Deep sea horror
tanelorn
usa Join Date: 2016-07-01 Member: 219433Members
usa Join Date: 2016-07-01 Member: 219433Members
We've all experienced the fear of exploring a new area, deeper than we've been, in the dark, with a flashlight. Part of the fear comes from not knowing what's around the next corner, or knowing there are predators and worrying that they will see you and attack you. But there's another element of fear that runs deeper and truly hits home: the intense vastness of what is before you, the chasm that descends to darkness, the "deep" which connects to your most primal sense of terror. The unknown.
This is what Lovecraft dwelt on the most in his stories. The unknown powers that lurk in the unexplored voids. The concept is called "Cosmic Horror"
It's not so much about a single enemy. It's not about the scariest monster. Cosmic horror is about a sense of dread, a creeping sinking feeling in your gut with the unknown stretching out before you, full of cruel potential. It's about truly powerful and incomprehensible forces lurking beyond your reach but able to influence your reality and utterly destroy you should you catch their attention.
Subnautica delivers this like nothing else. But once we actually explore a bit, it turns out that for the most part it's not so terrifying. We learn how to circumvent or outright kill the stalkers and the sandsharks. Although the reaper is really darn scary.
What I really would like to have in this game, however, is a truly un-negotiable force at the deepest parts of the sea. I would say that it would be impossible to actually explore this area closely, but it would be there and when you are within a certain distance, you will experience "distortions and whispers". Along their perimeter, powerful creatures lurk that can affect your reality. In addition, one or two very rare creatures that are part of this collective patrol the deep biomes, moving across the map. Proximity to them is similar to the radiation hazard, but instead you hear their otherworldly whispers and your vision blurs, etc. They are truly dangerous, not like a predator that tries to bite you; they reach out with their minds and affect you at a distance. The closest thing we have to this is the mesmer; what a great idea. The crabsquid could have been something like this and I think it's a missed opportunity to be more than just a glorified scavenger.
Once you make contact, you will continue to experience periodic moments of distorted reality and whispers, slowly tapering off.
Lets enhance the fear of the unknown, the fear of the unexplored vastness before you as you dive into the depths.
A concise summary of the Cthulu mythos: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ob7PfxvJCN0
This is what Lovecraft dwelt on the most in his stories. The unknown powers that lurk in the unexplored voids. The concept is called "Cosmic Horror"
It's not so much about a single enemy. It's not about the scariest monster. Cosmic horror is about a sense of dread, a creeping sinking feeling in your gut with the unknown stretching out before you, full of cruel potential. It's about truly powerful and incomprehensible forces lurking beyond your reach but able to influence your reality and utterly destroy you should you catch their attention.
Subnautica delivers this like nothing else. But once we actually explore a bit, it turns out that for the most part it's not so terrifying. We learn how to circumvent or outright kill the stalkers and the sandsharks. Although the reaper is really darn scary.
What I really would like to have in this game, however, is a truly un-negotiable force at the deepest parts of the sea. I would say that it would be impossible to actually explore this area closely, but it would be there and when you are within a certain distance, you will experience "distortions and whispers". Along their perimeter, powerful creatures lurk that can affect your reality. In addition, one or two very rare creatures that are part of this collective patrol the deep biomes, moving across the map. Proximity to them is similar to the radiation hazard, but instead you hear their otherworldly whispers and your vision blurs, etc. They are truly dangerous, not like a predator that tries to bite you; they reach out with their minds and affect you at a distance. The closest thing we have to this is the mesmer; what a great idea. The crabsquid could have been something like this and I think it's a missed opportunity to be more than just a glorified scavenger.
Once you make contact, you will continue to experience periodic moments of distorted reality and whispers, slowly tapering off.
Lets enhance the fear of the unknown, the fear of the unexplored vastness before you as you dive into the depths.
A concise summary of the Cthulu mythos: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ob7PfxvJCN0
Comments
But an oppressive, untouchable force would really bring the terror if that's what you're looking for. Perhaps something in the abyss rather than spawning leviathans, crabsquids, etc?
At some point at the "bottom" of the map, it could be optional exploration to seek out the center of the creature that prevents anything from leaving this shelf. That area might give more insight to the entity, assuming you have the balls for it.
But if you attempt to escape to the abyss, you'll find the abyss is watching...
Also OP wtf is that first gif from?
I wish I knew. It was from a google image search and the url is just imgur. If you go to the page, the secondary source is from a lovecraft forum signature.
With that said, I do think the idea of having a supremely dangerous deep-sea biome is cool. I just think the monsters there should be more along the lines of the Great White Shark or the Giant Squid than Cthulhu.
Maybe add some really dangerous creature(s), maybe even make them sentient, intelligent beeings cause someone or something must have shot down the Aurora right?
But I would not go all the way Cthulhu there. That would just not fit the rest of the game imo.
running on that idea, I imagine that when this creature was close, that most other life would make itself scarce. imagine you're swimming along, dodging bonesharks, collecting fragments, and you begin to notice that now the waters seem very quiet. no sharks, peepers seem to be under ricks, those big whale like things are way up high and staying very close. imagine that eerie, empty ocean. that slow realisation.
Perhaps each game is different. To keep the element of surprise open maybe each game only spawns one of these types. Or, conversely, the creatures can move in and out of the area.
The first would be something like a free roaming hunter. Something that skirts the edges of the map like a free roaming predator. Maybe today its in the east, tomorrow it move around to the west. I'm not sure how aggro this creature would be; would it set off on you any time you saw it? Maybe it just wants to attack your Seamoth or Cyclops? Who knows. Buy my inspiration is as follows-
Sea Monster on DeviantArt
Sea Monster Google Images
The second creature I've been thinking of is something a little more benign. Imagine a creature like the Mesmer that basically hypnotizes its target, except that its enormous and is something akin to a filter/baleen feeder. It'd be interesting to see something like this skirting the deep parts of the map, luring everything in with hypnotic abilities, and then sucking them up. I'm thinking that if the player got close it'd work almost like the Mesmer...except you're lured into instant death. Inspiration for this-
Proposed Filter Feeder
Last, I saw someone post this somewhere here, but I'd imagine something horrible lurking over the actual edge of the map in the bottomless zone. Something so big that when you go over the edge, if you're in the area where it's currently lurking, it sucks you in. By the time you realize its there it's too late. I just imagine a giant gapeing maw, like this-
If only it's mouth was bigger...
Now, to be honest, I don't expect any of these ideas to even be considered; this post is mostly for fun. But it'd be something interesting to see nonetheless. Also, none of these images are mine nor do I expect that if these ideas were used that they'd be modeled exactly like this. Just me giving some visual reference to how I was inspired for the ideas.
Thanks for reading!
It's from this: THRESHER | a horror short by Mike Diva
https://makeagif.com/gif/thresher-a-horror-short-by-mike-diva-ZA6XHK
Also yes, I made an account just to answer this question from 5 years ago lol.
It's from this: THRESHER | a horror short by Mike Diva
https://makeagif.com/gif/thresher-a-horror-short-by-mike-diva-ZA6XHK
Also yes, I made an account just to answer this question from 5 years ago lol.
It's from this: THRESHER | a horror short by Mike Diva
https://makeagif.com/gif/thresher-a-horror-short-by-mike-diva-ZA6XHK
Also yes, I made an account just to answer this question from 5 years ago lol.