You may have seen this episode back on the other channel, BUT, even if you have, you may want to re-watch anyways for a little change that teases something...
I got to play this Gem of a game on a large boat on nightshift in the middle of the North Sea (in the winter). The added movements and creaking of the vessel really added to how scary it was. Not to mention it was on the ships cinema screen.😂
By accident (prebooked ticket) I saw the cheesy movie End Of Days (1999) in the cinema during a really bad storm. It was annoying but wasn't that bad when I got there well in advance but it rapidly got so bad most public transport in the city stopped running, which almost never happens. All the horrible noises from trees and buildings creaking and the winds howling put you constantly on edge and way more susceptible to the creepiness of the movie instead of perceiving it as hilariously cliché or so.
I've never happened into a more immersive horror experience, but I did get to see the original (silent) _Phantom of the Opera_ with a live organ. Now that's an experience!
JM8, I'd love to see you cover the 2019 Lovecraftian-Themed Detective Thriller, The Sinking City. I remember being ultra-impressed with the voice acting, story writing, palpable atmosphere & incredible deep detective mechanics. BUT I was equally unimpressed with its janky open world combat system.
Speaking of underwater horror, I'd love a dive into why SOMA has one of the most existentially terrifying narratives in all of fiction but as underwhelms slightly as a traditional "horror video game"
I'm new to Design Delve but I'm really liking it so far! I absolutely love Alien Isolation, top tier horror/suspense. Not sure what's been covered already in this series, but a look at the ecosystem and interesting animation in Rainworld would be cool. And maybe something on the Nemesis system as it has been gone for a while and due to reappear in the new Wonder Woman game.
I actually find the motion tracker adding to the fear. The aggregate of the subtle yet steading increase to the beeping while syncing the Sevastopol Stations ambience as the tension track and dissonance just keep rising the longer you keep it out, the closer the Alien gets
I agree, I thought it was implemented brilliantly. Using it eases the fear of the unknown, but increases the fear of the Xenomorph appearing, a tense balancing act of risk mitigation.
The motion tracker adds a nice element of being able to tunnel vision on it which makes you unable to completely focus on your surroundings leading to you being more surprised or making mistakes. So its a nice way of adding a punishing mechanic disguised as a helpful one
The devs also occasionally use it to mess with the player. I specifically remember seeing a dot run towards me and then vanish, only to hear the sounds of the alien in the duct above. Made me terrified
Probably the first Alien entry since the original to make you terrified to the Xenomorph. Yes Aliens was great, but it was more action-focused in the end.
Aliens is an excellent film. I just kinda wish it wasn't a sequel to Alien but its own thing. It demystified the utter wtf-ery of the creature too much (making it terrifying in the way a bear in your room is terrifying and not in a 'what even the bloody hell'-existentially terrifying) and lacked the feel of isolation that the original had. One thing that Isolation did well was setting it on a space station in hard vacuum like the original film. That setting is as alien and uncomfortable as the creature is. I know there's a tv-show in production that would bring the creature to earth and that seems like a terrible idea to me.
So some of my favorite mechanics in this game are the button you hold to focus on the motion tracker and off what’s in front of you, making the environment blurry, and the “lean back in a locker & hold your breath” mechanics.
I only recently started watching Design Delve, but finding out that J is a sound designer and hearing him delve into how the sound of the game works, makes me as a fellow sound designer so happy. Because that aspect of any media (Film/Games/Theatre) is so often over looked, as demonstrated by the confused looks of my family at last thanksgiving at what I was getting my Masters in lol.
@@pennplayz I’ll be honest, I’ve seen all of the games and I’ve never been personally impressed. But it’s been awhile and I’m always down to explore videos. I’ll check them out.
The motion tracker is just a genius idea, it builds so much tension with simple graphics and sound effects, the steady thump is like a heartbeat that increases as something gets nearer just like yours does as the tension increases knowing something is coming closer, whilst the change in tone also makes it feel almost like a countdown
I think the Motion Tracker was paramount to helping a lot of people cut through the intensity of the game. One might say it devalues some of the horror atmosphere, but I've seen several people struggle to *deal* with it, as intense as it is. The horror design is *so* well designed and the station so labyrinthine that people I've watched *needed* these tools to complete the game at all. Which, that in itself, is an important gameplay design choice to make. Moreover, the game's sheer punishing lethality when you make mistakes, the player will often need help reorienting after lost progress. I think the Map and Motion Tracker help alleviate this by keeping the player focused, and help the directionally challenged actually figure out what to do instead of dying over and over again. It also keeps the more anxious and frightened somewhat grounded and giving them precious tools to overcome the game's pretty significant level of challenge. Because at the end of the day, you want your player scared, but not so scared their flight response makes them bail on the game entirely.
While I do understand that having the Alien always now our supposed whereabouts is stressful, it incurs a serious problem at higher difficulties. Because I no longer fear it after it gets me, over and over, and over again. I would rather the game let the Alien "truly" roam free around a particular level, and have a sort of invisible meter that would increase everytime I made some noise as a player. I personally experienced a softlock in the game because it was always onto me, and the way I saved the game, the Alien would never leave me alone for long enough for me to progress. Spent like 3 hours trying to get out of the same area until I gave up and never grabbed the game again. And I wasn't scared at the end, I was just frustrated. My reccomendation for having these sorts of roaming enemies, truly roam wild, is because the less you see of the Alien, the scarier it becomes. I recently read how, in Project Zomboid, some people like low zombie quantities because it makes the game MUCH scarier. You could go 10/20/30 minutes without seeing a zombie, and then BAM.
I love the motion tracker (maybe minus the compass feature) because it helps negate death (that, as yahtzee mentions, breaks the tension and makes you less scared) and shows that despite having another tool that tracks it pretty well, youre still completely outclassed
I really love this video, especially because I think Alien: Isolation might be one of the best horror games of the decade, and yet because of a terrible IGN review a ton of people skipped it. I have since introduced it to every one of my friends who like horror games and not a single one has had a bad thing to say about it. The description of it as a masterclass fits to a T.
For me, the Dead Space locator is by far, to this day, the best mechanic ever in guiding through a horror game. It is my moment of sanity, my blue line of hope. It is amazing. I never needed a map, only thing I needed was a tiny blue light when everything else is horrible around me.
YES! At least some things made it over, good for you JM8. I still can't believe Gamurs had the gall to take Yahtzee's artstyle away from him, he was using that even before he worked for the Escapist wasn't he? Well, whatever, nobody cares about them. Congratulations to all of you.
Not his art style but the assets. His art style is very present here. Bit he can't use his old Yahtzee design, the imps, the yellow background or any assets used for ZP. He can create new ones though. They own the IP, not his art style.
Alien: Isolation is so good at creating the sense of horror that I actively avoided playing it. Not in a bad way, the game is great, I just chickened out too much.
I played through the first section and had fun. The moment the androids started appearing I noped out. I was able to manage my fear with the xenomorph but having humanoid "not-humans" was just too much.
I could only play the first playthrough in 15 minute bursts before I had to pause and take a break to reduce my heart rate. I'm proud to say it's the first and only horror game I've ever finished, but I'll never forget just how stressful it was to even load into the game, let alone play it lol
this is my problem with horror in general, and it's similar to why i can't enjoy spicy food. sure, it'd be wonderfully enjoyable, IF i could get past the feeling that i'm going to die.
I quite liked the motion tracker, because there was a balance element; use it when a threat is too close and it'll hear you/see the light, making it a liability if used too much. One of the sweat design decisions was also the tone it makes when something new that's moving comes into range; this lets you know there's something sort of nearby, and leaves it to you to juggle how and when you actually look at the tracker.
Alien Isolation will to me always be the narrative extravaganza of SovietWomble embodiying the main character. From closet hiding panic to "I'll face whatever comes my way", his reactions made it so much more immersive (not that I ever play horror myself).
Sound design is so damn important for this kind of thing, but so often falls short because the sound designers fall back to lazy tropes of "the unknown" that actually makes the atmosphere feel more "well known" than they realize. Scraping and creaking metal, dripping water, howling wind, or just plain _music._ It takes a lot of inspiration and delicate, tasteful foley work to balance atmospheric sounds and isolate non-linear warning sounds that go straight to the deepest part of your brain stem and perk your ears. The simpler, the quieter and more rare the sounds, the better. The most memorable example for me in my youth was the delicate clicking of toenails/claws from the lickers in Resident Evil 2 and the sound of the dog paws on gravel. You didn't see them and you didn't hear any growls or guttural noises. In fact, the rooms and hallways were often totally quiet. But there was still that clicking and it was so quiet that you had to strain to hear it. It was a warning that I didn't heed the first time I encountered them, which made bumbling into the enemy a more effective jump scare than a triggered/timed jump scare would've been. My ears DEFINITELY started paying closer attention to the subtle noises from that point on. And sometimes I wouldn't hear it again for an hour or so while I was busy solving puzzles, which made me lower my guard again. But then there'd be another enemy encounter and that subtle clicking would come back, and the memory of that first scare immediately had the adrenaline and dread rushing through my veins all over again and I hadn't even found the damn enemy yet. Das good shit.
