Horror Games Megathread

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Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Hakkesshu posted:

I'd definitely classify Demon's Souls as a survival horror game as much it is an RPG. Dark Souls not as much, but there's still great levels of tension there, and it has a pretty thick atmosphere based around death and decay.

Yeah, while Demon's Souls might drift closer to a "survival horror" game than Dark Souls, there are still things about Dark Souls that are really eerie and off-putting. Like others have mentioned, the game makes only a minimal effort explaining the world to you, which leaves your imagination to fill in most of the blanks about this inconsistent, otherworldly place. It definitely enhances the feeling that you're in some sort of nightmare, hell, or limbo.

From the very beginning: Are you really "dead"? And why are people imprisoning the dead (or "hollow") in this bizarre asylum-prison that is guarded by gargantuan demons? There's even something sort of menacing about the other human "knight" who drops a corpse into your cell at the very beginning of the game, and then just sort of looms over the pit's opening, staring at you. Maybe he's trying to help you? Or maybe he's wondering if he should put an arrow in you?

Who would have thought that in a world that is populated almost exclusively by monsters, ghosts, and demons, it would be the handful of human NPCs that feel especially off-putting. Maybe it's because there are so few of them, and their very presence invites a lot of questions. For instance, a few of them seem imprisoned in strange places, with no attempts to explain how they got there, while others seem to be carrying on relatively normal lives without bothering to acknowledge how hosed their surroundings are. "Yeah, I'm a smith...no, I don't think there's anything note-worthy about me keeping a gigantic metal monster in my basement, so I won't even bother mentioning it." Okay.

A few of the locations resemble ordinary places...but even then, there are things that are wrong about them. You may be walking through a city, but you're left wondering if these places were ever really inhabited by people, and who built them, and did these rooms ever house happy and normal people? They just feel like imitations of real places. Like a town in a dream--only a facade. And those are the more normal places.

There's another "city" built in a gargantuan underground cavern, partially submerged in a lake, and existing almost entirely in darkness. As you explore the place, you don't find any furniture or evidence that people once lived there...just erratic hallways and bare, windowless rooms in nonsensical arrangements. Oh, and across the lake, there's an entire gaggle of undead on the pitch black underground shoreline, all of whom are staring at the city while in various states of worship and admiration. It's as if they see something glorious that you don't, or they're waiting for something to happen. It's especially weird because undead are usually hostile to the player. But this particular group is transfixed and completely ignores you.

Anyway, I could go on and on, but yeah, Dark Souls' setting is definitely unsettling and horrific at times.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2014 07:28

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 10:44

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Genocyber posted:

Yeah real horrific...

that's a texture mod for those who don't know

Custom textures or no, I'm not seeing how that isn't horrific. :crossarms:

# ¿ Jul 12, 2014 08:28

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Quake definitely captured an uncomfortable, sinister feeling, thanks in part to its dark, abstract environments and its fantastic ambient music. To this day, when I think of Quake, I picture the long, dark, windowless hallways somewhere deep underground, illuminated by faint, cold blue lights and glowing pools of lava. A glob of living crap lurches around in the shadows while a pudgy ogre drags a bloody chainsaw behind it. A nailgun pickup serves as a trap for a hulking yeti-thing with a huge, toothy grin where its eyes should be. Meanwhile, the music sounds like distant heartbeats and power drills.

Everything about the game is filthy and strange. The enemies are comprised of a whole zoo of bizarre creatures, and a number of the weapons feel like they have more in common with industrial equipment than actual firearms.

It's like "rusty ancient unspeakable monolith (with dried blood): the game".

# ¿ Jul 14, 2014 20:48

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

I'd say at least 2/3rds of Condemned 2 is great, but it definitely falls apart once the plot goes off the rails and you turn out to be an alien or something that can shout things to death with magic vocal chords. Granted, I think I would have been equally nonplussed if it turned out that the whole thing was just drummed-up nonsense, or a figment of an alcoholic's PTSD, or some other hand-waving that outright dismissed the whole experience.

