It gets a lot better. If you never made it to the hospital you didn't see half of the scary shit the game had going.
This is very, very true.
The early parts of SH3 are the weak ones. The hospital, fairground and church are amazing.
And I don't find Project Zero that frightening simply because I've seen a lot of j-horror, and it does reuse a fair few ideas from the better films of the recent new wave. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that, but I'm less likely to be frightened by something I've seen before.
Trye, the Ringu bitas and Ju-On bits didn't do a lot for me. But nothing compares to the creaking stairs at the beginning of the first game for me. I felt they more then made up for the copy-cat scared they used/did homages to.
Anyway, your objection to the monsters in Silent Hill is clearly more a question of your own preference. The Monsters in it aren't trying to be like Alien- they're trying to be like Hellraiser, which is an entirely different (and equally valid) take on horror.
Well, yeah, that's what this thread is about. Preference.
And are we talking about horror or are we talking about what's scary? As far as I'm concerned, over the top gore will never ever be scary. It's just gross. That's what Hellraiser does too much of and what Silent Hill is in danger of embracing completely.
There's also an explanation for the monsters in 3, or at least a hint of one.
In 2 I would have thought the reson for them was obvious, given how emblematic of sexual frustration most of them are.
I'll spoiler this just in case:
The monsters in Silent Hill aren't frightening because you can or can't see them. They're frightening because of what they say about the person who sees them, given they don't appear the same or even at all to each individual
Like I said, I love the idea behind Silent Hill; that our foibles and repressions are basically hunting us down. But they're just TOO numerous; it's like Hellraiser crossed with Gremlins.
Still, I'll go to my grave saying Silent Hill is worth playing. Not the 4th one tho. I just think FF is scarier is all. Ya see. Which is odd since, thinking about it, Silent Hill is just so much cooler it's not even funny.
The monsters in Silent Hill are all meant to by symbolic of something related to the story. Warped versions of physical aspects and representations of events or emotions. Silent Hill only becomes really interesting if you invest yourself in the mythology and metaphysical aspects of the universe. The series as a whole has an untold number of layers and interpretations, and the story is never wholly clear. It is not so much the visually unknown that is disturbing, but the mentally unknown.
I've often heard people complain about the series, saying stuff like "well, why did this and that happen? What the fuck is that? That doesn't make sense!" The answer is invariably very logical once you understand the purpose. You get as much out of Silent Hill as you're willing to put in. The storytelling mechanics and the dialogue (and most certainly the gameplay) has its ups and downs, but the creative quality of the world that is presented in the series is of unquestionable quality as a work of horror.
Cherrn on
All creature will die and all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai.
And are we talking about horror or are we talking about what's scary? As far as I'm concerned, over the top gore will never ever be scary. It's just gross. That's what Hellraiser does too much of and what Silent Hill is in danger of embracing completely.
See, I don't think the gore is what Hellraiser's about at all. It's the psychology behind it, once again. There's a significant gap between it and gore-filled junk like, say, Saw.
The monsters in Silent Hill are all meant to by symbolic of something related to the story. Warped versions of physical aspects and representations of events or emotions. Silent Hill only becomes really interesting if you invest yourself in the mythology and metaphysical aspects of the universe. The series as a whole has an untold number of layers and interpretations, and the story is never wholly clear. It is not so much the visually unknown that is disturbing, but the mentally unknown.
I've often heard people complain about the series, saying stuff like "well, why did this and that happen? What the fuck is that? That doesn't make sense!" The answer is invariably very logical once you understand the purpose. You get as much out of Silent Hill as you're willing to put in. The storytelling mechanics and the dialogue (and most certainly the gameplay) has its ups and downs, but the creative quality of the world that is presented in the series is of unquestionable quality as a work of horror.
And in being so hokey and hauglhaughla symbolic they become clown shoes.
Silent Hill enemies are the clown shoes of horror games.
There's also an explanation for the monsters in 3, or at least a hint of one.
Do tell, I understood most of the monsters in 2, but most in 3 just seemed... out of place
That little line when Vincent says, asked about the monsters, "Is that what they look like to you?"
Since Heather is to some extent Alessa, and it's from Alessa's mind that all the twistedness of Silent Hill arose in the first place, the fact she'd percieve suitably messed-up monster things in place of either a) normal people/animals or b) nothing at all seems entirely reasonable to me
See this kind of thing is why I'm so fond of the series. It's not the jump scares and basic tension- it's the buried themes and psychology. You just don't get those in the rest of the genre.
