A Diskussion about "regenerative health" in horror games.

[spukrian]

Honestly, when first replying to this thread, I didn't read all of what Googolplex' friend had written, because I thought it was a bit tl;dr, but today I read all of it, because I have some extra time to spare.

System shock is NOT a horror. Never advertised as one,. You seem to be of the logic that “it has monsters, so it must be made more horrific”. No, just because a game has monsters, it doesn’t mean its horror. System Shock was ALWAYS advertised as a “Sci FI RPG with FPS elements” same as its sequel “bio shock” and its spiritual sequal (and about the only game to stand up to half life)

Two things:
1. I assume he actually talking about System Shock 2, as the first System Shock doesn't really have any RPG elements. Of course, I don't actually know how either of the SS games were advertized.
2. He's wrong about BioShock though, I remember quite clearly that they emphasized the scary aspects of the game from the start.

in "No One Lives Forever 2", there is a brilliant, if rather less than credible (but as the nolf series is a SPOOF of 1960s spy-fi and is not meant to be realistic, I don’t think credibility really counts all that much) level called "ice station evil"

That level scared the pants off of me the first time I played it. It still made me quite tense when I replayed it a couple of years ago.

2. The main character, rather than being a grown up male is a TEENAGE GIRL so you feel “protective” towards that character

I don't really like this. In a horror game you're supposed to identify with the protagonist, and if you feel the need to "protect" the protagonist instead of feeling that you ARE the protagonsit then clearly the game doesn't really aim for immersion. It would be making the same mistake as the new Tomb Raider.

3, your character is not only DEFENSELESS but is also CLUMSY, as a result, were as in penumbra or amnesia, you can get the hell away from a confrontation by running for it, you cant run for the hills in “tower” because “Jen” will fall over, and then she has HAD IT!

This sounds interesting. I would like to see something like this implemented in a first person horror game.