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TIGSource ForumsPlayerGamesIs the Horror genre making a comeback?
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Author Topic: Is the Horror genre making a comeback?  (Read 4615 times)
gimymblert
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« Reply #40 on: August 26, 2015, 04:47:59 PM »

I don't know where I have seen that quote (audio or written) but someone said that horror game don't work with cheap jump scare, or with monster that run at you but when the monster look back at you silently, motionless and you don't know when he will jump at you.

That's the basic idea behind fnaf literally, seeing the character peers at you without moving is really unnerving because you know he will eventually do something. The resource management make it even more tense with the slow crawl they do toward you with the camera.
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« Reply #41 on: August 26, 2015, 08:00:12 PM »

Don't get me wrong. I like a good jump scare here and there. They're nice nice and really add to the mixture.
The problem is I feel many games (and movies) have been using it as a crutch for bad storytelling and ambience. When they do, the experience becomes more a test of resilience than good horror. You're not afraid of the context, not afraid of the monster, you're not afraid for the characters, you're not afraid of anything. You're just afraid of getting scared.
The movie/game shouldn't test your guts of not looking away from the screen like you have to "prove your bravery" to the creators. This is just bad conveyance and lazy storytelling.
It should grip your attention and reward you for doing so with awesome, deep (not in a "drama" sense) moments of storytelling. The jumpy bits should be an extra, not a narrative crutch.

You should all get around to watching the "Behind the Scenes" of the first Silent Hill movie.
The creature designers, albeit inspired by the game, started working from a very disctinc premise: The monsters and scares shouldn't make you want to look away from the screen. They focused on a creative direction that was both scary and attention gripping.
You might not get that much adrenaline from the movies, of course - adrenaline is mostly a response to immediate danger and this is the domain of jump scares -, but the experience is infinitely more rewarding and terrifying.
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gimymblert
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« Reply #42 on: August 26, 2015, 08:25:33 PM »

I don't know if you are saying that for fnaf lol, but that definetly applies, while they do have jump scare it's the climax of a tension, precisely because all the gameplay is about attention. In fact that's how the narrative start to kick, every small strange change layer onto themselves over time and keep you guessing what it mean for your survival, and understanding them give you lore which only raise more guessing.

Why there is a shadow freddy at this camera suddenly, is that animatronic a functioning one? it wasn't there last night!

Ultimately it's a game so, unlike movie (or at least to a lesser degree) you are entirely responsible for your survival. Jump scare only happen when you fail, and most of the time when you are confident you have done things right (hence why it's not scary at first try, because it look random, you have no understanding therefore no anticipation and attention).

But the game has vague feedback (in a good way) closing the door consume energy but stay close only for certain amount of time, there is no timer, maybe when they reopen the monster is there! there is a huge amount of anticipation and an overload of information to process (asking for constant attention), it build tension, and at the end the fear of the setting layer with the lore and layer with the basic fear of losing at the game, organically. I always found jump scare stupid, but this game is the game that does it just right! The main difference is that they are actively expected and you know what trigger them, you are in supposed control of the situation, so when they happen it's your fault, you didn't succeed in actively avoiding them, you are on your guard all the time, you don't look away you hold your breath in anticipation and relief when you succeed, I mean the common cry of success in the game is "did I make it?". The scariness is entirely build because of the game make you pay attention of details and slowly build itself toward the climax. This is pretty much unique in all game in the genre.
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gimymblert
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« Reply #43 on: August 26, 2015, 08:51:17 PM »




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« Reply #44 on: August 27, 2015, 06:12:12 AM »

I think FNAF horror is focusing more on stress. Juggling between stuff to manage all over the place with a fail state clock ticking all the time is a tense premise used by other genres like fastpaced RTS games. The tension keeps buidllng up since you cant simply aim for an optimal strategy that will keep you safe and the finite resources dont help much.
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gimymblert
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« Reply #45 on: August 27, 2015, 08:45:58 AM »

Not just stress, it layer all the trick organically. Like I said the creepyness of the lore increase permeability to fear, so there is a definite element of atmosphere. Understanding is actually your enemy, first run generally are not scary and the character are too "cute".
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DXimenes
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« Reply #46 on: August 27, 2015, 11:10:26 AM »

@GIMBERT nah, not talking specifically about FNAF.
It's more of a general complaint about what indie "procedural horror" games mostly look like to me these days. Just clones of eachother where you have absolutely no layer of storytelling and just have to run around collecting meaningless garbage and bracing your sfincter for when the random badly modelled Mr. McJumpscare shows up.

