1st person new horror style!

[ryabuz]

Hello there I'm new to this forum. I'm a hardcore pc horror gamer and I would like to discuss about 1st person horror game with no shooting or blasting, just running and hiding. So, I played Overtures Series and finished Amnesia The Dark Descent, and I love them all. Also played Slenderman and other free downloadable horror similar to this style.(hiding & running)

So found this new game, Outlast. Just started playing it for a while, still playing it, though the psychos are not so scary and they talk a lot, (Monsters in Amnesia for example is wayyy scarier and they are silence) but i found out it has a brilliant 1st person style (my opinion) compared to frictional games and other hiding & running horror games because it gives me some kind of different horror feeling..which make the protagonist more 'lively'.

What I mean by lively is that you can see your lower body, feet and shadow when looking down, and for me this make the protagonist more of a human character. Even when u open doors u can push it slowly like Amnesia (to give it sense of interaction in game) the difference is only that u can really see your hand opening it! For me this is really something new. And when someone/thing attack you, not just slashes on screen then disappear later, but remain to your body like the fingers being cut off in Outlast. Not saying Outlast is a perfect game, just agree with including the whole body to interact, and I haven't found yet other games in this genre (no shooting) like it! If u know tell me.. For me personally I would love Frictional Games to include something like this (details to the character himself) because the horror elements in Frictional Games are just perfect!

Because for me personally, playing a true 1st person horror game which involve hiding & running really depends on the player's interactions, feelings & senses throughout the game world. If its a shooting game I won't bother. Like us (you and me) in the real world we look at things in 1st person, and what do you see if u look down? Of course your whole body! So to feel real horror I believe to include the body of the player and make it interact.

Won't you like you, (the hero/protagonist in game) been given details as detailed the environment and monsters are? Why would u see the detailed monsters and shadows of the environment but u yourself doesn't even have a body? Like a ghost running from monsters. For me it's a big difference in achieving the horror feelings. U don't need to have guns or showing how you look like or even your voice talking whatsoever (which I agree in Frictional Games & Outlast), you only hear your heart pumping scared and the insanity meter increases..and running for your life hiding from your pursuer, not flying! Wont u agree?

However, as mentioned above I played Overtures and finished Amnesia The Dark Descent, love Frictional Games and still looking forward to play Amnesia A Machine for Pigs. Only that, Outlast triggered something as a player for me (like Mirror's Edge). If u don't agree with me than ok. And if you know other 1st person horror like Outlast, do tell me..

(This is just my imagination, skip it if don't wanna know) As an example, if there's another new 1st person horror game which the main character is a female, exploring a dark place alone with no weapon. You can hear your heartbeat thudding fast and your feet shivering from terrified with an eerie soundtrack. Wouldn't it make you feel more helpless compared to if your'e a male? For me, the sense of horror would be very effective, because female is obviously weaker than male. Or even if a monster grab you from below the floor boards or scratch you, its leaves scar/wound to your arm or legs (not only slashes on screen which is obviously your face) and u see your character walking haltingly or unsteadily with dripping blood/severed injure or even limbs being cut off! Wouldn't this makes it even scarier? It's just that this Outlast gave me some ideas of what real horror feels.

Thanks.

[Deep One]

FEAR did this in 2005

[Googolplex]

A first person game where you can see the body of the player may be an interesting thing, but I prefer when Frictional Games will stay the gameplay they did. An other design would mean to play something "conventional" and wouldn't feel like a true FG game. Important is to keep the gameplay.

Interactions work very well as they are. It would look a bit strange when you see the protagonist's arms holding an object. I think that wouldn't be an improvement.

[Alardem]

FEAR did this in 2005

FEAR had you play a superhuman killing machine, not a scared young girl. Haunting Ground, Clock Tower and Silent Hill 3 have got that covered.

But yeah, I'd like to see the protagonist's body in horror games - makes you feel less like a floating camera. Some liberal dose of gore would also help in making death something to fear and avoid, so long as it's not as stupidly exaggerated as Dead Space.

Hearing the Man-Pigs chewing on your corpse, or watching your own blood spill across the floor, would go a long way towards making death less enticing than an excuse to make monsters despawn.

[Mechavomit]

the main character is a female, exploring a dark place alone with no weapon. You can hear your heartbeat thudding fast and your feet shivering from terrified with an eerie soundtrack. Wouldn't it make you feel more helpless compared to if your'e a male?

Whoa, whoa, whoa, what the fuck does that supposed to mean? You're lucky this isn't Tumblr.



Jk, jk,
Giving the protagonist a body would mean loosing some of the mechanics we love so much. Interacting with stuff in Outlast was automated, with prerecorded animations. We wouldn't be able to open doors like in Amnesia with that.

But if it can be done without loosing the mechanic, then I guess that would be cool.

[Alardem]

Giving the protagonist a body would mean loosing some of the mechanics we love so much. Interacting with stuff in Outlast was automated, with prerecorded animations. We wouldn't be able to open doors like in Amnesia with that.

But if it can be done without loosing the mechanic, then I guess that would be cool.

Trespasser did it back in 1998. Awkwardly, but it can be done with modern technology.

[Deep One]

FEAR did this in 2005

FEAR had you play a superhuman killing machine, not a scared young girl. Haunting Ground, Clock Tower and Silent Hill 3 have got that covered.

And what does young, scared girls or killing machines have to do with anything? I thought this thread is about "seeing your own body in horror games", not about scared girls

[Alardem]

FEAR did this in 2005

FEAR had you play a superhuman killing machine, not a scared young girl. Haunting Ground, Clock Tower and Silent Hill 3 have got that covered.

And what does young, scared girls or killing machines have to do with anything? I thought this thread is about "seeing your own body in horror games", not about scared girls

Was responding to you and his invisible text. :p

[ryabuz]

Trespasser did it back in 1998. Awkwardly, but it can be done with modern technology.
[/quote]

Yeah, thanks. That's the point. To create an animated mechanism. Surely it can be done. Mechanism like amnesia, animated like outlast or fatal frame. Hope that someday game developers would try somethng like that.