Poll: Does a horror game need to be scary?

[Nazulu]

Yes and No, people are scared by different things. Horror is for horrible (not what you're thinking). It can be torture based, all about the dark, supernatural forces, natural disasters, tragedy, demons and witches and religious stuff, just through sound and music, that creepy neighbour next door, however you like to horrify your audience.

 

[nexus]

Yea, I believe so...

I do not want "disgusting horror" either. "Slashgore" and other nonsense like that in film kinda died out in the 90's because people got sick of it. You see a resurgence here and there with something like Saw, or other franchises, but for the most part.. gore & slash has died out as a genre.

People much prefer a "haunting" story, or psychological thrillers. I consider Silence of the Lambs a good psychological horror/thriller. You don't need big scary monsters and buckets of blood, you also don't need a huge absurd disaster story to artificially raise the stakes in a video game world no one cares about.

"Oh yea.. so, if I don't complete my objective, the big scary monsters will destroy a city of people.. people that I've never met.. not even one.... ? --- Okay, how about we just stick to character stories, mkay?"

 

[Asuka Soryu]

Does a comedy need to have comedy? Does an action movie need action?

Does a story need a plot? Does a book need pages?

The answer to this and your question is...

OF F%#$^ING COURSE THEY DO!

 

[lunavixen]

To the same extent that you would actually need puzzles for a puzzle game to be what it is.
"Horror" is meant to startle, unsettle and instill a sense of dread. If it's a "horror game", it would need to have those elements as a core foundation rather than little thematic bits of a section (think Ravenholm in Half-Life 2 or horror-themed levels in non-horror games).

If it doesn't fit the definition of horror in the second sentence there, it's at worst an action game with gore or at best a psychological thriller (which are awesome). To put a more concrete genre definition down, horror is something "that is intended to, or has the capacity to, frighten viewers". So the answer is just yes.

Can i just point to you and say "pretty much this?"

Horror is meant to unsettle or disturb in some way, doesn't have to be violent or anything like that, but it does have to unsettle, disturb or scare you, otherwise it's a gory action game, a psychological thriller or just really bad (depending on the game). Resident Evil for example has really gone from a horror game (It did scare me a little as a kid), to a horror themed action game. Slender, Survivors (little indie multiplayer game), Amnesia: The Dark Descent, the first Condemned and the Silent Hill series (early games in general) all have the horror theme at their core, which is what makes them pretty good horror games, they use the environment and actions to send your imagination into overdrive, filling you with that dread and those little chills that make the hairs on your arms stand up.

 

[Ryan Hughes]

Depends on what you mean by "scary." As for the poll, I chose "no." I do hate to be embroiled in semantics, but here goes:

Startling is when something jumps out at you. Scary is when something jumps out at you, then tries to eat you. Horror is something completely different.

Look, I am an Irish-American, so, I am scared of snakes. St. Patrick ran them all off the island more than a millennium ago, and the collective Irish sub conscience has not had to deal with them since. So, the common way to scare me -if someone was to build a game solely directed at me- would be to put a snake in a cupboard somewhere and have it jump out at me at some point. This is starling, it might even be scary, but it is not truly horrifying.

A truly horrifying game, like Silent Hill, would not bother to do this. It would simply lock me into a filthy, rusty room with a picture of a snake, and tell me that there may -or may not- be an actual snake somewhere in the room with me. For extra points, they could tell me that if I stared at the picture of the snake for long enough, the real snake might go away.

This is truly horrifying. Real horror always looks inwards to its characters, and inspires the audience to do the same, and to confront the truly terrifying inner fears, sins, and insecurities that we all have. Most "horror" now-a-days doesn't even have the characterization of a Jr. High creative writing paper, let alone enough to inspire the audience to look inward.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Of course horror needs fear of some sort. Not necessarily of the player themselves mind you, but of the game's protagonist at the very least. I'm talking about fear by the way, not [/b]scares[/b] or simply startling the player. Any game can throw a scare in and that doesn't make it horror. Turning the sound low and the lights dark then having a loud noise and a monster jumping is a clichéd scare, not horror. That's what Dead Space does, that's what Doom 3 did.