I liked the motion tracker simply because, even when it's not pulled out, it can still warn you of movement with a loud beep. Imagine, you're walking down a dimly lit hallway. You don't hear noise, you see no android, no snot dripping from the ceiling, you think you're safe. You walk down the corridor and then your motion tracker suddenly beeps. You still don't see nor hear anything, yet your alertness just jumped from 0 to 100 with just one simple noise. It could've been nothing, but are you really willing to risk it? This helps keep the tension up even during the downtime of the game, making you feel that nowhere is safe even when you are. Also, I didn't know the motion tracker served as a compass until now. I thought the highlighted part showed you movement outside of the radar's range but still an approximation of where it's coming from.
Off the top of my head, a possible solution to the map and motion tracker problem is have it be proximity-based. If you're far away from the objective, the directional indicator for the motion tracker flickers wildly and is almost unusable, but as you get closer, the signal gets stronger and the direction more definite. It'd be like a game of hot-or-cold, pointing you roughly in the right direction and promoting blinder exploration without causing too much frustration. The clearer signal would be like a smaller reward for the player. As for the map problem, you could only reveal the location's surroundings or rough area. Lorewise you could say it's due to signal interference blocking most of the map database from reaching you.
Yeah, fear of death vs. actual death in a game is a hard balance to strike. Hell, in Amnesia: The Bunker, I never died once. I will admit, I save scummed a tad bit to get a lay of the land without wasting valuable resources, but that only led me on to being more afraid down the line when I got to a section I was unfamiliar with. Any time I heard the scraping, growling, thudding mass of a monster, I was terrified! It did such a good job with how little it had.
I ended up giving up on Isolation before ever encountering the Alien, little bit too much building up the tension just got aggravating. At the point where I was actively running toward sounds just to SEE something (and still not seeing anything) I moved on. I'm also an older gamer with a job that leaves me just weekends for gaming, so potentially losing progress (and more importantly TIME) breaks my immersion completely. The Long Dark managed to have me genuinely scared at times. At one point I had the game settings so that wildlife wouldn't attack, and I was STILL scared of the wolves. I was even exploring an abandoned hydro dam, where I don't think wildlife could spawn, and utterly terrified of the creatures that I knew weren't going to attack me even if they existed! I honestly couldn't say why Isolation just annoyed me while The Long Dark had me about ready to make a break for the border.
I felt similarly about the game, and I played it when I had a lot more free time. I quickly got bored because it felt drawn out and hollow in a way. I played a good amount of it and I can't recall a single standout moment. I see so much praise for the game and I'm constantly confused by it, because I honestly got more out of Outlast, and I consider that game to be kinda ehhhh.
Something to consider is that making a horror game scary, while important, should never be its ONLY goal. Those core themes should always stay in service to the gameplay and story, and while sure, there are things that could be changed to ratchet up the terror of the game further, that doesn't necessarily mean it will make for a better gameplay experience for the player.
If you play in Nightmare mode, the map is disabled and the motion tracker is much harder to read, the screen being scrambled and broken. I did a play through of the game in nightmare mode and found that the motion tracker in that context helped the tension a lot. The built in compass on the radar at that point feels more like a lifeline, as I was trying to use signs to get around the ship but the tracker could always generally point me in the right direction. Nightmare mode helps the tensions a lot, but it also makes the game frustrating to a certain point too. I feel that on a lower difficulty setting, with a reduced or removal of the map and more limited navigation features, would have been the best of both worlds.
Absolutely love how you've designed (ha!) this video. The way you've laid out your arguments, the way you blend the cartoon world with the ideas you talk about in-game, the cameo from Frost to make the cartoon world feel more like a _world_ ... Masterfully done! Only thing I'd add is that there's a lot of flashing lights in this video. It might be worth putting a seizure warning either at the start or before each flashing lights section. Would recommend looking at how LTT does seizure warnings as an extremely effective UX design to take inspiration from!
What do you know, Xenophobia is fear of the unknown, I suppose it's also fear of the other. Had to take another look since when I've heard xenophobia it was in the context of foreigners. Not necessarily strange people but alien in origin and an emphasis on irrational. There are tons of techniques to creating an unfamiliar and unnerving setting not knowing what's out there or knowing it's dangerous but rarely getting a good view. The Xenomorph is certainly scary but has also become very iconic, sound and lighting add to it's terror when you can't see it or always looking out for it with white noise in the back. Another good point, dying because you do stupid things is fair but you also want to drag out a chase and hiding so you don't reset too frequently, you'll just get more familiar with the mechanics and how it breaks down until it's just not scary. Some randomness or a monster that moves in unpredictable way can be very terrifying so long as it's just not purely unfair.
Would love to see you talk about health management; the Halo games come to kind, with the first having health and shields, the second just shields, and other entries doing other things. And how this can either encourage certain tactics / methods!
Something i have discovered that makes me feel more fear is to have a safe space It doesn't even need to be faul proof, it only needs to be "safer" Knowing that i need to get out of my nice position to a nest of wasp make me uncomfortable
Amnesia the Dark Descent hammered that home with xenophobia. You have to rely on your ears to make it through. Seeing it spikes your sanity meter which is brilliant on its own. Light keeps you sane but can alert the monsters to your presence. I think they did all that really well.
Interesting analysis! I'd like to add how the stealth game inspired gameplay enforces the fear also. Sevastopol has one type of enemy in the beginning, the standard "drone" patrolling the station in a fairly predictable manner with clear audio barks. Amanda is a fairly weak and encouraged to use shadows, vents, lockers and corner peaks to sneak past. As you point out, If you get caught it's likely you get killed due to enemies being stronger than you, further reinforcing the gameplay loop of sneaking past enemies rather than confronting them. So for the first half(ish) of the game shadows and vents are your best friends and that is the "safe" real estate of each map for you to take a mental pause and move around through Sevastopol. Then the Xenomorph arrives and you quickly learn that it uses the same strategy as you, hides in the same real estate, waiting to ambush you. Vents are now literal death traps and what used to be your safe space is now the kingdom of a far deadlier threat. You enter into a scarier phase of the game where no place is safe and you have to continuously do a cost-benefit analysis between moving through the more lit up parts where chances of meeting a Synth is higher or skulk around the side rooms always scared of being ambushed by the Xeno. Add the dual AI and save system on top of that and you have a core gameplay loop that is designed to invoke fear and stress as you scurry towards the next save station.
I can think of no better example to demonstrate how sound is the most important factor in horror than Iron Lung. I've never felt a fear so potent from something so minimal and every last little sound effect is on display and bone chillingly terrifying
Limiting saves will always be the best form of increasing horror and tension. Doing an S+ hardcore run in Resident Evil 2 Remake is a perfect example of this. Only 3 saves for the whole game, 1 bad reaction and bam back to the last save (which can be an hour or so). Planning where to put down your 3 saves becomes daunting experience, sections that you were confident in before become so much more stressful and terrifying, you can make the fear go away by just saving but there's only 3, if incorrectly placed you will have to repeat large difficult sections of the game. Love Alien isolation, still want to do the hardest difficulty where the Motion Tracker is broken, adding to the fear of not knowing. Awesome video, keep up the good work. 👍
Sound design is easily one of if not the most important part of fear and I can prove it. hissssss...BOOM!!! Just the fact that the minecraft creeper exists should make people understand just how much their panic response gets trigged by sound.
That "fear of failure" you describe by the long walk back after a death, that's exactly why I like playing games in hardcore or one-life only modes. Dying and having to rebuild your character absolutely sucks, but it is totally necessary to get that adrenaline rush when fighting bosses. This makes bosses I've fought dozens of times still anxiety-inducing because the risk of death and starting over is still there. I get it's not for everyone because that downside can be pretty painful, but man does it make games so much more suspenseful!
Easily one of the best horror games ever made, and the craziest part is it's done by a company that has otherwise done nothing but one other game the rest of their life (The Total War series, a grand strategy game)
No bloody way this (kinda new) video comes out right during my first playthrough of the game. It's taking me a damn long time because my heart can only handle 1hr of it at a time 😏
I’m totally unable to handle horror, but Alien Isolation was one of the few games that I felt I could actually push through. Maybe those 1hr sessions will grow into 2-3 hours - you’ll have your own Alien movie every session by that point!
