atmosphere is loving thick. Rat-men assassins stalk you in the dark, giant loving spiders prowl the caves, there's a segment with an immortal shadow beast chasing you throughout, one dungeon is probably the creepiest cultist hideout I've ever seen in a video game. There's even a spell where you can summon a demon. Unlike most games the demon is actually gross and twisted like a Lovecraftian nightmare.  There's a great sidequest straight out of Ultima 7 where cultists kidnap a 10 year old girl to sacrifice to summon a demon. You can watch the ritual from the shadows and the demon just slaughters all the cultists then floats around menacingly until it detects you. al-azad fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Jul 11, 2014 |
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Jul 11, 2014 21:57
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DoctorOfLawls posted:Excellent thread. I am a newcomer to this genre, and it is great to hear about these classics I never knew about. Are there any specific classics/remakes that are exclusive to specific systems? 3DO was being embraced by Japan as a system to make interactive CD quality games but unfortunately that system tanked. It did leave us with D's Diner, an enhanced version of D, and Dr. Hauzer which had the unique ability to switch between first, third, and top down cameras. I want to talk more about Japanese horror games because they're another world entirely. Their computers were super popular in the 80s but consoles dominated the market so the computer technology stagnated. With technically inferior computers that limited gameplay mechanics, the visual novel genre boomed which lead to some of the best sprite art from the era. I wish people would put to rest all the Japanese SNES games and start translating some PC-98 stuff because it's a gold mine of untapped potential. If you can, track down Cosmology of Kyoto. It's an adventure game for Win95 with dual English/japanese text. The graphics are some of the most disturbing sprite art I've ever seen.
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Jul 12, 2014 01:47
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Cardiovorax posted:I couldn't play this game when it came out. It was just too unsettling to deal with at that age. I wish there was a youtube video where people DIDN'T TALK OVER THE loving GAMEPLAY but the tortures of hell are seriously some hosed up poo poo. This game makes Dante's description of hell look loving tame. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrW54npKP0w&t=160s
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Jul 12, 2014 21:54
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Kaboom Dragoon posted:It has its problems, but, unsurprisingly, everyone blew them out of proportion. I think people were more sore about the VAs being changed (despite the fact that the new guys are perfectly fine and you can use the original voices with SH2 if it really disturbs you that much) than anything, but for what it's worth, I've played both games - original and HD - and never found much to complain about. There's a pretty in-depth youtube video that goes over how much was really changed. Even if the game was perfectly playable, bottom line is that the sound design was messed up (sound effects were being played on the wrong objects) or textures were swapped around for no reason. Compared to the blowout work that was done for Metal Gear, Ratchet and Clank, Ico, and so on the Silent Hill collection was like one of those turn-of-the-century DVDs where it looks like a VHS master copy was recolored and slapped on a disc with a static menu. Neo Rasa posted:Fully 3D world before Quake AND before Terminator: Future Shock, sorry PC master race. It's okay, King's Field owes a lot to Ultima Underworld  Which actually got a Japanese exclusive PS1 release with fully 3D models. al-azad fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Jul 13, 2014 |
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Jul 13, 2014 18:34
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I felt Dino Crisis was stronger conceptually than Resident Evil. Aside from the hunters, enemies in Resident Evil are more or less pushovers and if you play as Jill (or Claire in the sequel) they give you devastating weapons to just mow the poo poo out of any monster that comes your way. Every enemies in Dino Crisis is formidable and they give you environmental objects to defeat them. I also like the branching path story which Capcom used a few months later in Resident Evil 3. But the 3D graphics were muddy, everything was real dark, and I don't know who their character designer was but they're designs are horrible. Why does Regina, a special forces soldier, wear a black leotard over underarmor?
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Jul 13, 2014 22:40
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straight jerkers posted:I know Corpse Party and Tokyo Twilight Busters might qualify though I never got far enough to be sure. Any other examples? As I mentioned before there's Cosmology of Kyoto which has dual language settings. There's this Russian website which covers a few of them. I have a complete NEC-PC, MSX, and Sharp rom set and I'm going through all the games. It's a chore, there's sooooo much porn.
