New Horror Game By Bioshock Devs!

[TheErebus.]

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/bioshock-veterans-working-on-horror-game-where-you/1100-6427566/

So the veterans behind games such as Bioshock and Dead Space are working on a new came called "Perception". In this game, you play as a blind woman having to fend off and hide from an evil being known as the "Presence" an-

 

Ok this is sounding a lot like Amnesia. Like, with you having to hide from this dark entity that cannot be truly defeated in the conventional sense.

 

*sigh*

Whatever.

The article states that:

 

"Perception sees you playing as a blind woman--Cassie Thornton, aged 29--who must make her way through a mansion called Echo Bluff in Gloucester, Mass. occupied by a force known as the "presence." (Creepily enough, the "presence" is constantly surrounded by moths; it's schizophrenic; sometimes it sounds like man, other times a woman; it's always searching for you). Her only physical tools are her walking stick and a smartphone, and also her hearing. Every tap of the walking stick or sound creates a visualization that illuminates the world around you."

 

This is a very unique idea, I'm actually quite interested in this. There were other games similar to this, but none of them really tapped into the potential fear and horror that this game can bring.

 

Of course, I do hate the Amnesia type gameplay but it works here, so I can let it go.

 

The devs state that:

"All you can do when it's coming for you is run and hide; hop in a closet, get under the bed or the couch," he says. "And hope, pray that it just passes you by. The tension here is that you see through sound. So you have to very carefully weigh whether or not you should throw that vase down the hall to see what's down there because you could attract the presence."

Here's the trailer: 

 

And the devs has said this on how the story will work:

 

"The game plays out across a series of chapters from different eras, each of which explaining what terrible things happened at the mansion. Once these are completed, players travel back in time--and the mansion completely changes form, from its geometry to the people and spirits dwelling inside it. Gardner describes Perception as a narrative-driven game overall."

"She's been haunted by these visions of this mansion; every night she has nightmares," Gardner says. "She knows it's a real place. For months and months she's been trying to find where it is and what it all means. And so she ends up finding it one day and jumps on the first plane she can find; flies across country, and arrives right before this storm of the century, this blizzard. So she winds up being snowed in and has to rely on her echo-location and her wit to escape this presence."

I'm actually very interested in this game, it seems like a great idea.

Let's just hope it doesn't fall into the flaws that Amnesia had.

[DellSalami]

Interesting.

 

Too bad I'm a wuss.

[TheErebus.]

Interesting.

 

Too bad I'm a wuss.

Scaredy cat.

[DellSalami]

I have a very itchy alt+f4 hand, is all.

[TheErebus.]

I have a very itchy alt+f4 hand, is all.

THAT'S WHAT THEY ALL SAY

[VKhaun]

I was interested until I saw "Echo Location" allowing her to see dolls on shelves and entire rooms because she rapped her cane or a clock chimed. The end was also LOL. I don't know what I was expecting, but at that point they should have just made her psychic or something.

 

If what she's percieving isn't 100% accurate (like the end part was her fear and imagination filling in gaps) the coloration of the world should shift to indicate how "true" something is. Like white real close to you, getting bluish as it goes out and into dark grey when you're really uncertain.

[Iraoh]

very interesting, I'll have to try it out :D

1st I'll need a blanket/sleepingbag and some confidence.

[Arlayn]

I was interested until I saw "Echo Location" allowing her to see dolls on shelves and entire rooms because she rapped her cane or a clock chimed. The end was also LOL. I don't know what I was expecting, but at that point they should have just made her psychic or something.

 

If what she's percieving isn't 100% accurate (like the end part was her fear and imagination filling in gaps) the coloration of the world should shift to indicate how "true" something is. Like white real close to you, getting bluish as it goes out and into dark grey when you're really uncertain.

Or they could have just called it... Old Man Daredevil... too old to fight, but can still see stuff in weird ways.

[Acos]

"Friggin... butterfly wannabes" 

 

 

aaaand I'm sold. 

[Morec0]

Let's be honest, the pinnacle of horror games IS amnesia, because it's IMPOSSIBLE to be scared in a game when you can fight back.

