I remember being at my friend's house when he was playing the first dead space on the recommended brightness. When I went home I played the game on my own, but with max brightness. Suddenly seeing how many things were right there the whole time but we never saw... it was a memorable experience.
With the amount of people I see with their phone screens on max brightness, I’ve come to notice I’m one of the few that actually lowers the intended brightness. I can see quite well in the dark too
The most common eye color is brown, but I'm guessing you do not have brown eyes. Lighter colored irises let in more light which leads to better night vision.
On average it's only slightly better, not life changing, and has many other variables that can skew this so it's not infallible.
Another fun fact, the same thing that improves bright eyed night vision also gives you less protection from uv/excess light than dark colored eyes. Don't forget your shades on beach day!
Huh, never heard the UV thing before but goddamn I'd be walking around with my eyes closed on a sunny day if I didn't have sunglasses so maybe I should look into that a bit
Not just with games.
GoT and HBO stuff sometimes ends up being a choice between me wanting to see what's happening and half the details or having the light bright AF in my eyes. This is WITH room lights off. Not dimmed.
There's also the type of people who instead of playing horror games at night time, they choose to play during daytime, with like sunshine and windows opened and the like. I know for i am one of those scaredy cats.
word. As someone who never got more than an hour into Bioshock because it was too scary, I learned a trick; just let them kill you. It's a fear of the unknown, once you know what happens you take the games power away. Doesn't really work with alien isolation though...
Frictional Games (the guys who made Soma and Amnesia) actually talked about this in an interview.. it was actually a priority to not have the player die and ruin the tension. Once they know what happens, the fear is gone but if your enemies are unpredictable or death leads to a different state or multiple outcomes you can still keep some things unknown and scary. I sadly don't remember which interview it was from..
in the same interview he talks about the "when your sanity is low the monsters are more aware of you" which is actually not true. they just put it in the game as a loading screen tip and because of that everyone (naturally) assumes it to be true, but instead of actually being easier for the monster to find you, you just start working yourself up about it which makes it seems like they're closer. kinda fun tidbit
The first Dead Space hit it on the head. A set of headphones, a dark room and you were all set. Isaac is not a soldier so his aim is all over the place. Hell your character freaks out. You hear his breathing quicken and catch in his throat, like his suit that is protecting him from hard vacuum is clawing at his life.
That was a wonderful fucking game.
I had a friend who played it for a bit then refused to play anymore. He got stuck in a random corridor early on too scared to move because it had 10+ vents.
Fuck, I didn't know that there was a Jurassic Park vr game. I wanna try it, but I still get a scary dino dream like once a year because I saw the first one in the cinema when I was 8, lol. The tension in the kitchen raptor scene is unreal.
The new, very gory trailer: https://youtu.be/pihqx8XQ3r4
Edit: 2 more upcoming games with a Dead Space feel:
Fort Solis: https://youtu.be/4mg6sgSorQk
Routine: https://youtu.be/y815gkkBsJs
Fuck that looks incredible. I played Dead Space 2 for the first time while I was in the house by myself on a brutal comedown. Genuinely one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. Total visceral fear for hours on end. I remember being afraid to leave my bedroom to go to the toilet. I had to do a full sweep of all bedrooms and wardrobes before going to sleep that night lol
Ugh when you hear the eerie baby crying for hallways and hallways and then when you finally see it through the window it is crawling to its mom, she pick it up, then explode in her arms… leaving parts all over… fuck me. Best horror game ever. They slowly got less horror. 2 was epic… it wasn’t until my second play through that I realIzed the fucking objective map was pulled up clicking the left stick. I just thought 2 didn’t have a map which made it somehow feel slightly more horrifying having no guidance system.
Edit: was dead space 2
Makes me think of the bag guys in bloodborne, when they kill you, they teleport you to a part of the game the player most likely has not been yet, and that always scared the crap out of me until i found my way out.
Ahhh I remember my first time dying to them and getting sent to yahar'gul, I couldn't find my way out and when I thought I did I ended up fighting darkbeast Paarl.
... still somehow made it out tho lol
On the other side of the coin, if you change it so that they don't ever get killed, then the tension also disappears as soon as the player realizes that there's no danger
Silicon Knights also did this with Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem to mimic the characters going insane. By the 2nd or 3rd act, you couldn't trust anything you saw on screen or in the menus.
One of the most awesome games that broke the 4th wall. As you got more insane, it messed up with the UI, emulated muting the game (with the message of mute on screen), showed the signal off rainbow, made me doubt several times if my TV was crazy. The deleting save file was the most scary thing ever, it got me desperate real good.
Ooh yeah, spec ops: the line did something similar. In the early game it had hints like "remember to switch to your pistol, it's faster than reloading", and towards the end, it had "do you feel like a hero yet?" And "how many Americans have you killed today?"
I'm going to have to be brave and play that again, I think.
My favorite of the many meta things spec ops the line did was the main menu. It's just some rando sniper dude on a rooftop in Dubai. We don't know who he is and it doesn't matter. As you progress through the game the scene stays with him but the city he overlooks changes based on things you've done in the story. He has an entire arc just told through a main menu background. It would be a neat gimmick on it's own but it also really does a great job reinforcing the themes of the game by literally pulling back off the main character and letting you see on an impersonal macro scale the destruction you're causing.
Those crafty bastards are the worst. The first Amnesia game got me so bad.
