I also do not want the whole game to be creepy or eerie, otherwise it would lose that feel.
Yeah it simply can't be creepy all or most of the time.
I'd like to see towns be more creepy and I think they will. In the previous games, you could always count on feeling safe and secure when in town but it would be nice if some towns you were in only gave you the feeling like you needed to get the hell out of there as soon as possible. No doubt New Tristram will probably have this feel to it. And likely any city in the Dreadlands or Borderlands.
I also think that music should not be running most of the time or not at all or at least just slightly in the background.
Minimal music is definitely preferable at times. One of the most amazing minimalist soundracks I've ever heard to a game was to Thief: Deadly Shadows. Some tracks you're listening closely to see if they're even making sounds. Great stuff.
Great idea Siaynoq. I never thought about that. Town is ALWAYS a place where you can feel safe. Maybe thats one of the reasons that D2 wasn't as scary ya know? Scary stuff wasn't as important because ya you could be caught in a scary place that is truly horrifying but town was always a click away if you needed it so you never really felt and real fear because of that underlying sense of safety at the click of a button.
I think D2 would have been immensely more horrifying if TP's weren't so readily available. this is rather revelatory lol. So, I know it's been talked about but I can't quite remember, how are town portals and such going to work in D3?
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-Winged
Yeah I can't remember precisely what they said about town portals in D3 except they're pretty much doing away with them. They want to make towns less accessible to the point where you can no longer go there at any given time. But you might have to fight your way back to another place where you can then get to the town.
In D1 you could also go back whenever you wanted, but it was a little more annoying to have to do it so much exacerbated by the fact that your mana didn't regenerate. They fixed that little problem in The Hell, however.
I had forgotten about the corpse wagon, I was pleasantly surprised when I first saw that pic.
So in conclusion, if there's too much creepiness people won't be able to play for too long without stopping to give their sanity a rest. If there's not enough then it's going to be less interesting, but not quite as bland as Torchlight. However, if there is plenty of gore and creepiness but it's been placed in the wrong locations or the atmosphere doesn't match what you're seeing, then it's just going to come off as lotsa chopped up bodies over there lol, and the player is less immersed in the game.
Much of these creepy effects like dark rooms and sounds etc. could be made like a setting or something. People always have many different opinions on the matter so why not make it a setting?
In WoW you can toggle various effects and how they are shown. Grass cluttering, spell graphics etc. I don't see why we can't toggle the light effects in the game from very dark to very bright. Some objects in the game gives light, like torches and campfires. This setting would effect these things and how much light they give.
I dunno how the sound could work with a setting besides volume on music/ambience.
Also I'm sure that you can toggle the amount of gore in the game? Or did I read that somewhere else?
That would be cool, but I feel it would work best if the lights changed based on what part of the game you're in. If there's something creepy up ahead they may dim the lights as you get closer. But I'm a fan of options for sure.
For sounds, you could have different categories of ambience. Also unsure about the gore toggle, but I think it's likely that there will be one in game.
Yeah, it's those fragile things, like well used sound effects, that make the experience more visceral. But just having buckets of gore and random torture racks won't make the game cool, exciting, or eerie. It will only make it immature and appeal to immature audiences for the sake of it's baddass aesthetic. Which is stupid.
And, like Hans wrote, throwing this stuff everywhere makes it less special and meaningful.
Well it also depends on where you are. If you're in a torture chamber or a jail (like the Halls of Agony in the Blizzcon 2010 demo) then there should be a lot of gore. But in other situations obviously it has to be more strategically placed.
Gore doesn't always do the trick to emulate a sense of creepiness. There was so much of it in diablo 2 that I simply found it irksome. Corpses left and right, severed bodies on walls or torture devices just made it into a common and uninteresting sight. If it wasn't for the music, this whole set up might even have been plain ridiculous. There were some nice moments all the same especially with the boss levels, like you knew you were nearing an ominous place. That was the case in the catacombs, durance hate levels and the Chaos Sanctuary. I can only imagine how good the catacombs would have been if levels like Jails and mausoleum(Blood raven's place) weren't so similar.
I think the success of the Butcher's lair was a combination of previously-unseen gore in the game and the monster himself.
Like I really like this scene. It doesn't have any 'gore' but the sound effects are pretty sweet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gglIkRXh7Ys&feature=player_embedded
Now imagine if this was built around a nice story with subtle hints that something might be wrong with the guy you are going to meet and you get this. I think it can be pretty cool. It doesn't fit the 'creepy' as well as it provides shocking value but i suppose moments like this scattered throughout a game can create a more tense atmosphere on the whole.
And also yes, music, music and music. I think that's where the real secret lies. The visuals are something D3 can pride itself on I believe, so merge this with the right music, ditch the cheap gore and torture for more meaningful story-driven quests and you get yourself the formula for creepiness.
I agree with your overall point that gore can be overdone, but part of the point of the Diablo universe is that the demons are fucking brutal. They tear people limb from limb and are just relentless, and its hard to portray that without a large amount of gore. I'm not saying that there should be large amounts of bodies in every single room you go into, but there still does have to be a lot of blood and dismembered bodies in order to give you the sense that you're up against a merciless, mindless enemy.