 

This, though, looks VERY interesting. Very interesting toying with the idea of limiting the player's perception for scare effect, doing it in a way that's more than just shadow and flashlight. I feel like there ought to be a LITTLE more subjectivity on what is and isn't highlighted by sound, though - like because of the heater's making sound it's visible but there could be something right next to it that you can't see - focusing on a deeper player exploration experience by using the cane to reveal those things (in particular I'm citing the fact the doll was visible on the table, though it wasn't making any sound on its own at the time).

 

Have the player need to memorize certain location and objects at a glance or tap more frequently (which I'm guessing is what will summon the Pressence).

 

Also I was a big fan of the visual effects in the Daredevil movie.

[TheErebus.]

Let's be honest, the pinnacle of horror games IS amnesia, because it's IMPOSSIBLE to be scared in a game when you can fight back.

Silent Hill, Resident Evil, F.E.A.R.

 

IMPOSSIBLE EH?

[Morec0]

Silent Hill, Resident Evil, F.E.A.R.

 

IMPOSSIBLE EH?

 

Silent Hill, never played, but you ever try to fight back against Pyramid Head? And if I recall some of the more popular Silent Hill games were the ones that made fighting back difficult at best.

 

As for Resident Evil and F.E.A.R., at this point those two are the same kind of "horror" game as Dead Space and The Evil Within. As in, not. They're action games that wear the skin of horror tropes to provide a setting and enemies.

[TheErebus.]

Silent Hill, never played, but you ever try to fight back against Pyramid Head? And if I recall some of the more popular Silent Hill games were the ones that made fighting back difficult at best.

 

As for Resident Evil and F.E.A.R., at this point those two are the same kind of "horror" game as Dead Space and The Evil Within. As in, not. They're action games that wear the skin of horror tropes to provide a setting and enemies.

Seriously?

Resident Evil is anything but an action game wearing the skin of horror tropes. 

I've been scared S#&$less by the perfect form of atmosphere within the game, the fact that you need to decide on whether fighting back or running for life is what makes the game more intense and that it's actually based on survival and not hiding from your fears is what makes it a horror game.

 

Also F.E.A.R. had amazing atmosphere. It's the perfect blend of intense combat with frightening visuals and atmosphere.

Alright. 

I'm game.

 

Amnesia is by far the pinnacle of survival horror. To say that, is to ignore the flaws of the game.

Read all I have written.

Amnesia:

Ah Amnesia…how much I don’t care for you. To me this game is very over-rated.

 

The atmosphere for the game is quite creepy…in the beginning. I remember going down into one of the first puzzles, and then immediately seeing a shadow of something that wasn’t human and I was freaked out. I didn’t know what it was and it scared me to no end.

 

And then I saw the damned thing…and I got freaked out.

 

Yeah, I’m not gonna lie, the first time I saw it I got scared. That thing was not what I expected to see. But the keyword here is “the first time” because afterwards, I saw the same enemy again. And again. And again and AGAIN. There was no variation to the enemies, and as a result you no longer feel afraid of the same thing that pops up in your face constantly. So whenever I saw these things, I didn’t think of them as something that I don’t want to even get close to, I just saw them as the same boring enemy from every single CoD game.

 

Now you can make the suggestion that because you are supposed to avoid the enemy and not be seen by it, by this logic, you’d be more afraid of them regardless of their appearance. There is some truth in this; however, behaviour-wise the enemies in the game are as plain a wheat-bread. It’s them just looking for you, if they see you, they come after you until they lose you. It’s basic, and gets the job done, but fails to make the player feel especially anxious when they are around.

 

My next point is: the lack of survival in this so-called “Survival Horror”. In the game, your only method of survival is by avoiding the enemy and running away to hide if you get spotted. There is no form of combat. Which at first sounds great right? Combat derives from the fear factor because it’ll all be blam blam kabowy Call of Battlefield. Well that’s only from an un-educated point of view.

 

The fact is, combat can work in horror games and if used effectively, can improve the game and make it much more enjoyable than if it had no combat. The whole point of Survival Horror is to survive, and while hiding away from your prey is a form of survival, it doesn’t translate that well into horror related media. With hiding all the time, all you do is simply avoid your fears. This is not effective in trying to evoke fear. When all you can do is avoid the fear and the enemy, all that’ll happen is that they won’t need to experience the fear and terror of having to fend for themselves.

