Survival horror games.

[BrokenBoy]

Survival horror games are what I like to call E P I C ! They're pretty damn immersive and have good aesthetics and a great sense of atmosphere. 2 days ago I beat the masterpiece PS2 survival horror game Haunting Ground (I got Ending A). I also love Silent Hill 2 and the indie PC classic Ib. I really love Ib. Does anyone else like playing these types of games?

 

[Raggamuffin]

I've played a few Silent Hill games. Whilst I appreciated the design and atmosphere, they felt clunky and slow paced. Just how many locked doors do I need to try? I suppose older games were always going to be held back by controls and character movements being a little clunky.

The first horror game I completed was Alone in the Dark - A New Nightmare. Again, not bad aesthetics and atmosphere. It definitely felt hampered by the level design and character controls and movement. Similar with Resident Evil 2. It was definitely down to the level design, each room or corridor being static and your character just having the limited space to run within that frame.

Resident Evil 4 felt rather more involving as the controls were more intuitive and less clunky. Also, it had more of a shooter feel to it.

More recently I played Outlast, and whilst I enjoyed it - the stealth elements and only being able to run away except in a few key cut scene or QTE events felt tiresome. Also, with stealth based survival games, I find tension is quickly replaced by frustration as you repeat and repeat until you get past certain parts of the game.

I was actually looking at horror games last night on Steam. Nothing really tickled my fancy. I had considered trying Layers of Fear at some point. Also that Phasmophobia looked interesting, but also cheesy. I think this is the problem: the horror genre is saturated with mediocrity, and whilst being more involved in a video game player compared to a spectator of a horror film - I find I'm increasingly harder to appease and scare with horror games.

I guess if you play enough horror games you become numb and apathetic towards what is supposed to stir up fear and anxiety etc. Like Outlast, I bought that and saw numerous clips of people playing it and freaking out and screaming etc. I personally didn't find it scary and I couldn't relate to all the melodrama in these videos. Jump scenes aren't scary, and whilst Outlast had an interesting atmosphere - the constantly having to hide and run away was annoying. Plus the ending annoyed me - after everything you go through, it felt like the conclusion to the main character in the original Night of the Living Dead. You've done so much to survive...bang...you're dead.

Oh, another horror game I want to try is Blair Witch as the first film remains my all time favourite horror film. I think because the minimal budget and slow build showed perfectly what most horror films/games miss entirely - subtlety. But, from the trailers of the game, it doesn't look subtle - it looks like a typical modern horror game, with elements from the film. I'm not sure I'd enjoy it.

If I'm being honest - the scariest moments I found was in Killing Floor. Probably moreso than Killing Floor 2 which was just more of the same. But on that co-op FPS survival horror game, if everyone died red text would come up "You're the only one left..." and when someone died, they'd be spectating the other players until the next round. So if everyone dies, suddenly you know the spotlight is on you. 5 players all watching, waiting and hoping you survive.

All very well if that happened towards the end of a round/wave of enemies with a handful left. But if you still had hundreds of enemies left with very limited ammo - things got tense. They'd be approaching you from every conceivable angle, and on higher difficulties the amount of enemies per wave, along with their movement speed and damage was multiplied - those moments were the perfect blend of exciting and horrifying, and probably my all time favourite moments in horror vide games.

Ed

 

[BrokenBoy]

I've played a few Silent Hill games. Whilst I appreciated the design and atmosphere, they felt clunky and slow paced. Just how many locked doors do I need to try? I suppose older games were always going to be held back by controls and character movements being a little clunky.

The first horror game I completed was Alone in the Dark - A New Nightmare. Again, not bad aesthetics and atmosphere. It definitely felt hampered by the level design and character controls and movement. Similar with Resident Evil 2. It was definitely down to the level design, each room or corridor being static and your character just having the limited space to run within that frame.

Resident Evil 4 felt rather more involving as the controls were more intuitive and less clunky. Also, it had more of a shooter feel to it.

More recently I played Outlast, and whilst I enjoyed it - the stealth elements and only being able to run away except in a few key cut scene or QTE events felt tiresome. Also, with stealth based survival games, I find tension is quickly replaced by frustration as you repeat and repeat until you get past certain parts of the game.

I was actually looking at horror games last night on Steam. Nothing really tickled my fancy. I had considered trying Layers of Fear at some point. Also that Phasmophobia looked interesting, but also cheesy. I think this is the problem: the horror genre is saturated with mediocrity, and whilst being more involved in a video game player compared to a spectator of a horror film - I find I'm increasingly harder to appease and scare with horror games.