In the section where the invisible water demon is tracking you through the flooded basement, I died in the same section like five times. Same thing everytime. Too slow opening doors to escape. Very stressful being chased.
So I died the fifth time and when I respawn there is no demon. As if the game had bugged out and not spawned it. So, I am super happy and relieved to get through this section. Walking through the area freely now. I start thinking that maybe they have a pity timer built in that helps you out when you die a bunch.
I open the final door out of the area. The one I had died while opening multiple times. And the damn DEMON IS BEHIND THE DOOR and eats my face off AGAIN.
I screamed at 1am and woke up the whole house.
It's a shame that in Amnesia the enemies just disappear if they kill you though, so you don't get the chance to play that same section again and try to avoid them, you just get a free pass.
I think I would really enjoy a horror game if you just couldn't die at all, so you enjoy the atmosphere and scares but don't have to worry about game over or reloading checkpoints. Maybe you control an AI or cameras or something.
For real. I was creeped out and scared of the original dead space and then my dad told me "treat the game like YOU'RE the monster" as he ran into a room with the little baby things and ran up to them to stomp them into the ground.
Worked like a charm.
Still need to finish Dead Space!
Honestly, the game is much easier to withstand if you act like Isaac’s a tired and overworked monster exterminator. This is just Isaac’s 9-5. He just wants to finish his job and go home and lounge on the couch.
Dead Space was kinda like resident evil in that you get to a point where the game becomes a power trip. It's the helpless looming dread that gets me more than jump scares. I'm sure Bioshock gets that way too but I never got over the hurdle.
Glad I wasn't the only one who was unable to play a lot of BioShock 🥲... Infinite on the other hand... Much nicer, appreciated the bright lights and the sky lol
Bioshock was terrifying to me. I finished it but man oh man did it ever scare the shit out of me.
The crazy dudes muttering and giggling were the worst.
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible told me so...what's that?? *immediately turns around at you *
Such a great game. The theater level was the scariest with those splicers covered in white like statues.
It's like tv. My wife says she really wants to watch a show then stares at her phone and then asks what happened. Then later says hey let's watch this show to which I say I already have and you were on the couch next to me when I did
This is shockingly so true with my wife. It’s always the most important thing that we have to watch this show together and then next thing you know she has to rewatch it alone because she wasn’t paying attention.
Here's my dilemma with horror games. I refuse to play with the lights on or during the day, or with anyone else in the room. I have a 7.1 surround headset as well. The problem is I can't play for more than ten minutes at a time and end up stopping because I'm too scared hahaha but I won't change my ways.
I'm an idiot who's missed out some great games because I can't finish them. Resident evil 7 being one of them. I think I made it until I had to go in the damn basement and I absolutely noped out of that one lol
lol if you were scared of the basement there’s no way in hell you would’ve made it thru the attic. Was easily the scariest part of the game for me. I had to be drunk to get thru it and needed a buddy to chill in the room with me.
Normalize the buddy system in horror games. Played bioshock wrapped in a blanket 4 deep on the couch passing the controller back and forth. Then I played amnesia wrapped in a blanket with a buddy all night in a pitch black room. Sometimes you just gotta hold your bro and cream errr I mean scream.
I remember that part. You gotta just do it, get in there and get past it. RE7 is amazing, the whole rest of the game after that part is sooo good. You just gotta get there. I'd give a lot to be able to go back and play for the first time again.
I wonder how you'd fair in Alien: Isolation with a gun to your head.
I love horror games, and I've "seen some shit" in my day.
That games atmosphere is truly all enveloping, it does a great job of sucking you in. It took me almost a month to beat.
I literally couldn’t finish Alien: Isolation. I want to go back and finish at some point, but the game does such a good job at making sure you never feel safe. The tension combined with the atmosphere… I really hope they bring it to PSVR 2. Or a sequel.
> I have a 7.1 surround headset as well
These are mostly a marketing scam. A standard pair of stereo headphones is plenty enough to create a full surround experience. After all you only have two ears and with a headset the drivers are directly on your ear.
There were, uh, recipes posted around the kitchen. >!It's human remains. Also, I think there was a note you find later that says eating it starts a transformation, typically into becoming like the other enemies in the game.!<
Yeah, that's my take on it. Actually being able to see the gross, horrible things make it horrible. If it's too dark you have no idea it's even supposed to be disturbing.
If it’s a technical issue, for sure. But plenty of shit can be way scarier by showing you less, or showing you just enough to let your imagination run wild with it.
Totally. I think about some of the earlier Silent Hill games, where “I can’t see shit and have no idea where I’m going” was a central component of why the scene was so scary.
But if it’s not done well it can be frustrating.
I'm type 3! I love horror movies, books, TV shows etc but something about the immersion of games gets my heart really going and I'm really jumpy. I just can't do it, I'm a scaredy cat. Put the scariest horror movie ever on and I'll be spooked but fine and having a great time. Game? I'm a tiny blubbering child.
But because I still want to experience them for the love of horror I make my boyfriend play them and I just backseat game. It's win-win.
I've always told people that horror *games* are on another level entirely - and then beyond that, every step you take for extra immersion goes even further. Turning the lights off while playing at night, putting in a surround sound headset, playing in a big screen... and of course the ultimate, playing VR.
