A 'blinded-test' of gameplay for future psychological survival horror... no commercial here, just discussion and opinions!

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Hey everyone!

Following up a recent thread about how the survival horror often devolves into standard stealth/FPS gameplay in a ghost suit, I’ve been trying to solve that exact issue in my own project. I want to pitch a core gameplay loop to you—no marketing fluff, no wishlist links, just raw mechanics—to see if this sounds like something you’d genuinely want to play, or if there are red flags I’m blind to.

The premise puts you as an external contractor reading through the journals of a deceased scientist and "reliving" his memories of a city that shouldn't exist. But as you progress, exploring his past starts contaminating your own identity until you can't tell where he ends and you begin.

Here is how the actual gameplay loop works:

The Core Tool: A heavy 1930s Crystal Radio in a Briefcase (No HUD)

There are no health bars, crosshairs, or mini-maps. Everything relies on spatial 3D audio, subtle screen distortion, and physical controller haptics. Your primary interaction tool is a modified crystal radio inside a briefcase. Since it's a galena receiver, it doesn't run on standard batteries—it requires calibrating the crystal whisker (where you actually feel the tension/micro-vibrations of the signal through haptics) and turning a dial while keeping an eye on a voltmeter to maintain a clean frequency. Because of its weight, using it forces you to stop and stand your ground: you cannot move normally while operating it.

7 Unique Entities (Practically invisible to the Naked Eye)

Instead of generic roaming monsters, there are only 7 unique antagonist entities throughout the entire game. They are completely invisible in normal space. You can only track them through spatialized binaural audio and ambient details cues and reveal/interact with them by physically aiming the radio briefcase and tuning into their specific frequency. To defend yourself or disrupt them, you have to manually charge the radio's diodes beforehand to release an "equalization pulse." Misjudge the direction in 3D space, miss the charge, or panic while calibrating the crystal, and you lose the window—leaving you completely exposed.

The "Game Over" isn't death, it's expulsion

There’s no hiding in lockers or standard combat. When an entity catches you or your psychological stability breaks, you aren't killed—you get violently snapped out of the memory state back into a decrepit, stagnant room in 1984. To jump back into the frequency, you have to manually focus on a specific personal artifact and play a limited record on a gramophone (your save point).

The Save System vs. Endings trade-off

To save your game, you need rare Bakelite records. But here's the catch: these records are extremely limited, consumable, AND they act as physical keys needed to unlock the different story conclusions at the end of the game. Every time you save, you are permanently burning a potential ending path just for peace of mind.

Spatial progression instead of a hub

You’re descending linearly through a fragmented city of 1930, ending up deep underground. The architecture gradually shifts from believable European streets to impossible, surreal structures as the memory degrades.

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I'd really appreciate your brutal honesty on a few things:

Invisible Entities + Audio Tracking: Does using spatial 3D audio cues and directional radio aiming to track invisible threats sound like genuine, atmosphere-heavy tension, or does it risk feeling frustrating?

The Stationary Briefcase Mechanics: Is stopping in place to calibrate crystals (feeling the feedback via haptics) and charge diodes under threat a mechanic you'd enjoy mastering, or a dealbreaker?

The Save/Ending Trade-off: Is sacrificing story endings for mid-game saves a brutal, rewarding choice or just rage-inducing?

Curious to hear what you guys think.

love the art style of signalis but not a big top down guy. and i heard evil within is hard but it looks very cool. and i know Rountine is pretty hard too so not really sure which.

ObsCure 1 and 2 are some of the most nostalgic games ever for me. I played them when they came out, first renting one several times then buying 2 when it came out. It takes me back to the good parts of the early 2000s, and lets me laugh at some of the cringe.

You can find em both on steam, so if you’ve never checked them out I highly recommend doing so. They seem to get more love lately cuz of video essays and all that shit and that makes me happy.

I fear their dedication in making the town so "true to life" made them miss the forest for the trees.

Im in my, like, 10th empty house with nothing in it. No creepy imagery, no easter eggs, no unnerving notes, no unique interactables. Maybe theres one bandage.

I found a hidden pub garden and it was completely barren.