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Jul 16, 2014 06:29
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Really, you predicted the whole thing? That the mask and Robin in the basement are two separate things that aren't connected and the mystery of the house is just a media sensation driven by a mistaken scandal? I really can't remember much about the puzzles, other than messing around in the greenhouse, just that I didn't find the game particularly difficult because your journal and Arthate's internal monologue make it pretty clear what he wants to be doing at a certain time. I certainly agree with the layout of the puzzles and how frustrating it is to know an object is relevant but not until you're made aware of it but this is a concession the game has to make for its setting. Sometimes it gets tiresome playing the Monkey Island style games where you're kleptomaniac who snatches anything shiny which always comes to use an hour later. I'd love to see more experimentation with the genre as everyone is still stuck in the Myst days. Amnesia is the big poster child but conflict in any form is kind of antithetical to the adventure game formula. Maybe something like Gone Home but less guided.
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Jul 16, 2014 10:10
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Anna still has my favorite jump scares. The game is rough but totally worth it for the sanity effects which make Eternal Darkness look like kiddy poo poo. e: I have some love for Interactive Fiction and think it's the perfect medium for horror games but you don't see them often. Check out The Warbler's Nest, a short horror IF game about faeries that gets really intense. al-azad fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Jul 21, 2014 |
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Jul 21, 2014 20:18
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FEAR is a pretty good shooter with pretty good scripted moments. Not much more I can say about that. FEAR 2 is... ehhhhh. Things kind of took a step back technically and I don't even remember the big scares. Haven't played FEAR 3 which I hear is better from a game design perspective but went the Dead Space 3 route of more guns, fewer scares. Bieeardo posted:I've never been able to take the FEAR series seriously. People like to play up the resemblances between Alma and Sadako, but the storyline is more anime than anything else, like Tom Clancy cribbing lines from the Wikipedia page for Akira. Impressively proficient on a technical level though, I'll give it that. It's interesting you say this considering one of Monolith's earlier games was Shogo, one of the most blatant American-anime style things I've ever seen in any medium. The designs were straight from those Chris Hart books and I think it used public domain Japanese sound effects like those weird swooshes and mechanical effects from 80s Gundam. Shogo's faux-anime design make SiN and Oni look like original concepts in comparison.
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Jul 28, 2014 06:52
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Lets! Get! Weird! posted:I think FEAR's major issue is the major issue with most "horror games" in that it's mostly jump scares. One of most effective scenes in any of the games (someone else will have to remember which one) is when you keep exiting a room only to reenter it with most chairs appears until they're bolted to the walls and ceiling and poo poo. I've sung the praises of Anna and it's a shame the atmosphere is wrapped around an obtuse game because it has the best scares I've seen in a video game. Early on you meet a wooden effigy of a woman standing in a room. When you return to the room, she's gone. Throughout the house the woman will appear, always behind your back so you don't see her until you turn around, and always in disturbing positions like praying, cowering, and standing menacingly over a baby carriage. These occur randomly so you can never predict when she'll appear and sometimes you'll be standing still and your character moves a bit as if she's pushing you. It also pulls off the sanity effects way better than Eternal Darkness. There's no meter to warn you something is happening and they're all integrated seamlessly into the design. You'll check out a room, step outside the door and HOLY poo poo THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE. Or you'll hear someone breathing behind you, turn around and SPOOKY MONSTER MASK. Or you'll be in a room with mannequins dangling in the ceiling, do something in a corner, turn around and the mannequins are gone... then little wooden hands slowly appear on the screen to cover your eyes. It's great stuff and it's mostly triggered randomly.
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Jul 29, 2014 02:07
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What really nailed Half-Life 2's atmosphere for me is the idea that an alien race would use parasites as biological warfare. The concept is seen in classic horror like War of the Worlds where the Martians spray their goo to change the landscape but I've never really seen sci-fi that had the enemy bombard entire cities to turn them into alien zombies. And there's nothing you can really do to combat it because headcrabs are like cats, they can fit anywhere.
