What Makes a Great Horror Game?

[Resistance61513]

Hey guys,

So, I didn't really know where I should put this topic. I decided to just put it here. Hopefully that's not an issue. Basically, the title says it all. I'm currently designing an independent survival horror/thriller game. I'm in the process of studying all of the great games and trying to uncover the various elements as to why they're so successful.

Horror games as a whole is a pretty interesting genre. I say this because they are so few and far between. AND, if there are any released, a lot seem to fall flat with their scares. Why do you think that is?

I know a lot of people think it's because we're desensitized to scares but truthfully, I don't think that's the reason. (I'll share my thoughts later on the subject)

Right now, for all you survival horror/thrill seekers on this board...I'd like to hear your thoughts.

- What's the scariest game you've ever played?

- Why was it scary?

- What do you feel the genre itself/games need to do in the future to preserve the horror genre?

Definitely look forward to reading your guys' thoughts if you have any!

All the best.

-Adam

 

[KevanG]

This will be the obvious answer but Silent Hill 2.

They had the atmosphere, setting, story and visuals all down pat which made it an amazing horror game. It gave you the feeling of paranoia when you were alone because there were monsters out there that are trying to kill you but due to the fog, camera angles or whatever you couldn't see them. There was evidence of people but they were all gone with no explanation. The entire town was empty except for just a few people and that made it all the worse because there were people here and you almost never saw them and that just amplified how alone you were.

The story was amazing because you played as a guy who came to the town because he got a letter from his dead wife asking him to. He knew she was dead without a doubt but he still went anyway. That makes you ask what type of nut is he, he knows she's dead but is she? If she isn't why does he seem so adamant she is? You have the very few other human characters which only make being alone so long worse, who seem to be completely ****ed up worse than your character but when he explains why he's here, they tell him he's messed up.

Then there's the monsters, they look just flat out wrong for the most part. The variety of enemies is wide enough that they usually stick to separate areas but they get seen often enough to remind you what they are. Some look kind of human Pyramid Head and the Nurses, the rest are just kind of human formed or not at all. If you thought about some of them as you played you realized that they seemed to have some sort of connection to the story and the characters past.

There's also lots of optional backstory which goes on about various parts of the towns history which let's you piece together a completely horrific town history. You might never know any of it unless you go out of your way to examine things.

It's the best horror game I've played and I love the horror genre.

I've also loved Deadly Premonition. That had some of the best city building I've seen in a game. It had a nice layout for the town and the surrounding area that actually made sense in it's construction. It looked like a small American town and they actually sent people over from Japan to take pictures of various towns like that so they could make one as best they could to reinforce that idea.

The story is one of the best I've played in almost any game, horror or otherwise, I actually cried a bit by the end I was so attached to the characters. The characters in the town actually follow a set schedule and will be at certain places at times and leave to go home at close or what have you. There are dozens of side missions, mini games and the like just to play around. You have to have your character shave, sleep, change his clothes and eat just like you would in real life (somewhat anyway). You meet characters as you investigate a murder, you interact with them, help them with things. It helps build the feeling that it's an actual place where these things matter.

The main characters you deal with all have their own little quirks and it's never something huge but it stays believable. Like one guy is a great cook while his female co-worker is a disaster in the kitchen, one of the other ones had a terribly abusive mother. You don't find these things out unless you interact with them beyond what the story wants you to.

In both those games you do get weapons and you defend yourself but you never feel like you could just murder everything in the game like in the Dead Space series. I like DS but if I have enough weapons, ammo and health to kill a planet by the first third of the game, it's too easy. In the good horror games you actually fear for your life. It's not just "Whoops, I'm dead" or "I'm almost dead, I'll just let them kill me and respawn", you feel threatened by the game and scared, even after you just save, you still know that at any time you could get killed and it scares you deeply.

Anywho, so my picks for favorite Horror games are SH2 and Deadly Premonition. t: I actually didn't mean to write that much, I just automatically went into essay mode while I was thinking.

 

[Resistance61513]

Haha no worries about writing a lot. I enjoy reading those kinds of posts. Thanks for your insights/the summaries of your favorite horror games. To be honest, I missed out on Silent Hill. Wish I hadn't. I want to play the HD remakes or whatever just released but I'm afraid they may not have aged well so I've been hesitant to.

