View Full Version : best enviroments for having a survival horror-game
pragmatic insanester
06-12-2005, 05:23 PM
lets take the resident evil series for instant, and see how the levels' structure and setting affect the immersion into gameplay. i personally found much of the mansion-type levels (re1, veronica, re0) to lose their interest faster because of all the boring furniture, familiar puzzles, and overused old building = creepy vibes idea. next would be the cavern, sewer, bland outdoor settings - which usually don't have the detail of the prior theme. the lab levels are all basically too similar to care for as well.
here are my favorite:
urban settings rife with chaotic debris
police stations never get old
hospitals, but not asylums (cliche)
the villages from RE4 were wonderful
squidblatt
06-12-2005, 05:38 PM
Filthy toilets. Gross, but creepy.
njiska
06-12-2005, 06:00 PM
Northern Canada. And props to anybody who know what game that setting's from.
pragmatic insanester
06-12-2005, 06:39 PM
D2? -doesn't own it, memory dates back from a rental-
Mr.FoodMonster
06-12-2005, 06:42 PM
I think the urban settings are the best for showing you things like
"Oh my god everything is dead/blown up."
shvnsth
06-12-2005, 07:12 PM
i think a really rural setting would be awesome, kinda blair witchy.
djbeatmongrel
06-12-2005, 08:01 PM
carnival
swamps/dense forest
camp grounds
mall (friggin mannequins are alive i tell you)
Cryomancer
06-12-2005, 08:01 PM
Movie Theatres. :D
Queen Of The Felines
06-12-2005, 08:24 PM
High schools/college campuses
Junkyards
Kristine
Kroogah
06-12-2005, 08:47 PM
I'd have to agree with the urban setting, the bigger the better. The best scene from the movie 28 Days Later is near the beginning, when the protagonist is walking through a completely deserted London. Creepy as Hell.
My biased choice would be a campground, because I really want to see a Friday the 13th game for the next generation of consoles. Just imagine if it was a game you could beat in a night, but it was completely randomized a la Toejam & Earl? With limited health and weapons so if you kill Jason you really feel like you've accomplished something?
neuropolitique
06-12-2005, 08:49 PM
I like a dense wood with an apparently abandoned house in the middle.
I also fear mirrors, but I've yet to play a game that capitalizes on that fear. I thought Silent Hill 2 had a great opportunity to, but they did nothing with it.
Cryomancer
06-12-2005, 09:19 PM
Yeah, mirrors are good for that kind of thing. Also for some reason high celings can strike minor paranoia into me. Bathrooms tend to freak me out.
djbeatmongrel
06-12-2005, 09:31 PM
Bathrooms tend to freak me out.
do you use a bucket?
OdSquad64
06-12-2005, 09:53 PM
I always thought a trailer park would be a really creepy setting for a resident evil game. Also a big high school at night, with all the lights out. It would be perfect because you have to find keys to open all the rooms and zombie janitors, teachers, students and the ever scay zombie lunch ladies. And the bathrooms would just look like any other high school bathrooms, dirty and creepy with poop on the walls.
Frankie23
06-12-2005, 10:25 PM
I really liked the aircraft carrier setting of Carrier on the Dreamcast. Small, cramped, creepy.
evildead2099
06-12-2005, 10:55 PM
I like what Silent Hill has been doing thus far in terms of environments.
Good call on being hunted down in a mall, djbeatmongrel.
Re: njiska's suggestion of Northern Canada: Have you played the Xbox / PS2 / PC game based on John Carpenter's The Thing (Technically, it's a follow-up to the events which unfold in the film)? Although the game takes place in Antarctica, I suppose you could mistake the setting for Northern Canada.
I suggest that we nix the idea of having a survival horror game in a high school; I felt like I was struggling to survive horror every day I found myself attending high school. :angry:
Cryomancer
06-12-2005, 11:57 PM
Bathrooms tend to freak me out.
do you use a bucket?
