Does anything actually happen in this game?

[Arthur Morrigan]

I just watched the Super Best Friends video of it, and despite the video being nearly an hour long, nothing seemed to happen in it.

Is there really no gameplay beyond slowly wandering around, trying to find whatever hidden object that actually triggers progress? No puzzles? No obstacles?

Are there really no characters or story?

The atmosphere seemed solid, but the game seemed to subsist on atmosphere alone, with no substance.

[IntheDark]

Of course there's a story, but this is only chapter 1 (Early Access, you know).

This is probably one of the best horror games in a long time, so make yourself a favor and don't spoil it with video gameplays.

Buy it, and if you don't like it and don't want to play the future chapters included with it's price, then go for a refund.

[SERVER SHUTTING DOWN]

Short answer: Yes. In the specific video you mentioned, the players failed to notice a new door that appeared, and would take you to the next area. (This door has been updated since to make it more noticable).

Long answer: There are several different environments and enemies in the first chapter. However it is a very challenging game in the sense that progressing requires solving obscure puzzles, similar to P.T., so many Let's Players can walk around for hours without seeing anything new.

For me, this was restricted to maybe 10 or 20 minutes and it actually added to the experience by absorbing me in the environment. But if you want your hand held from point A to point B this may not be the game for you.

The enemy A.I. is still being worked on too, and in some playthroughs it can be very rare to encounter an enemy. Other players have complained that the enemies keep killing them too often. They're still fine tuning the enemies (personally I think that the enemy A.I. acts either unfairly or much too easily) so there's still work to be done.

There is a lot of variety to experience in this game, but it requires thinking and concentration. If that sounds like something you'd be willing to put into a horror game, than I strongly recommend this game to you.

[Arthur Morrigan]

So there actually are enemies? I hope they don't kill you in one hit.

[SERVER SHUTTING DOWN]

Originally posted by buddha loves you:

So there actually are enemies? I hope they don't kill you in one hit.

Hahaha you gave yourself away there. Gotta be more subtle, like "how do you equip a weapon?" Or something.

[Arthur Morrigan]

Originally posted by Buy Visage:

Hahaha you gave yourself away there. Gotta be more subtle, like "how do you equip a weapon?" Or something.

I really don't understand this. I was being sincere. I don't know anything about the game other than what I saw in the video, which didn't feature any enemies. Even if you can't fight them, it would be nice if it weren't instant death on contact.

I would just like to say how utterly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sick I am of horror games that are glorified hidden object walking sims where you meander around looking for whatever object the game actually wants you to interact with to trigger the way forward/next jump scare; that are devoid of puzzles or meaningful gameplay; either devoid of story or have an incoherent story told entirely through a mountain of sticky notes and journal entries lying around; devoid of characters and cutscenes; and either feature no enemies, or enemies that kill you on contact (which is less scary and more just irritating).

In other words, I miss horror games released from 1999-2008.

That said, I am interested in this game from the atmosphere alone, although it would be disappointing if anything I described above applies to it.

[Arthur Morrigan]

Found an interesting comment on another SBFP video:

"So I just got curious and tried counting the amount of games they've played this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that could more or less be described as a first-person, exploration/stealth-based horror game focused on reading notes and walking until the next spooky sequence occurs. While extremely subjective, I counted about 18 of the games they've played, and that was playing it loose with excluding things like Stifled and Camp Sunshine. Additionally, checking out Steam's Horror genre sub-section shows the most popular games (excluding big sales, which obviously shift the top selling stuff) are, other than big multiplayer games (Killing Floor, Subnautica, Rainbow Six Siege of all things), Visage and still Resident Evil 7. Although I'm hardly bringing up any breaking news in regards to the genre, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ has horror in video games stagnated to high heaven. It's a mindless pattern of walking simulator experiences with notes explaining 90% of the story, in which the player walks from point A to point B, only being interrupted by spooky set pieces, such as lights flickering, or a groan in the distance. Even Visage, which is admittedly a highlight of the genre this year, can easily be summarized by those identifers. Ironically, the most appealing part of Visage for me is that the story isn't told through notes, and instead the environment is used. To say that someone used the environment in an unsettling manner when telling a story is what underlines a major highlight within horror video games this year is really, really sad. Here's hoping REmake 2 lights a fire under some developers and the genre gets a bit of a booster shot going forward, because ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ is it stuck."

[IntheDark]

Games like Resident Evil are "action horror games", while Visage is more like "psychological horror".

For me, the true fear only can come through your mind and sanity, not your weapon and bullets left.

[Arthur Morrigan]

Originally posted by IntheDark:

Games like Resident Evil are "action horror games", while Visage is more like "psychological horror".

For me, the true fear only can come through your mind and sanity, not your weapon and bullets left.

I never brought up Resident Evil, because I don't particularly like it. Resident Evil was survival horror up until RE4, where it became "action horror".

The classic Silent Hill games are psychological survival horror games, and don't suffer from any of the issues currently plaguing the horror genre, and apparently this game as well.

[Arthur Morrigan]

I'm being really harsh on this game but I am interested in checking it out when it's closer to release and more content is out.

[SERVER SHUTTING DOWN]

My apologies, I genuinely thought you were trolling because all the enemies in this game are insta-kill.

I can relate to your opinion though, I think the highlight of my horror experience was Doom 3, Dead space 2 and Condemend: criminal origins, Silent Hill: Origins. Games many would scoff at for being too action, but I actually love a little action in my horror.

