this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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I'd argue that the success of Signals shows that top-down is probably the way to go for the genre even if you're trying to channel the OG survival horrors.
They're clunky and counterintuitive and when you're playing a horror game you don't want the most dangerous enemy to be the camera or controls.
I disagree, the horror in a horror game is a function of every system together, and depriving the player of intuitive controls and information through inconvenient camera or inefficient controls is not just valid but extremely effective.
Giving the player perfect controls and agency over their information can very easily lead to them outpacing the horror of the game simply by being able to perfectly handle the enemies, who no matter how freaky they look or scary they sound, will be less scary if they objectively are less of a threat.
Theres also the point of immersion into an actual role, if you have controls that let you do just about anything, your character kind of has to be able to also do just about anything in the world or just stop being a particularly coherent character, this kind of thing was commented on all the way back in Half Life with Gordon Freeman, academia dork, being able to inexplicably outfight anyone and anything thrown at him.
Silent Hill 2 remake is gonna have James Sunderland in the cutscenes and then in gameplay he's gonna turn into Jim "Silent" Hill, action man.
A static fixed top-down angle is really constricting though and doesn't give the devs much room to play with.
Someone else pointed out Eternal Darkness which had cinematic camera angles and no tank controls and it's considered a classic
Fixed + tank controls is for 2D mech games
I actually conflate static fixed camera angles from games with 2D backgrounds and semi-fixed, cinematic camera angles from fully 3D games. How would you classify the camera in something like Silent Hill 3?
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: