What do you guys think of this current trend of "Walking" horror games? Games where you just walk and hide...

What do you guys think of this current trend of "Walking" horror games? Games where you just walk and hide. Is it good for horror or bad?

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Horror games with combat are stupid.

How so?

horror stems from feeling powerless
combat may take away that feel

Yes, but getting caught by the oogie boogie scary monster jump scare straight to a Game Over screen also takes away from that feel.

No it doesn't, it emphasizes the feeling of powerlessness. The problem isn't combat existing period, it's horror games making their combat about killing the enemies instead of it being a tool to avoid them. Combat should feel desperate and impossible but it should exist if you want to make it a game.

Horror games with combat limitations are the best.
RE1 vs RE4 in terms of shooting: 1 is far scarier. Headshots with shotguns where you have to wait until that zombie is so close first really got the blood pumping.

>mom said it's my turn to play

desu I am thinking I've played too many horror games, either that or the next one that comes out I need to make more of a big deal about it (lights out, headphones, ect)

I feel that horror games with combat besides Silent Hill have more jumpscares because the feeling of horror isn't as strong due to having guns and usually a decent fighting chance
> The problem isn't combat existing period
I didn't imply that, just said that it may take away from the feeling of horror because most horror games can't balance the two well.
Which is what this user probably meant > Combat should feel desperate and impossible but it should exist if you want to make it a game
I get what you mean but would it have any purpose if it's next to useless?
Combat should be used as a last resort in horror games, imo, if at all
Too few horror games utilize traps which, I think, are effective way to combat the monsters without taking away from horror too much

soo having no weapons is better? i fundamentally disagree. alien isolation was a good attempt but still failed. these walking simulators are BS and you know it. it removes all immersion and keeps you on rails as a bitchboy playing a linear game.

You haven't played very many horror games then
Jump scares aren't inherently bad its the miss-use of them that is
Silent Hill has jumpscares

A good horror game should give the player a choice between fight or flight. What OP calls "walking horror" games are all flight, since you literally cannot fight your enemies. Games like Doom, RE4, and Dead Space would be considered all fight, since you literally cannot run from your enemies (in most cases).

I want a horror game with a sophisticated combat system that's almost completely ineffective against your enemies. I find myself scared most in games where I'm supposed to be able to defend myself, but because of the difficulty of the encounter I choose to flee instead. Like running into Bloodsuckers in STALKER or Deathclaws in Fallout. My first instinct isn't to fight those things, but to run the fuck away.

Jumpscares should exclusively be a method for punishing mistakes

No. The players should have a choice to fight back, but it should, in exchange for the sense of safety, be well restrained and often make situations worse, leading the players to feel they're in too deep for making the decision to fight back.
Any horror game that removes your choice to fight immediately gives some players a mental exclusion from the acts in the game.

I've played more than my share not many japanese horror games besides SH and RE though and yes jumpscares have their place if used sparingly
More often than not I can tell when a jumpscare is about to happen since it usually follows the same routine

>Like running into Bloodsuckers in STALKER or Deathclaws in Fallout. My first instinct isn't to fight those things, but to run the fuck away.

I was with you up until you outed yourself as a casual.

Like FNAF?

funny thing is the original fnaf was unironically among the best horror game liked by Sup Forums before the reddit train scooped it up and scott become a sellout

>sellout
while I agree that the games got exponentially worse as time went on I have no qualms with people making bank off idiots.

Scott wasn't born to pleasure YOU, after all.

Op here, does anyone have any suggestions of games that manage combat and horror well? Me personally I feel that Alien Isolation nailed it.

horror games need to do more with audio
youtube.com/watch?v=4TaMqR8oLEU

I know I was there, I actually really enjoyed the idea of being stationary and jumpscares being used as a fail state in a horror game

I just want more games like top banana and shit

Resident evil 3 is the way horror should be done, yes you can try to fight but it should be incredibly difficult and skill based. You shouldn't just be able to beat things down or stun lock them like in some games. You should never be 100% truly safe, thats the thing I liked about re3, you actually had to time your presses to dodge otherwise you just got hit by Nemesis/zombies.

They can do immersion really well potentially so i think it's fine.

The first few minutes of Dead Space

Siren 1/2

do u have another link cos that dont work

see

Amnesia was actually very good.

Isn't that the shit that turns from a suspenseful horror game to a full blown american rock anime at the end?

>google top banana
what the shit am I looking at

I think they're okay. But I would like to see some more classic survival horror games where there's actual combat. There's been a severe lack of those in recent years.

Cowardly betas like you who are too chicken shit to face their fears head on disgust me

Big scary monsters are meant to be cleverly outwitted and destroyed, not ran from like a pansy

I prefer combat in horror but sometimes no combat works perfectly like in Welcome to the Game which scares the shit out of me

This. If you can fight back it's not horror, it's action or adventure. The point of horror is the lack of control

>Combat should feel desperate and impossible
I don't know, sometimes it's frustrating. Just like in SH downpour they purposely made shitty clunky combat system to make you "hopeless", that to me just enhanced the frustration.

You can literally run past most enemies in resident evil 4 and dead space

That's why despite being a puss that cannot even look at a horror game, I am able to enjoy Prey because I have a gun.

There are plenty of situations where you literally have to run from the enemies in Dead Space. Some rooms require you to clear them, but not all

Besides the Resident Evil franchise I haven't really plyed to much horror games since well.......they don't scare me.

I recently said fuck it and downloaded Outlast 2, its so refreshing. I love it at least while the novelty works.

Resident Evil 7 was a good mixture.
You had railroaded/scripted walking sim but not too much of while also having classic survival horror

The only situation you have to run from enemeis in dead space is the regenerator... you don't have to run from anything else. Even so you can kill the regenerator easily to slow it down whilst you run.

I don't play shitty games.

Play Cry of Fear and tell me it's not scary faggot.

Dead Space, as long as you don't go easy mode you will dread most combat

FnaF 1 and 4 are unironically good, all meme insanity aside. It's definitely a love or hate it kinda game, but it exploits tension and punishes refusing active participation excellently. 4 especially, since you have to rely on subtle audio cues, making you extremely vulnerable to a good jump scare.

There isn't anything wrong with jump scares if used properly and these two games do it right I think.

Jumpscares are possibly the cheapest mechanic in the entire history of video games and movies combined.
Like seriously who thought peek-a-boo was a reasonable thing to include in a medium consumed by adults?
The best horror games don't have jumpscares.

LOL, good joke. Plasma cutter literally the first weapon is op as fuck, all you have to do is upgrade it to max and sell all your ammo for other weapons.

Alien Isolation stops being scary about halfway in when you get the flamethrower

I like goofy/screamy indie horror, recommend me some, anons

>tfw you light an android on fire

Cry Of Fear and Afraid Of Monster really made me paranoid as fuck an I played it after experiencing plenty of horror games. I don't understand why people here hate it so much.

k

because Sup Forums, like most low T people, hates jumpscares because it screws up their frail hearts and nerves

Almost every horror movie with a monster has the protag defending themselves and killing the monster?

Why? Because cowards aren't likable protagonists and a lot of people's reactions to fear isn't always "eek I have to get out of here" but "fuck I need to kill that thing before it harms me"

Combat is great in horror games; Dead Space, RE, FEAR, Condemned, Doom 3. But it has to be balanced with the atmosphere and pacing or else the game becomes more about combat. It's perfectly fine to have weak weapons, strong enemies, limited resources to increase the tension, but running and hiding gets really boring after a while.

There's a reason why Silent Hill is one of the greatest horror games of all time. It's because it made the perfect combination of running, and fighting. You can run from most fights in Silent Hill, but you can also turn and fight, but in doing so you lose precious ammunition.

