92 réponses à ce sujet

[Wulfram]

Satyricon331 wrote...

I'm not a horror fan, but I'd like to see more to possession than the shapeshift+psychoattack that possession's given us so far... in a way that's still consistent w/ what we've seen (somehow).

Well, we've got Connor.

And Anders...

[EricHVela]

While I'm thinking about it:

Horror plays better in shooters than RPGs. Shooters often put you right in the shoes of the protagonist instead of watching a protagonist that you control.

Watching over-the-shoulder is as close as you can get to 1st person without actually being 1st person. Anything further away (such as having to see enough to control multiple characters) and you become a puppeteer instead of the victim, an outsider to the horror moment.

You need to be the one to be afraid for horror and not the one watching your toon be afraid.

So that's the problem: How do you create suspense in an RPG where players need to see enough to create strategies without excessive frustration?

[BubbleDncr]

The scariest thing to me in DA was the giant spiders in DA2.

I wasn't really affected by the deep roads/broodmother too much, I think because of the art direction, actually. I mean, the Broodmothers themselves were disgusting, but the entire journey towards them was relatively well lit.

Maybe if the deep roads were actually dark, and the only light source was a lantern or mage staff that the player was carrying, it would be more immerse and make me nervous. Depending on how much light it gave off, it would possibly limit the amount of strategic combat you could do, but I feel like that's part of the point. And since it would only be for one part of the game, maybe it would be small enough not to frustrate people?

But yea, if the deep roads continue being lit the way they are in DA:O and DA2, I don't think I'll ever be sacred or nervous traveling through them.

[Wynne]

First off: the two scariest levels I've ever played in any game occurred in the same series--Thief 1's The Haunted Cathedral, and Thief 3's Shalebridge Cradle. And I've played Resident Evil and Silent Hill, but I still point to Thief as the scariest despite my fondness for SH1&2&3&Downpour and RE1&2&4&CV.

It may be hard to tell from the videos, but THC was brilliant because of the voices of the Haunts, while even the parts of Shalebridge Cradle with nothing in them were somehow incredibly scary just because of what they did to my mind. Both levels dripped with atmosphere and I've never seen anything in a game to surpass them (I hear I should play Amnesia: Dark Descent a lot.) I crawled through Shalebridge at the lowest speed I could manage to move, barely daring to turn each new corner, terrified of what I would find around the bend! (I played at night, in the dark.) The environment itself was that frightening. The Cradle is not for the faint of heart. 

That short film was creepy. I'm very hard to actually scare, jaded as I am to all things but clowns, but it did give me the shivers. 

I would absolutely love to be horrified again in DA3, as I was during the Brood Mother segment. I prefer a pervasive gloomy mood to pretty cheery environments any day (though a contrast between the two can be nice). I would be giddy with glee if DA3 could make me feel like the Fade and the Deep Roads did when I read the Dragon Age novels. I don't think even DAO really achieved that atmosphere, except in the Hespith part.

Trista Faux Hawke wrote...

AUGH! That does sound scary.

It was. It was BRILLIANT. To this day, Vampire: the Masquerade--Bloodlines, flawed as it is, is still probably my favorite roleplaying game ever. I loved the tabletop, and the computer RPG was brilliant. The characters and the story and the quests and the character choices... I love that game. I still play it sometimes.

ReallyRue wrote...

I hope there's more creepy stuff. In addition to the Dead Trenches and Varric's haunted mansion, I found Legacy pretty creepy, especially the closer you got to Corypheus. But the Deep Roads creep me out anyway. The Fade had the potential to be MUCH creepier than it is. They really need to warp the reality to push it to disturbing levels, not just make everything brown and hilly. 

The descriptions of Ortan Thaig in the books, and that fortress thing in Asunder are very unnerving, if they created something like that in-game it would have me crapping my pants in no time. And that's a worthy goal!

 Agreed, and how! 

ReggarBlane wrote...

All they need to do is imply something. If they blatantly show us what is supposed to scare us, we can deal with it. If they don't, our brains overload trying to handle every possible situation.

Startle-response (aka "gotcha") isn't scary to me. Suspense is. Yet to be fair, one or two gotcha moments set the stage for more that you don't know if they're going to happen or not. Used correctly, gotchas can create suspense.

That mama video had good and bad points. The low quality at which I watched it masked a lot of details, forcing me to decide what I'm seeing. There was enough for me to deduce it was something terrible. The bad, the ending. A: Obvious'd. B: Too much detail.

The problem: How do you fight something in a video game that you cannot see clearly without it being down-right annoying?

