What would you like to see from Frictional next?

[Roy595]

I would LOVE to see something else with Daniel.

http://www.frictionalgames.com/forum/thr...l#pid92859

Oh wow, what could this mean I wonder?

From what I have gathered so far, I was under the impression they were going in a bit of a different direction. Less horror centered, and more emotional or something? But my information is a bit out of date.

Judging by what I have heard, I was hoping for a game more along the lines of Penumbra. By that I mean with more adventure, story, and a little less horror. I really, REALLY liked Overture. It had a mix of adventure, story, and horror that was JUST right and made for a perfect game. The last five minutes of the game was probably the most frightening of any other FG game IMO though. Overture was a game that had more of a natural horror than the paralyzingly horrifying super-natural of Amnesia that one is likely to feel being trapped and alone in a dangerous place.

I invested more emotionally in Overture and Philip than I ever did in Amnesia and Daniel. It spanned a range of emotions including fear (which Amnesia almost exclusively featured) and had some genuinely emotional moments: Red, Howard, Dr. Whatsherface, and the end being good examples. There were little things that made me fall in love with Overture and the Penumbra series in general more than Amnesia did. In particular I liked how Philip's thoughts were shared with us during loading screens, when examining objects, and during certain events. This made me connect more with Philip than Daniel. It also provided some good insight into his character and injected some humor into the game at particular parts. I also liked how Penumbra walked that careful line between making the character feel isolated yet providing the game with other characters the player cared about. This is something Amnesia did not really do. The only two prominent characters were Daniel and Alexander (and maybe Agrippa), but I did not come to truly care for them as I did for those in Penumbra. Amnesia was great: it was technically superior, had more features, and really capitalized on that horror to make it one of the scariest games of all time. But I felt that Penumbra was a better game and more balanced.

So, what would I like to see next from Frictional Games? A game with more adventure, horror toned down a little from Amnesia (but with an undercurrent of omnipresent horror), greater character development and emotion. Please share the characters thoughts with us and let us examine items for insights into the character like you did in Penumbra! I felt that present Daniel was a little flat (yes, I realize that he was supposed to) and I felt Philip was handled better. I also liked the creepy, surreal, reflective, almost purgatory like feeling of Requiem. Perhaps find a way to incorporate those elements into the next game? I liked the difficult combat in Overture, I actually liked how it was clunky and hard to fight (like it probably would be for those of us without Spartan training). It made us make a choice between fight or flight. I would like to see some way of fighting back (but very difficult like in Overture) in the next game. I realize this could take away from the horror because by giving a player any means to fight back, they'll find a way to make it easy. It would be nice to find a balance. Another player suggested that it should be set in the future, and I think that'd be a nice way to round out the games. Judging by the link above though, thats probably unlikely. However, a game set in space done right could probably be the most frightening yet. At least for me, Alien scared the crap out of me!

P.S. PLEASE keep the custom story thing! Also, maybe include elements from Penumbra and Amnesia for players to tinker with in the map maker?

[ThePatEmpire]

All stories Frictional have made up have been deep, immersing and amazing! However, I can't help but feel like the main characters seem 'rushed'. It may just been me being me (-_-) but I want to know what Daniel's reaaaally like for example. I think I would get so much more in the story!

[imgoneimdead]

What I want to see is something new and exciting. I hope frictional is just trying something new, and are going to make more horror games in the future. But it's time for a little break from horror don't you think? I want something great! For example, the game Bulletstorm had a new idea of doing really cool kills with the creative arsonal of weapons they give you. If their new game does something cool and fun like that, I will like them even more.

[Carrna]

I'd definitely like to see more horror from FG, since they've been creating the best horror on earth so far. I've got two kinds of reactions from other horror games after playing Amnesia and Penumbra:

1. They either feel too lame in general or 2. They lack the true fear and rely too much on dickmoves like sudden scares and I hate them so much, so_much. For example in Nightmare House, the creepy girl keeps suddenly appearing and disappearing for a split second and nothing else happens. That is so cheap and - after a couple of first jumpscares - it just makes me really irritated.

In FG's games there are exciting stories you want to know more about although you're scared to go forward. There's also characters you become more or less attached to, and they're normal people, have humane reactions of being scared and they're not soldiers with nerves of steel and who are trained to kill.

The atmosphere is truly frightening and it just won't go away even in places where nothing actually happens. And then ofc my favourite thing: you can't defend yourself. That's just brilliant. I simply can't be scared in games where you can blow your enemies to pieces with a bazooka. Plus being completely defenseless supports the illusion of being there as yourself and not just some fictional character you're controlling.

So, even if FG is going to do something else for a change I still hope they'd keep horror as their main genre. Since they totally know how to make it right.

[BlueFury]

They may not make their next game a real horror game, but S.T.A.L.K.E.R. wasn't a horror game either and scary as hell!