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Aug 1, 2014 13:24
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Crabtree posted:Are there any other games where the horror comes from simulating the helplessness of being an actual mental ward patient like that? I'm kind of glad its a little too much work to program several games at once just to keep it from being as repetitive as jump scares or run away from the boogeyman, but unfortunately that leaves Sanitarium all on its own. Not really. There's some super old games in the vein of Mystery House called The Institute which are about living in an asylum. For the more recent stuff there's The Cat Lady. Phantasmagoria 2 also deals with a mental patient. It's a setting that's woefully underused in video games but that may be a good thing. Mental illness is often vilified in videogames or seen as something to be feared rather than empathized. There's a few people using adventure games to try and convey the feelings of mental illness like Depression Quest and I hope more of them get made. I don't want to belittle these efforts by labeling them as "horror video games" but they are very much horrifying for the kinds of lives real people have to live each day. al-azad fucked around with this message at 18:17 on Aug 1, 2014 |
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Aug 1, 2014 18:15
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RightClickSaveAs posted:I've heard a lot of good things about this, I'll have to check it out at the next Steam sale. "Home" is one to avoid though right? I get the two mixed up. Lone Survivor is pretty good. It has all the trappings of Silent Hill, both good and bad which means in between intense scenarios you'll be plodding through maze-like halls wondering where to go next. It's almost like a 2D Silent Hill 2 for all the good and bad. Home is indeed one to avoid. It has an interesting aesthetic and the narrative is influenced by whether you accept or deny the events presented to you (kind of like Anna, almost) but the end result is a text screen that amounts to the writer shrugging his shoulders at the climax. Dear video game writers: asking the player questions without setting up the answers doesn't make for good storytelling! You can leave things to the imagination of the players, but you can't build up your plot as a series of questions that literally go unanswered because that's for the player to decide. If the point of a story is for the author to say something, these open ended plots are as substantial as air.
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Aug 1, 2014 22:24
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SolidSnakesBandana posted:Whoa whoa whoa, there are people that don't like Black Mesa Source? That poo poo was goddamned incredible. So many wonderful little details. I was absolutely blown away by the quality and it is all entirely free. The absolute worst part about Black Mesa Source was that it eventually ended. I cannot give it enough praise. Just download it already it is free. I had serious issues with the design philosophies that went into the game. I've posted about it at length but I'll summarize just by saying that I don't know what audience they had in mind when designing the game. There are too many changes both to difficulty and design that I didn't like it as a Half-Life veteran and don't recommend it to Half-Life newcomers. If you're getting into Half-Life play the original first. If the game is too ugly for you then play Source. But Black Mesa is for people who already know Half-Life and it still just made me want to play Source. It's also not finished and while people claim Xen is the games low point I disagree. It's the great climax where you feel isolated on an alien world. It's the point where the atmosphere of Half-Life actually comes out, almost like a Metroid game.
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Aug 2, 2014 03:41
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Oxxidation posted:Xen is so far from Metroid that it could not see Metroid with the Hubble Telescope. Xen is loathed for good reason. My comparison is on the feeling of isolation in an alien world. Xen changes the rules of Half-Life in the final chapter, introduces a new traversal feature (the jump boots), and has you taunted by the Nihilith the whole time who serves as the game's only antagonist that kind of brings things together. The previous sections of Half-Life feel disjointed at times. You follow the orders of random scientists, shoot a bunch of things, then move on through the next platform/puzzle section. Xen is important to me because it has a theme. It's one of the first alien things you see when poo poo hits the fan in the beginning of the game and you realize how loving small you feel in comparison to it. Compared to the first 4/5 of the game, Half-Life is Aliens whereas Xen turns into Alien. It begins in silence, alone, on a floating platform right after an intense all out battle with waves of enemies. The first thing you come across isn't an enemy, but a fellow scientist in an HEV suit symbolizing how the story is greater than you and hinting at failure. It reminded me of how I felt about Ravenholm the first time. I hated that Half-Life 2 went from exciting vehicle chases to narrow corridors against slow enemies but that one level adds a creepy ambience to a game that's mostly about running real fast and shooting people in the face. Ravenholm grew on me during a second play and Xen did the same. Xen was great and out of all the levels that could do with a remake I wanted to see this the most. al-azad fucked around with this message at 04:11 on Aug 2, 2014 |
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Aug 2, 2014 04:02
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I really can't blame people, I didn't like it at first. Too many platform elements. Too thematically different. But I was 12 when the game came out and just wanted to shoot more people. I appreciate it now for what it was trying to do and if there's any set of levels that needed a remake it's Xen but Black Mesa ends right before it.