@@hairyson94 same for me, I can play several hours of outlast but put me with the Alien for more than an hour and I won't sleep for 2 days straight There is something exceptionally terrifying about this game and I love it
I remember playing this game and loving it. I will fully admit that I installed the mod that locks the Xenomorph away before I started my playthrough, yet due to the amazing atmosphere the game provides, I kept forgetting that I had that mod installed and felt taht tension of expecting it to get me so many times. Even though you say you have a bias, the sound design was on point in this game, as were the lighting, and how they stayed true to the franchise's technology and style. Combined this was probably one of the best recent horror games out there, probably the best
About the motion tracker, there is a cimpromise to be made in game, you didn't nention that the tracker mades an audible beepimg nois when you take it out, the creature can hear that noise so it's not recomendable to have it out at all times
Resident Evil 7 has a seemingly random fan that was SO intentionally placed. It's in the central room of the house, if I recall it's the first main room you need a key to enter. There's a fan with a lamp shining onto it casting a shadow of the fan blades against the wall. The fan blades moved so slowly, and the shadow against the wall was large enough to make it seem like the silhouette of person walking. So many times I would be coming down the stairs or around a corner, and I'd get surprised by the stupid shadow! Perfect game design right there!
I think the motion tracker is terrific and actually adds to the tension. 1. It makes you aware of the presence of the enemies when you other wise wouldn't be. It makes their that feel more ever present. 2. When you focus on looking at the tracker, you're not focused on looking at the environment and any looming threats. This can be quite unnerving, even if you spend just 15 seconds focused on looking at the map and oblivious to whether you're in danger.
I absolutely adore this series. I haven't the faintest clue about game design, but somehow (or possibly because of that) it's all so bloody interesting
The sound design was brilliant. So many times I jumped at machinery because the sound was similar to an enemy. Also, lockers and noise detection are death traps.
I played on my XB1 when it first came out, and it had a feature where you could use your Kinect, and if you made a noise the Alien could hear you and track you from it. I couldn't make it past the third chapter, it was genuinely that terrifying.
EVERY video is a straight-up banger. For a channel that has multiple personalities posting content, that has to be some sort of statistical impossibility, right?!
I really dislike having to frequently open maps to navigate so if they took away that compus like thing on the tracker then they would need something else
To the credit of the Motion Tracker, using it plays with the depth-of-field such that checking where *exactly* the moving potential-threat is leaves you less aware visually of your surroundings. And many players get the feeling that the sound of it pinging is audible at close range, adding to the tension of those moments where you're hiding in a locker hoping the Creature doesn't find you.
Huh, i didn't notice the motion tracker had a compass on it. Without that though the motion tracker feeds into the games paranoia as it makes sound, sound enemies can hear if they are close.
One of my favorite fear management games is Haunting Ground, which shares some mechanics with Clock Tower 3. You play a character that has a 'fear meter' that causes you to lose some control over the character when it fills. You can manage this meter by going a while without being scared, and successfully hiding from enemies as well as taking drugs. This was coupled with the fact that you can only defeat each enemy by solving a puzzle. Although you can kick and bomb enemies, at the most this makes them decide to leave until you are in that foe's "boss arena", where they can finally be defeated. This had the effect of making me as a player scared of things that scared Fiona. You were constantly on the lookout for everything from random blood stains to bosses suddenly coming around the corner. This was on top of the game being excellently paced as a 'one new recurring boss per level' design. Imagine having several very different variations on Mister X, one per level.
Darkwood is a great horror game that uses a lot of these design aspects. One thing I noticed back when I was playing it in early access, was how distinct the different monster noises were, so initially everything was scary. And then you could identify what was around, but not where in the darkness it was. It also helps that the game is randomly generated from a bunch of handcrafted locations, which helps extend that feeling of "the unknown." And they also do a good job of not giving you consistent information- there are sequences where you have to defend your base from monsters in the middle of the night... And sometimes there's a knock at the door. And if you open door... Sometimes it's monsters. And other times, you get a party invitation? Also helps keep that feeling of the unknown alive.
I don't think I could play this game without the map. The motion tracker is a mixed blessing, as using it too often can lead the monster to your position. However, I could see an argument for disabling the map for higher difficulty modes, for players who feel it weakens the experience. The fear in this game is almost too well crafted. Removing the map and tracker might be a better horror experience, but it might also make it unbearable for many players and limit the audience.
agreed about the motion tracker, and it's easy to rely on it too much. However, it does emit noise, so if you use it while too close to the Alien, he'll just rip you out of your hiding place no problem
Great episode! I, too, would like to see an expanded discussion of the motion tracker system, such as how it being an icon of the franchise made its addition to the game inevitable and the effects of that decision.
I think that the map is necessary in most survival horror games because when you introduce rooms with limited resources like in Alien: Isolation or Resident Evil 2 then players can easily become frustrated hunting for an item they left behind somewhere but can't remember where. When a player starts roaming randomly trying to find that one thing without any sort of guide then they will quickly stop being afraid and start becoming frustrated at the convoluted layouts. If you give them a map that they themselves have to fill out then they will know where the items are and spend less time searching rooms at random. A possible compromise would be a means inside the game mechanics to draw out your own maps and mark rooms with the specific items that you left behind. I've only played one game where you can draw your own map and it was such a cool concept I wish more games implemented that.
idk if youll ever read this but my sincerest apologies for not watching this on the old channel. your voice, your timbre, your writing, not to mention your analysis, its all amazing. please keep doing what youre doing
6:50 This is why I feel Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs was so effective. Many complain about the game being too easy, but my first blind playthrough was so scary because it felt like I always narrowly escaped every perceived threat.
The bunker on the desert section of Metro Exodus is, in my opinion, a masterclass in horror. By that point in the franchise and game, Artyom's a bad-ass. He's fought in multiple wars, he's killed monsters that can flip a tank, and he's very well armed. So the first time you see one of the spiders you blast it, no problem, you're fine. But as the section goes on you realize that you arent finding any ammo. Theyre scared of light but your only source of light is a hand-powered light that has a very narrow beam. And then you find the macguffin and the entire place comes alive. Spiders are everywhere, you see a mutant youve never encountered slithering through the water you're wading through, youre completely cut off from your friends and youre making a mad dash through a maze hoping you're making the right turns. And right as it reaches the crescendo and you think this is it a hole bursts open in the ceiling letting sunlight and your friends in to save you.
Nice analysis. I hope you'll do a dive sooner or later on how to design a game to amplify the narrative. Like how Spec Ops: The Line had a, let's say predictable plot, but the design and execution of the game really made a player become so engaged in it the feelings evoked by the story becomes stronger. Cheers.
Having not played the game yet (it's been on my list for years), I definitely get how annoying it would feel to suddenly have a compass that automatically points at objectives, when the game's at its best by making you fear for your life. System Shock proved that you can make a game that has objectives, and only tell the player a bare minimum, requiring them to figure it out from there.
One of the best sound design horrors is in my opinion in Amnesia The Dark Descent. When you have a monster walking around the area you're in, there is very little music. But when you get noticed the violins kick in with that two note squeal that tells you you have been seen. This in itself is effective to induce panic. But what makes it even more effective is, that the sound is in correlation with how well the monster has seen you. If you break cover just a little bit, or the monser is really far away and sees you, the music starts, but is slower tempo and lower volume. When the monster moves closer and sort of verifies your position, the music starts to rice in intensity and volume, until you get jumped. This is really effective since in the first stage there is a real possibility of you only getting the musical cue that you've been spotted, but not yet seeing where or what has spotted you. This causes you to start looking around and start digging your own grave. Very effective at building up suspense without a jump scare or surpricing the player.
Agree on the motion tracker! At least for having the waypoint on it - have the tracker but have it make detectable noise (I believe the hardest difficulty does this as well as make it unreliable) and remove the waypoint from it. With that I think it would have been great to have been a ‘live map’. Find where you are and where you’re going and plot a route - while everything is still moving around you. That leaves you with recalling the map and taking hints of where you’re going from level design - station is still pretty well signposted in game considering everything.
I think my favourite horror mechanics were in the latest Amnesia game. Some like the limited fuel I believe work best because of the game’s limited run time but I truly loved the flashlight mechanic. You’re greatest source of comfort (light) can also be your greatest detriment (you need to wind up your light which creates sound, and while running it makes some noise). The fuel mechanic was great as well. As you’re able to power the bunker’s lights and it will lessen the monster’s appearances but rather then purely being a source of comfort it’s also a ticking clock pushing the player forward. You want to explore areas while you have fuel, but to make the most of the exploration you need to put yourself in danger, run into the dark to turn on breakers to continue progressing. You can’t sit in the light forever, you can only refill the generator from the “safe room”. Sit around for too long you’ve lost your fuel, you’re away from your generator, and you’re out of light. Most of all, I can’t stress how much I think the limited run time helped. While ammo is extremely limited by the time you are geared to face the fear (or really delay it) and you’re starting to understand the monster the games close to over. That’s why I love the Bunker. It makes the comfortable uncomfortable while still pushing the player to in spooky situations in hopes of maintaining that level uncomfortably comfortable.
