FEAR Omg :o

[French Ninja]

2. That "thing" in the vent, I think this is where the devs hit the exact right chord. You didn't see the thing, nor do you ever encounter it for the rest of the game...and that's what makes it scary. It's the fear of the unknown, and hearing something bumping in the vents, looking at corpses getting eaten by an unseen creature...

Isn't that Alma?
And yes, that was scary. I was surprised the devs didn't have Alma sitting in the vents more often, like have her really close to your face when you take a corner.

 

[AiM]

Anyway F.E.A.R.? It doesen't look at all like my kind of game to be honest. It seems more of a game oriented towards graphics which I could care less about. The demo was just dull I thought.

The graphics are nice (I love the gibbing / dismemberment personally ) but what's really impressive IMO is the AI. It is by far THE most impressive AI I have ever played against, the amount of flanking / cover / tactical moves they can do are utterly awesome. I haven't truely been scared by their horror / ghost moments, however I've been surprised quite a few times by the AI manuevres.

 

[Sparta]

This kinda makes me want to play the last level of the game again. Awesome level that. Also, I agree, the A.I is really good as well. However even on the hardest difficulty the game still suffers from being monotonous .

I really wish Bioshock would come out and scare the pants off of us . Or that i could find a copy of Thief 3 on computer somewhere. Damn Shalebridge Cradle

 

[jondy]

Damn Shalebridge Cradle

*shivers*

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[Neutrino]

Damn Shalebridge Cradle

Best single player level in a game ever. Ever.

 

[stemot]

The graphics are nice (I love the gibbing / dismemberment personally ) but what's really impressive IMO is the AI. It is by far THE most impressive AI I have ever played against, the amount of flanking / cover / tactical moves they can do are utterly awesome. I haven't truely been scared by their horror / ghost moments, however I've been surprised quite a few times by the AI manuevres.

The AI may be good, but the level design never truly gives you an opportunity to see it working to full effect, the levels are that tight and closed in, that most of the time there`s only one position they can flank from, so it`s just a case of chucking on slo-mo, and doing a lap of the section blowing everyone away.

Slo-mo is an impressive tool for watching deaths, but in all honestly, I think the AI would have been more of a challenge without it.

 

[Sparta]

Best single player level in a game ever. Ever.

I've only played a little bit, but i can easily say its probably one of the scariest levels of any game i've ever played.

Ties with The Body from SS2.

 

[clarky003]

Slo-mo is an impressive tool for watching deaths, but in all honestly, I think the AI would have been more of a challenge without it.

Theres nothing stopping you from playing the game without using slowmo.

 

[Murray]

I'm amazed how many people like this game, I thought it was crap all the way through. The way of scareing people was not scary at all. I never twiched at all in any of them "cinematic" events. The game otherwise was also crap, the same enemies all the time, no bossfights. I disliked the design, it was all about running around in cubicles and listening to phone answering machines. The soldiers did have impressive AI, I give you that, but I'd really love to see more than the same soldier all the time, because you have to edmit, it gets monotonous after a while. Graphics were ok, but due to the simple and colourless design of the maps, in the future people won't look back at this game and say how impressed they were of their ambitious attempt to make the game look deep and have colorfull atmosphere.

 

[ríomhaire]

The AI was good except for some things. Such as jumping out through windows there by making themselves vunerable for a few seconds and sacraficing their cover.

 

[Sparta]

The main flaw of the AI though, is that you can just camp and eventually they'll come to you. No grenades, nothing.

Thats why camping never worked in the original Half-Life. ****ing marines.

 

[Solver]

I'm quite amazed that different people are scared by so different things. Some are scared by HL2 Ravenholm, some by Doom3, some by FEAR.

Myself, I never get scared by any "horror" movies, I find them ridicilous typically. Doom3 is the most scary game I've ever played, *to me*, and it had me very nervous and stuff. FEAR I found to be definitely creepy and with a pretty horror-filled atmosphere, but not really that scary. I suppose I should try to explain. Please keep in mind though that it's just my opinion.

Doom3 is hellish. FEAR is paranormal. Might not seem like much difference at first, but it is. I am usually immersed in games somewhat, especially the good ones like these. So, in Doom3 there's horrible stuff happening around, zombies, gore, whatever. In FEAR, there's horrible stuff too, those soldiers killed brutally, and all those hallucinations. The difference was, in Doom3 most things are actually happening - the UAC base turns into something infested, there are actual demons running through it, growths protruding and weird voices. In FEAR, most wasn't actually happening, but rather influenced by your ability to perceive psychic impulses. When you'd see Fettel or Alma, they were psychic imprints that you could see/feel. All those hospital and other dreams were likewise, psychic messages, though I found one of them quite scary.