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Aug 2, 2014 04:29
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Lets! Get! Weird! posted:No, the idea of the game is to get out (you keep trying to get to the surface, after all) - there's no reason to think a nuclear physicist is going to clear out an alien invasion. That's why it's a bit of a twist when the Marines come in because you think you're saved but they're there to make sure nobody escapes. I don't know, my first impression of Half-Life was that Gordon was an alien janitor. The game is really vague about your goals and all the scientists order you to into dangerous areas to do nebulous tasks because of your suit. Starting out you're just wandering around the complex trying to figure out what the hell is going on before some scientists tell you this is somehow Lambda's fault and they know how to fix it. But along the way you hit a bunch of weird roadblocks like destroying the tentacles (which for some reason takes you deeper into the complex), launching the satellite, and navigating waterways and nuclear waste facilities. Pretty much every chapter of Half-Life stands on its own (as evidenced by the Uplink demo which could logically fit at any point after the marines are introduced) which is good from a design standpoint but Half-Life 2 just does a better job of connecting everything together. Multiple times in Half-Life you actually reach the surface with vehicles and poo poo but it's pretty obvious Gordon is on a mission to clear out the aliens or else he would have hopped in a car and drove off.
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Aug 4, 2014 00:21
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Capcom announced another remake of Resident Evil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CpX9vkXsk0&t=112s Apparently it's going to be an update of the Gamecube version with better models and hi-res backgrounds. They also announced a different control scheme which is going to be interesting because Resident Evil was designed around the tank controls. I don't really know how they can modernize them without breaking the game's balance.
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Aug 6, 2014 18:16
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SolidSnakesBandana posted:Ammo is scarce as gently caress if you are playing Resident Evil 1: Director's Cut and you pick Chris. One of the most difficult games I've ever played. I still never bothered to beat it, it was just too hard. Yeah, the female characters seem to get more and better weapons in the series. If you rolled with Jill or Claire you got the grenade launcher and basically enough ammunition to steam roll everything. Playing as Leon was pretty tough the first go around because RE2 threw mobs of zombies at you and the handgun didn't cut it. One of the wings of the police station had 6+ zombies clumped up in the hallway. Claire could take them out in a single shot with a flame grenade but Leon had to use 4-5 headshots with the shotgun and that's if you can group them up. Same with the lickers; 2-3 shots for Leon, 1 acid round for Claire.
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Aug 8, 2014 09:52
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Cardiovorax posted:Darkwoods sounds really cool, but I'm kind of conflicted on whether I should try it out now or wait until it's finished to see all the cool stuff at once. When it comes to Early Access games it's usually cheaper to hop in early so if I really, really like the concept I'll play until I get my fill then wait until it's finished and it's like I got a brand new game for free!
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Aug 8, 2014 16:00
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Cardiovorax posted:I think Pathologic will suddenly a lot less popular and charming once people can understand what's actually happening. The plot is actually really kind of dumb once you know what it's about. I never finished it, but the appeal to me was the strange atmosphere and seemingly random nature of the events. I once tried to describe it to my sister as a game that takes place in a rural Russian village decimated by some kind of plague where you're constantly being stalked by pitch black men in funny masks and I witnessed villagers burning people at a stake before they turned and attacked me. Even if that's wholly inaccurate, that's the impression I got while playing. I don't think a legible translation, fixed controls, and better graphics are going to negate the overall creepiness of its atmosphere.