One game that got me a good fear management vibe was "OneShot". I was told it wasn't a horror game, and it wasn't in the strictest sense. It's kind of a spooky tense game where you control a cat kid around a very dim world to fix it's sun, via couriering a big lightbulb that lights up and guides your way. The horror comes in the fact that your actions, such as closing the game via the x box at the corner instead of saving and quitting, is warned to not do so as the world is real. There is a lack of fourth wall in that the cat kid calls you by name and you can talk to them in a limited dialogue choice way. You grow to care about not getting the kid home, but also the world and the sense of bleakness as you slowly make your way to the goal. I can't recommend it enough, J.
the idea that the motion tracker takes away from potential fear completely ignores the existence of frustration as an emotion. it’s in the game to keep you from getting lost and therefore frustrated, and to give the alien a sense of physical presence; even if it’s not on screen you get the idea it’s moving around above or below you, and it showing up on the motion tracker keeps you from feeling like it’s “spawning in” to kill you. both these functions keep you from getting frustrated at the GAME, and that keeps you free to forget its a game, and continue to pretend the xeno is a real creature that might Get You. there’s a tendency in horror game fandom to believe fear can be ramped up essentially infinitely, and that anything that makes the game easier is taking from potential terror by caving to the normies. but there’s absolutely an upper limit to how demanding a game can be before the fact that it’s a game becomes too obvious. At the end of the day, it can’t provide sensation beyond vibrating your hands, and it can’t generate smell-a massively important sense that ties to memory in a very strong way-whatsoever. it’s depending on sight and hearing to create an illusion, and often, things that appear to diminish the terror of a scenario actually serve as an indispensable load-bearing pillar upon which the entire illusion rests. besides, the motion tracker’s increasingly frantic beeping is as much a part of the Alien experience as those loud ass doors or the computer chittering.
I don't even like the game very much, but this is really well constructed and insightful. And even beyond that, it got me thinking about how every horror game was just hiding in lockers for a while because of this growing sentiment against weapons in horror games, because apparently anything less than maximum scary isn't valid in the genre. Needlessly stripping the player of gameplay opportunities, all for the sake of scares that quickly become predictable, was a frustrating trend. I feel like Resident Evil fixed that perception a bit with RE7.
@@MochaRitz ahh yes the “well it’s not scary if you’re playing some hypercompetent action hero with a million guns, therefore you must play as a hyperventilating ninny who can’t so much as pick up board with a nail in it, and who goes mad with terror if he looks at a small bug” dichotomy. I was not a fan of that era of horror games because they were all essentially maze runners where you had to solve the maze in the dark, with some ugly asshole chasing you. I guess the fear was always supposed to come from how ugly of a guy he was, did not work for me. just got pissed off really quick. RE7 really found that sweet spot with the partially competent ninny that is ethan, and the bakers were ugly assholes but with some exciting variations in their behavior, reactive enough to make it feel like you were always discovering new stuff about them, and the parents had delightfully gross monster transformations to keep you on your toes. I wasn’t a fan of Lucas-what the fuck was that accent supposed to be?!-but all in all RE7 was a breath of fresh air for sure. What’s interesting to me is that RE Village got a bunch of negative coverage post-launch when a developer mentioned during an interview that they didn’t front load the game with the horror and dread like they did in 7, because some people didn’t get past Jack, they found the Mia segment too harrowing and, thinking the whole game would be that intense, noped out. This got turned into a whole mess of outrage-baiting headlines about how RE Village was “toned down for the casuals” and then this bad-faith interpretation was repeated by more outrage ranttubers with nobody apparently having read the interview; what they did in RE8 was shuffle the ORDER of things around. So instead of putting the segment that overwhelms with dread and horror FIRST, they started off by giving you the wolf men attacking the village, followed by sexy vampires pursuing you, to acclimate more players to the game, all with the very nasty goal of getting people who might not have otherwise played the game hooked, so they could get them into the Benvenito house and make them look at that GODDAMN HORRIBLE BABY, god that thing is the WORST, i played that part in VR and i almost PUKED 🤮 but my point is, the raucous action opening, and the sexy “teehee step on me mommy” camp of the castle, set up expectations that Donna’s house subverts to create insanely good horror, starting it all out with the very simple technique of doing nothing weird at all and just being a nice pleasant country home for WAY longer than one would expect. then slowly, through a series of escape room style puzzles, without showing its hand until the last possible moment, it plants a thought into your brain: “i think there might be something wrong with the baby” and then the worlds worst baby starts chasing you around the halls in the dark, gurgling horribly, in one of the best examples of set up->punchline in horror gaming. Which is funny because that’s the kind of horror game i just admitted to hating, but that was always because that was ALL there was in the game. RE8 actually made me appreciate my least favorite type of horror by creating a context and contrasts, which allowed them to scare MORE PEOPLE, and with SCARIER SCARES, than a retread of RE7’s beats woulda done.
7:35 yes! I have said that the normalization of autosaving even in horror games is actually anti-thetical to the genre. My experience mostly comes from the Resident Evil franchise, but I'm a strong believer that part of what makes the earlier entries in the series scarier than the later ones is the ink-ribbon/save room mechanic. As the vid says, the more you play, the more you learn about the monsters and creatures, their attack pattern, the limits of their AI, where they spawn, etc which slowly erases the fear of the unknown. But Resident evil was able to maintain its scariness by having 1) safe areas sprawled across the map, meaning that death would always have a risk of losing progress and 2) having saves limited to how many ink ribbons you have, making the idea of "being safe" a scarce resource. Obviously balancing is important: too few save rooms or ink ribbons = frustration and frustration kills fear, but finding that balance is worh it. The newer games are in this middle ground of having you still need to save at save points, but the saves themselves are an unlimited resource by default to help people get through it, which I get, but honestly I wish that was relegated to an easy mode and that standard difficulty still required ink ribbon management in some degree to maintain the horror
The motion tracker does reduce some of the fear aspects of the game, but it adds several more because of its own existence. Hearing that beep when its in your pocket telling you that there is something to track is a great way to put players on edge in an instant. And of course... nothing can quite beat the absolute paranoia in the sections where the tracker starts going nuts with contacts in every direction, making it extremely difficult to discern the ones actually threatening you. Its a tool that the player relies on, yet simultaneously becomes a source of fear in of itself.
![Jack Harlow - Hello Miss Johnson [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q86_nlRoIGw/mqdefault.jpg)
You may have seen this episode back on the other channel, BUT, even if you have, you may want to re-watch anyways for a little change that teases something...
As far as I'm concerned it's all new.
"teases something"? teases what? Cold Take? Or something else?
I'm guessing it's something to do with the syringe wielding ice cube....
what do you mean you've seen it? it's brand new!
I saw the video the first time around but I can't remember for the life of me what the difference is between this new upload and the previous one lol
I got to play this Gem of a game on a large boat on nightshift in the middle of the North Sea (in the winter). The added movements and creaking of the vessel really added to how scary it was. Not to mention it was on the ships cinema screen.😂
That would have been amazing.
That sounds like a truly memorable experience!
@@TheGunnarRoxen it really was. 8+ years ago and I can still feel the panic and the hairs on the back of my neck. Good times 😁
By accident (prebooked ticket) I saw the cheesy movie End Of Days (1999) in the cinema during a really bad storm. It was annoying but wasn't that bad when I got there well in advance but it rapidly got so bad most public transport in the city stopped running, which almost never happens. All the horrible noises from trees and buildings creaking and the winds howling put you constantly on edge and way more susceptible to the creepiness of the movie instead of perceiving it as hilariously cliché or so.
I've never happened into a more immersive horror experience, but I did get to see the original (silent) _Phantom of the Opera_ with a live organ. Now that's an experience!
Hope you enjoy this episode gang
This was the first episode I watched back on *REDACTED* nice to have an excuse for a rewatch.
JM8, I'd love to see you cover the 2019 Lovecraftian-Themed Detective Thriller, The Sinking City. I remember being ultra-impressed with the voice acting, story writing, palpable atmosphere & incredible deep detective mechanics. BUT I was equally unimpressed with its janky open world combat system.
Speaking of underwater horror, I'd love a dive into why SOMA has one of the most existentially terrifying narratives in all of fiction but as underwhelms slightly as a traditional "horror video game"
I would love a piece on the manipulative nature of “freemium” games vs. their paid counterparts.
I'm new to Design Delve but I'm really liking it so far! I absolutely love Alien Isolation, top tier horror/suspense. Not sure what's been covered already in this series, but a look at the ecosystem and interesting animation in Rainworld would be cool. And maybe something on the Nemesis system as it has been gone for a while and due to reappear in the new Wonder Woman game.
