What makes a videogame scary?

[CrazedRaptor]

I try to avoid scary games. We don't mix. So the closest thing to wimp-scary I've gotten on my 360 is l4d2's Last Man on Earth. I know, I'm a wuss. but being completely alone, with Nick shouting 'where the hell are all you guys' every 10 minutes is creepy....

 

[ghostrider409895]

Immersion. Once you break the immersion the game instantly stops being scary. I remember playing Penumbra Overture the first hour I was scared out of my mind. Then I decided to run around throwing rocks at the zombie dogs and acting like an idiot and it somehow wasn't as scary.

Atmosphere is good and all but it's useless without immersion.

To me, when it comes to immersion, if I care about the character, and if I actually am trying to get him to live I will be scared by things because they will be endangering his life. If I am really trying to stay alive and win, things become threats and I will be weary of the threats. If I feel like messing around and just playing without really caring I probably will not be scared at all. I am not playing to survive so why should I really care about the consequence. The things that are threats do not worry me, because I do not care what they do; if I die so what, I was not playing with the intension of surviving anyway.

Basically put, if I care about the well being of the character I may get scared. If I do not care about what happens, and I do not care if I win or lose, I will not get scared because I do not care as much.

 

[Drakmeire]

In a video game as opposed to movie, when something scary happens you will be punished and possibly lose if you close your eyes and look away, in order to play you must be focused at all times, so if anything scary happens in a game you must think fast and do something about it. where as watching a movie you can just close your eyes and look away with no harm done.

 

[Moontrust]

I think it's the atmosphere and music combined with variety that makes video games scary. An awkward setting combined with music that catches you off guard sets the scene and without variety, any scare will get boring after a while.

 

[WorldCritic]

Atmosphere, pacing, little lighting, and maybe a rapist with a pyramid for a head stalking you around every corner.

 

[Vivace-Vivian]

Music can go a hella long way to make things scary. Silent Hill, anyone?

 

[ghostrider409895]

Atmosphere, pacing, little lighting, and maybe a rapist with a pyramid for a head stalking you around every corner.

You make a really good point by including pacing. I think some games really need to apply this. You can have a lot of horror and scary moments, but if you make it scary all the time, it loses its effect.

It is kind of like getting burnt out on something. It was fun the first few times, but after the tenth time or so, you see you are just doing the same thing over again. With scary moments, it has a huge effect the first few times, but once you see a guy getting his face ripped off for the sixth time, it just loses its awe. Sometimes you can avoid this by adding new ways of scarying the player, but problems arise if you try to be scary all the time. If you try to keep adding scary moments, you will eventually reapeat some of them, and if it is one after another it just gets dull. I have already done that, and now it is just getting annoying.

 

[Mar451]

Atmosphere, if you can make the reflection of someone coming in the door behind you make the player jump out of their chair you deserve applause

 

[Tharwen]

Every time the player works out what's going to happen, you make the environment change.

 

[ghostrider409895]

Vulnerability.

Why the hell should I be scared in Alan Wake when the enemies are piss-easy to kill, only pose a threat in large numbers and are announced with every arrival?

That is a pretty good point. The enemy can be as scary as it wants to be, and make as many moaning sounds as it wants, but if I have the power the crush it under my thumb I really do not care. That would quickly make a game go from being supposedly a thriller to just plain annoying. On the other hand, if you are a little kid and have to fend off monsters with a stick, it does add a raised sense of awareness to the situation.

 

[ghostrider409895]

Atmosphere, pacing, story, and sound. Make the player feel really helpless and lonely.
Also, F.E.A.R. 2 was shit. "Let's try to be scary ALL THE TIME!" I got bored after 30 minutes.

Does it really try to be scary all the time? That stinks, because I was looking forward to buying the game rather than just playing demos.

Pacing plays a big part, because the more you do something the less exciting it gets. I have seen it before, where something was really cool and scary the first time, and it was still slightly scary the second time, but by the third time I did not care as much, and after that it was just annoying and I wanted something new. You can have a lot of scary moments, but if you just keep shoveling them at me, it quickly gets old. It sucks to hear the F.E.A.R. 2 does that, but all I really had to go on was the demo and recomendations.

 

[ghostrider409895]

Atmosphere is the biggest factor in scares. I also find games in which you have no conventional method of killing the enemy to be scarier then games with weapons.

You do not get the obvious thing to kill with like a gun or knife, so you have to figure out waht could you use in the environment to kill with. That sounds like it could really add to a game, as long as it did not make the game too frustrating.

I think for some games, guns do make it too easy. Guns are fun in games, but it probably will add to a game if you had to kill something with something other than a weapon made for that. At least not giving a person a gun makes them not prepared to deal with the situation by only shooting at something. You actually have to think and react.

If you do not mind, what are some games that actually do that? What are some games that do not have you use conventional methods for killing the enemy?

 

[theSovietConnection]

Atmosphere is the biggest factor in scares. I also find games in which you have no conventional method of killing the enemy to be scarier then games with weapons.

You do not get the obvious thing to kill with like a gun or knife, so you have to figure out waht could you use in the environment to kill with. That sounds like it could really add to a game, as long as it did not make the game too frustrating.

I think for some games, guns do make it too easy. Guns are fun in games, but it probably will add to a game if you had to kill something with something other than a weapon made for that. At least not giving a person a gun makes them not prepared to deal with the situation by only shooting at something. You actually have to think and react.

