How dark of a game would you enjoy playing?

[onmyown23]

I've started the beginning of a revenge-esque game and I want to try and do something that hasn't been done before... But it's all been done before. So I thought, maybe going places where no one else has gone may work.

So opinions: On a scale from 1 to 10 where:

1 - I Spit On Your Grave
5 - A Serbian Film
10 - ???

What would you enjoy playing?

 

[Lerd0]

..vantablack....
...so a 10 i guess....

 

[baneini]

Games constantly forcing you to disassociate aren't that fun, you start finding the absurd scenarios silly. It's more enjoyable if you have darker decisions you can make in an otherwise enjoyable game where you can take things at face value. Like you have optional abortion scene in Vitamin quest.

 

[Uthuriel]

leave your basement nerd...

 

[Lerd0]

leave your basement nerd...

 

[onmyown23]

Well, it was worth a shot - appreciate the one valid reply.

 

[nulnil]

Take some inspiration from toby fox. The evil actions are much darker when you can choose to not do them, or even do good actions.

 

[JoGio]

I don't understand the choices here so I'm just gonna respond to the title: I enjoy very dark games as long as there are choices to be made. The choices can be between being good or bad, or even different kinds of bad. As long as there are choices I'm pretty much down for anything.

 

[Hallowicked]

A good Example for a Game like this would be Raptus.You can choose to strangle/murder but you dont have to so this would be the best option when it comes to decesions.

I personally like Games darker than the Basement where they are stand in the pillory

12/10

 

[Sphere42]

Define "dark". True to its name I would consider the original Dark Souls incredibly dark and depressing. The player is limited in the "evil" they can commit and all things considered the graphic horror is pretty tame, but what really stands out is that the "good" options still tend to be "sad". Even the "good" ending is just buying a bit more time for a doomed world with no hope of real salvation.

Contrast that with something like Slave Maker 3 where you are undoubtedly evil as your job is to train slaves. Except the entire thing is so game-ified you can't even forcefully rape your own slaves, you need to raise their "obedience" first and get them to agree to sex acts.

So which of the two is darker? Is gruesome body horror as seen in Resident Evil or guro games necessary for a high rating? Is an immersive story necessary or would something like a highly realistic VR strangulation simulator count too?

Because to me personally these are all different and rating them on a single "dark" scale makes no sense.

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

Go play Desert Stalker, the unfiltered edition.
Or Lewd Town Adventures dark route.
If you can beat them at their own game i will be impressed.

 

[Deleted member 5410619]

I am fond of corruption, mind control, enslavement, etc.

Pain for the sake of pain or suffering for the sake for suffering bores me.

For me at least the dark parts are to ensure my control over the victim.

Now if you want to go place nobody has gone before amputation porn and snuff porn dont seem to be on f95zone.
I think they might be banned.
I dont know.

I find the best games follow a simple set of rules:
1: Be consistant*.
2: Player control**.
3: Focus on a few niches***


*Nothing break the story faster then something happening for the sake of the plot.
Even star trek atleast excueesed there plot device with technobabble.
It is important that if something is impossible in one scene it wont suddenly be possible in the next because it is convient for the story.
Likewise i hate it when games make bosses immune to 90% of my spells.
Like why even give me the option to reduce strenght to 1 if the only people worth using it on are immune anyway.

**One of the things lab rats 2 does really well is have the charaters react differently based on there stat.
From rebelious to obediance.
Same with free city.
Likewise superpowered has stats that will unlock different scene's.
In all cases i the player feel in control.
There are way too many games going: You need to wear a blue dress, say she is lovely and have a 1000 gold ring you can only get by blowing this black dude.
I am playing a game not watching a movie.
Let me play.

***Games that focus on a few things tent to be higher quality as the content isnt spread thin.
So many mind control games that have 1 mind control scene in them.
I feel lied too.

 

[nulnil]

Take some inspiration from toby fox. The evil actions are much darker when you can choose to not do them, or even do good actions.

I'll better elaborate on this. Games where either the bad things were out of your control or already happened before the game, doesn't put any weight on the player. They're still a beacon of hope (usually) in a dark world. But what about the opposite? What if the player is instead the villian in the story instead of the hero, the shadow of darkness in a bright world.

The next (really) important bit is that the player should also have a choice in this. If they can't decide what their character does story-wise, they will disassociate with the player character. If they choose to be be evil, to slaughter strangers who would be their friends in another timeline, that is putting weight on the player.

 

[anne O'nymous]

What do you mean by "dark" ? There's so much that can hide behind this sole word.

Is it "gore dark" like in Desert Stalker, or "mad max dark" like in Hot Sand of Antarctica ? Note that both darkness are present in those games, but each one have more of the darkness I linked to it, than the other. Or perhaps is it "thriller dark" like in Hillside ? There's other possibilities, but no names cross my mind to illustrate them ; "sadness dark" by example, like in Dickens books.
And of course, what is or not dark also partly depend on the player. Being a widow, there's two/three games that feel dark for me, because they focus too much on this part of the story, while depicting it way to accurately.

This being said, personally I tend to avoid the game when the story is too unfair for the main characters (not specifically just the MC, but also the characters that are the center of the story). Seeing someone's life goes from Charybdis to Scylla would goes against the entertainment I search while playing. If it was what I wanted to do, I would just have to look at the mess the world is actually in.
But the real problem I have with "dark" stories is that, too often, this darkness is nothing more than a cover-up for a poor story plot. It's not really a dark game, but look at WVM by example ; at least before rewrite, we will see what it became. Each in-game day have it's terrible fate, that will be resolved at the end of the day ; generally by a "Deus Ex Machina"-like move. But if you remove this, the game would be nothing more than the boring story of the nicest and more charismatic guy in the world. The MC would fuck anyone who ask him with puppy eyes, by fear to break her heart if he don't ; and like all girls look at him with puppy eyes... Or, on an effective dark side, The Guardian (now hit by the rule 7), that wouldn't even have a story without all the fucked up things that pill up update after update.