I guess if you play enough horror games you become numb and apathetic towards what is supposed to stir up fear and anxiety etc. Like Outlast, I bought that and saw numerous clips of people playing it and freaking out and screaming etc. I personally didn't find it scary and I couldn't relate to all the melodrama in these videos. Jump scenes aren't scary, and whilst Outlast had an interesting atmosphere - the constantly having to hide and run away was annoying. Plus the ending annoyed me - after everything you go through, it felt like the conclusion to the main character in the original Night of the Living Dead. You've done so much to survive...bang...you're dead.

Oh, another horror game I want to try is Blair Witch as the first film remains my all time favourite horror film. I think because the minimal budget and slow build showed perfectly what most horror films/games miss entirely - subtlety. But, from the trailers of the game, it doesn't look subtle - it looks like a typical modern horror game, with elements from the film. I'm not sure I'd enjoy it.

If I'm being honest - the scariest moments I found was in Killing Floor. Probably moreso than Killing Floor 2 which was just more of the same. But on that co-op FPS survival horror game, if everyone died red text would come up "You're the only one left..." and when someone died, they'd be spectating the other players until the next round. So if everyone dies, suddenly you know the spotlight is on you. 5 players all watching, waiting and hoping you survive.

All very well if that happened towards the end of a round/wave of enemies with a handful left. But if you still had hundreds of enemies left with very limited ammo - things got tense. They'd be approaching you from every conceivable angle, and on higher difficulties the amount of enemies per wave, along with their movement speed and damage was multiplied - those moments were the perfect blend of exciting and horrifying, and probably my all time favourite moments in horror vide games.

View attachment 64411

Ed

Ever play a System Shock game?

 

[Raggamuffin]

I know they're considered some of the best, but I didn't play them at the time of release. I have tried to play so many old games - but if there's no childhood memories or nostalgia, I struggle to find any enjoyment from them.

A lot of people argue graphics don't make a game - but for me, I want to be absorbed in a game as much as possible, and graphics help in that respect hugely. I feel overwhelmed with happiness and energy when I see incredible graphics.

Not to say "never say never" but if I did try it, I'm not sure I'd see the appeal or the perceived greatness that it had back in it's day.

Ed

 

[BrokenBoy]

I know they're considered some of the best, but I didn't play them at the time of release. I have tried to play so many old games - but if there's no childhood memories or nostalgia, I struggle to find any enjoyment from them.

A lot of people argue graphics don't make a game - but for me, I want to be absorbed in a game as much as possible, and graphics help in that respect hugely. I feel overwhelmed with happiness and energy when I see incredible graphics.

Not to say "never say never" but if I did try it, I'm not sure I'd see the appeal or the perceived greatness that it had back in it's day.

Ed

The graphics aren't that bad. If you're fine with the look of the original DOOM then you should be ok with System Shock 1. The games are also really well designed in general.

 

[Joshua the Writer]

If I'm being honest - the scariest moments I found was in Killing Floor. Probably moreso than Killing Floor 2 which was just more of the same. But on that co-op FPS survival horror game, if everyone died red text would come up "You're the only one left..." and when someone died, they'd be spectating the other players until the next round. So if everyone dies, suddenly you know the spotlight is on you. 5 players all watching, waiting and hoping you survive.

All very well if that happened towards the end of a round/wave of enemies with a handful left. But if you still had hundreds of enemies left with very limited ammo - things got tense. They'd be approaching you from every conceivable angle, and on higher difficulties the amount of enemies per wave, along with their movement speed and damage was multiplied - those moments were the perfect blend of exciting and horrifying, and probably my all time favourite moments in horror vide games.

I've played CS:GO, where four of the game modes (not including the battle royale one), caused you to not be able to respawn next round. However, that was exclusively player versus player. It would seem more intense with scary zombies running at you, especially if you are running low on ammo. I haven't run out of ammo in CS:GO, since the rounds usually are slow-paced, even if the time limit is 3-5 minutes depending on gamemode, and I usually end up having a low life span in that game. But in killing floor, you could probably run out of ammo for all your guns and have just a knife on you, which is terrifying, especially if you're the last one left.

Well, at least the zombies don't mock you for dying while you are the last one alive through voice chat after killing you.

