Why do people have wrong idea that Survival horror = Scary

Dead Space isn't a terrible series or anything, but it's a step in the wrong direction for solid horror. The first one was okay, albeit action heavy. The story was solid, the atmosphere unsettling, the environments were well polished and the game had a great asthetic to it so in the grand scheme of horror games there are many, many games that are far worse. The problem was it had no concept of pacing. Pretty much every vent cover was a jump scare waiting to happen, and as the series went on you got more and more powerful weapons with the third game -literally- letting you pay real USD to buy power in what was supposed to be a survival horror game.

For as much as I gripe about it, I'd sooner play Dead Space than something like Rule of Rose, Illbleed, or some other extremely mediocre horror game. The problem with Dead Space is to horror what Avatar is to sci-fi, all budget and production value but lacking substance. When I compare Dead Space 2 and 3 to the original Amnesia game, -that- is a game that has very little action but the scary parts are -very- effective and it really stuck with me.

@wiouds: A good horror game can give you gameplay that occupies you outside of the horror elements. Gameplay that forces you to think and problem solve and then all of the sudden pulls the rug out from under you. If you are just walking from place to place, waiting for the next scary thing to happen then it won't grab you nearly as much when it does.

-Byshop

Different people have different tolerances to a scary game. Some cant stand them and others are completely desensitized by them.

Plenty of people were scared by Amnesia. Not because they're 5 years old, it's because Amnesia does an amazing job in toying with your sense of comfort, providing subtle visual cues - all of which mentally tries to convince the player that something is there, when most of the time, there isnt. It made the game feel really tense over the jump scares that horror games usually tend to fall on.

Yes that's exactly why i love survival horror games! in a good horror game you always avoid enemy confrontation,you always mind your surrounding and you're just immersed into this bleak claustrophobic world.

RE4&Dead space could have been great survival horror games only if they just stuck with how the game started out as a tense atmospheric game where you are helpless with limited ammo,the only problem is that these types of games only appeal to a niche audience who appreciate gaming as more of an experience rather than a cheap source for thrills.

IMHO my fav type of horror games are where someone is chasing you constantly like in RE:Nemesis and clock tower.. it may not scare you per se but it sure as hell will give you whiteknuckles you'll never feel at ease unless you're in a save room.

@wiouds: Not really good horror games like Resident evil&Silent hill use the gameplay itself as leeway to make a creepy atmosphere.

Its also the reason why i prefer old school castlevania because its focus is only&only on point A to point B action platforming and the clunky gameplay design forces you to slowdown and strategize your every attack&jump but metroidvania is more like an endless adventure where you mow down enemies like nothing.

I don't think a game is bad just because it forces you settle down and meticulously inch your every step.

@torenojohn7

The Clunkyness may service good tension.... But its still bad. The point is not to make the game pleasant, its suppose to be uncomfortable, but thats still no excuse, bad design doesn't stop being bad because you want to scare or empower some one. Hell even after Playing Loneliness, I must say that its mechanics surved the game's purpose of conveying isolation and lonliness quite admirably, its a great isolation game..... But its a bad game in general.

Which is why is its time to retire that term in favour of something more Accurate.... Interactive Entertainment.

If you want to elicit experience like drama comedy, horror and tension then the term "game" must be retired.

I get your point. I was only referring to the original Dead Space. I did play Dead Space 2, but it was pretty much identical, so I was already used to the whole atmosphere and everything. Never touched Dead Space 3. From what I saw that did not appeal at all anymore. Is there a recent game that nails it in terms of pacing and/or juxtaposition (apart from Amnesia), in your opinion?

The original is the best example of survival horror in the series. DS2 was decent but a little more action heavy, but it helped flesh that out with good characters and story. DS3 was a big step in several wrong directions.

Geez, put me on the spot. Well, Silent Hill 1 through 3 were very good at this. While it suffers from the whole "Action Heavy" problem of DS1, I would also put Alan Wake up there among some of my favorites. AW had some of the best looking and feeling environments I had ever seen in a survival horror game, and this went a long way towards its immersion factor. Although the game had -long- stretches of scary, dark woods with a lot of combat it interspersed them with safe areas and even daytime portions where you could just wander (for a bit) and interact with characters. It's a shame, because the game was originally supposed to be an open world horror game and you can see glimpses of what it was going to be as opposed to what it ended up. It's a pretty linear game in the end with wide enviroments and exploration, but it could have been so much more. Still, I loved this game in the end.

The only recent game I can think of at all would be The Last of Us. This game had -awesome- pacing, but one of the reasons for that is because it was divided up into a more episodic chapter style and it worked -really- well. There were so many points in this game of this nightmarish world where the characters are exploring or traveling and just shooting the shit or acting like real people. The whole time you are just waiting for the other shoe to drop, but you get long breaks from the action as you proceed through the story. When shit finally does hit the fan, it has so much more impact because of this. TLoU was such a memorable game.

There are more good examples if we go back a bit further, but these are among the most recent.

