I feel like if the Flood come back, 343 should scrap a lot of the older elements and go for a new feel for them.
Call it a new strain, whatever. Make thing stuff legitimately scary though. Creatures who can climb along the walls and ceiling and pounce upon you, knocking your aim to the side when they come down upon you. Regenerators whose limbs can be severed with bullets but regenerate unless their torso is completely destroy, who can grab you at close range immobilizing you and damaging you with a very in your face animation (they can impale you through the chest if your shields are down too). Giant Gargantuans who have armored skin, can crush you with their arms and legs, and who can stomp the ground throwing you off balance, possibly knocking you back or damaging you, and shaking your camera and causing some motion blur. Basically, the monsters generally speaking need to be something to be feared. There can be some minion monsters, but the meat of these guys should be deadly creatures who can truly strike fear into the heart of a Spartan.
Eliminate the camp. These need to be brutal and agonizing deaths for Master Chief and his Infinity friends, and the player needs to be scared of the monsters both in terms of how dangerous they can be and how horrifying the player character’s death is. It doesn’t need to be Dead Space levels but it is hard to be immersed if you’re supposed to be scared but you’re just kind of chuckling your way through.
Just don’t do the typical horror video game scenario by adding a ton of blood and gore. It isn’t scary at all.
Honestly if they just make the Flood as tough as they were in H1 and chuck in some of that terrifying droning soundtrack I think we would have a winner. Impervious to headshots, almost completely resistant to melees, bullet sponges against ARs… yeah those were the tough ones. First time I met the Flood on Guilty Spark was terrifying, not only were they unexpected and scarey looking but they were seemingly endless and that AR was utterly useless. Reaching that shotgun later in the level was one of the biggest moments of relief in Halo.
They were drastically weakend in H2 and H3 and from H2 onwards they were never scarey again, just annoying.
> Honestly if they just make the Flood as tough as they were in H1 and chuck in some of that terrifying droning soundtrack I think we would have a winner. Impervious to headshots, almost completely resistant to melees, bullet sponges against ARs… yeah those were the tough ones. First time I met the Flood on Guilty Spark was terrifying, not only were they unexpected and scarey looking but they were seemingly endless and that AR was utterly useless. Reaching that shotgun later in the level was one of the biggest moments of relief in Halo.
>
> They were drastically weakend in H2 and H3 and from H2 onwards they were never scarey again, just annoying.
Playing through Halo CE Anniversary made me remember just how scary fighting The Flood used to be before Halo 2 and 3.
Yeah, make them scary in halo 5.
> Just don’t do the typical horror video game scenario by adding a ton of blood and gore. It isn’t scary at all.
I think by definition you’re going to need a certain degree of gore. It doesn’t need to be overkill, but I definitely think some violent kill animations would go a long way.
Basically, I’d like 343 to really look at what monsters in the past have been scary, and try to take those traits on. Some great examples would be the Cyberdemon, the Gargantuan from Half-life, Regenerators from Resident Evil 4, poison headcrabs in Half-life 2, Mass Effect 3’s Banshee. Left 4 Dead Witch and Tank I think are scary but I haven’t really played the game. I don’t really play very many horror games, but I feel like those are good examples from shooters that cross into horror turf well.
I think the secret to making them scary is to make them tough. Tough enough that you fear getting up close to them even with a shotgun, fear hearing the noise of the carrier forms and fear running out of ammo.
Ok is it just me and a few ither people who though the Flood were the scariest in Halo CE? They were even worse in CEA. And CEA has been the hardest Halo I have yet to complete. They throw a lot of flood at you though, thats why I die most of the time.
I respectively disagree. For starters the flood wont be in 4 (just incase you didnt know that.) But if they return for 5 or 6 i dont want to see them as massive monsters likehow the necromorphs slowly became in dead space. What made the flood scary was that they were violent, agile, incredibly durable, and they showed remnance of their former selves. Almost like fighting possessed groups of humans/aliens. i firat felt hesitant of fighting flood because they still looked human. Its the terror that they can do this to us that made them freaky for me
They should be like the Necromorphs in Dead Space. I’d love to see them crawl up the walls as stuff just to try and get to you.
Maybe they could just make an all flood halo spin-offf. Like the invasion of high charity or something. And in it they could show off some new flood forms or something, as well as making them seem truly terrifying in the process.
I think personally the answer to scarier flood isn’t loads of red gore, but difficulty, say Halo: CE flood, and newer, freakier forms and looks.
Think when you blow a limb off, green ooz spills out, and the flood forms turns to look at you angrily.
Think flood with multiple legs that crawl on walls, but are humanoid.
Think LOTS of tentacles.
Like this
http://media.photobucket.com/image/Resident%20evil%20monster/MYTH1986EVIL/ResidentEvilBossMonsterLisaTrevorNe.jpg
or this
http://dl4.glitter-graphics.net/pub/906/906974wxe2ymz3zg.gif
For me, The Flood and their scary factor contributes to their difficulty. I thought in Halo CE(CEA) they were the most difficult. Then in Halo 2 and 3 they were much easier mostly because melees actually hurt them(and killed them most of the time) I always scared of them in Halo CE because they were so hard to kill. Also in CE you usually have no allies when fighting the flood unless they’re just sentinels who aren’t even human. In Halo 2 and 3 however you had more human and elite allies so you felt less alone especially in Halo 3 with the Arbiter. So in my opinion for the flood to be scary again in Halo 5, they need to be a lot more difficult in combat with less allies. Again just my opinion =).
