Horror games for the season (and beyond)

[Puukko]

October's coming up and I'm sure I'm not the only one who's going to play a horror game or six, so I figured we could share our plans and make recommendations.

FEAR: Already started this one, doesn't need much of an introduction. It's been in the back of my head forever so and is probably the easiest to get into of this lot. I know there's one worthwhile expansion for it, shame the series got no more entries after that.

Dead Space: Ditto.

SOMA: Never played Amnesia, but this seems to be the studio's highest rated game and the one I suspect will be the scariest of this lot.

Kuon: FromSoft's no stranger to horror themes, but this one seems to be their only pure-bred horror game, and has better ratings than the Echo Night games. Here to fill the PS2 slot and my plans to expand my FS catalogue beyond Souls.

Possible entries:

Clive Barker's Undying: was on the list, but I ran into bugs. Will see about getting those sorted later.

Silent Hill 3: if I feel SOMA wasn't enough psychological horror.

Fatal Frame games: if I can't get enough of that PS2 horror vibe.

 

[Ivan]

I've just heard about the Puppet Combo games, so I might look into that.

However, I will definitely be checking out Red Candle's Devotion. I bought the double pack when they started selling their games DRM free. Had a great time with Detention so I'm sure I'm in for a good time.


Q: Never played a Fatal Frame game. Where should I start (emulators ok of course).

Also, reinstalled FEAR after someone mentioned it on Watchu Playing thread. This time with MMod. Looking forward to it!

 

[schru]

SOMA: Never played Amnesia, but this seems to be the studio's highest rated game and the one I suspect will be the scariest of this lot.

The developer's earlier Penumbra games are worth playing, except for the third one which was an experiment that missed the mark. I didn't like Amnesia that much as it felt like the studio couldn't write or present Gothic horror too well. However, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, though there's very little gameplay in it (it's by the studio that made Dear Esther), is quite atmospheric, has an interesting story, and some nice set pieces.

Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2 are most certainly worth playing, if you haven't played them before (the PC version of SH2 is a very degraded port, so it's better to play it in an emulator, although as Roguey pointed out last time, there's a mod that tries to restore everything). Silent Hill 4: The Room is interesting, but it's not that fun to play.

The modifications for Half-Life called Afraid of Monsters and Cry of Fear are pretty interesting.

Also, remember not to enable anti-aliasing in Fear because it disables soft shadows.

 

[toughasnails]

You'd miss on not playing Undying bc it is thematically probably the perfect October game... It's a very old fashioned horror story and is uncommonly well written for a videoame, it has a load of classic horror movie environments and themes. It even has some touches taken from survival horror games, like how the mansion is a hub that slowly opens up as you go on, the various documents you read...

Other shooters that are a good fit for the season, just on top of my head: the first Blood, Nosferatu (it's a shooter based on the old silent movie and has a p sick atmosphere but suffers from time limit and having to escort AIs), Darkwatch on PS2.

 

[mkultra]

Resident Evil 7 in VR, nothing (apart from having a nightmare) comes even close.

Alien vs Predator (without the super lame save anywhere patch) was awesome at the time, very atmospheric.

If you're into old classics (PC) Nocturne, Blair Witch...

 

[schru]

Another game that fits the popular Hallow-e'en style very well is MediEvil for PlayStation. Not a horror game, but it gets almost everything right about its setting and monsters, and is an all-round enjoyable game. Don't play the recent remake, it's not as atmospheric. The sequel wasn't so good, but it had a few interesting levels.

 

[Puukko]

You'd miss on not playing Undying bc it is thematically probably the perfect October game... It's a very old fashioned horror story and is uncommonly well written for a videoame, it has a load of classic horror movie environments and themes. It even has some touches taken from survival horror games, like how the mansion is a hub that slowly opens up as you go on, the various documents you read...

Other shooters that are a good fit for the season, just on top of my head: the first Blood, Nosferatu (it's a shooter based on the old silent movie and has a p sick atmosphere but suffers from time limit and having to escort AIs), Darkwatch on PS2.

Can you confirm my suspicion that the ectoplasm spell randomly spawning big howlers is probably not intended behavior?