No way, I'm not a hermaphrodite. (fairly-obscure joke)
No, I use them, I just tend to try and not think about it, usually by taking along a game of cardfighters. I wouldn't want to get the shit scared out of me. zing.
rayearthknight
06-13-2005, 12:05 AM
"Obscure" used a school, town and some dark underground lair as backgrounds.
I thought the use of the "frozen North" in D2 was perfect--isolation...nothing but snow for miles...and what a great way to hide the impending polygon dropout (j/k).
Carnevil used an amusement park setting--still creepy...hey, where's "Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game"?
njiska
06-13-2005, 12:05 AM
D2? -doesn't own it, memory dates back from a rental-
Yeah D2. The whole white wasteland with creatures lurking was haunting.
RockyRaccoon
06-13-2005, 03:00 AM
A Hotel.
Hotel Calfornia - The Game!
Alright. Seriously. XD
My idea of a good setting would be a big Musesum......
~Rocky
pragmatic insanester
06-13-2005, 05:08 AM
i think carnivals have been milked to death. silent hill did it well, though, having more focus on the rides than the magic theatrics and clowns. oh please, no more scary clowns.
Jagasian
06-13-2005, 12:32 PM
Isn't Resident Evil the game that ripped off Alone in the Dark? Both revolve around a haunted house, 3D player/monster models, but backgrounds are pre-rendered, etc. Oh well, I guess this kind of thing happens all the time.
crazyjackcsa
06-13-2005, 03:10 PM
You ready for this great idea?
.....ALCATRAZ. I think a horror game, hell any game based in Alcatraz (Or San Quentin, or any famous prison) would be really really wild.
djbeatmongrel
06-13-2005, 04:52 PM
Bathrooms tend to freak me out.
do you use a bucket?
No way, I'm not a hermaphrodite. (fairly-obscure joke)
No, I use them, I just tend to try and not think about it, usually by taking along a game of cardfighters. I wouldn't want to get the shit scared out of me. zing.
LOL
anyways, about carnivals i wanna see a refined Carn Evil console port. that game was fun
evildead2099
06-13-2005, 05:39 PM
D2? -doesn't own it, memory dates back from a rental-
Yeah D2. The whole white wasteland with creatures lurking was haunting.
Like I said, try The Thing.
evildead2099
06-13-2005, 05:40 PM
You ready for this great idea?
.....ALCATRAZ. I think a horror game, hell any game based in Alcatraz (Or San Quentin, or any famous prison) would be really really wild.
That's already been done. Try Midway's The Suffering.
djbeatmongrel
06-13-2005, 07:07 PM
you know after reading through this topic, Manhunt has used almost all suggestions here. i think another good one to expand upon from manhunt would be and abandoned zoo
crazyjackcsa
06-13-2005, 07:15 PM
Was The Suffering actually based in Alcatraz? I've never actually played it, I knew it was a prison, but I want like the official layout, building plan and the whole nine yards.
evildead2099
06-13-2005, 07:29 PM
Was The Suffering actually based in Alcatraz? I've never actually played it, I knew it was a prison, but I want like the official layout, building plan and the whole nine yards.
Perhaps not Alcatraz per se, but the prison is located on a small, remote island to ensure that no one escapes (coincidentally, the island is haunted).
AFGiant
06-13-2005, 08:07 PM
I think a submarine, or some underwater setting would be creepy as a survival horror game. Maybe something where you had to go into the ocean in a wetsuit and scuba gear, but the zombies/monsters/sea creatures could be out there in the dark, dark, quiet deep too? Underwater unknowns scare me...
pragmatic insanester
06-14-2005, 05:27 AM
i still wish there would/could be a videogame translation of stephen king's "the mist". about 30-50 people trapped in a grocery store, as a mist covers the countryside and monsters roam the land. i've always liked the stores in such games as parasite eve (in soho) and silent hill 3 (the mall).