Fortunately, that happens a lot later in the game than people remember, and everything leading up to that is pretty solid (i.e. the Bear scene, or the museum, etc.) It makes for a great hobo brawling simulator, too.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2014 17:17

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Cardiovorax posted:

No kidding. The undead in Thief were loving terrifying, not in the least thanks to their amazing sound work. Although I guess it might have helped that I was like 15 when the game came out.

The undead in Quake, by comparison, sounded remarkably similar to the pug I had at the time.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2014 04:23

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

GANDHITRON posted:

Please analyze and discuss the characters and setting of Five Nights at Freddy's and how they relate to the teachings of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. This is a serious post about a serious game.

Mark Schmidt is Jonah in the "Whale" (Freddy's Pizza), and the animatronic robots trying to kill him are the animatronic robots that the whale ate ten thousand years ago.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2014 05:44

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Gromit posted:

Oh hey, that's a flashlight and not actually a toilet plunger. I'm disappointed.

A game wherein you have to periodically move your bowels, but spooky shits will plug toilets and haunt them.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2016 00:02

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Skyscraper posted:

YES! The second game really was better than people gave it credit for, and I really wish it had got a PC port. If only for that one level. You know the one.

The cabin in the woods?

But yeah, despite the mistakes they're guilty of making, I thoroughly enjoyed the Condemned series. The first installment looks perfectly grounded compared to the second, whose story and set-pieces fly off the rails like they're trying to exit Earth's orbit. I mean, you have a mission that takes place in a possessed doll factory, one in a museum during a riot (complete with looters decked out in medieval garb and weapons, and a nightmare-hospital host to black tar...things. And that's to say nothing of the legitimately insane plot.

Still, the game could be legitimately scary, while the combat was satisfying without making you feel too powerful.

Wasn't this series going to be a movie or miniseries at one point?

# ¿ May 18, 2016 04:33

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Basic Chunnel posted:

I recall it was optioned for a film adaptation, but so have a lot of games (Bioshock, MGS. Deus Ex got to the "Willem Dafoe is attached" stage).

Condemned made the mistake that nearly every *intense modern melee* game makes - adding guns near the end. Plus weapon degradation is more or less never done well and Condemned is no exception

I don't remember exactly but did weapons even "degrade" in Condemned? I seem to recall that, most of the time, you'd fire a weapon until it was out of ammo and then it was on to the next thing. I never really held on to anything long enough for them to degrade.

# ¿ May 18, 2016 05:36

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Just picked up SOMA during the holiday Steam sale and binged my way through it in 12 or 13 hours. I went into it (mostly) blind, but for some reason one of my initial misunderstandings was that--because it seemed like it was unfavorably compared to Alien: Isolation so much, particularly with regards to enemy AI--the game was just okay.

As it turns out, I believe I had the wrong idea about SOMA over the past couple of years: I felt like it was a fantastic, thought-provoking, and tense game with some really cool scenarios and genuinely depressing plot points. I was also surprised at how long it seemed to run, even though I never felt like it overstayed its welcome. All-in-all, TOTALLY worth the $5.99 I paid for it, and definitely one of my favorite horror games in the past couple of years.

# ¿ Dec 28, 2017 10:03

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

GlyphGryph posted:

"all thats left is someone else with your memories and mannerisms and thoughts and dreams and relationships" means that all thats left is, like, the vast bulk of me? As far as deaths go the kind that leaves all the parts of me I am attached intact seems weird to worry about.

That could literally be happening right now, every second, and what would it matter? gently caress it basically IS happening right now - the person I was when i started writing this is forever consigned to the past and dead, and the me that is right now writing THIS has new and different thoughts and experiences and memories and poo poo. And I forgot poo poo since then too! Death is continous - and frankly the death we are talking about here doesnt seem half as bad as getting put under general anesthesia where I literally stop existing for several hours. Now THAT poo poo is frightening.

I just dont get it. Its like you are defining death as some weird and funky metaphysical spiritual sentimentality thing, because i dont see how i can be dead if literally every part of me I care about remains intact and continuing on.

Also in the SOMA situation where you dont even have anyone die, you just bifurcate your future with two living versions. A teleporter it aint.