I think if you just bring back the flood from Halo: CE or CEA that would do it for me.
> I think the secret to making them scary is to make them tough. Tough enough that you fear getting up close to them even with a shotgun, fear hearing the noise of the carrier forms and fear running out of ammo.
Just making them tough makes them annoying. They have to be durable, but part of horror is having ups and downs. Moments of calm before the game tries to get you. Just constantly back pedaling from monsters isn’t horror.
Paranoia is a key element. Desperation is another. The noises of the monsters needs to be distinctly recognizable and make you fearful of going forward.
Imagine this - you drop down into a hole, it is very dark and basically only your headlight and a couple flares are lighting up the area. You hear some little guys skittering around, you’re looking around for them on the halls and ceiling. Then suddenly you hear huge stomping, and then this. You turn your flashlight forward and a giant monster is lumbering towards you, with little flood spores rushing at you from along his feet.
Get rid of the camp. The spores don’t need to explode like balloons or float through the air. They should probably move more like headcrabs, and instead of just exploding on you, they lingering on you for a few moments damaging your shield (which would keep it from regenerating). It would also block some of your field of vision, making it even more desperate.
First person is the best perspective for horror, and yet Bungie never really made good use of the perspective. Perhaps 343 can.
> Just don’t do the typical horror video game scenario by adding a ton of blood and gore. It isn’t scary at all.
I thought in CE and Halo 3, it was pretty scary. It kept a constant sense of mystery tension going on within you.
If they could improve upon that, it’d be amazing.
> > I think the secret to making them scary is to make them tough. Tough enough that you fear getting up close to them even with a shotgun, fear hearing the noise of the carrier forms and fear running out of ammo.
>
> Just making them tough makes them annoying. They have to be durable, but part of horror is having ups and downs. Moments of calm before the game tries to get you. Just constantly back pedaling from monsters isn’t horror.
>
> Paranoia is a key element. Desperation is another. The noises of the monsters needs to be distinctly recognizable and make you fearful of going forward.
>
> <mark>Imagine this - you drop down into a hole, it is very dark and basically only your headlight and a couple flares are lighting up the area. You hear some little guys skittering around, you’re looking around for them on the halls and ceiling. Then suddenly you hear huge stomping, and then this. You turn your flashlight forward and a giant monster is lumbering towards you, with little flood spores rushing at you from along his feet.</mark>
>
> Get rid of the camp. The spores don’t need to explode like balloons or float through the air. They should probably move more like headcrabs, and instead of just exploding on you, they lingering on you for a few moments damaging your shield (which would keep it from regenerating). It would also block some of your field of vision, making it even more desperate.
>
> First person is the best perspective for horror, and yet Bungie never really made good use of the perspective. Perhaps 343 can.
I think that’d be amazing. But you’d also hear similar sounds when enemies are near, and maybe in some situations, marines screaming for help but then that sound comes and the screaming stops.
It’d create a spooky and sub-scary atmosphere.
> But you’d also hear similar sounds when enemies are near, and maybe in some situations, marines screaming for help but then that sound comes and the screaming stops.
Oh yeah, for sure. Marines are great for setting up suspense. Just make it sound real. I wasn’t a big fan of some of the campy marine screams in Halo CE. I was honestly expecting to hear the wilhelm scream at one point.
Fear of blindness is one of the top fears. I think that messing around with the player’s vision is important.
Darkness doesn’t make sense 24/7 so if the monsters still want to be able to outmanuever the player, there needs to be more stuff. Like I already suggested, you can have monster’s grab the players camera if they get close up, knock their vision aside, have motion blur, or block parts of the screen. You know in Jurassic Park that spitting dinosaurs? Have something like that. It spits at you with acid, which gets on your screen blocking parts of the screen and doing damage. I also think damage over time or having effects that temporarily reduce your maximum shield are important. Instant kills are acceptable in some circumstances, but you can’t rely on that for every single monster, and since melee monsters don’t close the gap often enough, they have to have some other stuff that leaves you feeling the hurt.
> I feel like if the Flood come back, 343 should scrap a lot of the older elements and go for a new feel for them.
>
> Call it a new strain, whatever. Make thing stuff legitimately scary though. Creatures who can climb along the walls and ceiling and pounce upon you, knocking your aim to the side when they come down upon you. Regenerators whose limbs can be severed with bullets but regenerate unless their torso is completely destroy, who can grab you at close range immobilizing you and damaging you with a very in your face animation (they can impale you through the chest if your shields are down too). Giant Gargantuans who have armored skin, can crush you with their arms and legs, and who can stomp the ground throwing you off balance, possibly knocking you back or damaging you, and shaking your camera and causing some motion blur. Basically, the monsters generally speaking need to be something to be feared. There can be some minion monsters, but the meat of these guys should be deadly creatures who can truly strike fear into the heart of a Spartan.
>
> Eliminate the camp. These need to be brutal and agonizing deaths for Master Chief and his Infinity friends, and the player needs to be scared of the monsters both in terms of how dangerous they can be and how horrifying the player character’s death is. It doesn’t need to be Dead Space levels but it is hard to be immersed if you’re supposed to be scared but you’re just kind of chuckling your way through.
That just sounds like Dead Space.
