Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs Discussion Topic Part 1

[the dark side]

No Hirnwirbel, i havnt played "the void" i am afraid, it sounds brilliant though, atmospheric and challenging, ill definatly get searching for it (age is no issue, as ive got a Dual OS on this (xp 32 and win 7 64, switchable) sounds like id really enjoy it, thanks for the suggestion my freind.

indeed, "bump on the head" is now a total cliche, its never worked well either as its such a contrived bit of writing, the only time it has worked is NOLF, were it was treated with humour.

yes, the chinese room will almost certainly stay away from cutscenes, wich is good, seeing as the player needs to feel the horror is happening to them in a horror game, so, the game has to stay in first person, and "first person" cutscenes are about the Cheapest and most boring game mechanic Infinity ward has ever cursed us with. so i agree, Interactive storytelling in the style of "Dear Esther" is the perfect way to go with horror, Cutscenes only really belong in shooters and RPG, and even there they Really need to be third person as then you can tell the "villains" side of the story and the "backroom support" side, not just the protragonists, wich really cheapens the story and limits the scope, it can even make the story fail to make sense.

speaking of chinese room, i hope Nigel Carrington is doing some VO for AMFP, i can listen to him all day!

i like your underwater idea, indeed, water incursion would ruin all of your supplies, forcing the player to dump them as useless, and indeed, as AMFP is set in the Victorian times, were factories were powered by Giagantic Newcome And Watt Beam type Steam Engines, there would be need to be a giant resevoir fed by a river at some point, to slake the unending thirst of the gigantic boilers that make the steam for the pig machine. so its a very logical and realistic inclusion.

indeed, underwater sections, in the games they are in, are always tense, as you cant see much, and sound is both amplified, but also heavilly distorted, it is the perfect environment for Horror. remember how tense the sunken frighter was in NOLF, all the creaking metal and the sound of the sharks swimming around looking for a Cate Archer flavoured Snack? that level had a proper scary atmosphere, and its not even a horror game, (although its nowhere near as scary as "ice station evil" in Nolf 2, that one is a full bore horror level!) so, if a non horror game can be made pretty creepy by having an undwater segment, an underwater segment in a proper full blown horror game would probably sent the old heart rate absolutly Stratospheric.

i dont know why there arnt many Underwater Horrors, i think there was one on the original Playstation..but im sad to say its name escapes my right now, as indeed, underwater is a perfect horror environment, and ideed, Lovecraft was rather fond of "terror from the deep" style stories himself.

we need more underwater segments in games, and thats all genres.