Scary Strategy RPG game Ideas

hearing the idea of a "strategy RPG horror game" kind of reminded me of a quite old game I played a demo of on PC that I had been trying to recall the name of for quite some time.

The game was called "enemy infestation" and from what I recall of the demo it was basically an isometric game where you control a group of individuals on a space station, so you had people like a medic, soldiers, even a barkeeper, etc. They all had their own strengths and weaknesses.

You can only see the rooms you have people in, and on the second demo level aliens constantly spawn from a large hall where larger queen like ones are. That level basically amounted to gathering the survivors together, especially the engineer I think it was as she could lock doors to prevent aliens from getting in. I tended to hoard weapons in the med lab and keep the engineer inside locking the place down in case people go down in one of the attacks. If people go down you pretty much had to drag them back to a medical station to heal them up.

Another interesting mechanic was that there were a wide variety of weapons/tools. And their effect on the aliens varied from level to level. For instance you might have a laser based weapon and shoot the aliens on one level killing/injuring them. While in the next the same weapon actually causes the aliens to multiply or grow in size

The only way to know what weapons were actually any use was to try them out or to try and secure a research station and get a scientist to figure it out.

Sadly I only ever played the demo and haven't really been able to find a copy since (it came out back in about 1998)

I was probably about 10 when I first played it, and am probably looking back through nostalgia that makes it seem better than it was.

But I always found it kind of eerie being barricaded in the med lab and hearing the lift in the cargo room nearby going up and down as the aliens kind of prowl around the deck. It was kind of a nice touch not knowing what to expect on the other side of a door (unless you have managed to secure and lock down all the lifts/doors and cleared all the rooms on your side of the lock down).

I think that game/layout has probably the most potential for creating a tense atmosphere within a strategy game, with how you can only see rooms/halls you currently have people in, along with the ever present threat of enemies and the unreliable weaponry.

It isn't quite a strategy RPG horror game, and it may be a lot less tense than I recall it to be, but it is probably the closest game I can think of to that particular criteria, and judging by how impossible it is to find clips or any references to it I guess it is a pretty obscure game hehe .

I'm thinking something along the lines of the Echo Night series, Silent Hill Series and Fatal Frame series.

You couldn't turn off the analog on Echo Night Beyond because the fear feeling factor was part of the game.
I don't believe I have to explain why I chose silent hill and fatal frame as well now or do I?

Edit: Otherwise I like some of the post replies above mine.

For those of you who are interested.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_Night

I respectively disagree Xalgar I think a scary strategy RPG could happen in turned based form.
The main things that would have to be included in this type of game would be the ambiance of the maps being played on and the restriction of the line of sight on the player.

Here is how I think this could work out.
The game would center around a small squad of people, it wouldn't be scary if you had an entire army backing you up on the missions Maps would usually be confined to dark/confined locals such as offices/space stations/the woods ect. Line of sight would be limited to what the characters could see with the fog of war reappearing once a character isn't looking in that direction. Perhaps the biggest thing needed would be the power of the enemies that the character faced. While not necessarily weaklings the characters would need to be constantly mindful of enemies in order not to get slaughtered. Think of Aliens the movie as an example, even with all that gear they still needed to be on their toes when fighting the Aliens or they were toast.

I think the classic game X-Com had a bunch of this stuff covered. I remember playing it and for the first couple of missions was pretty dang scared. You could hear the enemies when it was their turn but never new who was going to pop out. It could be a easily killed grey or a fearsome alien walker that was nigh indestructible.

yeah, it may be possible to make a turn based game scary or suspenseful, especially with unpredictable enemies and restricted vision. Though real time does add a degree of tension in that you are not given as much time to think or plan matters, which would probably make it somewhat easier to work with.

Looking into Enemy infestation it had a fair few interesting ideas with the varied people (classes) and the way you can't entirely predict what the weapons will do until you try them, or where the aliens are roaming unless you have locked down most of the ship. They also seem to grab downed survivors and drag them off to where more aliens are to make it more difficult for you to rescue them.

