Issue 51: Casual Friday - Handheld Horror

[The Escapist Staff]

Dan Dormer"Sure, zombies running through a city, chasing you while releasing the occasional spine-chilling moan might be a scary thing to you in general, but you're not helping things by playing the game in broad daylight." Dan Dormer explains why portable gaming devices just aren't all that scary in Handheld Horror.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Myk

I for one am not a fan of handheld games for 2 main reasons: 1, the screen is ALWAYS too small. 2, the graphics are not good enough. I am a fan of survival/horror games ever since my older brother brought home Resident Evil and I saw the zombies feasting on his corpse. So I am trying to imagine if you CAN make a successful portable Horror/Survival game even with the good ol' mind games. I doubt it, but if somebody would make a sincere try at it, I'd give it a shot.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Citrusponge

I think good use of text would be an excellent way to create atmosphere and deliver information in handheld games.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Chris
http://www.dreamdawn.com/sh
Another core problem is that handheld screens are pretty much incapable of displaying dark areas. The glare on the screen is a problem, as is passive LCD. Games like Silent Hill that rely on most of the screen being dark can't really work on a handheld (I guess that's not stopping them, as a Silent Hill game for PSP was recently announced). I think you'd have to select a pretty bright color palette compared to most of the games in the survival horror genre.