Scary RPGs?

[angerpowered]

Hey guys. Horrorfag here.

I'm not exactly sure there are any pure horror themed RPGs. But spooky moments from your favorite games would be cool too.

I just finished re-reading A Serious House on a Serious Earth and I'm in the mood for some freaky shit!
Most horror games aren't scary any more for me. I figured there isn't much left in them other than shitty controls after you get past the point of them scaring you.

 

[dextermorgan]

System Shock 2 comes to mind as an almost-RPG game that does horror quite well. Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines has a fairly scary level and some pretty freaky shit here and there. Cant really think of anything else right now.

 

[mariog]

The Legacy: Realm of Terror for DOS.

 

[Konjad]

Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines wins there with no doubt.

Except that there isn't much... Fallout New Vegas has some pretty scary vaults, the first Gothic happens to make you unsettled from time to time, especially if you are travelling through wilderness during the night.

Heh, that's all. Not much, there isn't really any horror cRPGs.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Oblivion takes place in a nightmarish, alternate-Earth realm where humans and elves possess a basic sentience, but can only obey the will of some maddened tyrant slave-lord. Day by day, they will stumble from their beds only to spend five hours staring at a wall, while guards ineffectually mumble at them about joining the fighters' guild. Despite all the player's actions as a great force for change in the world, our doomed, tragic drones can only drag themselves from their bed helplessly, morning after morning, to stand by a fountain for the rest of the day and bleakly speculate about mudcrabs. After a few days, the horrifying parody of the crushing mediocrity of everyday life will strike home, and the player will beg for release.

Also, Daggerfall is pretty scary sometimes.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Everyone talks about the Hotel in Bloodlines, which I'd agree with. The first time playing through the hospital was scary too, hearing these guys screaming and not knowing what the fuck was killing them. I would also say the porn studio, mainly because these horrible dog-turd things jump at you from out of nowhere and they are really hard to kill. That is more survival horror than straight out creepiness.

But yeah, in my experience there isn't much horror to be found in RPGs.

 

[larpingdude18]

http://www.romhacking.net/trans/222/

 

[FatCat]

Back in time when i was younger Morrowind + my own imagination gave me pretty good horror experiences.

 

[CappenVarra]

Oblivion takes place in a nightmarish, alternate-Earth realm where humans and elves possess a basic sentience, but can only obey the will of some maddened tyrant slave-lord. Day by day, they will stumble from their beds only to spend five hours staring at a wall, while guards ineffectually mumble at them about joining the fighters' guild. Despite all the player's actions as a great force for change in the world, our doomed, tragic drones can only drag themselves from their bed helplessly, morning after morning, to stand by a fountain for the rest of the day and bleakly speculate about mudcrabs. After a few days, the horrifying parody of the crushing mediocrity of everyday life will strike home, and the player will beg for release.

The horror... the horror! Terribilis Est Locus Iste.

 

[SCO]

The Legacy is the only i can really think off. Depending of your definition maybe Arx Fatalis sometimes qualifies.
Even games that have tried to go for oppressive atmosphere, like ultima 8, don't really work as horror imo.

Thing is, kicking ass and taking names is not good horror.

Good horror is games like the original snes Clock Tower.

 

[SCO]

Maybe a game that only had "horror statistics" instead of combat statics would work better.

You're always running away, but stats like "alertness", "light-sleeping", "sanity", "slippery", "speed" would replace the classic ones.

 

[oneself]

Maybe a game that only had "horror statistics" instead of combat statics would work better.

You're always running away, but stats like "alertness", "light-sleeping", "sanity", "slippery", "speed" would replace the classic ones.

 

[torpid]

Oblivion takes place in a nightmarish, alternate-Earth realm where humans and elves possess a basic sentience, but can only obey the will of some maddened tyrant slave-lord. Day by day, they will stumble from their beds only to spend five hours staring at a wall, while guards ineffectually mumble at them about joining the fighters' guild. Despite all the player's actions as a great force for change in the world, our doomed, tragic drones can only drag themselves from their bed helplessly, morning after morning, to stand by a fountain for the rest of the day and bleakly speculate about mudcrabs. After a few days, the horrifying parody of the crushing mediocrity of everyday life will strike home, and the player will beg for release.

