Horror Games Discussion

Started by Dan_N, Mon 04/09/2006 06:47:33

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Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens

#40
I would also recommend checking out the Elvira games, though the pc versions were horribly downscaled graphically.  The first in particular has some of the most spectacularly gruesome death scenes ever drawn for a game.  Ever.  Accolade was the company that made me sit up and say 'wow, I want to do that'.  Also, The Thing got a lot of bad press but I quite enjoyed it aside from the extremely iffy AI behavior, like people just turning into Things after a blood test showed negative because it was a plot device.  The game itself had the atmosphere and general dread down well, though.

Dan_N

ProgZmax, I have somewhat of a bone to pick with you... Why did you put that fog-thing over the screen in Mind's Eye? Can it be disabled? And I also can't say Mind's Eye is that scary or chilling or thrilling or whatever, it got nothing out of me... (the bit I've played anyway) Why? 'Cause the characters' heads seemed to big! I mean, maybe it's just me, but I just couldn't look at a character with a straight face. The hairy dude, Noah, was especially funny. And when they made big eyes... it cracked me up. No offense though. I know you did your best. Very nice story, though and interesting puzzles, might I add. But still, the fog thing... it just ruins it... An eye in the corner could've worked...

Yeah, Kudos!

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens

Odd, many people have emailed me and such to tell me they enjoyed the delirium effect and found the character art to be very fitting.  I have no intention or desire to please everyone, though.  Check the readme for tricks to improve performance if you are having trouble.  Switching color modes in particular will make it run considerably faster, though the drawback is the lack of alpha channel creating a blue zone in text windows.  Like others before me have said, you really need to move into the 90s at least and get a better pc.  Thanks for playing.


Candle

Playing Sanitarium is like playing a David Lynch movie. From minute to minute you have no idea what is real and what isn't, and the simplest of conversations can have impact down the line. ASC did a great job taking a simple premise and weaving it into such a fascinating story. The game never gets boring, because plot points are delved out in small chunks throughout the eight chapters, giving you just enough information to make you want to keep playing. And despite its clichéd beginning, it is a powerful story as well. From the haunting little girl's voice in the menu, to a trek through a house where the spirits go about their daily business, this is a game that will stick with you after you are done playing. This is the first game in a long time where I sat through the closing credits just to make sure I didn't miss anything else.

http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,66

Think a saw type game is to much?

Chrille

Ah, Elvira and Waxworks. I love those games so much. Elvira 2 I have never finished. Terrible music and very difficult. Though honestly I haven't really made an effort to sit down and actually try finishing it. I just wandered around exploring. As said it is necessary to map. Funny how I didn't mind this at all years ago, it was made part of the gameplay.

I didn't know the graphics in PC-Elvira were scaled down, I think they look excellent as they are. I'd try the Amiga version but the disk swapping is so frustrating.

Waxworks is my favourite of the three. Also, personally I think those death scenes are far more horrifying than those in Elvira. I first tried playing it when it came out and couldn't because it was too much. I tried again a few years later and now I love it. The Mine "chapter" is my favourite. To me it's the most tensely atmospheric part of any horror game out there. You really don't want to go on deeper into that mine.

So yes, I strongly recommend these games. You can buy the HorrorPack at AdventureSoft's website.

There is also their first game, Personal Nightmare, which is a real-time adventure set in a small village. It seems very nice and atmospheric though the Underdogs version crashes too often. It is also available for Atari and Amiga with better graphics, but gah! the disc-swapping!
GASPOP software
http://www.gaspop.com

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens

Funny, I found Waxworks to be the least good of the three mentioned Accolade titles, though I agree Elvira 2 was rather tedious at times, certainly nowhere near as fun as running through the castle in Elvira 1 hacking undead guards.  It also has my favorite scene in a game:  the maggots flipping on the gardener bit.  It's a shame really those games didn't get as much exposure when they would have been profitable to Accolade because those guys really had something going back then.

Dan_N

Right, a general question: what makes a horror game horror, in your opinion?
Vast quantities of blood and gore or dark corners, cooky music and weird sounds from around the corner? Or maybe the strong presence of the occult? Or maybe tight rooms for that claustrophobia effect?

Helm

QuoteI'd try the Amiga version but the disk swapping is so frustrating.

two words, Chrille: HD INSTALL

Progz: why are you reffering to the Horrorsoft classics as Accolade games? If Accolade was publishing, that's like saying U.S. Gold made Flashback, whereas Delphine did. Respect for the developers!

I'd also like to add 'Hound of the Shadows' and 'Daughter of the Serpent' to the list of good horror games. Lovecraft terror, those two. The first only text, but god, it works. It works.
WINTERKILL

Nathan23

well I say that the dark places and the suspense of something that could come out from nowhere or that something is watching you .. and the blood too, but more important is that the history of the game make you think about that could be real.. ;)

Gord10

Quote from: Dan_N_GameZ on Wed 20/09/2006 18:35:32
Right, a general question: what makes a horror game horror, in your opinion?
Vast quantities of blood and gore or dark corners, cooky music and weird sounds from around the corner? Or maybe the strong presence of the occult? Or maybe tight rooms for that claustrophobia effect?

