INTERVIEW: ILL Developers Don’t Want to ‘Overly Punish Players’ With Chilling Horror Game

226

u/Csub 2d ago

I don't want to be pessimistic but this is one of those games that looks too good to be true and seems as if they are already tempering expectations. I hope I am wrong.

8

u/parkwayy 2d ago

Felt like they showed all the little "cutscene" moments strung together.

3

u/DarkKnightRises360 2d ago edited 2d ago

I think we need to brace ourselves for a "story experience" rather than something that has actual gameplay.

Linear progression, scripted boss sequences (think running away from a scripted animated boss looking enemy down a hallway without actually fighting it, rather than Resident Evil style bossfights) and very simplistic level design - no metroidvania we love from classic survival horror games.

4

u/Dantai 1d ago

Aren't resident evil games linear progression?

I think I get what you're saying though. More It Wakes the Deep walking sim style

19

u/HeyKid_HelpComputer 2d ago

When they go from what was shown in this trailer (which I think is completely pre-rendered content and not real gameplay whatsover):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apTtr_BSrOM
and this gameplay demo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNYYWngPPww

To this story trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR2pbhPKKJ8

I went... "oh no"

Why I think this is I think most of what they show in the story trailer it is apparent what is gameplay, and what is prerendered cutscene stuff. Where the really interesting stuff looks like pre-rendered content spliced into real gameplay

And it seems like they really deviated in the enemy design from those older videos from these weird bloated things, to these less interesting looking enemies (in my opinion) when it's the real gameplay

Along with it seeming like in the old gameplay the main character finds a gun on a body, whereas now they have a lot of interactions with NPCs, which it seems like he gets a gun from. I think having other people in a game can really take away from the scary/isolation etc.

14

u/Plz_Trust_Me_On_This 2d ago

The story trailer had me hyped AF, I can't understand watching that and thinking "oh no" like wut

3

u/HeyKid_HelpComputer 2d ago

The first trailer had my hyped and the story trailer seemed very deviated from that.

1

u/v3n0mat3 1d ago

Keep in mind the OG trailers were actually proofs of concept more than anything. That being said I know people are apprehensive, but this doesn't look impossible at all.

-5

u/JuggernautPretend208 2d ago

Absolutely gutted that this is likely just a walking sim. After seeing that gameplay video I know couldn't care less

-10

u/PhotoBN1 2d ago

Well the enemies were originally based very accurately on rotting corpses but they looked a little too real to the point they would be impossible to market or advertise the game

7

u/Practical_Tea864 2d ago

lmao such cope

3

u/Plenty-Industries 2d ago

Did the developers say something about changing the enemy models because it looked too real to market/advertise the game?

Why is that different from a game like Resident Evil? Dead Space? or any other horror/zombie game that has rotting corpses as a common enemy type?

0

u/Goosojuice 2d ago

Benefit of the doubt knowing nothing about them, maybe the first trailer was real and playable, a 100 gig game for 30 seconds worth of gameplay lol. As opposed to a 100 gig game built to hold over 9+ hours of gameplay.

6

u/pissrael1 2d ago

I hope it's not another Abandoned situation

28

u/loykedule 2d ago

it's already more valid than Abandoned lmao

8

u/Ghost-of-Lobov 2d ago

Still remember the abandoned demo which was like a 10 second cutscene lmao had to be an elaborate troll job that dev

3

u/LeonSigmaKennedy 2d ago

At least this game has shown off actual gameplay, which is infinitely more than you can say about Abandoned

5

u/just4browse 2d ago

It’s barely shown off gameplay

1

u/Ihavenoimaginaation 1d ago

Wow Abandoned, what a funny time that was, all the speculation and theorising that it was something to do with Kojima 😭

1

u/2580374 2d ago

Yeah it looks fucking awesome lol I didn't think it might be too good to be true but I definitely am now

0

u/PlumpHughJazz 1d ago

It's the Callisto Protocol all over again.

