Thread 715416978

>hear about Underhell in a thread
>think oh shit, that sounds exactly up my alley
>install it
>explore the house for pages and items, pretty comfy
>"night has fallen"
>immediately hits me what kind of game this is and why certain mirrors were placed in the ways they were and the atmosphere is 2spooky for my cowardly heart, F4 before even verifying if there are going to be spooks or not without even getting to the shooty part or the tutorial
How do I drop some balls and actually get around to playing horror games? I'm usually fine with stuff like resident evil and having actually finished it, FEAR wasn't that scary in the slightest but the expectation of being scared absolutely freezes me up and makes me unable to go on. I yelped at a fucking doom mod for gods sake(ashes afterglow, that submarine mission) and alt-f4'd out of Outer Wilds twice you probably know where, the DLC start and the anglerfish. FEAR was a struggle to actually finish even though it wasn't actually that scary, certain missions in Trepang2 had me play them over a week even though again they weren't the slightest bit of scary and I'm usually okay with horror movies/shows.

tl;dr:How do I quit being a pussy?

When I was a kid playing Half Life I was deathly afraid of walking down a darkass halway filled with headcrabs

I sat there for a bit, closed my eyes and just pressed W until I was in there and I realized I was afraid of nothing.

You just need to power through. That's it.

>>715416978 (OP)
The Underhell house is a classic horror trip for me. I'd love more haunted house simulator games, where the scares aren't coming at you a mile a minute, and you have activities to do that are mundane, but the horror has to be sought out and is to some extent randomised. UH has great atmosphere at least.

To answer your question, you just have to start off small. Try to play horror-themed games over straight up horror if you can. Like things with vampires, ghosts and the like but aren't straight up trying to scare the shit out of you. And then ramp up to atmospheric experiences.

Please horror anons don't do yourself a disservice by using shit tier audio - sound is dis-proportionally important for spooky games so having good audio output goes a long, long way.

>>715417727
At the risk of sounding even gayer than I did when making this thread, I use a meh soundbar and have not worn headphones in the past 7 or so years.

>>715417913
That is dangerously homo. If you're playing horror, you have to use a decent set of phones. Playing Alien Isolation years back when I got a good set and playing through the section where you can hear little bits of debris bouncing off of your helmet was just about a religious experience.

Rush to your death to desensitize yourself from the scary thing.

>>715416978 (OP)
Spooky games aren't real and therefore cannot be scary. I don't even understand people who can be afraid.

In general though I don't think they're that fun.

>>715418063
I haven't played alyx yet or any of those but the way a VR headset does sound would probably be the best for experiencing horror.

Really VR in general if devs had more funding would make the genre better.

>>715416978 (OP)
You should play Visage.

>>715418516
?

>>715418565
https://store.steampowered.com/app/594330/Visage/

>>715416978 (OP)
Why would you want to?
What is there to gain?
Horror games are consistently the most worthless slop games on the market. "Horror" might as well mean a direct reduction in gameplay more than anything else.

>>715418063
>be turbo pussy
>hear ayyy lmaosolation is real gud
>fortify myself to finally play it
>choose to do so at midnight
>crank volume up on my nice headphones for total immersion
>palms sweaty mom's spaghetti
>on edge all the time through medical as I hear gribbly creeping about in the vents
>get clear
>the second before I relax I hear a THUMP
>I nearly shit myself and crack my head on my room ceiling as I jump out of my seat so hard
>turns out someone in a room above dropped the book they were reading onto the floor
That day I understood as well as needed new underwear. Thank you for reading my blog.

>>715416978 (OP)
The last horror game I played was the original Dead Space 1 that I got via a random giveaway in 2011. I was ambushed in the greenhouse, scared, couldn't aim to save my ass, died and uninstalled it forever. Never touch a horror game after that.

>>715416978 (OP)
You know how if you dip your toes in water it'll take you way longer to be "ready" to swim but if you jump in, the cold will dissipate faster?
Go play Cry of Fear now

Do game dev yourself. Make a very basic engine. Learn some graphics programming. At that point you'll be viewing everything you play with a critical eye and thinking about how they implemented this or that, rather than getting immersed and scared.

But you do kind of ruin the games for yourself.

>>715416978 (OP)
It's more about embracing the game overall. You play a horror game to appreciate the themes and immerse in a visceral experience, right? The thing about fear is that most people are afraid not when they least expect it, but when they suspect (increasingly) something may happen. Ultimately, you have to go into it with the planned commitment to press W through it (fight or flight). You have to accept that frightening things may happen, and think proactively how you'll adapt to spooky situations as they arise. That makes you more likely to live/win as a bonus too.
>the expectation of being scared absolutely freezes me up and makes me unable to go on.
Managing fear is arguably a core meta aspect of gameplay in most horror titles. This could mean managing your breathing to ease your heart rate and mind, taking planned breaks...whatever.

I'm a stone wall when it comes to horror. Yet, horror can be very immersive regardless when you commit to the experience. So, rather than focus on how you see the games as a struggle, focus on how you can make the experience more manageable.