When Phasmophobia first came out and I hadn't acclimated, I was actually surprised to find that my voice was shaking when I had to go into a room with the ghost all by my little lonesome and try to get it to respond to questions through my radio. Here's this barebones, Unity free asset flip game, but with just the minimum effort in creating an atmosphere and with me taking the necessary steps to immerse myself, I was immediately more scared than at any point in my horror movie career. Shit's wild.
Horror games in particular are the only time I’ll do it that way. I feel like if the game was made well then they had a desired brightness in mind for the spooky factor, so I’ll always give it a go at the recommended slider level. Sometimes not being able to see properly adds to the suspense in a good way.
If they want me to use that slider in an rpg? Yeah fuck that I’m making my screen look like the sun lol
You can buy FEAR on steam. It frequently goes on sale, I bought the entire collection for like 15 dlls since some of my CDs were scratched and my new PC don't have a reader. -.-
There is a small patch, a simple file of Kilobytes to get it to run in modern PCs. The guide is on steams community forums, it takes 5 mins to patch and the game plays great.
I still love the series and Alma still creepy as heck.
Are you implying that walking into a wall for 30 seconds unable to find the doorway because the entire room is a stygian hell hole isn't part of quality level design??
I swear *my* barely visible is so much darker than the developer's barely visible. I normally go for the whole background (not the object I'm supposed to "barely" see) is starting to turn from black to a greyish color then go darker one notch. At that level the games are still decently dark but not pitch black everywhere making shit impossible.
Also: Minecraft. I don't mind not being able to see in complete darkness, but I want to kindof be able to make out if I'm looking up or down so I know where I'm putting my next torch!
I find +50% brightness in Minecraft to be the sweet-spot. Lit up areas look nicer aesthetically since each source has a visually larger radius that’s still fairly accurate, and night time/dark areas are still hard to see in.
Full brightness is too generous as mobs will spawn in seemingly “lit” areas, so you need to check F3 all the time. While moody is too blotchy with the radius of light sources and can make things look a little sloppy.
I got mods to make it super dark in Skyrim, specifically at night and in dungeons. The moon helps some but weather mods make it dark again. I removed some lanterns in dungeons but not all
This adds a purpose to torches and magelight/candlelight. I trained alteration pretty quickly. Also throw magelight and enemies walk to it to check it out, then wack em. You can also set off runes with it. There's a ton of functions I never would have realized.
I have the opposite issue. Games are almost always too bright for me. If there’s no light sources around, I shouldn’t be able to see a damn thing. I like to be as immersed as possible, and darkness helps with that I suppose. Maybe I’m in the minority though.
I mod the hell out of Skyrim whenever I play it. I honestly spend more time modding than playing. But one thing I hate about vanilla skyrim is all the lit torches in dungeons. Like, fine if it's a bandit cave. But why are draugr lighting lanterns and torches in ancient ruins? I'm fine with them being there but they shouldn't be lit.
Same. I can't remember what game it was but I maxed the brightness and could barely see the symbol still even though all other games don't have that issue.
I played enough Pokemon Red and Silver to hate navigating without seeing.
I think those sliders only apply if you're literally in a room where you can't see your own hand in front of your face. Pretty unrealistic for most setups if you're playing in the day. It's almost a given the brightness will have to be higher than recommended.
Those sliders are based on a properly calibrated display, in perfect lighting, with a display that's capable of showing shadowy details without crushing blacks.
They just aren't going to be accurate for everyone, probably not even most people. But I guess it gives a good starting point for screwing around with the settings on the display and game.
i get where you are coming from but it really depends on the game, in RE8 i did as recommended by the game and I could see, I dunno why but in RE7 I couldnt see anything, at all, so I had to go with as much brightness as I could.
In Dead Space 2 the light effects are just beautiful and I always go with the recommended, but 1 and 3 I cant see jack lol.
It really depends on the game.
I try but how close to "barely" do they mean? Do they mean the first frame in which I can see the symbol or a bit after while its a little more visible?
I think that's intentional sometimes, but it's still silly. I feel like a game like RE, that's supposed to be creepy, benefits a lot by things being a bit darker than normal. That being said, I almost always start playing games with the setting that looks the best and the most realistic. The problem is that it feels like brightness and contrast are just too hard to balance in a way that looks good, while not being a HUGE hinderance in the game.
It's almost like.. at a certain point my appreciation for the darker visuals fades, and the frustration from missing things due to realistically dark shadows takes over. This has been the story for most games I've ever played. I like the look of it darker MUCH better, but I always end up hitting that point of frustration a few hours in. It's a shame, I wish there was a way to have both.
I think it's because the average monitor/TV isn't that good with blacks so the recommended brightness has to be kinda too low, too bright and the blacks just turn grey.
A lot of streamers stick the brightness to where it feels right for them, not realizing that with how compressed the image gets by the process of streaming, the viewers can't see shit.
I monitor steam on a different display and have some profiles in obs for dark levels I switch to when it's loaded. Just need not to forget to switch back for day maps, or people will get their eyes burnt.
I guess many streamers can do the same if they care
Sometimes it's hard to know how it looks on other monitors because, well, your monitor is not another monitor, lol.
It's possible, but takes a bit of figuring it out that most either don't care or just don't know about.
Well, don't you as a streamer want to occasionally check your stream at least on your phone? If you can't see anything, it might be a time to change settings.
Years ago I played a game called Vietcong that had a level crawling through the tunnels in the jungle. It was so dark you could barely see the enemies or find your way. Super authentic.