I did find the jumpscares on FNAF pretty cheap, and stress only for the sake of stress definetely isn't my cup of tea, so I didn't really like it, but it would be unfair of me to just bash it since I've played so little. I was really just asking if the sequels were worth it.
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gimymblert
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« Reply #47 on: August 27, 2015, 12:05:15 PM »

Fnaf 4 is legitimate scary, it's no more toys, but at the same time I don't know because by that point lore overtake the fear, just the allusion the game make (ie why each element are the way it is) is just scary scary, It's teh thing I learn with Fnaf, lore do matter, more mess with your mind, the kind of OMG realization when you realize you were wrong in interpretation and it materialize into actual gameplay mechanics (ie your assumption for survival was off), that's when it hit you very hard, that's why I consider this a master piece, there no difference between story and gameplay.
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DXimenes
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« Reply #48 on: August 27, 2015, 01:34:00 PM »

Hm, hearing you talk so passionately about it, maybe I'll give it another go :3
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gimymblert
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« Reply #49 on: August 27, 2015, 03:05:08 PM »

https://youtu.be/fkUPA-d-nfc?list=PLAbMhAYRuCUhawCEV2oXZGrienoKTN16X
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« Reply #50 on: September 07, 2015, 10:18:10 PM »

FnaF did nothing for me, i didn't find it scary in the least, in the end i just found myself frustrated at the game when I'd do something like forget a camera and miss needing to close a door. Honestly the game just relied way too much on it's jump scares,and would have been a lot better if it was a little less goofy and "in your face" with them.  I think what separates a good horror game from a mediocre/bad one is the pacing of the game to "mess" with the player by building anticipation and setting up situations which may or may not end up the way you expect, not to get too off-topic but a few of my favorites are "alone in the dark" (the original, not the remake) and Corpse Party, which is a fantastic horror game most people probably missed.

Weirdly, I think there's an element of the horror genre that's EXTREMELY popular right now in the form of the open world/creative type games. While not horror games in the classic sense I've honestly had quite a few times where i surprisingly found myself legitimately scared, and honestly think that's part of the appeal to them.  Subnautica in particular has managed the scare the living crap out of me a few times, i swear the first time i came across an underwater island biome how it looked from a distance i thought I'd come across some cosmic horror from beyond, and had maybe accidentally stumbled on r'lyeh.  The deeps are absolutely terrifying in that game...and it's hard to describe why.

Horror never really went away though, it's always  been semi-popular, just now and again some sub-genre of horror picks up and gets more popular than others, last few years in particular there's been a huge flood of the stress/jump scare type horror games.
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« Reply #51 on: September 08, 2015, 02:22:43 AM »

a few of my favorites are "alone in the dark" (the original, not the remake)



this game, better than fnaf at building anticipation and setting up situations which may not end up the way you expect? well, there's the subjectivity of horror for ya. even in the 90s this game did nothing to me and I find fnaf very well made. that's not to say aitd doesn't have its moments that make me tense though, like the unstoppable instant kill poltergeist
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« Reply #52 on: September 08, 2015, 02:29:30 AM »

speaking of subjective horror experiences, im actually more scared in a game when i KNOW it's trying to scare me. i am also very susceptible to even the corniest of horror. for instance, i recognize that the first resident evil is pure camp and totally laughable in many respects (as is the whole series actually). doesn't stop me from being creeped out everytime i play it.
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gimymblert
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« Reply #53 on: September 08, 2015, 05:48:24 AM »

re has legitimate atmosphere, I found that cornyness can actually lower expectation of people and made them more vulnerable
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« Reply #54 on: September 08, 2015, 09:17:00 AM »

speaking of subjective horror experiences, im actually more scared in a game when i KNOW it's trying to scare me. i am also very susceptible to even the corniest of horror. for instance, i recognize that the first resident evil is pure camp and totally laughable in many respects (as is the whole series actually). doesn't stop me from being creeped out everytime i play it.