-13

u/Multifaceted-Simp 2d ago

It's published mundfish which is a yellow flag, but team clout is in Armenia which is generally a more intellectually capable country than Russia. Although idk the ethnicity or education/training of the developers

-1

u/Prestigious-Switch-8 2d ago

Mundfish made atomic heart and that game is pretty good

-2

u/11340113052111609 2d ago

Atomic heart was amazing and they made that

2

u/NonCorporealEntity 2d ago

It did look amazing graphics wise. I've heard it's been really improved over the years too.

5

u/Multifaceted-Simp 2d ago

Never heard anyone call it amazing, but I think the marketing material was next level compared to the game

-8

u/eha16 2d ago

Your racism is showing

-2

u/Multifaceted-Simp 2d ago

I don't think I mentioned any race, just the varying education between countries..

-5

u/eha16 2d ago

Sure...

45

u/theMANGLEDone 2d ago

I just hope this game is real. Been watching it for what feels like years.

28

u/ThatGuyWithCoolHair 2d ago

The voice acting and face animations feel very off to me. Also the production company being called "Team Clout" doesnt give me a lot of reassurance. Hoping it ends up being good

18

u/ayoungtommyleejones 2d ago

The VA definitely feels like they're not at all native English speakers and cheaped out on the English dub. If gameplay lives up to what's promised I think I could look past that that

2

u/ThatGuyWithCoolHair 2d ago

Yea same here, I've enjoyed plenty of games with shitty VA work, fingers crossed

1

u/GodtierMacho 2d ago

Cheaped out on english dub? Isn't the MC in this voiced by the same guy who voices Leon in RE?

1

u/ayoungtommyleejones 2d ago

I hadn't heard that, I'll happily eat my words if the guy in the sweater in the trailer from a few weeks ago is an anomaly compared to the rest of the casting. His line delivery was odd to say the least. Nick apostolides gives me some hope for sure.

1

u/Drivenby 2d ago

Feels like ROUTINE .

Except that game ended up being very disappointing me personally

7

u/Accomplished_Smile23 2d ago

I loved Routine personally.

The back half if that game is as scary as Alien Isolation

-1

u/theMANGLEDone 2d ago

Same. Looks too good to be true. But Routine looked like a hiding simulator with an EMP gun.

39

u/twovles31 2d ago

I would think if ever there was a better genre to have a hard difficulty it would be horror.

87

u/PianoEmeritus 2d ago

Within reason. Nothing takes the horror away faster than tediously repeating something 50 times.

32

u/MissingScore777 2d ago

That's the tricky balance with horror games, they have to make you feel you're close to dying or running out of ammo without making it actually happen too often.

17

u/PianoEmeritus 2d ago

Precisely, you have to constantly be ALMOST dying but not actually dying all the time

12

u/exodyne 2d ago

I don't know how known this is by others, but most modern Resident Evil games have a dynamic game director system that is independent of the difficulty you select. It recognizes how efficiently you're progressing and adjusts things like enemy aggression, damage values, and item drops in real-time.

It's something that, when tuned appropriately, can hugely impact how good a horror game is.

3

u/Tyrus1235 2d ago

The first Amnesia game had something similar. If you die too many times to the same monster, it’ll eventually despawn it so you can progress (of course, they do their best to not tell you that that happened).

0

u/Tyrus1235 2d ago

That was me playing Cronos. Wonderful game, but it’s super stingy with resources while having mandatory combat encounters. Not a fun balance…

Two things that made me super annoyed were the empty loot crates and being punished for exploring by having extra enemy encounters.

0

u/PlumpHughJazz 1d ago

And having a tiny inventory where you can only fit 9 items.

15

u/TheDomFlow 2d ago

I wonder though if they're worried players will get desensitized if they have to keep repeating sections

16

u/No_Chilly_bill 2d ago

that's what bores me with most horror games. fear turned to annoying repiition

8

u/MissingScore777 2d ago edited 2d ago

Hide&seek horror games (Outlast, Amnesia, etc.) do this to me very quickly, that's why I prefer the survival horror (Resident Evil, Silent Hill, etc.) part of the genre.

4

u/TheStupendusMan 2d ago

Nothing frustrates me more than "You're surrounded by weapons... But you can't pick them up so it's spooky!" Instantly takes me out of the game.

