Horror in games

[JokerGrin]

The Silent Hill games have been the only ones to make me scared, as opposed to just making me jump. Like in Resident Evil 2 with that guy constantly smashing through the walls. That made me shit myself, but after I'd cleaned up and changed my underwear, the fright was gone.

That room in the hospital in Silent Hill 4 with a huge version of Eileen's head in it with messed up eyes made me feel physically sick, frightened and I was reluctant to carry on. THAT'S true horror. Anyone can do cheap scares.

 

[cobra_ky]

eternal darkness didn't scare me at all, aside from the momentary shock from either a sanity effect or the bathtub scene. mostly because you can kill almost anything by jogging behind it and wailing on it with a sword.

what DID scare me was parasite eve, when you get to the hospital basement and the power goes out.

also: drainpipes in Ravenholm.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

The thing with horror nowadays is that it is shock horror. In order to be that deep cutting horror you need something else. Its hard to really put your finger on what that is, but its out there.

For me, I feel that a true horror game doesn't need an overabundance of enemies. I mean, Clock Tower had one guy, but it felt like he was everywhere. You were trying to solve the case of him and all the while he's walking around in the same area as you. I remember in the school when he came into the bathroom after me and I hid in a stall. He walked out thinking I went elsewhere. Later, I tried to hide in there again, but he busted down the door and cut me up. It was just one guy, but the tension and suspense amounted to fear in me.

If I have to run and I can only stall the creature in pursuit of me, I'm absolutely terrified.

 

[SplicedUp068]

Really i don't find that many things in horror games are scary only because they take the human aspect out of it. make the bad guy a alien with fourteen limbs makes me think 'oh right this could totally happen' I loose any fear i once might have had.

 

[JokerGrin]

*Clock Tower*

Terrifying game. You're talking about the 3D one right? The ORIGINAL Clock Tower was only released in Japan, on the SNES, in 2D, and absolutely heart-stopping. I'm 22, into extreme horror and I actually had to have the sound right down and the light on.

This is through an emulator of course. I probably shouldn't be saying this, but I recommend getting zSnes and a copy of the ROM. Experience it!

I hated every minute of Silent Hill 2 and it's my favourite game of all time.

For me that suggests it was effective.

The only game story to make me cry. Fact. The sheer suspense and story make up for the frankly awful combat.

 

[Metalgamer81]

The trouble with most horror games is that monsters aren't scary if you're a superhero.

If you can shoot them dead, cut them down or beat them senseless, the monsters really aren't scary anymore.

The Silent Hill series does a pretty good job of severely limiting the player's ability to fight back without making the protagonist entirely powerless. Weapons like a pocket knife or a busted pipe really make me feel like I'm not prepared to fight monsters. These weapons aren't for taking down the bad guys, they're for survival. Swing and run! Even when you get a pistol ammunition is so scarce that the player is hesitant to use it.

This is where I feel many horror games go wrong, especially the big ones like the RE series. The first RE was hella scary at the start, but once you get to the point where you're carrying more guns and ammo than your local sporting goods store the zombies lose their scare factor.

Clock Tower 3 was pretty good at bringing the fear. You play as a totally helpless character trying to solve mysteries while being chased by seemingly omnipotent murdering monsters. Unfortunately, this is totally ruined by the boss battles that give you a magic bow & arrow. It smacks the immersion upside the head and tosses it out the door.

Fatal Frame was the best horror game series I've ever played. You're in a scary place with spooky things constantly going on all around you... and your only weapon is a camera! When you do have to "fight" with ghosts, you are forced to look through the camera lens... it keeps the player immersed and it's all kinds of scary. I strongly recommend that series to anyone who likes a good scare.

 

[Metalgamer81]

Well don't do what FEAR did. In FEAR you would have a standard shooter level in a boring complex and then towards the end the game is like: "But look we're horror too" then flickers the lightswitch and throws a creepy little girl at you for a minute.

The horror elements should be integrated rather than added as an afterthought.

I was disappointed with the "horror" elements in FEAR. Again though, like my post above says, when I'm totally omnipotent I can't be afraid. The bits of the game that threw the player into some kind of alternate reality were pretty freaky, but not to the point that they were actually scary. Even if a player did find it scary, unfortunately the scare factor was almost entirely eliminated once the "ghosts" and "demons" became tangible. Ghouls aren't scary if you can shoot them in the face.

It's kind of like how The Ring was scary as hell because you couldn't see the killer. You knew she existed, but she wasn't real. She was never on camera until the end. The Ring 2 was all kinds of not scary because the killer became tangible. Once she began crawling up walls like spider-man I was beyond disappointed. What's scary about a little girl? She's right there. She's crawling up walls. You could kick her in the teeth. That is not scary.

FEAR was a good tactical shooter, though. I felt like the gameplay was pretty engaging, but it got tiresome after a while. The whole hide, shoot, grenade, hide, shoot, reload, grenade, etc. routine got stale.

