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Sucutrule
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Why everybody thinks the original Doom where action/horror games? Oh sure, I had it's semi dead guys randomly impaled throughout some corridors, but other than that, nothing alse is intimidating/scary. Actually I remember when I was 8 years old and the only thing that scared me (a little)was those "sacrificial murals" (you know, those with the big goat and the inverted pentagram).
Actually, I don't know from where the people got the idea that Doom was scary... What are they? 3 year old or something?
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Phoenix
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Keep in mind that when Doom first came out, nothing like it had been made before in terms of video games. First-person gaming now is quite established, so everyone's used to having near photo-realistic environments, enemies, etc. Prior to Doom and Wolfenstein-3D, you had Nintendo. The whole idea of dropping a person into an environment with zombies, demons from hell, etc, was novel and innovative. As for scary... well, people all react differently to different things. What scares one person might not scare another. Take the average person whose gaming experience consists of Pac-Man and Donkey Kong and give them something like Doom. It might be a little more scary to that person seeing those corpses twitching on spikes or hanging from chains than for someone who had played through Wolfenstein 3D and was used to action games.
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  I fly into the night, on wings of fire burning bright...
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Tabun
Pixel Procrastinator
Team Member
Elite (3k+)
   
Posts: 3330
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DooM (and Wolf3D) was scary as shit, back in the day. People have been 'desensitized' or otherwise have gotten used to more dramatic horror in games (and movies), but -- like Pho says -- you have to keep in mind that things weren't always as they are now. The atmosphere of these games was particularly broody and ominous, and nothing like that was there before them. Games were 1 part visuals, 3 parts imagination, for most of us who found the "oldies" thrilling.
Go see horror movies from before the 70's and you'll find that they are not scary to you (or even hilariously failing to live up to their modern day competitors in the genre), even though they were, undeniably, seriously disturbing horror-movies in their times..
Suggestion was more powerful in the early days of gaming, whereas visual prowess is (generally speaking) more influencial now...
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| Tabun |
?Morituri Nolumus Mori? |
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Phoenix
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What I find more unnerving in a game is not the presence of certain things, but the absence. Seeing the bloody walls, goop growing from the ceiling, monsters popping up and throwing fireballs is one thing. When you wander for a while, or go into a room and there's nothing around - that gets my attention. As the old phrase goes, "It's TOO quiet..." In nature, absolute silence is very, very rare, and we biological creatures are tuned to interpret that as a sign that something is wrong. Sometimes this can be overplayed, such as an obviously powerful item placed in what looks to definitely be a trap in an otherwise empty room. Really good level design makes you walk into the trap first, then realize you shouldn't have gone in there a second before something happens.
I'll tell you a few places where I've seen this effect used best. In the original Half-Life, the warehouse area where you meet the assassins screamed "don't go in there". Another example is when you drop down the ceiling into the room with the big missiles and all the laser trip mines all over the place - and a few damned headcrabs skulking around that you know are going to jump right through one of the beams and set one off. As soon as you're in the room you know you're screwed.
As Tab said, suggestion is very powerful, usually much more powerful than overt gore. What's more frightening, the dead body laying out in the open, or the darkened doorway behind it? The body is already dead and cannot hurt you. The doorway, on the other hand, holds every innumerable horror that the imagination can conjure, and the expectation that, at any moment, any one of those might venture forth from that blackness after you, or worse, that you must pass into that blackness of your own accord and face whatever monstrosity that lies within. The dark doorway, the darkened wood, the fog over the graveyard... all these things play on the psyche. Your God-given instincts say "Bad idea, you don't know what's in there and it's not worth your life to find out." Perhaps nothing is there, but you're certainly no worse off by avoiding it, and if there is something there, you'll be much worse off by venturing where you should not. That's why such things are scary. Fear is there to help keep you from dying.
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Kajet
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Another thing that would help raise the fear part of games is if all the box art/advertising/other related things didn't show you what your enemies look like...
What's worse knowing what all your enemies look like or treading into a game knowing practically nothing about it?
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Kajet
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Yeah, the whole "to beat your enemy you have to become one" tagline killed the shock of that scene and made an otherwise clever and unexpected plot twist as visible as a mac truck to anyone who even passed the case in a store...
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fourier
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Well, I never saw the tagline, so when I was playing through the single player, I was full expecting to get away while I saw the guy ahead of me being impaled. Then after that, I thought, "Well surely I'll escape now while they are cutting off his legs". Nope. So it was interesting, but that's sort of diverging off-topic. Resume
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Phoenix
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I think where the original Doom fell genre-wise, if we're going to compare it with movie genres, is sci-fi horror. Doom 3 went more for classic horror in a futuristic environment as far as the horror gimmicks were concerned. A little off topic, but something that struck me as kind of funny with Doom 3 is that you're the only gun-toter (besides the odd scientist that had a pistol laying on a desk next to him) that didn't get possessed or outright killed other than Bravo team and Campbell. You never, ever meet another friendly with any firepower other than the sentry bots, and except for a few that you find dead, all the security guards get possessed but none of the marines do. I've often wondered what the criteria for possession is supposed to be in Doom 3. The Doom movie, as far off the mark from the game as it is, at least has an explanation within its storyline of why some people get turned into zombies and others don't. It's never made clear in Doom 3. In the original Doom, everyone was already possessed, and you were left outside to guard the shuttle when your team went in. They all got killed. Still, it was never made clear why you and you alone did not become a zombie. I've always wondered about that.
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I fly into the night, on wings of fire burning bright...
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scalliano
Elite
Posts: 1095
Yup, that's me
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The only reason I can think of, regarding the Doomguy managing to avoid posession in the original Doom is that you are the only one left alive. The advantage of wearing protective headgear, maybe?  |
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PSN ID: scalliano
The Arena knows no gender, colour or creed, only skill.
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Phoenix
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What I mean is... the powers that caused everyone to be possessed are still around, right? When the invasion is launched against Earth, as in Doom II, there's more possessed people roaming around. In Doom 3, there's a few scientists that don't get possessed, a maintenance guy or two, along with Bravo Team, Swann, and Campbell. Sarge doesn't start out possessed, but for some reason changes sides and becomes... something else. Now what causes Betruger to do what he does nobody knows, but I could theorize that after the initial teleportation experiment, the Maledict's power reached through the tear in space and found that not only could it influence Betruger but that he was in the perfect position of power for the Maledict's purposes. He used Betruger to accelerate the teleportation experiments and eventually force open a permanent gateway, as well as take the Soul Cube into Hell in order to prevent it's use a second time. Once Betruger went into Hell with the Cube, he became willingly possessed by the Maledict, and eventually this turned into a physical symbiosis. Betruger was so twisted he wanted the power of Hell, and the Maledict needed Betruger and his knowledge as a bridge to invading Mars and eventually Earth.
The Artifact in Resurrection of Evil apparently was involved in the first invasion somehow. The demons used it as a weapon of incredible power, and so the Soul Cube was constructed to counter the power of the Artifact. The Artifact could not be completely destroyed, so once it was drained and the portal sealed, it was buried in a secret chamber and the defenses were erected around the portal should it ever be opened again. |
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I fly into the night, on wings of fire burning bright...
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Sucutrule
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Well, if Doom 3 was creepy horror, monster-in-a-box, ROE was some creepy horror with a bit more straight up fighting, Doom 4 should hopefully be a Doom 2-style monster fest. At least, we can hope right?
I hope it is. PainKiller Style gameplay rocks. |
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How I am supposed to type will all this cheese laying around?
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