I wish I could copy you and then kill you to show you what we're talking about. :black101:

# ¿ Dec 31, 2017 05:41

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

If I can make a copy of myself a la SOMA and then watch it gently caress my wife and not feel anything in my dick while it's happening (besides a wiggle), then that thing is no longer the "me" that is currently occupying my meat-space and is in fact something else entirely.

If I then kill that doppelganger in a fit of passion and do not die when he dies, then that thing is not me and is in fact something else entirely.

Cream-of-Plenty fucked around with this message at 05:48 on Dec 31, 2017

# ¿ Dec 31, 2017 05:45

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

If I can sit two clones down in a room and tell them I'm only going to kill one of them--no more, no less--and they try convincing me to kill the other one, then they are not the same person.

:boom:

If I can pick a card--any card--and quietly memorize it, but my copy doesn't know which card I picked even though I totally just thought about it in my head, then we are not the same person.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2017 05:53

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Faffel posted:

And that is mundane and not horrific. That's why that plotline in SOMA was so unengaging.

If you die and there is a perfect clone of your consciousness that believes it's you and experiences events based off that, then that's equivalent to waking up in the morning. You would never be able to tell the difference without a second consciousness. I fail to see how that isn't a straight continuation of your consciousness. To the you it would be a straight continuation of your consciousness.

Oh sorry I didn't realize we were using an altruistic robot's definition of horror and not a normal human being's.

Wait is Faffel the WAU?

Cream-of-Plenty fucked around with this message at 06:07 on Dec 31, 2017

# ¿ Dec 31, 2017 06:05

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Remember when they reveal at the end of The Prestige that Wolverine's magic trick was that-- rather than some clever illusion (also known as "smoke and mirrors" in the industry)--he was just drowning copies of himself beneath the stage? Yeah that wasn't horror.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2017 06:16

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Improbable Lobster posted:

People die when they are killed

Wamdoodle posted:

No. I write fan fiction.

I am deathless; I am forever.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2017 06:21

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Discendo Vox posted:

Imagine four teleported brains in tanks on the edge of a cliff. A fifth brain in a tank is in a junction switch box and can access a switch that will drop a trolley off the cliff onto another ten brains in tanks, two of which have extensive rap sheets. If the switch is not pulled, one of the four brains on the cliff will fall off the cliff, only to reregister under a different account name on a perfect simulation of a dead gay forum that is less dead and gay, and therefore not a perfect simulation, but don�t worry,

The brain in the switch box has never heard of identity problems, the ship of Theseus, the teleporter problem, brooms, or intuition pumps in general, and finds this post both confusing and intriguing.

But oh, no! These brains are through a contrivance the only brains in the world, and oh no, they�re dead, sort of! Imagine being dead. How horrific.

Like, if it�s a phobia of yours I can respect that it may be personally impactful, but it�s not a well-crafted narrative and it�s entirely rehashing a collection of very, very old questions in philosophy that have had everything wrung out of them for decades. Talos Principle actually had more interesting things to say.

(Discendo Vox gazes upon his (its?) shelf with a furrowed brow. "What freshman-level philosophy book am I going to condescend and bore my family with this Christmas?")

# ¿ Dec 31, 2017 11:34

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

BioEnchanted posted:

SOMA talk: The thing is I'm not scared of the idea of death right now, but that's easy for me to say because I'm not facing it any time soon. Certainly, much like the bystander effect, you can say that you'd react a certain way, but your brain can break in fascinating ways when under pressure - that's why the Mockingbird scares the security officer so badly in the pre-release materials- for all intents and purposes it is him. He is seeing how he would react under extreme pressure from an outside perspective and discovering that despite his confidence he wouldn't react well at all.

I fully accept that I may become more worried about the nature of oblivion when I'm actually facing it, maybe something in me will even seek religion if it comes to it, the point I'm making is I don't know what I will do. Simon's brain is hiding aspects of his experience from him as a coping mechanism, he isn't thinking straight anymore. Of course he starts falling for the illogic of the coin flip, he's hanging onto any hope he can. We can scoff at his stupidity because we aren't there - we are impartial, removed from the action. Who's to say our own brains won't start hiding things from us when things get weird, preventing us truly having the most enlightened reaction?

