Games have āgotten away from genuinely scaring the player,ā and Half-Life, whenever it deploys its next episode, needs to get back to doing just that, the gameās boss said.
Gabe Newell, the Valve honcho, was asked if the gameās tone has matured along with its audienceās over the past 12 years. He told Edge Magazine that the gameās writers hadnāt necessarily proceeded in that direction, although if the gameās themes had changed it was because āsimply repeating the past isnāt going to have the same impact now as it did then.
However, āI feel like weāve gotten away from genuinely scaring the player more than Iād like, and itās something we need to think about, in addition to broadening the emotional palette we can draw on.ā
And Newell knows exactly what pushes those emotional buttons. Asked what scares Valveās gamers the most, he replied: āThe death of their children. The fading of their own abilities.ā
Gabe Newell: Next Half-Life Needs to Scare [CVG]
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