 

[Hunde Des Krieg]

Those times when your character won't seem to go fast enough away from something giant and horrible. Like in RE4 when you fight del lago and you fall out of the boat and just seem to barely move at all to get back in.

 

[PureChaos]

Shadow Man: Playrooms and the Cathedral of Pain. plus those things with the meat hooks. it was so scary

 

[Mr.Pandah]

*Clock Tower*

Terrifying game. You're talking about the 3D one right? The ORIGINAL Clock Tower was only released in Japan, on the SNES, in 2D, and absolutely heart-stopping. I'm 22, into extreme horror and I actually had to have the sound right down and the light on.

This is through an emulator of course. I probably shouldn't be saying this, but I recommend getting zSnes and a copy of the ROM. Experience it!

I hated every minute of Silent Hill 2 and it's my favourite game of all time.

For me that suggests it was effective.

The only game story to make me cry. Fact. The sheer suspense and story make up for the frankly awful combat.

Yeah, I was talking about the 3D one on the PS1. I find it intriguing that a 2D game for the SNES was considered "heart-stopping" by someone who considers themselves into extreme horror. What exactly made it so scary?

 

[PirateKing]

One thing where I was actually kind of terrified was in Metroid Fusion. I felt really isolated on that space station with something extremely agressive and powerful that is actively hunting me.
I think horror and action are blending togethor too much these days. If you can defend yourself well then you're not really gonna be afraid of the monsters no matter how horrifying they are.
Maybe sort of a sandbox game where you're like in a slasher movie or something. You can use various improvised weapons but you're up against psycho killers, trying to escape from a desolate city or something. Like a combination of Dead Rising and Silent Hill.

 

[Serenius]

The only game that really seemed to capture the true feel of horror was the original Silent Hill. Partially because of the atmosphere and unpredictable shifting from creepy foggy town to fucking insane-o chain-link land, partially because the hero is inept and even stumbled if you tried to run over a drop off, and lastly because you start out the game getting fucking raped to death by psychotic babies.

Dead Space had it going for about the first 30 minutes, but the moment you got your hand on a weapon and saw how easy it was to cut through necromorph limbs, the horror aspect was largely gone, leaving only the tense "can I seriously pull this shit off" moments the rest of the game.

 

[Stewie Plisken]

I was terrified for a good portion of the first Silent Hill, although it kind of wore off after the Hospital. Kind of. My memories of Silent Hill 2 are a blur in the back of my head; I have reason to believe that it's a failsafe mechanism in my brain, to spare me from remembering what I experienced there.

How well horror is implemented depends largely on knowing what kind of horror you're supposed to make. If you do zombies, you focus on why exactly zombies are terrifying. The only kind of horror that works on me is the pure mindf***. Do that right and I stand no chance of not screaming like a little girl.

 

[peterwolfe]

Bioshock scarred the shit out of me for a while. In the beginning, when you're in the sub-thingy, with no weapons, and the splicer's trying to get in? Could've crapped mahself.
Dead Space had creepy moments, but on the whole it wasn't really that scary.

 

[whothefuckisalice]

Anyone remember the shalebridge cradle in thief deadly shadows? It was quite amazing without constantly throwing gore or bad guys at you.

 

[JokerGrin]

Yeah, I was talking about the 3D one on the PS1. I find it intriguing that a 2D game for the SNES was considered "heart-stopping" by someone who considers themselves into extreme horror. What exactly made it so scary?

It surprised me more, believe me. It's pacing is very slow for one thing, gives you plenty of time to listen to the sounds (basic but atmospheric) and watch every window and doorway. You play as a young orphan girl with no protection whatsoever, so the vulnerability is there.

Something about the killer absolutely creeps me out. I mean, obviously he's got an enormous pair of hedge clippers, that's rather worrying, but I mean just the simple fact he can pop out of anywhere at any time just keeps you constantly on edge. I remember going into one room to look in a box for an item, in the game before (I couldn't get saves to work) I'd found something useful there. This time however the Scissorman popped out, catching me completely off guard and I'm pretty sure I was actually trembling.

As I've said before I play it on an emulator in a SMALL window with the sound turned down. If you asked me to play it in the dark, full screen with the sound up I'd flatly refuse, unlike ANY other game. It's completely unique. Certainly not the BEST game I've played, but easily the scariest.

 

[Grimm91]

I would like a game that gets in your head. Makes you freak for no real reason, makes you feel totally alone and that if you were to die nothing would change. Some really mind bending visuals would help that.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Ravenholm. I can no longer play a video game without cautiously checking ever virtual corner for headcrabs.

 

[s-l-u-g]

The first silent hill was somewhat scary...


i think games today should stop focusing on shocking gore and focus more on psychological horro. For example, check out some Asian horror, that stuff really gets into your head. And sometimes you dont see a drop of blood!

Come to think of it, Condemned made me quite wary in the dark for a while... i still keep a heavy melee weapon just incase...