If you do not mind, what are some games that actually do that? What are some games that do not have you use conventional methods for killing the enemy?

The best example I can think of at the moment is Echo Night: Beyond. The basic premise of the game is that you are on an abandoned lunar base filled with ghosts, and some areas of the base contain a fog that turns the ghosts evil. The only real weapon you are given to combat the evil ghosts are cards to activate ventilation systems which clear out the fog.

 

[ghostrider409895]

i would say those jump-in-your-face type moments. one good example (though i may just be a wimp); the first ever Resident Evil. walk around a corner expecting to find your partner that wandered off. and find him you do, plus your very first zombie jumping straight at your face.

I agree that those jump-in-your-face type moments do make you jump.

The only thing I do not like about some games is that they repeat those moments over and over again constantly and think that makes the game scary. When you do that, sure people will keep jumping, but you are not really scarying them, rather you are just startling them. There is a line between the two. If I am absorbed enough or really focusing in on something my dog could startle me. For those jump-in-your-face moments to be scary, they must rely on more than the intital shock alone. The thing, like the zombie, must also pose some sort of threat, and it never hurts to have a good setting and mood for the whole place.

Also, that does not make you a wimp. Fear is something that comes when you brain senses danger. Having that does not make you a wimp. As long as you can still face that fear, and not let it control you.

 

[ghostrider409895]

Music can go a hella long way to make things scary. Silent Hill, anyone?

What I really like about some games is that even when you are safe, there is still that music going on. It might not be as creepy as the music played when you are in danger, but it gives you that feeling of uneasy reality, where you think you are safe but then again you really do not know what to expect when you go here or do this task.

 

[ghostrider409895]

In a video game as opposed to movie, when something scary happens you will be punished and possibly lose if you close your eyes and look away, in order to play you must be focused at all times, so if anything scary happens in a game you must think fast and do something about it. where as watching a movie you can just close your eyes and look away with no harm done.

Good point. There is that big difference between watching a movie and playing a game. While in a movie, you do not control the fates of anyone and in the end whether the main characters live or die does not effect you. When you are playing a game, you are controlling the main character. You are in the game, and you are playing and trying to survive. If the main charactres die, you lose.

With a movie, you only sit there and watch, while possibly eating popcorn. With a game, you are doing much more than sitting and watching. You are actually interacting and playing. You are in control, which I think adds more connection making scaring a bit easier.

 

[ghostrider409895]

I try to avoid scary games. We don't mix. So the closest thing to wimp-scary I've gotten on my 360 is l4d2's Last Man on Earth. I know, I'm a wuss. but being completely alone, with Nick shouting 'where the hell are all you guys' every 10 minutes is creepy....

It kind of messes with your mind, doesn't it. You are all alone, so you are cut off with any interaction with anyone. That right there plays on the isolation bit. Even if you are in a war game where you are fighting people who can kill you, seeing actual people like yourself at least reminds you you are not alone.
Also, the character in the game is unnerved. Even if you were not scared before, to then see the character himself freaking out about the situation likely does not provide any comfort or reasurance that everything is alright.

 

[ghostrider409895]

I think that there are some games that scare me more than others. There are some games that scare me even after I stop playing them. Some fantasy games are not too scary, and some of the scifi horror is not too scary. If you rationalize and if you try to not be scared, you will not. Some games, thought, scare you because you totally know they can happen. Some of the war horror games or games that involve situations that are common kind of make you think for a moment. Grant it, it was in a videogame but this stuff does happen, and I think when you get that feeling to where you cannot rationalize around it, that makes a videogame, and movies and books too, a lot scarier than a game that is really out there.

 

[ghostrider409895]

Sometimes, when it comes to games, you just have to want the fear. You can always play a game objectively, and just look at it from a viewpoint of seeing it is a game, and I will play it. In a sense, all a game is are lines and lines of code, being read by a computer.

You have to take the intrest, and actually want to explore more. You have to be imersed in the game, to the point that it is no longer just a game. You actually want to find out more, and you actually care about what is going on because that can hinder you from playing the game out. Once you reach that point, where you actually become a part of the game, you are no longer just playing. You are immersed and it becomes something of a trial to explore and survive. In that moment, things get scary; not because they are no longer code, but becasue they are now a threat to you and they can harm you. You are immersed that you actually care about the creepy sounds you hear and the oddly movind shadows, and suddenly you start to feel that fighting chill.

 

[ghostrider409895]

What is the first thing that you experience in a game, using your five senses.
Usually it is sound. In horror, before you ever see the monster you always hear that russle behind you or that eerie music that tells you that something really scary is about to go down. Music really sets the level of fear, because when you hear the music suddenly change, or the instant you hear something odd, you know it is coming.

Sometimes, the music grows faster and faster in tempo, and as it does you slowly grow more anxious. You know the music is building to something, but what. The same things applys as sounds grow stronger. Grant it, you can ready yourself because you know something is coming, but you still do not know what. In most cases the music makes you unnerved, as you go from being calm to being scared. It gives you more time to build in anticipation, that once you are in danger you already are already anxious and the appearance just tops you off to the point that you jump.

Even during battles, the sound keeps that feeling going as you are fighting. It usually keeps with the action and keeps the player on their toes so they are still wide awake and waiting to attack or be attacked. It keeps your blood pumping, so you really get to experience everything about that game.