The "Sony Games" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
There have been some bizarre decisions made in the name of merchandising, to the point where Mel Brook's 'Spaceballs - The Flame Thrower' gag from the movie of the same name seems strangely prescient. But for me, the most oddest marketing move ever was the McFarlane company;s decision to release an action figure of the Blair Witch. Yes, they went ahead and created a figure based on a creature that was never actually seen on screen. The result was a generic-looking skeletal monstrosity that was nowhere near as frightening as whatever you were imagining while watching the movie.
So why is that many games companies make similar mistakes when creating their horror titles, bringing their enemies out into the light rather than keeping them in shadow, where our imaginations can run wild? Fear is such a personal thing that, while it's possible to create unsettling monsters, as was the case in Silent Hill 2, letting your mind fill in the gaps is far more effective. As anyone's whose played Resident Evil 6 can attest, just throwing monsters at the player does mean they'll be afraid.
The makers of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, on the other hand, knew exactly what they were doing when creating the game. Not only does Amnesia use monsters infrequently, it features the astoundingly clever trick of not letting you look at them directly. Staring at the monsters causes them to home in on your location, so you end up looking away, cowering in a corner somewhere, waiting for them to depart. All the while your mind is working overtime, creating the most horrific images in your head.
Slender: The Arrival uses a similar technique, although I found that the game's fear factor was diminished when, due to a glitch, Slender got stuck in log. I was able to walk right up to him with no ill effect. and see that he was basically an unimpressive 2d model. So how do you know these foes are present if looking at them is discouraged? Apart from the brief glimpse you get of the monsters, Amnesia uses audio and musical cues, none of which impede on the mental picture you're creating. In fact, if anything, they heighten the fear you're feeling.
Silent Hill 2 also contains a fantastic scene which takes place in an empty courtyard and only makes use of audio. As you stand in the courtyard, you hear the sound of horses hooves coming towards you, getting closer, till they are practically on top of you. But no monsters – equine or otherwise – ever appear. Instead, the sound diminishes and the whole process repeats itself. That one scene terrifies me to this day. - I've played Silent Hill 2 several times, but every time I do I still think that some horrific monstrosity is going to appear.
So what would I like games designers do to capitalise upon the personal nature of fear and to make their games more frightening? Firstly, I'd like them to use monsters and other enemies sparingly. And then to resist the urge to show the monsters in full view, perhaps cloaking them in shadow or using camera angles to avoid showing them full on. Just shoving a monster in a player's face as a jump scare, is not always that effective. Finally, I'd like to see more games rely on audio cues as a means of eliciting a mental reaction. Ultimately, when it comes to eliciting fear in video games, less is more.
So why is that many games companies make similar mistakes when creating their horror titles, bringing their enemies out into the light rather than keeping them in shadow, where our imaginations can run wild? Fear is such a personal thing that, while it's possible to create unsettling monsters, as was the case in Silent Hill 2, letting your mind fill in the gaps is far more effective. As anyone's whose played Resident Evil 6 can attest, just throwing monsters at the player does mean they'll be afraid.
The makers of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, on the other hand, knew exactly what they were doing when creating the game. Not only does Amnesia use monsters infrequently, it features the astoundingly clever trick of not letting you look at them directly. Staring at the monsters causes them to home in on your location, so you end up looking away, cowering in a corner somewhere, waiting for them to depart. All the while your mind is working overtime, creating the most horrific images in your head.
Slender: The Arrival uses a similar technique, although I found that the game's fear factor was diminished when, due to a glitch, Slender got stuck in log. I was able to walk right up to him with no ill effect. and see that he was basically an unimpressive 2d model. So how do you know these foes are present if looking at them is discouraged? Apart from the brief glimpse you get of the monsters, Amnesia uses audio and musical cues, none of which impede on the mental picture you're creating. In fact, if anything, they heighten the fear you're feeling.