The actual spoilered quote:
"They look like monsters to you?" Note that he then does a 180 and claims he was joking. Whether he was or not, they were real enough to kill people;
namely, Harry, although that may have been an unexplained exception.
The psychological mindeffery and such is a laudable twist on the usual survival horror song and dance, but frankly the bad writing and lackluster dialog kill a lot of it for me. The games tend to be at their best when nobody is talking. By the time I got to the big spoiler regarding James' wife in SH2, I honestly didn't care that much, because James had uttered some of the stupidest things I've heard a video game character say. Conversely, having pyramid head do nothing more than 'stare' at me from down a darkened hallway gave me the chills.
I know someone mentioned the original NES Friday the 13th game, but did anyone ever play the Friday the 13th game for the Commodore 64?
They did their best to scare the shit out of you with what primitive technology they had.
As a camper at Crystal Lake, you find that Jason is wandering about YOUR camp killing your friends. Since you are apparently the only one in the woods with a set of balls, you have to go hunt down Jason before he kills everyone.
There were lots of disturbing parts, walking in to a new screen seeing Jason actually hacking up a kid... even worse... or better (better), YOU can hack up other kids. Jason is in disguise as one of your friends. The way to reveal if it is him or not? Hit them with a weapon. You can pick up random weapons hanging around, an axe, a machette, a spade, even a set of keys and track down Jason or just go to town on your friends. Jason's a fast one, and as more and more of your friends are killed, your terror bar increases. Some times, when someone is killed, you get this...
with an added blood curdling screech... it's kind of like the sound you hear on those videos that people send you when your supposed to stare at the screen for 5 minutes. Now, as an 8 year old playing this game, that is pretty scary
When you find him, you can take a few shots at him and he'll actually let you live for a while, he'll try to maintain the disguise, so intent he is on killing your friends... who knew Jason was such a master of disguise? After a few too many shots, he gets pissed and spends the rest of the time hunting your ass down. If you can kill him, you start the game again as a new kid. I think it might get harder. You can lose by getting killed by Jason, or letting all of your friends die.
Anyway, it's one of my favorites for the commodore.
badfish on
"What you had there is what we refer to as a focused non-terminal repeating phantasm or a Class 5 full-roaming vapor."
There's also an explanation for the monsters in 3, or at least a hint of one.
Do tell, I understood most of the monsters in 2, but most in 3 just seemed... out of place
That little line when Vincent says, asked about the monsters, "Is that what they look like to you?"
Since Heather is to some extent Alessa, and it's from Alessa's mind that all the twistedness of Silent Hill arose in the first place, the fact she'd percieve suitably messed-up monster things in place of either a) normal people/animals or b) nothing at all seems entirely reasonable to me
See this kind of thing is why I'm so fond of the series. It's not the jump scares and basic tension- it's the buried themes and psychology. You just don't get those in the rest of the genre.
The actual spoilered quote:
"They look like monsters to you?" Note that he then does a 180 and claims he was joking. Whether he was or not, they were real enough to kill people;
namely, Harry, although that may have been an unexplained exception.
The psychological mindeffery and such is a laudable twist on the usual survival horror song and dance, but frankly the bad writing and lackluster dialog kill a lot of it for me. The games tend to be at their best when nobody is talking. By the time I got to the big spoiler regarding James' wife in SH2, I honestly didn't care that much, because James had uttered some of the stupidest things I've heard a video game character say. Conversely, having pyramid head do nothing more than 'stare' at me from down a darkened hallway gave me the chills.
This is very, very true.
Mind you, it applies to an awful lot of Survival Horror, not just Silent Hill.
If only they were all like Forbidden Siren 2 and let you keep the original japanese.
And are we talking about horror or are we talking about what's scary? As far as I'm concerned, over the top gore will never ever be scary. It's just gross. That's what Hellraiser does too much of and what Silent Hill is in danger of embracing completely.
See, I don't think the gore is what Hellraiser's about at all. It's the psychology behind it, once again. There's a significant gap between it and gore-filled junk like, say, Saw.
i wouldn't even say Saw was about the gore, not the first one anyway (and the only one i've seen, since the others do seem to be about gore). It seemed more about the threat of it, or the kind of twisted mind behind it all.
Yeah, it's not a genre known for good acting, though there are exceptions. The first Suffering game was pretty good as far as dialog went, and had its share of disturbing moments - Torque's crime, and the player having a say in whether he actually committed it or not, was pretty well done. It also had rather imaginative creature design, with themed monsters that still posed a challenge. Of course it took the action route and can't fairly be called survival anything, but I think on the whole it's a good example of how psychological horror can be done.
