Canyarions idea thread: How to make Eternal Darkness scarier

[Canyarion]

Ok so I'm playing Eternal Darkness at the moment. The game is pretty good, but sometimes I think it could have been so much scarier. And I'm not talking about more or scarier insanity effects....
OK here I go! Post your ideas too and eh let's try to mail it to Dennis! :p

Insanity:
- Don't show how much sanity you have left. In Sanity's Requim, when you see something weird, you take a look at your sanity bar and you KNOW it's just an effect. It would be much darker if you wouldn't know if it was real or just insanity.
- Get rid of the 'recover sanity' spell. It kills the game when you can just wait in a safe room until you can recover it.
- Don't make any 'funny' effects anymore. Seeing your character shrink isn't scary, it's funny. Same with walking upside down. We can use the effects where your character accidentily kills himself though... :D

Gameplay:
- Place the camera a bit closer to the character (and the monsters). Because of all the big rooms and camera positioning, you get a certain distance with the gameplay.
- Bring more balance between guns and swords. Guns are too annoying to use, swords and stuff are way more practical. Make guns a bit stronger perhaps...?
- We need some scarier monsters.

Graphics:
- Looks too much like 'Playstation graphics'.
- Perhaps more scarier places like graveyards with bodies lying around? Or is that over the top? It sure is scary...

Sound:
- Play more with sounds. Drive the player mad. We need more 'door-knocks'. Example: put in a girl that you have to save, and let her help cries come from places where she cannot be. Spooky!



I'll probably come up with some more ideas, especially with your help!

[Dark Samurai]

Man i remember when i had this game and i think these suggestions are good.

and i remember when i was playing it, i tryed to save it and my sanity meter was at full and when i did it said "Saved Game Deleting"

And i almost kicked my litlle bro in the face and i freaked the fudge out

Damn but that was a good game

Memories really are forever.

[Hero2]

i saw jonbo play the game and he locked the insanity meter to full it was sooooooooo cool i almost went out and bought the game

*off subject* Dark-Samurai nice avatar is it from that messed up cartoon with the giant iron

[Dark Samurai]

*off subject* Dark-Samurai nice avatar is it from that messed up cartoon with the giant iron

yea its from Fooly Cooly

its a badass show but kinda confusing

[Jason1]

I agree with most, but not all, of the Ideas you suggested. First off, I liked the funny effects. Sure they werent scary, but they werent suppoused to be scary...

Second, I have no Idea what your talking about with "playstation" graphics. Go play a survival horror game on the PSX then play ED. The graphics, IMO, were great in ED.

They need to make some of the insanity effects more prominent...I found myself getting the same damn effect multiple times, while Ive heard about other that I never got even after playing through the game several times. Here's one I got that I dont think hardly anybody else got: Im not sure what part of the game it happens at, but it was in that room with the piano. You walk in, and hear a creaking sound. You look up and there's a dead guy hanging from a rope right above the piano. Screen flashes, dead guy is gone. It was, I thought, the best insanity effect in the game.

[bobcat]

I loved ED. One of my all time favourite games.

I saw the volume go down and I look @ my bro and we both look at the remote and it's like on top of the tv. Freaky

[GiMpY-wAnNaBe]

I loved ED. One of my all time favourite games.

I saw the volume go down and I look @ my bro and we both look at the remote and it's like on top of the tv. Freaky
...the TV volume?? as in the little bar/bars were moving up and down?

freaky....

[bobcat]

...the TV volume?? as in the little bar/bars were moving up and down?

freaky....
Well it doesn't really control your tv volume, but it says "volume"
and the meter goes down and gets lower and lower.

Freaked me out big time

[Dyne]

I agree with most, but not all, of the Ideas you suggested. First off, I liked the funny effects. Sure they werent scary, but they werent suppoused to be scary...

Second, I have no Idea what your talking about with "playstation" graphics. Go play a survival horror game on the PSX then play ED. The graphics, IMO, were great in ED.

They need to make some of the insanity effects more prominent...I found myself getting the same damn effect multiple times, while Ive heard about other that I never got even after playing through the game several times. Here's one I got that I dont think hardly anybody else got: Im not sure what part of the game it happens at, but it was in that room with the piano. You walk in, and hear a creaking sound. You look up and there's a dead guy hanging from a rope right above the piano. Screen flashes, dead guy is gone. It was, I thought, the best insanity effect in the game.

Yeah, I saw that on my second time through.

I still can't see why people think it's uninspired or boring. I thought it was a blast to play. The insanity effects were the best part.

[Ginkasa]

I get the guy hanging above the piano everytime I play... Hmm... I thought it was a necessart insanity effect.. :unsure:



*shrugs and walks away*

[Mushlafa]

Well it doesn't really control your tv volume, but it says "volume"
and the meter goes down and gets lower and lower.

