Castle Paradox

[Leonhart]

For you, what is your ideal horror game?
Do you like a horror game to have lots of LOOK OUT! moments?
Do you like it to have THERE'S NOTHING SCARY HERE BUT I'M SCARED moments?
Or do you like it to have THIS DAMN THING KEEPS ON CHASING ME moments?

Share your ideas, folks.
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The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on.
- Robert Bloch

[Gizmog1]

The main part of a horror game has to be a sense of dread. Firstly, this has to be done with environments that make you feel you're in a place you're not supposed to be. Resident Evil did this well, leaving diaries and journals around, and making doors locked. Secondly, part of it has to be a sincere fear of the enemy, and being forced to face them, either by running past them or gunning them down. For this purpose, your weapon has to be ineffective against them, or not have much ammunition, lest you get enough bullets, and be able to gun your way through, thus negating the fear. Being chased is good if used effectively, for instance being chased into a closed room, long enough to regroup, but KNOWING that you have to go out and face it eventually. Metroid Fusion actually did this pretty well.

[Tsunamidog]

I think a lot of good horror games have the feeling of 'theres no place thats safe' moments, that type of stuff freaks me out. Like in the Resident Evil's, you could feel perfectly safe in a room, and then BLAM! A zombie comes in and eats you. After stuff like that happens, every time you enter a room, your really uneasy.
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The Following Statement is True.

The Above Statement Is False

[The Wobbler]

[Jack]

i think the only resident evil where zombies/horrible monsters actually popped through doors or ripped them down (i think only the nemesis could rip doors down in RE3, and i never completely played thru 4) was on the remake of RE1 for gamecube. you'd run away from a zombie in one room and then on the other side of the door you would hear the zombie bashing against the door, and eventually the door would open (and then somehow close on its own). those wierd lizard type monsters would do the same, except they'ed complete smash the door down and come flying at you, which freaks the hell out of you with those camera changes.

anyways.. enough with this RE stuff..

silent hill was a pretty good game that freaked me out when i was younger. the part in the beginning where your in the poorly lit alley. eh, that freaked me out when those monsters popped out of nowhere.

the thing that can really freak me out, is when the situation is as real as possible. Saw did a pretty good job of being scary, without using paranormal entities. no matter what, the person that was placed in that psychos scenarios, could not get out without following the rules. half of the time it either meant hurting themselves, or someone else.

[Shadowiii]

[JSH357]

I prefer the older method of making horror scenes, like in "Psycho." The trick to pulling it off is psychology. Put the player/viewer in the character's shoes, and let him imagine more than he actually sees.

[The Wobbler]

[Machu]

[Gizmog1]

The player should never really feel safe, unless something is about to happen to him. All through Resident Evil (Remake And 4) I was waiting for something terrible to happen to me in one of the "Safe" rooms, just to teach me a lesson. I was hoping that a zombie'd kick open the door, or many of them would, or that they'd push a crate out from against the wall, and reveal a gaping pit chockful of them, and that when I turned to run, the door would open, and about a dozen of them would file in. Or, equally so, SHOCK. By shock, I don't mean loud noise, window breaking, and suddenly the killer is running down the hall like mad. I mean, like our heroine walks around the corner, the music stays perfectly calm, we hear a swish, and the knife plunges into her chest, and she falls over, and we see the killer stagger off looking for another victim, before any of it really registers as "oh my god, I liked her!" "Did he just kill her?!" "Holy shit, I think he killed her!".

Night Of The Living Dead had some of the best scenes ever for a horror movie, just due to the implications. There's a scene where a mob of zombies breaks open the door, and pulls someone out of the house, and into the mass of them. Imagine the most crowded school hallway you've ever been in, and the pushing and shoving, and weaseling that went on, and then imagine everyone is trying to eat you. Despair and Hopelessness are good, if used in moderation. There's nothing worse than a bunch of whiny heroes, but if they're faced with overwhelming odds, and admit, the odds are indeed overwhelming, rather than just loading their guns, and going outside shooting everything, it can be all the more powerful and dramatic.

Vampires and Zombies are my favorite I think, due to the fact that they can convert people who used to be your girlfriend, mother, pets, and even government figures into flesh-craving ghouls. I always love it when you build up a relationship with a character, only to have them be taken away (Though, I will admit, I tire of the whole "Kill me!" "Stop me before I kill again!" heroic tripe.)

[Tsunamidog]

Another game I fotrgot, which I thought was scary, was "Eternal Darkness" for Gamecube. What freaked me out was your player could go insane, and all kinds of bizzare things would happen out of no where.
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The Following Statement is True.

The Above Statement Is False

[Shadowiii]

[The Wobbler]

[Rolling Stone]

I want a survival horror game where the hero freezes in his tracks suddenly, turns around and slowly looks over his shoulder than says "LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!" So you, the player, turn and look behind you, and when you turn to look back at the television, the hero is laughing his ass off and going "You TOTALLY fell for it!".
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BANDIT REVOLVER, DOWNLOAD IT OR ELSE.

http://www.castleparadox.com/forum/gamelist-display.php?game=620

[Sephyroth]