Demo comments: Stupid mosquitos

[Katana]

Hey all. I just tried out the demo for this for fun. A lot of people complained about graphics, but honestly, even if this was an old 2011 demo or something, it didn't matter to me - many games have especially managed to be scary BECAUSE of their oldish-looking graphics.

But one thing that seemed kinda weird in the demo was a mosquito that your character runs into in a particular room that just sort of starts following you around, and making your character swat at it every so often. I actually kept trying to find ways of locking it behind doors or sprint away from it, but eventually I was back to ghost-hunting and really needed a way to get away from it to be able to snap photos. As a result, I didn't end up finishing the demo.

(The demo also didn't mention its tutorial screen before throwing you in, but honestly, that's no biggy for me)

[pipi long stocking]

the graphics are really bad, ESPECIALLY for a game demo from 2011 . there's no excuse, those are more like pre alpha graphics. . the screenshots from the final version look alot better thankfully.

you're supposed to photograph the mosquito by the way, and the cat. and the girls.

i did finish the demo and was Impressed by the game play, but for those demo graphics it should be around $5. there's alot better games like Trine, Mark of the Ninja, Insurgency that are cheaper, fun, and absolutely slaughter that Dreadout demo in graphics.

hopefully I'm proven wrong because I want the final released game.

[Ada Wong lUCl™]

Originally posted by pipi long stocking:

the graphics are really bad, ESPECIALLY for a game demo from 2011 . there's no excuse, those are more like pre alpha graphics. . the screenshots from the final version look alot better thankfully.

you're supposed to photograph the mosquito by the way, and the cat. and the girls.

i did finish the demo and was Impressed by the game play, but for those demo graphics it should be around $5. there's alot better games like Trine, Mark of the Ninja, Insurgency that are cheaper, fun, and absolutely slaughter that Dreadout demo in graphics.

hopefully I'm proven wrong because I want the final released game.

You prob need to check how much different budget they have for those game you listed...compare to DreadOut

[Katana]

The only game with modern graphics I can remember being scary is Amnesia: TDD. I'm pretty sure murky graphics, where things are obscure and hard-to-interpret, is actually a logical part of the formula.
Modern times and technology alone don't lead to better graphics. They can be easier with newer technologies, but it's still a lot of work.

As for the mosquito: I photographed it a number of times and it wouldn't go away. Same for the cat; nothing. The only thing I remember it working for is the ghost. That one at least made sense because it was only visible through the camera.

[glorfindel1975]

I agree. What is the meaning of the fly? It 's just irritating and annoying.

I hope it won't be in the final game...

[Chocoyote]

the graphcis are fine i like them and the mosquito you can kill with your camera.

[Detilly]

The stupid mosquito is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying, i cant do anything!!

[Chocoyote]

Originally posted by Detilly:

The stupid mosquito is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying, i cant do anything!!

i said you can kill it with your camera...

[Katana]

And I said that I took pictures of it, to no effect.
It's POSSIBLE that I did some part of it wrong somehow, but honestly it just wouldn't have made sense to try that at first without going online.
The ghost makes sense to take pictures of. It's an ethereal being where the rules of the physical world don't apply. Heck, you can only see it through the camera so that tells you SOMETHING is working. Mosquitos and cats are real. They exist in real life. I'm pretty sure taking pictures of them in real life won't cause them to explode.

[lagzer]

The beauty of games: each player has its own experience.

Never tried to photograph a ghost. When encountered mosquito - at first couldn't tell what it is, because I couldn't see it in that room, only hear; so I continued to look around the room. Then came the bites. While still checking the room, I realized it could be very annoying to be bitten this often, and since I didn't knew what to do with the mosquito, I just tried to photograph it to have a picture in a gallery, as I did for other points of interest earlier. First shot - its gone. This logic made me chuckle, actually :)

As for cat, I did some photos of it, and managed to have it in the "purgatory" once: it was white with blue eyes, and slowly followed me to the light. There was really nice effect in "purgatory", where this cat was all blurry when away from you, and as it slowly moves towards you, it will sloooowly turn from white blurry "ball" to cat. And it was on "low" quality preset. Could be cheap version on "depth of field" effect (too blurry), I don't know :)

As for graphics: I accidentaly played with "low" preset in launcher during the first time, sure was scary, especially with that sound demo had. You never know what can come for you and how it will look in these graphics. During second run I played with "high" preset (that's where I realized I was playing on "low" earlier; thought it was part of the indie dev budget and/or horror game "thing") and 16:9 resolution (5:4 earlier). Not as scary now, though dynamic shadows from phone's flashlight were disturbing :)