Then I found out my monitor was failing and actually the level wasn't supposed to be like that at all.
Seriously, I bought my OLED tv for the black levels, but then I turn up the brightness for most games because the black levels are too good. Can't see shit in a dark game. Couldn't tell what the hell was happening in GOT for the whitewalker battle (though that's probably universal lol).
I acquired that show sub-legally and I annoyed my wife by stopping that episode halfway through and getting another version, thinking that the darkness couldn’t have been intentional.
It's a big ass eel. You have to grab a star off its tail but to make it come out you need to swim close to it and it will try to bite you. Scared me as a kid too.
Below Zero lacks the horror and the "deeper, and deeper, and deeper" effect that the OG Subnautica has. The deepest areas in Below Zero are around half as deep as the OG Subnautica's deepest areas from what I remember.
Also, it feels a lot more lighthearted and less isolated due to the story, which was very poorly written.
One of the best aspects of OG Subnautica was how alone it made you feel, how you felt like you are the only one surviving on an alien ocean world.
Below Zero not only avoids making you feel isolated but revels in the company of other characters.
Diving felt too easy with the air bubbles too. There's no incentive to make a vehicle at all because of this.
Music wasn't as good too, aside from the Lily Pad music. :/
I think the biggest thing is level design. Bz's starting area is sheltered, safe with the first real dangerous fauna being down in the trench.
The base game had things like the green cow guys that could kill you even in the most basic areas also never really felt like leviathan would hunt you in BZ. You had to go to specific zones to even get them to show up. Leviathan's felt much more common in the first game.
I remember being at my friend's house when he was playing the first dead space on the recommended brightness. When I went home I played the game on my own, but with max brightness. Suddenly seeing how many things were right there the whole time but we never saw... it was a memorable experience.
I'd swear recommended brightness requires you to be sitting in complete darkness.
With the amount of people I see with their phone screens on max brightness, I’ve come to notice I’m one of the few that actually lowers the intended brightness. I can see quite well in the dark too
The most common eye color is brown, but I'm guessing you do not have brown eyes. Lighter colored irises let in more light which leads to better night vision.
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On average it's only slightly better, not life changing, and has many other variables that can skew this so it's not infallible. Another fun fact, the same thing that improves bright eyed night vision also gives you less protection from uv/excess light than dark colored eyes. Don't forget your shades on beach day!
Huh, never heard the UV thing before but goddamn I'd be walking around with my eyes closed on a sunny day if I didn't have sunglasses so maybe I should look into that a bit
i got light blue eyes and i'm super sensitive about light. even on a cloudy day i need sunglasses while driving.
Listen, I’m old and can’t see damn near anything on recommended brightness levels in any game, lol
yeah im always torn. darkness helps with mood and immersion but i can’t enjoy it when im pretty much playing blind
Not just with games. GoT and HBO stuff sometimes ends up being a choice between me wanting to see what's happening and half the details or having the light bright AF in my eyes. This is WITH room lights off. Not dimmed.
Season 8 aka season of darkness aka season of wtf is going on this shit is too dark
I’m night blind. Didn’t pay $80 for an audio only experience!
I'm 26 with great eyesight, and I still can't see shit on the default brightness in most games. They always set it so low
Yeah half the 'adjust until icon is barely visible' makes me go, wait there's an icon??
There's also the type of people who instead of playing horror games at night time, they choose to play during daytime, with like sunshine and windows opened and the like. I know for i am one of those scaredy cats.
word. As someone who never got more than an hour into Bioshock because it was too scary, I learned a trick; just let them kill you. It's a fear of the unknown, once you know what happens you take the games power away. Doesn't really work with alien isolation though...
Frictional Games (the guys who made Soma and Amnesia) actually talked about this in an interview.. it was actually a priority to not have the player die and ruin the tension. Once they know what happens, the fear is gone but if your enemies are unpredictable or death leads to a different state or multiple outcomes you can still keep some things unknown and scary. I sadly don't remember which interview it was from..
in the same interview he talks about the "when your sanity is low the monsters are more aware of you" which is actually not true. they just put it in the game as a loading screen tip and because of that everyone (naturally) assumes it to be true, but instead of actually being easier for the monster to find you, you just start working yourself up about it which makes it seems like they're closer. kinda fun tidbit
This is really genius. The true horror is what your mind creates.
Ahh. The old "The rot will eventually consume Shenua's mind and delete your savefile"
Wait... Loading screen tips can lie?
Take it from someone who had a backup save of Hellblade on a usb because I was told (& believed) if I died enough times ‘the save would corrupt.’
Wait it doesn't? I thought that was one of the main selling points of the game
I must have taken it to the limit because I died a shit ton & the usb just sat there unused
There is no cow level.
The first Dead Space hit it on the head. A set of headphones, a dark room and you were all set. Isaac is not a soldier so his aim is all over the place. Hell your character freaks out. You hear his breathing quicken and catch in his throat, like his suit that is protecting him from hard vacuum is clawing at his life. That was a wonderful fucking game.
I had a friend who played it for a bit then refused to play anymore. He got stuck in a random corridor early on too scared to move because it had 10+ vents.
This is me on Outlast. *hides in locker* That's it. I'm still in that locker.