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Aug 8, 2014 18:45
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The important thing about del Toro is that he's a visual creator much like Clive Barker. The guy keeps meticulous notes and drawings and he's very hands on with his projects. My problem with basically every Silent Hill after The Room is that they lack imagination and they're not well designed games. What started as a cerebral horror became more and more rooted in its genre trappings becoming predictable in a way cerebral horror shouldn't. If del Toro is in charge of writing/scenario design, I can at least expect a bit more imagination in the design beyond "naked pink dog #7" and "vaguely humanoid lumpy thing with elongated limbs #12." And if Kojima or at least his production team is responsible for the game then hell, it might actually be a fun to play game! Niggurath posted:I had gotten more of an impression that the game was just using some engine from Kojima's studio and that he's not really attached to it, and honestly del Toro hasn't written or directed any recent bits of horror. So I'm still iffy on having any kind of hype with these two names attached, especially with the sheer lack of horror that Kojima has ever been attached to (though I must admit that Snatcher did have some pretty tense moments). Related to your name, he's been trying to get At the Mountains of Madness made for years. Apparently Prometheus killed it which pisses me off so much. al-azad fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Aug 13, 2014 |
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Aug 13, 2014 01:05
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If you're itching to play a Resident Evil-like that isn't Resident Evil, track down Rule of the Rose. It's another game that's kind of unfun to play but the story revolves around child abuse and bullying. It's awkward and unsettling all at the same time. Definitely one of those games that's disturbing because of the subject matter but also because how awkwardly things are handled.
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Aug 14, 2014 00:20
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Super Ninja Fish posted:I couldn't remember which Clock Tower people liked. I typed Clock Tower 1 into google before I made that post and saw that it was a SNES game, so I figured it must not be that one. (Because how scary can a SNES game be?) It has to be the next one which should be 2. Yeah, the first Clock Tower is on SNES and it's pretty amazing. It came out in 1995 and they really squeezed the console for all it had. Clock Tower 2 on PS1 is the first Clock Tower in America. Clock Tower Ghost Head was rebranded as Clock Tower 2 in America but it's actually a spin-off and pants on head dumb. Clock Tower 3 is the proper Clock Tower 3.
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Aug 14, 2014 05:34
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I've never been more afraid of a bear than in Condemned 2.
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Aug 14, 2014 06:24
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Accordion Man posted:The Suffering is also a cool horror shooter. It's surprisingly a lot more subtle and atmospheric than you would think at first glance and it had some quality writing. (Dr. Killjoy is a fun villain) Stan Winston also did all the monster designs. I thought the sequel was poo poo though and the original works quite well as a standalone game so you can just ignore 2. I'm a weirdo who enjoyed the sequel. The prison setting was more fun than drab cities and sewers but the villains were more fun. I genuinely liked The Creeper as a villain and putting Torque on trial at the end was a nice touch. The first game is still way better but the second one has its moments.
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Aug 14, 2014 16:28
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Brackhar posted:Any thoughts on Anna: Extended Edition? It's on sale on Steam for $2 right now. I had a more positive experience with the game. quote:Anna is great. One of the few games that actually disturbed me. It basically takes the Sanity system from Eternal Darkness but it's actually scary because they don't telegraph when they'll happen. You'll turn around and notice that details you just examined aren't there anymore or that objects were moved around. Or maybe you'll hear breathing behind your back and turn around AND gently caress I ACTUALLY YELLED A LITTLE BIT. It is an obtuse game but seriously read the journal, it has some pretty obvious tips for most of the puzzles. The difficulty is knowing how the game wants you to work them but I was never confused as to where I was or what I should be working towards. There's only maybe a dozen "maps" in the game. It is an obtuse game and I played with a guide in Steam overlay for some of the harder bits but it has a fantastic atmosphere and great scares. There's nothing that can kill you unlike Amnesia but I had a greater sense of fear overall because the game isn't afraid to make things happen behind your back.
