Horror Elements in Games - what works?

[Priderage]

Hallo Escapists,

After taking a look at this thread:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.70638#697714
I saw that more people than just myself were enjoying the brainstorm of fantastic ideas to do with horror games, or more specifically, how to attain that effective, working horror feeling. There were ideas that were about shocking the player on different levels, highlighting their vulnerabilities, giving the player an overall intimidated and alone feeling and various other excellent ideas that would well and truly put a player on the edge of their seats while playing a game.

However, the point of that post was suggestion, but I propose harnessing the enjoyment of such a brainstorm to collect a sort of higher wisdom on what exactly is it that makes your heart beat faster and your mentality fragile whilst playing a horror game.

As a religious fanatic of System Shock 2, I can relate immediately the feeling of vulnerability. Admittedly, System Shock 2 might have been somewhat hampered by the large arsenal you could eventually obtain - but this did nothing against the sole fact that your ammunition is running out, your guns are starting to break and so far, disposable maintenance tools have been a thing without a source. Every single enemy that runs after you presents the chance for your trusty pistol to go "Click, click", leaving you completely defenseless against a titanic Rumbler, whom the idea of killing WITH your weapon made you take deep breaths to begin with.

The mere fact that the entire game is draining you with every single encounter, pickup and shot never escapes you, only serving to make the foes you meet threaten you on a resource level as well as your life, adding to a feeling that can closely resemble an inevitability in your being hunted down, totally weaponless with which to fight; near enough to helpless (save melee, but try that against a Rumbler!).

I ask you - what is it that has horrified you in a game; how can this best be achieved?

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

First off, I would like to say that I love the fact that you are a System Shock 2 fan and that you appreciate weapon degradation in that game which finally makes me not the only person in the world to have liked that.

Also while this may seem really dumb, but I also think what you can't see can also terrify you. Sure for Doom 3 people complained about the lack of light, but I loved it. Hell that's one of the things that made the Doom series scary was the lack of light. What can really be scary is that you even hear your enemy before you see them.

Then there was FEAR. Yes the little girl was scary, but why? Other than the fact she can make people evaporate into a bloody mist she was mysterious. The shadow of the character frightens you and she always appears out of nowhere. After a while it became more or less expected once you noticed that scary shit happened every time your radio when wacky, yet they always managed to have her pop out in the most unexpected places.

Speaking of unexpected how about Condemned: Criminal Origins. That game really terrified the hell out of me until the very end (okay after you beat Serial Killer X in the house it stopped being quite as scary). Then there where the mannequins in the Department Store level. Once you noticed that some of them could move you started getting paranoid about every one of them you saw. Then they have that part where you see a group of them across a pit and think nothing of it and continue walking. A few steps down and you notice that they moved closer suddenly as you are walking the lights flicker for a bit and all of a sudden they have surrounded you. Yet the strangest thing is that they weren't alive at all. You start to wonder how they could have gotten there. Then you realize that the game has gotten you. It inserted that paranoia in you and I love the game for it.

So, what can games do to be really scary. In those scary games I have played it can be as complex as creating a paranoia about certain things about a game. Sometimes it can be a string of well executed surprises around every corner. Of course sometimes it can also be as simple as a little bit less light.

Pretty much that. ^ ( I channel yahtzee each day.)

Anyways, I have troubles walking through department stores cause of condemned... You know trouble not wanting to go physco not scared cause they're mannequins about.

 

[HombreMan]

there are some cultural issues also, VG: i was playing Fatal Frame (I and II), it was a great game, but not as terrifying as i heard (except for the ghost children, diox, i hate ghost children, like in "the orphanage") mostly because there was a cultural schism, all of the "pantsgetwet" moments are heavily surrounded by japanese elements so they were teatrically good but was hard to me to show reaction (specially fear). But punt me in an abandoned XVI century church (http://www.olimfilo.org.ar/FILOINT/1700/iglesia%20de%20anillaco.jpg) some upside down crosses and bloody pentagrams and surely gonna crap myself

 

[dee_dubs]

I've rarely found FPSs to be any good at the horror aspects, mostly because they give you a gun that can deal with anything that's coming to get you. If you feel that you know the environment and you can kill whatever is coming you way, you won't be afraid. Take just one of these away, however, and the fear can start.

One of the best horror sections in a game I've played is a section in Bioshock, where you find enemies coated in what looks like plaster, so at a glance they look like statues. There were statues all around, and none of the did anything for ages, then they start moving around. You find yourself spinning around to find a statue, and you have maybe a second to twig that it wasn't there a moment ago before it comes alive and tries to kill you. It reminded me a lot of the 'Blink' episode from the new Doctor Who.

