Topic: Horror Game Thread

@Oram77 I'd honestly say the golden age of horror games have been going on since the early 2010s. Survival horror was on a steep decline with action horror replacing it during the 00s. Then indie survival horror started becoming popular in the early 10s, with games such as Slender, Outlast, Amnesia, Layers of Fear and so on, mostly thanks to streamers. Then shortly thereafter, AAA studios started releasing survival horror games again.

But yeah, it's awesome that companies like Capcom and Konami have made a comeback and are now pumping out games for RE and SH respectively. Not to mention the amount of many other horror games that are coming out. I've mentioned this before, but you can do so much with horror because you can mix the genre with all the other genres out there. In other words, it's a genre that's difficult to get stale.

I'm also loving that companies are remaking older games. I mean, the originals have their charm in terms of graphics, but I'd rather play these games with a modern overhaul. Today's graphics just bring these games to life and also make the horror aspect more intense.

@Th3solution Yeah, we've talked about your general aversion to DLC practices, so I felt it only appropriate to point out that these ones are really a must-play! Not even for the quality of them in particular, they're pretty on par with the main game, I'd say. But if you're going to play the first specifically for the reason of getting the necessary background for the second game, then you owe it to yourself to play the DLC or risk a still-remaining gap in your knowledge as a result of skipping them. As you know, I haven't played Control yet, so I find it interesting that you're experiencing the game with the future knowledge of some of Alan's story as shown in Control. I wonder how much that affected your expectations!

Haha, everything you mentioned in regards to the jank of the game is regrettably relatable. As much as I think the game is still ultimately very playable, I think it would benefit from a remake in due time if they keep this specific franchise as an integral part of the Remedyverse lore. They didn't really take the chance to address mechanical changes with the remastered, so it's that or nothing, I suppose. Like you said though, the autosaves are luckily very generous! I had some issues running the remastered on PC with occasional, inexplicable crashes, so they were truly a godsend. I don't think I could've pushed through the game had they been a lot more frugal with its saving system.

I think my main issue with the gameplay other than the usual jankiness was its encounter design. I found that often the game loves throwing many enemies at a time at you, but I felt like the mechanics weren't really made with that in mind. It felt like they designed combat encounters for a high-octane shooter like Max Payne, but then gave you a simple flashlight to sort it all out. The internal language of the game didn't really felt like they aligned there. I hope you've been having a good time all in all however! Did you end up finishing the game already, or at least made some big strides since your last comment? I'd love to hear what your further experiences with it have been.

***

@Fatewalker Thank you for putting this on my radar! I hadn't heard of it before personally, but it looks totally up my alley. Consider it wishlisted!

**

@Oram77 @LtSarge I think you're both totally right. We've really been incredibly well-fed in recent years with the horror genre, however long ago this trend might have actually started in full. The Summer Game Fest announcement did nothing but reinforce that feeling!

On that note, I was incredibly excited to see a lot of new horror either announced or soon arriving. I'm excited to see what Silent Hill: Townfall will be all about, even if it feels like it's going for something just a little different than the other recent entries. Star Trek: Shadow Frontier coming as another game in Bloober Team's growing survival-horror library excited me very much, despite my lack of attachment to that license. End of Abyss looked really interesting to me as well, especially with it being published by Epic Games, which as a company doesn't really put their publishing abilities behind many games. And one of the last times they did, they helped deliver us Alan Wake II! 'twas fun to finally get some more talk on Hellraiser: Revival, which I'm cautiously optimistic on despite having a deep hater for the original film. The Cenobites are such interesting creatures nonetheless, and if they lean towards that well enough, I'm no doubt interested. Ill and The Lost Wild from the State of Play both looked incredibly promising, whether just as a new entry in the survival-horror genre or as a visually stunning trailer. Resident Evil: Code Veronica getting the release date of 2027 we all hoped for! Yes! Not to mention more signs of life for the Alien: Isolation sequel. Truly, what a time to be a horror fan.

Which of the games featured were y'all most excited to see? I can't wait to see the line-up proper as the following one or two years play out. I hope they don't disappoint, and that was far from even all horror games shown.