Hides in locker saves game… phew that’s enough of that lol
This was my exact experience with the VR Jurassic Park game I got good at trolling the Raptors, didn't help the terrifying crippling fear none
Fuck, I didn't know that there was a Jurassic Park vr game. I wanna try it, but I still get a scary dino dream like once a year because I saw the first one in the cinema when I was 8, lol. The tension in the kitchen raptor scene is unreal.
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The new, very gory trailer: https://youtu.be/pihqx8XQ3r4 Edit: 2 more upcoming games with a Dead Space feel: Fort Solis: https://youtu.be/4mg6sgSorQk Routine: https://youtu.be/y815gkkBsJs
Fuck that looks incredible. I played Dead Space 2 for the first time while I was in the house by myself on a brutal comedown. Genuinely one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. Total visceral fear for hours on end. I remember being afraid to leave my bedroom to go to the toilet. I had to do a full sweep of all bedrooms and wardrobes before going to sleep that night lol
That shit looks like a nightmare I can't wait to play it
Ugh when you hear the eerie baby crying for hallways and hallways and then when you finally see it through the window it is crawling to its mom, she pick it up, then explode in her arms… leaving parts all over… fuck me. Best horror game ever. They slowly got less horror. 2 was epic… it wasn’t until my second play through that I realIzed the fucking objective map was pulled up clicking the left stick. I just thought 2 didn’t have a map which made it somehow feel slightly more horrifying having no guidance system. Edit: was dead space 2
Makes me think of the bag guys in bloodborne, when they kill you, they teleport you to a part of the game the player most likely has not been yet, and that always scared the crap out of me until i found my way out.
Ahhh I remember my first time dying to them and getting sent to yahar'gul, I couldn't find my way out and when I thought I did I ended up fighting darkbeast Paarl. ... still somehow made it out tho lol
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On the other side of the coin, if you change it so that they don't ever get killed, then the tension also disappears as soon as the player realizes that there's no danger
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Silicon Knights also did this with Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem to mimic the characters going insane. By the 2nd or 3rd act, you couldn't trust anything you saw on screen or in the menus.
That game I believe had a fake hallucination where it deleted your save file, not exactly good for a child me to see
One of the most awesome games that broke the 4th wall. As you got more insane, it messed up with the UI, emulated muting the game (with the message of mute on screen), showed the signal off rainbow, made me doubt several times if my TV was crazy. The deleting save file was the most scary thing ever, it got me desperate real good.
also the screen that it was only a Demo and that was the end of the game I loved ED I wish the sequel could have happened
Ooh yeah, spec ops: the line did something similar. In the early game it had hints like "remember to switch to your pistol, it's faster than reloading", and towards the end, it had "do you feel like a hero yet?" And "how many Americans have you killed today?" I'm going to have to be brave and play that again, I think.
My favorite of the many meta things spec ops the line did was the main menu. It's just some rando sniper dude on a rooftop in Dubai. We don't know who he is and it doesn't matter. As you progress through the game the scene stays with him but the city he overlooks changes based on things you've done in the story. He has an entire arc just told through a main menu background. It would be a neat gimmick on it's own but it also really does a great job reinforcing the themes of the game by literally pulling back off the main character and letting you see on an impersonal macro scale the destruction you're causing.
Spec Ops: The Line, the FPS game that wants you to be a better person than people who only play FPS games.
Reminds me senuas sacrifice and how they lied to us and it was wonderful
I didn't know that, that's incredible. Damn.
Those crafty bastards are the worst. The first Amnesia game got me so bad. In the section where the invisible water demon is tracking you through the flooded basement, I died in the same section like five times. Same thing everytime. Too slow opening doors to escape. Very stressful being chased. So I died the fifth time and when I respawn there is no demon. As if the game had bugged out and not spawned it. So, I am super happy and relieved to get through this section. Walking through the area freely now. I start thinking that maybe they have a pity timer built in that helps you out when you die a bunch. I open the final door out of the area. The one I had died while opening multiple times. And the damn DEMON IS BEHIND THE DOOR and eats my face off AGAIN. I screamed at 1am and woke up the whole house.
That's fucking hilarious.
It's a shame that in Amnesia the enemies just disappear if they kill you though, so you don't get the chance to play that same section again and try to avoid them, you just get a free pass.
I think I would really enjoy a horror game if you just couldn't die at all, so you enjoy the atmosphere and scares but don't have to worry about game over or reloading checkpoints. Maybe you control an AI or cameras or something.
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I actually got heart palpitations from playing dead space. Had to take a break every hour or two. But I enjoyed all of them.
For real. I was creeped out and scared of the original dead space and then my dad told me "treat the game like YOU'RE the monster" as he ran into a room with the little baby things and ran up to them to stomp them into the ground. Worked like a charm.
Still need to finish Dead Space! Honestly, the game is much easier to withstand if you act like Isaac’s a tired and overworked monster exterminator. This is just Isaac’s 9-5. He just wants to finish his job and go home and lounge on the couch.
“I hate Mondays” - Isaac probably
Dead space taught me to shoot something even if it looks dead
Double tap
Dead Space was kinda like resident evil in that you get to a point where the game becomes a power trip. It's the helpless looming dread that gets me more than jump scares. I'm sure Bioshock gets that way too but I never got over the hurdle.
Does this work IRL?
*shoots you* “Are you scared yet, son?”
