Silent Hills Thread

[eliasfrost]

Wasn't all scares scripted in the first game? I can't remember them having any emergent scares, except perhaps were the monsters would be the next time you enter an area. Or do you mean scripted as in actual cutscenes? To me, the teaser had roughly the same amount of scripted vs gameplay as the original silent hill, it only took control away from you 3 times iirc (the first time you wake up, when the scary lady turns up and when you wake up the last time).

[Froge]

Wasn't all scares scripted in the first game?

Only the introduction scene.

The first Silent Hill game was scary for a number of reasons, but scripted scares was not one of them.

[Streetboat]

what you've all really been waiting for

[eliasfrost]

Wasn't all scares scripted in the first game?

Only the introduction scene.

The first Silent Hill game was scary for a number of reasons, but scripted scares was not one of them.

I don't remember there being any emergent scares though, they were all intentionally designed to be displayed at a certain area with a very specific pacing between them. The acted sort of like anchor points between areas and parts of the game, they broke up the pacing albeit in rather terrifying ways.

But yeah I agree, the game was scary mostly because of its atmosphere, dodgy camera angles and awkward combat. But I enjoyed the scripted scares nonetheless.

[Wooderson]

I watched a non-commentated playthrough of P.T and it was pretty damn scary to me. The looping really played with my head and expectations. I don't expect the final game to loop as much as P.T though.

I think I prefer the first person perspective rather than third person.

[Froge]

I find first and third person horror to be almost entirely different genres. With first person, it's often very easy to not be scared just by pointing the field of vision at the ground (or anywhere away from the monster) and sprinting past everything. So to make first person horror scary, they really need to focus on making a terrifying atmosphere to make the player think it's never safe to look back up.

With third person horrors, it's all about the monsters. Since you're going to have to see the monster anyways, the only way to make the game scary is to create really, really horrific monsters (or disgusting environments), which Silent Hill excelled at.

I'm interested in how they're going to pull off first person horror, though.

[Wooderson]

Might be pointing out the obvious here but with First Person I feel more connected to the environment than in Third. I feel like it is me in the game and not just me controlling someone else in the game. And that makes it scarier.

Froge I know what you mean though, there is more responsibility on the player to play the game emmersively.

[Tiger]

I wish first person horror games would add the 'look around'-function that Arma has, where you hold in alt and move your mouse to look around you without rotating your body, so that you can look behind you while running.

[Ossie]

Sorry to say that I don't have a PS4 but have watched a few LPs of the game. It's not bad, although it didn't overly impress me. Perhaps I would appreciate it more if I could play it.

One thing that I find interesting is the lack of interaction with objects - when A Machine For Pigs was released many people were up in arms about the lack of object interaction (naturally they were comparing it to all the interaction in The Dark Descent). But with the PT Demo there is barely any interaction at all, but I have yet to see anyone complain about that.

Curious.

[Kreekakon]

One thing that I find interesting is the lack of interaction with objects - when A Machine For Pigs was released many people were up in arms about the lack of object interaction (naturally they were comparing it to all the interaction in The Dark Descent). But with the PT Demo there is barely any interaction at all, but I have yet to see anyone complain about that.

Curious.

It is likely due to two reasons:

1. This is a teaser demo, and meant to showcase the tone of the game in a greatly condensed, and held-back package. Therefore people won't be expecting too much out of such a demo.

2. This is Silent Hill which has not been particularly known for having an engine/gameplay filled with interactable objects. Amnesia on the other hand had such objects play a role in its way of immersing the player.

They are two different franchises, and people do not expect the same from them.