Actually there are a few more examples I can think of. Not strictly horror games, but the "Souls" series (Demons Souls, Dark Souls 1 and 2) are great examples of horror by gameplay mechanic as opposed to narrative. They are unnerving and just as tense as most horror games by virtue of their oppresive atmostphere, the sense of isolation they convey, and the knowledge that poor gameplay can cause legitimate loss (of progress). They are an example of how you can have a game that causes real tension through strictly gameplay and not narrative.

-Byshop

and speaking of jump scares, despite it not being a characteristic of the series, that Silent Hill demo trailer where the player gets jumped at the end...yeah, that got me. I can only imagine if I had been playing when that happened. Poor Mary at GS...she completely lost her shit on the live stream when that happened.

Edit: after playing the demo for myself...that part still got me. Worse than when i watching it and didn't even know it was coming. Honestly, I remembered when it was about to come up from the video and maybe that made it worse, just the expecting it...the guy just blabbling away on the news station, then all of the sudden his voice gets gravelly and he says "turn around." Nope, not gonna do it. I'm just gonna stare right at this radio...time passes, everything's cool, radio starts shouting random numbers...maybe, just a quick glance behind me...nothing there..radio is still cutting in and out between the reporter and that voice and it's not really interesting me anymore...let me go this wa..HOLY MONKEY! Never been hit that hard by a jump scare before.

On a side note, this is the perfect Oculus demo.

@Lulu_Lulu: Not really.. the "Clunkiness" is what made RE4 so great! you couldn't aim&run at the same time like in Re6 which made the gameplay much more engaging,you see its not really a "bad design" it is actually very deliberate.

That's silly video games have come a long way since atari 2600 days.. 3d video games of today can covey comedy,horror and drama much like movies.

@torenojohn7

That I don't mind... Its the aiming and camera thats messed up.

Scary is relative. Plenty of things that don't scare you, scare others. Condemned scared me. Hardest difficulty and getting ambushed.

becuz of RE, Fatal Frame, and Silent Hill

@Lulu_Lulu: That's because survivial horror games aren't supposed to be shooters... they deliberately make your aiming&attacks clunky.

@torenojohn7: @Byshop: I am talking about what I seen and play and I have never seen any horror game that does what your saying better than non-horror games.

@torenojohn7

I get that... Doing something bad Deliberately is not something to be proud of. You know why... Because its easy... Why should we critisize Survival Horrors differently because they are good at sucking donkey balls ? Hey why don't you just give Colonial Marines a perfect score while you're at it. :p

Haha, sorry for putting you on the spot, but thanks for the reply. I totally forgot about Alan Wake. I'm always amazed at how good that game looks and those normal world/dark world transitions were nicely done. And man, I'd still play Dark Souls if it didn't have all the fighting. I'm not sure what it is, but the atmosphere and aesthetics of that world are amazing. But I guess it says something about the state of horror games if those games are your recent examples. While they're probably even further off, I'm also thinking about the Metro games and S.T.A.L.K.E.R., which at least when it comes to atmosphere, have great potential. Dare I say S.T.A.L.K.E.R. had some great horror moments, mostly thanks to its great lighting (and also its ambient sound/music). Haha, there's a pattern here; I don't think I've ever played a horror game that does not focus on combat. I guess I need the security of a weapon in my hands. Otherwise it's too much. I've always steered clear of Amnesia, Penumbra and similar games that put you in a more vulnerable position.

@loafofgame: I guess I need the security of a weapon in my hands. Otherwise it's too much. I've always steered clear of Amnesia, Penumbra and similar games that put you in a more vulnerable position.

not alone. I hate being chased. It was okay in Nemesis and Condemned 2, but it was also only occasional and eventually you had to kill the thing that was chasing you in both instances. But games like Clock Tower, Outlast, etc where it's all the time...I just can't stand it. Not even fun.

@Ish_basic

I wouldn't mind being totally weaponless... Infact I prefer to having a weapon and saving bullets, If I never know when when I'm gona need'em then I simply never use them.... AT ALL ! I'd rather trial and error my way through the game. So long as I have somewhere to run to.

@Lulu_Lulu: Its not really "bad" if we follow that logic RE6 is better than RE4 because it allows you to run&aim at the same time something RE4 deliberately didn't include because it was not a generic shooter..

Colonial Marines was supposed to be a shooter wasn't it? so it failed in that case.

Lol i love games like clock tower.. it gives you the feeling that you're inside a slasher movie

@torenojohn7

Actually President Evil 6 is better because it allowed you to Strafe.... In President Evil 4 strafing doesn't exist.... At all. The aiming and moving was just a natural fit for a game with enemies that fling projectiles back at so thats not an issue, but President Evil 4 couldve definately used Strafing like President Evil 5 had....

As For President Evil.... That was just bad. How can you make each shot count if the camera and the controls remniscent of a DMC game than that of any other game with shooting in it. Its like playing a Platforming game with the camera centered directly above the player. Its counterintiutive, if it acieves its goal of scaring the player, then fantastic ! But its still poorly designed.

@torenojohn7: Jusr because you're some sort of tough guy, doesn't mean the rest of us get scared...

Well good for you then.. But that's just your own opinion and experience. A lot of people find them scary, and that doesn't make them "5 yr olds"...

