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[Orange Wizard]

Normally I avoid the whole scary game/book/story/etc because I find them mind-numbingly boring. But people seem to think this Freddy thing's actually frightening, so I think I'll give it a go...

[Xantalos]

Normally I avoid the whole scary game/book/story/etc because I find them mind-numbingly boring. But people seem to think this Freddy thing's actually frightening, so I think I'll give it a go...

It's pretty alright.

[Spehss _]

Normally I avoid the whole scary game/book/story/etc because I find them mind-numbingly boring. But people seem to think this Freddy thing's actually frightening, so I think I'll give it a go...

It's pretty alright.

Better than all the collectathon slender-copycat indie horror games.

[Orange Wizard]

Played it. S'crap.

[MaximumZero]

I'm right there with you, II. Freddy's is dumb and boring.

[Fniff]

What kind of horror do you prefer?

Me, I like a little psychology to mine. Gives me a nice freak-out when I can't tell if the game is telling me something terrible is happening or if it's just fucking with me.

[ggamer]

What kind of horror do you prefer?

Me, I like a little psychology to mine. Gives me a nice freak-out when I can't tell if the game is telling me something terrible is happening or if it's just fucking with me.

I like psychological, but in more of an atmospheric way. When games are really good at projecting the oppressed atmosphere that good horror games are known for, I tend to like the game even if it is more action-y.

Like Dead Space 1 on hard mode. You have to conserve your ammo, and you tend to become very wary of vents (which lead to you getting surrounded and cause you to waste ammo and medpacks) and dead bodies (not because necromorphs, but because of the one bugger that can necro-tize dead bodies, which causes you to waste resources). So far, the only parts of the game that took me out of the atmosphere are the leviathan fight (on hard mode it's a frustrating slog) and the shooting section in the comms array (same). However, atm I'm at the crashed troop ship, and the game tends to regain some of its tense atmosphere then the slashers you are fighting move too fast for you to hit reliably. Also, there are these necromorphs that are like necrotized body parts strung together, and they disassemble as soon as you hit the damn thing, which tends to make you incredibly nervous about wasting ammo and getting ganked by the little head shit.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

The problem with Five Nights at Freddy's is that it actually does do a couple of critical things really right, and then immediately fucks it all up. It makes the player uncomfortable by restricting their agency (can't move) and forces them to do things they're adverse to doing (leaving doors open, lights off, and camera closed) to prevent something they're even more adverse to (killed by ghost puppets). That's an excellent setup for good horror.

The problem is that the game A) tells you everything immediately (puppets are evil at night, they'll fucking kill you if they see you, used to kill other people in the past too, Freddy doesn't move much and the Rabbit will rush you, it gets worse as the week goes on) and B) relies on jump scares as the horror punchline. God, fuck jump scares. They don't even have to be excluded, they just have to not be the main course (See: the first three Silent Hills).

[kisame12794]

I agree, the kind of horror that just fucks with you is the best. Is that a monster you heard, or was it just a noise? Was it the giant spider kind of monster, or the Terminator style implacable man slow walking towards you as you shit yourself in terror.

[hops]

I just wish there are more survival horrors where you can't even actually see the thing out to get you.
I mean, just how hard would that be to make? You don't even have to make the model except for some body parts that may be glimpsed.

[Orange Wizard]

I like atmospheric scary, but I find it very hard to find something that has a high degree of atmospheric scary without having some bullshit excuse.
Freddy's, for example... why can't I move? Why does keeping the doors closed consume power? Why is power limited in the first place?
Are these kind of violent robots or whatever even legal? Screw the kids, just blow the damn things up, or lock 'em in a room where they can't murder the sodding night watchman.
While playing the game, I spent most of the time musing about why the PC would even take the job in the first place. It sounds very suspicious. Management is not possible for dismemberment? That might make sense in a guillotine factory, but not a bleeding kiddy-restaurant.

I know it sounds like I'm whining, but why is it so incredibly difficult to make something scary that doesn't have all of these excuses?

[Spehss _]

I just wish there are more survival horrors where you can't even actually see the thing out to get you.
I mean, just how hard would that be to make? You don't even have to make the model except for some body parts that may be glimpsed.

Kinda like this?

The problem with making a completely visible enemy is balance. If you aren't gonna give any visual info on how close the monster is to you, like how Amnesia uses water splashing, then you need to provide information in another way to indicate when the player is in danger or not, or making the monster slow or limited in some way to make up for it being completely invisible. Otherwise making an invisible completely silent monster would be really unfair to the player, possibly even making the game unfun.

[hops]

I just wish there are more survival horrors where you can't even actually see the thing out to get you.
I mean, just how hard would that be to make? You don't even have to make the model except for some body parts that may be glimpsed.

Kinda like this?

The problem with making a completely visible enemy is balance. If you aren't gonna give any visual info on how close the monster is to you, like how Amnesia uses water splashing, then you need to provide information in another way to indicate when the player is in danger or not, or making the monster slow or limited in some way to make up for it being completely invisible. Otherwise making an invisible completely silent monster would be really unfair to the player, possibly even making the game unfun.

Well, I'd imagine a pretty loud monster that knock things over as it chases you. Hell, you could go full Dunwich Horror and have the monster be literally invisible so that you never know if you're staring right at it.

[ggamer]

I think it's pretty easy to create horror by creating expectations for the player, and then rapidly demolishing those expectations out of the blue.

Said twitchy slashers in Dead Space, for example. You figure that the necromorphs on that ship are going to be slightly-harder-to-kill variants, but instead they're a legion of zombie sonic the hedgehogs.

Also, the regenerating necromorph encountered halfway through and near the end of the game. During a game where you are used to necromorphs needing to be dismembered to be killed, all of a sudden an enemy comes that can regenerate its limbs once they're blown off, and tracks you through the rest of the chapter SA-X style trying to murder the shit out of you until you stick him in a freezer.

[tompliss]

Well, I'd imagine a pretty loud monster that knock things over as it chases you. Hell, you could go full Dunwich Horror and have the monster be literally invisible so that you never know if you're staring right at it.

This reminds me of a game I read about.
It was mostly a game made to get handicapped players on the same levels as other players, and get those ones to understand the handicapped players :

There are 2 players.
One plays a big monster (think about the Hulk) that's deaf. He is so big that he barely goes through doors, but he can crash through walls when running.
The other player plays a Scientist that is blind. You handle him thanks to his footsteps, his arms sliding on the walls. Your goal is to stay alive, escaping the monster because you can hear his big foots stomping the floor even through walls.

It's clearly not a "horror" game, but as far as survival goes, it seems to be really good.
I don't know its name, though :p