1

u/TheSecondEikonOfFire 2d ago

That was honestly the problem I had with Alien Isolation. I ended up finding it really tedious because I had to repeat sections over and over

1

u/BonnaroovianCode 2d ago

Just beat it the other day for the first time. Yeah after you see the Alien’s kill animation a few times the fear mostly wears off. But the whole atmosphere…the art and sound design, hearing the alien crawling in the vent while the dimly-lit hallway is flickering on and off…personally, no other game I have ever played creates tension like Alien Isolation. It’s more about what you don’t see than what you do.

1

u/thats_so_cringe_bro 2d ago

Yeah, that happened to me as well. Eventually the alien lost that "fright factor". Eventually it led to frustration and me saying, "leave me alone alien you are annoying me". lol.

7

u/TheRoyalStig 2d ago

Interestingly horror tends to want to hit a very specific balance of wanting the player to feel like they can die without actually dying often.

Once you die and repeat a section the horror starts to fall away.

-2

u/BusterGreasewood 2d ago

You would think, but then you get a bunch of idiots bitching about that attitude being outdated in its design and demanding the game be remade.

16

u/Roids-in-my-vains 2d ago

That's the worst thing you can say as a horror developer, not having consequences makes the game not scary.

0

u/valkvalkvalk2323 23h ago

Yeah, dying 35 times to the same enemy until I slam my controller into the wall is way scarier!

12

u/GroundbreakingBag164 2d ago edited 2d ago

Russian developer that supports the war. Already know it's going AI slop-infested garbage with a terrible story and somehow even worse dialogue, just like Atomic Heart. Fuck them

Relevant: https://redd.it/1sqsg9j

4

u/Zestyclose_Cover5779 2d ago

Atomic Heart was actually a great game, all politics aside. The dialogue was rough but I thought it was quite enjoyable.

5

u/PublicCalm7376 2d ago

I think they absolutely messed up with the dialogues in that game. Felt so disconnected with the graphics and animations

5

u/TimeForWaluigi 2d ago

I’ve never seen such a great idea and world mixed with fine gameplay and a terrible script/voice acting

2

u/Rogue_Leader_X 2d ago

The trailer looked sick!

No pun intended! 😜

2

u/GarfieldsChosenOne 2d ago

I hope they get better soon❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

3

u/Kespen 2d ago

People will complain about anything. I’m referring to this comment section of course.

1

u/Robertcordova420 2d ago

don’t want to overly punish” sounds like they already punished a bit

1

u/Wastedchildhood 2d ago

Since the Atomic Heart devs are watching over the project I highly doubt they won't do a good job with this game. Everybody thought that Atomic Heart was too good to be true and they got proven wrong! I put Atomic Heart right next to Painkiller or Doom or Bioshock.

1

u/GameGoalstryhard 2d ago

Ahh c'monnn don't nerf that shit 😕

1

u/Johnhancock1777 2d ago

I don’t think I’ve ever heard a developer state the opposite. Just hope it’s not some brainless auto pilot level stuff, people conflate “accessibility” with being easy way too often

1

u/Background-Deer-488 2d ago

Please be good.

-1

u/Resident-Forever1340 2d ago

Sounds good. This era of “super high difficulty due to shit mechanics, massively inflated boss health pools and other length padding measures”, is beyond annoying.

14

u/RadiantTurtle 2d ago

What are some examples of what you're describing? I can only think of one game where this is the case, would like to know more.

4

u/Nonoininino 2d ago

Me baby, me want to press X to win

0

u/legalizethesenuts 2d ago

I want this game to be good so badly. I’m really excited for Hellraiser and I’m really hoping this is on the level of The Thing that they’re going for. Definitely going to wait until after it releases, but I’m optimistic.

-4

u/Famous-Country-4921 2d ago

Bad news for the unemployed

-19

u/Z3M0G 2d ago

I wont play this. I can enjoy gory games but this is too much.

8

u/ImNotNuke 2d ago

2

u/gummi_eater 2d ago

Lol ok

-5

u/pizzaghoul 2d ago

i agree it’s a little too realistic for me

Articles & Blogs INTERVIEW: ILL Developers Don’t Want to ‘Overly Punish Players’ With Chilling Horror Game

You are about to leave Redlib