I was thinking about saying Oblivion when I saw this thread.

 

[RatFink]

why noone made a game in the lovecraft universe is anyones guess...the p&p should provide a proper ruleset.
...not in this day and age, mind you. i dont know if i could stomache gunning down the old ones with akimbo thompson mps while shouting banning spells i found leisurely reading old forbidden books which only have a marginal effect on my quickly regenerating sanity level.

apart from that i guess you try the already named games.

 

[mondblut]

The two Ravenloft games are pretty fucking scary. Particularly when level-draining shit jumps at you out of every door.

Also, for an uninitiated mind the likes of Ultima Underworld and Daggerfall are pretty claustrophobic and foreboding at early levels. Being stuck without a light source and food in unknown depths only having a rusty dagger and not knowing what lurks in the darkness beats any "survival horror" zombie crap. Naturally, by the time you're immune to everything and can stomp down anything with your eyes closed, they stop being as unsettling.

 

[Andhaira]

Veil of Darkness (Though it is an adventure game, but it has rpg elements)

System Shock 2

 

[markec]

The part of Arx Fatalis in the mines where you are chased by the hell hound was one of the scariest moments I experienced in a RPG.

 

[SCO]

Maybe qfg4 - at least some "horror" tragic nuances were pretty damn sad. The vampire girl for one. This is speaking narratively ofcourse.

Speaking of mechanics, perma-death is pretty damn scary.

Horror is like the complete opposite of rpg gameplay though. In rpgs you get more competent with time. In horror, you should get less competent. In rpgs paying attention should save you. In horror paying attention should make you more terrified. In rpgs you shouldn't run away, since you'll never get that xp. In horror, you need to run way, else death is certain.
In rpgs player morality is explored (either way, agency). In horror player morality is perverted (and often without agency).
In rpgs (ahem) doing different things should have different results. In horror doing different things doesn't stop the inexorable.

etc. Some of these i may have pulled out of my ass, but i think you know what i mean.

 

[Dark Elf]

Horror is like the complete opposite of rpg gameplay though. In rpgs you get more competent with time. In horror, you should get less competent.

Scaling of equipment and enemies take care of that.

In rpgs paying attention should save you. In horror paying attention should make you more terrified.

... which is what happens when you pay attention to all the features that are removed every year in the name of streamlining.

In rpgs you shouldn't run away, since you'll never get that xp. In horror, you need to run way, else death is certain.

What about not being able to run away?

In rpgs player morality is explored (either way, agency). In horror player morality is perverted (and often without agency).
In rpgs (ahem) doing different things should have different results. In horror doing different things doesn't stop the inexorable.

DA2 is a horror game!

 

[Raghar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eO9J6fePJ0
This has horror theme. (It's just the best RPG of the decade.) It's not that scary (if you wont stumble upon death by accident, and you are not 6 hours without save), but RPGs either allow freedom, or they have strong story.

Fatal Frame was also a horror RPG.

Then there are various Japanese PS2 horror games. (not RPGs)

 

[SCO]

Yes that was what i was joking/notjoking about, in the tone of the Admiral above about oblivion.


Thing is, they really could be. Doesn't oblivion get less and less rewarding as you level up? Doesn't the parody of conversations between NPC and their fucking faces fall squarely in the uncanny valley? Add some more ingredients, remove the retarded shit, make the player ineffective in the classical way, add some kind of sinister absurdity and presto: Horror

Bioware/Beth are missing their calling, since their mechanics fit so well in another genre.

 

[SCO]

In rpgs you shouldn't run away, since you'll never get that xp. In horror, you need to run way, else death is certain.

What about not being able to run away?

