This game is scarier than I expected (Dusk vs. DOOM 2016)

[A Dangerous Driver]

I just picked up Dusk on sale, and it's been pretty great so far.

I don't usually play horror video games, so it wouldn't surprise me if I just scare easily. However, I was expecting something more along the lines of DOOM 2016 in terms of feel. Both games involve other wordly monsters and the occult and are similar in gameplay, obviously. However, Dusk diverges from DOOM in that the character you play as in DOOM is meant to feel badass, whereas this game makes you feel like you're on the run. Essentially, in DOOM you are the hunter, and in Dusk you are the hunted.

I think it's partly due to the fact that the level design is much more open in DOOM. In DOOM, you walk into a massive pit/chamber full of monsters and that's it: you know your enemies, and you know where they are. Dusk is much more claustrophobic and disorientating in terms of level design. There have been a lot passageways with twisting, sharp turns. This naturally lends itself to jump scares where you turn a corner and are greeted suddenly by several chainsaw men or literal wizards of the KKK. There's also the fact that this game has, on many occasions, spawned monsters behind me in areas that I have already cleared.

Ontop of that, I think the music choice is an important factor playing into how these two games "feel". DOOM's (brilliant) soundtrack is a constant feed of full-throttle, unadulterated, demon-slaughtering rage courtesy of Mick Gordon. A majority of the time, Dusk plays an eerie drone that is meant to unsettle and invoke fear. Every once in a while, when the game dumps a massive crowd of enemies on me, the music will pick up with raging guitars and up the mood to "KILL KILL KILL". But that is only occasional.

Those are just my initial observations. I'm not saying DOOM > Dusk or vice versa, I just wanted to talk about it. Feel free to lmk what you think. I only have an hour in the game lmao.

[Zapmaster]

If you think the start is scary, you are going to poop your self when you first encounter a certain monster. Personally I wouldn't say Dusk is scary, other than a few jump scares, but the atmosphere is definitely a lot more oppressive than in the new Doom. The level design and low-fi graphics help a lot with that. Also Doom 2016 is not scary what so ever, and I like the game a lot but they definitely dropped the ball on the atmosphere, even the Hell levels looked and felt like something out of a Mario game and the monsters all have unrealistic sort of cartoony feel to them.

[A Dangerous Driver]

Originally posted by Zapmaster:

If you think the start is scary, you are going to poop your self when you first encounter a certain monster.

Oh boy, looking forward to it haha.

[Stormer]

I think Doom 2016 wasn't meant to be scary. You're meant to be the Doom Slayer, unkillable demon slaughterhouse on legs. You're meant to be a badass

Not in Dusk, You're just a human treasure hunter in dusk, a badass yes, but you're human, fighting Lovecraftian horrors with bullets and rivets. You might not die, but don't expect you're in control

[Vanta]

Oh yeah this game gets pretty spooky at times, especially during a certain level in episode 3...

[kireta]

If you liked that chilling atmosphere you should totally play Blood and Quake 1.