The horror game scene today

Foinikas

I'm a big fan of horror games.I love them.I'm into horror games and movies and stuff....but some new trends that have formed in the last few years are starting to trouble me.

As many of you guys know,Amnesia The Dark Descent became a phenomenon that in a way re-animated (it's alllive it's allliiiive! ) the horror genre.I'm not saying it was dead,but after Amnesia there were dozens and dozens of indie games coming out trying to immitate Amnesia.

What worries me though is that a big deal of these games relies in JUMP SCARES rather than real atmosphere and a more ...psychological kind of fear.

I've tried Slender 8 Pages,I've tried A night at the office and today I tried Dreadout (the demo).Apart from that I've watched various videos about indie and other new scary games on youtube.

And...I do find it worrying that a lot of people out there think that by scaring someone every 5 minutes with something that appears randomly on the screen(or not so randomly)is "aweeesome".I personally think that this is one very cheap(as in degrading)way to make a game scary. It's good and ok in tiny doses in games that have a good story,good atmosphere and all,for example like some tiny jump scares in Resident Evil 1 and 2...or in other games like FEAR or Condemned Criminal Origins for example...

But all I see now is people trying to scare others by going like you know...BOO! and then have buffoons on youtube play it and say "OH NO IT'S THE SCARIEST GAME EVER!"


So what do you think?

der_ketzer

Penumbra scared the crap out of me before Amnesia was released. And when Amnesia didn't run on my PC I watched so many LPs of it that I don't need to play through it myself.
Games that jump at you all the time don't scare me. I want scares to build and build. I want a game to make me afraid to continue. But there are only a few that actually achieve that.

Giant Tope

Have you tried I'm Scared: A pixelated nightmare? It's got a bit of the jump scare stuff, but it seems neat. I think you can only play through it once and if you want to play through it again, you have to uninstall it and re install. Shouldn't be too much of a problem because it's only worth one playthrough.

thestalkinghead

the atmosphere of the game has to be really scary for me to be so on edge that i actually jump at "jump scares" otherwise it just ain't scary, so really "jump scares" only work with a scary atmosphere

Giant Tope

That scared me, right?

deleted_kyxc7lde962932

There are four upcoming games that interest me.

Dead Rising 3
Until Dawn
The Evil Within
Guillermo Del Toro’s Insane

Alcoremortis

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is the one that really interests me. Just the soundtrack seems scary all by itself. There are few sounds more horrifying than a squealing pig.

Of course, I'll have to finish the first one first...

Foinikas

Alcoremortis you gotta finish Amnesia 1 this summer! :P
Just play it at nights,alone with the one small light on and headphones.Trust me,you will love it.

Now,I so hate it that indie companies think the key to a horror game is stupid jump scares.It's so cheap and so annoying...

Alcoremortis

Actually, I was planning on playing it in the middle of the day, with friends, on speakers, while blasting Oingo Boingo in the background.

Foinikas

Lol no that would be a big mistake :P

watertommyz

I'm looking forward to the PSN release of Lone Survivor, which will have added content and extra dialogue not seen in the PC game. It's an indie horror game that actually gets survival horror right. The only other one I'm looking forward to is The Evil Within, thanks to it having Shinji Mikami, and it won't have Capcom's meddling this time, so I'm excited.

Otherwise, I'm trying to check out all the classic survival horror titles, or ones that I may have missed due to negative feedback and stupid reviewers who don't get what survival horror games are supposed to be. Amy for example, which I've been enjoying greatly, and yeah I had to turn down the sensitivity, and there's a few slowdown moments, and the voice acting is a bit quirky, but it's nothing game breaking, and you know what? It's actually got the gameplay down perfectly. It could have used a little more polish, but it is underrated.

I think the only console survival horror game I'm missing is Rule of Rose, which only leaves me to get a custom desktop for all of the custom stories and mods to gather, and oh yeah, I really can't wait to get Penumbra and Amnesia for my new computer. Everything I've seen from them makes me happy.

NotablyUnstable

Foinikas wrote: »

Now,I so hate it that indie companies think the key to a horror game is stupid jump scares.It's so cheap and so annoying...

It isn't just indie devs that rely on jump scares *cough* Dead Space *cough*

I'm hopeful that Outlast will be decent. I'm not sure if it has a release date yet, but so far it looks pretty good.

Queen Sars

I have to agree that jump scares are extremely cheap and for the most part lazy. From what I understand jump scares are used the most since they're the easiest to achieve for a horror title whereas atmosphere and psychological mind games are a much deeper section that the creator would need to explore.

My personal favorite is the Silent Hill series when it comes to psychological mind games and atmosphere, especially Silent Hill 3. The setting is creepy and disturbing, there are people around but you still feel completely alone, and the music and sound effects work wonderfully with the background. I remember entering an area and I knew what the monsters were in there and they didn't scare me but the music scared me so bad I instantly tried to leave. What's more terrifying about that one is it's not just the monsters that try to kill you, even in some areas the very room could kill you and you wouldn't know it till you entered/died from it.

Another good one so far I've tried is Fatal Frame though I think it relies on jump scares a bit much but it has the atmosphere spot on.

Anyways I totally agree with you on how the horror genre seems to be going right now but I wouldn't worry about it. I hear The Evil Within is supposed to be a really good one (Mikami is like the Father of Horror in a way) so I'd check that one out when it comes out. I don't think horror is a dead genre it's just one that you have to dig a bit to find a game you'd like out of it.

Darth Marsden

NotablyUnstable wrote: »

It isn't just indie devs that rely on jump scares *cough* Dead Space *cough*

The first Dead Space is not a horror game, no matter what anyone else says. It's a great action game with a dark setting and a few jump scares - that's about it.

And the sequels... we don't talk about the sequels.

Secret Fawful

Play some Clock Tower on the SNES or some Trilby's Notes and come talk to me about good horror.

St_Eddie

Secret Fawful wrote: »

Play some Clock Tower on the SNES or some Trilby's Notes and come talk to me about good horror.

Man, that reminds me; I've really got to get around to playing 'Trilby's Notes'. I played through the first two and loved the story and atmosphere (the puzzles; not so much... especially that fucking "shadow" puzzle near the end of '7 Days a Skeptic'. Did anyone on Earth actually manage to solve that without looking at a walkthrough?!).

Secret Fawful

St_Eddie wrote: »

Man, that reminds me; I've really got to get around to playing 'Trilby's Notes'. I played through the first two and loved the story and atmosphere (the puzzles; not so much... especially that fucking "shadow" puzzle near the end of '7 Days a Skeptic'. Did anyone on Earth actually manage to solve that without looking at a walkthrough?!).

I think I did? Trilby's Notes is the best of the four, though, without a doubt. I personally think 5 Days is the weakest, myself, with 6 Days second weakest. They're all good, though. I think Notes is perfect and 7 Days is close to it. Notes is toughest of them all because it uses a parser, but the puzzles themselves aren't CRAZY. Have fun.