This game however, also satisfied that craving, because youre not totally helpless, but the action is more strategic. You have to take pills to reduce your likelihood of an encounter. At one segment you have to use your camera to see the demon and to make it go away. Meaning you can run if you're not cornered, but if you're cornered you need to find the best place to hold your ground. And sometimes you can't even be sure which way it's coming from.

So it is insta kill, but most of the time it's very fair and each encounter feels very survivable but only as long as you're playing smart and not panicking (however the audio design is so great that I almost always panic). Which means using the items at your disposable and sometimes even forcing yourself to stand up to the demon. It's not hide and seek.

The one point I will agree is just annoying, is that at a certain point of 'insanity' you will be automatically killed. Which I get is a useful mechanic to kill off players that got themselves stuck in total darkness. But personally I think they should have just replaced the auto death with constantly getting chased until sanity is improved.

[abysss24]

I'm glad I found this topic, so I can too share my disappointment with modern horror games;

Honestly, I am so bored of most horror games nowadays. I'm not a fan of the excessive darkness used as a fear asset or of the puzzles that seem totally out of place and unrealistic, that usually no one would set up there for you to solve.

Realism is the best factor for immersion, IMO. You can make all sorts realistic puzzle-like situations without going too far from reality. For example, a question of the location to find a certain key can be puzzling enough, compared to some games that have like complex combination devices, that lets you input some letters that you randomly find scared around the house to form a word, that lets you open it and find the key inside, again, in reality no one would do that for you :D... That's too arcade-y.

Also I'm not sure about jump scares... they can get old quickly if there are too many. Outlast, for example, had an amazingly scripted jump scare that I will never forget. I got me good, twice!

Personally, I would stay clear from any the maze-like repetitive environments such as huge hospitals, factories, and such, 'cause they can make the game pretty boring...
And one thing most horror games do that irritates me much is telling the game's story or backstory through the notes conveniently scattered throughout the game. I find this very unrealistic in most cases and too much text annoys me, it takes me out of the immersion. I believe horror games have so much potential to be scary now, mostly thanks to modern graphics, that I find it quite sad, that most of them rely on the same limited basic elements and mechanics. You feel like you are playing the same game over and over again... They lack uniqueness.

I also have mixed feelings about whether or not the character we play should be able to fight back the horror or just run from it. If the characters can fight back this can sometimes ruin the fear factor and turn the game into action horror. But if all you do is run while being chased that's is also not OK... It can be so tiring. Hard to chose which way to take. Maybe some way in between would be interesting route to explore.

I like when horror elements in the story such as objects or places are tied to the past and we make mysterious discoveries along the way, reaching places we never thought were there, perhaps buried or hidden. I know this is kind of cliched, but places with the tragedies of the past always give off such a creepy vibe to me.
For example Phantasmagoria, that old adventure game had a wonderful connection to the past, or Clive Barker's Undying, that part when you reach to that house on the hill to discover its sad secrets from the past... Atmospherically, I'd like to experience rain, fog, and creepy events also happening in the daylight would be amazing. Bonus points for the uniqueness of the setting. Also I'd love when horror games or movies have a lake or sea near the house, perhaps a house on the cliff. Remote abandoned old cemeteries are always creepy as well...

A good horror game I played recently was Infliction. I really like its simplicity and oh my god was it scary. Well done from start to finish. While on the other hand, I gave up on Visage in mid-game, even if it was scary, the irritating hands-items management system was too much for me, so clumsy and buggy even if they claim they fixed it. I will still return to Visage, one day, but why did they have to needlessly complicate this aspect of an otherwise impressive game?

I played countless modern horror games, I really searched far and wide to find the ones I could potentially like, and idk, I find most them extremely frustrating or boring/repetitive as hell for the most part. At rare occasions it happened that I actually finished a horror game with a smile on my face thinking, wow what a blast, that was intense, that was totally worth my time. Nope, I'm more like WTF?! that stuff was frustrating as hell, what were the devs thinking?!?
OMG, I need to put a negative review to warn people to stay away from this game, and such, these are the thoughts that usually go throug hmy head. I think horror gaming needs a revolution. And especially that it needs to become more user friendly, more original, less frustrating and copy-pasted from other games just to make a quick buck. Enough with the repetitive BS that no horror fan wants to go through again and again...

I gave up with The Dark Occult, because it had ultra frustrating and bugged puzzles, so out of place, so meaningless... Otherwise it was a scary and pretty well done game. I really wanted to progress and experience what it has to offer. Perhaps another time.

I got super bored with Layers Of Fear too, not just bored, I felt irritated by it. Nothing interesting happened it was all a mind-fck, just you looking for a way to progress in a maze-like trippy environment. Not something I wanted. I thought it was a haunted house story. But it was a different story that felt uninspired and flat.

One other top examples of an incredibly frustrating horror game is Home Sweet Home. I wrote a review with all the details of how bad it is, here on steam. It looks good, but it features terrible game design and very annoying gameplay and mechanics. After finishing Home Sweet Home I wanted to eat the developer alive!! I was so furious at all the frustration he caused me with his terrible game design!

I wish there was a horror central page where fans of horror games could voice their thoughts, to be heard by the gaming community but especially by the developers. I really think it's time to stop with all this frustration and make horror games a higly enjoyable experience.

If I can enjoy a horror movie, why can't I enjoy a horror game? Well... the answer lies in the immersion. I can get so immersed in a horror movie because I'm passively watching the masterpiece unfold. But with games is different. You get killed time and time again to the point that the game becomes repetitive and it loses it's fear factor, it becomes frustrating and all the immersion is just gone.

(Sorry for the necro)

[DexterMullen]

It is a bad crapy sh1ty indie game, just garbage. A walking simulator...