Post by nujumkey on Oct 1, 2016 16:53:44 GMT -6
So before i ask the question here is some context. The other day i finished Limbo by Playdead who also made Inside, and i have to say it's a very interesting game. At first it was very spooky, and then less so.
For the first half i found it terrifying. The monochrome pallet leaves a lot of dark spaces of unknown horrors in the game, and the atmosphere had a lot of creeping tenseness to it. You spend you time wandering through the forest clearing puzzles while being chased by giant spiders and malicious kids bigger than you. At multiple points you do some pretty nasty stuff like pulling a spider's leg off to use in a puzzle. It genuinely scared me on multiple occasions, and i found the game hard to play for long sessions at a time. I figured this was the principal appeal of the game, it builds a bunch of tension, then something scary comes after you, then you solve a puzzle to defeat the stop the scary thing from getting you, all while mentally freaking out.
However at one point in the game you enter into a building, and the levels become more oriented around cold machinery and kogs. You spend a lot more time playing with water levers and gears, and the game got a lot less creepy. I was allowed to sit still and take my time breaking apart systems and figure out what i wanted to do with them, which is the kind of experience i expect from point-and-click games. There was no longer the looming threat of spiders or douche children to scare me into constantly moving forward, and the game went from *run-from-scary-thing game to *slowly-complete-complicated-puzzles game. Sure the pallet was still monochrome and the game plunged you in darkness on occasion, but i was a lot more comfortable with the game at that point. I have to wonder is that some failing on the games part, or an intentional shift to mix up the game.
I have some more thoughts but i'll give people a chance to reply, what makes a game scary?
Is it the overarching atmosphere, the spooky music, the structure of the game, the puzzles, the sense of a looming threat, or maybe something i haven't considered yet? Would love to hear your thoughts.
Also if you haven't played Limbo by Playdead I'd give it a strong recommendation. It's a very atmospheric platforming game with puzzles, a lot of atmosphere, and no dialog. It costs $10 on Steam.
store.steampowered.com/app/48000/
For the first half i found it terrifying. The monochrome pallet leaves a lot of dark spaces of unknown horrors in the game, and the atmosphere had a lot of creeping tenseness to it. You spend you time wandering through the forest clearing puzzles while being chased by giant spiders and malicious kids bigger than you. At multiple points you do some pretty nasty stuff like pulling a spider's leg off to use in a puzzle. It genuinely scared me on multiple occasions, and i found the game hard to play for long sessions at a time. I figured this was the principal appeal of the game, it builds a bunch of tension, then something scary comes after you, then you solve a puzzle to defeat the stop the scary thing from getting you, all while mentally freaking out.
However at one point in the game you enter into a building, and the levels become more oriented around cold machinery and kogs. You spend a lot more time playing with water levers and gears, and the game got a lot less creepy. I was allowed to sit still and take my time breaking apart systems and figure out what i wanted to do with them, which is the kind of experience i expect from point-and-click games. There was no longer the looming threat of spiders or douche children to scare me into constantly moving forward, and the game went from *run-from-scary-thing game to *slowly-complete-complicated-puzzles game. Sure the pallet was still monochrome and the game plunged you in darkness on occasion, but i was a lot more comfortable with the game at that point. I have to wonder is that some failing on the games part, or an intentional shift to mix up the game.
I have some more thoughts but i'll give people a chance to reply, what makes a game scary?
Is it the overarching atmosphere, the spooky music, the structure of the game, the puzzles, the sense of a looming threat, or maybe something i haven't considered yet? Would love to hear your thoughts.
Also if you haven't played Limbo by Playdead I'd give it a strong recommendation. It's a very atmospheric platforming game with puzzles, a lot of atmosphere, and no dialog. It costs $10 on Steam.
store.steampowered.com/app/48000/