 

[KefZ_X]

Condemmed was easy and non scary for me Fear makes me want to scream in a department store when I see a little girl in a red dress with long black hair walking past singing "la la lala la"

 

[Ralackk]

The haunted house in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines was very well done in regards to a horror/scare aspect. I think it was a combination of atmosphere, music and building of suspense that made it so great. You literally spend minutes in that game with nothing to kill and things moving in the corner of your vision.

At least this is what I remember, haven't played it in years its just always stuck with me.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Scary level for me was Mission 15- The Old Cathedral, from Thief The Dark Project. Talking buildings = Scary shit.

Terror is dependent on the unknown.

 

[meatloaf231]

Just about every aspect of the first Condemned game.

 

[Shadowtek]

I find that suspense wit a touch of horror works wonders with the mind.

 

[Copter400]

Well aside from jump-scares and vulnerability, you can't go wrong with a total mind-fuck. Take Condemned, and its creepy-arse mannequin level. A mannequin is a little unnerving in its natural state; how about when it follows you around the room and turns into an angry hobo?

And don't get me started about the corpse Splicers in Bioshock...

Oh, and welcome to City Seve - I mean, the Escapist.

 

[Priderage]

Condemned is a perfect example, come to think of it - as Yahtzee put it, it's fear of the unknown that challenges you on a higher level - semantics - as well as your wits. It's one thing to be scared, and to be hunted by quick creatures that pounce and claw at your face, but to not know why generates this painfully present helplessness, this certain feeling of having things outside of your control and simply being something caught in a giant, grand scheme, the scale of which dwarfs you and forms a greater idea of how small and weak you are in this nighmare you've gotten yourself into.

Speaking of isolation, two points make a straight line, and to that end, I can tell you now that what doesn't make a horror game is being able to radio base every second second and ask them what they're having for tea tonight.

Finally, YES. The white Splicers in the Sander Cohen chapter of BioShock were exceptionally unnerving - especially that part in the ladies' bathroom...I actually saw the shadow on the wall and took a full minute preparing myself to go around the corner, so we can count a wholesome success right there on that aspect.

Actually, P.S.. One of the times I thought that I was well and truly scared out of my wits was in S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl. Two parts - when you first enter the underground area, and I can safely say that it's entirely to the designer's merit rather than a fluke or my own easily-scared...ness? But the point was the radar number that displays how many enemies there are in a single area - this number is always quite accurate, so when I wandered into a new area, not a soul in sight or not a single sound being made, and it registers that nine people are watching me, how do you think I reacted - a nonchalant skip through the room? Or prowling with my back to a wall? Only to be ambushed by a quasi-invisible Bloodsucker anyway; of course, having not seen one, I immediately fashioned a house for smurfs with the bricks I "laid" thereafter.
And secondly, the last part of that particular level with the strange PSI-attacking creature. No, not Ness from EarthBound, but that crazy THING that makes a bloodcurdling noise as you're about to leave, and when you turn to see what it was, suddenly your vision FLIES out of your eyes and straight into what you can only see to be a dark outline of some THING assaulting you. The sheer well-crafted moment of it made me Alt-F4 and decide to play this sometime in the morning. With the lights on. And my mother cuddling me.

Edit: Thank you, Copter! I'm actually stunned this thread generated such interest.

 

[stompy]

For horror to work, I say that it needs to be a complete mind fuck for the experience to be scary throughout. Sudden jumps here and there do scare, but after a while, you can sort of predict it. Though, with mind fucks, like Alma's shadow, the mannequins in Bioshock, etc, the scares instil paranoia into the player, keeping them on edge, making even the littlest thing pants-wetting scary.

That, and good sound. I cannot stress this enough, but sound is instrumental in setting up the atmosphere for a good scare. Just as the eerie track will set the player on end, so too will no sound. I remember reading this about FEAR: one of the people working on the game stated that no music means that the player's mind fills in the role, and as the mind is the perfect tool to scare, as it knows all your fears and the best way to scare you, you get even more scared.

That, and I'm a complete coward. Gah, I'm getting completely freaked by FEAR at the moment, and had to steel myself for Bioshock.

 

[Priderage]

That, and good sound. I cannot stress this enough, but sound is instrumental in setting up the atmosphere for a good scare.

I remember two things suddenly: in System Shock 2, the eggs generate this extremely unnerving pulsating buzzing noise, and it made my heart beat a little faster to hear it. The same can be said for the Cybord Midwives; admittedly they weren't nearly as terrifying as when they died, making this GODAWFUL SHRIEK, like a woman of machine having her face torn off in the most violent way.

