Which setting / locale serves itself up best for horror / thrills / mood and tension?
- Thread starter lowhighkang_LHK
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Confined spaces with no means of escape make for some of my favorite horror dynamics. Voted for space ship/station and cruise ship.
I'm curious about the city block one. What's a good example of a film or game that uses this setting?
I'm curious about the city block one. What's a good example of a film or game that uses this setting?
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btw for a video game that is. Obviously, since this is the gaming side by I never specified. So, best locale that would scare you for a video game.
I think a derelict spaceship is the most horrifying for me. Space is vast and empty. There's nothing outside of that ship. You can't escape it. With any other setting you can theoretically run away if you get outside, but on a derelict spaceship you might be the only living thing for literal light years around. It adds an element of existential horror to the other horror for me.
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I know human-kind has a subconscious desire to categorize and rank literally everything under the sun (best of the year/decade threads being no exception) but all that aside I really don't think there's a definitive SPOOPIEST SETTING. That being said, a confined building (mansion, cabin, discount chain mall, etc) is suited well to a horror game
Same answers, having no immediate and "safe" escape is what would make a situation the most stressful in my opinion.
If used well, I think you can get the greatest mileage out of a derelict spacecraft - it's just among the easiest to screw up.
But part of the advantage with a spaceship or station is that, because they exist currently in more of a speculative space - unless you decide you wanna go relatively low-tech on the sci-fi and do a horror aboard say, the ISS - you can tailor it as to basically whatever you desire to play around with the mood, where an environment situated on Earth runs into the issue of having to fit the template of the locale and its expectations. And as Tharp says, a spacecraft inherently rationalises why you can't just leave - it's fucking space, you're not going aware without a separate escape craft.
Prey is a really good example of how one can play with the dimensional space to great effect. You can have tight, narrow corridors in which there is little escape from immediate, obvious threats. Or you can have wide, open spaces that almost look pleasant, and so are difficult to discern just where a threat - if there even is any - might come from. Because the vessel is a construct, it can have potential points of entry that are less intuitive in a more natural environment but totally make sense in a wholly artificial one: ventilation shafts, particularly running through the floor ('the ground' being not so easily traversed except on top of it planetside), are an infamous unto a tad cliché example of this. You can also more easily screw with the rules of the environment without even technically invoking anything spooky - gravity can just turn off on a space station, whereas on Earth that would immediately be a suggestion of something otherworldly at work.
But part of the advantage with a spaceship or station is that, because they exist currently in more of a speculative space - unless you decide you wanna go relatively low-tech on the sci-fi and do a horror aboard say, the ISS - you can tailor it as to basically whatever you desire to play around with the mood, where an environment situated on Earth runs into the issue of having to fit the template of the locale and its expectations. And as Tharp says, a spacecraft inherently rationalises why you can't just leave - it's fucking space, you're not going aware without a separate escape craft.
Prey is a really good example of how one can play with the dimensional space to great effect. You can have tight, narrow corridors in which there is little escape from immediate, obvious threats. Or you can have wide, open spaces that almost look pleasant, and so are difficult to discern just where a threat - if there even is any - might come from. Because the vessel is a construct, it can have potential points of entry that are less intuitive in a more natural environment but totally make sense in a wholly artificial one: ventilation shafts, particularly running through the floor ('the ground' being not so easily traversed except on top of it planetside), are an infamous unto a tad cliché example of this. You can also more easily screw with the rules of the environment without even technically invoking anything spooky - gravity can just turn off on a space station, whereas on Earth that would immediately be a suggestion of something otherworldly at work.
What about your dreams or your own mind? Like Alan Wake or Silent Hill. You can basically create any environment you want.
Outside that, the derelict space station. Or underwater station or large ship. Maybe a mine or catacombs, such as on Thief.
Outside that, the derelict space station. Or underwater station or large ship. Maybe a mine or catacombs, such as on Thief.
For me it's definitely abandoned buildings and stuff. They just give off the eeriest and creepiest vibes and also are more immersive. Space stations can't be as creepy for me because they are going to always be more fantastical I guess.
Not saying there aren't some creepy ones, but overall it's harder to pulloff right.
Not saying there aren't some creepy ones, but overall it's harder to pulloff right.
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Yeah. Ultimately it came down to limited poll choices. And I think the biggest takeaway message is that any well designed game can be made scary anywhere. If the right vision and talent is behind it.
Looking at the poll results so far....man, only if Dino Crisis 3 was done right. Fucking Dinosaurs in space.
Amusement Park because of the potential for clown imagery, hospitals for all of the creepy patient potential. Still lots of good options in the poll.
The places without a reasonably quick way of leaving if shit goes down, so spaceship, boat, then cabin in the woods in that order.
Spaceship for sure. There is no escape at all, and even if it breaches outside of the ship space is scary as fuck anyway.
Cruise ship is probably the most similar for a runner up. Completely trapped, and your only option out of there is water filled with who knows what else.
Cruise ship is probably the most similar for a runner up. Completely trapped, and your only option out of there is water filled with who knows what else.
Ever since my mother let me watch ALIEN with her as a child, and seeing one of the trailers for it and the music along with the final tagline, I have been unbelievably creeped out by being on a spaceship. It's the fucking tagline, simple yet effective.
I was just thinking how much I'd love a modern survival horror game in an urban environment.
Resident Evil did this with 3, and then there's Condemned: Criminal Origins and Dying Light.
I want more.
Resident Evil did this with 3, and then there's Condemned: Criminal Origins and Dying Light.
I want more.
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Looking at the poll it seems the ultimate scary game would take place in a derelict spaceship in deep space with a house inside of it.
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Honestly when a lot of places do Hell it comes across way too try hard.
I like the ironic take on it, like in DMC1/DMC3.
What about the mind? For example, The Evil Within. I think that as a backdrop allows for a multitude of different scenarios and horrors that couldn't exist in the other types of settings.