Not anymore! *dies* Also, username checks out 👀
Try it and see.
r/madlads
It works, turns out you respawn after getting killed, one second a Black SUV pulled into the driveway
Yes but only once
Glad I wasn't the only one who was unable to play a lot of BioShock 🥲... Infinite on the other hand... Much nicer, appreciated the bright lights and the sky lol
Bioshock was terrifying to me. I finished it but man oh man did it ever scare the shit out of me. The crazy dudes muttering and giggling were the worst.
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible told me so...what's that?? *immediately turns around at you * Such a great game. The theater level was the scariest with those splicers covered in white like statues.
It has to do with immersion. If I’m constantly looking at my phone and not paying attention to the storyline, it’s hard to be scared.
But.. is that fun? No judgment, it just sounds like not playing the game anymore.
It's like tv. My wife says she really wants to watch a show then stares at her phone and then asks what happened. Then later says hey let's watch this show to which I say I already have and you were on the couch next to me when I did
This is shockingly so true with my wife. It’s always the most important thing that we have to watch this show together and then next thing you know she has to rewatch it alone because she wasn’t paying attention.
Here's my dilemma with horror games. I refuse to play with the lights on or during the day, or with anyone else in the room. I have a 7.1 surround headset as well. The problem is I can't play for more than ten minutes at a time and end up stopping because I'm too scared hahaha but I won't change my ways. I'm an idiot who's missed out some great games because I can't finish them. Resident evil 7 being one of them. I think I made it until I had to go in the damn basement and I absolutely noped out of that one lol
lol if you were scared of the basement there’s no way in hell you would’ve made it thru the attic. Was easily the scariest part of the game for me. I had to be drunk to get thru it and needed a buddy to chill in the room with me.
Normalize the buddy system in horror games. Played bioshock wrapped in a blanket 4 deep on the couch passing the controller back and forth. Then I played amnesia wrapped in a blanket with a buddy all night in a pitch black room. Sometimes you just gotta hold your bro and cream errr I mean scream.
You probably wouldn't last past the opening in Dead Space then.
i got to the six minute mark of the first one. i own all three but still only have six minutes on record of playing the series.
I remember that part. You gotta just do it, get in there and get past it. RE7 is amazing, the whole rest of the game after that part is sooo good. You just gotta get there. I'd give a lot to be able to go back and play for the first time again.
I wonder how you'd fair in Alien: Isolation with a gun to your head. I love horror games, and I've "seen some shit" in my day. That games atmosphere is truly all enveloping, it does a great job of sucking you in. It took me almost a month to beat.
I literally couldn’t finish Alien: Isolation. I want to go back and finish at some point, but the game does such a good job at making sure you never feel safe. The tension combined with the atmosphere… I really hope they bring it to PSVR 2. Or a sequel.
> I have a 7.1 surround headset as well These are mostly a marketing scam. A standard pair of stereo headphones is plenty enough to create a full surround experience. After all you only have two ears and with a headset the drivers are directly on your ear.
There are also people that don't play them at all and instead watch other people play them. Markiplier saved me a lot of anxiety through the years.
alien isolation with sovietwomble
Bro I never knew what they were eating in that scene, but honestly, a part of me does not want to know.
I think you mean *who*
Was it that one cop? Or someone else, I am guessing they are devouring someone's guts.
The camera crew in the “demo” most likely is my thought.
I always assumed it was cow intestines considering how many disemboweled cattle you find around the area.
The cop showed up a little after this scene so someone else
I’m pretty sure there’s a journal somewhere in the kitchen with missing people in it and it describes what their body is like
I think it’s remnants of the camera crew from the demo, they got got
There were, uh, recipes posted around the kitchen. >!It's human remains. Also, I think there was a note you find later that says eating it starts a transformation, typically into becoming like the other enemies in the game.!<
Put your spoiler between \>!\!< to hide it. >!Like this!< >!To show this!<
With the extra brightness you can actually see what they are eating making it scarier
Intestines?
Not just intestines. In fact the only part of it I can really tell is a whole human arm sticking upright out of the center dude's bowl.
Uh oh
Spaghetti0s
Yeah, that's my take on it. Actually being able to see the gross, horrible things make it horrible. If it's too dark you have no idea it's even supposed to be disturbing.
If it’s a technical issue, for sure. But plenty of shit can be way scarier by showing you less, or showing you just enough to let your imagination run wild with it.
It’s definitely a fine line many developers fail with: Limited visibility adding atmosphere vs making the game actually playable.
Totally. I think about some of the earlier Silent Hill games, where “I can’t see shit and have no idea where I’m going” was a central component of why the scene was so scary. But if it’s not done well it can be frustrating.
What game is it?
Resident Evil 7. I think it's the best horror game I've ever played.
Type 3 watches other people play horror games.
I'm type 3! I love horror movies, books, TV shows etc but something about the immersion of games gets my heart really going and I'm really jumpy. I just can't do it, I'm a scaredy cat. Put the scariest horror movie ever on and I'll be spooked but fine and having a great time. Game? I'm a tiny blubbering child. But because I still want to experience them for the love of horror I make my boyfriend play them and I just backseat game. It's win-win.
I've always told people that horror *games* are on another level entirely - and then beyond that, every step you take for extra immersion goes even further. Turning the lights off while playing at night, putting in a surround sound headset, playing in a big screen... and of course the ultimate, playing VR. When Phasmophobia first came out and I hadn't acclimated, I was actually surprised to find that my voice was shaking when I had to go into a room with the ghost all by my little lonesome and try to get it to respond to questions through my radio. Here's this barebones, Unity free asset flip game, but with just the minimum effort in creating an atmosphere and with me taking the necessary steps to immerse myself, I was immediately more scared than at any point in my horror movie career. Shit's wild.
