Frightening Ideas...

[TheCollective15]

So far, while playing through the game (and the Penumbra 2006 Tech Demo, I might add) the scariest parts were not when you were being attacked by enemies, but when you were afraid of being attacked by enemies...one of the spookiest parts in Overture was at the very end,

Spoiler below!

where you see the black figure at the end of the tunnel, and the lights shut down, one by one...my heart was racing, waiting for some weird figure to run up and attack me, like a zombie from Half Life 2...and, oddly enough, it was not that scary at all being bopped in the back of the head/strangled/captured, whatever it was that they did to immoblize you...

So, what specific (scripted) scenes do you think would fit Overture, and provide a great scare?

So far, I can think of a moment in the movie Signs, where the two residents are trying to find a coal shute in their basement to block off the aliens...eventually they find it, with flashlights dimmly illuminating the grate, their child standing just in front of it, but all of the sudden, seemingly out of nowhere, a camoflauged alien arm grabs the child and nearly kills him. Such a scene (without the child...) would be frightening in Overture...like, you have to go in to a specific door, with a cramped up hallway leading you there in such a way that you have only a few feet of space on either side...it is dimly lit...and from the grates on the side of the wall, something perfectly camoflauged makes a soft sound, you turn around, and this...arm/tentacle/whatever just moves toward you, then disappears through the grate...

Or, the developers could pull an Alien on us. One of those moments where you think you are perfectly safe, near the end of the game, only to have the horrific thing you were running from be just two feet from you. *shivers*

Or, there could be one specific 'enemy' stalking you throughout the entire game (kind of like a cross between the grey rock worm and the G-Man from Half Life 2, figuratively, of course...), and it could be viewing you from across a hallway, or through a large, dark window, etc....even a pair of beady, dark, red eyes staring at you from out of the black would be pretty spooky, under the right circumstances...

What do you think?

[EDIT] Out of 5 pages of threads, I have yet to see anything with this topic.

[Thaliur]

Red exes?

I like that pursuer idea. I felt that way about the voices in Episode one, by the way ^^

Maybe even some dust blowing down a hallway, that takes the form of something scary for a short time, can have some effect

[TheCollective15]

Red exes?

Howard 'bout some scary breathing, like in the Tech Demo?

(Yeah, that last play on words was pretty stupid...)

[zanexlol]

haha, seriously. when I read through your post I couldn't help looking over my shoulder every 2 seconds, seems like the game is getting to me :x

if I'd see someone through a window, at the end of a hall or w/e, it would prolly make me exit the game.
so yea, good idea

[Sepai]

being followed but not knowing who or what could work if done very subtle that the player don't get use to seeing them there or hearing them too often

[TheCollective15]

Yes, the 'thing' should not be seen anywhere near as frequently as the G-Man from Half Life, but it should be that creature whose presence is just felt, but only briefly...sounds/the occasional limb/red eyes would be okay, or maybe even a shadow, but you should not actually see it until the end of an episode, or even never at all...

That is where this game would do very well...not showing you the creatures, but making you fear their presence...for instance, the wolf (the very first time I saw one...) was especially scary, mainly because of the loud scream it made when I first exited one of the levels...the eyes, little, yellow beady things that they were, were quite frightening...although, they could have done better by having fewer wolves...being familiar with your enemies is perhaps the greatest thing that eliminates fear...if you continue living in the unknown, you will be scared out of your pants.

[Willbreaker]

Right, you want to have a higher spooky feeling by making you expect this monster to attack you at any second?

I don't know man.. Would you enjoy the game then or would you just think that it would attack when you were at a scary part? I kinda like it, but only if it was in a small part of the game, and not the entire game.

/Breaker

[TheCollective15]

That also brings up something else that I liked about the tech demo - the fact that whenever a scary moment came, it was not always accompanied by an enemy. If, for every single scary moment, you had an enemy appear, then you would know that the next scary moment, statistically, would have an enemy. The demo had the occassional scary moment without anything that could hurt you (think the light bulb exploding in your face, or the vent being burst open...none of these things physically harmed you, but gave you the sense that your environment was trying to harm you...you can always run away from a wolf, or a bat, but can you run away from your environment?). It kept you on your toes, because whenever spooky music started to play, there was no guaruntee that whatever it was you would encounter (if, in fact, there was something to encounter) would be a monster.

[Willbreaker]

Yea, you are right, the enviroment is awesome for creating a spooky feeling.

If you have played Vampire: The Masquerade then you know just that. Especially at the hotel part of the game. That's when I was scared the most and that's when the enviroment was hurting you.

/Breaker

[cEkIc]

Yeah that was actually the most scary thing i ever played in the all games, in the hotel u didn't even had to fight with anything but as willbreaker said it was the enviroment, when u looked between two big pipes and u saw a man with big axe walking toward u and then when try to face him he isnt actually there and a lot of other scary thing like entering a quiet room, the doors lock behind u and everything inside is starting to move and the light goes out...