I whole heartedly agree with you on Dead Space. In the beginning, Dead Space was a scary game. However, it seemed to stray away further and further from the survival horror element and became an action game. I think that's why 2 suffered so poorly in terms of horror/scare thrills. The opened environments definitely didn't help in the design.

It was always scary seeing like two or three necromorphs running at you in the closed confines of the spaceship in the first one. I kind of wish they would have kept that choice in the second and third.

The horror genre is my favorite genre too. I really wish someone could create something truly memorable/scary and that's what I'm setting out to do. Granted my game isn't going to be a full retail disc but a small simplistic digital download. I think the genre has massive amounts of potential and can really cause the developer/designer to stand out from the pact of action adventure/first person shooters.

It amazes me that the industry started off with a ton of survival horror themed games and then it just seemed to dwindle away. There really hasn't been much to write home to in regards to the genre. I watched a little bit of Outlast and the beginning I found enticing. Then you saw the "monsters" and it just turned me off to the game.

I'll definitely be doing a write up of which horror games I loved. One being The Suffering. Not sure if you ever played it but it sounds similar to Silent Hill. Those games, I wish, would get a next generation installment! Wishful thinking though...

 

[KevanG]

The HD remakes for SH are great as long as it's not on 360. Konami decided that they'd use some beta disks since they decided not to use the actual released game disks for the HD upgrade. They released the games knowing they were of terrible quality and left it as it was. They gave the PS3 a patch but not the 360. SH2 ran terribly and I couldn't even play it. SH3 ran fairly well with some stuttering and freezing issues but not too bad in any case. So use a PS3 or just get the PS2/Rom copies and play those instead of even bothering for 360.

As for the more recent SH games, they've turned more action survival than horror so I'm not crazy about them but Homecoming was enjoyable although they did change things heavily to reflect the first movie. You may like SH4 or you may not, it's a 50/50 chance usually.

I've found that the horror series have turned to more action that scary which annoys me. I love the Nightmare on Elm Street movies more than the Ft13 or Halloween because it's more of a scary thing than running around with knives everywhere. He's in your head and who knows what could happen? The Resident Evil series did the same thing. It had some good scares and was kinda actiony but in the end it delivered. Dead Space tried and it worked for the first part but sputtered out.

I've played both Suffering games and they're more like Dead Space in terms of play. You have your guy with a backstory where he's incarcerated for the deaths of his family. There's certain times where you make a choice and that reflects on what you get as bonuses and endings. Good, neutral or evil. They even imported the ending you get into the next game along with a few of the choices. It was interesting and had a good story.

If you want to see some indie horror games played out, look up Markiplier on youtube. He's a Let's player I subscribe to and he's done tons of games, indie, mainstream and otherwise. He does quite a bit of horror games and provides commentary as he goes along on what he likes and dislikes. He tends to ramble on and he's hilarious. He also gives a recap once he finishes the game on the pros and cons of it and what he thought could be better done. He's done playthroughs of Outlast, both Amnesia games as well as many custom stories and 16 bit RPG horror games.

http://www.youtube.com/user/markiplierGAME

 

[Soapy]

I'm going to say Condemned: Criminal Origins, a seriously underrated Xbox 360 launch title. (Amnesia's a close second. That should most definitely be played by anyone who likes horror games.)

There are numerous reasons why Condemned is a great horror game. Tonally, it has a very oppressive atmosphere. It's dark, it's dingy, it's grimy. There's a great sense of paranoia as well. The main character is slowly and subtly losing his grip on sanity. Everyone is out to get him. He's not sure if he can trust his allies. He's not even sure if he can trust himself.

On the gameplay front is where the game really shines. The combat is HEAVY and SAVAGE. Whenever you swing a lead pipe into someone's skull, you feel it. Whenever you shoot one of the rare guns you find, you feel it. And so do the enemies. The way they (and you) react to the combat goes a long way to selling it. When you smack someone in the face with a piece of rebar, they behave like someone who's just been smacked in the face with a piece of rebar. Of course there's also ammo and health pickups. The game is stingy with them in a pretty old school way that horror games unfortunately don't do anymore. You're always low on health. You never have enough bullets. The question you oftentimes ask yourself while playing it isn't, "Am I ****ed?" but rather, "How ****ed am I?"