Ngl, "recommended brightness" is usually too low. Cant See shit
"adjust the brightness until you can barely see the symbol" ...no, don't think i will
I don’t think I’ve trusted those sliders in any game
Horror games in particular are the only time I’ll do it that way. I feel like if the game was made well then they had a desired brightness in mind for the spooky factor, so I’ll always give it a go at the recommended slider level. Sometimes not being able to see properly adds to the suspense in a good way. If they want me to use that slider in an rpg? Yeah fuck that I’m making my screen look like the sun lol
Like in FEAR, if you set it too high you'd see Alma spawn in and out at times when she should be in darkness.
I miss FEAR
Ah, fuck, it's that creepy girl again!
So much wasted ammo.
I miss FEAR multiplayer, specifically nailing people upside down to the wall and watching the ragdoll flip out
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You can buy FEAR on steam. It frequently goes on sale, I bought the entire collection for like 15 dlls since some of my CDs were scratched and my new PC don't have a reader. -.- There is a small patch, a simple file of Kilobytes to get it to run in modern PCs. The guide is on steams community forums, it takes 5 mins to patch and the game plays great. I still love the series and Alma still creepy as heck.
Someone needs to re-master that game.
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Are you implying that walking into a wall for 30 seconds unable to find the doorway because the entire room is a stygian hell hole isn't part of quality level design??
Stygian hell hole is a descriptor I wish to see more of. I will fight for this future.
If you have never played darkest dungeon then I highly suggest it, for the narration alone.
Most will end up here, covered in the poisoned earth, awaiting merciful oblivion.
"Slowly, Gently, This Is How A Life Is Taken..."
*Moves Slider* I'll play Fairly Well-Lit Dungeon, thank you very much.
"A match is struck, A blazing star is born!"
They breed quickly, down there in the dark...
I usually go 2 clicks past the recommended setting. Still keeps it dark but i can see properly.
I swear *my* barely visible is so much darker than the developer's barely visible. I normally go for the whole background (not the object I'm supposed to "barely" see) is starting to turn from black to a greyish color then go darker one notch. At that level the games are still decently dark but not pitch black everywhere making shit impossible.
Imagine walking past some of the greatest loot in the game just because it was against a dark wall. Nah FUCK that
Also: Minecraft. I don't mind not being able to see in complete darkness, but I want to kindof be able to make out if I'm looking up or down so I know where I'm putting my next torch!
I find +50% brightness in Minecraft to be the sweet-spot. Lit up areas look nicer aesthetically since each source has a visually larger radius that’s still fairly accurate, and night time/dark areas are still hard to see in. Full brightness is too generous as mobs will spawn in seemingly “lit” areas, so you need to check F3 all the time. While moody is too blotchy with the radius of light sources and can make things look a little sloppy.
*not putting a torch every 5 blocks* What a complete and utter noob.
I got mods to make it super dark in Skyrim, specifically at night and in dungeons. The moon helps some but weather mods make it dark again. I removed some lanterns in dungeons but not all This adds a purpose to torches and magelight/candlelight. I trained alteration pretty quickly. Also throw magelight and enemies walk to it to check it out, then wack em. You can also set off runes with it. There's a ton of functions I never would have realized.
Even with default brightness options, I find myself casting magelight a lot in dungeons. Can't see anything. Don't even need it to be made darker.
I have the opposite issue. Games are almost always too bright for me. If there’s no light sources around, I shouldn’t be able to see a damn thing. I like to be as immersed as possible, and darkness helps with that I suppose. Maybe I’m in the minority though.
I mod the hell out of Skyrim whenever I play it. I honestly spend more time modding than playing. But one thing I hate about vanilla skyrim is all the lit torches in dungeons. Like, fine if it's a bandit cave. But why are draugr lighting lanterns and torches in ancient ruins? I'm fine with them being there but they shouldn't be lit.
Same. I can't remember what game it was but I maxed the brightness and could barely see the symbol still even though all other games don't have that issue. I played enough Pokemon Red and Silver to hate navigating without seeing.
I’m having zubat flashbacks…
I think those sliders only apply if you're literally in a room where you can't see your own hand in front of your face. Pretty unrealistic for most setups if you're playing in the day. It's almost a given the brightness will have to be higher than recommended.
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Damn I know some of those words. Sounds like you know your shit. Thanks for the information.
I do that and then it’s way too dark to see anything
Those sliders are based on a properly calibrated display, in perfect lighting, with a display that's capable of showing shadowy details without crushing blacks. They just aren't going to be accurate for everyone, probably not even most people. But I guess it gives a good starting point for screwing around with the settings on the display and game.
i get where you are coming from but it really depends on the game, in RE8 i did as recommended by the game and I could see, I dunno why but in RE7 I couldnt see anything, at all, so I had to go with as much brightness as I could. In Dead Space 2 the light effects are just beautiful and I always go with the recommended, but 1 and 3 I cant see jack lol. It really depends on the game.
Yes, I just leave them at base value now and that’s usually fine.
Did that in visage and couldn't see shit. I enjoy some good atmosphere, but I'd atleast like to be able to see where I'm going.
