Carrying over from the Silent Hill thread ( ), someone pointed out how Shattered Memories is a great "Walking Simulator" title while a terrible SH game. That reminded me of another game called The Void (Known as Tension in some regions) that I've seen a few people refer to as a "Walking Simulator done right".
What is it about these two titles that "prove" that the genre can work, but everything else brought up in conversation is despised by all? Is it due to both titles essentially staring a ghost? The depressing atmosphere? The presence of "Combat mechanics" (In some form)? What is it?
Pathologic is more of a walking simulator done right, since, while there is combat and resource management, you spend most of your time walking. The Void is actually pretty fucking brutal, it just feels like a walking simulator at times because you're slow as shit without azure and there's nice environments. Also since I was the one who made the post about Shattered Memories, let me elaborate. The whole gameplay was made with the idea that 1) chase scenes are inherently scary, 2) horror needs downtime to work.. This led the whole gameplay to be about set sequences when you run from shit and are pretty much railroaded towards the exit, and any time you have any freedom is when there isn't any danger. That just spelled doom for the game from the get go, but paradoxically, the safe sections were fairly nice. The environment was fairly detailed and just walking around shining your motion-controlled flashlight had no right to be this atmospheric. Most actual walking simulators just dump you into an environment and there's nothing to do besides walking and clicking on shit. The mere inclusion of a free-controlled flashlight made all the difference. For one, playing with shadows is inherently fun and can organically create atmosphere since your brain is inclined to see things in shadows. For two, instead of just walking around a maze, it felt like you were visiting a place. Kind of a safari park where you look for even remotely spooky shit because the designated spooky areas were outwardly worthless. I'm not claiming it salvages the whole thing, but it's a basic, simple kind of fun. More like a toy than a game, really.
Dylan Brown
Nigga, no. Gone Home is a walking simulator, The Void actually has gameplay.
Jason Diaz
I don't think either of you know what a "walking simulator" is if you have to make the qualification that it's like a walking simulator but with gameplay. Walking simulators don't make people cry about how difficult they are.
Kayden Collins
"walking simulator" is a meme and you should feel bad for taking it as a serious designation for anything but the most prosaic of "games."
Juan Campbell
And I think you're jumping to conclusions about relative statements.
Jason Gonzalez
None of those games are walking simulators. When Dear Esther appeared, they didn't claim it was a video game at all, but an experiment and an interactive painting at best. Stuff like Proteus and Gone Homo fit that bill and there's no fixing it.
James Robinson
ya nah, there's no doubt about how "walking simulator" has been misused and is being misused in this thread.
Its like its being used as a label for something that once was known in a different way, by different, less memey terms. I think what OP really wants are "story focused games", but that aren't exactly "cinematic" This insistence on using short but misattributed, phrases reeks of reddit. r/walkingsimulators much.
Cameron Long
Sort of like how the Phantasy Star games are all RPGs (In one way, or another), but the series shifted into a "new" genre that some people refer to as the Star Hunter Society genre beginning with Online?
Alexander Jackson
Pathologic isn't a walking sim, though. Lads, do you forget it was indieshit games like Gone Homo, Dear Esther and The Stanly Parable that caused this term to get coined? They are games with no gameplay, you walk around and somebody narrates the story.
Pathologic, The Void and Shattered Memories are not walking simulators by any means.
Nicholas Ross
The definitive trait of a walking simulator is that you do nothing but walk, and, if you're lucky, interact with a few items by picking them up and looking at them. There's no agency, there's no skill checks, there are no failure states, just walking from point A to point B. If you take a game with a lot of walking, add in constant health degeneration, time limits, enemies, resource management, consequences for actions and failure states, it doesn't become a "walking simulator done right", it stops being a walking simulator. It's not even a real genre that needs to be redeemed or "done right" anyway, it's a pejorative term for non-games. I understand what you said, you're just wrong.
Jackson Miller
Well that's an uncanny coincidence, right down to the order listed
Isaiah Young
I can´t stress enough how much I enjoyed playing Pathologic. Don´t get discouraged to play it just because you have to walk a lot in this game. Also, playing it without a guide/walkthrough makes it pretty brutal, but it´s a really great game.
I sincerely hope you and op kill yourselves for taking an insult as a fucking genre for shitty videogames and calling Pathologic and The Void walking sims because you travel a lot.
Mason Nelson
this thread gave me cancer
Cooper Butler
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Camden Peterson
I don't get it
Austin Williams
Would SOMA count?
Jordan Brooks
My grandfather smoked his whole life. I was about 10 years old when my mother said to him, 'If you ever want to see your grandchildren graduate, you have to stop immediately.' Tears welled up in his eyes when he realized what exactly was at stake. He gave it up immediately. Three years later he died of lung cancer. It was really sad and destroyed me. My mother said to me -"Don't ever smoke. Please don't put your family through what your Grandfather put us through." I agreed. At 28, I have never touched a cigarette. I must say, I feel a very slight sense of regret for never having done it, because this thread gave me cancer anyway.
John Ward
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a good walking sim. It looks and sounds great, has a compelling mystery to solve and puts you in a big open world to piece it all together.
David Baker
Can you stop abusing the label, you shitty newfag? No one cares about your gamer cred, that you need to prove yourself more elitist or else.
You're gonna grow into a shitty leftist, this way.
Kevin Hernandez
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Easton Torres
this. If it's a game then it's not a walking simulator.