Siren was interesting to me. The flow of the story and its puzzle-based solutions were a bit too frustrating for me to stick with it, but the ideas behind it are cool as hell, and it didn't feel like another Ring Redux. Just getting from one room to the next alive and undetected was a big deal, and sightjacking worked pretty well as a mechanic.
You walk into a frozen operating room, and get some wierd mist on you that slows you down. I turn around and think nothing of it,seeing no splicers. After investigating a desk, the mist comes again, I turn around and there's a crazy doctor splicing staring me in the face. A few frenzied shotgun blasts later he was down, but I was freaked.
Also; the part where you get the shotgun is one of my favourite parts of the game.
like when you go into the room and there is a row of 10, qand 5 minutes later when you come out they are gone.
bioshock wasnt about the 'BOO HAHA' scares, though it did have some killers. it was about creeping anxiety and worry. an atmosphere of pressure and dread.
scary games dont have to make you jump out of your seat, and just because you are worried about something doesnt mean you arent scared.
I wonder if it's just me, but I was always more creeped out by Half-Life than by Resident Evil and such. I know Half-Life isn't considered part of the horror genre, but it did have some genuinely creepy moments: dodging a Gargantua through the trainyard, for one, or the first time you see a Headcrab Zombie smash through a door and start clawing at you. That and little touches like hearing your Hazard Suit tell you "Minor Laceration Detected" after you get a faceful of headcrab.
Oh god... They Hunger was such an AWESOME!!! game. The atmosphere, and everything was spot on. For some reason hearing the radio talk about what's going on while you're hiding from a few zombies just gives me goosebumps.
urahonky on
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NocrenLt Futz, Back in ActionNorth CarolinaRegistered Userregular
Illbleed(Dreamcast) is one freaky game. Not really terrifying per se, but it can definitely get your tension up at points.
It's mostly silly comedic horror, but it freaked me out on more than one occasion.
Also, D and Mansion of Hidden Souls deserve a mention. Nothing outright terrifying, but definitely unsettling.
Illbleed was one of the few games I really wanted to play.
You could either run around and rescue your friends, or go the lone survivor route and get the real ending.
Nocren on
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
Illbleed(Dreamcast) is one freaky game. Not really terrifying per se, but it can definitely get your tension up at points.
It's mostly silly comedic horror, but it freaked me out on more than one occasion.
Also, D and Mansion of Hidden Souls deserve a mention. Nothing outright terrifying, but definitely unsettling.
Illbleed was one of the few games I really wanted to play.
You could either run around and rescue your friends, or go the lone survivor route and get the real ending.
No one is enjoying my Let's Play on SH2. Kills any desire I have to finish it.
It seems like the only LP's that get any real attention are the PC games and the real wacky ones. :P
'Serious' console games don't seem very popular for some reason.
(I'm still torn on whether I should bother finishing Dragon Force, even though I probably will anyway, because I love that game so much.)
And I still haven't played through Restless Dreams, so I can't follow it despite wanting to.
(I did beat the PS2 original.)
I know someone mentioned the original NES Friday the 13th game, but did anyone ever play the Friday the 13th game for the Commodore 64?
They did their best to scare the shit out of you with what primitive technology they had.
Another awesome, and very scary (at the time) Commodore 64 game was Project Firestart. It was the first horror game that I ever played and I was rather creeped out at the time.
From what I remember, you were on a spaceship that had been invaded by aliens. There were lots of shots of dismembered crewmen:
And scary music that played whenever an alien was chasing you. You didn't get much ammo, so all of the encounters felt very tense. I haven't played this game in years, but it is still creepy in my memory.
Pemulis on
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ViscountalphaThe pen is mightier than the swordhttp://youtu.be/G_sBOsh-vyIRegistered Userregular
edited October 2007
Shadowgate for the nes. Its not scary but the music is creepy as hell. I have yet to see another 8-bit game make me creeped out like that.
The music is still kind of awesome in its 8bit way.
Zork nemesis is fairly creepy for an adventure and zork game. A vengeful force killing innocents and not so innocents. Oh and getting a key out of some organs and then plugging some head into a spike and convincing it to tell you a secret. ya... creepy.
The whole start of the game is kinda easy but it gets hard when you begin traveling around. Then I kinda pussied out and gave up on it. "fuck this shit" I believe is what I said. I have two copies because its still awesome even though it fucking sucks.
I have played very little in the way of horror games. They tend not to interest me quite enough. I do like to read the plot synopses of them, though.
