Briareos H on 26/6/2013 at 08:20

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Neither Amnesia nor Dead Space is an exploration game, which makes this automatically closer to System Shock than any of them.

DaBeast on 26/6/2013 at 08:50

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The guy in the trailer shoots at a big headed "grey" alien generic robot looking thing, which seems ineffective so he runs away, as he also does in the other instance. This does tend to suggest that the run-away-and-hide-like-a-bitch tactic will be prevalent, or maybe they just wanted to try something with the alpha trailer, maybe to gauge reaction?




The atmosphere stopped being scary less than half way through the game and relied on jump scares too much. Shock 2 always had this sense of dread or just something really unnerving, at least for the most part. Botm was more of a "wtf is this" kind of moment, while the upside down cross on the Rickenbacker...really? All of our favourite games have shitty bits whether we like it or not.

The difficulty however I'd give you, reminds me of people saying Crysis was shit because it was a brainless fps coated in visuals too good for any average system to run...hence tech demo. If you play it on sub-Delta difficulty then you just hold down W and the left mouse button and fall asleep, if you play it on Delta difficulty, it becomes a tactical shooter where you have to think about whether you can engage or not, where your exit route is if things go bad. Anyway, I really liked it, and hated Crysis 2 and thus skipped 3, so there!

june gloom on 26/6/2013 at 09:28

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For god's sake it's not like I haven't posted it (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131736&p=1980490&viewfull=1#post1980490) like (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=136741&p=2122570&viewfull=1#post2122570) four (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140699&p=2161863&viewfull=1#post2161863) fucking (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=141195&p=2175885&viewfull=1#post2175885) times. Twice just this year even!

But since clicking is for bourgeoisie I'll break it down one mo' time.

The thing about survival horror is that it isn't just a label to slap on "scary games." It's an actual defined genre with a lot of different elements. While most surhors don't include every single one of the following elements, they include at least most of them.

Scarce resources. Ammo and health are difficult to come by, and you need to make every shot count.

Inventory management. As a corollary to the previous point. You can only carry so much, so you have to know what to bring while leaving some room for new, important items. You're forced to make choices.

Difficult combat. Your enemies are difficult to bring down.

Strong horror theme. Duh. Note that this is NOT meant to be subjective, i.e. how scary an individual player finds it. It refers more to scary situations with scary monsters in a way intended to increase tension. Alone this doesn't qualify (many games have creepy "downtime" sections where the normal high-energy combat is replaced by creepy stuff, but that doesn't make them survival horror) but it's probably the one element that's absolutely required.

Noticeable lack of NPCs. It's just you and the monsters for most of the game.

Puzzle-solving. Not every surhor has this, but it's in enough of them that it's worthy of mention.

Individualized enemy encounters. You're often facing no more than a few monsters at a time.

And one more thing that I've thought of since the last time I posted this list:

Closed circle environment. In other words, you're effectively trapped in a crazy place and you need to get out. The best surhors aren't linear point A-point B games. If there's progression, it's usually in the form of opening up new areas, for example when you're done with the apartments in Silent Hill 2 you wind up on the other side of the barricades preventing you from getting to Rosewater Park.

Here are some things that survival horror is NOT defined by:

How scary the individual player finds it. Resident Evil isn't scary to me like Silent Hill, but it's still survival horror. Fatal Frame put me to sleep. It's still survival horror. Doom 3 had scary bits. It's not survival horror.

Country of origin. Japan made good survival horrors back in the day, yes, but the entire Japanese games industry is in decline, and a decent survival horror in the classic mode coming out of Japan is very, very rare, nowadays, in part because they tend to be more action-focused now. Normally I wouldn't even have to list this because you all should fucking know better, but apparently 242 didn't and probably still doesn't.

Camera angle or other mechanical elements. Resident Evil had fixed camera because it was essentially a love letter to Alone in the Dark. Silent Hill's camera was not fixed save for specific situations, but had tank controls much like Resident Evil. System Shock 2 is in first person.

I know I listed Dead Space as an edge case in that last post I linked, but honestly I think it qualifies. Inventory management, closed-circle environment (you have an entire ship to explore and you move back and forth between decks, often revisiting over time), puzzle solving, almost no NPCs (in fact I think there's all of maybe 3 people in the entire game, 4 if you count Nicole), combat is difficult (the dismemberment mechanic is a new wrinkle as opposed to the traditional "just shoot them until they fall over") and while the game often will trap you in a room and throw a couple dozen monsters at you, the vast majority of enemy encounters are in the ones, twos, and threes. The only thing that isn't there is scarce resources, and that's why you play on Hard.

Dead Space 2 is straight up action horror though.

DaBeast on 26/6/2013 at 09:54

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You're right, definitely something mechanical. It could be something using a mechanical suit, or it could be just a generic robot thing. Maybe inspired by Saturn 3.

"He explained that your tool is called the C.A.T (Cosmonaut Assistance Tool) and it runs on batteries that get ejected if used too often. "As for what the tool actually does, that really depends on the floppy disk you have inserted into the C.A.T at that moment. All the disks have randomised elements such as how the screen on your tool handles (frame rate, colour, targeting, night vision). Then there is the light that is attached to it, and finally what I currently call the "overcharge" that has the potential to maybe stun or destroy the enemy if shot in the right area!" (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-08-16-upcoming-survival-horror-game-routine-looks-anything-but) clicky

Some more interesting points in the article, its an "80's vision of the future", hence floppy discs and combat will be rare

Renault on 26/6/2013 at 13:46

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On one of the bulletin boards near the beginning of the vid, it says something like (paraphrasing) "Do not disturb Robot #6 during it's routine, it's AI is malfunctioning and it may be hostile," so it would seem the antagonist(s) of this game would be maintenance robots gone crazy.