[Jayson]

I'm not really impressed by the demo, but I'm willing to give the full game a shot. My big complaint with this game, especially if people want to compare it to the Fatal Frame series, is that there's no buildup at a certain point in the demo. In Fatal Frame, you spend a lot of time kind of wandering around, and things happen, or ghosts appear that can't always harm your character. Sure, they might be jump scares, but they're highly effective ones. In the demo for DreadOut, after a certain point, whenever I took pictures of one of the ghosts, it would disappear and another one could be heard right around the corner. If there's no buildup to something like this happening, or no tension in terms of having...say...a limited battery on your phone, why should I be afraid of it? At this point, it almost reminds me of how some platformers have stages where you're running to the right and a spike wall or lava is chasing after you and you just have to keep going forward.

Everything else is fine. The textures in the game aren't the greatest, but they get the job done. The sound creates a great sense of atmosphere, and I especially admire how well the positional audio works in terms of hearing one of the ghosts off in a certain direction in the distance, but I just don't know how much I care for the core gameplay experience. But again, I am going to give it a try and hope for the best.

[Z ズビン [kohdowgk.Zu]]

loving the fact this is a Fatal Frame-clone and I mean all the positive things by saying its a clone for a fanastic Japanese Horror game, and I have to hand it to Asian Horrors to freak me out every time, weirdly not scared of modern Western horror games, sure that "sudden" effect makes you jump but thats being surprised not really scared.

While we're on the subject of the demo, What do I do at the end? or what I think may be the end of the demo.

*** SPOILER ***
(I took snaps of the cat but nothing happens. what exactly happens? does it just poof?)
The blue candle, I can snap it, it poofs, but comes right back...nothing else happens... I run backwards and get chased by these giant guys... uhh help?

[AestheticGamer aka Dusk Golem]

@HyeVltg3: Defeat the giant guys, and then return to the candles.

[lagzer]

Originally posted by Jayson:

... why should I be afraid of it? ...

Originally posted by lagzer:

... Never tried to photograph a ghost. ... I accidentaly played with "low" preset in launcher during the first time, sure was scary, especially with that sound demo had ...

Tried to play the demo for the 3rd time to photograph ghosts and focus on not going to "purgatory". Realized that is was much scarier when I didn't know that ghosts can be countered. When I played the demo for the 1st time, I thought the mosquito was gone due to "make picture of it, its insta-gone" logic (didn't see it's burn animation), and as for cemetery creatures, I thought they were breathing fire upon making picture of them (because it made them angry) and the goal was to use that fire projectile to light the candles :)

So the fear formula for me was:
* having the invincible ghosts around (making the ghost vignette alarm work very often and making me run from the ghost to a safe place)
* low quality graphics (preset "low" in launcher) - "brain will do the rest", more immersive experience "brain stimulation"-wise (demo has great sound effects, music and positional audio to make up for the "low" preset graphics, reminds me of GTA 3)
* fear of the unknown while exploring the area for the first time ("this is a horror game, it's goal is to scare me, so anything can happen as I try to move forward"); it makes me imagine more mechanics and situations than the game actually have, which I think adds to the experience (thanks to the devs for the environment and mood)

[ImACat]

Originally posted by HyeVltg3:

loving the fact this is a Fatal Frame-clone and I mean all the positive things by saying its a clone for a fanastic Japanese Horror game, and I have to hand it to Asian Horrors to freak me out every time, weirdly not scared of modern Western horror games, sure that "sudden" effect makes you jump but thats being surprised not really scared.

While we're on the subject of the demo, What do I do at the end? or what I think may be the end of the demo.

*** SPOILER ***
(I took snaps of the cat but nothing happens. what exactly happens? does it just poof?)
The blue candle, I can snap it, it poofs, but comes right back...nothing else happens... I run backwards and get chased by these giant guys... uhh help?

after the graveyard n the small shrine with hanging thing, use ur phone n u can see orbs (this is a paranormal game anyway) track the orbs n enjoy!!

[Sire Bear]

The graphics really did not bother me at all. Maybe if we are lucky enought they will port it to Unity 5 engine.

Agree on the mosquitos that was annoying. At first i thought it was some stupid bug, till i decided to take a picture which killed it.