I think that Bungie simply has to make enemies large enough so that you simply cannot beat them without a squad, and they have to make them appear unpredictably. Imagine a Halo in which suddenly Grunts and Buggers had swords and they moved twice as fast.
This can be made the case. I can recall, for example, playing Elder Scrolls Oblivion. I knew that sooner or later, to progress in the game I would have to travel through an Oblivion Gate, and I hated them. They were very creepy, and bloody and nasty. And I hoped I could win, but I also hoped I wouldn't have to go through a Gate. I think that if you want to evoke fear in games, you really have to go there - there meaning a bit more gruesome scenery - injecting elements of dramatic horror into the action.
I expect that there will be a lot of that in the ghost ship in Saturn's orbit. I can envision a maze of dark, close quarters , Doom-like combat borrowing elements from Dead Space or Gears. Yeah I know Bungie can create fear - be careful what you wish for. Think about the parts of Halo3 when we re-encountered the Gravemind inside of the downed Covenant ship. That whole blood-pulsating interior.. It was Prey lite, but it still echoed that really creepy stuff.
What I would really like to see Bungie do to induce fear is to have some enemies or environments that can affect your Guardian's mind - rather like being drunk in GTA4. Imagine that you're forced to have blurred vision or a lack of hand-eye coordination for a period, like inverting your thumbstick. Whoa! That would be fu-reaky!
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Have you played Alan Wake? Bungie still have to cater for the singleton but the game also seems to be geared towards group/co-op play. I'm really looking forward to seeing how they manage the drop in team play.
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I did play Alan Wake, and I really understand Bungie's pillar to have a hopeful world. The more I think about it, the more I think they should stand by their guns even if it means we play with little or no fear. Because in the end, I really stopped liking Alan Wake. I got depressed playing at night all the time. I want to see a wide open world, and I had no control over that in certain situations. I got stuck at some gas station at night and had to work some electrical power pole puzzle as well as fight baddies. And even though Alan Wake was graphically superior and more sophisticated, I enjoyed doing those same kind of puzzles much more in the broad daylight of Dead Island. I'm a special kind of gamer though, which is to say I read a lot of literature - so the dramatic parts of videogames are not generally compelling to me. I notice bad vs good (and I would say that GTA4 is one of the best ever, in that it makes playing a loser crook appealing) but it rarely makes the critical difference for me. I appreciate a good story but that will never blow me away as much as good gameplay.
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Yes, I have always enjoyed Bungies take on gameplay, it might not be as realistic as some games but it is way more fun and satisfying. The 30 second fun rule, erm, rules :)