 

[Raggamuffin]

I was too late with CS:GO - another highly respected title that I tried with no nostalgia and failed to enjoy.

Co-op online feels a lot nicer than PVP as, like you said - there's more positivity when it comes to voice chat. Also, with computer enemies - you learn their behaviours and then you can become adept with practice.

PVP adds to many variables and confrontation - it stresses me out. Much like group conversations or crowded places in real life. Except, on these PVP games it's a crowded, enclosed space with 64 players with automatic weapons, self confidence issues and microphones.

Recipe for disaster.

Ed

 

[Joshua the Writer]

I was too late with CS:GO - another highly respected title that I tried with no nostalgia and failed to enjoy.

Co-op online feels a lot nicer than PVP as, like you said - there's more positivity when it comes to voice chat. Also, with computer enemies - you learn their behaviours and then you can become adept with practice.

PVP adds to many variables and confrontation - it stresses me out. Much like group conversations or crowded places in real life. Except, on these PVP games it's a crowded, enclosed space with 64 players with automatic weapons, self confidence issues and microphones.

Recipe for disaster.

Especially if one of them is a 12-year-old who knows a shocking amount of racial slurs.

However, I've had many positive interactions with PVP game. Sometimes I had teams that I vibed with and we actually worked together whilst cracking jokes over the mic. Sometimes I got sent a friend request from the people I was in random casual matches with.

The thing is that one of the most popular PVP shooters, Call of Duty, has a toxic fan base that is filled to the brim with tryhards and so-called "pro-gamers." CS:GO has a similar problem, but to a lesser extent. Battlefield, well, isn't actually competitively focused, and I'm pretty sure nobody plays Battlefield (or, by extension, Starwars Battlefront) competitively, as far as I am aware. Most people play it for fun, since their are tons of features, such as excellent graphics, tons of guns, and tons of things to attach to said guns. In fact, Battlefield 4 has 240,000 total weapon combination combos, not including the guns that you can attach all the tactical crap onto.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) obviously took inspiration from the fact that more realistic FPS games, such as Battlefield or Escape From Tarkov, are gaining popularity. They even added leaning around corners and doorways, and they have an entire gamemode that removes the HUD much in the same way as Escape From Tarkov has no hud that displays your ammo or health.

With the right PVP shooter, you can have tons of fun with other players.

 

[Raggamuffin]

Team work can definitely help on PVP games, but I still found myself feeling a lot more negative emotions than positive ones. The only FPS I sank big hours into was Red Orchestra 2 (another title by the guys that did Killing Floor). That game encouraged team work and 1 or 2 hits would kill you. Minimal HUD, no radar except during an aerial recon sweep. It was an amazing game. A steep learning curve, but not as clunky as the ARMA series when it came to realism. Well, I know they've streamlined gameplay in 3, but it never grabbed me.

At the end of the day, I game to relax - which is why PVP and horror games tend to be few and far between these days. I burnt out on Left 4 Dead years ago, same with Killing Floor. I saw that Co-Op serial killer game and another one Prey I think? Anyway, I'm a bit long in the tooth with regards to horror these days.

I just started No Man's Sky last week and it's so relaxing - I think it'll be one of those games that I sink thousands of hours into. I'd wanted to get into a space game for so long, but after trying and not enjoying the X series, Star Trek Online Eve, Elite Dangerous I was beginning to give up hope of finding anything that clicked. I had shied away from NMS originally as I saw it got slated.

It is however encouraging me to speed up getting my next PC build done, as it's not running that smoothly at my desires settings - and that is something that really irks me in games. Tbh, a new build has been long overdue, but I skipped the last gen Nvidia cards, so now I just have to save my beans for my next build. Should be cheaper than the previous £2000 builds. This one will be around £1500 for a 6 core i5, 16GB 4400Mhz ram and a 3070. It'll just be a waiting game for whenever stock is readily available for these new Ampere cards after the 3070 releases.

Ed

 

[Raggamuffin]

Come to think of it - I think Dayz is worth a mention. That has a strange mix to it. For the most part I find it a highly relaxing game. Discovering new towns, going from house to house. Looting and crafting and then finally finding a car and building a base. Strangely enough the zombies - which should be the horror aspect of the game aren't really scary at all. Sure they can chase, and make horrid, guttural noises - but once you've killed hundreds, you get accustomed to them.

It's the other players that create the atmosphere and make it an interesting portrayal of human behaviour and psychology. For the most part, people kill on site - probably because they're jaded and paranoid from previous experiences. The bandits, the thieves and the two-faced people pretending to be friendly.

