What is the appeal of horror games?

[GeneralFungi]

Yes, it's as simple as the thread title. As a kid, in my sort of closed off mind I had 2 kinds of genres I completely avoided. FPS, RPG and horror games. (I know, I was missing a lot). Now a days, I can actually get into certain RPG and FPS games just fine. But what I've never touched was the horror genre. I know as a kid I probably wouldn't pick up that kind of game anyways, but when I started getting a bit older and wiser I decided to try my hand to get into certain games I wouldn't normally get into. (The main games I played as a kid were platformers, RTS and racing games.)

I tried playing a few horror games a friend recommended, and I really didn't enjoy myself at all. I think that some people simply like the adrenaline boost, or the 'rush' that horror gives, but I just get really stressed out. I don't think that I'm a particularly jumpy person. I can handle the usual fears like spiders, heights, etc. but horror games I just cannot enjoy myself with.

Any thoughts? Or am I just a cry baby? That's possible..

 

[Strain42]

Like you said, a lot of people appreciate the rush. The atmosphere of a horror game is usually its biggest appeal. I'm not a big horror game fan because...well...I suck at them.

 

[GeneralFungi]

Which titles did you try? Horror is very difficult to do.

I really only have 2 experiences with horror games. One of them was R.L.H. (Run like hell) for the ps2. From what I have seen of dead space, it actually plays out in a very similar manner. You were a part of a space shuttle, and you met a few of your coworkers and mingled before you were sent away on a mission. You come back 1 week later and everything has gone to hell.

I was really young when I tried this; like 8. I'm not really a screaming kind of guy; but I still didn't enjoy the stress it put me under. That was my first experience with horror. I didn't play for a long time after that in particular.

Then somewhat recently, a friend of mine coaxed me into Amnesia. He let me play through it for a little while to sort of demo it. I played through one chapter, because I know he would get on my back about not getting very far, but I was finished. I didn't find it very thrilling. I just found it once again stressful, and a little bit depressing.

I am a bit more resistant to horror movies, however. I don't particularly like them, but I've watched a few. I don't find horror movies too bad.

 

[BiggyShackleton]

I'm not a massive fan of horror games but I can honestly say some of the moments in these kind of games where something is chasing you that can't be killed? (Dead Space in particular, I've heard there are several of these in Amnesia as well despite not playing it) I love how intense these moments can get.

 

[Lucem712]

It is a-lot easier (For me, at least) to get that horror/anxiety rush from old video games. I remember being a kid and watching my brother play Resident Evil 2. The moment when you are walking in the police station and you hear that dripping...then the camera pans up and bam! Licker! God, that still gets me.

I think it has to do with the old control that makes it absolutely terrifying.

Captcha: 'In the club'

 

[burgbrand22]

Some horror games are just better at doing certain things than the horror movies out there. Better at scaring you, and better at bringing the action. The idea behind Dead Space is a perfect fit for a video game, as you have to decide on how to survive your way inside dark rooms, tight corridors and abandoned buildings filled with hideous monsters; worse of all, you're all alone on this creepy adventure.

I think some excellent horror games out there, like Dead Space 2, does things that movies can't duplicate, and probably why it has a strong appeal for some folks.

 

[RedFeather1975]

The appeal might be that you are, for the most part, fighting your fears more than a physical entity the game pits against you.
Searching barely lit spooky places, wondering what's going to happen next, can be more intense than fighting a boss monster.
Also in horror games when you do encounter a physical creature, the game can make it so a single bear is now the scariest thing in the universe, like they did in Condemned 2.
Holy crap. Bears a scary.

 

[StarCecil]

It is a-lot easier (For me, at least) to get that horror/anxiety rush from old video games. I remember being a kid and watching my brother play Resident Evil 2. The moment when you are walking in the police station and you hear that dripping...then the camera pans up and bam! Licker! God, that still gets me.

I think it has to do with the old control that makes it absolutely terrifying.

Captcha: 'In the club'

I have to be honest. The old-school Capcom intro, from the original Resident Evil games, it still makes me piss myself.

