Horror in games

[Stewie Plisken]

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

I thoroughly enjoyed the Cradle. I can't say it really scared me, but it was incredibly atmospheric (at least the first part, before the Zombie ball-busters started showing up) and had me nervous constantly. Plus I was playing it on a September night during a storm, with the windows open. Helped a bit. And since we're on the topic of Thief, Return to the Cathedral from "The Dark Project" was well-done (even if I don't find zombies scary at all) and the ghosts that were popping up in the library in "The Metal Age" made me jump up from my seat a couple of times.

You know another well-made scary level in a game? The hotel level early in "Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines"; the one inspired clearly by "The Shining". Yay for flying frying pans.

 

[Galletea]

The most important part about horror in games is that without a good story it is little more than an unpleasantness to be dealt with. Obscure 2 for instance was a videogame version of a horror movie, it had all the elements, the characters, the killing, the shocking etc. But the story was dull, and the characters were so lame that you wanted them to die next, so that you didn't have to play with them any more. Yes the deaths were horrific, but the story didn't engage me enough to instil me with horror.

Bioshock however had only a few truly horrific elements, but because of the storytelling and atmosphere I felt it when it got scary. So if the story is done well, the horror part comes easily.

 

[L33tsauce_Marty]

I never got into the horror genre much. But when I played Quake 4, some of that shit scared me...

EDIT: Oh and in Ravenholm, maybe not what happened but the atmosphere and the sights were frightning. Plus the time when you saw the shadow of that doctor in Bioshock and when you turned the corner he wasn't there, but then you go back and jumps at you.

 

[Fraeir]

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.

For serious? I found F.E.A.R. genuinely scary XD;;; Though now as I've run through it a couple of times, I know all the moments and what happens... Though, in all honesty, I still get a slight creep down my spine at a few moments. I thought they integrated the horror well, as it was present the entire game, whenever it was completely quiet and dark, so I can't see your point : P

In S.T.A.L.K.E.R the overbearing sense of being alone really got to me at times.
Especially when the nasty things who lurk in your basement were about

And this is brilliant XD I was exactly the same! Exploring an underground concrete building, and pointing my AK forward at all times, then hearing this... howl, further down the hall, good god, I say... Two fricking white lights flying towards you from the dark end of that room, and suddenly becoming visible in your face while you try to empty your entire clip into the things body... I will say, that I honestly screamed and my heart almost stopped beating at that moment XD;;

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Left 4 Dead

After trying out the No Mercy campagin, after hearing so much about it from a friend, about 10 minutes in a Hunter Zombie jumped at my team and tackled Bill, and while I had no idea what it was thinking it was dead, proceeded to shoot the ever loving crud out of the Hunter. My heart was pounding because I just couldn't see it in the dark, even with the flashlight. It was within the first 10 minutes of playing No Mercy so I went through the rest of the game on the very edges of an adrenaline rush, trying to keep calm. And when I encountered my first Witch I was very well prepared, but that Hunter scared the ever-loving crap out of me.

 

[The_Prophet]

Dead Space has good horror in it. I remember when I was playing the ...... some chapter and something jumped and quarantine went on, just as the monster was jumping on me to bite my ear off the house maid entered the room which resulted in an adrenaline rush and me trying to shoot her.

 

[_Janny_]

I thought Silent Hill 2 incorporated horror very well into the game play experience. Perhaps not so much on a visceral level, though sighting pyramid head would always cause a panic

I loved the way you feel terrified just because you catch a glimpse of PH, that part was really genius. The fact that you *have* to go near him in order to go further in the level is creepy as hell. And later he disappears but you can still hear him roaming the building, that was damn spooky...
I think that this is the kind of subtle horror element that makes a good game.

Fatal Frame 3 created a nice feel of horror when you see that staircase in the mansion and remember what happened there in Fatal Frame 1. Made me wanna turn back... And I love the fact that they used the same squeak sounds for the staircase.

 

[s-l-u-g]

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!

Amen.
May I recommend the film/movie "Audition" to the masses? Alright there is a bit of blood eventually but not much. I love Asian horror and this is probably the king if you ask me. The anime Perfect Blue is pretty shocking aswell.

I've been dying to see audition... Takashi Miike's work was it?

Yep. It's slow as hell. But keep with it.
The sack, man, the sack!

Have you seen A Tale Of Two Sisters? or the original ring? or even the original dark water?


took me 2 days before i understood the ending to TOTS. really. f/r me.