Yeah that's very true. It's kind of the same way some people will smugly explain how they'd handle an armed mugging, or a 2 A.M. home intrusion, or a natural catastrophe with level-headed aplomb despite never experiencing anything more stressful than a test on an unfamiliar subject, an argument, or a mundane fender-bender. For some reason people who buy their first home-defense firearm and philosophy students share some overlapping delusions.

If I made a clone of myself who'd regain consciousness in a couple of days and my options were to A) Leave him trapped, confused, and alone in a dilapidated research station plagued by monstrous creatures at the bottom of the ocean on a post-apocalyptic Earth or B) Kill him in his sleep, it seems like the merciful thing would be option B.

Cream-of-Plenty fucked around with this message at 23:55 on Dec 31, 2017

# ¿ Dec 31, 2017 23:49

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

s.i.r.e. posted:

Isn't the old you freaking out and shaking because he's stuck?

If I remember correctly, he immediately says something like, "Uh...Catherine? This didn't work." In a sort of contradiction, I then seem to recall Catherine--the omnipotent voice in my head--reassuring me that he wouldn't "wake up" for a couple of days if we just left him alone.

I don't remember if he started freaking out and/or shaking at some point after that because I assist-suicided that dude scary quick.

Cream-of-Plenty fucked around with this message at 09:48 on Jan 1, 2018

# ¿ Jan 1, 2018 09:45

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

GlyphGryph posted:

I thought we were done with this conversation, but if you insist...

Winning is defined as winding up in the final location/form, not coming out of the machine. Also, the machine scans a lot more than memories - it possibly captures every single interaction and connection of your brain, every instinct, every heuristic, every personality quirk, ever process, and the 'memories' are just an emergent side effect, not the thing it's actually copying.

I do agree that A, the person who enters the machine, always wins - but person B, the one who steps out of the machine, loses. Person C, who winds up in the new body/world, wins. There is a 100% chance of A waking up as C and winning - but there's also a 100% chance of A waking up as B and losing. It's not a "coin flip", it's a river flowing down a stream until it hits a split, and there's a 100% chance it follows both paths.

The suicide-on-scan folks argument is that if they kill B, then there is no loser - there was one of them before, and there's one of them now, and no others exist, so therefore there is no future where there is a loser.

Wrong. Kill yourself.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2018 08:56

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Mr Ice Cream Glove posted:

What did you all think of observer?

I just wrapped it up and holy poo poo did this game deliver.

Russian Cyber Punk meets Crohnberg inspired horror game that has incredible visuals and a really well thought out story.

I cannot recommend it enough.

I enjoyed it well enough, but felt like there were parts of the story that felt a little...confined. The isolation and claustrophobia was almost certainly deliberate, but I didn't really like how I unraveled the whole conspiracy from a single apartment complex (regardless of how the game tried to justify it). Plus the way the game introduces you to the plot of the player's missing son within the first 60 seconds of starting the game just seemed uninspiring I guess...like I was supposed to care more/feel more compelled to solve the son's abrupt reappearance.

I'm sure that the budget had something to do with this, but I wish the scope of the game was a little further reaching.

Beyond that, I agree with other people suggesting Observer would have been better without its reckless jump-scares and hide-and-seek sessions.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2018 08:33

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Parachute posted:

this looks fun.

also, has anyone here checked out Scavenger SV-4? It's like a mix of a roguelike, space sim, and planet exploration game (sort of) and i think it's goon-made.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/779590/Scavenger_SV4/

I've been wondering about this game, myself. It looks really different, but I can't find a whole lot about it.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2018 04:56

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Jukebox Hero posted:

I thought that Hunt was specifically about killing other players because there's only two loot items that the boss drops. If you're hunting it in a team of more than two, you're basically just waiting until the players without loot tokens decide to shoot the ones who have them and take them.

I think that's why there can't be more than two people on a cooperative team, right? I don't think you can have a team or 3 or more players--just 5 teams of 2.