 

[Machocruz]

My Halloween go-tos:.

Doom 64
Haunting Ground
Resident Evil Remake, 2, 2 remake
Maximo
Bloodborne

To me, 2D games suit the festive spirit of the season better, so I'll list some of those:

Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Shadowgate
Super Ghouls and Ghosts
Demon's Crest
Any good Castlevania games

I did Brutal Doom 64, Shadowgate, and Aria of Sorrow last year, and it was hella fun.

Don't know what I'll do this year, but I did resume a STALKER:CoP playthrough yesterday and it is horror adjacent at the very least. The Batman Arkham games have that funhouse and 'urban gothic' vibe and I've been wanting to play City lately.

 

[Martyr]

no mention of Scratches? annoying puzzles, but unsurpassed atmosphere.

 

[ferratilis]

 

[Frank Capicoli]

I've heard good things about Lost in Vivo, though I haven't played it yet it's still on my backlog.

 

[fork]

Kuon
Resident Evil, 2, 3, Zero, Remake
Silent Hill

Tormented Souls, to recommend something more recent. It's pretty good, despite several shortcomings, like absolutely retarded main character design (art, characterisation, voice acting, all pretty bad), bad combat (even by fixed cam angles standards, it's too static and too easy), plentiful resources, mediocre story and somewhat too linear progression. It has cool atmosphere, great graphics, music/sound and some satisfying puzzles.


Also, on September 30th, Alisa will come out. The Demo looked promising.

 

[Terenty]

No love for Cryostasis Sleep of Reason? For shame

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Gonna finish off the original Alone in the Dark trilogy with Alone in the Dark 3. The first one was an absolutely amazing game, and while the second had issues, it was still mostly interesting. Going to be interesting seeing how it handles a western-style ghosttown. Another series I'm continuing is Ubisoft's informal series of unlicensed horror film adaptations with Hurlements, an adaptation of The Howling by Joe Dante. Its some weird action-adventure game, and unlike last year's Zombi (guess which adaptation that is) this one promises more action than adventure. I'm also giving The Lawnmower Man (DOS) a shot, since its allegedly a survival horror game. Allegedly. And I'm going to round out the whole thing with two games from Horrorsoft, Personal Nightmare and Elvira 1. Both are extremely hard horror adventure games, semi-legendary for that difficulty. I've tried several times to defeat Elvira 1, and always ended up getting stuck in an unwinnable situation. Always ever so slightly farther along though.
I also already finished one, Fright Night, which is another film adaptation. It has extremely nice Amiga graphics and sound, but its just awful to actually play, its such a shame.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Blood
Condemned
The Suffering

These were just three that gave me the creeps. I don't play horror games much, tbh.

 

[Silverfish]

Not strictly horror, but the season isn't complete without Splatterhouse.

 

[fork]

Tormented Souls, to recommend something more recent. It's pretty good, despite several shortcomings, like absolutely retarded main character design (art, characterisation, voice acting, all pretty bad), bad combat (even by fixed cam angles standards, it's too static and too easy), plentiful resources, mediocre story and somewhat too linear progression. It has cool atmosphere, great graphics, music/sound and some satisfying puzzles.

Just realised this doesn't read like a recommendation. It's meant to be one though. If you like classic Resident Evil and/or Silent Hill and wished the puzzles were a little more intricate, Tormented Souls is a must-play, despite the flaws. Just wanted to clarify that.

 

[Ash]

PC:

System Shock 2
Darkwood
Doom 1/2
Quake
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
Blood
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (originally a console game but basically impossible to get a hold of).
Cry of Fear
Dying Light
STALKER: CoP
Pathologic 2 (the only game in this entire list I've not played, but it has a reputation among those I trust).
Martian Gothic
Arx Fatalis
Return to Castle Wolfenstein (if this counts)
Half-Life (if this counts)
Salt & Sanctuary
Hotline Miami

Console (some of these later released on PC, else go with emulation):

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Doom 64
Dark Souls
Dark Souls 2
Resident Evil
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 3
Resident Evil 4
Silent Hill
Parasite Eve
Parasite Eve 2
Dead Space
Dead Space 2
Manhunt
Devil May Cry (original)
Devil May Cry 3