The problem with just fighting or just running games is that they don't induce panic. If you can always run, well, as long as you run you will be fine. If you can fight, well, as long as you fight you will be fine.

You'll notice that some heart stopping moments in video games are when you are confronted by an enemy that you can kill, but you may not have the power to do so. Fallout, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Silent Hill, RPGs, there's nothing like running into a being that you think you can kill, and then your mind turns to mushy panic as it now wonders whether it can actually win, and making decisions. Amnesia the Dark Descent, while being solely a run and hide game, capitalized this. It made it to where you may have to garner whether going for that lever is a good idea since the monster could round the corner. It creates tensions, and causes the player's otherwise strong mental calm to dissolve as they try to focus on the objective while. This leaves them open to panic, and terror.

But games like Silent Hill perfect the best of both worlds. You can't always run, you can't always fight. What happens if an enemy somehow traps you and you wasted all your precious ammo before? What happens if you are fighting an enemy and you miss, leaving you open and resorting to running?

This plays on the fight or flight instinct, a very real and instinctual part in humans. This is how you make humans fall into terror. Case in point, put objective, and force the player to use his mind for more than just "CLICK ON LE ENEMY XD" and "Time to run! :D". This causes them to loosen their resolve, and now as they panic from their own bad decisions, they now feel utterly hopeless, and weak.

Again, stop playing easy mode

The flamethrower barely has any ammo, if anything it ratchets up the tension because you need to be wary of using too much. Surely you weren't playing on anything but the hardest difficulty, right? Fucking pussy.

>The players should have a choice to fight back, but it should, in exchange for the sense of safety, be well restrained and often make situations worse, leading the players to feel they're in too deep for making the decision to fight back.

This is the hard part. Most "horror games" turn into monster shooting hero simulations when guns get involved. This removes the horror.

Poor controls do not increase horror. Looking at you Resident Evil and Silent Hill (older games). Restricted resources just up frustration, not horror, and turn things into an overglorified stealth game. Looking at you Dead Space. If I wanted Stealth I'd pop in Thief (Any!) or Styx: Master of Shadows.

The only games I have seen get it right are in the System Shock series. The monnsters are actively HUNTING you in this game. You can kill them, but this punishes you with more and harder monsters so you must choose wisely.

This also makes the game hard as nails. Going all Master Chief will get you murdered unless you're on the easiest mode. System Shock isn't very accessible because of this.

So game designers are stuck: accessibility and sales or actually scary?

Yeah...

This.
If you're distracted or relaxed, ANYTHING can scare you. Especially with exaggerated sound/music. It feels so cheap all the time.

The only worthwile "jump" scares are organic. Like flicking on a flashlight and revealing something that is scary in itself. No loud noise, just the player discovering something that makes him jump and NOPE the fuck out.

Jump scares in Cry Of Fear are not excessive imo and I would say that they are well placed, most of the game is actually just creepy stuff.

sounds like you oughta get into game dev stuff, user

...

I platinumed it on ps3, you fucking cuck lmfao

Just running from things isn't very fun game design either. It's boring and uncreative

>the size of that gun
yeah, not scared of shit in deadspace lmfao

I'm currently playing System Shock 2. It's pretty good but the "techno music" during monster attacks is really uncalled for I think.

Horror games without combat are stupid
Half the fun comes from beating the eldritch abomination with melee weapons, the other half is from the atmosphere

Theres nothing wrong with jump-scares

Lol you sure showed him xD

Some recent horror games that I liked are
>Fear + expansions, 2 is alright but 3 isn't even a horror game anymore
>Dead Space 1 (2 and 3 have strayed too far from the dead space formula)
>Alien Isolation
>condemned (2 wasnt as good)
>Outlast despite it being a run from the scary man game (2 sucked, I refunded it after an hour)
>amnesia and soma were alright but have no replayability at all

Man I really hope that movie is good and not just all special effects with no substance

After tons of sneak and run horror games RE7 was a real breath of fresh air.
I know theirs like one section where you need to sneak but the rest of the game was pure classic RE that I loved.
I hope we get more horror games like RE7 in the future.