When you see a person, there's an immediate excitement and tension. Have they spotted you? Should you pursue them? Should you run away? If they did see you, what then? What if they're kitted out in equipment you want/need?

Who will run or draw first?

When a firefight ensues - it's probably more tense than any FPS game I've ever played. Knowing a couple of hits will kill you - and then you restart a new character with nothing. But, then there's the reloading, and in game functions that are slow and cumbersome. So each shot must count.

If you were lucky enough to survive the encounter with another player - you then have the hoarde of zombies drawn by the gunfire to contend with. Those moments are amazing. I hope they eventually add functionality for infected to break down doors - because right now just closing a door on zombies, or climbing on-top of a car just won't cut it. Personally, I love the moments when you have no building or cars to hide from the infected. When you're out in the open and the chase is on.

Bears and wolves pose more of a scare than the zombies do. Because when you hear that roar or howling - you better hope you've got enough ammo. Otherwise you're going to die.

I've been following the game since it's days as a mod and then the standalone. It's come along in leaps and bounds. Yes, it's still janky - but I don't think I've encountered a game that mixes freedom, relaxation and tension so well.

Speaking of being chased by infected - Dying Light was a great game. It felt less arcadey than Dead Island - which sort of made you feel like you were a one man army. Whereas, in the beginning of Dying light the lack of strength and stamina made for some genuinely tense melee combat with zombies. And then when night came - those chase scenes were probably some of my favourite in games. When you have enemies which can scale fences and walls as you can - that really did make for some tense moments.

I'm actually looking forward to seeing what the second Dying Light will be like. Still, I think a new build would be wise before then. My 1080GTX isn't happy with newer titles at 1440P.

Ed

 

[Moonhart44]

i hate them because i hate suspense or anticipation. probably due to my anxiety. i have played alien: isolation. i was in the mini game as ripley and stayed hidden in a locker room for 30 minutes before giving up because the suspense was too much

 

[Raggamuffin]

Alien Isolation seemed good, it had a nice mix of graphics and atmosphere. But, I got stuck somewhere a few hours in.

I don't know what it is with problem solving and puzzles in horror games. Seems like an unlikely combination.

"Oh, everything around me is trying to tear me limb from limb. But let's work out these puzzles to unlock doors to expose myself to even more danger."

The mass of corridors and pipes on Alien is deliberately meant to confuse you I guess. But I find if I start getting lost and confused in a game, my patience is very thin - so I tend to quit, uninstall and never play again.

On the flipside, I have amazing patience for certain menial aspects to games. Such as mining items on No Man's Sky. I'll happily sit doing the same thing for an hour - if I know the end pay off is big money.

Ed

 

[Moonhart44]

Alien Isolation seemed good, it had a nice mix of graphics and atmosphere. But, I got stuck somewhere a few hours in.

I don't know what it is with problem solving and puzzles in horror games. Seems like an unlikely combination.

"Oh, everything around me is trying to tear me limb from limb. But let's work out these puzzles to unlock doors to expose myself to even more danger."

The mass of corridors and pipes on Alien is deliberately meant to confuse you I guess. But I find if I start getting lost and confused in a game, my patience is very thin - so I tend to quit, uninstall and never play again.

On the flipside, I have amazing patience for certain menial aspects to games. Such as mining items on No Man's Sky. I'll happily sit doing the same thing for an hour - if I know the end pay off is big money.

Ed

yeh i played 7 days to die and spent about 3 hours digging a virtual hole, very contently. however the game itself thwarted my plans to make an extra deep hole because the save file crashed.

I like doing menial tasks in games like that as well as ark, sims, or side quests in elder scrolls. i HATE however when the game map itself prevents me from moving (especially jumping). i feel claustrophobic and i will end the game

 

[UberScout]

Three words.
3D Monster Maze.
NUFF SAID.

 

[Misery]

I love horror games in theory, but most games that could be called "survival horror" just dont do it for me.

I'm sorry, but that big freaking monstrosity aint too scary when I've got a freaking shotgun or a bazooka or something.

Also alot of the bigger AAA horror games have absolutely godawful pacing, so I end up just being impatient and angry. Usually they tend to be more than a bit cliche'd, too.

So it's hard for me to find horror games that I actually like at all.

 

[Lemon Zing]

Resident Evil has lost its identity. If you are interested though in experiencing the golden era, get a GameCube (they should be cheap) and play the original remake. It was the one out in 2002.

