Godzilla/Cloverfield/really big creature survival horror

[Sniderman]

Hey gang,

Just sort of thinking out load. I just finished playing Disaster Report a few days ago and I'm now playing through Raw Danger. As my character ran through the cities that were collapsing and falling apart all around him, I got to thinking:

"Wouldn't it be cool if it was some giant creature that was causing the disaster?"

Imagine a survival game for the next generation systems where the object of the game is to escape from the city while someTHING is raising hell in it. Your running across a street when you hear a screech/roar behind and above you. A huge piece of a building topples to your right. You race into a nearby building and begin running upstairs. Everytime you pass a window, you can see something huge lumbering toward the building - getting closer. Chunks of the ceiling fall as you dodge around furniture rolling and bouncing across the floor due to the vibrations. The dualshock pad vibrates with each step of the creature. You reach the top of the building, turn, and see the creature nearly on top of you. It doesn't even see you. It doesn't care. You're just in the way. You run across the building's roof and make a mad leap off just as the creature crashes intot he building you were on, reducing it to rubble.

Anyway, is there any new games out where it's you vs a really big damn creature? I guess Shadow of the Collossus is close....

[OldSchoolGamer]

Yo know i am a BIG survival horror fan but even for me zombies are getting old! Mr. Sniderman, I LIKE YOUR IDEA! I would LOVE to play this!

[modest9797]

Godzilla is my hero.

I have many VHS tapes of him, several games, and a UMD.

I would love a game that I have to escape from godzilla. But I would probobly climb on top of him and watch everyone run

[Steven]

Totally, Sniderman. I hear ya. In addition, I have always wanted a 3D horror movie game, where in one scenario you're Laurie Strode trying to flee from your pyscho brother Michael Myers, to the next where you're out in the isolated back woods with Leatherface on your tail.

I think such a game, if handled right, could be big. You can play online and be either the bad guy or the good guy. Scenarios can be flexible to allow mixing... imagine Freddy and Jason both chasing you. God damn, so much potential. With today's graphical capabilities...

[MachineGex]

Great idea. I am just about to give Disaster Report & Raw Danger a spin, I hope they live up to the hype. As far as your idea, give the buildings the ICO treatment. Give them the height and depth of ICO(another great PS2 game).

Sounds fun, get working!!!

[FrakAttack]

It would beat the hell out of most giant movie monster games, especially that first Game Boy Godzilla puzzler/platformer/WTF thing. Not a bad game, it just had nothing to do with Godzilla.

Reminds me of my long time wish - that the Turok games really were about dinosaur hunting instead of all that bad guy nonsense. Travelling through time to hunt down various species, bringing down the really big ones with all kinds of weird weapons, collecting trophies for fun and profit, that sort of thing.

[Berserker]

"Wouldn't it be cool if it was some giant creature that was causing the disaster?"

Imagine a survival game for the next generation systems where the object of the game is to escape from the city while someTHING is raising hell in it. Your running across a street when you hear a screech/roar behind and above you. A huge piece of a building topples to your right. You race into a nearby building and begin running upstairs. Everytime you pass a window, you can see something huge lumbering toward the building - getting closer. Chunks of the ceiling fall as you dodge around furniture rolling and bouncing across the floor due to the vibrations. The dualshock pad vibrates with each step of the creature. You reach the top of the building, turn, and see the creature nearly on top of you. It doesn't even see you. It doesn't care. You're just in the way. You run across the building's roof and make a mad leap off just as the creature crashes intot he building you were on, reducing it to rubble.

I think that could be fucking amazing if done right.

What I mean by "right" is simply that the object of the game, and by proxy the players' heightened sense of immediacy, isn't lost in an attempt to be overly epic in scope.

Try to think of a typical way in which this game might be done today. You might start out in a panic, trying to avoid the monster, a few cutscenes, then you spend most of the rest of the game fighting off smaller creatures with your stumbled-upon arsenal of machine guns and rocket launchers, and finally you end up somehow in a fighter jet for the big face-off with the giant monster, the fate of the free world resting on your shoulders.

That's a pretty standard formula, and through it the most exciting elements of your idea would be lost. However, if the game developers were not only willing but comfortable thinking differently, outside of all these standard tired formulas, but also able to keep their focus on making a compelling game, well... it'd probably be pretty fucking awesome. I'd buy it.

[Damaramu]

Earth Defense Force 2017 anyone?

No platforming to speak of, but they did a great job with the sense of scale, especially on some of the BIGGER monsters and mecha. Man I love that game.

[diskoboy]

The Last Guy coming to PSN might sound like your cup of tea, sniderman..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfF_7FqaBfw&feature=related

Looks like it's got a kind of Pac-Man vibe, to it.

[FrakAttack]

Earth Defense Force 2017 anyone?

Cool. Reminds me of Body Harvest.

[Cryomancer]

Earth Defense Force 2017 anyone?

No platforming to speak of, but they did a great job with the sense of scale, especially on some of the BIGGER monsters and mecha. Man I love that game.

Exactly what I was going to say. And before someone gets it and complains it's just ants, it's not. There are kaiju stages, lots of UFOs, giant robots...

[kainemaxwell]

Awesome idea, that's a game I'd enjoy playing.

[digitalpress]

I know exactly what you mean, Tim. And that's a great idea for a game.

I also believe that Shadow of the Colossus comes closest to what you're looking for. There's also a few moments in the God of War games where the big guys are SO big it's frightening. However, in all of these cases, these big guys are bosses/targets (and the coolest big guy in God of War turns out to be an "environment", like the Colossus guys). But I think your idea is more about "escaping" than "conquering".

But we can't be too far off. If they could do those huge monsters in Shadow of the Colossus where they look great but there is little else in the world around you while playing, imagine what they could pull off in this next generation. Just put Shadow of the Colossus in a GTA4-like city and we're on our way.

[maxlords]

Totally, Sniderman. I hear ya. In addition, I have always wanted a 3D horror movie game, where in one scenario you're Laurie Strode trying to flee from your pyscho brother Michael Myers, to the next where you're out in the isolated back woods with Leatherface on your tail.

I think such a game, if handled right, could be big. You can play online and be either the bad guy or the good guy. Scenarios can be flexible to allow mixing... imagine Freddy and Jason both chasing you. God damn, so much potential. With today's graphical capabilities...



You should play Clock Tower 3 for the PS2 then. That's pretty much what it's like.

As for a giant monster scenario....that'd be awesome. I don't think EDF really qualifies....there's no overwhelming sense of actual terror...it's more of a run and gun than anything. The scale is right...the atmosphere all wrong. I think we're talking more of an RE4 feel but with the scale of Cloverfield...and I agree...that could be DAMNED awesome. That's the kind of atmosphere I originally expected from Run Like Hell...before I found out the finished product wasn't nearly as good as it could have been...

[Captain Wrong]

Tim, have you played Dino Crisis? That's the closest thing I ever played to what you're describing. It's basically RE with dinosaurs. It was a lot of fun, but I think there's room for improvement.

I'd love more games like this, especially as big of a Godzilla fan as I am. It would be nice if they used the license for something other than mediocre beat 'em ups.