 Take a look at the banshees in ME3. Pretty horrifying, IMO... probably because you know what they once were; you can see that in them, as you could see the humanity in the Brood Mother. As has been said in this thread, I think that is a major horror stimulator. An enemy need not be invisible to be frightening.

Making shadows cling to a foe but not completely conceal their form could work, or implying that weapons won't be enough against it--the likes of a DA protagonist can handle a lot, but not necessarily something that can get into their head and/or the heads of their friends, like the Fade and its demons. 

Modifié par Wynne, 19 septembre 2012 - 09:42 .

[Dagr88]

There is also that Ally-Enemy switch effect. Example (featuring Hawke and Isabela):
Lets say you stubble upon a corpse and dialog begins. Camera is zoomed so we could see Hawkes face and shoulders. Behind him/her stands Isabela commenting about the dead body. Camera shows corpse. The moment camera shows Hawke Isabela's sounds like Rage demon and her face is deformed. The closer she is to Hawke (closer to camera), the bigger is horror effect.

Modifié par Dagr88, 19 septembre 2012 - 09:38 .

[Wynne]

BubbleDncr wrote...

Maybe if the deep roads were actually dark, and the only light source was a lantern or mage staff that the player was carrying, it would be more immerse and make me nervous. Depending on how much light it gave off, it would possibly limit the amount of strategic combat you could do, but I feel like that's part of the point. And since it would only be for one part of the game, maybe it would be small enough not to frustrate people?

But yea, if the deep roads continue being lit the way they are in DA:O and DA2, I don't think I'll ever be sacred or nervous traveling through them.

How would it strike you if it was dark, but there were landmarks to help you not get so turned around you get frustrated, like faintly glowing lines of lyrium casting a spooky glow over shapes you're not sure if you're really seeing until they're up close? 

[Sylvanpyxie]

Here's a 3 minute horror film that managed to scare me worse than any full length high budget movie.

The scariest part of this video is the fact that, for the first of it, you know something is wrong but you're not shown exactly what it is. That sense of unease that causes you to tense and prepare for the worst is the perfect build up to pant-wetting terror.

Nothing is more terrifying the unexplained entity that you can see out of the corner of your eye or the inane ramblings of a woman who is portrayed as normal, but obviously not quite right - That's why Amnesia Dark Descent did so well as a horror game, you were put into a sense of constant unease, and that unease fueled your terror.

(It's also why Hespith's poem was so effective at creeping people out)

Modifié par Sylvanpyxie, 19 septembre 2012 - 09:51 .

[kingjezza]

Not sure horror is easy to pull off in RPGs, especially party based games like Dragon Age.

If you could pull off some sort of creepy caving mission that would be great though, things like The Descent and if you have read Ted the Caver, that sort of stuff creeps me out.

[AdmiralDavidAnderson]

Dubozz wrote...

What about elves?

Please bioware FIX THE ELVES!

[MelRedux]

Blair Brown wrote...

Trista Faux Hawke wrote...

Haunted houses are scary, if designed correctly. No mercy, you know?

Here's a 3 minute horror film that managed to scare me worse than any full length high budget movie. Maybe the DA3 hero could walk into a situation like this. Oh god. I would die. Seriously, this clip is scary. It's not bloody or anything. Just... very scary...



(please don't hate me after watching it all alone in your house, lol)

ahhh! why did i watch this!

Jesus fudgepops  *clings to dog*
No but seriously, more of stuff like this please.  Hespith was awesome,  zombie mom was awesome.  It's more than just ghost and floaty things.  Hespith and zombified Leandra creeped the hell out of me.  AND I LOVED IT.

[Reznore57]

There was a few parts in ME3 where you have to move in the dark with a little light.
It's kind of scary , even more scary when you can hear some banshee crying.

I wouldn't mind a bit of horror , not too much .But a good adrenaline moment.
I guess being trap ,in the dark , with something unknown after you works great.

Mostly as long as you don't know what's after you , but there's hint it's pretty awful and it's not here to hug you ....and you're in a vulnerable position (OMG I'm trapped , alone etc...)
It can works wonders.

Like the Blairwitch project things .

[berelinde]

Mel213 wrote...

I'd love to see more things like the quest with the Templar in Denerim.

That quest and the Hespith thing.

They don't have to be long. Short, creepy vignettes would be awesome.

[FieryDove]

Trista Faux Hawke wrote...

I hope DA3 puts a bit of horror into the storyline or a quest or two. I thought the Deep Roads in DAO (well, mostly the part where you meet Hepsith and then find the Broodmother) was horrifying.