Don't bother with most of the recent entries. They are just shooting galleries. They aren't that scary. Nor are they that atmospheric, other than maybe Revelations 2 and 7: Biohazard.

 

[BrokenBoy]

I love horror games in theory, but most games that could be called "survival horror" just dont do it for me.

I'm sorry, but that big freaking monstrosity aint too scary when I've got a freaking shotgun or a bazooka or something.

Also alot of the bigger AAA horror games have absolutely godawful pacing, so I end up just being impatient and angry. Usually they tend to be more than a bit cliche'd, too.

So it's hard for me to find horror games that I actually like at all.

Which ones have you played?

 

[Misery]

Which ones have you played?

Well, let's see... as far as "survival horror" I've tried out various Resident Evil games, because why not. Evil Within, which was... okay, I guess, but lost my attention partway through. I'm not entirely sure if Bioshock counts, but I did play that a bit, same opinon of it as with Evil Within. Ib I've not played but I seem to recall watching a playthrough of it, seemed neat. There are others, but if I dont really get "into" a particular thing I'll somewhat forget about it after a time. It'd take me awhile to remember what the others were.

As far as the sorts of horror games I did get into: #1 is Umfend, bloody strange but it was sooooo well done. Well, the finished version of it anyway. Most videos on Youtube seem to be of the demo and quite a bit was totally changed for the full version. Clea is another one, nobody seems to have heard of it, totally loved it though. Uhh... Stories Untold, that was darned good... until episode 4, they absolutely blew it with the ending. But everything up to that was great. Layers of Fear was neat, though it got a bit formulaic after a time. Mirror Layers was very darned creative, albeit very short. Slender is good if you just want a bit of quick mindless horror fun. Duskers, that's a super unique one, you dont expect it to be THAT scary when just looking at it, but it's definitely near the top in my mind. Scavenger SV-4, that's another fantastic and very unique one, I played a ton of that. And I'm very familiar with the entire FNAF series, but that one's definitely not for everyone. Oh, and cant forget SCP Containment Breach.

As far as pure scare factor though... nothing beats VR horror. Nothing. FNAF Help Wanted being by far the scariest one so far. But there's definitely other good ones too. Dreadhalls is an older one, and a bit simple, but it's absolutely horrifying. I also see that there's a VR remake of Containment Breach due out this month. Huh. I did not know about that. No way I'm missing that one. I could see that ending up being #1 on the pure scare list. I hope they get it right. Looks amazing. Gonna be looking forward to that, definitely. Big SCP fan.

Of course the problem with all of those is you need a bit of a monster PC to run them.

 

[Joshua the Writer]

I love horror games in theory, but most games that could be called "survival horror" just dont do it for me.

I'm sorry, but that big freaking monstrosity aint too scary when I've got a freaking shotgun or a bazooka or something.

Also alot of the bigger AAA horror games have absolutely godawful pacing, so I end up just being impatient and angry. Usually they tend to be more than a bit cliche'd, too.

So it's hard for me to find horror games that I actually like at all.

In my mind, I think explosives should be a huge no-no in survival horror games, unless said weapon had an extremely low amount of ammo strewn across the map and is intended to be used in only one specific scenario. Same goes for flame throwers and any other area-of-effect weapons. They're just too powerful. Shotguns will be fine if they don't have a 100% chance to one-shot if all the pellets hit. Maybe 10 damage per pellet, totaling out to 80 damage. It can still one-shot headshot a 100HP monster, but chest shots don't do as much damage as they would in a freaking multiplayer PVP first person shooter.

For automatic weapons, they would only really be practical in survival horror games like DayZ, where other players are a bigger threat than the zombies, and even more predictable. It would also only make sense for automatic firearms to be existent if the area has widespread access to them. For example, the average United States residential area probably would have way more semi-auto and manually-operated weapons than full-auto weapons because full-auto firearms are extremely regulated when it comes to civilian sales. However, if the area was near a military base, or if it was possible to convert a semi-auto weapon into fully automatic, then maybe it'll make sense.

For guns in survival horror, you have to make absolutely sure that they are still more effective than a knife, but don't turn the game into Doom, but with zombies.

 

[Metalhead]

I am a huge fan of The Evil Within 1 & 2.

Also, even though these are not "survival" horror games, Playdead's Limbo and Inside were among the most compelling horror games I have played in the last decade.