Doom3 wasn't scary because of monsters jumping at you, though it adds a jumpiness factor. It was scary because of what was happening, and because you didn't know much. I was more scared by sounds than gore in the game. Some weird pounding sounds in some places, or screeches, or voices, that stuff. In FEAR, you knew what's happening with the horror parts, or saw it. You saw soldiers brutally killed, you saw Alma, and even when hearing Fettel's voice, you typically saw him. There were freaky scenes, but to me, there wasn't much in FEAR in the way of the fear of the unknown, which there was plenty of in Doom3.

Again, in Doom, a lot of the horror for me came from the background info such as PDA logs. Compare: in FEAR, you see Alma tear the flesh off solder's bones just by looking. In Doom3, you hear that one of the workers/scientists started being violent, chanting in an uknown language, carving some symbols into his hand with a knife and then dying. Which of these is more scary depends on you. The Doom3 example is by far more scary to me. I got no clue what that is and it scares me a lot.

Thinking of myself as the character (something influenced by HL), in FEAR, I was able to reason what's happening all along, at least to a significant degree. In Doom3, it wasn't possible to quite imagine everything, so that was more scary to me. Oh, and I quite found that the story part of FEAR that concerns your character deducts from the immersion.

All that said, I think FEAR was a pretty damn solid game. Great graphics with the best textures and special effects I've seen, a very good AI, especially if you're in the mood to let it show its strengths, and an overall satisfying experience. I'd love to play through it the second time if I could, though, skipping past most of the fighting-less and horror-inducing parts, they were, to me, good once but not fun enough to want to go through them another time, but the soldiers were so fun I'd gladly go up against them some more times.

 

[Dynasty]

D:

I dont fancy a coma right now, worth a try later definately.

Im only just starting to calm down, dont think il forget those end images anytime soon.. seriously Im probably going to have nightmares.. Thats the most freaked out and scared ive been from a computer game or movie, period.

Hell join the club mate. I swear ive had about 3 nightmares of Elma...but i think its a link in my head as ive seen the recent version of The Grudge. Its the same idea. Long hair over face, scary image etc etc.

The lift scene when the lights go on and off....and she's there.....I SWEAR i screamed like a girl and fell out of my chair.

Ace game all in all though. And the multiplayer kicks some serious ass. Slow-mo multiplater....legendary!

Best thing i find about the game: Hit a guy with a few rounds from a distance, get closer, slow-mo and blast his shin/foot with a shotgun...then laugh as hard as i do as they do a forward flip before they hit the ground.

 

[ríomhaire]

I'm quite amazed that different people are scared by so different things. Some are scared by HL2 Ravenholm, some by Doom3, some by FEAR.

Myself, I never get scared by any "horror" movies, I find them ridicilous typically. Doom3 is the most scary game I've ever played, *to me*, and it had me very nervous and stuff. FEAR I found to be definitely creepy and with a pretty horror-filled atmosphere, but not really that scary. I suppose I should try to explain. Please keep in mind though that it's just my opinion.

Doom3 is hellish. FEAR is paranormal. Might not seem like much difference at first, but it is. I am usually immersed in games somewhat, especially the good ones like these. So, in Doom3 there's horrible stuff happening around, zombies, gore, whatever. In FEAR, there's horrible stuff too, those soldiers killed brutally, and all those hallucinations. The difference was, in Doom3 most things are actually happening - the UAC base turns into something infested, there are actual demons running through it, growths protruding and weird voices. In FEAR, most wasn't actually happening, but rather influenced by your ability to perceive psychic impulses. When you'd see Fettel or Alma, they were psychic imprints that you could see/feel. All those hospital and other dreams were likewise, psychic messages, though I found one of them quite scary.

Doom3 wasn't scary because of monsters jumping at you, though it adds a jumpiness factor. It was scary because of what was happening, and because you didn't know much. I was more scared by sounds than gore in the game. Some weird pounding sounds in some places, or screeches, or voices, that stuff. In FEAR, you knew what's happening with the horror parts, or saw it. You saw soldiers brutally killed, you saw Alma, and even when hearing Fettel's voice, you typically saw him. There were freaky scenes, but to me, there wasn't much in FEAR in the way of the fear of the unknown, which there was plenty of in Doom3.

Again, in Doom, a lot of the horror for me came from the background info such as PDA logs. Compare: in FEAR, you see Alma tear the flesh off solder's bones just by looking. In Doom3, you hear that one of the workers/scientists started being violent, chanting in an uknown language, carving some symbols into his hand with a knife and then dying. Which of these is more scary depends on you. The Doom3 example is by far more scary to me. I got no clue what that is and it scares me a lot.

