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Joined: Aug 28 2011 Posts: 537

I've been doing a lot of thinking about Shinji Mikami's new videogame Project Zwei that is supposed to be PURE SURVIVAL HORROR. A game that will return the genre to its roots. Well it must be fun to think of all the little things that can scare people and have the ability to carry that forth (praxis) through the superior artform of a videogame. So this is a thread where we discuss and come up with scary shit to put into videogames -- just like what Mikami & co are coming up with for Zwei. This is a thread on FEAR and TENSION.

Things that induce fear and tension:

Music

Whether music should be turned on or off in survival horror game Resident Evil was deadlocked at 6-6 on sydlexia forums -source-

Location - Air / Land / Sea (most vulnerable)

Sound Effects

Refers to footsteps, breathing, screaming, thunder claps, etc.

Large Creatures / Large Groups

Think the Eel in Super Mario 64 for the former. Think the villagers in Resident Evil 4 at night time for the latter.

Vicious Hits / Attacks

This is the fear of getting absolutely destroyed on screen by a creature. Games like Shadows of the Damned messed this up by having a huge monstrous freak with a giant whirling fan blade of death for a hand not tear you apart on contact; it just lamely damage stunned you briefly.

Chase Sequences

This is the tension of distance between you and the force of adversity. One cool thing in Deadly Premonition was the enemies clammering toward you and teleporting / shifting closer to you when being shot at.

SA-X in Metroid Fusion.

Lighting
Time Pressures

Jump Scares

This is the sudden appearance of a creature. A break from stasis (peace). The dogs in Resident Evil are the obvious example here. I also read that Dead Space menu didn't pause the game as expected so this lead to scares where there should have been stasis (pause screen).

Foreigness

Having hostile enemies talk in a foreign language to you-- RE4 -- creates a tension of the unknown.

Limitations - Power, Health, Items, etc.

See Clock Tower series where you are powerless. The opposite of this would be near end game Leon in RE4.

Hallucinations

See Eternal Darkness' sanity effects. One thing that did not get added into RE5 that was interesting to think about for survival horror was hallucinations by heat exposure.
Also, RE3.5:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUFM3EmXMJY#!

Fear of Loss

[Feel free to add more categories to the list]

Posted: Apr 06 2013 07:29 am

To me survival horror is basically the art of letting nothing happen. I noticed that comparing Dead Space 1 to 2. There has to be a feeling of lonelieness and being lost that only builds up if you explore an (preferable dark and creepy) area for a certain time without anything happening while you do that. This builds up the right set of mind for the gamer, because he starts to wonder and he feels like he is missing out something all the time, giving him a little bit of paranoia and fear. It needs time and Dead Space 2 never took that much time to give the player the creeps, like Dead Space 1 did.
That is pretty much the core of every survival horror game, i think i can say objectivly spoken.
After this point is fullfilled anything basically goes. It's just the art of breaking the silence after that point. The more unexpected and strange the better. I think Amnesia: Dark Descent (not necessarrily an Survival Horror game) has the best way of building up suspense. I never saw another game that did it that well.

Joined: Aug 28 2011 Posts: 537

I agree with what you wrote. Immersion is key to survival horror. This is why Resident Evil is not meant to be played through quicksaves, so you spend hours getting immersed. Having a break from stasis (peace) requires that break show the player how fragile they really are. If you don't feel like you can be killed and don't get killed every now and then there is no point in playing (i.e. when I realized I had nothing to fear in Shadows of the Dammned because I hadn't died once outside of boss fights).

Can you give me some examples from that Amnesia: Dark Descent (with spoiler tags for others)? Also, what would you think would be a cool feature to add to a sequel to that game or survival horror in general that hasn't been done?

Posted: Apr 06 2013 03:38 pm

Vert1 wrote:

Also, what would you think would be a cool feature to add to a sequel to that game or survival horror in general that hasn't been done?

Honestly, I just miss the resource management aspect of survival horror games. With the possible exception of Silent Hill 2 & 3, I feel like pretty much every survival horror game since the PSone era ended overly bombards you with more ammo and health items than you'll ever need. I miss having to seriously conserve my items and the nerve-wracking tension of narrowly evading enemies to save those last precious few bullets.

Posted: Apr 06 2013 05:33 pm

Vert1 wrote:

I agree with what you wrote. Immersion is key to survival horror. This is why Resident Evil is not meant to be played through quicksaves, so you spend hours getting immersed. Having a break from stasis (peace) requires that break show the player how fragile they really are. If you don't feel like you can be killed and don't get killed every now and then there is no point in playing (i.e. when I realized I had nothing to fear in Shadows of the Dammned because I hadn't died once outside of boss fights).

Can you give me some examples from that Amnesia: Dark Descent (with spoiler tags for others)? Also, what would you think would be a cool feature to add to a sequel to that game or survival horror in general that hasn't been done?

Amensia just works with subtle elements. You enter a room you have been before and
just a detail changed, it's just a little thing so you really can't be sure if it's your memory that tricks you or the game. Or the character you play starts to get overwhelmed by fear so he starts to breath faster and his vision gets blurry and if you don't get somewhere safe he may even break down and stop to move for a moment. The horror in Amensia is very realistic and comes close to real life horrors, that's what makes it so frightening. Just look up a video on youtube, you have to see it to really appreciate it.

What i personally would like to see in a survival horror games is some surreal abstract stuff. Like in a David Lynch movie. Just detach the gamer from reality so radical that he just pisses his pants.

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

i'll_bite_your_ear wrote:

Just look up a video on youtube, you have to see it to really appreciate it..

We should be encouraging people to actually play games, pay for them and support developers, not being lazy and just watching someone else play it on YouTube for free.

Posted: Apr 06 2013 07:43 pm

Well if he watches the game on youtube and likes it, maybe he will buy it.

Posted: Apr 06 2013 08:42 pm

Cameron wrote:

Vert1 wrote:

Also, what would you think would be a cool feature to add to a sequel to that game or survival horror in general that hasn't been done?

Honestly, I just miss the resource management aspect of survival horror games. With the possible exception of Silent Hill 2 & 3, I feel like pretty much every survival horror game since the PSone era ended overly bombards you with more ammo and health items than you'll ever need. I miss having to seriously conserve my items and the nerve-wracking tension of narrowly evading enemies to save those last precious few bullets.

I agree with you Cam. I remember the first time I made it to the final boss on RE1, all I had was my damn knife. Eventually I was victorious, but because it was much harder than it should have been due to my poor planning skills.

Posted: Apr 06 2013 09:24 pm

When you reach the end of an RE game, you have to bring your best. 3 & 0 excluded, as perfectly good means are provided for you.

And regarding fear, my first survival horror game was Silent Hill, back when it first came out in January of 1999. I saw my brother playing it, got interested and the game pretty much dominated my world that year. I was a bit creeped out at certain points, but to me, that's secondary to just getting the job done.