Has any horror adventure game actually scared you?

Started by KyriakosCH, Fri 09/03/2018 23:20:29

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KyriakosCH

The dynamics are, of course, different in a game, than they'd be in (eg) a book, or a movie, but have you ever felt fear while playing a horror game?

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Stupot

Dark Fall scared the tits off me. Other games like it (Barrow Hill, Lost Crown) had a good go but none of them shat me up like the first Dark Fall game.

KyriakosCH

Quote from: Stupot on Fri 09/03/2018 23:35:46
Dark Fall scared the tits off me. Other games like it (Barrow Hill, Lost Crown) had a good go but none of them shat me up like the first Dark Fall game.

"And to him was given the key to the bottomless pit" (nod)
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Ponch

It looks crude and goofy now, but the first Alone in the Dark game got a few jump scares out of me back in the day, along with a really immersive feeling of dread throughout.

TheFrighter

Personally I hate the dungeon-crawlin' and the sword/gun fights in adventure games, but this spinechilling deaths in Waxworks even scare me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axqRgDkWXA0

I pray someday a remake in AGS will come (whitout the action parts, please).

_

Mandle

The Last Door got a few good scares out of me during the first couple of chapters...

And the swarming mass of feeding pigeons in "Date In The Park" still haunts me... It was never explained what they were feeding on, which was a big part of the creepiness for me...

It could have been just that someone threw a bunch of birdfeed there...or...something much worse...

Cassiebsg

Yeah... I'm pretty sure I've assumed something much worse. (laugh)
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Privateer Puddin'

Monkey Island 2 (ending in the tunnels), Alone in the Dark - both as a kid. Got real tense while playing Until Dawn, especially with choices or bits where you had to hold the controller perfectly still :o

Cassiebsg

Yes, I can join the Alone in the Dark team. I can also add that Half Live got me on my edge... specially that opening sequence. 8-0
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

KyriakosCH

Quote from: Mandle on Sat 10/03/2018 12:20:09
The Last Door got a few good scares out of me during the first couple of chapters...

And the swarming mass of feeding pigeons in "Date In The Park" still haunts me... It was never explained what they were feeding on, which was a big part of the creepiness for me...

It could have been just that someone threw a bunch of birdfeed there...or...something much worse...

The Last Door was a cool game :) I think the general view is that its final chapter could have been better, though...
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NickyNyce

#10
Until Dawn is one of my all time favorite games.

The gameplay was so simple, yet so effective. Great story, no do overs which really makes the game tense and scary.

LimpingFish

No. Never.

Having said that, plenty of games have startled me (dogs jumping through windows in the original Resident Evil, for instance), but startling a player and frightening a player are two very different things.

Unfortunately, a lot of game developers confuse the two.
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Mandle

Quote from: NickyNyce on Sun 11/03/2018 00:49:56
Until Dawn is one of my all time favorite games.

The gameplay was so simple, yet so effective. Great story, no do overs which really makes the game tense and scary.

I thought it was a great concept that they couldn't quite pull off yet.

The game hammers over and over the point of the delicate effects that your choices will cause: The Butterfly Effect, but then the story hardly deviates at all from its path no matter what you did. In a few places things are slightly different and getting the "good" ending might be impossible if you made bad choices earlier on, but the finale is always in the same place and basically the same.

The story was good enough (if a little ridiculous at times) to hold my attention but I really did feel a bit let down by the lack of the true branching story that they kind of promised.

I ended up feeling a bit like I felt about "No Man's Sky", except without the hatred, just the disappointment...

NickyNyce

I agree with you mandle, the game does have flaws, especially the ones you mentioned. I only played the game once, so maybe that was a good thing for me. I never got to see the disappointment of playing more than once.

I really enjoyed the tense atmosphere of knowing that I can't start over. No going back and clicking the load button gave me a feeling that I haven't felt in video gaming in a long time. I thought they did a really good job with the game though. They took a chance with this style of game play, and I applaud that.

Mandle

Quote from: NickyNyce on Sun 11/03/2018 13:17:56
I really enjoyed the tense atmosphere of knowing that I can't start over. No going back and clicking the load button gave me a feeling that I haven't felt in video gaming in a long time.

Yeah, I love that feeling too.