Thinking of myself as the character (something influenced by HL), in FEAR, I was able to reason what's happening all along, at least to a significant degree. In Doom3, it wasn't possible to quite imagine everything, so that was more scary to me. Oh, and I quite found that the story part of FEAR that concerns your character deducts from the immersion.

All that said, I think FEAR was a pretty damn solid game. Great graphics with the best textures and special effects I've seen, a very good AI, especially if you're in the mood to let it show its strengths, and an overall satisfying experience. I'd love to play through it the second time if I could, though, skipping past most of the fighting-less and horror-inducing parts, they were, to me, good once but not fun enough to want to go through them another time, but the soldiers were so fun I'd gladly go up against them some more times.

I know it is rather interesting how different things scare different people. I found the start of Doom 3 scary but I was quickly bored. From the first imp I began getting less imersed untill I I was just thinking along the lines of how the developers made the enemies rather than OMG LOOK AT WHAT THAT DEMON JUST DID! But I was very imersed in FEAR and HL2 and throughout FEAR I was really freaked out and then curious (and worried) about what was going on. In Ravenholm I felt more panic fear that horror fear.

 

[Solver]

Hmm, there's actually an interesting topic for academic research. Pick a 1000 people, have them play through Doom3, FEAR, Silent Hill 2 and Ravenholm, then interview them about their feelings, check their backgrounds, etc... hehe.

I thought one of the creepiest parts of FEAR was the implication of the story, some parts of it. Like, *spoiler*




the fact that Alma is actually the daughter of the chief researcher there, and that they basically raped her when she was comatose.

*end spoiler*



That's just sick.

 

[AiM]

Hmm, there's actually an interesting topic for academic research. Pick a 1000 people, have them play through Doom3, FEAR, Silent Hill 2 and Ravenholm, then interview them about their feelings, check their backgrounds, etc... hehe.

That survey would take forever to compile...

 

[ríomhaire]

That survey would take forever to compile...

Yes but the results would be interesting.

 

[Solver]

That survey would take forever to compile...

Not in an academic environment. I'm talking about getting this as an academic research, that would be feasible. If so, you'd basically have some staff, a few assistants to help you compile the survey, do screening on participants, etc. There's no way a single person can do this anyhow, you can't just invite a 1000 people to your house to play through several games, now that will take forever .

Seriously, though, there is some research being done with regard to games, but nothing actually like this. And a research of Doom3 and FEAR as scary games would indeed be a worthy subject.

 

[Sainku]

I hated the game, but could watch the ending for hours.

 

[VictimOfScience]

And a research of Doom3 and FEAR as scary games would indeed be a worthy subject.

You could just do it here as a poll and see how many votes each one gets in terms of "scariest." Include the ones previously mentioned: Doom 3, Silent Hill 2, FEAR, Ravenholm(HL2), and the Cradle(Thief 3). I think you would get at least a hundred responses, but you'd have to try to limit the posters just to pick or say their vote and not get off topic or criticize. Good luck!

 

[Solver]

Ahh, but that's not really research as I mean it. It will surely get the idea of what the majority finds the scariest but not the reasons.

I'd be particularly interested in linking the people's backgrounds to what they find scary in games. For example, what are these people afraid of in real life, what's their most nervous experience, and so on. After all, we know that people are scared of very different thing in real life. Some are afraid of the dark, others of fire, others of spiders, others yet of people wearing masks.

My gut feeling is that people who find Doom3 scary have fear an unknown danger more, and people who are scared by FEAR are not skeptical with regards to paranormal phenomena. Something like that.

Hmm, I've never played Thief 3, I wonder how that Cradle part is, whatever it is. Any other scary games/moments except the classics? There's also Alone in the Dark, the Alien vs. Predator Marine campaign...

 

[AiM]

Not in an academic environment. I'm talking about getting this as an academic research, that would be feasible. If so, you'd basically have some staff, a few assistants to help you compile the survey, do screening on participants, etc. There's no way a single person can do this anyhow, you can't just invite a 1000 people to your house to play through several games, now that will take forever .

Seriously, though, there is some research being done with regard to games, but nothing actually like this. And a research of Doom3 and FEAR as scary games would indeed be a worthy subject.

Even in an academic environment it would still take a very long time (not to mention hardware costs). Doom 3, FEAR, Silent Hill 2 and Ravenholm ... that's ~70+ hours of gameplay depending on skill level.

 

[Solver]

On that subject... how much of an effect do you think Ravenholm has standalone? We all played through it as part of HL2. I'm thinking that for people unfamiliar with any of these games, playing Ravenholm would sort of stand out because they'd get to play only a part of the game instead of it all. Maybe it would be better to have these theoretical test subjects start with Black Mesa East, it feels as if it is something more logical of a starting point.