Freaked me out big time

Ya that was the only good sanity effect we got polayin through the game... for like a day... 3 of us sitting in a room.. and were fighting then all of a sudden bars on the tv come up with volume being turned down and we all looked at ech other for like 3 seconds and saw the remote on the ground and were like.. oooh.. that was a pretty good effect..

[Canyarion]

Yeah, too bad that the volume control of our TV doesn't work like that at all. So we didn't recognize it and immediately knew it was an effect.

Of course those 'funny' effects are nice, but they're not making the game 'scarier' and that's what my thread was meant to be about... :p

Of course we're thinking about the future of ED, so any ideas are welcome.


I was thinking that perhaps the caracters should be closer to eachother... With some people you're like "who was this guy anyway??"
For the sequel they could come up with a story that the several characters come together and then cooperate... But that sounds a bit too much like Resident Evil 0.

Oh yeah, to make guns more useful, you have to create enemies that have a ranged attack. :)

The scariest moments so far were: the guy hanging in the kitchen (especially when you're playing with the piano first and discover it after you've been in the room a while :D) and Alexa in the bathtub with blood.
Those effects look a bit like Silent Hill ones, but they're damn scary. :p

[CrOnO_LiNk]

ED was awesome, but to make the game scarier, I think they should have added more girl-covered-in-blood-screaming-in-shower-scenes.... That scared the **** out of me.

And I think RE beats ED in terms of scariness, but overall, I liked ED more.

[Dark Samurai]

ED was awesome, but to make the game scarier, I think they should have added more girl-covered-in-blood-screaming-in-shower-scenes.... That scared the **** out of me.

And I think RE beats ED in terms of scariness, but overall, I liked ED more.



yea i remember that!

that fudgin' freaked me out and my little bro missed twice

did anyone get the one when the bleeding walls and the dripping blood???

[Blackmane]

Yea, I got blood dripping out of the walls, but it was in places where it was like, ok, why is there blood. I think it would have been cool if there were places, like the walls next to a door where you thought something weird was going on, were dripping blood, and then you open the door and see a lot of dead bodies, and then it flashes and your back.

Also, the first time I saw the dead bathtub girl, it freaked the s*** outta me. The camera zooming in skipping like that was really good and I didn't expect it at all.

[bobcat]

Yea, I got blood dripping out of the walls, but it was in places where it was like, ok, why is there blood. I think it would have been cool if there were places, like the walls next to a door where you thought something weird was going on, were dripping blood, and then you open the door and see a lot of dead bodies, and then it flashes and your back.

Also, the first time I saw the dead bathtub girl, it freaked the s*** outta me. The camera zooming in skipping like that was really good and I didn't expect it at all.

Yeh the dead bathdub girl nearly gave me a heart attack. Far I jumped.

[GameMaster]

I think there should be times where the power goes out and your only source of light is the moonlight through the windows. So you're walking along through a dark hallway and then a ray of moonlight through the window reveals half of a zombie's face a couple feet ahead of you, and then it hides in the darkness and starts moaning.

[Canyarion]

Damn I just beated the guardian in chapter 9 with Jacob. Stupid beast, way too hard to figure out what to do. In the end I asked my brother how to kill it, he got it from Gamefaqs...

What if you entered a room and suddenly there were lots of people talking like there's a party going on... but as soon as you try to talk to them they disapear. :D

[Canyarion]

*2 months later*

One last point I'd like to make is this:
In this game, you are rewarded for playing poorly. The better you play, the less insanity effects you see.
That's a big problem if you'd ask me.

I'm ready to send the thread to Denis very soon, if you want to add something, do it fast. :)
BTW Crash didn't you have the e-mail adress of Denis?? :D

[thatmariolover]

I think that the game just wasn't dark enough. For being named Eternal Darkness, the game was excessively bright and colorful. Everywhere. Red and black should usually be the primary colors in a scary game. And the palest skin you can make. Skin that shines in the moonlight.

Eternal Darkness ruled. But it definately felt like they were going for story telling and not so much scare factor. I want twisted, sick, and wrong while still providing the deep story that ED had (I want it all, baby). Silent Hill games are very good at shoving the terrifyingly impossible right in your face, but not as good at story telling (IMO). Animation is key with enemies, as well. The way they move (Nurses in SH3) definately provides a freak factor.

I don't know. ED was definately awesome. It also could have been much better. I really don't think Denis intends to create another Eternal Darkness game, though. He's finishing up with Twin Snakes. He says that if he and Konami do another game, it will likely be original (I think that's what he said, right?), and he's got Too Human to think about.