 

[zuulan]

It dosent matter what themed are games, but matter that player can write his/her story. That decisions matter and have impact. Best games dont have storys, they have lore and plot points where player can choose if they wish to interact with them or not.

Right now, one of game update come out lately i have played. And im realy dissepointed on that. I discovered, that my actions brought me moment that i got violenly beaten. So i started new game and made different decisions so i could not get beaten, but i still get beaten, this time they game me another reason for that and there were no way to avoid that. So idea was player has no choice couse plot demands that he is in that moment so plot can go on. Thouse are not atributes that define game, thouse are just attributes that define the interactive visual novel.

Before someone brought good example of game. Like Lab Rats 2, Free Citys, and Superpowered on that list i would add also Masters of Raana. Game where is lore and background information, but you make your decisions. Better yet would be where player leads it game but same time things happen in world that player have no initiation but can choose to interact or ignore and avoid.

 

[rk-47]

MC dies at the end after fucking the tribe girl (totally not a far cry 3 reference)

 

[Jaike]

What do you mean by "dark" ? There's so much that can hide behind this sole word.

Is it "gore dark" like in Desert Stalker, or "mad max dark" like in Hot Sand of Antarctica ? Note that both darkness are present in those games, but each one have more of the darkness I linked to it, than the other. Or perhaps is it "thriller dark" like in Hillside ? There's other possibilities, but no names cross my mind to illustrate them ; "sadness dark" by example, like in Dickens books.
And of course, what is or not dark also partly depend on the player. Being a widow, there's two/three games that feel dark for me, because they focus too much on this part of the story, while depicting it way to accurately.

This being said, personally I tend to avoid the game when the story is too unfair for the main characters (not specifically just the MC, but also the characters that are the center of the story). Seeing someone's life goes from Charybdis to Scylla would goes against the entertainment I search while playing. If it was what I wanted to do, I would just have to look at the mess the world is actually in.
But the real problem I have with "dark" stories is that, too often, this darkness is nothing more than a cover-up for a poor story plot. It's not really a dark game, but look at WVM by example ; at least before rewrite, we will see what it became. Each in-game day have it's terrible fate, that will be resolved at the end of the day ; generally by a "Deus Ex Machina"-like move. But if you remove this, the game would be nothing more than the boring story of the nicest and more charismatic guy in the world. The MC would fuck anyone who ask him with puppy eyes, by fear to break her heart if he don't ; and like all girls look at him with puppy eyes... Or, on an effective dark side, The Guardian (now hit by the rule 7), that wouldn't even have a story without all the fucked up things that pill up update after update.

This, I don't mind dark stuff like torture or massacres if that makes sense, but a lot of writers, professional writers too, just throw in dark shit because it's edgy or trendy. A writer needs enough discipline to embed the darkness well. It takes more than just tossing another character into the wood chipper.

In practice I'll give up on it if a game has telltale signs like terrible English or plothole-driven plots. Isis is an example of a piece of shit with both.

 

[woody554]

I'd like a sort of 'theatrical darkness' the most. the darkness should be in the story rather than the acts. darkness that makes the story worth telling, instead of gory detail that distracts or even puts you off.

like dracula even in its most mainstream version is a good story BECAUSE it's a dark story. a guy living in mystic castle lost his soul and hunts and kidnaps young women to feed on them, to mind control them, to enslave them. eventually gets decapitated or staked in his black heart (which still somehow seeks his one true love). good story, lives forever.

where as jerking off to decapitations in fullscreen gory detail is not a story. sure someone is gonna love it, but it'll never become a legend like dracula or countess bathory, because the gory detail 'darkness' is superficial. the best possible decapitation art will never gain a legendary status, it's just a detail among millions of others. it lacks depth, and as such is generic and forgettable.

 

[whizwart]

Two darkest games on here, IMHO (both use content patches to get around censors):

1. Blackheart Hotel (completed): Brutal assault, rape, and murder; not always in that order. MC can be merciful, but It also has scenes that are just over the top F'ed up, but there's scenes where the dev just went into ultra cruel territory. Worst one I think is the MC home invading the sister of a cop that's wronged him, tie up her and her husband, then sexually assault and murder her in front of hubby and sister cop (via Skype) while she says she loves them both. Lots of variation as far as how far things go and who gets killed, plus the choice not to do anything at all. Made me want to burn my hard drive after.

2: Friends in Need(at 0.3 roughly): You're a shlub who strikes it rich in crypto. Basically, MC can physically and sexually assault old flames and new faces....hard. Dark path would be called "Date rape: the game" if it was stand alone. Dev also has a short story The Student Loan in the same vein thats worth a play or 2

Why the %$#& do I play these? Well, I've only done the violent path once on each, and frankly that was enough for me. Both games have a good path that, since you could choose something so much more evil, makes being good that much better. Friends in Need also has kind of a grey path where consensual rough sex and kinks are involved, but no one is getting a black eye or put on a registry because of it, and that path just butters my biscuit in the best way.

I should also mention, both devs (NeonGhosts of Friends in Need particularly) write their scenes well for ALL choices. It's impressive to me that tenderness and the soft moment of helping a friend having a crisis are being written by the same folks who also gave me a choice to assault the retail girl I just made give me a lap dance to get money for her family. That's good writing!

 

[おい！]