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Gone Home is not a horror game. It has some things in it that might make you think it is. But then it's not.
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Jul 1, 2019 15:57
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chitoryu12 posted:The problem isn't "Oh, it's just tension! That's not a horror thing!" It's there are specific things that are definitely geared toward implying that you're playing a horror game.
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Jul 1, 2019 16:02
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Glagha posted:Gone Home is not a horror game. It has some things in it that might make you think it is. But then it's not. I mean yes that is literally what this conversation is saying
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Jul 1, 2019 16:02
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Cardiovorax posted:Implying isn't the same as being. Even if it's an intentional fake-out, it's still a fake-out. It has some qualities that can make you think you're playing a horror game, but that doesn't actually make it one. Nobody is saying "Gone Home is horror." We're saying that it has a ton of hints and atmosphere that seem to have been intentionally put in place to make it seem like a horror game, but then pulls the rug out from under you. It's understandable why people looking for a horror game would be disappointed.
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Jul 1, 2019 16:06
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chitoryu12 posted:Nobody is saying "Gone Home is horror." We're saying that it has a ton of hints and atmosphere that seem to have been intentionally put in place to make it seem like a horror game, but then pulls the rug out from under you. It's understandable why people looking for a horror game would be disappointed.
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Jul 1, 2019 16:08
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chitoryu12 posted:While I would ordinarily accept this explanation in a vacuum, the specific stuff that happens in Gone Home does incite fear and discomfort. There are specific hints regarding the ghost they think is in the house and the secrets behind hidden panels that seem to be building up to some kind of revelation with a lot more punch and terror than finding out that everything is normal and your sister just ran off to join her girlfriend, accompanied by a jump scare at one point. The problem isn't "Oh, it's just tension! That's not a horror thing!" It's there are specific things that are definitely geared toward implying that you're playing a horror game. And this scene from Spider-Man 2 is straight out of Evil Dead but nobody on earth would declare that Spider-Man is a horror movie. Neatly categorizing any form of media is complicated and ultimately kinda pointless, but the difference between genre and a work merely containing elements from that genre is the overall emotional thrust as presented by the narrative. Horror seeks to evoke fear, shock, and/or disgust from its audience as a baseline response. That's what a successful horror game accomplishes and is judged upon. Gone Home wants you to be fearful for the well-being of your sister, but there are probably half a dozen other emotions that take greater precedence in the story: Empathy, nostalgia, rebellion, indignity, compassion, to name a few. That interpretation is also completely at odds with everything about the way the game was presented and marketed by its own creators. The popularity and ubiquity of other indie spooky house trash on Steam does not mean Gone Home intended or ever declared itself to be a horror game.
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Jul 1, 2019 16:13
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exquisite tea posted:And this scene from Spider-Man 2 is straight out of Evil Dead but nobody on earth would declare that Spider-Man is a horror movie. Neatly categorizing any form of media is complicated and ultimately kinda pointless, but the difference between genre and a work merely containing elements from that genre is the overall emotional thrust as presented by the narrative. Horror seeks to evoke fear, shock, and/or disgust from its audience as a baseline response. That's what a successful horror game accomplishes and is judged upon. Gone Home wants you to be fearful for the well-being of your sister, but there are probably half a dozen other emotions that take greater precedence in the story: Empathy, nostalgia, rebellion, indignity, compassion, to name a few. That interpretation is also completely at odds with everything about the way the game was presented and marketed by its own creators. The popularity and ubiquity of other indie spooky house trash on Steam does not mean Gone Home intended or ever declared itself to be a horror game. Again, you’re trying to cherry pick things and look at them in a vacuum. The point about Spider-Man 2 would maybe make more sense if the whole movie had been like that from the beginning and built it up as the general tone before switching to a regular superhero movie at the end. That’s what Gone Home did.
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Jul 1, 2019 16:16
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I don't know why we'd have this debate. Gone Home is clearly not a horror game.
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Jul 1, 2019 16:17
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chitoryu12 posted:Again, you’re trying to cherry pick things and look at them in a vacuum. The point about Spider-Man 2 would maybe make more sense if the whole movie had been like that from the beginning and built it up as the general tone before switching to a regular superhero movie at the end. That’s what Gone Home did. Nobody back in 2013 who paid any attention to Gone Home thought it was going to be a horror game. I remember because I followed its development for a long time beforehand. Nobody who was excited to buy the game on Day 1 thought there was gonna be some spooky ghost revelation.