Its not a bloody shooting game simple! RE4 tried all it could to avoid being a shooting and yet in the end ended up being one.

DMC game? you mean ORIGINAL resident evil games? again do i have to remind you that resident evil is NOT a shooter? if you want fine tuned shooting mechanics then play gears of war or something like that,you expect shooting game mechanics from horror games and then lambaste them for not being one..

@torenojohn7

I never said it was a shooting game... I said it has shooting in it, its very important aspect of combat isn't it ? So why does it suck donkey balls ?

As for what I expect from Horror games, samething I expect from every other game.... Great Gameplay. And you know what, I feel like I'm the only one who expects this from Survival Horror.

@torenojohn7: That's your opinion, but a lot of people get scared by these games. everyone is different you can't just say well i wasn't scared so it isn't scary.

@bezza2011

Which is a fair critism, just to be clear.

@Lulu_Lulu: Yes I mean I didn't find Resident Evil Scary, But I found Silent Hill always freaked me out, and Outlast I honestly cannot play the game because i know something gonna jump out at me and i'm just not that good running round in first person.

I mean that P.T I'm gonna play that tonight or tomorrow, but are we on thee assumption that Silent Hills is going to be first person or do you think P.T was just to see what they could do.

for me, a good or great "survival horror" game better be creepy and get me twitching at every dark corner. as for being actually "scared", as in, scared in real-life? lol, no. it's a video game.

but, games like resident evil, fatalframe, silenthill, doom3, fear and the great condemned games do a great job of atmospheric video game "scares."

throw in the obvious limited resources, twisted story and, hopefully, detective-like gameplay and i'm good.

however, to say that "survival horror" does not equal scary is, for my survival horror enjoyment, very foolish.

@bezza2011

Needs more co-op. Then I'm in. I also heard PT demo is plagued with ilogical design choices that make it a pain to finnish.

Because "horror" usually alludes to some type of fear?

It's pretty bold to assume that anyone outside the age of five would not be afraid of playing "survival horror" games.

@a55a55inx

And yet it happens constantly.

Lol, I was just kidding. Some of the earlier RE games were pretty good at this pacing "ebb and flow", too. Although the games themselves were a bit more cartoony than the more serious tones of something like Silent Hill, RE2 and Veronica both had great atmosphere for their time. RE2's static backdrops were awesome to look at and the use of sound and music were very effective. RE4, by comparison, was a great game but I don't know many people who would call it scary. The RE-make that they made for the Gamecube that's getting an "HD" release on PC is also pretty decent.

I'd keep an eye on the upcomming P.T. game. It's a new Silent Hill that's directed by Hideo Kojima (of MGS) and Guillermo Del Toro who is a pretty well known supernatural/horror director.

-Byshop

Semantics here. Being psychologically mindfucked by creepy imagery and music in Silent Hill 2 leaves you scared.

I agree that Resident Evil and Silent Hill have a different type of "scare." The Last of Us didn't really provide of scare. It provides a tension from the different types of enemies you find throughout the game. I personally think Dead Space...the first one provided an accurate account of "scare." It focused more on getting the player to pay attention more to the sounds, rather than the enemy who just looked scary. Its just my personal opinion.

Yeah, I saw that video. I'm nog going to be able to handle that... ;-)

Different people find different things to be scary, that hardly makes their opinion 'wrong'.

You see that's where you're Shooting&Combat isn't the most important part of the game... in fact it is deliberately downplayed to give you the sense of helplessness and claustrophobia.

I think that's because people like me have a different standards of what's actually "Scary" I don't consider jump scares to be anything more than surprise "BOO YOU GOT ME!" kind of thing,its juvenile kindergarten level of "Scariness".

@Ilovegames1992: Correction.. its "Distributed" not "Scared"

@torenojohn7

It is if you wana finish it.

My scariest game was resident evil 2 scenario 2nd when tis bio weapon crashed through the wall to attack me. I'm telling you, turn the music up very high and the sound from the crash through the wall will scare u shitless. also facing nemesis scared the crap outta me in Re 3.

Resident evil 2 in scenario 2nd scared me when i had the music up loud. A bio weapon that fell outta a helicopter busted through a wall and when the music is up loud it startled me. Also in re 3 when I had to fight nemesis.

I'm assuming you mean disturbed. But no, survival horror is scary. You dont need jump scares to be scared.

@999777__Gengar

Huh ? Your best scare was a jump scare ?

@Lulu_Lulu: lol.

@udUbdaWgz1

Not everybody is lonely like you.

@Lulu_Lulu: double lol.

What about the controls you had in RE:Lost in nightmares?

IMHO calling any game "Scary" is just a hyperbole... i just don't consider them scary.. they're tense,atmospheric and often claustrophobic and unnerving but they're not scary...

Unless i play like some next gen game with VR glasses on.. i don't think i would consider any game scary.

I don't think I've ever played a truly scary game. There are games that have made me jump if played under the right circumstances (headphones, in the dark, with no distractions). The original F.E.A.R. The original Dead Space, Amnesia, and Outlast are a few that come to mind. I guess the original Resident Evil and Silent Hill had their moments also.