van HellSing on 22/10/2016 at 20:24
Hey, everyone, I will probably be writing my MA thesis on horror game mechanics, and thus I'd like you to weigh in on your favourite horror-themed games. Specifically, I want to focus on the mechanics and gameplay, rather than storytelling stuff, though it may coincide.
To give you an idea of the piece, I would like to present one of my own favourite moments in horror games related to mechanics:
in an unscripted moment in Alien: Isolation, I got caught by an antagonistic android, who grabbed me by the throat and would have certainly killed me. However, the alien suddenly appeared behind the android, with me as its target. The alien swiped at the android to get at myself, something which does not usually happen since the alien generally ignores androids. In any case, this ultimately allowed me to escape both the android and the alien.
It is this sort of emergent interaction that I am most interested in.
Anyone?
edit: could someone please fix the thread title? :P
faetal on 22/10/2016 at 20:30
I'm not the biggest fan of horror as a genre, but something which always worked well for me is the voices of the infected in System Shock 2. The ambivalence hinting at trapped humanity, the eery, disjointedness of it. The barely controlled intonation. Just perfect.
Volitions Advocate on 22/10/2016 at 20:52
VanHellsing, when you edit your post, click "advanced" and you should be able to fix the title.
To add to what Faetal said, In dying light, when you're fighting the virals, (the recently turned zombies who are still parkour experts) sometimes what's left of their humanity surfaces. You'll smack one hard with a pipe, it will cover its ears and yell "No, Please!" right before doing a zombie scream and coming at you again.
Just last night I finally finished Realms of the Haunting, I always got screwed up by some game breaking bug toward the end of the game, but I made tons of extra saves this time to finally beat it.
What is really great about that game is when you have your companion with you, you can discuss, pontificate, and contemplate basically every item, concept, and person you encounter in the game up to that point.
~ 2:30. try to ignore the uploader's annoying voice.
(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVpN6eKq2Cw&t=218s)
Yakoob on 23/10/2016 at 01:19
Van, that's an awesome moment in A:I, love when that stuff happens.
For me, I am not a huge fan of Horror games but did love System Shock 2. One of the main things that worked for me mechanically compared to things like Amnesia was the unreliable and scarce nature of weaponry. When I can't do anything but run in Amensia, it sucks out the fear factor since the limitation feels artificial. In SS2, you CAN fight back, but you are often too weak or risky. This is where the true fear comes from.
Other things that clicked for me:
* As faetal points out, the voices did a lot to set the mood. Not just the creepy tone but the content, especially the (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LjtSogs0qM) Midwives who went all about protecting the "children" and even sang creepy lullabies to them.
* The occasional telepathic Many messages telling you to give in to the shared harmony were also creepy as hell, thanks to the semi-pleasant voice with distorted echo and, again, somewhat rational and patronizing messages.
* The audio design in general - the mechanical dzzt-dzzt-dzzt of the droids, for example, or the clunky mechanical thunk-thunk-thunk of midwives. Instills fear even before you see or hear the enemy, since you know what's coming. And it sounds oddly menecaing in the empty, scifi hlals.
* I had a cool moment early on: after surviving through desolate hallways escaping deformed crewmen, I suddenly hear something unexpected. "Sir, where did you go?" - "It is safe to come out." Curious, but suspicious, I come out to see the protocol droid I have never seen before who doesn't shoot me, but calls me to him. So I approach and... BOOM. Motherfucker. Similar to your A:I example it was an awesome introduction to a new villain that was half-emergent.
In another vein, in
Silent Hill 3 I loved the psychological horror moments the most. For example, exploring a disturbingly twisted high school you come to a locker room when suddenly you hear a phone ringing. The fu-.... you open one locker after another until you find the one with a phone booth inside. You pick it up, and hear the "Happy Birthday to you..." sang in a creepy voice. Totally out of the blue, but wholly unnerving.
EDIT: found a video:
[video=youtube;a4Z7Tjx4_OE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4Z7Tjx4_OE[/video]
demagogue on 23/10/2016 at 02:20
If you accept interactive fiction, Anchorhead is one of the best examples of weaving gameplay into the actual plot of a horror story. It's essentially interactive Lovecraft.
I think the mechanics are a good case study. What I think it does best is embodies some concept or plot-point into a thing or practice. Then you engaging with that thing or process drives the plot forward. And of course usually with some dark realization of the awful truth emerging.
So, eg, the game has you actually researching the town's and certain families' history in the town library, it gives you instructions to find things to carry out certain rituals, it has occult objects and it bends time & space without you noticing at first, it has your spouse which you increasingly can't trust, lots of demented cultists, their victims, and the old ones pulling the strings, and more dreadful revelations than you can shake a bloody meathook at.
Best & most chilling moment in the game IMO is when you equip the supertelescope to look at the flying god just entering our galaxy on its way to consume earth, it peers back and "it sees you."
Starker on 23/10/2016 at 02:20
I've been slowly working through Hungry Ghosts and I quite like the item pick up mechanic. Every time you try to grab an item, there's a chance that a ghost attacks you. It not only makes the game more suspenseful, it also fits in with the games theme of being judged and every one of your actions having to be very deliberate.
Here it is in action:
[video=youtube;M_t5eEyAHrc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_t5eEyAHrc[/video]
Sulphur on 23/10/2016 at 06:14
Emergent systems in horror games aren't widely used, because horror as a genre relies on carefully controlled conditions most of the time to maintain a tension-sustain-release/explode cycle. A:I is an outlier in this regard because it wraps (rubber-banded) free-roam AI code around the alien. I can't think of an emergent situation in other horror games, though I suppose there should be a few.
One of the moments that stands out for me to this day is Amnesia's flooded basement and floating wooden crates which you had to jump onto, since there was an invisible monster tracking you through the water each time you waded in, then being forced to get your feet wet and open a portcullis to escape while you could hear the thing getting closer from behind you all the while.
The other one is SH1's 'alternate' school, with the soundtrack building to a distressingly loud industrial pounding while being assaulted by shadowy, knife-wielding things in the shape of little kids.
242 on 23/10/2016 at 09:24
Forbidden Siren series, the best surhor gameplay and mechanics I've ever experienced.
faetal on 23/10/2016 at 11:49
Also, the audio logs in SS2 did a fantastic job of building up the story of a mysterious situation.
icemann on 23/10/2016 at 13:11
Have to agree on the audio logs for SS2. That game has the best audio logs that I've experienced in a game. First game had some good ones as well.
Now other than SS2, the Silent Hill series has it's moments:
SH2 - Numerous moments with Pyramid Head. That enemy was just so unique. Quite unnerving.
SH3 -
[video=youtube;mAoDU9pyv7A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAoDU9pyv7A[/video]
That bit scared the crap out of me the first time I encountered that room.