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Jul 1, 2019 16:18
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exquisite tea posted:Nobody back in 2013 who paid any attention to Gone Home thought it was going to be a horror game. I remember because I followed its development for a long time beforehand. Nobody who was excited to buy the game on Day 1 thought there was gonna be some spooky ghost revelation. I've said it before but for anyone who just saw it pop up on Steam one day we got a description that made it sound like a haunted house. Their overall marketing may not have been one of this is a haunted house but the back of the box blurb was absolutely a haunted house tone
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Jul 1, 2019 16:25
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exquisite tea posted:Nobody back in 2013 who paid any attention to Gone Home thought it was going to be a horror game. I remember because I followed its development for a long time beforehand. Nobody who was excited to buy the game on Day 1 thought there was gonna be some spooky ghost revelation.
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Jul 1, 2019 16:28
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Len posted:I've said it before but for anyone who just saw it pop up on Steam one day we got a description that made it sound like a haunted house. Their overall marketing may not have been one of this is a haunted house but the back of the box blurb was absolutely a haunted house tone I was definitely one of those people. I had no idea what Gone Home was and had never heard of it before. The one popular LPer that I actually paid attention to did a single preliminary video on the first 15 or 20 minutes and he definitely came out thinking it was a horror game. It's even more convincing playing it yourself blind.
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Jul 1, 2019 16:29
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Horror is a state of mind - I’m gonna stir the pot some more and say that, to 11 year old me, Myst was one of the scariest horror games. It’s just you and the uncanny emptiness of a strange world and its many contrived puzzle doors.
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Jul 1, 2019 16:35
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Speaking as someone who knew nothing about that game going in, I recall my progression of thoughts as I was playing going something like "So this is a haunted house game." "Okay I've found the plot beats and it's not a haunted house game, but something happened to the girl." "She may have killed herself and the game is leading me to the attic. I'm about to find a body." "Oh, they swerved me again, everything is okay." So yeah, certainly a kind of lurking dread as to what I was going to find as the story progressed.
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Jul 1, 2019 16:41
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Gone Home definitely gave the impression leading up to release of being a horror game to me leading up to the release. I’d say that, metaphorically speaking, it’s a ghost story with your protag being the ghost in question.
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Jul 1, 2019 18:17
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All of that is exatly why there's the haunted house board games to be found in the closets; the devs were amused that so many people presumed Gone Home was a horror game based on screenshots and the teaser trailer that they couldn't resist poking fun.Bert of the Forest posted:Horror is a state of mind - I’m gonna stir the pot some more and say that, to 11 year old me, Myst was one of the scariest horror games. It’s just you and the uncanny emptiness of a strange world and its many contrived puzzle doors. And a decapitated, decayed human head in a coffin-like box in one of the ages.
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Jul 2, 2019 02:58
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Well this isn’t great. https://twitter.com/gameinformer/status/1145866928118009856?s=21
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Jul 2, 2019 04:45
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It might be okay, since it just means they can release it without having to edit it anymore now, since they're no longer going to be able to even market it in China anymore. At least, that's my optimistic stance.
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Jul 2, 2019 06:00
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They're based out of Taiwan, iirc. Guess what Taiwan is
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Jul 2, 2019 08:11
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Bogart posted:They're based out of Taiwan, iirc. ... #1?
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Jul 2, 2019 08:26
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Bogart posted:. The Republic of China?
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Jul 2, 2019 09:49
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Devs are Taiwanese, publisher was Chinese 
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Jul 2, 2019 11:22
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Bogart posted:They're based out of Taiwan, iirc. Its certainly not China, despite what Winnie the Pooh claims.
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Jul 2, 2019 12:49
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I'm just hoping none of them end up dead under mysterious circumstances.
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Jul 2, 2019 13:03
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That would be the saddest thing, killed because of a videogame. Here's hoping for those poor fuckers.
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Jul 2, 2019 13:10
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There's sadly a distinct possibility they could be. I hope red candle devs are able to survive this poo poo if not as a company.
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Jul 2, 2019 13:11
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IShallRiseAgain posted:Its certainly not China, despite what Winnie the Pooh claims. It is but it isn't. Taiwan is officially the Republic of China but the People's Republic of China won't let them use it internationally. Though it should be noted that until 30 or so years ago the Republic of China was no less of a dictatorship than the People's Republic.
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Jul 2, 2019 13:31
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FreudianSlippers posted:It is but it isn't. 
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Jul 2, 2019 13:33
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Remedy has the rights to Alan Wake back, hopefully this means a sequel is on the way.
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Jul 3, 2019 03:00
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Red Mundus posted:Yeah without going into specifics the fish people aren't evil or anything like that. So initially the confusing controls that have no clear explanation bothered me, and to a degree the controls just in general bother me like all 3rd person PC games, but the second I saw my fish bro I fell in love. Production value for like the engine or feel of the game caught me off guard but I'm pretty happy.