I understand what you are saying. However choosing when and how to portray the gore might be an excellent way to spice up this game. I mean as far as my game experience goes, gratuitous gore just desensitizes me to the desired effect I am sure the creators put them there for.
I think Siay mentioned something to that effect where subtlety that leaves room for your imagination can be more effective that in-your face gore. Like a room with blood splattered on a wall with a note left by someone who was there might be more scary than a dismembered corpse in the place.
Yea, when and where there's excessive amounts of gore is definitely important, and I think Blizzard realizes that. Just look at the Blizzcon 2010 demo. In the torture chamber, there were barrels that explode with blood, people on torture racks and those huge spike things that fall into pools of blood, but the green/blue jail section had much less bodies, but more creepy stuff like King Leoric as a ghost executing someone (I think his wife or something like that). Obviously those are just two sections and we can't really know what the overall game will feel like when it comes to gore, but its at least a good indication that it will be well placed.
@Nekrodak: Exactly! The butcher's room works so well because the other rooms are mostly devoid of gore, or pretty tame. But then you hit the butcher's room and it really shocks you.
Well towards the beginning of the game things are well lighted, open and somewhat happy, but as the game progresses and the demon infestation continues we can assume that there will be some creepy scenes
I agree with the post above that instead of having a dismembered body in a room, have blood on the ground (maybe even dried blood that has stained the ground from past gruesome events)with a note to inspire the imagination of the creepiness and horror that took place. Honestly, the creepiest part of Diablo I was the very beginning when the fatally wounded man lay by the cathedral grasping for his last breath. This definitely aroused my imagination to wonder what what beneath that dark cathedral.
@Clinx: One of my favourite npcs Still remember most of his speech.
@Luuppi: True, I miss the light radius (or lack of) in the dungeons but then you wouldn't be able to see all of the scenery the artists made.
@bleakparta: I read your name as bleak panda... I think if it was designed well enough with many random elements, it would still freak you out occasionally. I don't think I could keep my guard up for long being preoccupied with all the monsters, skills, and loot.
Of course it will still be a great ARPG if it isn't creepy.
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I'd like to see towns be more creepy and I think they will. In the previous games, you could always count on feeling safe and secure when in town but it would be nice if some towns you were in only gave you the feeling like you needed to get the hell out of there as soon as possible. No doubt New Tristram will probably have this feel to it. And likely any city in the Dreadlands or Borderlands.
Minimal music is definitely preferable at times. One of the most amazing minimalist soundracks I've ever heard to a game was to Thief: Deadly Shadows. Some tracks you're listening closely to see if they're even making sounds. Great stuff.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
I think D2 would have been immensely more horrifying if TP's weren't so readily available. this is rather revelatory lol. So, I know it's been talked about but I can't quite remember, how are town portals and such going to work in D3?
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
In D1 you could also go back whenever you wanted, but it was a little more annoying to have to do it so much exacerbated by the fact that your mana didn't regenerate. They fixed that little problem in The Hell, however.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
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So in conclusion, if there's too much creepiness people won't be able to play for too long without stopping to give their sanity a rest. If there's not enough then it's going to be less interesting, but not quite as bland as Torchlight. However, if there is plenty of gore and creepiness but it's been placed in the wrong locations or the atmosphere doesn't match what you're seeing, then it's just going to come off as lotsa chopped up bodies over there lol, and the player is less immersed in the game.
That would be cool, but I feel it would work best if the lights changed based on what part of the game you're in. If there's something creepy up ahead they may dim the lights as you get closer. But I'm a fan of options for sure.
For sounds, you could have different categories of ambience. Also unsure about the gore toggle, but I think it's likely that there will be one in game.
And, like Hans wrote, throwing this stuff everywhere makes it less special and meaningful.
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I think the success of the Butcher's lair was a combination of previously-unseen gore in the game and the monster himself.
Like I really like this scene. It doesn't have any 'gore' but the sound effects are pretty sweet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gglIkRXh7Ys&feature=player_embedded
Now imagine if this was built around a nice story with subtle hints that something might be wrong with the guy you are going to meet and you get this. I think it can be pretty cool. It doesn't fit the 'creepy' as well as it provides shocking value but i suppose moments like this scattered throughout a game can create a more tense atmosphere on the whole.
And also yes, music, music and music. I think that's where the real secret lies. The visuals are something D3 can pride itself on I believe, so merge this with the right music, ditch the cheap gore and torture for more meaningful story-driven quests and you get yourself the formula for creepiness.
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I think Siay mentioned something to that effect where subtlety that leaves room for your imagination can be more effective that in-your face gore. Like a room with blood splattered on a wall with a note left by someone who was there might be more scary than a dismembered corpse in the place.
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@Luuppi: True, I miss the light radius (or lack of) in the dungeons but then you wouldn't be able to see all of the scenery the artists made.
@bleakparta: I read your name as bleak panda... I think if it was designed well enough with many random elements, it would still freak you out occasionally. I don't think I could keep my guard up for long being preoccupied with all the monsters, skills, and loot.
Of course it will still be a great ARPG if it isn't creepy.