2D horror games?

[DangerCode]

I was just thinking about some of my favorite horror franchises (Resident Evil, Silent Hill, System Shock, etc.) and it got me wondering why I couldn't have enjoyed this kind of gameplay back in the day of 2D bitmapped graphics.

Perhaps a 3D view is essential to the immersion needed to pull off a great horror game but I'm hoping you guys can prove that assertion wrong. Can you think of any great scary games done in 2D?

[DanMarshall]

I could imagine it's just about possible, but you'd be working off atmosphere more than jump-out-of-your-skin stylee scares.

Imagine Flashback but with a dynamic lighting engine. It's black everywhere except where your torch is shining... that might work. But you'd have to work extra hard on sound effects/ music and your plot, because the limitations of 2D mean there's noly so many ways evil can attack...

[soniCron]

Imagine Flashback but with a dynamic lighting engine. It's black everywhere except where your torch is shining... that might work. But you'd have to work extra hard on sound effects/ music and your plot, because the limitations of 2D mean there's noly so many ways evil can attack... Interesting you should mention that! I worked on such a project years ago and ended up dropping it because the scare factor wasn't that great. On the other hand, my Quake 2 mod, Night Hunters, was an absolutely terrifying experience. There was one "predator" - a super-powerful and silent player - versus a server full of marines wielding bright flashlights, set in a world of blackness. The only way to locate the "predator" was to turn on your flashlight which stuck you out like a sore thumb, vulnerable to attack. Trying to hunt down this super-beast without getting creamed was quite an experience! But I digress... ;)

Point is, I knew how to make a scary game, and I couldn't figure out how to do it in 2D. Your mileage may vary.

[papillon]

The first Clock Tower game? Only I never got around to playing it, so I don't know if it's scary or not. :)

[Michael Flad]

Not exactly scary like Doom 3 or ResiEvil and the like but back at it's release I found Sanitarium to have a quite unique and bizarre atmosphere.

You can easily google for some reviews and still find it on ebay - really even by todays standards worth a look and probably fun to play.

[barrygamer]

Alien Shooter 2 is looking pretty scary! Check out the trailer too :eek:
http://www.sigma-team.net/alienshooter_2/

[Nexic]

Yeh Sanitaurium was a pretty creepy game. Scratches is also pretty damn scary, with a brilliant plot. But not sure that really counts as proper 2D.

[sgm]

The first clock tower (on Super Nintendo), definetely. I wouldn't say it's scary anymore compared to today's games, but very creepy/odd :)

You really have to rely on the atmosphere to make it scary from my own attempts at 2d horror.

[Sybixsus]

The original Gabriel Knight, Sins of the Father. Shadow of the Comet. Prisoner of Ice. These were all supposed to be creepy, scary adventure games. No good asking me if they actually *were* scary because I've never played a game I thought was scary. ( I love all the Resident Evil games, Alone in the Dark too, and Silent Hill 2 is one of my favourite games ever, but I don't consider any of them to be scary. Just good atmosphere. SH2 particularly. )

But those three were all supposed to be scary and I remember GK1 being reviewed in PC Format or some such, and the reviewer claiming it scared him ****less. So maybe it was.

[DangerCode]

The first clock tower (on Super Nintendo), definetely. I wouldn't say it's scary anymore compared to today's games, but very creepy/odd :)

You really have to rely on the atmosphere to make it scary from my own attempts at 2d horror.

I had no idea there was a Clock Tower for the SNES. Thanks, I'll check it out.

[Dyno Kid]

Castlevania, Ghouls N ghosts.

[electronicStar]

The sense of terror comes from helplessness, and in most horror games it's created by carence of inventory and/or lack of territorial landmark(player is lost).
In 2D there's generally no inventory to manage and in most traditionnal 2D arcade games the player is in the contrary overpowered.
If you want to try and make a terror game in 2D , you can try to make a labyrinth area with limited ammo and aliens that randomly spawn from the dark areas, sthg that could in theory produce a sense of panic for players.
Another idea is a countdown timer, with for example a self-destruct mechanism at the end of the time.
Or give the player a couple of sidekicks, and then have them killed in a gory and painful way, and the player unable to do anything.
This type of ideas have not been used very often in 2D games because devellopers traditionnally preferred to give the player an impression of invincibility with huge weapons (ex:castlevania).

I'm thinking that this horror/terror idea would be an excellent theme for one of these game devellopement contests ;)

[RinkuHero]

I was startled in parts during a friend's adventure game (called Missing), though I agree that there's something about 3D that makes scaring the player easier -- perhaps it's the feeling of things coming out at you, lurking behind corners; the spatical depth really matters. Silent Hill wouldn't really have worked as a 2D game.

[Arkadesh]

Hmm... What about Elvira games on Amiga? It was quite successful in mood creation - iirc.

cheers,
Arkadesh

[KNau]

Yeah, in order for horror to work in 2D I'm thinking you almost have to strip back the graphics and interaction and rely more on the user's imagination. That's why the only "creepy" 2D games people seem to really rave about are adventure games.

Speaking of which, "Scratches" is supposed to be a very good, atmospheric horror game.

http://www.scratchesmystery.com/

I haven't played it (I have little patience for those kinds of games) but it's gotten some pretty good reviews.

[Andy]

Well. Basically you see everything at plain screenshot. So this is mostly just the question of implementation - not the technology itself. But Kyle is right amount depends of the player/user imagination - try to look the same horror movie with your friends and seating alone at the midnight dark room...
http://www.wildsnake.com/image/promo/temp/claws1.html ;)

[FatCrank]

"Out of This World" for snes creeped me out. It was a mix of the alien environment and well orchestrated cinematics that got to me.

The game was set in some parallel universe, but I mean "alien" in that the gameplay experience was much different than contemporary snes games - for example, afair there was no music whatsoever, which really built tension somehow. Also, the interaction with the environment wasn't obvious. Something like an adventure game with a time limit on each screen, which upped the pace and left me feeling a bit frantic.

The cutscenes were crafted and placed to give a horror effect that's hard to achieve in 2d. Graphically, a lot was left to the imagination. KNau was right about that. It's more effective to suggest something awful.

I think I eventually got tired of watching my poor avatar die in horrible ways. For what it was trying to do, the game was quite effective though. It's worth checking out...

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/g/super_nintendo/out_of_this_world/overview.php

[soniCron]

It should be noted you can now try and purchase a modern remake of Another World/Out of This World from the official site:

http://www.anotherworld.fr/anotherworld_uk/

Many thanks to our own ManuTOO for assisting in the port! The game looks and feels better than ever! :)

[siread]

Anything with a witch in it will scare the crap outta me. Remember Cauldron (http://www.zzap64.co.uk/cgi-bin/displayreview.pl?reviewid=28)?

[dxgame]

Personally, if I was to do a 2d horror game in today's market, I'd take advantage of today's hardware and create very big player sprites, monsters, etc. A big horizontally scrolling game with atmosphere, lighting, etc. Nice parallax scrolling playfields, clouds, castles, etc. The more you zero in graphically on your main character (the less you see around you) can make the game quite scary imho. ;)