'In the games of madness' discussions and FG in general

[Abion47]

Though, I would like they include some sort of weapons with scarce ammo which could only hurt and slow enemy A.I. with one shot. 4 or 5 shots could kill them or disable for the moment. The trick is to get and find the ammo, infusion cores, bullets etc., depending on game setting.

Having the weapon/ammo be scarce only partially solves the problem while introducing another one. If the weapon is fully available, then sure, it's less of a horror game and more of a slightly-scarier-than-usual action game. But forcing the player to look around and gather the weapons/ammo just turns the horror into a collection game. It's like when horror games have the "fill your flashlight with batteries" mechanic. It's annoying, and it ends up with either the player running out and having to scavenge around in the dark or with them having so many batteries that they may as well not even have the collection mechanic - either there are so few that the game becomes arbitrarily difficult, or there are so many that the mechanic becomes redundant. This is an issue of balance, sure, but the balance is largely dependent on the player's own pace, and short of virtually railroading the entire game, it's virtually impossible to balance a collection mechanic like this based around the player's own personal pace.

Personally, I think that with this style of horror games, the less that the player can actually do, the better (to an extent, of course). The more options the player has, the less scared they become, which is counterproductive for a horror game. On the flip side, the fewer options they have, the more they have to focus on what's in front of them, which gives them a much better opportunity to get immersed. If for example, the level layout of SOMA was similar to that of a game like Dishonored, players would find a safe location to scout out the level and plan the most effective plan of attack (figure of speech). Once they have a strategy, they are much more confident in how they proceed, which undermines the intended atmosphere. For an atmospheric horror game, the players are meant to try and inch their way forward, desperately trying not to attract the attention of monsters, while they try and figure out what the hell they are going to do next.

If anything allows the player to temporarily stun or wound the monster, it should be an option presented to them in the moment, like turning on the electricity while the monster is standing in a puddle, or hit the spotlights if the monster is used to living in the dark. This promotes more of an in the moment feel, and the player is rewarded for using their ingenuity and their surroundings to get out of a hairy situation. But if the player just has a "Press A to not die" mechanic whenever they feel like it, then encounters lose much of their intensity, and the game gets boring.