I've spent so much time reporting bugs and glitches, I feel like I should balance it out by proclaiming my love for SCP:CB and my favorite aspects in the game. Join me!

First, I think SCP:CB constitutes a great addition to the growing genre of survival horror video games. One can trace the origins of the genre back to the release of Clock Tower in 1995 and we've certainly seen a spike in recent years with great new exponents like the Penumbra series and Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Forbidden Sirens, Outlast... One could also mention the Resident Evil or Silent Hill series, but I'm particularly interested in what I think are the most hardcore representatives of this vein — games with no weapons! This feature not only radically departs from the structure of most FPSs — as the very name indicates: supposedly, first-person shooters — it also evacuates a key features of such games and allows the developers, including non-professional ones, to focus on other aspects of the games — the ambience, the music, the flight mechanics... Let's also think of all the Slenderman and other SCP games!

With that in hand, a game like SCP:CB can really help bring to life, almost literally, certain SCPs. There are great families of SCPs as we all sense after reading a few record files: strange creatures, strange humanoids, strange objects, alternate universes... For me, some of the most fear-inducing ones are those endowed with memetic properties (like SCP-426, the toaster, or SCP-1963, the very funny slingshot) since they alter human beings' behavior in eerie, sudden and invisible ways — watch your kind, loving sister grab an SCP and suddenly go ax crazy and try to murder you, good luck with your later counseling. On the other hand, the thought of a werewolf, an shadow killer or a viral cockroach rarely make me shiver.

But that's where the strength of SCP:CB comes to the fore. For instance, I knew neither SCP-096 nor SCP-939 before playing the game, and encountered them... well, the hard way. The hard, rough, bloody way. See, I'm pretty sure that if I had read their respective record files beforehand, I would've probably gone "meh." A shy and invincible guy and some mimicking lizards I can't even picture well; gee whillikers. Well, SCP:CB brought me real deal. God, those hysterical screams when SCP-096 enters an emotional state! ... Nightmare fuel galore. As for SCP-939... I watched a few playthroughs before daring to touch the game myself, truth be told... and I think that Storage Area 6 has to be one of the scariest places in the game, if not the scariest. The Groaning Ambience, the darkness, the eerie human calls, the threat of SCP-106 popping up while you're in the middle of it all... Oh! They are you are!

And what are the things you love about SCP:CB?

If you asked me 4 years ago I would've said that Containment Breach is a masterpiece of the horror genre and that no other game comes closer to it in perfection. However, over the years it's gotten increasingly stale to the point where I just see it as a buggy indie horror game on an outdated engine. There are far superior horror games to this one now, and I feel anyone who says that CB somehow redefined horror has no idea wtf they're talking about (or they're Lotims).

Containment Breach was never as popular as everyone seems to think it was. Its biggest spike in popularity was from 2012-2014, and that was just because big youtubers were playing the game at the time. After that (and arguably due to 1.0's launch) it faded out of obscurity.

The best way to describe Containment Breach is that it was a programmer's experiment gone somewhat viral. It's clear from how 0.1 was designed that Regalis only intended this to be a simple horror as a means to get his feet wet in the world of game development. CB definitely filled him in that department and now he's moving on to a much more stable product that actually has the promise of cash flow at the end of it. Considering that, it seems at least in Regalis' eyes (bear in mind I don't actually know what he thinks and I could be completely wrong) that Containment a Breach has run its course.

That doesn't necessarily mean we have to completely abandon the game and lose all hope of future content, but it irks me that some people are still holding the game to this high stature as if it were a gift from the heavens and not getting an update every 5 minutes is utter hell. Whether or not you like it is subjective but this isn't genre-redefining art being done here.

Lorie Biscuit wrote:we've certainly seen a spike in recent years with great new exponents like the Penumbra series and Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Forbidden Sirens, Outlast... One could also mention the Resident Evil or Silent Hill series, but I'm particularly interested in what I think are the most hardcore representatives of this vein — games with no weapons!