To make a strategy RPG kind of tense or scary I would think that you would need kind of intelligent enemies (in terms of AI and their pathing) who prowl around hunting you, with restricted vision by making it confined to hallways/rooms or some kind of fog of war style limitation, though I think the former would probably lend itself to the genre better in this case, I could be wrong though.

Anyway, another thing would probably be to make it have relateable characters (for the RPG aspect and to also make the player want to keep them alive). I think that having characters in danger that you actually value can be kind of suspenseful, like with fire emblem, or similar games the fact that people with depth and character can die and become unavailable permanently. The game isn't exactly scary but when you watch one of your team members take consecutive hits it is pretty tense as you dread losing them and having to restart the mission on that grounds.

To make a strategy RPG game scary you would probably need a lot of atmosphere, with ambient sounds creating that general uneasiness without even seeing any enemies. Probably using a set team of individuals with class roles and personalities along with a reasonable amount of risk and difficulty.

Could have an isometric sort of strategy game with a small group of survivors with certain skills based on their profession (doctor, mechanic, police, etc.) trying to traverse a zombie infested region. Perhaps with a system similar to commandos 3 in the whole having a large exterior region with interiors linked to that which flow smoothly without loading and are accessible to all.

You could even have the whole looking out of windows mechanics in there so you can keep an eye on the activity outside. Anyway you could kind of move between buildings, generally low on supplies and struggle to find a way across as the enemies roam around or begin to swarm on you. Perhaps even throw in a sort of barricading mechanic to give a bit of (dangerous) breathing space as you gather supplies and figure out where to move next. Skill progression would probably be mostly grounded in aptitude with firearms, etc. With set classes/people having better starting skills, or special unique abilities to make them important.

Though that would probably be a pretty varied experience, with potential for some scary/suspenseful moments mixed in with the kind of intense flight for survival aspect that occurs.

I guess it would need more interior moments and vision restriction, with different times in the day or a dark run down interior, you could probably even throw in lighting via flashlight should you find one, which would probably comes across a bit similar to the game shadowgrounds in terms of visuals, given the high camera angle.

The inventory system should probably be slightly restrictive, perhaps just in that you have a weight limit and the closer you come to that with characters it begins to slow movement, which would kind of make it more difficult to gather too many supplies without crippling your ability to evade the enemy.

Anyway, I went a bit overboard on coming up with somewhat specific mechanics/premise there I think hehe.

It sounds kind of novel and interesting but I don't think it would translate into an actual game very well

Anyway, I think a strategy RPG game would be a pretty difficult and expensive venture to pull off correctly, though I expect it is possible given the right premise and atmosphere.

i like the idea of eternal darkness of your character going insane effects the player as well. the more trauma your character goes through, the more it makes you question whats real and whats not.

think of this. if we do that room idea and its just 1 person, that person lets say is panicing. they are fearful of the outside. they hear a window crack and they freak out but calm down. they go to the window and in their mind see a dark figure. as you are the player seeing what they see, you will see that dark figure briefly as well. there was neevr anything there but becasue your character thinks there was something there, you do to.

something like that would have to be used very sparingly but it does add this effect of, what if you can't even trust what you see and hear. something like that would add in this whole new layer of fearing whats never been there in the first place.


also, i like the idea of the game not having background music at all but only shows the noice of the world. sometimes dead silence can be the most scariest thing there is for when there is nothing, it makes you think something will come.
i do think that like maybe in 1 level there could be a dungeon type of level where your going through levels and levels of tourtured souls and your hearing the sounds of agony and to add in this horrorble fealing, one of the characters is singing along to the screams as if it was music to them. i think something like that when you've built up this bond and trust with this character shattering when you realize, they've lost it and theres nothing you can do for them except prey getting them out can cure them.


what do you think? those ideas could work?