best enviroments for having a survival horror-game

[pragmatic insanester]

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]

Filthy toilets. Gross, but creepy.

[njiska]

Northern Canada. And props to anybody who know what game that setting's from.

[pragmatic insanester]

D2? -doesn't own it, memory dates back from a rental-

[Mr.FoodMonster]

I think the urban settings are the best for showing you things like

"Oh my god everything is dead/blown up."

[shvnsth]

i think a really rural setting would be awesome, kinda blair witchy.

[djbeatmongrel]

carnival
swamps/dense forest
camp grounds
mall (friggin mannequins are alive i tell you)

[Cryomancer]

Movie Theatres.

[Queen Of The Felines]

High schools/college campuses
Junkyards

Kristine

[Kroogah]

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]

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]

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]

Bathrooms tend to freak me out.

do you use a bucket?

[OdSquad64]

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]

I really liked the aircraft carrier setting of Carrier on the Dreamcast. Small, cramped, creepy.

[evildead2099]

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.

[Cryomancer]

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]

"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]

D2? -doesn't own it, memory dates back from a rental-

Yeah D2. The whole white wasteland with creatures lurking was haunting.

[Nez]

A Hotel.