EDIT: Unless I'm misunderstanding you and you're saying that multiple teams might informally collaborate to hunt the boss which, yeah, doesn't seem to be the game's intention.

Cream-of-Plenty fucked around with this message at 08:15 on Feb 23, 2018

# ¿ Feb 23, 2018 08:12

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Professor Wayne posted:

Started Evil Within 2 tonight. Wasn't sure about the first person setting, but I gave it a try and can't go back to RE4 camera.

Oh poo poo, I had no idea that they added a first-person mode to EW2. I actually haven't even started playing the first Evil Within yet, but this is good to know when I finally get around to it.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2018 08:24

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

oldpainless posted:

Not the game, I�m referring to the movie.

And I seem to recall that the first Silent Hill movie wasn't actually that bad? At least as far as video-game-movies are concerned.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2018 01:07

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Lhet posted:

Any recommendations for good single-session games? Looking for more games like Layers of Fear (or RE7 even), where I can sit down with friends and play through to completion in <4 hours.

Would you be interested in something like "INSIDE" or "Little Nightmares"?

# ¿ Apr 20, 2018 22:49

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Bogart posted:

A roguelike...atmospheric horror game...about managing a short-wave radio broadcast.

Called D Dead-J.

# ¿ May 3, 2018 06:29

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

SomeJazzyRat posted:

Is it weird that I kinda want to make a rip-off game to Dead Air. Mainly, I just want to make a game called D.J. D.Cay: Live on D.E.A.D. Air

Dissapointed Owl posted:

Sounds like a Dreamcast game.

You promise me full, gratuitous nudity and the VA for Fallout 3's "Three Dog" and you've got yourself a $6.66 backer.

# ¿ May 6, 2018 06:05

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Scorn is where you defile yourself to the bio-mechanical horrors of H.R. Giger.
Agony is where you violate yourself to demon tits.

# ¿ May 7, 2018 01:00

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

s.i.r.e. posted:

Is there a good LP of this because it looks great but I'm lazy and tank controls.

This is one of the only LP's I've found so far for the game (and I can't say it's a "good" LP):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkxOCzskdoI

# ¿ May 9, 2018 05:56

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

catlord posted:

FEAR's supposed to get a live-action (web?)series, apparently. The rational part of me wants to temper expectations for obvious reasons, but the FEAR fan part of me is incredibly giddy.

Also Atari apparently renewed its Alone in the Dark trademark. I doubt that means anything, but who knows.

I'm interested in this only if they use the same people who did the weapon effects for "The Walking Dead", and spend maybe $800 on developing each episode.

Cream-of-Plenty fucked around with this message at 09:57 on May 18, 2018

# ¿ May 18, 2018 09:51

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Jukebox Hero posted:

Well they better think about the stuff we've said then. Plenty of horror stuff completely fucks itself on the development process, look at that one cool black and white game about exploring and crafting between shockwaves that you need to take shelter from that got turned into an arena shooter and had all the survival elements removed.

Which game is this? I need to look into whatever it is.

# ¿ May 28, 2018 02:59

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Oooooh yeah, I'm a little familiar with Noct's (d)evolution. Man, the fact that this game has been in EA since 2015 wouldn't be TOO bad, but I think the last patch was released well over a year ago (followed by 5 or 6 announcements of the subsequent patch being delayed over and over again)...and the last news post was from over 6 months ago. This definitely has all the makings of a game being developed by somebody who is stalling because they had a kernel of a great idea but no larger vision regarding what they wanted the game to ultimately be. This is like the game-developer equivalent of when Ashlee Simpson's song started repeating live during her SNL performance, and she panicked and just started dancing.

# ¿ May 28, 2018 03:55

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

1stGear posted:

This looks interesting.

If nothing else, "Things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl" is a hell of a tagline.

Yeah this looks cool--thanks for sharing this.

EDIT:

Also, getting a real "King in Yellow" / Yellow King vibe from the rotating book on Signalis' website.