@Tjuz Well said, regarding Alan Wake. I do agree that the way enemies charge you from all sides and angles simultaneously is a frustration when you have to do the whole flashlight thing. It’s fairly predictable that as soon as I stun an enemy and work on his darkness shield with my light, I will almost always get hit from the side or the back by another enemy. They follow a very velociraptor style of pack hunting where they flank you while you’re paying attention to someone else. Which is fine, I guess, but like you mentioned, not when the very design of your combat is a requirement of doing a time-based flashlight attack before being able to do any damage. If it was a pure shooter it would be okay.

Unfortunately I haven’t made much extra progress. I’m about 30% complete, per the PlayStation’s completion tracker. I have spent all my time with Horizon lately.

Ok I lied I will list the horror games I'm excited for:
>Resident Evil Veronica
>ILL
>Ontos
>Hellraiser
>Silent Hill 1 remake
>Silent Hill Townfall
>Until Dawn
>Alien Isolation 2
>OD*
>Valor Mortis

Please keep in mind PS5 is my only platform, there are plenty of horror games coming to steam which I'm unable to play 🫠

*Aware this an Xbox exclusive but with the way they are flip flopping we could still have a chance at getting this one

@Th3solution Not to scare you off at all, but I think Alan Wake II is almost worse in that type design for its combat encounters. While I think the combat itself is much improved from the incredibly janky first game's mechanics, the design hasn't changed really. My issue with the second one then is not only that the encounters haven't changed in the way that they're set up, but especially that it's the same despite the much slower combat. Alan Wake II adapts more of the typical, slow and steady survival-horror combat that you know from Silent Hill 2. Just imagine how much worse still that would fit encounters where enemies are flying around everywhere or overwhelming you constantly from all sides. Imagine that and you have the general feel of getting into combat in the sequel! Again, not enough to ruin my enjoyment of it or anything, but for all the improvements they made to the actual systems, I was shocked that they didn't really change the philosophy of what made the first game's combat often so frustrating to begin with.

I hope Horizon is treating you well! I've seen your comments in other threads regarding your playthrough, but I haven't really had anything to jump in with as I haven't played it myself. I've only read good things however, so I'm not surprised you let Alan Wake fall to the wayside a bit for another game you're currently thoroughly enjoying. Hopefully you'll pick it back up whenever you roll credits to make some more progress with the Remedyverse!

@Tjuz Oh no… well, I won’t completely abandon any plans to play AW2 eventually. The “enemies flying around everywhere from all sides” is very much a Control combat characteristic as well. Difference there is that you have a lot of powers and quick reflexive options to counter with. Jesse moves more smoothly and quicker, you can jump, dodge, and float and use telekinesis, shields, and have multiple types of guns, and the whole balance of combat is more action heavy and felt more… “fair” maybe is the right word? And more tactical, too. As opposed to the Alan Wake combat which feels restrictive, imbalanced, and tedious. If there’s one thing I’ve learned though, it’s that a little modernization of controls and movement makes an enormous difference for me. If the AW sequel cleans up the jank and makes movement and controls modern, then it should be fine for me. SH2’s combat style was fine and not excessively frustrating, although the enemy count was rarely very high at any given encounter in SH2.

I have mentioned before about my disdain for the original Resident Evil 4 when I tried to play it with its clunkier tank controls and clumsy menu hopping for weapon changes during combat. For how quickly enemy hordes came and how action focused RE4 is, I just never enjoyed the gameplay with the janky dated restrictions. But then when I played the Remake, it was a completely different experience and I loved it. Handling multiple enemies at once was much more manageable when I could use current muscle memory, and the character movement was more fluid, easily controlled, reactive, and predictable which resulted in a lot less frustration. And being able to change weapons on the fly, and stay in the action made the flow better and I ended up doing a 180 on the game and count it as a favorite in the genre. So perhaps AW2’s updated controls and movement, even it is is slower paced, will sit well with me.

I’ll respond to the SHf situation here, since it kind of fits the thread too — Thanks for the insight into the SHf enemies and gore. I am slightly squeamish, compared to a lot of other gamers, but the way you describe SHf I do think I’d be okay with it. I’ll definitely keep it in mind, since I did enjoy SH2 so much. Sounds like it’s similarly impactful narratively and after a while I bet that I’ll get accustomed to the nightmarish imagery.