When the games got its gears turning it jumps back on track, there's some great stuff here. But, God, there are these hour+ strecthes where you just run around boring empty rooms looking for keys, and nothing happens 😔

It was pretty damn gruesome and crass. I feel it played kinda like Condemned Criminal Orgins, which is a good thing!

Which do you think is better- or prefer personally.

And what are some strengths and weaknesses for one each to you.

😱🩸 VOCÊ JÁ VIU UM JOGO DE TERROR ASSIM?

Prepare-se para conhecer TENEBRIS SOMNIA… um jogo de terror completamente diferente do que estamos acostumados a ver. 👁️

Imagine jogar um survival horror com aquele visual retrô que lembra os clássicos Resident Evil e Silent Hill…

Agora imagine que, nos momentos mais importantes da história, o jogo simplesmente abandona a animação tradicional e coloca você diante de CENAS REAIS, com atores de verdade e efeitos práticos. 😨🎬

E é justamente aí que o negócio fica assustador…

🩸 Criaturas grotescas

🏚️ Ambientes sombrios

🧩 Puzzles

😱 Momentos de tensão

🎬 Cenas filmadas com atores reais

👁️ Uma atmosfera de terror que mistura videogame e cinema

O resultado é uma experiência MUITO diferente.

E nós tivemos a oportunidade de jogar e gravar essa experiência aqui no canal! 🎮🔥

Se você gosta de Resident Evil, Silent Hill, terror retrô e jogos que tentam fazer algo diferente, eu te faço um convite:

👉 VEM CONHECER TENEBRIS SOMNIA COM A GENTE.

Prepare o fone… apague as luzes… e venha descobrir até onde esse pesadelo consegue chegar. 😈🩸

🎮 Lobo Z & Dudu — Projeto dos 90 Jogos

#TenebrisSomnia #Terror #SurvivalHorror #HorrorGame #ResidentEvil #SilentHill #GameplayFilme #TerrorRetrô #JogosDeTerror #LoboZEDudu #Projeto90Jogos #Gameplay #Games

I will start:
silent hill, because of how isolating and hostile the environment is, also some of the scariest monster designs

Full disclosure: I run Limited Legacy Games, a small physical publisher out of Minneapolis, and this is promotion. Mods, if it's not allowed here, delete it, no hard feelings.

The game is Acre Crisis, by Brazilian dev David Pateti. First-person survival horror in the Amazon, 1992 — a military unit flies in to investigate deaths in the jungle, the plane goes down, and what's out there isn't on any map. PS1-style on purpose: low-poly, fog, grain, tense action. Story mode plus an arcade mode, and the dev doesn't hide which game he grew up on. You'll clock it in about four seconds.

It's rated T, on PS5 disc. We also just put out his other game, Terminal 81 — a job-sim psychological horror set in São Paulo that's about as far from dinosaurs as you can get and still be unsettling — if you want to see what else he does.

Both are at https://www.limitedlegacy.com — Acre Crisis is on pre-order now. Happy to answer anything about the game or the physical side, and if you think the homage is too on-the-nose, say so; I'd rather hear it from you than anyone.

Worth playing?

It may not be popular now, but I feel like it will gradually be adored as time goes on.

Personally, I understand the criticisms surrounding the stealth mechanics. If the game was going to force us into a particular playing style, it should have made it far smoother and satisfying.

Than I thought about it for a bit; this isnt metal gear or splinter cell, the stealth mechanics were never going to be perfect. Because they weren't meant to be. Most of the anxiety and dread would immediately disappear if you were able to explore your surroundings like a ninja blending into the shadows. The jank IS the experience.

Leople seem to forget that Silent Hill 2 wasnt universally loved. GameSpot gave it a 7.7 and many reviewers disliked the camera and combat. Now, it's considered one of the best games ever made.

Most of the issues people have with this game can be fixed with patches, i wouldn't change anything with the story or the major areas. Some fine tuning of certain aspects could go a long way with pleasing the crowd, but I feel like it would be a mistake long-term, allowing people to blast through would take away much of the anxiety inducing experience. Let people get frustrated as they learn how to play the game.

Story was fairly unique compared to other silent hills. it does fall into the same tropes as most of the silent hill games. However, It does enough to differentiate itself that I do feel like it will be constantly revisited as time goes on. People will start figuring out the game and share their guides and tips online, which would make the game more and more accessible.