I actually find the motion tracker adding to the fear. The aggregate of the subtle yet steading increase to the beeping while syncing the Sevastopol Stations ambience as the tension track and dissonance just keep rising the longer you keep it out, the closer the Alien gets
I agree, I thought it was implemented brilliantly. Using it eases the fear of the unknown, but increases the fear of the Xenomorph appearing, a tense balancing act of risk mitigation.
The motion tracker adds a nice element of being able to tunnel vision on it which makes you unable to completely focus on your surroundings leading to you being more surprised or making mistakes. So its a nice way of adding a punishing mechanic disguised as a helpful one
That explains why I hated using the thing I found I was much better tracking it with my ears
Also, doesn't it make a noise with which the xenomorphe can detect you if he is near? Or do I misremember that?
@@Valfara770 That's true, but I think only on higher difficulties.
The devs also occasionally use it to mess with the player. I specifically remember seeing a dot run towards me and then vanish, only to hear the sounds of the alien in the duct above. Made me terrified
Probably the first Alien entry since the original to make you terrified to the Xenomorph. Yes Aliens was great, but it was more action-focused in the end.
Aliens is an excellent film. I just kinda wish it wasn't a sequel to Alien but its own thing. It demystified the utter wtf-ery of the creature too much (making it terrifying in the way a bear in your room is terrifying and not in a 'what even the bloody hell'-existentially terrifying) and lacked the feel of isolation that the original had. One thing that Isolation did well was setting it on a space station in hard vacuum like the original film. That setting is as alien and uncomfortable as the creature is. I know there's a tv-show in production that would bring the creature to earth and that seems like a terrible idea to me.
@@Syurtpiutha Wait what? There's a show in the works? Can we just let franchises die for fucks sake?
@@Tiparium_NMF indeed. the showrunner is the same guy who did Fargo and Legion, both great shows, so I'm hopping that Alien will be just as good.
Those xenos wiped out half a squad of colonial marines before they even knew what was happening. That is terrifying.
Aliens was the RE4 of the franchise.
So some of my favorite mechanics in this game are the button you hold to focus on the motion tracker and off what’s in front of you, making the environment blurry, and the “lean back in a locker & hold your breath” mechanics.
I only recently started watching Design Delve, but finding out that J is a sound designer and hearing him delve into how the sound of the game works, makes me as a fellow sound designer so happy. Because that aspect of any media (Film/Games/Theatre) is so often over looked, as demonstrated by the confused looks of my family at last thanksgiving at what I was getting my Masters in lol.
LETS GO SOUND DESIGN GANGGGGG!!!
you might really enjoy a video by a channel called Scruffy, two 10+ min videos about the sound design in Five Night's at Freddys and how good it is
@@pennplayz I’ll be honest, I’ve seen all of the games and I’ve never been personally impressed. But it’s been awhile and I’m always down to explore videos. I’ll check them out.
The motion tracker is just a genius idea, it builds so much tension with simple graphics and sound effects, the steady thump is like a heartbeat that increases as something gets nearer just like yours does as the tension increases knowing something is coming closer, whilst the change in tone also makes it feel almost like a countdown
I think the Motion Tracker was paramount to helping a lot of people cut through the intensity of the game. One might say it devalues some of the horror atmosphere, but I've seen several people struggle to *deal* with it, as intense as it is. The horror design is *so* well designed and the station so labyrinthine that people I've watched *needed* these tools to complete the game at all. Which, that in itself, is an important gameplay design choice to make. Moreover, the game's sheer punishing lethality when you make mistakes, the player will often need help reorienting after lost progress.
I think the Map and Motion Tracker help alleviate this by keeping the player focused, and help the directionally challenged actually figure out what to do instead of dying over and over again. It also keeps the more anxious and frightened somewhat grounded and giving them precious tools to overcome the game's pretty significant level of challenge. Because at the end of the day, you want your player scared, but not so scared their flight response makes them bail on the game entirely.
While I do understand that having the Alien always now our supposed whereabouts is stressful, it incurs a serious problem at higher difficulties. Because I no longer fear it after it gets me, over and over, and over again.
I would rather the game let the Alien "truly" roam free around a particular level, and have a sort of invisible meter that would increase everytime I made some noise as a player.
I personally experienced a softlock in the game because it was always onto me, and the way I saved the game, the Alien would never leave me alone for long enough for me to progress. Spent like 3 hours trying to get out of the same area until I gave up and never grabbed the game again.
And I wasn't scared at the end, I was just frustrated.
My reccomendation for having these sorts of roaming enemies, truly roam wild, is because the less you see of the Alien, the scarier it becomes.
I recently read how, in Project Zomboid, some people like low zombie quantities because it makes the game MUCH scarier. You could go 10/20/30 minutes without seeing a zombie, and then BAM.
I like how you're keeping the animation style consistent across the different shows.
I love the motion tracker (maybe minus the compass feature) because it helps negate death (that, as yahtzee mentions, breaks the tension and makes you less scared) and shows that despite having another tool that tracks it pretty well, youre still completely outclassed
Love the Frost cameo. Hope to see more of these guys just popping into each other's videos, like building a "Second Wind Universe."
I can get behind that concept.
"I'm gonna toodle-piss off now" was such a strong line
Love the Exorcist demon subliminal flash frame halfway through
I really love this video, especially because I think Alien: Isolation might be one of the best horror games of the decade, and yet because of a terrible IGN review a ton of people skipped it. I have since introduced it to every one of my friends who like horror games and not a single one has had a bad thing to say about it. The description of it as a masterclass fits to a T.
IGN, never forget.
I uhhh never noticed the motion tracker pointed to the objective. I just used my map and went locker to locker and vent to vent like a terrified child
For me, the Dead Space locator is by far, to this day, the best mechanic ever in guiding through a horror game. It is my moment of sanity, my blue line of hope. It is amazing. I never needed a map, only thing I needed was a tiny blue light when everything else is horrible around me.
Dead Space is amazing. I love them all.
YES! At least some things made it over, good for you JM8. I still can't believe Gamurs had the gall to take Yahtzee's artstyle away from him, he was using that even before he worked for the Escapist wasn't he? Well, whatever, nobody cares about them. Congratulations to all of you.
Not his art style but the assets. His art style is very present here.
Bit he can't use his old Yahtzee design, the imps, the yellow background or any assets used for ZP. He can create new ones though. They own the IP, not his art style.
Alien: Isolation is so good at creating the sense of horror that I actively avoided playing it.
Not in a bad way, the game is great, I just chickened out too much.
I am the same. I want to but the fear stops me. I can watch it, but playing it is too much.
The start screen sometimes intimidated me into going to bed instead of playing
I played through the first section and had fun. The moment the androids started appearing I noped out. I was able to manage my fear with the xenomorph but having humanoid "not-humans" was just too much.
I could only play the first playthrough in 15 minute bursts before I had to pause and take a break to reduce my heart rate. I'm proud to say it's the first and only horror game I've ever finished, but I'll never forget just how stressful it was to even load into the game, let alone play it lol
this is my problem with horror in general, and it's similar to why i can't enjoy spicy food.
sure, it'd be wonderfully enjoyable, IF i could get past the feeling that i'm going to die.
Love the Frost camio
I quite liked the motion tracker, because there was a balance element; use it when a threat is too close and it'll hear you/see the light, making it a liability if used too much. One of the sweat design decisions was also the tone it makes when something new that's moving comes into range; this lets you know there's something sort of nearby, and leaves it to you to juggle how and when you actually look at the tracker.
Alien Isolation will to me always be the narrative extravaganza of SovietWomble embodiying the main character. From closet hiding panic to "I'll face whatever comes my way", his reactions made it so much more immersive (not that I ever play horror myself).
Sound design is so damn important for this kind of thing, but so often falls short because the sound designers fall back to lazy tropes of "the unknown" that actually makes the atmosphere feel more "well known" than they realize. Scraping and creaking metal, dripping water, howling wind, or just plain _music._ It takes a lot of inspiration and delicate, tasteful foley work to balance atmospheric sounds and isolate non-linear warning sounds that go straight to the deepest part of your brain stem and perk your ears. The simpler, the quieter and more rare the sounds, the better. The most memorable example for me in my youth was the delicate clicking of toenails/claws from the lickers in Resident Evil 2 and the sound of the dog paws on gravel. You didn't see them and you didn't hear any growls or guttural noises. In fact, the rooms and hallways were often totally quiet. But there was still that clicking and it was so quiet that you had to strain to hear it. It was a warning that I didn't heed the first time I encountered them, which made bumbling into the enemy a more effective jump scare than a triggered/timed jump scare would've been. My ears DEFINITELY started paying closer attention to the subtle noises from that point on. And sometimes I wouldn't hear it again for an hour or so while I was busy solving puzzles, which made me lower my guard again. But then there'd be another enemy encounter and that subtle clicking would come back, and the memory of that first scare immediately had the adrenaline and dread rushing through my veins all over again and I hadn't even found the damn enemy yet. Das good shit.