I’ve mentioned before, I think, that my intro to horror and gruesomeness in gaming was probably The Last of Us, which may have been the first time I truly played to completion and enjoyed a “horror” game, and I use the term loosely with TLoU as I doubt most people would consider it horror, but disturbing and scary monster interactions is what I’m talking about. Then, Bloodborne was another gateway game into dark and disturbing settings, and then finally I played through Resident Evil 1 Remake and have gradually expanded from there. I probably won’t ever get to the point of playing ILL, Hellraiser, and some of the more intense games. But maybe f is all the intro I need to expand further.

I don’t know when I’ll get back into my Alan Wake run, but it will be eventually. Horizon is definitely taking my full attention and the further in I go, the more obsessed with it I’ve become. It’s a good sign of a game to crescendo that way though, so fingers crossed it ends well. And the same for Mr Wake’s first outing — I hope and expect that there will be a build up if I can just get past the opening challenges and get into the meat of the experience

@Th3solution Good point that that encounter design is also present in Control. I wonder if that's simply Remedy's bread and butter and they just don't know any better to adjust for the genre. I never played Quantum Break, but knowing what I know about it, I imagine its combat scenarios are largely structured the same way. I hadn't really thought of it like that before. Maybe their Max Payne DNA is harder to shake off when it comes to their approach there than it maybe should be. Alan Wake II will nonetheless give you that modernisation of controls you're looking for for sure. If that's already of any help to you, then I wouldn't panic too much about what the continuing design will mean for your enjoyment.

I wonder how much your feelings of jankiness might root from a similar issue as with Resident Evil 4. I mean, I haven't played the original there, but by all accounts it's a lot better structured mechanically despite your struggles with it. It's no surprise that if even a "top of its game"-type experience like RE4 was unable to convince you with its controls, that a less mechanically mastered game like Alan Wake would repeat the same sin. At least you're prepared to stick with this one if only for what comes after! I think I said it before, but that game would definitely benefit from a remake as well. Maybe then we could both enjoy it without having to put the asterisks next to it that it can be incredibly frustrating, even if the story is worth experiencing just on its own as well as a prerequisite to its follow-up.

I think the whole discussion around "does The Last of Us count as horror?" is always interesting. I lean both ways. On one hand, yes, it shares many themes that get explored in what you would consider typical horror as well. In other ways, it's much more disturbing exactly because of its more grounded nature in the world we know. But is it a horror game? No, because it doesn't fit the space as we and companies have defined it within media. It has the jumpscares, it has the gross imagery, it has the brutalism... but it doesn't have the level design or type of narrative we've grown accustomed to as counting within the horror genre. So, in many ways, yes, it's a horror game. But is it ultimatelt a horror game in the way that we've defined what horror as a genre is? No, it's not. Whether you agree or disagree with that set definition or whether there should be more space to define a game openly, that then becomes a different discussion entirely. Personally, I'm comfortable with saying it's not a horror game, because I feel like the definitions set in place are more useful in categorisation than if we start blurring the lines. Even if by many metrics, it is.

Either way, I'm happy thats its atmosphere helped to soothe your hesitation in engaging with the more traditional horror fare. Even if just for that, I'm grateful for it! And on that front, the same goes for Bloodborne being just the next step you needed to fully start immersing yourself. Never say never on the even more directly scary games! Like you said, at the rate you're going, you'll eventually run into a game that probably pushes your boundaries even further and before you know it, you're singing the praises of ILL to me after it has come out. Here's a question for you: I know you like Kojima, and we both know he's working on a likely terrifying horror effort with OD (if P.T. was any indication). Do you think the name recognition would push you to try that one whenever it releases despite it likely still being out of your comfort zone when it comes to horror?

Enjoy Horizon: Forbidden West while it lasts! Which, knowing Sony's open worlds and the fact you're about halfway, is probably still quite a while. I'll still be here for whenever you decide to rejoin us in the world of horror. And a final question for you, knowing your hesitation to play DLC no matter the quality, do you think you'll be playing Burning Shores as well?