Silent Hill 2 also contains a fantastic scene which takes place in an empty courtyard and only makes use of audio. As you stand in the courtyard, you hear the sound of horses hooves coming towards you, getting closer, till they are practically on top of you. But no monsters – equine or otherwise – ever appear. Instead, the sound diminishes and the whole process repeats itself. That one scene terrifies me to this day. - I've played Silent Hill 2 several times, but every time I do I still think that some horrific monstrosity is going to appear.
So what would I like games designers do to capitalise upon the personal nature of fear and to make their games more frightening? Firstly, I'd like them to use monsters and other enemies sparingly. And then to resist the urge to show the monsters in full view, perhaps cloaking them in shadow or using camera angles to avoid showing them full on. Just shoving a monster in a player's face as a jump scare, is not always that effective. Finally, I'd like to see more games rely on audio cues as a means of eliciting a mental reaction. Ultimately, when it comes to eliciting fear in video games, less is more.
It's not so much the lack of showing a monster on screen as the build up to what will happen if they catch you.
Good horror films produce a decent build-up before the monster pops out of wherever it is they are hiding. Think the original Alien for atmospheric horror where the alien is actually revealed from time to time. In fact, that film is an interesting one as the Alien is glimpsed through different shadows so only reveals parts of it at times, but it;s the fact that the creature is after the crew and is smart that creates the horror element.
SOMA was a good example where you saw some of the monsters but not all and not all of the time. It also had that element of madness, referenced by 'glitching' when you looked at them.
But revealed or not, it's the being pursued or stalked and the consequences of that which are, to me, the most important.
Good horror films produce a decent build-up before the monster pops out of wherever it is they are hiding. Think the original Alien for atmospheric horror where the alien is actually revealed from time to time. In fact, that film is an interesting one as the Alien is glimpsed through different shadows so only reveals parts of it at times, but it;s the fact that the creature is after the crew and is smart that creates the horror element.
SOMA was a good example where you saw some of the monsters but not all and not all of the time. It also had that element of madness, referenced by 'glitching' when you looked at them.
But revealed or not, it's the being pursued or stalked and the consequences of that which are, to me, the most important.
I partially agree, kind of...
Certainly the unseen "horror" allows for the more "furtile imagineers" among us to conjure up some scares, but I can think of three games right off the cuff that scared the living daylights out of me despite having more visible gribblies than you can shake a double barrelled sawn-off at.
Doom 3, F.E.A.R., The Evil Within.
In all three of those, more was most undoubtedly MUCH more.
One of the scariest scenes in any game ever as far as I'm concerned is when you finally get to Hell in Doom 3; surrounded by blatantly "in your face" nasties, you're already on edge, but there's also the sound of a baby crying permanently fixed way behind your left shoulder, and the sound of a mother screaming behind your right...
Also, corridors that crawl with horrors around every corner, things that just appear, all sets your nerves jangling, but what REALLY tips you over is the constant skittering in the ducts and pipes in the walls, the brief glimpse of some inhuman shadow crossing over a glass roof, the feeling that you're being tracked.
The Evil Within uses a similar process; visible, up-front evils, and an awful lot of stuff that can't be seen. Weirdly, with this one, there's also an underlying and almost undeniable urge to SEE the nastier things, despite the aim of some portions of the game being to avoid them. Horror film mentality, no doubt, where the "victim" always, always has to go into the dark basement despite the low growling, or has to answer the door regardless of the twenty other murders just the night before...
F.E.A.R. was much less subtle. You simply could not avoid Alma if you wanted to complete the game. You knew you couldn't, but the beauty of it was that you'd still try. You also knew she was stalking you (anyone who's played it will remember one of the first glimpses of Alma, through a warped glass wall, just a flash of a red dress and long black hair...). This just added to the intensity of scenes like the "phantom" that appears just as you drop into one particularly dark and dismal area (I wasted six shotgun shells before the thing evaporated, nearly caused the missus to have heart failure!).
