New Game Design/Gameplay needed for dealing with Enemies in future games

[Fortigurn]

But that said, I definitely have noticed a trend in the overall feedback and critique from the critics and consumers that the monster encounters overall were not very fulfilling. I don't agree entirely...

This was a very well thought out and expressed post, thanks. I'll only make a few comments, and i tremble as I do so, in the full knowledge that I'm not remotely a computer programmer and I realize that it's a whole lot easier to sit down and think of "improvements" than it is to do the hard grinding work of coding them and making them work. I am certainly not here to tell the Frictional team how to do their job, or how to write their next game.

I think Frictional themselves would agree that the run/hide/sneak mechanic is getting a bit played out, and of course any attempt to use that game design will inevitably lead to comparisons to games that took said gameplay and ran with it full throttle, such as Outlast, or the much higher-budgeted Alien: Isolation.

I'd say the mechanic is totally sound, and it's still a very important feature. I just see the need for it being complemented with additional enemy AI mechanics, and enhanced with a little more variety in enemy behaviour.

What could be done though? I personally haven't the slightest clue, and I'm the last one who would ever suggest something like adding in "Combat" systems to such a game. I agree with the articles that have stated that Horror works best when it is nebulous and unknown, and by allowing you to fight back diminishes it greatly.

Totally agree.

The best I can think of is to take the ideas that I think were slightly here in SOMA, where Enemies were clearly thought out very well with how they fit into their respective environments, and run with them to the next level, such as using environmental puzzles and such to deal with enemies, or in certain areas, maybe make available the use of "weapons" to deal with something only in specific situations.

I would like to see a lot more made of the environment. A couple of inspired players realised that they could use the security systems to lock enemies into rooms. That's brilliant, that's actually emergent gameplay (which I think is the holy grail of top tier gaming), and it was made possible because of highly intelligent level design. I'd like to see a lot more of that. Locking doors, or blocking them with furniture and objects, all kinds of indirect ways of delaying or obstructing enemies. I see this as ways to"create some ways to keep enemies at bay somehow without breaking the feel of Horror".