 

[The_Deleted]

Have you seen A Tale Of Two Sisters? or the original ring? or even the original dark water?


took me 2 days before i understood the ending to TOTS. really. f/r me.

Yeah, but by then I'd was bored to tears with vengeful female spirits so I was pretty *meh* about it.

I'd recommend Suicide Club if you get the chance, very...strange.

 

[squid5580]

The horror element should also be present during combat, or interaction. For instance, in Dead Space, usually a player's instinct is to fight. For a true horror game, the player's instinct should be to run away rather than fight, and not have the reason of flight lack of ammunition or low health.

I disagree with that. I don't think a horror game is scarier when you gotta face off against Satan and the only weapon you can find is a whiffle bat and a Nerf gun. I think horror should be there regardless of your weapons and inventory. I was sitting on the edge of my seat through DS. Always lookin over my shoulder as I ran through those grey dark halls. I love a good jump scare though.

 

[gaara9999]

You Guys ever played onimusha warlords as its not joy stick controlled and you cant see a rooms inside until you enter it now this is used to scare us anyway but when your in the library with the containers of zombies you walk past and they burst open with zombies coming. then later when you leave the room then come back you dont know there is one or two round the corner then they show up and scare you half to death! the horror factor is used better in movies than games like i mean look at the exorcist scary movie and the horror genre is well used unlike some games where they try to do that!

 

[GloatingSwine]

Project Zero 2 ('Fatal Frame' outside Europe I think)

I'm a big fan of horror games, and have high 'scary' tolerances, but that is the scariest thing I've ever touched. The mere thought of it is making me look over my shoulder in fear....

The first one is scarier.

I know someone who turned it off in the first room and wouldn't play it again.

 

[Ultimateslayer]

Condemned...The whole game kept me on the edge of my seat.
At the beginning I had to take a break after every chapter, fearing i might get a stroke if i go on playing.
It has a really intense atmosphere.
The combat was also great, it was fun but also kept your heartbeat at 200 bpm.

 

[Chickenlittle]

The horror element should also be present during combat, or interaction. For instance, in Dead Space, usually a player's instinct is to fight. For a true horror game, the player's instinct should be to run away rather than fight, and not have the reason of flight lack of ammunition or low health.

I disagree with that. I don't think a horror game is scarier when you gotta face off against Satan and the only weapon you can find is a whiffle bat and a Nerf gun. I think horror should be there regardless of your weapons and inventory. I was sitting on the edge of my seat through DS. Always lookin over my shoulder as I ran through those grey dark halls. I love a good jump scare though.

That's not exactly what I meant. My point was, the play could have a BFG 9000, but they should be meant to feel like they were being stalked by a small mob of Jason Voorhees'. In that case, they would feel that unloading their BFG 9000 into them would be utterly ineffective and they would get absolutely stabbed/raped/eaten, and run or hide instead of fighting back.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

The real challenge with putting Horror in games, well, putting Horror in ANY storyline that follows one main character, is that you will never feel the true fear that they could die at any moment and the story would not be over. If you die in a "horror" game you understand that you can restart from a save point and attempt to overcome the challenge where you died previously.

The difficulty is tapping into people's fears, things that terrify, is almost as individualistic as fingerprints. There are books devoted to all the phobias that people have: agoraphobia, arachnophobia, claustrophobia, coulrophobia, hydrophobia, and so on. You can't make a story that will truly terrify everyone because different things scare different people.

The best storywriters have come up with is to focus on things that are inherently unnatural, and that really only is unsettling or creepy instead of being genuinely scary. Then they amp up the thrills by having things jump-scare you, which has been overdone so much that it's almost cliche.

There are only a few things that are almost universally scary; the dark/unknown, and things that could/want to kill you.

There's only so much you can do with that.

Pretty much what I wanted to say. Suspension of disbelief helps of course, but nothing could terrify a player more than seeing their precious save data mysteriously disappear (Eternal Darkness). One element I found unintentionally nerve-racking was the time limit in Majora's Mask, the way the music adjusts according to what time it is and the sound of the final countdown to doomsday. I don't believe time limits have been utilized very well in most horror games, but they could. Make the final minutes and the final moment sound or feel terrifying enough and players will stop avoiding the monsters/obstacles because they don't want to restart from the last save point and start avoiding them because they don't want to experience an unsettling death scene.