@Tjuz Yeah, in all honesty, I think I might like the way Alan Wake controls better than the way the original RE4 controls, despite the latter being a pinnacle of gaming and having more precise and deeper combat. There’s just a glitch in my brain that can’t get around the obstacle of not being able to move and shoot at the same time. Although I enjoyed RE1 just fine, but the combat scenarios are much more chaotic and action-heavy in RE4 and the controls don’t harmonize with that. My thoughts are clearly unpopular ones though, as the original RE4 continues to be touted as one of the greatest games of all time.

I think you’re on target with the discussion about TLoU, and it’s just splitting hairs at some point with the way we label and categorize things. It’s similar to other oft debated topics like: is game X a Soulslike, is game Y an RPG, or is game Z a walking simulator? Many games blur the lines between genres so it all depends on what perspective one is taking. One of my favorite arguments is making the point that Madden is a turn-based RPG. It really loosely fits the criteria, but we never think of it that way. 😅

To answer the question of Kojima and should OD come out to be an uber intense, terrifying and disturbing gore and blood-filled twisted horror-fest, would I play it, just based on the Kojima name? No, I don’t think so. If Kojima made something intense enough, with no redemptive narrative, no hope or glimmer of humanity, and without any soul of a principled story, then no, even his involvement wouldn’t tempt me to play it. I know almost nothing about OD, but I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t a philosophical and reasoned game. I expect a strong, thought provoking story that still has scary, dark imagery but is not gratuitous with unmerited terror without substance. So I expect I’ll still be interested to play it. 😄

And on the side question of Burning Shores, I am undecided, but Rog has me nearly convinced to play it. It was just on sale last month and I hovered over the purchase button a few times, but I missed picking it up at the discount so I might wait for the next inevitable drop again.

@Th3solution I can imagine that even if Resident Evil 4 is the agreed-upon point where third-person combat really started taking off, it still feels underbaked compared to nowadays, yeah. It doesn't surprise me then that you'd still prefer Alan Wake, which despite its jankiness was able to benefit from years of iteration on the concept! If I remember correctly, you also ended up playing the original RE4 long after its release, which can't have done it any favours. It's always hard to go back to old-school game design after you've gotten so used to the way mechanics have been improved upon after time. I had that exact same experience in a different genre with Star Ocean, but luckily I was able to move past it.

Haha, I hadn't heard of the Madden as a turn-based RPG argument before. I'm not familiar enough with those games and their gameplay to get into the nitty gritty on that one, but I'm sure it's an argument that's bound to piss many a person off. And for that, I already just enjoy the simple thought of it!

I think basically no one really knows what Kojima is cooking up with OD at this point, but I imagine it will be philosophically interesting at the very least! And even if it does turn out to be an incredibly intense experience with gore galore, I would still assume that it doesn't reach levels of gratuity and that Kojima has appropriately positioned it as necessary for whatever narrative it'll try to tell. I suppose we'll see whenever that eventually does release! I hope that it'll be exactly in the type of lane where you'll at least feel comfortable trying it out, even if you might regret it later on.

Well, well... it seems like Rog is actively working against us horror aficionados by keeping you occupied with Horizon: Forbidden West for even longer than you already are! Maybe it's time to have a word with him... Whatever you decide, I'll accept my fate! Enjoy the main game at least while it's still lasting a while!

Not sure if this game has already been mentioned, but I think it looked well noooooice.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hellraiser-Revival-Day-One-Playstati...

Just found Hellraiser: Revival on amazon with a potential price leak at £32.95, that is an extremely good price with all things said, I may have to preorder it when we get closer to release day!

Ign have just shown off 14 minuets of Hellraiser gameplay, I mean was already sold but if you have been on the fence this may help you decide about getting it or not:

https://www.ign.com/videos/14-minutes-exclusive-hellraiser-re...

I've just been reading that the Haloween game is getting banned in Austrailia as your character is able to smoke a joint which hightens perception and let's you see where Mr Myers is on the map. So the unstoppable serial killer, grisly death stuff is fine but the weed is a step too far. It's a crazy world sometimes.

@sorteddan I don't live in Australia so I can't really speak for those folks, but I've heard they are extremely strict with a lot things, haven't they banned anime or something too?

@Oram77
Oh I've no idea, not particularly up on antipodean news was reading up on some horror site news and saw that story. Could ask my sis as she lives down under but I'd imagine she wouldn't give a damn about anime... Or if she did then she probably wouldn't give a damn that it was illegal!

👀 👀 👀 👀