 

This is especially true in Amnesia, you’re in a castle. A castle. And I’ve had people tell me that even if you could fight back, the environment wouldn’t let you. Well I say BS to that, because I’ve come up with ways to add more survival and tension.

 

You’ve been spotted by the Gatherer in Amnesia.

You decide to run but you see a statue with a sword.

You decide to take the sword, you notice it’s incredibly weak and it’ll break when used once.

The enemy is coming after you still, so you decide to use the sword.

You slash at is head, injuring it, the sword breaks.

The enemy is stunned for about 5 seconds.

Leaving you time to hide or escape.

 

That is how you can add survival and combat while still evoking fear. You cannot kill the enemy, but you can stun them in rare moments when you are given an item. You can take the item with you and use it at your own choice when needed, hell, you can even use chairs to wham them over the head and stun them for 10 seconds. This is how a human would try to act; they would run but still try to fend for themselves. That is survival.

 

The story is good. It doesn’t try to scare you but it certainly does horrify and intrigue you, so I think the game has done well on this.

 

In direct contrast, a game like Alien: Isolation does what Amnesia has done and makes it 100 times better. There’s actual survival involved and even combat AND YES THE GAME IS STILL SCARY.

Edited May 26, 2015 by TheErebus.

[DecapitatingJim]

Silent Hill, Resident Evil, F.E.A.R.

 

IMPOSSIBLE EH?

Silent hill I'll give you.

 

Resident evil is barely a horror game, I play them to shoot things. I play a horror game as an action game. Hell a friend and myself started using them in lans. Besides, when you get a shotgun the game might as well just roll the credits, because one shot can clear out half a room and the game/s just become a joke from thereon in. 

 

Fear is just....no. A game can not be scary when you have enough weapons to shame libya, and have bullet time. That, combined with tripping over health pickups basically turns the game into the matrix with a little girl. It also has the problem that a lot of them are set pieces that require you to look in a certain direction, and a lot of the times I wasn't because I was too busy scrounging around for health kits and bullets. Some of the spooky scenes I didn't actually see till my second or third playthrough. 

 

I get to each their own, but Amnesia was definitely a step up compared to most horror games. Most of them are basically action games with #*($%%@ up enemies, and no game can be scary when you're carrying around weapons that would make the american military blush. I'm looking at you dead space, giving us a pistol that can murder everything even vaguely murderable, and a grenade launcher. 

 

Combat works in Silent hill because it's difficult, and generally best to avoid it. The controls suck and the enemies are bullet tanks, and anything above generic monster will shove a big pointy thing up your backside and use you as a window cleaner if you try to fight it. It also has nonstop symbolism and serious atmosphere. RE and Fear, after the first few missions you've seen everything the game has to offer, and ambushes get to the point I was counting down in my head to when the next ambush would happen. They're predictable which is why they fail.

 

Amnesia gets predictable but it takes longer, and it has the atmosphere to help soften it. Don't tell me the first time you heard the thing approaching and you had to hide in a cupboard you weren't evacuating every mental bowel you had. 

 

Didn't meant to have such a huge wall of text.

 

On topic, sounds interesting but I was sorta bummed out that you can see. When I read that you would be blind I thought it would be 100% darkness, and you had to navigate using only audio and feedback, like footsteps and bumping into things with your cane. 

Edited May 26, 2015 by DecapitatingJim

[TheErebus.]

Amnesia gets predictable but it takes longer, and it has the atmosphere to help soften it. Don't tell me the first time you heard the thing approaching and you had to hide in a cupboard you weren't evacuating every mental bowel you had. 

 Read: 

And yeah, the first time I heard I felt tense.

But the 5th time after that?

Yeah it was just another day in the office for me.

Amnesia:

Ah Amnesia…how much I don’t care for you. To me this game is very over-rated.

 

The atmosphere for the game is quite creepy…in the beginning. I remember going down into one of the first puzzles, and then immediately seeing a shadow of something that wasn’t human and I was freaked out. I didn’t know what it was and it scared me to no end.

 

And then I saw the damned thing…and I got freaked out.