I never understood this notion that having defense-mechanisms in a horror game somehow makes it less scary. Have you actually played Silent Hill 1-3 or Resident Evil 1-4? All of these games manage to incorporate combat into well over half of their gameplay. Classic Resi works by making ammo and save points scarce, always creating a sense of tension and making every encounter a terrifying feat.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have Penumbra: Overture, which loses any horror factor because you can just kill every enemy in the game with your pick axe, and even if you do die in this situation you end up more frustrated than spooked. So yes, weapons can actually detract from a game's scare factor, but that doesn't mean they can't work in the genre.

I enjoy some classic Slender, FNAF, Amnesia and Outlast as much as the next guy, but to say they are "the most hardcore representatives of this vein" is a tad over dramatic.

Lorie Biscuit wrote:it also evacuates a key features of such games and allows the developers, including non-professional ones, to focus on other aspects of the games — the ambience, the music, the flight mechanics

I'd agree with this notion if Silent Hill 2 didn't exist and 90% of all indie horrors online weren't extremely corny.

Lorie Biscuit wrote:With that in hand, a game like SCP:CB can really help bring to life, almost literally, certain SCPs. There are great families of SCPs as we all sense after reading a few record files: strange creatures, strange humanoids, strange objects, alternate universes...

If there is something I could take from Containment Breach, it's that it introduced a lot of people to the SCP Foundation, which IMO reading through is a much better experience than just playing CB. It contains entries/tales that are comedic, mysterious, terrifying, disgusting, and many any other adjectives so there's something for everybody. And fuck me if they are elitist when it comes to quality, this site contains some of the best writing for creepy pastas that the Internet ever put out.

Sorry if I kinda bursted the potential size of this thread's bubble. If you or anyone else like Containment Breach then that's great, more power to you. Even I'd be stupid to say I still don't hold some nostalgic bias towards this game. But we should still be able to recongnize this game's flaws and its purpose of being a programmer's experiment.

tl:dr I mentioned I like FNAF somewhere in this thread so I saved someone the trouble of finding a dumb reason to shoehorn their hate of it into this thread.

Thanks a lot for the background information, Commander Mark. I can't say I've followed the game's development over a long period of time; I mostly heard of it during the spike you identified (that's when I discovered Tobuscus, PewDiePie and many others, so here as well a confirmation of what you wrote: the intermediaries helped a lot) and it's impressive to think this has been going on for so long.

CommanderMark wrote:That doesn't necessarily mean we have to completely abandon the game and lose all hope of future content, but it irks me that some people are still holding the game to this high stature as if it were a gift from the heavens and not getting an update every 5 minutes is utter hell. Whether or not you like it is subjective but this isn't genre-redefining art being done here.

This sounds like a paradoxical stance... So on the other hand they love SCP:CB, but on the other hand they whine about updates all the time?

CommanderMark wrote:I never understood this notion that having defense-mechanisms in a horror game somehow makes it less scary. Have you actually played Silent Hill 1-3 or Resident Evil 1-4? All of these games manage to incorporate combat into well over half of their gameplay. Classic Resi works by making ammo and save points scarce, always creating a sense of tension and making every encounter a terrifying feat.

I did play several Resident Evil exponents although only the first Silent Hill opus. And while the latter did strike me as particularly distressing and its ambience really struck me, neither SH nor the RE games have ever produced the same effect on me as games like Amnesia, SCP:CB, SCP-087 or other such weaponless instances could. The sheer fact of being armed has always shielded my mind from (some of) the horrific aspects of the games I played — perhaps unwisely so: I can't say I always beat those games even if I enjoy the use of a weapon.

You're right: I forgot to mention FNAF. While it's perhaps the series of horrific survival game I least appreciate, one can't deny it conquered a very large audience.

CommanderMark wrote:Sorry if I kinda bursted the potential size of this thread's bubble. If you or anyone else like Containment Breach then that's great, more power to you. Even I'd be stupid to say I still don't hold some nostalgic bias towards this game. But we should still be able to recongnize this game's flaws and its purpose of being a programmer's experiment.

Well I just wanted to have a look at the bright side of the game, but I guess I might have overanalysed things and you had to correct some of them for the sake of truth itself. ^^ That being said, you do sound weary... You haven't entirely lost faith in SCP:CB, have you?