Second-rate horror games (still worthwhile), any platform:

Clive Barker's Undying
Cold Fear
Blade (2000)
Stalker SoC
American Mcgee's Alice
The Suffering
Koudelka
Alien Trilogy
Medievil
Nightmare Creatures

FUCK lame overrated horror-themed games such as Alien Isolation, Limbo, Silent Hill 2, Soul Reaver, FEAR, The Last of Us, Metro, Bioshock, Deadly Premonition, newer Resident Evil games & remakes....
Also omitted a bunch of adventure games because...meh. Even if I have a fondness for some.
Also omitted some super old horror games (e.g splatterhouse, Ghouls & Ghosts, Zombies ate my neighbors). Charming and not bad at all, but not actually that enjoyable.
Also omitted Bloodborne, Dark Souls 3...the games are far from bad but aren't great either. Not much point to it when you can play Dark Souls 1/2 instead which play the same but better.

Looks like I need to give a chance to Tormented Souls and Alisa, two recent horror games I've overlooked. Thanks for the recommendations. Not sure about Kuon however, as in my experience From Software were totally mediocre before Souls.

Darkwatch (PS2).

Darkwatch is completely irredeemable shit.

 

[schru]

Deadly Premonition is most certainly not a lame overrated horror-themed game. It's one of a kind and an œuvre of an auteur that only Japan could give us with its mixture of earnestness and love for juvenile pulp.

 

[Ash]

I can see the appeal for its weirdness and twin peaks cribbing, but as a game it plays like total shit. There is almost no gameplay at all, or there is gameplay but you don't actually do anything but press buttons without using any brain power. For hours. an adventure game delivers a better, more complete & focused game experience than DP.

 

[schru]

Oh, the cheap imitation of RE4 gameplay is there to keep you chuckling at the whole thing and the unpredictable crashing makes you work for the experience.

 

[Ash]

Very cheap RE4 imitation. There is barely a game at all. Whatever merit this experience has it certainly isn't as a video game. And I consider gameplay where you just mash buttons and go through the motions without being engaged in any way an insulting waste of my time. The developer has no place making video games. Not to mention how gameplay can be used to considerably enhance a horror experience, so therefore they fail as horror directors too. What even is it supposed to be? Is it just cool to like the game because it is weird or what?

 

[fork]

Look, Ash, that's another post of yours I feel about like you did about mine hating SH2, but also Darkwood.

Would you explain to me what's good about RE4? Linear like CoD, terrible controls (tank controls rock, with fixed cam angles), terrible mechanics like QTEs, inventory tetris, zombies dropping loot, shit story even by RE standards, ruined RE forever. I just don't get it. Compared to RE4, even Darkwood is great.

 

[Ash]

Linear like Cod:

It isn't. In fact the level design is one of its strongest suits, even if it isn't that complex or open. Cod level design is entirely linear and entirely static, without much variety in challenges (or anything for that matter). RE4 level design is moderately linear and rather interactive, with an absolute shit ton of variety in challenges, more than any other Resident Evil. Every room is different, yet utilizes the core gameplay.

terrible controls (tank controls rock, with fixed cam angles):

the controls are mostly the same as classic survival horror. Why is this not allowed suddenly when the camera perspective is changed? You're making up arbitrary rules of game design. If they made the controls like Quake you'd complain that it isn't like Resident Evil...and you'd be right. The controls are good for forcing the game to play slowly and rigidly...like a survival horror. While RE4 isn't a true survival horror there is a lot of DNA and is certainly in-part one. It could just have FPS controls, but then you could turn around in an instant and circle-strafe everything. The control restrictions are distinctly Resident Evil. Yet you hate on RE4 for not being Resident Evil...

zombies dropping loot

this hurts the horror element, but increases things like fun factor, strategic choices & replayability by including an economy and weapon customisation system. It's a trade-off. One I don't mind, perhaps even prefer. Still, they could have had weapon customisation and an economy without having the enemies drop loot, but I don't hold the implementation against Capcom. Loot drops incentivizes facing the enemies rather than running away, which is of course counter survival horror, yet has benefits of its own like rewards for skilled players in timed sections, or killing hard to reach enemies, or intricacies like killing the insects during different eye animations for different drops.

