Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Ryan390]

All this talk of Subnautica yet I found it incredibly boring (and a slow fps on the xbox) My son was playing it and I struggled to watch just endless swimming around pulling out weeds from the sea bed.

If you want a feeling of deep sea dread play X-com - Terror from the Deep or Bioshock

It seems to be a genre that still sells really well, personally I'm more than sick of the survival crafting genre it's way way, waaaay over done, 90% of the games released are survival crafting games on steam..
The sheer amount of choice is overwhelming, yet really they all share pretty much the same concepts..

[Arcagnello]

There's a million things you can't do in games... The whole point of a game (IMO) is to find a winning course of action within the constraints presented by the game mechanics. As long as the challenge of winning the game is interesting within the context of the mechanics, I don't see any reason why the ability to kill animals is required for a game to be good. I also don't think it makes a game bad, it's just another mechanic that can be included or not included, and has no bearing on the quality of the game.

Tbh, I think games with more constraints on player actions are often more fun because they end up being more challenging. If there is no reason to do things in a game and you just do whatever you want, I find it somewhat boring usually, unless the gameplay itself is super engaging.

Thank you, the game would've never been as immersive and frightening if we weren't in a position of weakness, and it's only perceived weakness as we can easily perma-freeze any enemy and slice it to death.
A weapon reassure the player in any game with enemies, case in point being Alien Isolation when you first get your hands on the flamethrower.

Thalassophobia and fear of the dark/unknown do most of the work, the sparse reef can be orders of magnitude scarier than the lost river just because of the environment, not knowing what could come for you but thinking you have no chance if it does.
But that's coming from someone who can't play Minecraft or Starsector at night, the intensity of irrational fears do vary between people.

You know what's worse than forced positions of weakness?

Having a weapon given to you, providing safety, only to find out it barely does anything and is basically a facade of your own hubris. It's a lot more sophisiticated than "hah, you only get this knife, now go out there!".

This exact same thing happens in Alien:Isolation by the way. You get the flamethrower and think it's just going to solve all your issues only to find out that the more you have to use it the more the alien will progressively ignore it up to the point when you may aswell not use it. It's (IMO) a lot more sphisticated and sadistic than just denying you even a false hope of things working out.

Actually, let me just give up one of the best scenes from Fate:Zero where the audience is introduced to "Bluebeard" and the concept of pure despair. (Start at 2:30 or even 3:25 if you're short on time, it loses much of the buildup and context tough). Just beware that it's not for sensible audiences despite being...well...anime and the stereotypes that come with it, namely the "cartoons are for kids" one.

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdxtZ6UxYVo

[close]

Edit: Okay. Let me actually quote the relevant thing "Bluebeard" says that fits into the point I'm making:

Some forms of terror are fresher than others.
The more intense the fear, the more the emotions die.
Terror, in its truest sense, is not a static state, but a dynamic one.
It is the moment when hope turns into despair.
Did you enjoy that?
The taste of fresh terror and death?

It seem we've seen the same string of videos talking about the subject in question, indeed terror is a more appropriate term, or even dread in some cases. I do know about Fate and was told that Zero is the most depressing part(had to go through VPN for that link though, blocked in some places).

Glad to see that we are in agreement, cheap horror and jumpscares are only worth reaction videos, creating the environment to place the mind in primal alert is where the work is, followed by luring the player into a false sense of security in order to plunge again.
I will admit that it is where Subnautica fails, as you only grow in confidence over time. True fear disappear in the lost river, nothing is out of sight, everything is well lit 24/7, and the only actual danger is running circles in front of you.

I do wonder what is your opinion on dread, such as "A quiet place" that decided hiding the monster until the last 15 minutes wasn't the point of the movie.

A Quiet Place felt more like a movie exploring a very interesting world than a horror. Sure it was built around murder aliens immune to most weapons but the dynamics they introduced were far more interesting than the monsters themselves. I'm eager to go watch the prequel whenever it comes out.

Going off on a tangent, my two favourite horror movies are Alien and The Thing. They're both almost twice the years I'm old back in time but there are very, very few movies topping those.
You'll probably not believe me but I actually liked both Prometheus and Covenant up to a degree, and the new The Thing movie had some amazing half practical half CGI moments.

I really wish they could properly reintroduce both franchises.