I wouldn't mind being forced to crawl around a haunted house again. Just throw in some distorted stop-animation dead children chasing me down a hallway and my hero will have officially crapped her armor.  

Maybe they should get Guillermo del Toro in on this...

Ya agree on Hespith 100%.

Also:  Come come, Bonnie Lynne; Tell us tell us where you've been. So creepy!

[ReallyRue]

Trista Faux Hawke wrote...

Haunted houses are scary, if designed correctly. No mercy, you know?

Here's a 3 minute horror film that managed to scare me worse than any full length high budget movie. Maybe the DA3 hero could walk into a situation like this. Oh god. I would die. Seriously, this clip is scary. It's not bloody or anything. Just... very scary...



(please don't hate me after watching it all alone in your house, lol)

Argh, futons! I muted it to try and make it less scary. It didn't work. 
Scary films scare me very easily, especially when it involves people moving in unnatural ways and sort of zooming. But a section or two like this would be marvellous (seriously, you'd think demons would create stuff like this), and create paradises as a counterpoint to really give you a wtf moment.

Think I'll have to watch a bunch of comedy things now to get this out of my head...

[Wulfram]

If DA:O proved one thing, it's that poetry is creepy and evil

[Face of Evil]

Wulfram wrote...

If DA:O proved one thing, it's that poetry is creepy and evil

I didn't need DAO to tell me that. 

[Dr. wonderful]

Define Horror.

When I think I horror, I think of the unknown. Something that is all powerful and just...there. The Dark Roads didn't scare me...the fade?

Oh, yes. The fade scared me. That dark city in the background, just what the hell happened there? There are maybe, three things in the DA series. The Fade, those moving walls in the loading screen on DA2, and finally Corypheus.

"The light. We sought the golden light. You offered... the power of the gods themselves. But it was... black... corrupt. Darkness... ever since. How long?"

[piloteyre]

Hespith's evil poetry of impending doom was my favorite moment in DAO. Nothing like a disembodied voice and piles of cannibalized bodies to get your blood pressure up.

I liked DA2's haunted house, it was a nice change of pace. I'd like more hauntings/ghosts/actually scary demony stuff, if they're gonna add any horror aspects; zombies and darkspawn do nothing for me but an evil ghost will scare the s@&! out of me every time. The haunted hotel in Vampire:TM Bloodlines comes to mind (made the super smart decision to play that when my roommate was out, at like 1 in the morning. Spent the rest of the night with every light in the house on.)

ETA - just noticed the VTMB hotel got mentioned already! well, good to know I'm not alone in being terrified by that damn place 

Modifié par piloteyre, 19 septembre 2012 - 10:38 .

[Pedrak]

Things that spoil horror atmosphere:

1) Being powerful
2) Being in company


So, an effective horror quest should be early in the game, when the PC isn't still a killing machine, and possibly alone - for whatever reason, your party members can't come with you.

Thus you visit some creepy environment, and instead of fighting many conventionally diabolical enemies - those demons in DA2 were so many, they started to become mundane , and knowing you can club them to death kind of takes the sting out of it - you are faced with a creature never seen before and never to be seen again in the game. It lurks in the cave/house/whatever.

You get glimpses of it.

Maybe you get the sense it's chasing you, playing with you.

And although usually I don't particularly like time-based quests ( = I loathe them), here it could work - at a certain point you have a brief amount of time to escape from the location before it gets you. (Do you risk staying a bit more to recover some interesting loot? Or maybe to find a missing person?)

If you fight it, it tears you to pieces.

Modifié par Pedrak, 19 septembre 2012 - 10:45 .

[Satyricon331]

Wulfram wrote...
Well, we've got Connor.

And Anders...

Yeah, but I want more, and those two gave us even less.  W/o the shapeshifting, it was just a personality change (plus glowing eyes and weird voice for Anders).  There should be creepy/sinister things happening in advance of or together with a possession (though personally I'd prefer it not rise to the level of horror/torture porn).  So, perhaps animals in the area start acting oddly or viciously, or there's what looks like bloody residue on plants.  I don't know, I'm not the person to write it.  But "short, creepy vignettes," as Berelinde says.

[Heimdall]

piloteyre wrote...

The haunted hotel in Vampire:TM Bloodlines comes to mind (made the super smart decision to play that when my roommate was out, at like 1 in the morning. Spent the rest of the night with every light in the house on.)

ETA - just noticed the VTMB hotel got mentioned already! well, good to know I'm not alone in being terrified by that damn place 

I remember the first time I went through that.  Good grief, that basement... 

Awesome