Overall, this game gets unnecessary hate and im pretty disappointed with its sales performance. Compared to f, I think Konami will interpret this as people being more receptive to more action oriented games rather than survival horror, which is a real shame.

originally posted on r/silenthill but got removed for some reason

I’d like your thoughts on this!

Last week I made a post about Alan Wake 2. I ended up finishing the game yesterday and, like Alan Wake, I had to write. I've loosely gathered some concluding thoughts about my experience. SPOILERS!!!

Negatives:

- The game is way too ambitious. It's attempting to be an interactive narrative, a detective game, and survival horror. Unfortunately, these three genres often conflict with each other in gameplay and the experience is worse off for it.

- The story devolves into overusing causality loops which ends up doing harm to the emotional stakes that it has been working to develop. When anything can happen for any reason, nothing has any weight. (I'm looking at you Tenet)

- The resource economy is a mess. The game feigns resource pressure but if you are ever actually in need you'll recieve tons of whetever resource you're missing, becuase this is an interactive narrative and the developer actually really wants you to see everything.

- The narration is so overbearing. I realize this is done in order to fit the noir detective theme, but it's another example of the games multiple intentions cutting against each other. A narrative is more engaging when it shows, not tells. This is especially egregious when Saga "reveals" the answer to something you realized 20 minutes ago but you needed to find the right in-game trigger to progress.

- The Shoebox is a lie. It's obiously an OOP. Why is storage space limited in a magical shoebox? I'll tell you. It's because the survival horror side of the game needs it to be. Again, conflicting aspects of the game working against each other. This is made even worse by the undiscardable charms. The game is now actively punishing me for pickup up it's puzzle rewards.

- Alan Wake is a poorly written character. He has almost zero narrative arc. He begins the game wanting to use his writing to stop the darkness at all costs and that's exactly where he is left at the end of the story.

- Mr. Door having no payoff was dissapointing. That's all. I assume they ran out of space to go further with him. Hopefully, the character is justified in the future because I liked him.

- The Sam Lake stuff crossed over into vanity for me. It makes me wonder if there aren't people at Remedy that can tell him "no", because I think this game could have been massively improved with an editor that cut about 6 hours out.

Positives:

+ The game is certainly thought provoking as a creative work. For better and worse.

+ I thought Saga was well done. Would love to see more of her in the future.

+ The Alan Wake plot switching really worked for me. This combined with the light storing mechanic made for good investigative gameplay. I would have prefered more of this over the more forced survival horror elements.

+The puzzles struck a nice balance of approachable but still requiring thought. I think this is probably very difficult to actually do well.

+The Lynchian/Twin Peaks stuff was amazing. The absurd entrepreneurship of the Koskela brothers and their TV ads. The old men in towels enjoying the sauna while it's apocalyptically black outside. Rose. Agent Estevez. The return of Ahti. Mayor Setter won't roll over on the issues. I absolutely loved all of this.

Conclusion:

Overall, I'm glad I finished the game. If the creators had more restraint I think I can see a masterpiece in there somewhere, but it ended up being a bit of a mess with flashes of brilliance. It's pretty weak as a survival horror game, though.

I don't think I'll ever play it again. I would only recommend it to people who are already fans of the Remedy universe. Control makes a much better first Remedy game for new players. Thanks for reading!

EDIT: Thanks for the comments and interesting discussion. I had to get all this out of my head. I can see myself softening on some of these criticisms over time. Certainly the most I've thought about a game after finishing it in a while!

Happy to share one of my favorite series ever with people. This is where it all began and also made for the paragon of a remake. Thank you and you folks have a good Weekend!

We are exactly one month away from releasing our game, and the nerves are definitely kicking in. Purrfect Bliss is a cat cafe built on a very dark history. We wanted to see what happens when you mix a relaxing barista simulator with pure psychological horror.

During your night shift, you have to balance serving customers and taking care of the cats while trying to uncover the terrifying truth of the building. As a two-man indie team, reaching this 1-month countdown feels surreal. We have a free demo up right now, and if you enjoy weird genre mashups, trying the demo or adding it to your Steam wishlist would mean the world to us!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4688870/Purrfect_Bliss/