 

[Ectoplasmicz]

It's the rush. The excitement! I love playing horror games simply because I enjoy the challenge of getting through them (eg. Amnesia). Games that are genuinely frightening often bring the best out of my imagination.

But if you don't enjoy them, not a problem!

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

There aren't a lot of real horror games out there. A lot of them are more like, stuff jumps out at you and yells boo, which isn't really horror to me.
I think a lot of people just enjoy the rush and the mind fuckery of a good horror game.

 

[daveman247]

bears in condemned 2!.

Man, that part scared me. DID NOT expect a bear to break into the cabin.

OT: Sounds to me like it just isnt your kind of genre. They are MADE to be stressful. Thats why they are fun


In my opinion there are two main flavours:

-Panic: These horror games rely more on gore/ stressful combat situations to scare you. These are your resident evils and dead spaces. More panicky scared rather than "stays with you all night"

-Psycological: Relys less on combat and focuses more on creating an unsettling atmosphere and disturbing scenes. These would be the silent hill games project zero/ fatal frame.

Silent hill series being my favourite, you NEVER know what is coming around the next corner!

Even SH4 was great. The save room could become haunted making you dread going back there.


Problem with horror games: Only good for ONE playthrough usually. Once you know what is coming, isnt scary anymore.

 

[algalon]

One of my favorite horror games was The Suffering. If it was updated with HD graphics I'd snatch it up in a second. The game had it all - jump-out scares in the form of delusions of the warped mind of your character - Torque, grossout scares like coming upon guards that had been mutilated and are choking on their last breath, atmosphere - the game was set in a prison - and depth of story which dug into wartime experimentation as well as the remnants of tragedies occurring before the prison was built. Things like the fire witches you face later in the game - ghosts of little girls that were burned at the stake. Think the twins in the Shining, but on fire. Plain creepy at first then they light up and attack. Plus it had a semi-ambiguous good vs evil approach that gave the game 3 endings based on your actions in the game. If the game had one flaw, it was the opening scene where the language used is pushed to almost comedic levels.

I never saw the appeal of Dead Space. It's almost entirely jump-out scares. When I play a horror game I want it to sit with me long after I've put the controller down. This is why I like The Suffering as well as the Silent Hill series. Jump scares are good for a rental, but without atmosphere it's not true horror.

 

[Fishyash]

I personally don't play Horror games either, I don't like being scared one bit, so being scared doesn't excite me, it stresses me out too. Fear as a whole fascinates me, but I really hate experiencing it compared to exasperation or sadness (which kinda improves a gaming experience for me if I feel either of them)

However, all kinds of entertainment, you don't always come to feel happy, you come to feel. You are capable of experiencing emotions that don't have to come from real life situations. IRL you're normally scared because something actually bad is about to happen to you. Gaming, fortunately, doesn't have that side effect.

 

[Kae]

Well I think it's the appeal of feeling a real emotion and getting a genuine reaction out of you, also as you said there is a rush to getting scared which makes things more tense and feel more compelling, sadly this mostly boils down to what kind of person you are because some people can get scared pretty easily by games, but others like me can't seem to get scared with anything, it's kind of annoying because I actually like getting scared but to be fair it mostly fails because I am unable to immerse myself on anything and because I generally don't react to anything.

 

[Bostur]

I prefer suspense or low-key horror. I don't like sudden scares much. I find that it has a carthaic effect cleansing the mind.

It's hard to explain really, since it is deeply psychological in the same way as symbolism.

 

[roushutsu]

What drew me into the horror game genre primarily were the stories they told. They tended to be a lot more personal than other games about saving the world and all that jazz. Silent Hill 2 is a great example of this. There are a lot of twists and turns that happen in the story, and everything that happens in it focuses on the main character's inner struggles and sins.

Some other horror games I enjoyed were the early Resident Evils, Fatal Frame, and Galerians (and I don't know many who had even heard of that game). It's just a shame that there are not a lot of new horror games out there anymore.

 

[tombman888]

Can't really say honestly... But from experience, it just feels really fun to be scared (In a controlled environment of course, such as a game)

 

[Rawne1980]

One of my favourite games was a "horror".

Parasite Eve 2 on the PS2.