I have included the "one life and if you die you die" gameplay in a lot of my own games.

It was never a really popular choice from the feedback on those games that I have gotten, especially on "The Rotary Club"... (laugh)

(I have completed that game of mine myself twice... but it is very hard... but you feel that much better when you beat it because of that!)

KyriakosCH

Quote from: Mandle on Sun 11/03/2018 13:34:49
Quote from: NickyNyce on Sun 11/03/2018 13:17:56
I really enjoyed the tense atmosphere of knowing that I can't start over. No going back and clicking the load button gave me a feeling that I haven't felt in video gaming in a long time.

Yeah, I love that feeling too.

I have included the "one life and if you die you die" gameplay in a lot of my own games.

It was never a really popular choice from the feedback on those games that I have gotten, especially on "The Rotary Club"... (laugh)

(I have completed that game of mine myself twice... but it is very hard... but you feel that much better when you beat it because of that!)

I like such things (one life, no save etc). I also would want to not have visual clues as to whether some part of the background is an object you can click on, but feared this would make people give up on playing my own game...
Still, i really dislike having clues as to what to click on the background (eg text, or mouse pointer changing) :) Makes it less of an atmospheric setting.
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NickyNyce

Another personal favorite of mine was Alien Isolation. I thought they did a really good job with the aliens AI. Not perfect, but well done. I'm also a huge Alien fan, so maybe this swayed me a bit, but there was some really tense moments playing that game. Sneaking around with almost no way to defend yourself is terror in itself. Scary atmosphere trumps jump scares any day IMO. The longer you play, the less scary it is, but I would prefer this over the game being too short.

As we all know, it's impossible to make everyone happy.

Mandle

Quote from: NickyNyce on Sun 11/03/2018 13:58:43
I'm also a huge Alien fan

Never would have guessed so... not even after crawling around in ducts with creepy-crawlies everywhere in your game(s)... :P


Crimson Wizard

Quote from: Privateer Puddin' on Sat 10/03/2018 14:03:05
Monkey Island 2 (ending in the tunnels),
Hah, I jumped every time LeChuck appeared, could not get used to it for some reason.


I was pretty much scared few times in DeFoe AGS game series (5 days a stranger, and on). Although some of them were cheesy jump scares, but the game built up an atmosphere pretty well too.
The "Trilby Notes" was special in a way that it kept horror feeling for a long duration because of the "overwordly hotel" section, with its ghastly appearance and disturbing music, which could also be emotionally exhausting at times.

For some reason the biggest scare I had in these games, perhaps because I was not expecting anything like that was-
Spoiler

when in "Trilby Notes" hotel after a random room change player character was having a monster's appearance for several seconds before turning back to normal view.
[close]

Hobo

No, not really, which is probably one of the reasons why I don't care much for the genre. I mean, I'm not immune to jump scares and some scenes can make me feel disgusted, but I don't think I've ever been truly scared or terrified by a game. But my sample size is also rather small, so who knows, maybe there are some games out there that cater to my fears and phobias. However, I do enjoy a horror game/book/movie if horror isn't the only thing that defines it and it's otherwise well made.

As for the one life, limited saves etc. then I'm not a fan of that. I personally have never played a game where permadeath or limited save slots have somehow improved my playing experience. Besides, you can actually play every game this way, simply don't save. Multiple saves are also useful in case a save file gets corrupted or the game is full of bugs or unwinnable by design.

KyriakosCH

Jump-scares (and having stuff following you/survival) are cheap tricks, imho :)

Something can cause horror if it makes you feel uneasy about knowing what is going on, in the crucial way that (consciously or not) you are nearing the point of changing some core view on something fundamental.
At least in serious literature this can happen (eg De Maupassant even has this as his topic; what horror is).
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Mandle

Quote from: KyriakosCH on Fri 16/03/2018 11:36:31
having stuff following you/survival) are cheap tricks, imho :)

Bloody effective though...

Danvzare

All horror games have scared me. I'm very easily frightened.
But I've always found that non-horror games with one horror level, always provide the most horrifying experiences. The Thief series, and Vampire: The Masquerade â€" Bloodlines are good examples.