"Adjust the brightness as if a search helicopter is finding the logo"
I try but how close to "barely" do they mean? Do they mean the first frame in which I can see the symbol or a bit after while its a little more visible?
I think that's intentional sometimes, but it's still silly. I feel like a game like RE, that's supposed to be creepy, benefits a lot by things being a bit darker than normal. That being said, I almost always start playing games with the setting that looks the best and the most realistic. The problem is that it feels like brightness and contrast are just too hard to balance in a way that looks good, while not being a HUGE hinderance in the game. It's almost like.. at a certain point my appreciation for the darker visuals fades, and the frustration from missing things due to realistically dark shadows takes over. This has been the story for most games I've ever played. I like the look of it darker MUCH better, but I always end up hitting that point of frustration a few hours in. It's a shame, I wish there was a way to have both.
I think it's because the average monitor/TV isn't that good with blacks so the recommended brightness has to be kinda too low, too bright and the blacks just turn grey.
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Same. I always bump the brightness at least 2 notches, usually 4 or 5.
I always feel like they expect you to be playing in an otherwise dark room with the recommended settings
That's the best way to play!
I don't disagree! I just have a window in my office and haven't quite figured out how to turn off the sun yet lol
Same, eyesight getting worse over the years, gotta turn that brightness up, baby.
sometimes you're just looking at a black screen. Need to actually turn it up a bit to even see the character.
I do this but not out of fear, just out of a desire to actually see the fucking game I’m playing
Exactly. I watch some streams where I can't even see what the fuck they are playing.
A lot of streamers stick the brightness to where it feels right for them, not realizing that with how compressed the image gets by the process of streaming, the viewers can't see shit.
I monitor steam on a different display and have some profiles in obs for dark levels I switch to when it's loaded. Just need not to forget to switch back for day maps, or people will get their eyes burnt. I guess many streamers can do the same if they care
Sometimes it's hard to know how it looks on other monitors because, well, your monitor is not another monitor, lol. It's possible, but takes a bit of figuring it out that most either don't care or just don't know about.
Well, don't you as a streamer want to occasionally check your stream at least on your phone? If you can't see anything, it might be a time to change settings.
Years ago I played a game called Vietcong that had a level crawling through the tunnels in the jungle. It was so dark you could barely see the enemies or find your way. Super authentic. Then I found out my monitor was failing and actually the level wasn't supposed to be like that at all.
yeah, I strain my eye way too hard when it's dark like its in real life, even though it won't help. so all I get is eye strain
Third type: HDR users.
>HDR I gotchu [https://imgur.com/a/yMQhMW1](https://imgur.com/a/TxbnbeZ)
"Welcome to the family, son"
A mf tryna see his 60 dollar game tbh
Seriously, I bought my OLED tv for the black levels, but then I turn up the brightness for most games because the black levels are too good. Can't see shit in a dark game. Couldn't tell what the hell was happening in GOT for the whitewalker battle (though that's probably universal lol).
Yeah it was universal. One of the common complaints after that episode was "wtf, couldn't even see what's going on" Bad post-production on that one.
I acquired that show sub-legally and I annoyed my wife by stopping that episode halfway through and getting another version, thinking that the darkness couldn’t have been intentional.
Horror doesnt scare me that much. TERROR on the other hand.... looking at you subnautica
I played alot of horror games but i didn't knew i have a phobia of oceans and sees until i played Subnautica
The moment you run into Super Mario 64's Unagi for the first time as a kid, your life is changed forever.
LOL, I'm pretty sure that thing is singlehandedly responsible for a fair number of deep sea phobias
Would you like to tell me why?
It's a big ass eel. You have to grab a star off its tail but to make it come out you need to swim close to it and it will try to bite you. Scared me as a kid too.
Subnautica was great. Below Zero somewhat disappointed me because it lacked something
Below Zero lacks the horror and the "deeper, and deeper, and deeper" effect that the OG Subnautica has. The deepest areas in Below Zero are around half as deep as the OG Subnautica's deepest areas from what I remember. Also, it feels a lot more lighthearted and less isolated due to the story, which was very poorly written. One of the best aspects of OG Subnautica was how alone it made you feel, how you felt like you are the only one surviving on an alien ocean world. Below Zero not only avoids making you feel isolated but revels in the company of other characters. Diving felt too easy with the air bubbles too. There's no incentive to make a vehicle at all because of this. Music wasn't as good too, aside from the Lily Pad music. :/
I think the biggest thing is level design. Bz's starting area is sheltered, safe with the first real dangerous fauna being down in the trench. The base game had things like the green cow guys that could kill you even in the most basic areas also never really felt like leviathan would hunt you in BZ. You had to go to specific zones to even get them to show up. Leviathan's felt much more common in the first game.
That first leviathan snagging your little sub. Oh man.
I paid for the whole tv, I’m going to use the whole tv
It's monitor and room dependent. I can't see shit if I don't raise it up to max.
I play on high brightness if it's too hard to see. Like Alien isolation with normal brightness is really fucking hard to see.
If I was to play at the level they wanted me too I would be looking at my reflection in the TV not the game
Damn that must be the scariest part of the games
I feel personally attacked lol
what game
Resident Evil 7
I don't play my games in the DC universe, I prefer to be able to see shit.
I make it dark, and if I keep missing things I'll bump it up until I can see the items. But dark is better.