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Or maybe not. Because I'm sick of loading up supposedly scary 'Survival Horror' games and their ilk only to find that their idea of terror is putting you in a pitch-black room with only a torch. Not any torch, mind you - no, the military or whoever's employing your character couldn't afford a proper torch. You get some kind of sub-par pound-shop style torch that casts light about one foot in front of you. So you can just make out the monster that, surprise surprise, is leaping towards you. Well, gosh, that's a major shock. Who would have guessed that an evil bad guy would be lurking in this mysteriously badly-lit room. Oh look, here comes another one.
Doom 3 is probably the game most guilty of this nonsense - even before things go to hell (pun intended), there seems to be one twenty-watt bulb between every six rooms. Cold Fear, too, is a pretty bad offender, but these aren't isolated cases. It's got so the appearance of darkened areas in a game elicits not fear but boredom. And also irritation that no-one in these games seems to bother replacing fluorescent lights when they burn out.
It's not that you need to plunge the gamer into darkness to make a game scary. Resident Evil 4 manages to be pretty damn frightning, with its Shadow-over-Innsmouth style creepy locals and mutant monsters. And Silent Hill 4, while not being particularly strong story-wise is nevertheless pretty frightening, despite having abandoned the torch-based antics of its predecessor. So next time, games developers, that you're thinking of plunging your players into darkness, just forget it. We've seen it all before, and we're not impressed. If you want to really scare people, you'll have to properly put your mind to it.
Doom 3 is probably the game most guilty of this nonsense - even before things go to hell (pun intended), there seems to be one twenty-watt bulb between every six rooms. Cold Fear, too, is a pretty bad offender, but these aren't isolated cases. It's got so the appearance of darkened areas in a game elicits not fear but boredom. And also irritation that no-one in these games seems to bother replacing fluorescent lights when they burn out.
It's not that you need to plunge the gamer into darkness to make a game scary. Resident Evil 4 manages to be pretty damn frightning, with its Shadow-over-Innsmouth style creepy locals and mutant monsters. And Silent Hill 4, while not being particularly strong story-wise is nevertheless pretty frightening, despite having abandoned the torch-based antics of its predecessor. So next time, games developers, that you're thinking of plunging your players into darkness, just forget it. We've seen it all before, and we're not impressed. If you want to really scare people, you'll have to properly put your mind to it.
We had a bar with 4 light bulbs on it in our living room. One by one they all died until we were left with only the light of the tv of an evening. It'd been like that for a month or two.
Not one undead monster came out at me. I was very disappointed.
We put new bulbs in today. My flatmate and I are both quite lame.
Wouldn't you know it, 3 zombies in the first half-hour.
These games have it all wrong.
Not one undead monster came out at me. I was very disappointed.
We put new bulbs in today. My flatmate and I are both quite lame.
Wouldn't you know it, 3 zombies in the first half-hour.
These games have it all wrong.
Or maybe not. Because I'm sick of loading up supposedly scary 'Survival Horror' games and their ilk only to find that their idea of terror is putting you in a pitch-black room with only a torch. Not any torch, mind you - no, the military or whoever's employing your character couldn't afford a proper torch. You get some kind of sub-par pound-shop style torch that casts light about one foot in front of you. So you can just make out the monster that, surprise surprise, is leaping towards you. Well, gosh, that's a major shock. Who would have guessed that an evil bad guy would be lurking in this mysteriously badly-lit room. Oh look, here comes another one.
Doom 3 is probably the game most guilty of this nonsense - even before things go to hell (pun intended), there seems to be one twenty-watt bulb between every six rooms. Cold Fear, too, is a pretty bad offender, but these aren't isolated cases. It's got so the appearance of darkened areas in a game elicits not fear but boredom. And also irritation that no-one in these games seems to bother replacing fluorescent lights when they burn out.
It's not that you need to plunge the gamer into darkness to make a game scary. Resident Evil 4 manages to be pretty damn frightning, with its Shadow-over-Innsmouth style creepy locals and mutant monsters. And Silent Hill 4, while not being particularly strong story-wise is nevertheless pretty frightening, despite having abandoned the torch-based antics of its predecessor. So next time, games developers, that you're thinking of plunging your players into darkness, just forget it. We've seen it all before, and we're not impressed. If you want to really scare people, you'll have to properly put your mind to it.
Doom 3 is probably the game most guilty of this nonsense - even before things go to hell (pun intended), there seems to be one twenty-watt bulb between every six rooms. Cold Fear, too, is a pretty bad offender, but these aren't isolated cases. It's got so the appearance of darkened areas in a game elicits not fear but boredom. And also irritation that no-one in these games seems to bother replacing fluorescent lights when they burn out.
It's not that you need to plunge the gamer into darkness to make a game scary. Resident Evil 4 manages to be pretty damn frightning, with its Shadow-over-Innsmouth style creepy locals and mutant monsters. And Silent Hill 4, while not being particularly strong story-wise is nevertheless pretty frightening, despite having abandoned the torch-based antics of its predecessor. So next time, games developers, that you're thinking of plunging your players into darkness, just forget it. We've seen it all before, and we're not impressed. If you want to really scare people, you'll have to properly put your mind to it.