TheFrighter

Quote from: KyriakosCH on Fri 16/03/2018 11:36:31

Something can cause horror if it makes you feel uneasy about knowing what is going on, in the crucial way that (consciously or not) you are nearing the point of changing some core view on something fundamental.
At least in serious literature this can happen (eg De Maupassant even has this as his topic; what horror is).

Uhm, sound like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmtbSWsdCzM

_

KyriakosCH

^I haven't played that, but have read the short story. Re the actual short story, it is bad that a good idea was written in an (imho) quite poor way :/ :)

The game looks better, tbh :D
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Mandle

Quote from: KyriakosCH on Fri 16/03/2018 13:42:09
Re the actual short story, it is bad that a good idea was written in an (imho) quite poor way :/ :)

Harlan Ellison's writing style reflects his personality exactly:

This is one thing he did often.

He was always looking for ways to deconstruct the craft of writing, and even rebel against it and sabotage it at times.

It mentions in the about article that he hated computers, and yet it seems he was head of development and writer on the game "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream." from what I have heard.

KyriakosCH

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Mandle

Quote from: KyriakosCH on Fri 16/03/2018 14:55:09
^Iirc the computer AM is voiced by him too :)

Yup... And very over the top and creepy too... Love it!

TheFrighter

Quote from: KyriakosCH on Fri 16/03/2018 13:42:09

The game looks better, tbh :D

It do the work very well! (nod)

It's one of the rare game that made me cry sad tears... the horror is so deep and cruel.

_

Blondbraid

Quote from: TheFrighther on Fri 16/03/2018 18:40:07
Quote from: KyriakosCH on Fri 16/03/2018 13:42:09

The game looks better, tbh :D

It do the work very well! (nod)

It's one of the rare game that made me cry sad tears... the horror is so deep and cruel.

_
It's one of those games I've thought about playing for ages, but I've just not found the time for it.

Otherwise I agree with Crimson Wizard, the chase scene in Monkey Island 2 was a bit scary, I think it's mainly due to the gameplay mechanics.
I'd also say the Jorry Demo had some creepy atmosphere and in combination with knowing the protagonist could die, it worked pretty well.


TheFrighter


Even to be perfectly  aware that you are doing something totally cruel is a very horrorfying experience. An example is this old game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtjAsQIPauY

_

KyriakosCH

Harvester was a cool game ^^

Colonel Buster Monroe! :=
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gravendev

Does Silent Hill (the original one) count as a horror adventure game?

ShiningRice

"Alone in the dark" the music I think is what brought the scare.
"5 days a stranger" I am not sure why this game was scary, but for me it was

Gord10

Yes. 5 Days a Stranger and Scratches are two examples I can remember. I'm sure there have been more games that scared me during playing, but I can't quite remember them.

Also, Silent Hill games.
Games are art!
My horror game, Self

SinSin

All of the Chzo Mythos series got me frightened.
Currently working on a project!

ManicMatt

Who said Thief? Yes! In Thief 3, there was a level where it was a haunted ship or something, and I was scared by the noises and vibe. I creeped through the entire level.. 
Spoiler
only to realise i could have ran through it, not a single enemy in the level.
[close]

nihilyst

Weren't there zombie-like creatures on the ghost ship?

But while we're at it, Thief 3 features the Orphanage level in which you enter the memories of the children in the orphanage. That shit got me scared.

CherishKuddleMonster

The game White Day and that Indonesian horror game Dreadout,
Spoiler
only the part that caught me off guard was the second part where Ira took the key out of her demon mouth, and the ending varies but
it's creepy, I don't know to laugh or to be scared of this game if you ever played or seen it you know what i mean.
[close]

Ali

Why isn't this thread just the words AMNESIA and SOMA over and over again until we're all dead?!

Danvzare

Quote from: Ali on Thu 19/04/2018 16:56:54
Why isn't this thread just the words AMNESIA and SOMA over and over again until we're all dead?!
Because Amnesia was an annoying game that punished you for being in the light and punished you for being in the dark.
Good game though. Even though I didn't like it. :-D

And as for Soma... I actually haven't gotten around to playing that one yet. :-[

Ali

I agree, Amnesia was too much. But it was scary. Soma is a huge improvement, in that it's scary, but the story and voice acting are also excellent.