Unfortunately, the Cybord Midwife wasn't as petrifying as I knew she COULD have been. Her lines were all good ("BABIES NEED FRESH MEAT!", "They grow up so faszzzt...") but there was nothing about her that struck me as particularly *dangerous*, which is a terrible shame, as everything else about her was quite nerve-wracking - voice, look, background, etc.

 

[Morderkaine]

Fear was not scary - it was creepy the first little bit with the little girl, or the wierd visions, but it so quickly became apparent that each time it happened you were in no danger so all the fear or creepyness dissapeared quickly.
Doom 3 failed on so many levels. It relied on darkness and the sheer stupidity of making the game difficult or 'scary' by having you walk down a corridor then the secret door opens up behind you to unleash the monsters. Or the teleport in or other crap.
Clive Barkers undying was far more creepy because all the nasty scary looking creatures in the darkness could hurt you, and it had scenes like hearing the undead singing of the one sister well in advance of approaching her lair.... And the Tibetan War Cannon shaped like a dragons head- that darn weapon made me jump more that the bad guys at first cause it randomly came alive and snarled at nothing!
But the most scary or creepy game, I have to say Theif 3, the level called The Cradle. An orphanage turned asylum. The background info you find throughout the level adds to the feeling, and the extra sound effects and background noises, plus the design of the goal of the level and enemies was so expertly done. I dont want to put in spoilers, but when I first played that level, I was in the fearful, creeped out, shivering in the darkness mode for quite a while. The first section of the level will surprise you, and I wont say why. The rest of the game isnt scary, but that one level... oh man. Clive Barkers Undying is the only other one to actually creep my out in any way.
Bioshock had some good moments with Splicers talking to each other, or muttering about things, makes it more real.
Now I know this is about what works, but thats spoilers... lets just say while first entering The Cradle, the attic door banging and banging in the distance, as you slowly home in on the noise and approach it, and know you have no where else you can go...
And background noise is a huge one. When its a cue for a creature about to attack, its not as good as when it is theme inspired. Example: im less freaked out by the snort of a demon, than I am of the whispered babies cry when I peer into a crib with a ash filled urn in it in place of the baby....
Its nearly impossible for a game to truly scary these days unless its played by the young, but to really creep people out is the next step and that works.

Condemned two had one spot in it that got me good ill admit... There was a section where you are walking in a narrow part with black ooze covered walls, and there is a body extruding out of the wall right next to where you have to walk. So Im so focused on watching the body, expecting it to move... and as I walk past fall through a broken board - now that suprised me! talk about bait and switch.
In your face terror doesnt work - no matter how scary looking the demon its not scary its a game, its all about the SUBTLE psychological effects that work these days. And making the enemy appear right behind you unexpectedly is crude, not scary just annoying and makes the game hard for no good reason.
Also, it has to be unique - the scary suprise baddie or trick that got you once becomes nothing really fast when there are 20 in the level, then its routine.

 

[Aries_Split]

Condemned 2, in the second level, the hotel, when your walking through it, and your vision goes black and white, and you notice a mannequin blocking a wall. I looked at it, turn around, and BAM, 5 more. I walk out in the hall, turn around, more blocking the doorway. It was at the point I turned off my PS3 and cried myself to sleep.

 

[Faster76]

well the only scary part about fear was the girl it reminded me of the RING,but i guess thats what the game literally revolved around

what makes a good horror game is the atmosphere and the types of music and sound,ever played condemned while muted? didnt do anything
sound and choice of atmospheric music is vital for the horror genre

 

[Radelaide]

Is it weird that I'm playing BioShock for the 3rd time and it still scares the beejeezuz outta me?

 

[poleboy]

The haunted house in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines was very well done in regards to a horror/scare aspect. I think it was a combination of atmosphere, music and building of suspense that made it so great. You literally spend minutes in that game with nothing to kill and things moving in the corner of your vision.

At least this is what I remember, haven't played it in years its just always stuck with me.

That's the worst one for me too. All the elements are so classic, you've seen them in horror movies a million times (strange writing on the wall when the lights come back, someone behind you when you turn around), but they just WORKED! All of them. It was creepy as hell.

Another horrifying moment for me was that big fucking face in Silent Hill 4. It's not that scary when I think about it, it just freaked me out because it was so surreal and unexpected.

And I really gotta get my hands on Condemned 2, I think... I love me some horror. FEAR too. You can get both for PC, right?