Name: Anonymous 2011-03-12 23:32
The F.E.A.R. and Dead Space series are founded on the notion that Doom 3 is somehow a horror game. It's not. The Doom series has always been an action game spitting in the face of horror.
It's weird how big companies with really talented employees, can make everything else perfect, and still fail horribly in making a horror concept.
Monsters, violence and gruesomeness does not make a horror game.
Shooting monsters with heavy weapons detracts from horror. Shooting humans in F.E.A.R. makes it feel like I'm alternating between an urban war game and a horror game. You can't mix the two, and the designers seem very aware of that.
Disgusting the player distracts him from horror. Gore is not scary - it's just gruesome.
In the case of Dead Space, setting the game in outer space makes the player completely unable to relate, detracting from horror.
What's left is just monsters jumping out at you, and that's just startling, not horror.
Compare these games with horror movies. In how many horror movies (and zombie movies aren't horror movies) does the protagonist have a weapon, or even a gun?
It's weird to see a genre be unmade like this. The Grudge Haunted House Simulator was awesome, but not even the japanese developers believed in their own idea, because then they wouldn't have called it a simulator instead of a game.
It's really weird how guns and defeating monsters has to be mounted to everything. The Fatal Frame series had a weapon as well, but at least they tried to make it creative. Forbidden Siren introduces running and hiding from monsters, but even this series can't part from guns and fighting.
I remember System Shock 2 introducing neverending spawns throughout the game. That was awesome, because it didn't consist of predictable waves of monsters in "fight scenes". Unfortunately people are retards, and complained about the game having them face unlimited monsters with a limited arsenal. Apparently "it wasn't fun", because they couldn't stroll around putting up nice wallpapers in safe areas of the game once they had cleansed them from monsters, and the game "became unwinnable" if they threw away all their weapons and ammo, like doing so in any other game wouldn't. Maybe that's why firstperson shooters are so many: Because there are so many players who can't understand anything else.
It's weird how big companies with really talented employees, can make everything else perfect, and still fail horribly in making a horror concept.
Monsters, violence and gruesomeness does not make a horror game.
Shooting monsters with heavy weapons detracts from horror. Shooting humans in F.E.A.R. makes it feel like I'm alternating between an urban war game and a horror game. You can't mix the two, and the designers seem very aware of that.
Disgusting the player distracts him from horror. Gore is not scary - it's just gruesome.
In the case of Dead Space, setting the game in outer space makes the player completely unable to relate, detracting from horror.
What's left is just monsters jumping out at you, and that's just startling, not horror.
Compare these games with horror movies. In how many horror movies (and zombie movies aren't horror movies) does the protagonist have a weapon, or even a gun?
It's weird to see a genre be unmade like this. The Grudge Haunted House Simulator was awesome, but not even the japanese developers believed in their own idea, because then they wouldn't have called it a simulator instead of a game.
It's really weird how guns and defeating monsters has to be mounted to everything. The Fatal Frame series had a weapon as well, but at least they tried to make it creative. Forbidden Siren introduces running and hiding from monsters, but even this series can't part from guns and fighting.
I remember System Shock 2 introducing neverending spawns throughout the game. That was awesome, because it didn't consist of predictable waves of monsters in "fight scenes". Unfortunately people are retards, and complained about the game having them face unlimited monsters with a limited arsenal. Apparently "it wasn't fun", because they couldn't stroll around putting up nice wallpapers in safe areas of the game once they had cleansed them from monsters, and the game "became unwinnable" if they threw away all their weapons and ammo, like doing so in any other game wouldn't. Maybe that's why firstperson shooters are so many: Because there are so many players who can't understand anything else.