Monsieur OUXX

Alone in the Dark +1
I'm talking about the first one, as a teenager, and it was mostly because of the music and the sound effects.
 

KyriakosCH

I did like the atmosphere in the original Gabriel Knight (GK: Sins of the Fathers). Well, up to one point (imo the game becomes less dark once you leave New Orleans).

The excellent OST helped in that respect :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuJVbpPew7E
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cat



Blondbraid

#48
I remember one scene that actually creeped me out, in 5 Days a Stranger.
Spoiler
The protagonist, Trilby, and a few other people are magically trapped in a haunted house,
and not being able to escape they decide to spend the night sleeping inside.
Trilby then has a dream where he sees a masked killer standing over the corpses of
all the people trapped in the house, and then the killer removes his mask, revealing himself to be Trilby.
When Trilby tells about his dream to one of the others, she tells him that she too had a dream about a masked killer.

Then Trilby says: Let me guess, the killer took off his mask and then it was your face?
but she only answers: No, it was your face.
[close]

That simple dialogue exchange really unnerved me.


KyriakosCH

I haven't paid much attention to the third Trilby game, but the first two were quite intense... :)
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Matti


Blondbraid

Quote from: Matti on Tue 25/09/2018 20:11:29
Add spoiler tags, Blondbraid!
Sorry!
I figured it wouldn't be a big spoiler considered the scene I mentioned takes place rather early in the game,
but I've since edited my comment.

Anyway, I consider the scene I mentioned a good example of how something isn't scary because of any shock or gore (since the game has fairly simplistic pixel art),
but scary because it was a disturbing concept that made the player think about the implications.


Danvzare

Quote from: Blondbraid on Tue 25/09/2018 12:47:46
I remember one scene that actually creeped me out, in 5 Days a Stranger.
I really need to play the Trilby games one of these days.
I downloaded them, but I never made the time to play them.

Mandle

#53
Quote from: Blondbraid on Tue 25/09/2018 23:55:10
scary because it was a disturbing concept that made the player think about the implications.

I recently heard an awesome definition, provided by Stephen King, of the "Three Types Of Fear":

Type One: Scary
Spoiler
You return home to find that the lock on your front door has been broken open and the door hangs ajar.
[close]

Type Two: Terrifying
Spoiler
You return home to find that there is an intruder in your home who is trying to kill you.
[close]

Type Three: Creepy
Spoiler
You return home to find that everything you own has been replaced with almost perfect copies.
[close]

Danvzare

Quote from: Mandle on Wed 26/09/2018 16:02:22
Type Three: Creepy
Spoiler
You return home to find that everything you own has been replaced with almost perfect copies.
[close]
That last one sounds hilarious to me, not creepy. (laugh)

teemue

CAT LADY OMG! I started playing it at 10:00 am and had to stop because I got so emotionally disturbed :D Great thing for an adventure game to achieve.
Director at Nopia animation

TheFrighter


This game has very scary moments, cruel as only a japan tale can be. I't's also a good introduction to eastern philosophy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS8BVqYO3ck

_

LimpingFish

I can't remember if I already posted in this topic, but I'd like to say that no, no game has ever scared me.

But I dare anyone not to be upset by the opening scenes  of Yomawari: Night Alone.
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Tabata

Quote from: LimpingFish on Thu 01/11/2018 01:45:29
... , did I mention I'm drunk?
Quote from: LimpingFish on Thu 01/11/2018 02:05:56
... I'd like to say that no, no game has ever scared me. ...
(laugh)    (laugh)    (laugh)
         

dactylopus

The short answer is no.

The truth is that I've been startled by games, and I've been made anxious by the mood or tone of games.  I've felt uneasy or slightly creeped out, but never actually scared.  Then again, I don't really get that scared of any media.  It's hard for me to suspend my disbelief in that way.  I always know it's a game or a movie or what have you, and can never truly give in to actual fear.  That's why I've never really been into horror as a genre.

Most recently, Black Mirror on Netflix has made me feel pretty close to scared, but it's the implications, not the media itself.

mkennedy

As far as horror adventure games go I don't think any have really scared me. But back when my modem was working good I used to play a graphical mud in hardcore mode (limited number of lives then if you die and don't have any more your character gets erased) and I was afraid of dying, however the fear in that case was for completely different reasons.

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