Short game. I like the hide variety, exemplified by the Dark Mod, and the Thief series. That is very fine, too and you get less frantic gameplay, while still being in full control and if you screw up, it's your fault.

Clock tower and thief feel like too completely different approaches to horror. One is based on scares, predetermined chases and hiding places.
The other more on foreboding, watching the horror and learning their patterns, terror of discovery, (and the chases if you are discovered), hiding based on light, dynamic npcs chases.
The "scares" i remember on thief were all caused by being fucking careless (in real gameplay) not on cutscenes (blackjacking a haunt, etc). There are a few rare missions that used triggers so the player is not exactly guilty, like Deceptive Perception. I prefer things like Seven sisters where you have to navigate a mansion in silence (if you ghost) with a zombie that that goes to every room and checks every corner.
Shit was intense. You moved or were found.

 

[Ulminati]

It's more of an adventure game than an RPG, but the only scary game I recall coming out in the last couple of years has been Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The entire game is as creepy as (or creepier then) the Robbing the Cradle mission in thief. You can get it off of steam for 15€.

 

[Imbecile]

Yeah bloodlines, but it doesnt really have much of a horror feel to it. Demon Souls has quite a creepy atmosphere without being an out and out horror. It helps that its hard too. Scary games should be difficult.

 

[DraQ]

Horror is like the complete opposite of rpg gameplay though. In rpgs you get more competent with time. In horror, you should get less competent.
(...)
In rpgs you shouldn't run away, since you'll never get that xp. In horror, you need to run way, else death is certain.

That's why XP based systems are lousy. Good framework should be flexible and adopt easily to various subgenres, themes and atmospheres.

In rpgs paying attention should save you. In horror paying attention should make you more terrified.

But if you don't pay attention, you're dead. Or worse. Or just dead - worse comes if you pay attention and survive. In any case, paying attention is what protagonist (and, by extension, player) usually has to do, regardless of genre.

In rpgs player morality is explored (either way, agency). In horror player morality is perverted (and often without agency).

That's why and how morality in most RPGs is lousy. Good RPG shouldn't allow easy choices, but should do its best to bend or break characters' morality.
Else the morality is pointless and boils down to trite biowarity.

In rpgs (ahem) doing different things should have different results. In horror doing different things doesn't stop the inexorable.

It may fail to stop the ineorable in different ways. In most RPGs dpoing stuff differently doesn't stop the PC from progressing towards the ending, even if there are many endings, they are usually outnumbered by decisions.

Azrael's Tear would make a good example of C&C horror if only it explored and expanded its themes more thoroughly rather than going randroid in the end.

Oblivion takes place in a nightmarish, alternate-Earth realm where humans and elves possess a basic sentience, but can only obey the will of some maddened tyrant slave-lord. Day by day, they will stumble from their beds only to spend five hours staring at a wall, while guards ineffectually mumble at them about joining the fighters' guild. Despite all the player's actions as a great force for change in the world, our doomed, tragic drones can only drag themselves from their bed helplessly, morning after morning, to stand by a fountain for the rest of the day and bleakly speculate about mudcrabs. After a few days, the horrifying parody of the crushing mediocrity of everyday life will strike home, and the player will beg for release.

I was thinking about saying Oblivion when I saw this thread.

And then it sinks in - if nothing changes about the direction of the industry, the oblivion is a glimpse into the future.

More so, eventually it will become the least declined game some people will remember and gems such as

If everyone knew how, we wouldn't have to carry around so many keys.

will be held in high regard as an example of well written random gossip between NPCs.

Itz like this thing Munch was talking about painted.

 

[Zeus]

There are a lot of "horror quests" in RPGs, but very few games I'd consider horror. Even titles like Persona 3, with the main hook being school children who put a gun to their own head and pull the trigger to summon up demons, comes off as kind of lightweight. The school days are like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the dungeon phases are just like any other crawler, nothing particularly scary happening most of the time.

I'd love an RPG modeled after games like Illbleed or Sanitarium, something with disturbing content instead of buckets o' blood.