terrible mechanics like QTEs

The QTE's certainly aren't great, yet they're also the only game I've tolerated them in as the execution isn't bad, except maybe the boulder chase segments. Fuck those. There also isn't too many. Ones in real time combat aren't QTE's per-se, they're essentially dodge buttons with an on-screen prompt. The prompt is lame, however the diversity in inputs required half-makes up for this. Furthermore, the dodging increases combat depth without, once again, giving the player too much control. If the player instead had a dedicated dodge button they could master it and reduce the threat of enemies and therefore the horror element, alongside constant leon dodge animations and sound from the player spamming it, it would hurt the horror tone.
It is also reminiscent of Resident Evil 3's contextual dodging, which was also pretty well implemented without making enemies a walk in the park or having Jill dodge-spamming everywhere.

inventory tetris

you don't like grid-based inventories as in Resident Evil 1, System Shock 2, Deus Ex etc? How is including the option to rotate items on top of that a bad thing in any way shape or form? The only grid space arrangement you have to actually commit to is weapons and occasionally rotating a 2x1 item to fit a 1x2 slot. Otherwise you don't really need to do any tetris unless you like organization for later optimal searching of items.

shit story even by RE standards

Can't say I particularly care. Not a storyfaggot. Well, it does matter to me, and it did indeed take the story in retarded directions, but as a gameplayfag it doesn't bother me that much.

ruined RE forever

Considering RE went to complete shit after I probably agree with you. RE4 itself is still a worthwhile game though, even though it isn't Resident Evil. If you could put your emotional attachment to RE and classic survival horror aside you may be able to see that.

Compared to RE4, even Darkwood is great.

Nope, Darkwood is literally one of the greatest horror games of all time, and the only worthy, true survival horror I've played released in over a decade and a half. Not to mention the innovations to the genre.

 

[schru]

Very cheap RE4 imitation. There is barely a game at all. Whatever merit this experience has it certainly isn't as a video game. And I consider gameplay where you just mash buttons and go through the motions without being engaged in any way an insulting waste of my time. The developer has no place making video games. Not to mention how gameplay can be used to considerably enhance a horror experience, so therefore they fail as horror directors too. What even is it supposed to be? Is it just cool to like the game because it is weird or what?

Well, being more serious now, I seem to recall reading that the RE4-like sections were imposed by the producer, so they'd quite literally be tacked on. Of course, if they were to be excluded, that would leave the game with fairly little gameplay in it. It's clear that Swery isn't a very good designer, but he had a certain vision for an interactive world with a strange story and the result is so captivating and hilarious that I think it stands on its own merits. It's also different from typical story-driven cinematic games or ‘walking simulators’ in that there's a genuine attempt at including some simulation aspects, even if they're largely superfluous, but they still give the whole thing that nice quality of playful interactivity.

Generally, I don't think there should be a problem with enjoying such quasi-games for what they are, so long as they manage to entertain or deliver something otherwise interesting. The real problem is with the circles that try to advance walking simulators or otherwise tightly-scripted, (pretentious) story-focused games as a more ‘mature’ and ‘sophisticated’ direction for the industry to go in and who look down or don't understand good gameplay, and then the press and audiences who praise such projects based on superficial merits. But I don't think anyone recommending Deadly Premonition was ever under the illusion that it had good gameplay mechanics.

Silent Hill 2 is indeed an interesting example in this case. It's ridiculous how the mediocrity of its combat, puzzles, and often (but not always) exploration has been overlooked by most people singing its praise, and in this case the harm has been more real because the game was developed professionally enough to be taken as a model to imitate for the less critically inclined. Nevertheless, as an interactive atmosphere piece and a story with good characters and some interesting narrative devices, it is worth playing. It's just a terrible shame that it couldn't have better gameplay or that it isn't generally criticized for it, because it then leads to a counter-reaction, as with Half-Life 2, where people who can see the obvious flaws develop contempt for the game. It's interesting to note that Team Silent didn't even consider the first Silent Hill to be that much of a game.