Suggestions for Future Horror Games

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~imagine full post here~

Yes, well...that's pretty much what I said, right? Or what I meant to say at least. Whatever, good to see we're understanding each other

I really think Amnesia suffered a little because it sort of cast away more complex adventure game elements where it was possible to get stuck in exchange for more flow when facing immediate physical threats, but Amnesia had its own strong unconventional challenge in the form of sanity and light management. Keeping your lantern off had a better guarantee of safety, as monsters were less likely to spot you, whereas turning it on allowed for more clarity and, in a sense, security. Light was a limited resource too, so you really had to judge when it was appropriate if you were stumbling through the campaign the first time, and this was an especially hard decision because no light meant draining sanity and less clarity, leading to more unsettling occurrences.

Yes, the light/ sanity challenge was pretty strong indeed. The only thing that kinda bothers me about it was that it was quite easy to get used to being insane. The longer I played, the less I was using the lantern because going insane wasn't as frightening anymore. So what was an interesting choice at first became a choice with an obvious right answer later (keeping the light switched off for more security).

I'm not sure how one could get around that problem, especially since simple gameplay repercussions (HP loss, movement speed etc.) wouldn't help at all. Maybe the effects of insanity could change during the course of the game to stay "fresh" or they could be integrated more into the environment. Since Amnesia has a strong story element, insanity could also be more "personalized" and make connections to Daniels past. Basically, whatever makes the player more afraid of the insanity itself, not of the consequences it might bring for gameplay.

[Zaffre]

~imagine full post here~

Yes, well...that's pretty much what I said, right? Or what I meant to say at least. Whatever, good to see we're understanding each other

I really think Amnesia suffered a little because it sort of cast away more complex adventure game elements where it was possible to get stuck in exchange for more flow when facing immediate physical threats, but Amnesia had its own strong unconventional challenge in the form of sanity and light management. Keeping your lantern off had a better guarantee of safety, as monsters were less likely to spot you, whereas turning it on allowed for more clarity and, in a sense, security. Light was a limited resource too, so you really had to judge when it was appropriate if you were stumbling through the campaign the first time, and this was an especially hard decision because no light meant draining sanity and less clarity, leading to more unsettling occurrences.

Yes, the light/ sanity challenge was pretty strong indeed. The only thing that kinda bothers me about it was that it was quite easy to get used to being insane. The longer I played, the less I was using the lantern because going insane wasn't as frightening anymore. So what was an interesting choice at first became a choice with an obvious right answer later (keeping the light switched off for more security).

I'm not sure how one could get around that problem, especially since simple gameplay repercussions (HP loss, movement speed etc.) wouldn't help at all. Maybe the effects of insanity could change during the course of the game to stay "fresh" or they could be integrated more into the environment. Since Amnesia has a strong story element, insanity could also be more "personalized" and make connections to Daniels past. Basically, whatever makes the player more afraid of the insanity itself, not of the consequences it might bring for gameplay.

Like, as in in the Storage, on low sanity, you'll see a girl running away at one point? Because that is where Daniel stabbed the escaped prisoner.

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Yes, for example. So when you go insane you're not afraid of dying or more monsters appearing, but you're afraid of all the weird, still unknown stuff that might happen now that you've lost your mind. I was also thinking about the things from Daniels past that are mentioned in the loading screens, like his abusive father etc.

[Zaffre]

Things like that, right. You might start hallucinating things from flashbacks, for example, when exiting the key room in the Archives you will see a dark shape of Alexander pulling a book or if you go into the room with the Cradle in the Transept, you might see the shadow of a man being lowered onto it. It's these things that cause the fear; not the insane versions of paintings and the scrunching noises commonly associated with Daniel grinding his teeth.

[Ghieri]

I agree, adding voices from Daniel's past would add a bit of character depth, even if they are just a passing mention.

After a while, the ambient sounds just became stale and part of the environment. Keeping it fresh would have been of benefit to the game.