I liked the motion tracker simply because, even when it's not pulled out, it can still warn you of movement with a loud beep.
Imagine, you're walking down a dimly lit hallway. You don't hear noise, you see no android, no snot dripping from the ceiling, you think you're safe. You walk down the corridor and then your motion tracker suddenly beeps. You still don't see nor hear anything, yet your alertness just jumped from 0 to 100 with just one simple noise. It could've been nothing, but are you really willing to risk it?
This helps keep the tension up even during the downtime of the game, making you feel that nowhere is safe even when you are.
Also, I didn't know the motion tracker served as a compass until now. I thought the highlighted part showed you movement outside of the radar's range but still an approximation of where it's coming from.
Design Delve is VERY quickly becoming one of my favorite series. I am loving this stuff.
"Toodle piss off" is now going into my vocabulary, thanks 🤣
Ludo's jumpscare was very scary. :)
Almost a decade later and I still latch onto any discussion about Alien Isolation because of how iconic it was for me
4:38 You got me there, busy talking about audio horror that I didn't expect that!
Off the top of my head, a possible solution to the map and motion tracker problem is have it be proximity-based. If you're far away from the objective, the directional indicator for the motion tracker flickers wildly and is almost unusable, but as you get closer, the signal gets stronger and the direction more definite.
It'd be like a game of hot-or-cold, pointing you roughly in the right direction and promoting blinder exploration without causing too much frustration. The clearer signal would be like a smaller reward for the player. As for the map problem, you could only reveal the location's surroundings or rough area. Lorewise you could say it's due to signal interference blocking most of the map database from reaching you.
Yeah, fear of death vs. actual death in a game is a hard balance to strike. Hell, in Amnesia: The Bunker, I never died once. I will admit, I save scummed a tad bit to get a lay of the land without wasting valuable resources, but that only led me on to being more afraid down the line when I got to a section I was unfamiliar with. Any time I heard the scraping, growling, thudding mass of a monster, I was terrified! It did such a good job with how little it had.
I ended up giving up on Isolation before ever encountering the Alien, little bit too much building up the tension just got aggravating. At the point where I was actively running toward sounds just to SEE something (and still not seeing anything) I moved on. I'm also an older gamer with a job that leaves me just weekends for gaming, so potentially losing progress (and more importantly TIME) breaks my immersion completely.
The Long Dark managed to have me genuinely scared at times. At one point I had the game settings so that wildlife wouldn't attack, and I was STILL scared of the wolves. I was even exploring an abandoned hydro dam, where I don't think wildlife could spawn, and utterly terrified of the creatures that I knew weren't going to attack me even if they existed! I honestly couldn't say why Isolation just annoyed me while The Long Dark had me about ready to make a break for the border.
I felt similarly about the game, and I played it when I had a lot more free time. I quickly got bored because it felt drawn out and hollow in a way. I played a good amount of it and I can't recall a single standout moment. I see so much praise for the game and I'm constantly confused by it, because I honestly got more out of Outlast, and I consider that game to be kinda ehhhh.
Design delve rocks! The old company really buried alot of some good stuff!
Man, I was hoping for the Imp to still be there. It'd be a sign negotiations with GAMURS was going well. FREE THE IMPS!
Something to consider is that making a horror game scary, while important, should never be its ONLY goal. Those core themes should always stay in service to the gameplay and story, and while sure, there are things that could be changed to ratchet up the terror of the game further, that doesn't necessarily mean it will make for a better gameplay experience for the player.
Design delve has quickly become my favorite segment
If you play in Nightmare mode, the map is disabled and the motion tracker is much harder to read, the screen being scrambled and broken. I did a play through of the game in nightmare mode and found that the motion tracker in that context helped the tension a lot. The built in compass on the radar at that point feels more like a lifeline, as I was trying to use signs to get around the ship but the tracker could always generally point me in the right direction.
Nightmare mode helps the tensions a lot, but it also makes the game frustrating to a certain point too. I feel that on a lower difficulty setting, with a reduced or removal of the map and more limited navigation features, would have been the best of both worlds.
Absolutely love how you've designed (ha!) this video. The way you've laid out your arguments, the way you blend the cartoon world with the ideas you talk about in-game, the cameo from Frost to make the cartoon world feel more like a _world_ ... Masterfully done!
Only thing I'd add is that there's a lot of flashing lights in this video. It might be worth putting a seizure warning either at the start or before each flashing lights section. Would recommend looking at how LTT does seizure warnings as an extremely effective UX design to take inspiration from!
What do you know, Xenophobia is fear of the unknown, I suppose it's also fear of the other. Had to take another look since when I've heard xenophobia it was in the context of foreigners. Not necessarily strange people but alien in origin and an emphasis on irrational. There are tons of techniques to creating an unfamiliar and unnerving setting not knowing what's out there or knowing it's dangerous but rarely getting a good view. The Xenomorph is certainly scary but has also become very iconic, sound and lighting add to it's terror when you can't see it or always looking out for it with white noise in the back.
Another good point, dying because you do stupid things is fair but you also want to drag out a chase and hiding so you don't reset too frequently, you'll just get more familiar with the mechanics and how it breaks down until it's just not scary. Some randomness or a monster that moves in unpredictable way can be very terrifying so long as it's just not purely unfair.
4:39 Sir. I do not appreciate the one frame jump scare. Great video, though!
Would love to see you talk about health management; the Halo games come to kind, with the first having health and shields, the second just shields, and other entries doing other things. And how this can either encourage certain tactics / methods!
Great idea :D consider it added to the list!
Every time I watch a new Design Delve my love for the art of video games levels up
This warms my soul
Something i have discovered that makes me feel more fear is to have a safe space
It doesn't even need to be faul proof, it only needs to be "safer"
Knowing that i need to get out of my nice position to a nest of wasp make me uncomfortable
Amnesia the Dark Descent hammered that home with xenophobia. You have to rely on your ears to make it through. Seeing it spikes your sanity meter which is brilliant on its own. Light keeps you sane but can alert the monsters to your presence. I think they did all that really well.
Eyyyyyy Special Guest Appearance!
I'm sure that the motion tracker had a thing where it encouraged you to use it sparingly as it would attract the alien and perhaps other enemies
I actually think the motion tracker is fairly well balanced since the sound it makes can attract enemies, so you're encouraged to use it sparingly.
Lol, the visual one-frame stuff you
kept slipping in was funny to see.
Interesting analysis! I'd like to add how the stealth game inspired gameplay enforces the fear also.
Sevastopol has one type of enemy in the beginning, the standard "drone" patrolling the station in a fairly predictable manner with clear audio barks. Amanda is a fairly weak and encouraged to use shadows, vents, lockers and corner peaks to sneak past. As you point out, If you get caught it's likely you get killed due to enemies being stronger than you, further reinforcing the gameplay loop of sneaking past enemies rather than confronting them. So for the first half(ish) of the game shadows and vents are your best friends and that is the "safe" real estate of each map for you to take a mental pause and move around through Sevastopol. Then the Xenomorph arrives and you quickly learn that it uses the same strategy as you, hides in the same real estate, waiting to ambush you. Vents are now literal death traps and what used to be your safe space is now the kingdom of a far deadlier threat.
You enter into a scarier phase of the game where no place is safe and you have to continuously do a cost-benefit analysis between moving through the more lit up parts where chances of meeting a Synth is higher or skulk around the side rooms always scared of being ambushed by the Xeno. Add the dual AI and save system on top of that and you have a core gameplay loop that is designed to invoke fear and stress as you scurry towards the next save station.
I can think of no better example to demonstrate how sound is the most important factor in horror than Iron Lung. I've never felt a fear so potent from something so minimal and every last little sound effect is on display and bone chillingly terrifying
Limiting saves will always be the best form of increasing horror and tension.
Doing an S+ hardcore run in Resident Evil 2 Remake is a perfect example of this. Only 3 saves for the whole game, 1 bad reaction and bam back to the last save (which can be an hour or so).
Planning where to put down your 3 saves becomes daunting experience, sections that you were confident in before become so much more stressful and terrifying, you can make the fear go away by just saving but there's only 3, if incorrectly placed you will have to repeat large difficult sections of the game.
Love Alien isolation, still want to do the hardest difficulty where the Motion Tracker is broken, adding to the fear of not knowing.
Awesome video, keep up the good work. 👍
4:18 Returnal soundtrack ❤️❤️❤️
I love this breakdown for how the devs manage the flight/fight/freeze and harness it.
Sound design is easily one of if not the most important part of fear and I can prove it.
hissssss...BOOM!!! Just the fact that the minecraft creeper exists should make people understand just how much their panic response gets trigged by sound.