The most important thing Condemned does though I think, and the thing it does best, is that it constantly subverts the player's expectations. For every game mechanic introduced into the game, the game will later flip the script and use it to scare the player with great effect. Sometimes they do it in obvious, even cliched, ways, but they've lulled you into a false sense of security by NOT doing the obvious thing for so long that when they DO do it, you don't see it coming. For example, climbing ladders. Whenever you climb a ladder in the game, you do so slowly, with your view locked toward the top of the ladder. Naturally, the first several times you climb a ladder (assuming you're at least somewhat familiar with the "language" of horror movies and games) you think that the developers are going to have something lunge out out over the edge and grab you or something like that, but they don't. They keep those kinds of punches pulled for after you've long stopped thinking about it. Another example would be the first aid cabinets. They're big and they're painted bright red, which makes they really stand out in the dingy environments, and they always having something useful in them. It's basically a Pavlov's Dog kind of situation. When you see those wonderful red boxes, you think "safe" "ammo" "health", you've been trained to make a beeline for them when you see one. You don't even really think about it, it becomes instinctual. Of course when they finally use one against you, it takes you totally by surprise.

I've got to cut this post short because I've got something I need to take care of. I'll make another post later about what I think needs to be done about horror games in the future.

 

[Soapy]

I've also loved Deadly Premonition. That had some of the best city building I've seen in a game. It had a nice layout for the town and the surrounding area that actually made sense in it's construction. It looked like a small American town and they actually sent people over from Japan to take pictures of various towns like that so they could make one as best they could to reinforce that idea.

The story is one of the best I've played in almost any game, horror or otherwise, I actually cried a bit by the end I was so attached to the characters. The characters in the town actually follow a set schedule and will be at certain places at times and leave to go home at close or what have you. There are dozens of side missions, mini games and the like just to play around. You have to have your character shave, sleep, change his clothes and eat just like you would in real life (somewhat anyway). You meet characters as you investigate a murder, you interact with them, help them with things. It helps build the feeling that it's an actual place where these things matter.

The main characters you deal with all have their own little quirks and it's never something huge but it stays believable. Like one guy is a great cook while his female co-worker is a disaster in the kitchen, one of the other ones had a terribly abusive mother. You don't find these things out unless you interact with them beyond what the story wants you to.

 

[GENERAL RAAM582]

Condemned: Criminal Origins was pretty awesome. The second one was nice too.

 

[KevanG]

Deadly Premonition was recommended to me by one of the GS employees when I was just looking for some sort of horror game. It was $12 so I figured why not? I've never regretted buying a game blind like that less.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

The REmake of the orig Resident Evil is still my fav horror title. Has that classic horror setting, some classic horror monsters(zombies, big ass shark) and there are some truly, truly chilling story pieces inside the game(the Trevor diary).

 

[GENERAL RAAM582]

Yeah, it might be a generic choice, but I absolutely loved RE4.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

Deadly Premonition was recommended to me by one of the GS employees when I was just looking for some sort of horror game. It was $12 so I figured why not? I've never regretted buying a game blind like that less.

I don't recall that game at all.

 

[zenith16]

I don't recall that game at all.

The first time it came out it was trashed but both reviewers and gamers cause it was just buggy mess it was given a directors cut of sorts and done over and it's doing better these days compared to when it had it very first release .

 

[runawayboulder]

Some of my faves were RE 1 and 2. Any of the Dead Space games and the original F.E.A.R. game.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

The first time it came out it was trashed but both reviewers and gamers cause it was just buggy mess it was given a directors cut of sorts and done over and it's doing better these days compared to when it had it very first release .

Ohhhh. Well damn, might have to look into it now. I just browsed metacritic and it doesn't seem like the game is all that highly praised, but maybe that's the original version u speak of

 

[KevanG]

I found it was a little buggy, the combat was clunky and the graphics aren't great but everything else more than makes up for it.