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Aug 14, 2014 23:57
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My roommate comes banging on my door at 9pm last night telling me I had to download the P.T. demo thing. I begrudgingly did and we finished it in about 2 hours of stumbling around. Up until this point I never understood the appeal of playing horror games in groups, let alone the appeal of watching someone play a horror game whether in person or online but now I fully understand. Another friend came over and all three of us were immediately engrossed. Everyone's adding their personal comments, telling me to turn around slowly or not make sudden movements. Even when I start getting pissed off trying to trigger the baby laughs, just wandering around at random my friend is like "Don't move when Lisa/Lucy is groaning she'll possess you!" and I'm getting pissed off "She's not going to loving possess me, this game is scripted all this poo poo is loving scripted--" turn corner everybody yells "THERE SHE IS GET IN THE BATHROOM GET IN THE loving BATHROOM." For a cheap promotion that's essentially walking around an endlessly looping hallway it turned into a fun evening. One of the guys really hates Kojima but he said "this is the best demo since the MGS2 disc that game with ZOE." My roommate is a casual gamer (besides a million hours in LoL) and he's saying "You're getting this, right? You're loving getting this?" Bravo Konami/Kojima/del Toro/Sony whoever was responsible for this promotion. You got at least three dumbasses buying your game. Morpheus posted:Yeah, there's no way this game is to be actually taken seriously. For one, why the gently caress would anyone, after the first night in a murderous-animatronic-filled freakshow, return for there second to fifth nights on the job. Logic dictates after one night at the museum you'd ask to be a security guard elsewhere. al-azad fucked around with this message at 15:19 on Aug 15, 2014 |
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Aug 15, 2014 15:17
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Is that Freddy game time-based or turn-based? Is it like Night Trap where the timer is always ticking and things move in real time or does time go on every time you switch your camera or something?
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Aug 15, 2014 17:59
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Cowman posted:Anna is a loving terrible game that consists of obvious jump scares and extremely terrible controls. Nothing changes in it even though the whole premise of it is that it's a changing and evolving horror game. It's boring and slow and completely obtuse. Don't waste your money on it. What version did you play?
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Aug 15, 2014 22:56
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Cowman posted:The latest version. I also tried the original and it was even worse. Speaking of terrible things, are there any videos of Five Nights at Freddy's that aren't lovely scarecams? The game looks neat but I tried the demo and nothing really happened so I don't really know what I'm doing. It's a deeply flawed game, I can't deny that, but I disagree about the controls and "jump scares" because there are none unless we're stretching the definition of a jump scare to the extreme. That Freddy game is literally jump scare, things instantly popping in your face with no build up. And things change, the levels literally warp as you complete them or look through the tablet but whatever, it's not a game for everyone.
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Aug 16, 2014 02:09
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Right but my point is that a jump scare, at least from my point of view, is anything that instantly fills the entire screen and makes an awful noise.
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Aug 16, 2014 06:34
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Ularg posted:So I remember a lot of the jump scare talk starting with P.T. saying that the Ghostly neck snap is a cheap jump scare. I still don't understand this demo or how it works and I don't think anyone truly does. Every 60 seconds or so you can hear her croaking and wet footsteps but that doesn't mean she's actually there. There's the puzzle where you have to turn around and she appears but that's part of them. Sometimes she appears on the balcony or floats near the ceiling. Then there's a random chance in the third segment where she appears in the hallway or the bathroom, which I triggered both time, but never did she snap my neck. She even clipped through the character in the bathroom. The teaser is largely arbitrary and strangely that's why I liked it so much. The best way I can describe it is a game where you're fumbling in the dark, literally and figuratively, hoping that something will happen to trigger the next sequence.
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Aug 16, 2014 07:58
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Ularg posted:It's like the fear of clowns punched up to 11. There's a reason I'm not playing this game. I don't care if it's telegraphed or not, I don't do cheap animatronics. Tangentially related.
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Aug 17, 2014 17:47
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Contra Calculus posted:I didn't know Outlast was considered "annoying" by people. I though it pulled off its horror element pretty well. Hell, I thought it was the best horror game since Amnesia. Was it just that too many Pewdiepie-alike LPer's did Let's Plays of it? I never heard anything disparaging about Outlast until this thread as well, I always figured it was well regarded. Now that one game that came out a few months ago that has randomized levels, the same camera mechanic, is 90 minutes long, and has an annoying voice taunting you quoting Pink Floyd the whole way through that is when things start getting redundant. Outlast had come out at the height of the "walk around, spooky stuff happens" genre and it surpasses all of them except Amnesia including the Machine for Pigs sequel.
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Aug 17, 2014 18:04
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