That "fear of failure" you describe by the long walk back after a death, that's exactly why I like playing games in hardcore or one-life only modes. Dying and having to rebuild your character absolutely sucks, but it is totally necessary to get that adrenaline rush when fighting bosses. This makes bosses I've fought dozens of times still anxiety-inducing because the risk of death and starting over is still there. I get it's not for everyone because that downside can be pretty painful, but man does it make games so much more suspenseful!
Easily one of the best horror games ever made, and the craziest part is it's done by a company that has otherwise done nothing but one other game the rest of their life (The Total War series, a grand strategy game)
We need the Spiffing Brit to exploit this game... he has totally demolished the devs other titles.
No bloody way this (kinda new) video comes out right during my first playthrough of the game. It's taking me a damn long time because my heart can only handle 1hr of it at a time 😏
I’m totally unable to handle horror, but Alien Isolation was one of the few games that I felt I could actually push through. Maybe those 1hr sessions will grow into 2-3 hours - you’ll have your own Alien movie every session by that point!
@jonathanlovett9483 I'm normally totally fine with horror games!!! but games like Alien: Isolation and Visage truly hit different
@@hairyson94 same for me, I can play several hours of outlast but put me with the Alien for more than an hour and I won't sleep for 2 days straight
There is something exceptionally terrifying about this game and I love it
I was stuck in med bay for three days trying to figure out the Alien movements…
I remember playing this game and loving it. I will fully admit that I installed the mod that locks the Xenomorph away before I started my playthrough, yet due to the amazing atmosphere the game provides, I kept forgetting that I had that mod installed and felt taht tension of expecting it to get me so many times.
Even though you say you have a bias, the sound design was on point in this game, as were the lighting, and how they stayed true to the franchise's technology and style. Combined this was probably one of the best recent horror games out there, probably the best
My favourite Design Delve video (so far 😉)!! 🎉
About the motion tracker, there is a cimpromise to be made in game, you didn't nention that the tracker mades an audible beepimg nois when you take it out, the creature can hear that noise so it's not recomendable to have it out at all times
Resident Evil 7 has a seemingly random fan that was SO intentionally placed. It's in the central room of the house, if I recall it's the first main room you need a key to enter. There's a fan with a lamp shining onto it casting a shadow of the fan blades against the wall. The fan blades moved so slowly, and the shadow against the wall was large enough to make it seem like the silhouette of person walking. So many times I would be coming down the stairs or around a corner, and I'd get surprised by the stupid shadow! Perfect game design right there!
More of badass Ludo please
I think the motion tracker is terrific and actually adds to the tension.
1. It makes you aware of the presence of the enemies when you other wise wouldn't be. It makes their that feel more ever present.
2. When you focus on looking at the tracker, you're not focused on looking at the environment and any looming threats. This can be quite unnerving, even if you spend just 15 seconds focused on looking at the map and oblivious to whether you're in danger.
I absolutely adore this series. I haven't the faintest clue about game design, but somehow (or possibly because of that) it's all so bloody interesting
The sound design was brilliant. So many times I jumped at machinery because the sound was similar to an enemy.
Also, lockers and noise detection are death traps.
I played on my XB1 when it first came out, and it had a feature where you could use your Kinect, and if you made a noise the Alien could hear you and track you from it. I couldn't make it past the third chapter, it was genuinely that terrifying.
“Understanding is the fear killer”
The Bene-Gesserit would like to know your location
I didn't even know that the motion tracker thing was a compass I thought it was just something that was out of range.
EVERY video is a straight-up banger. For a channel that has multiple personalities posting content, that has to be some sort of statistical impossibility, right?!
I really dislike having to frequently open maps to navigate so if they took away that compus like thing on the tracker then they would need something else
To the credit of the Motion Tracker, using it plays with the depth-of-field such that checking where *exactly* the moving potential-threat is leaves you less aware visually of your surroundings. And many players get the feeling that the sound of it pinging is audible at close range, adding to the tension of those moments where you're hiding in a locker hoping the Creature doesn't find you.
It took "The event" to get me into the other shows made by the second wind team, but now I'm hooked. This stuff is fascinating
Love Frost popping in, being super chill about a monster and unknown poison 😂
Huh, i didn't notice the motion tracker had a compass on it. Without that though the motion tracker feeds into the games paranoia as it makes sound, sound enemies can hear if they are close.
One of my favorite fear management games is Haunting Ground, which shares some mechanics with Clock Tower 3. You play a character that has a 'fear meter' that causes you to lose some control over the character when it fills. You can manage this meter by going a while without being scared, and successfully hiding from enemies as well as taking drugs. This was coupled with the fact that you can only defeat each enemy by solving a puzzle. Although you can kick and bomb enemies, at the most this makes them decide to leave until you are in that foe's "boss arena", where they can finally be defeated.
This had the effect of making me as a player scared of things that scared Fiona. You were constantly on the lookout for everything from random blood stains to bosses suddenly coming around the corner. This was on top of the game being excellently paced as a 'one new recurring boss per level' design. Imagine having several very different variations on Mister X, one per level.
Darkwood is a great horror game that uses a lot of these design aspects. One thing I noticed back when I was playing it in early access, was how distinct the different monster noises were, so initially everything was scary. And then you could identify what was around, but not where in the darkness it was.
It also helps that the game is randomly generated from a bunch of handcrafted locations, which helps extend that feeling of "the unknown."
And they also do a good job of not giving you consistent information- there are sequences where you have to defend your base from monsters in the middle of the night... And sometimes there's a knock at the door. And if you open door... Sometimes it's monsters. And other times, you get a party invitation? Also helps keep that feeling of the unknown alive.
I don't think I could play this game without the map. The motion tracker is a mixed blessing, as using it too often can lead the monster to your position.
However, I could see an argument for disabling the map for higher difficulty modes, for players who feel it weakens the experience.
The fear in this game is almost too well crafted. Removing the map and tracker might be a better horror experience, but it might also make it unbearable for many players and limit the audience.
agreed about the motion tracker, and it's easy to rely on it too much. However, it does emit noise, so if you use it while too close to the Alien, he'll just rip you out of your hiding place no problem
Second Wind was born yesterday and its already the only game journalism i believe in
Great episode! I, too, would like to see an expanded discussion of the motion tracker system, such as how it being an icon of the franchise made its addition to the game inevitable and the effects of that decision.
I think that the map is necessary in most survival horror games because when you introduce rooms with limited resources like in Alien: Isolation or Resident Evil 2 then players can easily become frustrated hunting for an item they left behind somewhere but can't remember where. When a player starts roaming randomly trying to find that one thing without any sort of guide then they will quickly stop being afraid and start becoming frustrated at the convoluted layouts. If you give them a map that they themselves have to fill out then they will know where the items are and spend less time searching rooms at random. A possible compromise would be a means inside the game mechanics to draw out your own maps and mark rooms with the specific items that you left behind. I've only played one game where you can draw your own map and it was such a cool concept I wish more games implemented that.
Love it. Also if you play on hard mode the alien can hear the motion tracker, making it a big liability to use..
idk if youll ever read this but my sincerest apologies for not watching this on the old channel. your voice, your timbre, your writing, not to mention your analysis, its all amazing. please keep doing what youre doing
6:50 This is why I feel Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs was so effective. Many complain about the game being too easy, but my first blind playthrough was so scary because it felt like I always narrowly escaped every perceived threat.
The bunker on the desert section of Metro Exodus is, in my opinion, a masterclass in horror. By that point in the franchise and game, Artyom's a bad-ass. He's fought in multiple wars, he's killed monsters that can flip a tank, and he's very well armed. So the first time you see one of the spiders you blast it, no problem, you're fine. But as the section goes on you realize that you arent finding any ammo. Theyre scared of light but your only source of light is a hand-powered light that has a very narrow beam. And then you find the macguffin and the entire place comes alive. Spiders are everywhere, you see a mutant youve never encountered slithering through the water you're wading through, youre completely cut off from your friends and youre making a mad dash through a maze hoping you're making the right turns. And right as it reaches the crescendo and you think this is it a hole bursts open in the ceiling letting sunlight and your friends in to save you.
Nice analysis. I hope you'll do a dive sooner or later on how to design a game to amplify the narrative. Like how Spec Ops: The Line had a, let's say predictable plot, but the design and execution of the game really made a player become so engaged in it the feelings evoked by the story becomes stronger.
Cheers.
I REALLY love Design Delve. This has such a great flow and the way the discussion is had is very engaging.
Having not played the game yet (it's been on my list for years), I definitely get how annoying it would feel to suddenly have a compass that automatically points at objectives, when the game's at its best by making you fear for your life. System Shock proved that you can make a game that has objectives, and only tell the player a bare minimum, requiring them to figure it out from there.
