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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   1709 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 2, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Exactly; horror's root is about feeling powerless. The games that do it best are those "sneak around the unstoppable force" style "first person hiders": your Amnesias, Outlasts, SOMAs... Alien Isolation is just, IMO, the pinnacle of execution of that genre. Alan Wake is pretty standard survival horror, in the vein of the Resident Evil: the extent to which you feel powerless is directly related to how dwindling your ressources are and how uncertain your distance to some relief is (in Alan Wake, chapter ends, in Resident Evil, save rooms or more ressources). I thought Alan Wake was a bit too easy on that front.

I can't argue with "a bit too easy"; I think I just don't enjoy horror enough to push through it unless it's a little genre-mixed and a little too easy. I got through SOMA only because I really enjoyed the story, and in addition to quitting Alien Isolation I also gave up (even earlier!) on one of the Amnesia games. The Amnesia game (I forget which) hadn't yet done anything to hook me, but in the case of Alien Isolation it really was a good game, I just sucked too much to finish it.

One game that wouldn't be classified as "horror" but might be worth including is Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor. The entire game (at least early) is pretty close to being overall powerless, trapped with a metaphorical noose slowly and inexorably being tightened. It does a great job of instilling a claustrophobic effect.

Of course, this being MegaTen, you can eventually solve it by punching God, but still.

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