 

[zenith16]

Ohhhh. Well damn, might have to look into it now. I just browsed metacritic and it doesn't seem like the game is all that highly praised, but maybe that's the original version u speak of

it was reviewed but the reviewers for the remade version were few.

Fubar Jose Sanchez of EPD.TV/ ROTR was one those few that reviewed it the updated version I mean. I can't Remember if it was Game informer that reviewed it as well. I'll look it up.


ok it was



Reviews


Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut Review

Shaun and Jose discover a Deadly Premonition.






Jose's Score 7.0 Shaun's score 9.0

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  GI Rating 7.75
  Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut
  
  
  
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  on Apr 30, 2013 at 02:01 AM
  19,427 Views
  
  Deadly Premonition is more about the larger experience than the specifics, and the director’s cut faithfully translates the whole mesmerizing affair to the PS3.

it wasn't that many last year that reviewed the directors cut of this.

 

[Soapy]

I don't recall that game at all.

Read Jim Sterling's review.

The first time it came out it was trashed but both reviewers and gamers cause it was just buggy mess it was given a directors cut of sorts and done over and it's doing better these days compared to when it had it very first release .

That's not totally true. Deadly Premonition had a cult following (including both gamers and reviewers) that genuinely loved it from day one. And there really isn't a consensus on the Director's Cut. Some think it's an improvement, while other's think it made the game worse.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

Read Jim Sterling's review.

Hmm. How can a game get a perfect 10 from someone and then a 2 from another. I mean i know different strokes for different folks and all that jazz, but damn thats a big gap. Is this one of those games people claim is amazing because everyone else shat on it? Iv never bought into that 'so bad its good' nonsense.

 

[Soapy]

Hmm. How can a game get a perfect 10 from someone and then a 2 from another. I mean i know different strokes for different folks and all that jazz, but damn thats a big gap. Is this one of those games people claim is amazing because everyone else shat on it? Iv never bought into that 'so bad its good' nonsense.

Deadly Premonition is extremely hard to classify, and doubly hard to recommend. Despite its label as survivor-horror, it's really not scary at all. It doesn't even really attempt to be most of the time. The gameplay is categorically bad. The graphics are... not good. Actually they're kind of okay if you consider that it started as a PS2 game and then was changed to 360 at some point in its troubled development, but I guess that's no excuse to the end user. The story and characters though? They're honestly quite good. If I was going to rank my top ten games based on story alone, it would easily make it on there. The worst thing you can say about the story and characters is that maybe they're too quirky for their own good, but if they dialed that stuff back it would only take away much of the game's charm. The execution of the story honestly isn't always the best, and there's more than a little cheese layered on top, but I can honestly say that, if nothing else, it's truly a one of a kind experience.

Deadly Premonition is a very odd duck. If you can stomach bad gameplay and a healthy amount of idiosyncrasy to experience a good story, then there's a really great experience there hiding within a not so great game.

Here's IGN's review of the director's cut if you want a more balanced, less glowing review than Jim Sterling's:

(there are some minor spoilers in the video)
[YT]ZROwifymo0A[/YT]

 

[Tanin]

The only three games to really scare me were Fatal Frame, Aliens vs. Predators and Dead Space. Atmosphere was the reason why.

 

[zenith16]

Read Jim Sterling's review.



That's not totally true. Deadly Premonition had a cult following (including both gamers and reviewers) that genuinely loved it from day one. And there really isn't a consensus on the Director's Cut. Some think it's an improvement, while other's think it made the game worse.

lol well you just have to know which people to listen to and then make your own chose as well when you have your hands on it.

Yeah it's had a cult fallowing but there's also show girls the movie too. lol well I still like that actress from saved by the bell and later CSI miami . but different people can like some really a horrible things this game was dissed out cause of the bug's that much I remember when it came out back oin the day and was always talked about since as being bad til the directors cut. if to some people find it's worse oh well then. you just can't make certain people happy. and lots of people love KoF( kingdoms of Amular Reckoning )

And the Sess hated it when it came out . I'd just take that as it wasn't his kinda of a game and nothing more when he tore into it.(may have depeneded on the mood he was in out side of work as well.) stuff Happens.