I'm not a fan of horror games but this analysis hooked me, kudos to you all!
This is SO much better production than over on the escapist!! Bravo!! 🎉
One of the best sound design horrors is in my opinion in Amnesia The Dark Descent.
When you have a monster walking around the area you're in, there is very little music. But when you get noticed the violins kick in with that two note squeal that tells you you have been seen. This in itself is effective to induce panic. But what makes it even more effective is, that the sound is in correlation with how well the monster has seen you. If you break cover just a little bit, or the monser is really far away and sees you, the music starts, but is slower tempo and lower volume. When the monster moves closer and sort of verifies your position, the music starts to rice in intensity and volume, until you get jumped. This is really effective since in the first stage there is a real possibility of you only getting the musical cue that you've been spotted, but not yet seeing where or what has spotted you. This causes you to start looking around and start digging your own grave.
Very effective at building up suspense without a jump scare or surpricing the player.
Agree on the motion tracker! At least for having the waypoint on it - have the tracker but have it make detectable noise (I believe the hardest difficulty does this as well as make it unreliable) and remove the waypoint from it. With that I think it would have been great to have been a ‘live map’. Find where you are and where you’re going and plot a route - while everything is still moving around you. That leaves you with recalling the map and taking hints of where you’re going from level design - station is still pretty well signposted in game considering everything.
I think my favourite horror mechanics were in the latest Amnesia game. Some like the limited fuel I believe work best because of the game’s limited run time but I truly loved the flashlight mechanic.
You’re greatest source of comfort (light) can also be your greatest detriment (you need to wind up your light which creates sound, and while running it makes some noise).
The fuel mechanic was great as well. As you’re able to power the bunker’s lights and it will lessen the monster’s appearances but rather then purely being a source of comfort it’s also a ticking clock pushing the player forward. You want to explore areas while you have fuel, but to make the most of the exploration you need to put yourself in danger, run into the dark to turn on breakers to continue progressing. You can’t sit in the light forever, you can only refill the generator from the “safe room”. Sit around for too long you’ve lost your fuel, you’re away from your generator, and you’re out of light.
Most of all, I can’t stress how much I think the limited run time helped. While ammo is extremely limited by the time you are geared to face the fear (or really delay it) and you’re starting to understand the monster the games close to over.
That’s why I love the Bunker. It makes the comfortable uncomfortable while still pushing the player to in spooky situations in hopes of maintaining that level uncomfortably comfortable.
One game that got me a good fear management vibe was "OneShot". I was told it wasn't a horror game, and it wasn't in the strictest sense. It's kind of a spooky tense game where you control a cat kid around a very dim world to fix it's sun, via couriering a big lightbulb that lights up and guides your way. The horror comes in the fact that your actions, such as closing the game via the x box at the corner instead of saving and quitting, is warned to not do so as the world is real. There is a lack of fourth wall in that the cat kid calls you by name and you can talk to them in a limited dialogue choice way. You grow to care about not getting the kid home, but also the world and the sense of bleakness as you slowly make your way to the goal. I can't recommend it enough, J.
Ludo is not afraid of anything because Ludo is very brave, and because she is a good dog
the idea that the motion tracker takes away from potential fear completely ignores the existence of frustration as an emotion. it’s in the game to keep you from getting lost and therefore frustrated, and to give the alien a sense of physical presence; even if it’s not on screen you get the idea it’s moving around above or below you, and it showing up on the motion tracker keeps you from feeling like it’s “spawning in” to kill you.
both these functions keep you from getting frustrated at the GAME, and that keeps you free to forget its a game, and continue to pretend the xeno is a real creature that might Get You.
there’s a tendency in horror game fandom to believe fear can be ramped up essentially infinitely, and that anything that makes the game easier is taking from potential terror by caving to the normies. but there’s absolutely an upper limit to how demanding a game can be before the fact that it’s a game becomes too obvious. At the end of the day, it can’t provide sensation beyond vibrating your hands, and it can’t generate smell-a massively important sense that ties to memory in a very strong way-whatsoever. it’s depending on sight and hearing to create an illusion, and often, things that appear to diminish the terror of a scenario actually serve as an indispensable load-bearing pillar upon which the entire illusion rests.
besides, the motion tracker’s increasingly frantic beeping is as much a part of the Alien experience as those loud ass doors or the computer chittering.
I don't even like the game very much, but this is really well constructed and insightful. And even beyond that, it got me thinking about how every horror game was just hiding in lockers for a while because of this growing sentiment against weapons in horror games, because apparently anything less than maximum scary isn't valid in the genre. Needlessly stripping the player of gameplay opportunities, all for the sake of scares that quickly become predictable, was a frustrating trend. I feel like Resident Evil fixed that perception a bit with RE7.
@@MochaRitz ahh yes the “well it’s not scary if you’re playing some hypercompetent action hero with a million guns, therefore you must play as a hyperventilating ninny who can’t so much as pick up board with a nail in it, and who goes mad with terror if he looks at a small bug” dichotomy. I was not a fan of that era of horror games because they were all essentially maze runners where you had to solve the maze in the dark, with some ugly asshole chasing you. I guess the fear was always supposed to come from how ugly of a guy he was, did not work for me. just got pissed off really quick.
RE7 really found that sweet spot with the partially competent ninny that is ethan, and the bakers were ugly assholes but with some exciting variations in their behavior, reactive enough to make it feel like you were always discovering new stuff about them, and the parents had delightfully gross monster transformations to keep you on your toes. I wasn’t a fan of Lucas-what the fuck was that accent supposed to be?!-but all in all RE7 was a breath of fresh air for sure.
What’s interesting to me is that RE Village got a bunch of negative coverage post-launch when a developer mentioned during an interview that they didn’t front load the game with the horror and dread like they did in 7, because some people didn’t get past Jack, they found the Mia segment too harrowing and, thinking the whole game would be that intense, noped out.
This got turned into a whole mess of outrage-baiting headlines about how RE Village was “toned down for the casuals” and then this bad-faith interpretation was repeated by more outrage ranttubers with nobody apparently having read the interview; what they did in RE8 was shuffle the ORDER of things around. So instead of putting the segment that overwhelms with dread and horror FIRST, they started off by giving you the wolf men attacking the village, followed by sexy vampires pursuing you, to acclimate more players to the game, all with the very nasty goal of getting people who might not have otherwise played the game hooked, so they could get them into the Benvenito house and make them look at that GODDAMN HORRIBLE BABY, god that thing is the WORST, i played that part in VR and i almost PUKED 🤮
but my point is, the raucous action opening, and the sexy “teehee step on me mommy” camp of the castle, set up expectations that Donna’s house subverts to create insanely good horror, starting it all out with the very simple technique of doing nothing weird at all and just being a nice pleasant country home for WAY longer than one would expect.
then slowly, through a series of escape room style puzzles, without showing its hand until the last possible moment, it plants a thought into your brain:
“i think there might be something wrong with the baby”
and then the worlds worst baby starts chasing you around the halls in the dark, gurgling horribly, in one of the best examples of set up->punchline in horror gaming.
Which is funny because that’s the kind of horror game i just admitted to hating, but that was always because that was ALL there was in the game. RE8 actually made me appreciate my least favorite type of horror by creating a context and contrasts, which allowed them to scare MORE PEOPLE, and with SCARIER SCARES, than a retread of RE7’s beats woulda done.
7:35 yes! I have said that the normalization of autosaving even in horror games is actually anti-thetical to the genre. My experience mostly comes from the Resident Evil franchise, but I'm a strong believer that part of what makes the earlier entries in the series scarier than the later ones is the ink-ribbon/save room mechanic. As the vid says, the more you play, the more you learn about the monsters and creatures, their attack pattern, the limits of their AI, where they spawn, etc which slowly erases the fear of the unknown. But Resident evil was able to maintain its scariness by having 1) safe areas sprawled across the map, meaning that death would always have a risk of losing progress and 2) having saves limited to how many ink ribbons you have, making the idea of "being safe" a scarce resource. Obviously balancing is important: too few save rooms or ink ribbons = frustration and frustration kills fear, but finding that balance is worh it. The newer games are in this middle ground of having you still need to save at save points, but the saves themselves are an unlimited resource by default to help people get through it, which I get, but honestly I wish that was relegated to an easy mode and that standard difficulty still required ink ribbon management in some degree to maintain the horror
The motion tracker does reduce some of the fear aspects of the game, but it adds several more because of its own existence. Hearing that beep when its in your pocket telling you that there is something to track is a great way to put players on edge in an instant. And of course... nothing can quite beat the absolute paranoia in the sections where the tracker starts going nuts with contacts in every direction, making it extremely difficult to discern the ones actually threatening you.
Its a tool that the player relies on, yet simultaneously becomes a source of fear in of itself.
I loved the cameo with Frost.