What would you like to see from Frictional next?

[Petike]

A stealth-based game set in World War One.

But seriously, I'd love to see something similar to this story adapted as a survival horror from the point of view of an average Joe (unarmed and easily killable, shocked and confused, hungry and desperate, with no other property left than his clothes and a few items in his pockets). Trying to survive an unexpected invasion of bizzare and terrifying alien creatures during the early months of WWI, all on your own, could be a pretty intriguing theme if done well, and in a painfully realistic fashion (no running and gunning or "playing hero", or any straightforward Hollywood happy endings for either you or humanity - instead, evasion like in Penumbra or Amnesia, and multiple endings, with maybe only one of them showing a small glimmer of hope at the end of the storyline, etc.).

Why would I like to see something like that ? Because I've never seen a movie or a game with the by-now clichéd theme of "mysterious alien monsters invade Earth, ZOMG !" done right : You almost always get a happy ending, where humanity triumphs, everyone is A-Okay and nobody pauses for even a minute to think about the possible psychological damage of such an event on the mind of an average human, let alone society as a whole.

I'm a firm believer in that even a clichéd-sounding premise or setting can be turned into storytelling, atmospheric, horror-filled gold... Frictional has actually proven that already : "An abandoned arctic base and a haunted castle ? Boooring..." anyone would say. But once you see the actual finished product... Making up original new settings and stories isn't really art. Rather, taking old, worn-out clichés and then subverting them in various interesting ways is art. In its purest form.

[ladoga]

I'd like to see some subtle psychological horror, avoiding cliches and searching new ways to scare.

Amnesia idea is quite nice...maybe taking it further. Imagine waking up somewhere in little girl's body...not remembering who you really are and why. Or pick what is really scary about losing your mind.

IMO the scariest stuff are the things you never see, ideas that take over your brain. Compared to that, howling and disfigured monsters are comedy...especially if overused. Superficially all is normal, but the mind is disintegrating...something very very wrong in details, maybe that could be a part of the recipe.

[Petike]

IMO the scariest stuff are the things you never see, ideas that take over your brain. Compared to that, howling and disfigured monsters are comedy...especially if overused. Superficially all is normal, but the mind is disintegrating...something very very wrong in details, maybe that could be a part of the recipe.

I agree with this. As for the monster stuff : Even the most generic monster imaginable can be made scary enough by making you go ape-**it over its implied presence and by a few sparse, but unexpected (I mean really unexpected) appearances.

IMHO, the best game to mercilessly play with classic horror themes was the Russian blink-and-you'll-miss-it survival horror Pathologic. No monsters or clear supernatural phenomenna to be seen, but the atmosphere was dense. Grimly realistic and surreal at the same time. It evoked a general feel of both material, societal and mental decay and... dread. I'd compare it with the great 2001 horror movie, The Others (starring Nicole Kidman). By the end of Pathologic, you felt similarly like in Penumbra : Reality and nightmares blended into one and you couldn't tell the difference. And the best thing was, that Patho's devs achieved this finale without resorting to cheap scares, monsters, whispers in the dark... or even darkness for that matter... It wasn't used once. Still, the whole mysterious town you explored in the game's story went gradually more and more unsettling.

Also, a great horror game would be one that was set in a sort of bizzaro world : Where people are fine at night, where the nights, evenings, and total darkness are calm, serene, even beatiful... but once the sun rises, everything starts to turn mysterious, horrific and uncertain. All creepy things happen in broad daylight (especially on nice sunny noons) and where you would expect them the least. Nightfall and grim rainy weather would be the only allies of your sanity.

[-[Badger]-]

The mindfuck aspects make this game what it is. and that is something, no matter what, should be included into what ever Frictional does next. But I think adding a few people to the mix might be nice. feed off of their reactions and state of mind as well. There is nothing more terrifying than being scared with someone else. Being alone is scary, but you will go from 0 to 60 of scared if the person you are with is more terrified. but to do this theyd have to spend lots of time on subtle character actions so it doesnt seem scripted and more genuine.

[Maggie]

I just hope whatever they do next will also be horror based, first person or otherwise. They do scary games very well, and I'm excited to see what other tricks they've got up their sleeves in this regard.

[RyuRanX]

I watched the gameplay footage of an early version and I can say I'm slightly disappointed with the final game regarding the interaction of the player with objects. In that version the player could interact a lot more with the environment, where all objects were movable and a lot of them were breakable.

I hope someone can "mod" it into the original game somehow. I'd love to replay it with full object interaction.

[CHANCEPHOENIX]

IMO the scariest stuff are the things you never see, ideas that take over your brain. Compared to that, howling and disfigured monsters are comedy...especially if overused. Superficially all is normal, but the mind is disintegrating...something very very wrong in details, maybe that could be a part of the recipe.

I agree with this. As for the monster stuff : Even the most generic monster imaginable can be made scary enough by making you go ape-**it over its implied presence and by a few sparse, but unexpected (I mean really unexpected) appearances.

IMHO, the best game to mercilessly play with classic horror themes was the Russian blink-and-you'll-miss-it survival horror Pathologic. No monsters or clear supernatural phenomenna to be seen, but the atmosphere was dense. Grimly realistic and surreal at the same time. It evoked a general feel of both material, societal and mental decay and... dread. I'd compare it with the great 2001 horror movie, The Others (starring Nicole Kidman). By the end of Pathologic, you felt similarly like in Penumbra : Reality and nightmares blended into one and you couldn't tell the difference. And the best thing was, that Patho's devs achieved this finale without resorting to cheap scares, monsters, whispers in the dark... or even darkness for that matter... It wasn't used once. Still, the whole mysterious town you explored in the game's story went gradually more and more unsettling.

Also, a great horror game would be one that was set in a sort of bizzaro world : Where people are fine at night, where the nights, evenings, and total darkness are calm, serene, even beatiful... but once the sun rises, everything starts to turn mysterious, horrific and uncertain. All creepy things happen in broad daylight (especially on nice sunny noons) and where you would expect them the least. Nightfall and grim rainy weather would be the only allies of your sanity.

Pathologic ?

I still have it somewhere on an external hard-drive ...

Gonna try it on my laptop.

thanx for the reminder.

[Petike]

Pathologic ?
I still have it somewhere on an external hard-drive ...
Gonna try it on my laptop.
thanx for the reminder.

From a technical point of view, it wasn't a fantastic game (graphically quite inferior even to Penumbra), but the atmosphere and story were very engaging, IIRC (it's been a long time since I played it and I only had it borrowed from a friend back then).

I think I played as The Bachelor (a young would-be doctor), one of the three characters you can choose at the start. I haven't tried the other two (one was a psychic young girl and the other a Siberian shaman or something). The game has a weird timeless feel to it, but the setting appears to be pretty much tsarist Russia, sometime in the early 20. century.

[ZIGS]

Pathologic is an amazing game. Amazing

[xiao]

PRESSURE!