paganinio on 4/5/2011 at 16:09
I found an (
http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/top10/2268.html) article about the top 10 ways to make a game scary. Let's see how many of them are used in System Shock 2.
#10: Be disgusting: :grr::grr::grr::grr: The claustrophobic environment and the raw, cold textures made me want to puke one time, after playing for a couple of hours straight.
#9: Use blood and gore, lots of them: :grr::grr::grr: Blood was spilled on the wall; again the texture was raw, static and cold. Hybrid's head and corpses lying on the ground were gory in a raw and mosaic way.
#8: Darkness: :grr::grr::grr::grr::grr: Using the Thief: The Dark Project engine, what did you expect?
paganinio on 4/5/2011 at 16:09
#7: Shock the gamer: :grr::grr::grr::grr::grr: Though "System Shock" was originally a condition in AD&D RPG games, the RPG series "System Shock" elevated the meaning of "shock" to a whole new level.
#6: Use scary sound effects and music: :grr::grr::grr::grr: I definitely found it more comfortable to play without my headphones on.
#5: Make the gamer helpless: :grr::grr::grr: You are alone, and the only person alive on the ship will not be alive when you finally get to meet them. Hmm... But System Shock 2 didn't actually make us feel helpless at all. Although the player has almost zero human contact to help him, he is fully supported by machines, computers and technology. It's a wonderful metaphor - in real life, computer geeks may not have any human friends, but it doesn't mean he's helpless and pathetic.
paganinio on 4/5/2011 at 16:10
#4: Use a scary atmosphere: :grr::grr::grr::grr: Often times there aren't any enemies around. When you open a door and not see anything at all, it's just as scary. That, is what I mean by "atmosphere".
#3: Make the gamer doubt his/her own sanity: :grr: SS2 only does this twice in the game I think, namely the cutscene on Deck 1 and the big cutscene at the beginning of Deck 4. Neither of them is too surreal to imagine though. No matter what I saw, I was always fully aware that it's a first-person adventure game powered by the Thief engine; I was always sane and rational.
#2: Use suspense: :grr::grr::grr::grr::grr: Enemies could literally be around every corner. There's no "town" where you can't be attacked. Danger is always present. Suspense takes up almost the entire game.
#1: Turn familiar objects to threats: :grr: This is truly the most scary thing that could happen in a game, but it's against the philosophical and world view of System Shock 2, so we don't see it in the game. In the world of SS2, there are no familiar objects, so nothing could be turned. Dr. Polito? Is anybody gonna become attached to her after 3 decks? Hell no. And the computer systems/implants will never betray you. If the writer decided to make the MFD GAME PLAYER evil, so that SHODAN would suddenly pop out of your minesweeper game, that would have scared the crap out of me.
ZylonBane on 4/5/2011 at 17:25
#0. paganinio threads.
voodoo47 on 5/5/2011 at 01:23
that would work on anybody,not just gamers.
paganinio on 5/5/2011 at 05:33
Quote Posted by voodoo47
that would work on anybody,not just gamers.
?? You mean my threads, or the 10 things I listed??
D'Arcy on 6/5/2011 at 00:28
Needs more :grr:
Koki on 6/5/2011 at 09:20
What do you know, the list is not actually completely worthless, I'm positively surprised.
Volitions Advocate on 12/5/2011 at 20:02
Half those points make sense. the other half seem to boil down to "to make a game scary you have to make it scary".