The point is, I think well crafted monsters, ghosts, whatever, all work in a game's favour if a) the story is also well crafted, and b) the sound is designed to ADD atmosphere rather than detract from it. Games developers a lot of the time underestimate the power of audio, the importance of scripting and the absolute critical nature of timing for set pieces and key moments. Get those wrong, and it won't matter what you do, the scares will be lame and limp.
Get it right, however...
I'd also like to add System Shock 2 (purely for the level of paranoia instilled by the audio, which intensified the visual horror of the game massively) and Shadowman (still one of the most disturbing games ever, and nothing is hidden).
Certainly the unseen "horror" allows for the more "furtile imagineers" among us to conjure up some scares, but I can think of three games right off the cuff that scared the living daylights out of me despite having more visible gribblies than you can shake a double barrelled sawn-off at.
Doom 3, F.E.A.R., The Evil Within.
In all three of those, more was most undoubtedly MUCH more.
One of the scariest scenes in any game ever as far as I'm concerned is when you finally get to Hell in Doom 3; surrounded by blatantly "in your face" nasties, you're already on edge, but there's also the sound of a baby crying permanently fixed way behind your left shoulder, and the sound of a mother screaming behind your right...
Also, corridors that crawl with horrors around every corner, things that just appear, all sets your nerves jangling, but what REALLY tips you over is the constant skittering in the ducts and pipes in the walls, the brief glimpse of some inhuman shadow crossing over a glass roof, the feeling that you're being tracked.
The Evil Within uses a similar process; visible, up-front evils, and an awful lot of stuff that can't be seen. Weirdly, with this one, there's also an underlying and almost undeniable urge to SEE the nastier things, despite the aim of some portions of the game being to avoid them. Horror film mentality, no doubt, where the "victim" always, always has to go into the dark basement despite the low growling, or has to answer the door regardless of the twenty other murders just the night before...
F.E.A.R. was much less subtle. You simply could not avoid Alma if you wanted to complete the game. You knew you couldn't, but the beauty of it was that you'd still try. You also knew she was stalking you (anyone who's played it will remember one of the first glimpses of Alma, through a warped glass wall, just a flash of a red dress and long black hair...). This just added to the intensity of scenes like the "phantom" that appears just as you drop into one particularly dark and dismal area (I wasted six shotgun shells before the thing evaporated, nearly caused the missus to have heart failure!).
The point is, I think well crafted monsters, ghosts, whatever, all work in a game's favour if a) the story is also well crafted, and b) the sound is designed to ADD atmosphere rather than detract from it. Games developers a lot of the time underestimate the power of audio, the importance of scripting and the absolute critical nature of timing for set pieces and key moments. Get those wrong, and it won't matter what you do, the scares will be lame and limp.
Get it right, however...
I'd also like to add System Shock 2 (purely for the level of paranoia instilled by the audio, which intensified the visual horror of the game massively) and Shadowman (still one of the most disturbing games ever, and nothing is hidden).
There have been some bizarre decisions made in the name of merchandising, to the point where Mel Brook's 'Spaceballs - The Flame Thrower' gag from the movie of the same name seems strangely prescient. But for me, the most oddest marketing move ever was the McFarlane company;s decision to release an action figure of the Blair Witch. Yes, they went ahead and created a figure based on a creature that was never actually seen on screen. The result was a generic-looking skeletal monstrosity that was nowhere near as frightening as whatever you were imagining while watching the movie.
So why is that many games companies make similar mistakes when creating their horror titles, bringing their enemies out into the light rather than keeping them in shadow, where our imaginations can run wild? Fear is such a personal thing that, while it's possible to create unsettling monsters, as was the case in Silent Hill 2, letting your mind fill in the gaps is far more effective. As anyone's whose played Resident Evil 6 can attest, just throwing monsters at the player does mean they'll be afraid.
