Horror games anyone?

[Raiden no Kishi]

I used to love survival horror games, and then I played Devil May Cry and my taste shifted. Would I trade some semblance of a plot for the ability to unleash fast-paced carnage and feel really B.A. from the safety of my couch? Yes, I would.

I'll drink to that, although I've never cared for the survival horror genre. The way I see it, the Devil May Cry series says, "Look, at its core, most of the appeal in video games is that they are a temporary escapist power trip. Why apologize for that?" Cue the leather trench coat, guns that never run dry, alluringly-attired women, one-liners, and implausible action sequences.

Not that I don't appreciate games with plot - I do very much. But some days, you just want to thrash evil things and look unspeakably cool doing it.

.rai//

[Tarnish]

I recently finished Silent Hill 2. It's the only survival horror I've ever played to the end, and is definitely one of my all-time favorite games now. Suffers from some hilariously bad acting at times, but still manages to be absolutely freaking terrifying.

And I could go on about the story for a very long time.

As for Rule of Rose, I watched a playthrough of that game on YouTube. The plot was almost enough for me to buy another PS2 and give it a try, but I thought better of it. It was a really good story, though. Terrible shame about the painfully slow backtracking.

[Fish and Chips]

Ben Croshaw's Chzo Mythos is moderately terrifying for such a modest pixel palette, and for that matter his much less talked about 1213 (which I certainly recommend despite occasionally frustrating boss fights).

Though on the whole, I'm not too familiar with the genre, probably because I prefer the suspense route and most horror games rely on bad lighting and grotesque imagery. For example I'd be considerably more interested in playing Silent Hill if I didn't think so much of it was apparently Pyramid head violently raping everything in a dimly-lit meat room.

[Tarnish]

As far as I know, Pyramid Head only appears in Silent Hill 2 (and once in Silent Hill: Homecoming to do a little song and dance). Even then, he appears maybe five times. How and why he gets so much attention, I'll never know. For me, the most scary aspect of the game was the sound design.

[Kkun]

I'll drink to that, although I've never cared for the survival horror genre. The way I see it, the Devil May Cry series says, "Look, at its core, most of the appeal in video games is that they are a temporary escapist power trip. Why apologize for that?" Cue the leather trench coat, guns that never run dry, alluringly-attired women, one-liners, and implausible action sequences.

Not that I don't appreciate games with plot - I do very much. But some days, you just want to thrash evil things and look unspeakably cool doing it.

.rai//

Ditto that, my brother. Now that I'm an older, wiser, more mature gamer, I can admit that some days, I just need a little wanton violence. DMC gives it up in spades and then some.

I guess the DMC games kind of count as survival horror, though? It's just...surviving not getting thrashed as opposed to surviving dying a slow, agonizing death.

[Raiden no Kishi]

Ditto that, my brother. Now that I'm an older, wiser, more mature gamer, I can admit that some days, I just need a little wanton violence. DMC gives it up in spades and then some.

I guess the DMC games kind of count as survival horror, though? It's just...surviving not getting thrashed as opposed to surviving dying a slow, agonizing death.

That's true. For any normal person, the situations Dante encounters would be incredibly frightening. Plus, before it developed into its known form, DMC began as an offshoot of the Resident Evil series, didn't it?

.rai//

[Kkun]

That's true. For any normal person, the situations Dante encounters would be incredibly frightening. Plus, before it developed into its known form, DMC began as an offshoot of the Resident Evil series, didn't it?

.rai//

From what I read in EGM a long time ago, it started out as Resident Evil 4, but became so radically different that they gave it a new title and look.

[Sanderson]

I've been playing the full version of Left 4 Dead now, man this is seriously the most fun I've had with a game in a long while. Versus mode is a total blast, I enjoy playing as the Infected.

The other night we were at the second level of the first campaign. There were three Survivors left, two with yellow health and one with red. A Hunter was sitting next to the car, seeing if it would trick one of them into shooting at him causing the alarm to go off, and one of them fell for it. I was a Smoker and was standing on top of a rooftop, so right when the alarm set off I started pulling in the guy with red health. The two others were running to the safe room without looking back. Out of nowhere, a Hunter flew out from the building the safe room's in and pinned one of them down. The other guy kept on going, but then he got knocked down by the horde. It was beautiful.

[Htom Sirveaux]

I figured it worth mentioning here that I just started Siren: Blood Curse last night. As I said in the "What Game Are You Playing" thread, if Resident Evil were scary, it'd be like this.

[Stanton21]

Bioshock is pretty horrific

Agreed. Although it's predeccesor "System Shock 2" was equally, if not more horrific as Bioshock (the concept of an AI gone completely wrong sits as more chilling for me).

[The Liar XIII]

The old game Splatterhouse used to freak me out all the time.
Well.. III that is.

[Hitokiri]

I've been playing Left4Dead recently. That is pretty freaky haha.

[Jingo Jaden]

I just finished Dead Space. It was pretty freaky, but it was ok to handle in the end.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Agreed. Although it's predeccesor "System Shock 2" was equally, if not more horrific as Bioshock (the concept of an AI gone completely wrong sits as more chilling for me).

Bioshock? Horrific?

Naaaah. Bioshock was extremely sexy.

[Jingo Jaden]

I would not consider bioshock a horror game, but it does play on horror themes. Although I by far prefer Max Payne over Bioshock.

That being said, when I played through Dead Space I figured something out. There is alot of fear in that game, but relatively little horror. You are always on the egde waiting for some of the dangerous, yet minor necromorphs hunting for you. There always is this omni proximity of minor dangers lurking around which only demands a quick trigger finger. Great lighting, great buildup and fantastic music/sounds. However the hive mind, nearly always being in the background is not that much of a factor. And the priest ceartainly does not add much suspence on his own, nor do the logs. I did also see the plot twist comming.

If they would have utilized stronger character bonds. A greater sense of corruption and backbone to the story. Not to mention have a more active antagonist visible. That and highlight the survival theme a bit more would have maked a great game a masterpiece. I love the care they have put into the game looking at quite a few developer clips.