SCP:CB will always hold a special place in my heart. It's a horror game, it's purpose is to scare, and when you're playing it for the first time, I think it does that extremely well. It might be reaching the end of its development lifespan, and I hope that's not true, and with a promising port on the way it might not be. But even if it is, it had a good run. Maybe the forums aren't as lively as they were on July 30th 2014, but I'll always have the memories of lurking on the forums, waiting for the next update to come out. Thanks for all the fun and scares SCP:CB

-nightscout01

Lorie Biscuit wrote:

CommanderMark wrote:That doesn't necessarily mean we have to completely abandon the game and lose all hope of future content, but it irks me that some people are still holding the game to this high stature as if it were a gift from the heavens and not getting an update every 5 minutes is utter hell. Whether or not you like it is subjective but this isn't genre-redefining art being done here.

This sounds like a paradoxical stance... So on the other hand they love SCP:CB, but on the other hand they whine about updates all the time?

I think you misread:

CommanderMark wrote:and not getting an update every 5 minutes is utter hell.

I like SCP:CB for being a horror game that has a actual backstory, which many other horror games are lacking.
It was SCP:CB which brought me to the main SCP wiki and it's lore, making me a fan of the Foundation lore in general, not just the game.
Another thing I love about this game is that with every release, it gets even better.
I always like beIng hyped when a new major release with new stuff comes out and now that SCP:CB has three developers rather than one, I an quite sure that there still are many great updates ahead.

I'd like to thank everyone involved for making this game into what it is today, a horror game that, although not perfect, is still amongst the better horror games out there.

With Minecraft and SCP:CB I have some sort of 'permanent fatigue':

I come back to the game after it has received (a) big update(s), or after a period of 6 months to a year, yet even when I get to know the new updates I find the game is still the exact same thing to me and I leave it instead.

Even though SCP:CB isn't fragile anymore and doesn't crash on every little false bit, I find it tedious and boring still.

Maybe I just don't like SCP:CB's layout and Minecraft's wide-open sandbox with landmines.

I love open world games, especially those with massive emphasis on atmosphere. Metroid in particular was founded on these two aspects, and horror games basically rely on it to keep the player on edge. SCP:CB specifically seemlessly combines the qualities of both of these subjects (without really any intention of said happening). Also, instead of focusing on a single SCP like many other games of the subject, it puts together as many as it can that provide some sort of purposeful addition (with the exception of those like SCP-1025 which I don't really mind because they provide an air of depth to the game, it's just too bad they're so useless). And there's no real emphasis on story, but that's a good thing. The story in itself is somewhat a collectible, which is something I love about the Metroid Prime Trillogy. If you want to play the game and skip the story, you can, but if you want to get the story, you can do that too.

All that said, CommanderMark pretty much hit the nail on the head. This game is pretty much a crap shoot. Nothing is completed with the exception of a few things. Now, I know the game isn't even advertised as complete yet, but there are a few things that definitely should have been done in a more completed manner. Take SCP-106 for example. Even though he's received a lot of attention, he still feels very incomplete to me, and many I've talked to around here (like Mr Whiskers (again, too lazy to check if that's his proper username)) agree.

In my opinion, this whole game should be started over again... from a coding standpoint. It would be much easier than going through class for class and optimizing everything one thing at a time. Not necessarily use a different engine, though. I think B3d is kind of coupled with Containment Breach in a way at this point. Not to mention it's responsible for the feel it gives to Containment Breach. But I do think a healthy restart would do this game some good, and this time handled in a manner similar to how DoctorM64 handled AM2R.

That's just me though. I love coding, and have restarted my own fangame several times over because I didn't like the direction it was going in. I understand 99.99% of programmers would rather use pre-existing code as much as they can. Nonetheless, I still love this game. I will play every update I can, and provide as much input as I can to help further its completion. Just because it's a beginner's project, doesn't mean it's a bad game. It just means naive mistakes were made, and crappy work-arounds were implemented. Speaking from experience, of course.