There was a thread about it:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=18991

Also there was another one that I had started, but couldn't find it now  (damn, now I see how I was too n00b to start a new thread even if there was another thread about it...)
Games are art!
My horror game, Self

Ali

Quote from: Rui "Trovatore" Pires on Sat 16/09/2006 14:13:07
Postmortem is just plain badÃ, 

While I agree with almost everything you've said I think this is unfair. Postmortem has a very absorbing atmosphere and good mis en scene. The designers' weak attempt at making the game multi-path obscures its mediocre story, but it's not an altogether unrewarding experience. Plus, Canadian voice acting is always fun.

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires

Well, I tend to think a game's bad when the characters start talking about some statue of Baphomet or other, as though I had come across something of the sort. I hadn't. I felt like some variable had been triggered beforehand (and yep, it had). Up until then I was enjoying the game. After that, it all got ruined for me. Plus, it had a handful of poorly-designed or irrelevant puzzles (a spot the difference game?! And the "draw the face of the suspect" minigame was fine in concept, but bad in execution. PQ3 did that one very well...). That kills a game for me.

I agree with Helm on Hound of Shadow. Extraordinary, that one. On the same vein, I have to include Anchorhead, and maybe even Babel (different vein, though). Daughter of the Serpent (a.k.a. The Scroll) I have mixed feelings about. I wouldn't call it a good game, but I would call it decent, and relatively engaging. And dunno if I'd call it horror... but that's just me.
Reach for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

Kneel. Now.

Never throw chicken at a Leprechaun.

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens

QuoteProgz: why are you reffering to the Horrorsoft classics as Accolade games? If Accolade was publishing, that's like saying U.S. Gold made Flashback, whereas Delphine did. Respect for the developers!

Silence, knave!  If I like to associate Accolade with greatness then don't interfere!  :=
You're right, though.  Horrorsoft is the group directly responsible for greatness.*




*Do you think of Toys For Bob or Accolade when Star Control 1/2 is mentioned?


Dan_N

#53
Rui's right. I too believe that a game begins to go "down hill" when the occult or "freaky" happenings take place. That was my first feeling when 5DAS started with that mish-mash. I gues it's an exercise for the mind and imagination, but I don't like it. Still 5DAS was a great game for it's emphasis on scaring the wits out of you and the "other characters". As a horror game, it's top notch. Hell, a sciopathic killer on the loose scars me more than a ghost in a house. Well, I guess it's subjective.

Right then, to simplify my previous questions about what makes a horror game tick...
What makes a horror game tick? What does classify it as horror? Obscene amounts of blood and gore? Pubescent teenagers being hacked to bits? Spooky dark corners? Spooky music and sounds? Tension build-ups that will give you a heart attack in your twenties? Ghosts, zombies and crud like that?

Frankly, in my opinion (for which you didn't ask, I know) the game could be centered around Bunny McFluffFluff and his buddies, if it had ghostly (as in spooky) atmosphere and tension build-ups.

PS: Progz, if you're reading this, I would like to apologise for harshly critisizing your game and for trying you to "play tech support with me", as you put it. It was not my place. From now on, I shall adress you as mr. ProgZmax, giving respect where respect is due. Oh, and I will shine your shoes if you're ever in Romania.

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires

QuoteRui's right. I too believe that a game begins to go "down hill" when the occult or "freaky" happenings take place.

Which is quite a feat, considering I'm an occult-crazt and love that. :) When it's well done, I absolutely love it. It just has to be VERY well played, because when you start using it, your game starts to promise and lot. And it had BETTER deliver. Instances where it DOES deliver are Gabe Knight and Black Dahlia. Instances where it ultimately doesn't are Harvester.
Reach for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

Kneel. Now.

Never throw chicken at a Leprechaun.

LimpingFish

I think an overuse of occult cliches are to blame when a "Horror" game goes sour.

Scary little girl ghosts.
Haunted mansions.
Family ancestor obsessed with ancient evil rites.
A mystical artifact.

The usual. :P
Steam: LimpingFish
PSN: LFishRoller
XB: TheActualLimpingFish
Spotify: LimpingFish

Dan_N

 ??? How did this thread get sticky?

Freaky...

Anyway, yeah, a haunted house, incantations, possessions, that's been done too many times that I can count. And in sci-fi, aliens, ships getting stranded, that too is a cliche.