The only horror game I've actually played all the way through that I can think of off the top of my head was 7 Days a Stranger. Good freeware game. Got creepier than I thought it would be able to, at some points.
I know it has already been mentioned earlier in the thread, but STALKER was the scarriest game I have ever played. When I was in any underground part of the game, I would get jumpy and nervous as hell. After I got out of X18, I had to stop playing for a few days. I don't know why either. It is the only game that has ever done that to me. Sad thing is, it was completely daylight outside, and people where in the room with me. A game that can do that to me is the greatest game ever!
Congratulations. Survival Crisis Z convinced me within just thirty seconds (after seeing the opening video and typing in my name) that this is not a game I want to play alone at night when I'm this tired.
Have you tried compatability mode and checking your runtime files? Or maybe your files got borked up somehow during download - try givin' it another go and see if extracting from that works. The forum's forbidden on my end for some reason, so that might be a no-go for help.
Have you tried compatibility mode and checking your runtime files? Or maybe your files got borked up somehow during download - try givin' it another go and see if extracting from that works. The forum's forbidden on my end for some reason, so that might be a no-go for help.
I tried compatibility mode, didn't help and I already tried downloading again from a different site, still same problem. I have no clue about runtime files though, any suggestions on what to do there?
Echo Nights is really very frightening. It's so under appreciated. Where people will gush about Eternal Darkness, that games craptastic combat really took me out of the feeling of the game, and even certain bath-tub scenes did nothing to shock, scare, or frighten.
You randomly find spirits, ghost, spectral beings on the station. Something has caused their soul to linger a bit longer in space, than earth. And each person you encounter, has a small story. These range from as commonplace as your own story, newlyweds on a honeymoon to, daddy was fucking the babysitter and mommy didn't like that. Etcs. And although you never really fight the ghosts, there are puzzles abound to help make your trek fairly easy.
It's damn creepy. And it's in space. And I don't think anyone can hear me scream inside this huge space helmet.
Which is another thing that gets to you. You can see the helmet around your head, the breath you're exhaling that gets even more pronounced as you're frightened, running from some terrifying THING.
Helmet+Space=Claustrophobic
This scared me about as much as Silent Hill 2, Fatal Frame 1. Pick it up for 10 bucks, used at EB or some such. It's a real treasure, and in my top five scariest console games.
Posts
I've often heard people complain about the series, saying stuff like "well, why did this and that happen? What the fuck is that? That doesn't make sense!" The answer is invariably very logical once you understand the purpose. You get as much out of Silent Hill as you're willing to put in. The storytelling mechanics and the dialogue (and most certainly the gameplay) has its ups and downs, but the creative quality of the world that is presented in the series is of unquestionable quality as a work of horror.
See, I don't think the gore is what Hellraiser's about at all. It's the psychology behind it, once again. There's a significant gap between it and gore-filled junk like, say, Saw.
Silent Hill enemies are the clown shoes of horror games.
The actual spoilered quote:
The psychological mindeffery and such is a laudable twist on the usual survival horror song and dance, but frankly the bad writing and lackluster dialog kill a lot of it for me. The games tend to be at their best when nobody is talking. By the time I got to the big spoiler regarding James' wife in SH2, I honestly didn't care that much, because James had uttered some of the stupidest things I've heard a video game character say. Conversely, having pyramid head do nothing more than 'stare' at me from down a darkened hallway gave me the chills.
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
They did their best to scare the shit out of you with what primitive technology they had.
As a camper at Crystal Lake, you find that Jason is wandering about YOUR camp killing your friends. Since you are apparently the only one in the woods with a set of balls, you have to go hunt down Jason before he kills everyone.
There were lots of disturbing parts, walking in to a new screen seeing Jason actually hacking up a kid... even worse... or better (better), YOU can hack up other kids. Jason is in disguise as one of your friends. The way to reveal if it is him or not? Hit them with a weapon. You can pick up random weapons hanging around, an axe, a machette, a spade, even a set of keys and track down Jason or just go to town on your friends. Jason's a fast one, and as more and more of your friends are killed, your terror bar increases. Some times, when someone is killed, you get this...
with an added blood curdling screech... it's kind of like the sound you hear on those videos that people send you when your supposed to stare at the screen for 5 minutes. Now, as an 8 year old playing this game, that is pretty scary
When you find him, you can take a few shots at him and he'll actually let you live for a while, he'll try to maintain the disguise, so intent he is on killing your friends... who knew Jason was such a master of disguise? After a few too many shots, he gets pissed and spends the rest of the time hunting your ass down. If you can kill him, you start the game again as a new kid. I think it might get harder. You can lose by getting killed by Jason, or letting all of your friends die.
