There have been many great horror 3D games but could a 2D game ever be considered scary?
What ways could a 2D game be made to be spooky, unnerving or tense?
Kings Quest 4 was pretty spooky at times. The unexpected happening at times with the Ogre and the Ghouls etc...
Well... The original Diablo was purely 2D. That was scary. The original X-Com games (the first two) were 2D and quite scary. Those darn aliens would make you jump. Had a bad habit of appearing out of nowhere and wiping out your team. The original Dungeon Master game was scary at the time. Not now of course but it was 2D despite the pseudo 3D appearance (so was Captive and a number of other similar games but none of those were scary). Still, if I put my mind to it I'm sure I could come up with more.
Anyone remember "Friday 13th" on C64? With the screaming and horror images when Jason killed?
Aliens on the ZX spectrum (the one where you rotated around the room) scared the hell out of me as a kid. It right made you nervous and was pretty close to scary.
With a similar feel was The great escape where you were a POW and had to escape. If you stopped doing anything then the bloke would carry on with what he was supposed to do (go to lunch, excersise etc) but it was *really* stressful to break from the routine and run off to do something crucial (snoop through offices for example). At one point I was so nervous that I probably waited a good half an hour before grabbing the controls and going for it. A real feeling of cowardice there, and really scary when you were afraid of being caught. Came very very close to feeling like you do as a kid when you are doing something you know is wrong and would get punished if caught. Brilliant :)
Cheers
I stoped playing the old alien vs predarto (not so chlid) because I was scary all the time, and I said myslef "you are not playing to get a heart attack!" =D
I remember when we were like.. 20 we played Resident Evil on PSone before we went to Disco (whcih was before 1:00), and we shat our pants at the scene where you once left the house at the back and there was this scary background noise...
Since I have kids, I'm too weak for all this.
I love the Resi games. Can't wait to see a 3D zombie on the 3DS!
Personally, I don't think any games (2D or 3D) are "scary." I've been brought up on a diet of horror movies and books and they are both scarier than any game I've played. Many do a very good job of creating tension and atmosphere, but for real scares, none suffice. Even the supposedly most terrifying of recent times, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, bored me silly.
However, one of the best horror game series is Project Zero/Fatal Frame - much more effective than Resi, Silent Hill etc. Wonderfully atmospheric. Weird as hell, but brilliantly done.
iam really like resident evil and all , but scary ....lol
diablo 2 scary ... no its a great hack and slay i like the butcher ....
real life is scary or ?
2d can perfectly be scary. haunted house on atari 2600 was a little.
Something not terror themed can be scary too, let's say POWDER the rogue like is quite scary too.
There was recently also a game , 2d platformer, where you wander around a house opening doors and burning monsters with a flashlight. It is indie and free, can't remember the name.
You can also separate the 'scary' into a more specific emotion, some games can scare you by surprise, others can mount tension and so on.
Its strange what can be creepy. I remember a friend of 16 saying that he found the Ghost House levels of Super Mario World made him feel like his SNES was haunted. He didn't like playing them alone. Heheh.
I've thought up a little list of potential ways a 2D game could be scary:-
- Mounting and maintaining tension in general seems a key factor.
- Being chased by something horrible against which there is no obvious defence always unnerves a lot of players.
- Being crept up on from a blind spot and surprised works well.
- Hidden or activated areas that will randomly contain something nasty once in a while helps nervous tension.
- Atmospheric music and frightening sound is a must.
- Well crafted creepy story.
- Very occasional "overloading" either with loud noise and/or sudden dramatic visuals and changes to the gamestate.
- Surreal or alien setting that seems hostile yet desolate/lonely.
A lot of the games mentioned have at least once of the elements above.
Do you know http://www.limbogame.org/ (http://www.limbogame.org/)
Quote from: Kitty Hello on 2011-Mar-25
Do you know http://www.limbogame.org/ (http://www.limbogame.org/)
Now that is a good looking game. Watched an IGN review of it just now. Real gruesome :o in a good way :D
Just place a text that says:
"we have taken your phone number and sent a tax inspector to your home. Thank you."
Yes, even the simpler game can be scaaaary as hell.
Quote from: ampos on 2011-Mar-25
Just place a text that says:
"we have taken your phone number and sent a tax inspector to your home. Thank you."
Yes, even the simpler game can be scaaaary as hell.
LOL
Quote from: Kitty Hello on 2011-Mar-25
Do you know http://www.limbogame.org/ (http://www.limbogame.org/)
That's not scary, that's just hard to play because you can't see what the heck is going on! ;) =D
Actually it does look very interesting.
Imagine a top down game with an illuminated field of vision around the player, this is effectively what FPS shooters do in effect as you can only see a specific region based on your view. This way enemies will appear fairly quickly and help create tension as you don't wanna rush too quickly around a play area. Also the usage of panned sound and volume levels would help create orientation as to where enemies are to be pre warned but still provide enough tension knowing they can appear without warning at any time =)
QuoteImagine a top down game with an illuminated field of vision around the player
That's what I have in my 3d maze game now.
I only allow them to see 2 units away and they can expand that with 'light' powerups, to see further.
I don't do this to make it scary, just to hide further portions of the maze to make it more difficult to solve.
I also have a radar that can be expanded further with 'radar' powerups.
Radar could add a sense of scaryness, you could show them that an enemy/monster is near, but they can't see them yet.
Works especially well in a multi-layered 3d world, like Halo, where you know an enemy is near you on the radar but you don't know at what elevation. Then suddenly he drops down on you from above! I hate Halo! ha :giveup:
QuoteI remember when we were like.. 20 we played Resident Evil on PSone before we went to Disco (whcih was before 1:00), and we shat our pants at the scene where you once left the house at the back and there was this scary background noise...
The scene that scared the bejasus outta me was that first zombie encounter.
I was thinking..oh is that man ok ?, should i help him...oh gooooodddddd noooooo :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe6srxp1-9I
Film wise, The child vampire at the window in Salems Lot still to this day scares the hell outta me
and i first saw it when i was 12 :)
2D wise I think Kalle Marjolas Knights on the Amiga, it was basically a 2 player split screen game
and we used to put cardboard down the centre of the screen so we couldn't see each others screen area
and turn off the lights. You had a pre defined goal to retreive items from the dungeon and escape by a certain doorway,
you only see the room your in, there was no music and only the sounds of doors clanging when
you opened them, the scares were more tension than horror as you could be running through rooms
with all the swag heading for the exit when you run into your enemy who starts hacking you with
a sword.
http://www.knightsgame.org.uk/
Quote from: spicypixel on 2011-May-05
Imagine a top down game with an illuminated field of vision around the player, this is effectively what FPS shooters do in effect as you can only see a specific region based on your view. This way enemies will appear fairly quickly and help create tension as you don't wanna rush too quickly around a play area. Also the usage of panned sound and volume levels would help create orientation as to where enemies are to be pre warned but still provide enough tension knowing they can appear without warning at any time =)
Something like this?
http://www.appspy.com/i-found-you-review