That's why I love detective mistery horror games... You never know where they'll take you... but, unfortunately, it usually takes you to a cliche  :P

Right, let's delve into non-adventure horror games...
First Person Shooters have been known to scare you witless, but how about platformers?
Now, I've played A LOT of platformers, 'cause not many games would run on my old computer, and one stroke out of the rest. Abuse. Crack Dot Com's Abuse. Now, the "story" is cliche: a prison, someone let's out some gass, the prisoners turn to aliens, or "ants" (???) and you must stop that valve. The ants looked like Aliens (you'll notice the capital letter, meaning that it referers to the movie Aliens with Sigourney Weaver in the eighties). But that's not the scary bit. Abuse is the first, if I'm not mistaken, platformer to use ambient sound and lighting. That was scary, dark corridors, screams of terror and the scream the ants let out when they were coming. On one setting I played it up to the second to last or last level until I died so many times, I was frustrated and turned to Doom (at least that one I can finish). Yeah, that's a BIG problem with Abuse, you die so much, that I was surprised Sierra didn't meddle in it. A usual method of dying is by getting torn to bits by horders of alien- I mean ants.

Anyway, I still have to ask this again: how in the world did this thread get sticky?  ???

Lionmonkey

#57
Quote from: Dan_N_GameZ on Mon 04/09/2006 06:47:33
Good day and buna ziua.

I've started this topic to discuss three of my favourite adventure games, 5 Days a Stranger, 7 Days a Skeptic, and Trilby's Notes.
This might have been discussed already, but it was before my time in this forum 'cause in 2002 and 2003 I was living in blissfull ingnorance with no Internet and with a 486 computer and going to the i-cafe for an hour every month or so to get some crappy games that would contain CIHs, but now I can do that from the confort of my own home!

Anyway, which game was scarier?
From my point of view, it was 7DAS. Why? Because the rooms were much more small, which made them more claustrophobical, therefor more frightening. There were also those chases which always got the blood pumping. 5DAS was too quite misterious and quite scary, being the first adventure game in years I've played, I didn't know what to expect, but I was mesmerised by it. The rooms were larger, they contain the back yard, which was kinda big, frankly, only the scene in the bathroom was smaller and more frightening with the 'big sick guy' staring right at you and coming menacingly. Trilby's Notes was probably the worst of them all from this point of view, because it had that documentary sort of feeling 'cause you would have flashbacks to previous times, and the parser was just dang annoying! Although I don't really hate parsers, they just annoy me, 'cause you have to guess what to do next most of the time. And what was the last bit where he had to die?! I tried many times to pass that on my own, but failed miserably, so I got the walkthrough from a topic and all I had to do is move arround a lot. And talk.

Anyway, tell me what YOU think.
(and don't tell me that you think this topic and/or me are stupid, please stick to the subject.)

Update:
I hve decided to add Pleurghburg to this spooky thread. Personally there were 2 things that scared me about Pleurghburg. The dream sequence early in the game where that horrid face comes speeding towards you (that always gets me!) and late at night at the park. The rest was just average I guess. Again, let's see what YOU think! Post TODAY! (and maybe tomorrow and then the day after and then everyday for the rest of your lives!)

Update:
Yet another topic change as thread goes towards horror games. What are you favourite horror games? Why? What's the best, or scariest or whateverest horror game. As I've mentioned below, I've downloaded Lost in the Nightmare, and I must say that after the installer copied it's exact size, it then 20 Megs, which really tickles my monkey! I hated when installers do that. I cleared lots and lots and lots of space by deleting other dear games to make room and what happens?! Ahem. Anyway, I've played LitN a bit (reached the rock with the blond dude) and I must say: I didn't expect point'n'click 3D rendered ZORK! But, aside that, and the fact that you can easily get lost in the beginning, it's quite cute, so far. So, feel free to discuss that too. I am now going to go and take my happy pills and then return.
Kudos!

I think, that 5 days a stranger was scarier, because it was less bloody. I mean, in the others parts of this trilogy (actually a quadralogy) there was gore and blood behind each corner, unlike 5DaS, so the scary scenes were more sudden, that made them even scarier. And the second thing
Spoiler
was that in 5DaS all murders were done by the main character (Trilby).
[close]
And that gave feeling, that you can't control the situation and that was scary too.
The titul of the most gory game of these three I would give to Trilby's notes. By the way, I'm stuck in this game. After coming into hotel and talking to that man, who had idol, when I exit he's room the hotel and hotel changes. What should I do now? Can anyone tell me, where to find walk for Trilby's notes?
,

Helm

#58
Progz: When I think Accolade, I think of shooting little boys for being uppity, actually.
WINTERKILL

Gord10

@Lionmonkey:
Spoiler
Only one of the two murders was unconciously commited by Trilby. AJ was killed by Phil.
[close]

I think the walkthrough of Trilby's Notes was somewhere in this forums; search for the topic og TN in probably Hints&Tips or Completed Games Announcements. If I remember correct
Spoiler
We were trying to open a wooden door in the hotel's restaurant; after picking up an item on the decaying corpse.
[close]
Games are art!
My horror game, Self

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