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Jul 3, 2019 11:02
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I'm really on the fence about picking it up. Maybe I should wait for a price drop and maybe a patch? But I also really want to get lost in some nightmare city because Call of Cthulhu left me real cold. Spoiler question for those who have played it. I've been told there are no "boss fights" nor would I expect to be lobbing molotovs at Shub-Niggurath, but how much spectacle is in the game? Is it all fish men and weird shoggoth blob monsters or do we ever see anything grand and cosmic and really "out there"? I don't mind spoilers. They're more likely to get me hyped than anything else. I'd have never played Metal Gear Survive if I wasn't spoiled about the Lord of Dust as an example.
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Jul 3, 2019 11:19
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Kokoro Wish posted:Yeah, had my eye on this one since inception. Playing as the body horror beast is absolutely my jam. Posting from several pages back - this one just caught my eye recently. The gameplay videos are amazing. Have they talked about any upgrades / skills which might be available beyond what was shown? In the trailer one scene it looked like the monster was impregnated with metal shards or some such.
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Jul 3, 2019 11:24
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Cardiovorax posted:Well, horror needs to actually have something horrifying in it. Otherwise you're watering down the term to the point where it really doesn't describe anything, because it describes everything. Calling it a Thriller seems totally appropriate to me. We just don't seem to use that word for games.
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Jul 3, 2019 11:52
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I think part of it is that video games are kind of unique in that they're sorted into both a style genre and a gameplay genre, and sometimes it's a bit hard to differentiate. You can apply a lot of movie conventions to games, but in the end, they are very different mediums and it doesn't always translate all that accurately. Suspense/thriller sounds like a perfectly acceptable description to me as well, though.
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Jul 3, 2019 11:58
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I knew nothing about Gone Home going into it and I was on edge pretty much the entire time, especially when I suspected a grimdark suicide ending was coming. Definitely one of my favorite gaming experiences ever and if someone is going to play it they need to go in blind. This conversation is why genres are limiting.
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Jul 3, 2019 20:15
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I am playing the sinking city and don't understand why do reviewers poo poo on it. Sure, its no technical marvel but the worst bug I've encountered so far is that npc crowds behave wonky sometimes. Overall visual design is great IMO and the story intriguing enough so I don't see what the problem is. Its a good game. My only gripe is that transitioning from foot to boat gets annoying, doesnt really add anything to the game. E: Also, for people who want another good Lovecraft game, look into Conarium Sekenr fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Jul 3, 2019 |
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Jul 3, 2019 21:59
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Conarium is pretty much The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by way of a mystery-horror story, so I'll second that recommendation.quote:This conversation is why genres are limiting.
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Jul 3, 2019 22:28
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Minecraft is a god game
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Jul 3, 2019 22:59
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There is a decent game buried in The Sinking City, but the developers did their best to bury it under bloated features. It tries to trick you into thinking that it is an open world game, and if you treat it as such, you will hate it. There is nothing to be found, only cookie cutter buildings with no interesting loot or stories or anything. So save yourself some time and frustration and ignore anything that isn't tied to a quest. Similarly be prepared to be disappointed by advertiser features like archival research and mind Palace and retrocognition, they all boil down to mindlessly clicking buttons to unlock predefined journal entries that other games would give you automatically. So, if you adjust your expectations to it being a strictly linear game with no actual detective work or puzzles and bad combat, it can be quite enjoyable at times, but even then the story it tells is kinda rushed. It reminds me of Vampyr, but worse designed, more shallow and with weaker atmosphere.
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Jul 4, 2019 08:16
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Sekenr posted:I am playing the sinking city and don't understand why do reviewers poo poo on it. Sure, its no technical marvel but the worst bug I've encountered so far is that npc crowds behave wonky sometimes. Overall visual design is great IMO and the story intriguing enough so I don't see what the problem is. Its a good game. My only gripe is that transitioning from foot to boat gets annoying, doesnt really add anything to the game. The Sinking City is Eurojank. It can win you over with sheer ambition and honesty in wanting to be a lovecraft game that went way beyond its means and bounds to properly implement, but if you can't take its numerous bugs, piss easy and tedious combat that severely limits your ammo but constantly re-spawns loot containers to make all of the enemy encounters lack any sort of tension, a lack of a map system that demands that you not only put markers down but understand what "Round the corner of Elder God Street" means when you're in conversation; or are some sort of shithead that wants to defend certain lovecraft beliefs that the game starts off by saying are awful, you're not gonna like this game. As a horror game it kind of fails to pull off anything near The Evil Within 1, let alone 2. Crabtree fucked around with this message at 15:57 on Jul 4, 2019 |
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Jul 4, 2019 15:44
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