sNeaksieGarrett on 1/4/2013 at 18:46
What do you make of Zombie Studios' new horror title Daylight? It's coming to Steam this Spring.
(
http://www.playdaylight.com/)
Seems like it will be neat and is in a similar style to Amnesia. However, in this game there is procedurally generated rooms of the asylum you're in which means the game can get away with being somewhat short because of the replay factor of this.
[video=youtube;WhuwvI15dQ4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhuwvI15dQ4[/video]
Her walking animation seems a bit weird to me, IDK. Maybe it's just me. I read that they are going for a more psychological type of horror, so they're won't be monsters like in Amnesia, but there are scary people in the game.
Muzman on 2/4/2013 at 01:40
They demo'd it a PAX. It's a bit more explicit than pure creeping about in the dark
[video=youtube;UQd7CYCodFo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQd7CYCodFo[/video]
That's probably the worst way to preview an atmospheric game (unless you're the one playing it). I am still a little underwhelmed by how it ended. Still it's only alpha.
EvaUnit02 on 2/4/2013 at 06:18
I have to say, I'm pretty over Horror games. All we seem to get these days are post-RE4 Action Horror, Penumbra clones and Slenderman clones. OH SHIT, RUN AWAY FROM THE DEEP ONE OR YOU'LL GO INSANE IN THIS NEW ENGLAND MANSION!!!!111
The classic "Survival Horror" genre is pretty much dead now. I'm actually surprised that there's been no (well advertised) indie games playing on that nostalgia card yet.
gnartsch on 2/4/2013 at 07:27
Looks like ... a zombie walking ... with both hands up and a compass in the hand. :rolleyes:
And why does he use torches from time to time if he has a flashlight all the way anywhere? :confused:
Doesn't look very good.
henke on 2/4/2013 at 07:40
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
The classic "Survival Horror" genre is pretty much dead now.
If by "classic Survival Horror" you mean those fixed-camera RE and Alone In The Dark games then I'm fine with that genre being dead.
Anyway, the last great horror game I played was Deadly Premonition. Gameplaywise it's not too exciting, it fits in the RE4-action mold but is more open-world. But the story and characters are unique, funny as hell, and towards the end of the game: utterly horrifying.
PigLick on 2/4/2013 at 07:50
Thing is other "non survival-horror" genre games are actually better at horror than survival horror games. Take STALKER CoP, I mean the first playthrough of that I was shitting my pants way more than any RE/silent hill type game. I think as henke alluded to, its the contrived nature of that style of game that makes it less scary. Now a fully immersive sandbox horror game, that would be sweet.
EvaUnit02 on 2/4/2013 at 07:53
Yes and no. The qualities of SurHor:-
* Resources were very finite and you had to manage them effectively. Hell, even saving was a premium in some of them (i.e. the typewriter ribbons in Resident Evil.)
* Whilst you were very much the underdog (for at least a good part of the game's length), you still had a fighting chance.
* Combat was there, but it wasn't guaranteed to be reliable (i.e. aiming accuracy).
* Actual things to accomplish and work towards in the games, set by the designers. Absolutely no need for metagame restrictions/rules/ethics/etc that the player forces upon themselves.
Nowadays games usually either fall into one of three extremes:-
A. Where you're a monster slaying super soldier with precision aiming.
B. You're utterly defenceless, your only options are to run and/or hide.
C. Meandering, endless sandbox MP titles.
A. titles are usually big publisher, AAA games. B. titles are usually indie titles ripping off Clocktower, more often than not from Europe (Sweden especially). C. titles are Minecraft-esque therapy tools for the Autistic.
june gloom on 2/4/2013 at 08:51
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
The classic "Survival Horror" genre is pretty much dead now. I'm actually surprised that there's been no (well advertised) indie games playing on that nostalgia card yet.
I don't know, Cry of Fear hewed pretty close to the old style despite being in first person, and there's also Lone Survivor which is basically Silent Hill 2 in 2D.
Quote Posted by henke
If by "classic Survival Horror" you mean those fixed-camera RE and Alone In The Dark games then I'm fine with that genre being dead.
Camera angle's got nothing to do with it. Obviously it's time for me to drag out the education again, since nobody pays attention when I have to pound it into 242's head.
Survival horror isn't just some label you can throw around willy nilly to describe anything remotely scary. It is an actual, specific, codified and described
genre with roots going back to the 1980s. Here's what survival horror includes, bearing in mind that not all the notes have to be hit, but at least a majority:
Scarce resources. Ammo and health are difficult to come by, and you need to make every shot count.
Inventory management. You can only carry so much, so you have to know what to bring while leaving some room for new, important items.
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. (See below for my response to that.) It refers more to scary situations with scary monsters in a way that increases 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
absolutely essential in conjunction with the others.
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.
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.
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.
Games that are survival horror:
Amnesia, Cry of Fear, Lone Survivor, System Shock 2 (an argument could be made for 1 as well,) any Resident Evil before 4, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame.
Games that are
not survival horror:
Resident Evil 4 and later, Left 4 Dead, Bioshock 1 and 2 (Infinite isn't even a horror game at all), Doom 3
Edge cases for various reasons:
STALKER, Dark Souls*, Dead Space 1, Fallout New Vegas: Dead Money, certain horror OMs and FMs of the Thief trilogy
(Actually, I would argue that for all its RPG elements and huge hectic boss battles, Dark Souls absolutely qualifies as a survival horror, but others may disagree)
Muzman on 2/4/2013 at 09:26
There aren't really enough examples yet, but if there were things like this and Amnesia could be their own branch. Call em Run n Hide games or something less lame. They're sort of FP horror adventure games.
june gloom on 2/4/2013 at 09:34
Eh, Clock Tower sorta did that first.