A version of the book for reference:

Cream-of-Plenty fucked around with this message at 22:45 on Jun 5, 2018

# ¿ Jun 5, 2018 22:34

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Morpheus posted:

Was just the first Penumbra, actually. There were feral dogs that patrolled areas - you were supposed to run from them or hide behind boxes. Players, dummies that they are, decided that the correct course of action was to sit on the boxes and slowly beat the dogs to death, despite the fact that they'd respawn.

Its sequel, Penumbra: Black Plague, got rid of weapons and introduced enemies that hunted you.] Amnesia's structure was largely based on that.

Also a really tense section where you ran from a colossal worm and also a horde of spiders(?). It's been a while since I played it.

Oh man, that worm from the first game (it was rooting around in the mines, right?) My god what a fantastic, horrible enemy that was: That first time you approach the doors and BAM!--the doors buckle as something enormous crashes into them. I bet a lot of players stopped and watched, assuming it was simply a jumpscare and that the doors would hold.

But when the doors suddenly burst open and a gargantuan worm comes straight at you? I wonder how many people got killed by that thing on the first encounter...just completely caught off guard by what was headed right for them.

The second Penumbra installment took place...in a research facility of some sort, right? And that's where you were hunted by the poo poo-talking nude humanoid things, sans any sort of weaponry.

Cream-of-Plenty fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Jun 14, 2018

# ¿ Jun 14, 2018 21:18

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

I'm kind of torn because I think John Wolfe is one of the best Youtubers in the horror genre (that I'm aware of)--he's honest and generally gives good input, and he isn't a complete pain to watch like the hammier reaction streamers. BUT often times when things happen, John's just deadpan/nonplussed. Sometimes I wish he got a little more reactive...but I think he's just been desensitized.

# ¿ Jun 15, 2018 23:58

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Discendo Vox posted:

I need an effortpost of recently released or in-development indie horror titles. I'm starting to fear I'm going to miss something extraordinary.

WELL! Have I got a little gem for you. It's called "Agony".

# ¿ Jun 20, 2018 01:32

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

Yardbomb posted:

I would say just watch a cool guy play Agony instead, but the usual dudes I watch all quit at different points rather than keep bothering.

Yeah it seems like both John Wolfe and this MrKravin dude both gave up on it after a handful of videos.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2018 05:46

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

s.i.r.e. posted:

I really wish I could get around to finishing up Prey but the combat is such garbage and there's too much of it.

I realize there are reasons for why it's this way, but my biggest "hurdle" for Prey is the relative dearth of weapons. Like, yeah, the average System Shock 2 player has the prerequisite skills to wield only a handful of the total available weapons. And yeah, neither game is really intended to be played like DOOM or Wolfenstein.

But still! You're telling me we're on board a gigantic goddamned scientific research vessel and there's only one experimental sci-fi-hokum weapon to shoot poo poo with (the Q Beam)? And beyond that, you've got the wrench, the pistol, the shotgun, and the GLOO gun...and some various grenades. And don't you dare try to count that stupid goddamned Nerf gun!

Apparently there was going to be a sentient disc gun whose AI would have to be updated to remove its qualms about killing things. The GLOO gun, with its various uses and clever ways to circumvent obstacles, was another great idea...but the game seems like it could have totally used 4-6 weird sci-fi weapons that you may or may not come across in your exploration of the Talos I, just for the sake of variety and creativity. Instead we end up with what is, on paper, one of the most boring FPS arsenals in recent memory.

# ¿ Jul 4, 2018 09:14

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 10:44

Cream-of-Plenty: Apr 21, 2010; "The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

al-azad posted:

RTS games are kind of antithetical to good horror because they rely on a detached god-like perspective. Duskers is the best attempt because it limits the information given to you. Its a proof of concept for how the scene in Alien where they're just looking at the motion tracker can work really well as a video game.

I was just going to mention Duskers in response to that. Playing that at night, with a good pair of headphones on so you can hear all of the derelict's creaks and groans (as well as the distant sound of something monstrous) creates a lot more tension and concern for my drones than you'd expect to feel for idiot robots. I suppose the otherwise complete silence--no soundtrack to speak of--helps with that lonely deep space atmosphere, as well.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2018 23:26

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