Anyway, it's one of my favorites for the commodore.
This is very, very true.
Mind you, it applies to an awful lot of Survival Horror, not just Silent Hill.
If only they were all like Forbidden Siren 2 and let you keep the original japanese.
i wouldn't even say Saw was about the gore, not the first one anyway (and the only one i've seen, since the others do seem to be about gore). It seemed more about the threat of it, or the kind of twisted mind behind it all.
Siren was interesting to me. The flow of the story and its puzzle-based solutions were a bit too frustrating for me to stick with it, but the ideas behind it are cool as hell, and it didn't feel like another Ring Redux. Just getting from one room to the next alive and undetected was a big deal, and sightjacking worked pretty well as a mechanic.
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
Also; the part where you get the shotgun is one of my favourite parts of the game.
like when you go into the room and there is a row of 10, qand 5 minutes later when you come out they are gone.
bioshock wasnt about the 'BOO HAHA' scares, though it did have some killers. it was about creeping anxiety and worry. an atmosphere of pressure and dread.
scary games dont have to make you jump out of your seat, and just because you are worried about something doesnt mean you arent scared.
I totally agree!
Those ones are just way off the chart in terms of out-and-out pure evil.
It's mostly silly comedic horror, but it freaked me out on more than one occasion.
Also, D and Mansion of Hidden Souls deserve a mention. Nothing outright terrifying, but definitely unsettling.
Did someone invoke my avatar? YOU CANNOT ESCAPE IT.
Illbleed was one of the few games I really wanted to play.
You could either run around and rescue your friends, or go the lone survivor route and get the real ending.
The real ending being completely messed up.
Steam Profile | Signature art by Alexandra 'Lexxy' Douglass
I own SH2 and have yet to beat it. I don't want to spoil anything on SH2, but I'll watch SH3.
It seems like the only LP's that get any real attention are the PC games and the real wacky ones. :P
'Serious' console games don't seem very popular for some reason.
(I'm still torn on whether I should bother finishing Dragon Force, even though I probably will anyway, because I love that game so much.)
And I still haven't played through Restless Dreams, so I can't follow it despite wanting to.
(I did beat the PS2 original.)
Those things gave me nightmares.
I actually thought RE4 was really scary. But it's the only survival horror game I've ever played. And I'm kind of a pussy.
Another awesome, and very scary (at the time) Commodore 64 game was Project Firestart. It was the first horror game that I ever played and I was rather creeped out at the time.
From what I remember, you were on a spaceship that had been invaded by aliens. There were lots of shots of dismembered crewmen:
And scary music that played whenever an alien was chasing you. You didn't get much ammo, so all of the encounters felt very tense. I haven't played this game in years, but it is still creepy in my memory.
The music is still kind of awesome in its 8bit way.
Zork nemesis is fairly creepy for an adventure and zork game. A vengeful force killing innocents and not so innocents. Oh and getting a key out of some organs and then plugging some head into a spike and convincing it to tell you a secret. ya... creepy.
The whole start of the game is kinda easy but it gets hard when you begin traveling around. Then I kinda pussied out and gave up on it. "fuck this shit" I believe is what I said. I have two copies because its still awesome even though it fucking sucks.
Blackened for TERROR! Jesus fuck, that was so disturbing when it chased you across screens with its smile. OH GOD, the rape smile.
Eh its not THAT bad. he just wants to "play"
The only horror game I've actually played all the way through that I can think of off the top of my head was 7 Days a Stranger. Good freeware game. Got creepier than I thought it would be able to, at some points.
I tried compatibility mode, didn't help and I already tried downloading again from a different site, still same problem. I have no clue about runtime files though, any suggestions on what to do there?
You randomly find spirits, ghost, spectral beings on the station. Something has caused their soul to linger a bit longer in space, than earth. And each person you encounter, has a small story. These range from as commonplace as your own story, newlyweds on a honeymoon to, daddy was fucking the babysitter and mommy didn't like that. Etcs. And although you never really fight the ghosts, there are puzzles abound to help make your trek fairly easy.
It's damn creepy. And it's in space. And I don't think anyone can hear me scream inside this huge space helmet.
Which is another thing that gets to you. You can see the helmet around your head, the breath you're exhaling that gets even more pronounced as you're frightened, running from some terrifying THING.
Helmet+Space=Claustrophobic
This scared me about as much as Silent Hill 2, Fatal Frame 1. Pick it up for 10 bucks, used at EB or some such. It's a real treasure, and in my top five scariest console games.