What are the horror aspects?

[Profane_Primate]

"Horror" is one of the tags, but as far as I know the game is largely a survival experience. Is the term being used loosely here, or is there something in the mid or endgame?


thx

[IFIYGD]

That is a user-defined tag, not an official developer tag.

There is a difference between those. I can tag the game as "Anime". If enough other people tag it the same way, "Anime" would show in the user-defined tags as well.

Some people may find the wolf and bear attacks to be similar to jumpscares. So they may feel "horror". There is some blood, but it is not gory, or photorealistic. There is tension from not knowing if a wolf is hiding over the next rise, waiting to attack you. But it isn't a horror game like Silent Hill or Resident Evil. You aren't being chased around by an axe wielding serial killer. But there are frozen animal caracasses laying around, and frozen human corpses, people who did not survive the apocalypse. The animal carcasses are a tad more graphic. The human corpses are just dead, buried partially under snow, or sitting inside a building (with you forever... they don't despawn). But they are not dripping blood with guts hanging out. They are just... dead. No hordes of zombies or 100 red-eyed demonic deer mobbing you. (Watch out for those killer rabbits though... look at the bones!)

TL;DR: some more sensitive people may be using the term loosely, or be more easily "horrified". There are some jumpscare situations with hostile wildlife, most of which can be evaded or avoided once you learn the game, and how to tell if they are nearby. I personally do not consider any of the game "horror", though I would call some of it "unsettling". Post-apoc is usually meant to be unsettling.

Wintermute, when it is finished will have an endgame. It isn;t completed yet, only 2 out of 5 episodes have been shipped so far. Challenge modes are shorter, objective driven modes. They have an endgame, some have a timer that you must complete them in, some don't. Survival Mode is open-world sandbox play, no narrative (you can roleplay it however you like...), no end game. You start, try to get what you need to survive another day, and keep going until you get bored or you die in one way or another. Endgame is death or save deletion (on your own).

[RM1985]

There are definately horror elements in the game, especially in survival, for example when you walk through the snow, around a corner and suddenly run into a f**kin BEAR or WOLF, you will literally sh!t you pants!!!

[SBlack]

Cave wolves are horror

[mf187doubleg]

Drinking water from a toilet could also be classified as horror :)

[listless]

Having your guts ripped out by a bear is kind of horrifying.

[Liduska77]

When you get close enough to hear the guttural breathing of a bear, and you deduce how powerful it must be to be producing said noises, that is proper horrorshow.

[Tohtori Leka]

At least I have experienced more fear in this game than in many of the actual horror games.

[Bob The Tomato]

Originally posted by Vzzdak:

Originally posted by mf187doubleg:

Drinking water from a toilet could also be classified as horror :)

I presume that one is obtaining water from the cistern.

A fair assumption. Until you collect potable water from a toilet that doesn't have a cistern.

[IFIYGD]

Originally posted by Gecko-GER:

Originally posted by mf187doubleg:

Drinking water from a toilet could also be classified as horror :)

You'd wonder what you'd be drinking if you were dying of thirst.

Toilet water, if it was all you had access to...
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/steve-adsley-survives-stroke-by-drinking-toilet-water-for-7-days-1.2717679

[hinterland_community]

Originally posted by Profane_Primate:

"Horror" is one of the tags, but as far as I know the game is largely a survival experience. Is the term being used loosely here, or is there something in the mid or endgame?


thx

As noted those are user-defined tags and The Long Dark is not a specifically horror focused game. That is not to say that there are not moments where you might be scared, or that you will find intense but there are not any traditional horror elements in the game.

During our October 4 Days of Night event, we do introduce some horror tropes but that is typically a weekend event once a year.

[Nerva Matapan]

Originally posted by SteveS:

Cave wolves are horror

So much this. I have pretty much never been so scared in my life as randomly encountering a wolf for the first time in a cave.

[Marc Remillard]

Horror is hearing a Sleestak in the mines with me.

[Will]

I don't necessarily experience horror as much as constant anxiety, being "on edge" when outside. It's damn insidious I tell ya. I need to calm down with a Voyageur run instead of doing loper all the time.

Unrelated: autocorrect wanted to change voyageur to voyeur. Now wash your hands.

[Darkhar23]

Horror was Fluffy in the hydro dam. Also the haunted Trapper's house, from which light comes through the windows at night yet when one enters, it's completly dark...

[HEAVY FIRST RATE]

Yea, the part about lighted houses at night. Viewing the trapper's homestead cabin from outside at night, it looks like there are about fifty lamps burning inside, step through the door it is dark as the middle of a coal mine!