That nigga looks very happy

Have you tried Penumbra yet?

Horror with combat is stupid, mostly because no horror game has gotten it right yet. A lot of the time the combat is either too strong so you're just mowing down zombies or too weak and you honestly shouldn't bother with it at all because it's fucking useless and frustrating as hell. God knows there are lots of horror games like Rule of Rose that would be WAY better without combat

>why can't I kill all these spooky dogs with these hammers I find everywhere?

I loved re 7 but Jesus was the story terrible. The old school gameplay made up for it though

>Nobody wants to make action horror games anymore because indie developers are too lazy.

Combat is scary, you just have to make it challenging and intense. Like Bloodborne.

>that horror part in a non horror game

Can some clever analyst explain why the well/graveyard in OoT or the woods in San Andreas or lavender town in red/blue were so damn scary?

Well yeah its RE the story is always terrible.

>Can some clever analyst explain why the well/graveyard in OoT or the woods in San Andreas or lavender town in red/blue were so damn scary?
Because everything else surrounding its wasn't

Time to capitalize on his ideas.

That's why I suggested System Shock getting it right. You can fight and in some situations should, but mostly it comes down to carefully watching your environment and knowing WHEN to fight and when NOT to. The pins and needles of not knowing if you're safe enough to hack that door or trying to decide if killing that beast so you can get past it is worth it is where it gets scary. Also Shodan is a mindfuck that makes GLADOS look almost kind. The mindfuck helps.

It's not pure fleeing like the walking simulators. And then there was Silent Hill Downpour: fleeing at it's worst.

It's not pure stealth like, well, stealth games. You can't and shouldn't fight in those when you're doing it right. There's a reason Thief has "Master mode" where combat = death.

It's a fine balance that is meant to keep you on edge. A balance that also is harder overall for players and designers.

Overture is really good, but putting only the evil wolves as enemies felt really lazy.
Black Plague is excellent until you get the "parasite" and you just wish he could shut the fuck up.

presumably because you didn't go into it thinking "this is spooky"

when someone picked up a copy of silent hill on the ps1 they didn't expect a kart racing game

Music and atmosphere can go a long way.

It's literally on PB, user.

>But games like Silent Hill perfect the best of both worlds. You can't always run, you can't always fight
You pretty much can always fight in SH. Besides some minor parts outside on the fog/otherworld where those flying fucks never seem to stop coming.or that part where it's dark and scary as fuck and you feel just like running to the mall or whatever

I actually just got that on steam last week but haven't gotten a chance to play it yet

Finished it.
It was scary at first but not later in the game

i'm already making an action/violence game, user, no desire to try my hand at pleasuring horror autists. Going for a more mainstream audience because I want fucking money

>You can kill them, but this punishes you with more and harder monsters so you must choose wisely.
That's not really true. Monster spawns are static per level.
Kill 20 pipe hybrids on the med deck, and the only thing that's gonna spawn is more pipe hybrids. You're not gonna get Xerxes shoving Cyborg Assassins in your face for going into combat.
And lets not pretend that the wrench isn't a 100% viable weapon that will two-shot everything up until your do start encountering robots and annelids. Allowing you to save money from not buying ammo and not having to worry about weapon condition.

If by challenging and intense you mean "can memorize patterns like in the old NES days OMG so creative and inspired!", then yes.

It was the 90's. Techno music was hard to avoid as it was super trendy.

I don't like it but I don't know a good way to make a good horror game without it or jump scares.

what's this? It looks fun

Oh dang didn't it had come out already, I guess its time to go download it

>mfw what he's holding is actually the most useless gun in the game.

In 2 it was OP, but in 1, the Pulse Rifle was garbage.