Frictional Games Forum

I just played some of the game, and thought "what if we had guns?" And the more I thought of it, the less I like the idea.
What is scarier? Having some dog (or dogs) run after you with only a hammer/axe in your hand, 'or' see them from a distance, take out that gun; click to shoot/kill?

I think the click to shoot/kill would ruin too much of the tension. Because after all, these enemies only have malee attacks. No enemy in here as the ability to throw anything or shoot put posion, have objects fly at you (shown in the Doom 3 game; the spider boss).
It's all malee attacks. It'd be too much of an advantage.
Now I know some are saying, make the gun and ammo hard to find, and have so very few.
I'm not saying it'd ruin the game (unless you stocked up on a bit of ammo), but I can't say it'd make the game better.

Curious though, what do others think? Please vote. You obviously can reply stating reasons why you picked whatever option you picked.

I agree with you. If the player had a gun it would ruin the scary athmosphere. And make it unreal if he had more than few. Just think that one guy have: Pistol, UZI, Bazooka, Shotgun, Sawed-Off Shotgun, 10 Grenades, Sniper Rifle, Flame Thower, Baseball Bat, Minigun, AK-47, M16 and much more in he's jacket or backpack! Do you guys want that Penumbra is like that?!

I say: NO guns! Not even ONE!

I'd like to have a gun with very limited ammo, but used not only for combat, for puzzles aswell. I'd say, at beginning of EP 2, you find an empty gun. It gives you somewhat sence of safety, but then, you don't have ammo.

Just before a puzzle where you need to shoot something (I don't know, a chain holding something up?), you'd find a few bullets, like three or four. Then you'd have to shoot the ____ (chain in this case), if you fail, you have to load another bullet and try again. Then you'd have the remaining bullets for fights against enemies.

But really, no more than 5 bullets in the whole game, I don't want this to be a shooter either. But it feels silly that a whole underground complex with unknown reasons of existence doesn't have a single gun in it.

Maybe to us... 'Cause we don't know anything about the mine... (And the story)
But for Developers...

Perhaps guns weren't allowed because of the Dynamite incident in Episode 1 (A guy performed suicide with dynimite, attempting to hurt others in the process)

In my mod, I will likely either have:
A: some ammo you find
B: A handgun, with no ammo
Or C: Both of those, but the ammo is for a different gun.

This would be fun to mess with the player, making him/her think that there's a gun/ammo and you can shoot the gun if you find it.

If games are all the same, where do you draw the line that makes one better than another? Some may argue, but I think Doom 3 and FEAR are quite similar.

Both have one player (for the most part in FEAR), going in and fighting off enemies.
Both games have some form of PDA's, or voice messages, Video disc, hearing/seeing what (dead) people said.
Both have guns, grenades of some sort.
Both have an occasional person in there that you can interact with.

I understand that MAY NOT be enough to say they're very much alike, but alike enough.
With penumbra, it's quite different. It's closer to games like "7th Guest", but still quite different. Instead of the "cake puzzle", you have an actual puzzle that helps you advance farther, like putting a fuse in a barrel and lighting it to create an opening so you can go through. What game really is quite like this where you don't have all those guns, crazy puzzles, silly taunts (as I call them from Doom3), and so on and so forth?
I'm losing interest in games I considered my favorite, but this game has kept me pretty hooked, and I'm waiting for the second episode. that says quite a bit right there.

Maybe because the people in the bunker TOOK the guns?...

I have already posted this in another thread, but I though I may as well post it here with a little extra:


Also, I think it may be good to have some sort of low-power bolt gun SOLELY for puzzles. It could be powerful enough to say... knock a chain off an L shaped hook (not a U shaped), but not enough to do more than annoy the enemies. However, since it would really suck if you missed with all you're bullets so you couldn't continue, they would have to be extras. For example, a crate suspended from a crane by a chain: shoot the right place to knock the chain off, the box smashes as it hits the ground and you find some more flares or batteries or something inside.

Hmmm, no guns

unless it's REQUIRED, if the next episode and/or two have a gun or more, you don't have to use it, unless it's just too tempting .