Haha, I know. The Ocean House in VtM Bloodlines is basically a cheap jump scare house of horrors, but its so effective at it, that I still get scared.

RE4 earned my respect at keeping me absolutely terrifieed by a bunch of farmers going at me. I didnt find them per se scary, but how easily they can overwhelm m, in additon that they can go through indows and such, its still really fucking tense.

I still respect RE1 better than any of the sequels. The zombies rather odd animations and models are far more unnerving for me than the shambling corpses the sequels (re2 onwards) adopted. And one of the zombies howl still chills my bones for some reason (its the longest howl I think). Similar to them are the not quite zombies from System Shock 2 - model is so cheesy yet seeing and hearing one is just too scary for me.
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« Reply #55 on: September 08, 2015, 09:40:19 AM »

As I was looking for pictures of RE1 zombies (with no actual success, Im not talkign about REmake), I just realized how scary I find the "hands out of windows/holes/paintings/ground/etc trying to grab you" trope. When I was a child I could barely stand it, and now I simply... tolerate it.
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« Reply #56 on: September 08, 2015, 11:13:14 AM »

speaking of subjective horror experiences, im actually more scared in a game when i KNOW it's trying to scare me. i am also very susceptible to even the corniest of horror. for instance, i recognize that the first resident evil is pure camp and totally laughable in many respects (as is the whole series actually). doesn't stop me from being creeped out everytime i play it.
i think there's just something about exploring old mansions like in RE1, AITD, and such that's just downright creepy.  Another game that's a little silly at times with its effects but built great amosphere (especially in the "present" part of the game) was Eternal Darkness.  A lot of the game is very actiony, and the temples/etc really did nothing for me, but those MANSION segments had me on edge every time, especially the first time you're playing the one where the bonethieves are taking over your servents when you're not in the room and take too long
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-Fuzzy Spider
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« Reply #57 on: September 08, 2015, 11:44:06 AM »

I still respect RE1 better than any of the sequels. The zombies rather odd animations and models are far more unnerving for me than the shambling corpses the sequels (re2 onwards) adopted. And one of the zombies howl still chills my bones for some reason (its the longest howl I think). Similar to them are the not quite zombies from System Shock 2 - model is so cheesy yet seeing and hearing one is just too scary for me.

oh man, the hybrids in system shock 2 are a perfect example. cheesy as fuck, yes, but also scary as fuck. i think the endless respawns and random wandering in that game make them even more unsettling. you just don't get a rest. i never found the splicers in bioshock scary btw. the entire game felt like a big bar brawl with a bunch of blabbering drunks to me.

RE4 is one of the best single player shooters (imo), but it's not really a horror game anymore.
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Alevice
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« Reply #58 on: September 08, 2015, 05:11:01 PM »





1:00 howl is the one I am talking about. The monotne hums are also creepy for me as fuck. None of the sequels recreated that feeling for me.
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« Reply #59 on: September 08, 2015, 11:39:34 PM »

I wanna explore a creepy house with a nonsense over-elaborate layout and find guns and shoot increasingly more goofy monsters with tense, gauche combat, and then I'm running out of bullets so I need to be more careful, and theres some dumb puzzles and spooky text files and theres a kinda dumb but still interesting plot going on and I find a magnum and I cant use it yet because what if a bigger spokey appears later and I ran out? And at the end everythings gonna blow up time is running out, I shoot the big goofo monster with a rocket launcher, kabom, but did I really win? evil shadow still lingers, creepo ending, here is your score, you did it, try not to use too many first aid sprays next time fuckre!!!

fffff squeeze that shit right into my gatdam blood stream
thats the games I want
it doesnt need to be zombies, it can be demons, cultists, dinosaurs, frog-men I dont even care.

Thats what I want to see making a real come-back. This weird offshoot of point and click adventure games with awkward but tense shooting, resource management, dumb plot, good level design where you explore a single interconnected maze-like space, and a horror theme.

But its gonna be tough. Just like Grim Fandango did to actual point and click adventure games before it, Resident Evil REmake ruined everything by being the best game of that genre yet being a commercial flop...

Lone Survivor was real solid tho. Its the only recent-ish game I would consider being part of that genre that I can think of.
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