The makers of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, on the other hand, knew exactly what they were doing when creating the game. Not only does Amnesia use monsters infrequently, it features the astoundingly clever trick of not letting you look at them directly. Staring at the monsters causes them to home in on your location, so you end up looking away, cowering in a corner somewhere, waiting for them to depart. All the while your mind is working overtime, creating the most horrific images in your head.
Slender: The Arrival uses a similar technique, although I found that the game's fear factor was diminished when, due to a glitch, Slender got stuck in log. I was able to walk right up to him with no ill effect. and see that he was basically an unimpressive 2d model. So how do you know these foes are present if looking at them is discouraged? Apart from the brief glimpse you get of the monsters, Amnesia uses audio and musical cues, none of which impede on the mental picture you're creating. In fact, if anything, they heighten the fear you're feeling.
Silent Hill 2 also contains a fantastic scene which takes place in an empty courtyard and only makes use of audio. As you stand in the courtyard, you hear the sound of horses hooves coming towards you, getting closer, till they are practically on top of you. But no monsters – equine or otherwise – ever appear. Instead, the sound diminishes and the whole process repeats itself. That one scene terrifies me to this day. - I've played Silent Hill 2 several times, but every time I do I still think that some horrific monstrosity is going to appear.
So what would I like games designers do to capitalise upon the personal nature of fear and to make their games more frightening? Firstly, I'd like them to use monsters and other enemies sparingly. And then to resist the urge to show the monsters in full view, perhaps cloaking them in shadow or using camera angles to avoid showing them full on. Just shoving a monster in a player's face as a jump scare, is not always that effective. Finally, I'd like to see more games rely on audio cues as a means of eliciting a mental reaction. Ultimately, when it comes to eliciting fear in video games, less is more.
So why is that many games companies make similar mistakes when creating their horror titles, bringing their enemies out into the light rather than keeping them in shadow, where our imaginations can run wild? Fear is such a personal thing that, while it's possible to create unsettling monsters, as was the case in Silent Hill 2, letting your mind fill in the gaps is far more effective. As anyone's whose played Resident Evil 6 can attest, just throwing monsters at the player does mean they'll be afraid.
The makers of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, on the other hand, knew exactly what they were doing when creating the game. Not only does Amnesia use monsters infrequently, it features the astoundingly clever trick of not letting you look at them directly. Staring at the monsters causes them to home in on your location, so you end up looking away, cowering in a corner somewhere, waiting for them to depart. All the while your mind is working overtime, creating the most horrific images in your head.
Slender: The Arrival uses a similar technique, although I found that the game's fear factor was diminished when, due to a glitch, Slender got stuck in log. I was able to walk right up to him with no ill effect. and see that he was basically an unimpressive 2d model. So how do you know these foes are present if looking at them is discouraged? Apart from the brief glimpse you get of the monsters, Amnesia uses audio and musical cues, none of which impede on the mental picture you're creating. In fact, if anything, they heighten the fear you're feeling.
Silent Hill 2 also contains a fantastic scene which takes place in an empty courtyard and only makes use of audio. As you stand in the courtyard, you hear the sound of horses hooves coming towards you, getting closer, till they are practically on top of you. But no monsters – equine or otherwise – ever appear. Instead, the sound diminishes and the whole process repeats itself. That one scene terrifies me to this day. - I've played Silent Hill 2 several times, but every time I do I still think that some horrific monstrosity is going to appear.
So what would I like games designers do to capitalise upon the personal nature of fear and to make their games more frightening? Firstly, I'd like them to use monsters and other enemies sparingly. And then to resist the urge to show the monsters in full view, perhaps cloaking them in shadow or using camera angles to avoid showing them full on. Just shoving a monster in a player's face as a jump scare, is not always that effective. Finally, I'd like to see more games rely on audio cues as a means of eliciting a mental reaction. Ultimately, when it comes to eliciting fear in video games, less is more.