What makes a videogame scary?

[ghostrider409895]

Music, or rather lack of music, plays a huge part in horror games.
Most horror games are nice to you, and if there is an enemy comeing you are warned ahead of time. With some games, however, there is no such warning. No eerie music plays, and you are all alone with yourself and your thoughts. When you get a game like that, there is no telling when you can relax. At any moment, something could happen, and that small room you thought you checked could have hoards of enemys bursting throught the doors.

Then, you really get absorbed by what is going on, and you really use your eyes to focus on what is attacking you. Nothing is there to take away from ever hideous sound that is made as you are being attacked, and as blood leaks from your freshly cut wounds. And after you are done, and have survived your incounter, there is no such music to tell you that the fighting is over. For all you know, you might be in for something much worse.

Also with some games people can rely on the music to let them know when they really have to pay attention, and when they can afford to be calm, and just hold their wits about them. In games without music, you have no such ease. You have to be constantly vigulant, because at any moment something could happen. Every noise you hear could warn you of an enemy. Every movement could be more than just a trick of the light. Without music, you just do not know until it happens, and when it happens you might not be prepared.

With out music, you have no knowledge. You are there exploring the unknown, which I think adds to a games horror. It kind of goes along with being afraid of the dark. It is not darkness you fear, but what you cannot see that is in the darkness - the unknown - with which you fear.

 

[Gardenia]

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.

I can give you nothing but my own honest opinion here, but here goes: You remember those times in F.E.A.R. when the lights flicker/a shadow runs by/you catch a glimpse of Alma etc? Happened like once every 10 minutes tops. In F.E.A.R. 2, they happen like once every 30 seconds. It took all the suspense out of it for me.

 

[JasonKaotic]

I guess it's to do with the atmosphere and decoration. And graphics, of course. Music adds to it too.
Tense games, like ones where you know something freaky/something that's gonna make you jump will happen soon but you don't know when.
It's better if they have bad/pixelly graphics. I don't know why, I just find Yahtzee's later Chzo Mythos games scarier than games like F.E.A.R..
Music is obviously a must. If it's happy, jumpy music it obviously won't make you very scared, it will just make you feel happy and protected. Darker, scarier games will obviously have to have a dark, gloomy song in the background, or creepier/wierder horror games will have more fucked-up music that makes you feel uneasy

I'll leave it there.

It is cool to find another person who has played Chzo Mythos. I really liked Trilby Notes. I think out of all the games that one was the best. It definatly was scary. I jumped the first time the hotel shifted when you were talking to Simon and Abed. Also the music really set the mood. Even when you were in the normal hotel, the music still made it eerie and if you did not take the pills every once in a while you could jump back to the magick hotel. Also at anytime you could jump to odd places like the DeFoe basement or the loading deck for the Mephistopheles. I have to say that was probably one of the best games I have played in a while.

Once again, it is cool to find someone who has also played the Trilby games.

yeah, it's a pity he stopped making them..
Trilby's Notes and Six Days a Sacrifice were the best. Probably because they're the horror ones.
Notes was probably scarier though. Six Days was just more tense, although for some reason I found the DeFoe Mansion at the end pretty creepy. So many things in Notes made me jump >.<

 

[Banhaze]

Dead Space makes a game scary...

 

[Therumancer]

Wouldn't it have been simpler to just say "I don't get scared by anything?"

EDIT: Also, out of curiosity, how many renditions of beating people to death with hammers have you seen?

Well, saying that wouldn't be accurate since plenty of things scare me. Just not most of the horror we see in the media because it follows a formula, and the people doing it are typically too worried about ratings or actually upsetting someone to really cut loose.

I think part of the problem is that media has not really adapted to it's jaded audience or fought the battles needed to break free of the constraints holding them back.

-

As far as people being beaten to death with hammers, I remember seeing it quite a bit, though oddly specific titles of movies elude me. For the most part when you see such scenes, especially with big hammers, the person really winds up and swings, and then you see a head explode or whatever.

In June 9, when people were being beaten to death, the blows were much more reasonably delivered given the enviroment, and what they were trying to do. The "Tapping" type apperance being a lot closer to how it would actually look... you'd have to see it.

While it was a differant style of hammer there is also this:

http://encyclopediadramatica.com/3_guys_1_hammer

That covers the details (in their style) and also includes a direct link to the video (which is why I list it, I don't want to link the video directly to avoid accidents).

Simply put that's a bunch of psychopaths torturing and beating to death some guy for real, and recording it on their cellphone. They apparently made a bunch of these, but this one linked to the internet after they were caught.

So basically if you want to see what a psycho-murder really looks like, well there you go.

 

[oreopizza47]

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.

thanks for reassuring me.
you know, i've heard Silent Hill touted as like the king of scare, but i've never had the opportunity to play, how well does it pull it off? i'd have to imagine better than RE, because you can't even fight back.