 

Yeah, I’m not gonna lie, the first time I saw it I got scared. That thing was not what I expected to see. But the keyword here is “the first time” because afterwards, I saw the same enemy again. And again. And again and AGAIN. There was no variation to the enemies, and as a result you no longer feel afraid of the same thing that pops up in your face constantly. So whenever I saw these things, I didn’t think of them as something that I don’t want to even get close to, I just saw them as the same boring enemy from every single CoD game.

 

Now you can make the suggestion that because you are supposed to avoid the enemy and not be seen by it, by this logic, you’d be more afraid of them regardless of their appearance. There is some truth in this; however, behaviour-wise the enemies in the game are as plain a wheat-bread. It’s them just looking for you, if they see you, they come after you until they lose you. It’s basic, and gets the job done, but fails to make the player feel especially anxious when they are around.

 

My next point is: the lack of survival in this so-called “Survival Horror”. In the game, your only method of survival is by avoiding the enemy and running away to hide if you get spotted. There is no form of combat. Which at first sounds great right? Combat derives from the fear factor because it’ll all be blam blam kabowy Call of Battlefield. Well that’s only from an un-educated point of view.

 

The fact is, combat can work in horror games and if used effectively, can improve the game and make it much more enjoyable than if it had no combat. The whole point of Survival Horror is to survive, and while hiding away from your prey is a form of survival, it doesn’t translate that well into horror related media. With hiding all the time, all you do is simply avoid your fears. This is not effective in trying to evoke fear. When all you can do is avoid the fear and the enemy, all that’ll happen is that they won’t need to experience the fear and terror of having to fend for themselves.

 

This is especially true in Amnesia, you’re in a castle. A castle. And I’ve had people tell me that even if you could fight back, the environment wouldn’t let you. Well I say BS to that, because I’ve come up with ways to add more survival and tension.

 

You’ve been spotted by the Gatherer in Amnesia.

You decide to run but you see a statue with a sword.

You decide to take the sword, you notice it’s incredibly weak and it’ll break when used once.

The enemy is coming after you still, so you decide to use the sword.

You slash at is head, injuring it, the sword breaks.

The enemy is stunned for about 5 seconds.

Leaving you time to hide or escape.

 

That is how you can add survival and combat while still evoking fear. You cannot kill the enemy, but you can stun them in rare moments when you are given an item. You can take the item with you and use it at your own choice when needed, hell, you can even use chairs to wham them over the head and stun them for 10 seconds. This is how a human would try to act; they would run but still try to fend for themselves. That is survival.

 

The story is good. It doesn’t try to scare you but it certainly does horrify and intrigue you, so I think the game has done well on this.

 

In direct contrast, a game like Alien: Isolation does what Amnesia has done and makes it 100 times better. There’s actual survival involved and even combat AND YES THE GAME IS STILL SCARY. 

Edited May 26, 2015 by TheErebus.

[Morec0]

 Read: 

And yeah, the first time I heard I felt tense.

But the 5th time after that?

Yeah it was just another day in the office for me.

 

Well that's simply the age-old merit of "familiarity breeds contempt". Of course the fifth time you encounter something isn't going to be as scary, and your solution isn't going to change that. If anything, it'll make the time it takes LESS because you'll be looking to identify everything you can use to stop the monsters and then just use them. Scrounging the area for these items when its safe and then just marching through, using them to keep the monsters at bay.

[DecapitatingJim]

 Read: 

And yeah, the first time I heard I felt tense.

But the 5th time after that?

Yeah it was just another day in the office for me.

I did read that and I do agree with that. But it still has that initial sting, which is generally a F*** ton more effective than other horror games, which basically go "Blurb that was weird" and then is never thought about again. Amnesia is one of the few games that gives you pure dumbfounded terror with the first encounter and the lack of combat only exacerbates it, you know if the monster finds you. You. Are. Dead. In other games if the monster finds you, just shoot the bollocks off it and you can be on your merry way. 

 

Almost all horror games become another day at the office after a while. The best of the best can keep you on your edge for the whole thing, but those are so absurdly rare you can't really count em. My merit of a good horror game is one that can firstly scare me, which Amnesia did. Secondly scare me more than once, which again Amnesia did. And how effective the initial scare is. 

 

In Amnesia it's effective as F*** because it takes a while but you know something is there. In Dead space within the first 5 minutes you already have a body count. 

Edited May 26, 2015 by DecapitatingJim

[TheErebus.]

I did read that and I do agree with that. But it still has that initial sting, which is generally a F*** ton more effective than other horror games, which basically go "Blurb that was weird" and then is never thought about again. Amnesia is one of the few games that gives you pure dumbfounded terror with the first encounter and the lack of combat only exacerbates it, you know if the monster finds you. You. Are. Dead. In other games if the monster finds you, just shoot the bollocks off it and you can be on your merry way. 

Most horror games are effective upon a first sitting, Amnesia isn't any different.

Plus, Penumbra did it before Amnesia even came out yet I hear no one singing its praise. 

Edited May 26, 2015 by TheErebus.

[DecapitatingJim]

Most horror games are effective upon a first sitting, Amnesia isn't any different.

Plus, Penumbra did it before Amnesia even came out yet I hear no one singing its praise. 

I edited in some other things

 

"Almost all horror games become another day at the office after a while. The best of the best can keep you on your edge for the whole thing, but those are so absurdly rare you can't really count em. My merit of a good horror game is one that can firstly scare me, which Amnesia did. Secondly scare me more than once, which again Amnesia did. And how effective the initial scare is. 

 

In Amnesia it's effective as F*** because it takes a while but you know something is there. In Dead space within the first 5 minutes you already have a body count. "

 

It's a shame that Penumbra doesn't get more love because it was a creepy as F*** game. It was Amnesia before Amnesia was mainstream basically. 

 

Also I disagree with the most horror games thing. Especially triple A titles, because by the time the game comes out pretty much every monster in it is public knowledge. The first time I played Dead space I knew everything there was to know about the Necros, including what they looked like, how they moved and attacked, and where to shoot. Horror is derived from the unknown, and almost nothing in triple A is unknown by launch. 

Edited May 26, 2015 by DecapitatingJim

[TheErebus.]

"Almost all horror games become another day at the office after a while. The best of the best can keep you on your edge for the whole thing, but those are so absurdly rare you can't really count em. My merit of a good horror game is one that can firstly scare me, which Amnesia did. Secondly scare me more than once, which again Amnesia did. And how effective the initial scare is. 

It scared me twice, thrice and more.

But it lasted as long as my first sitting of it did, which was about 9 hours. 

In the first of those 9 hours, I had only been scared because I didn't know what was there. Nothing was there whatsoever for me to be afraid except for that one shadow.

 

I got scared beyond belief. But then...

I've already said everything that has been said. 

I honestly cannot say anymore without repeating myself.

[DecapitatingJim]

It scared me twice, thrice and more.

But it lasted as long as my first sitting of it did, which was about 9 hours. 

In the first of those 9 hours, I had only been scared because I didn't know what was there. Nothing was there whatsoever for me to be afraid except for that one shadow.

 

I got scared beyond belief. But then...

I've already said everything that has been said. 

I honestly cannot say anymore without repeating myself.

Agree to disagree then. 

[TheErebus.]

Agree to disagree then. 

Opinions.

There are flaws in Amnesia, this there is no denying.

And on a previous thread, someone said something that I agree with:

 

"Amnesia was a foundation, but Alien: Isolation was the game that perfected it"

[DecapitatingJim]

Opinions.

There are flaws in Amnesia, this there is no denying.

And on a previous thread, someone said something that I agree with:

 

"Amnesia was a foundation, but Alien: Isolation was the game that perfected it"

That's a very good way of putting it. Amnesia was indie though so budget would have been an issue.

 

As far as Isolation goes, I actually don't find it that scary because Aliens are just a joke to me now. AVP letting me mince up Aliens left right and center, and Colonial Marines being so appallingly bad, has sorta tainted aliens for me. Now every time I go to get killed I just giggle at the little mouth. If they had replaced it with a feral koala or something I would have been more scared. 

 

Mechanically Isolation is incredible, but because it's an alien game it's sorta wasted on my end :|

[notlamprey]

 

I liked the first Dead Space.

[TheErebus.]

 

I liked the first Dead Space.

It was ok.

Wasn't scary in the slightest, but it was fun.