I think the only fear I felt in Dead Space 2 was the eye-poke machine bit and a little with that invincible necromorph. Nightmare mode made it more intense because the safety net of checkpoints is gone and each room could mean death and the harsh penalty lack of checkpoints entails.

The game's protagonist and/or the player need to be afraid. An action game with monsters != horror.

I don't even really get afraid of the monstrous babies/kids thing that much any more. It's so cliché now (making a human form monstrous, making a human child monstrous even more) that I (almost consciously) no longer feel afraid by them. It's been done too much.

 

[Auron]

Horror stories were used as an entertainment medium with a very clear purpose. Preparing the minds of people for the real life horrors of famine, loss, death and violence with a different kind of sense of wonder that lead to shock. The idea is that by passing through this kind of shock people would be less shocked when they passed through real life horrors of their own, violence mainly.

Even nowadays it's general purpose is the same, though less evident our world is still pretty violent and terrible. So not exactly "scary" but it should provide shock, tension and horror in order to be part of the genre. Lots of people have become desensitized to it all over the years due to repeated tropes in recent history(recent being since cinema was invented) Maybe the general shock values of the horror genre are not the same anymore with the mass exposition of violence and terror in modern media

 

[Happiness Assassin]

I have heard people derisively call some RPGs as merely "action games with RPG elements." I have taken issue with that for a few reasons, none of which are relevant to this discussion. But because Dead Space 3 lacks the very element that makes it a horror game(namely, the horror) it can't be classified as such. The way I would describe the series now is an action game with horror elements. Not necessarily scary, but some of its elements are taken from some notable horror influences.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Horror games do. Whether or not DS3 is focussed on being a horror game, or an action game with horror elements is a different story.

 

[surg3n]

It's a matter of perception, some horror movies/games will be scarier than others based on your own experiences.

For example, the scariest, creepiest thing I've seen in a horror movie was in Pet Cemetary - the aunt with the diseased spine. Now Pet Cem isn't exactly a scary horror, but it's got some creepy moments, much like the other classic un-scary horror movies like Elm St and Pumpkinhead. Horror movies are always scary to some people, but these days we're so de-sensitised that most horror films won't be scary to most people. I haven't actually been scared at a horror movie in about 20 years, but I still watch them, still enjoy them.

Games are different, because it's a game at the end of the day - for good and bad the experience is different. For me, a lot of the tension is lost with games because we all know that we are in control... like if the horrible monster jumps out and kills me, I can just try again - do that once or twice and no enemy is actually scary. Our fear of them often comes from knowing how difficult it is to kill them, not necesserily how the look or move. For me, the best/scariest survival horror enemy is the alien-looking experiment dudes in Res Evil 4 - when you have to use a thermal scope to shoot their internal maggots to kill them... jerky movements and magically appearing spikes - those are fairly effective survival horror enemies I think. So the fear is different in horror games as opposed to movies, we might not even call it fear.

I couldn't get into Amnesia, but I'm guessing that if you play that right - headset, lights off, late night - then it would be very effective. In Minecraft as well, when your in a dark pit and something attacks you from the shadows, well that can really make me jump - I guess that all the developers can do is try their best, if the game scares you or not shouldn't factor in how much you should enjoy it... maybe calling a game a horror game is a bit of a stretch - your never gonna scream like a little girl at a videogame, well not usually anyway.

 

[Doopliss64]

But they aimed to be scary. You're right, the crappy reboots aren't scary but they want to be. They're just crappy horror. The attempt to be scary is still there, though.

Point taken, but I would argue generally that intent should not be taken into account when analyzing art.

As a further point, look at horror stories/books. They are a thing that exists, in the form of Stephen King, Lovecraft, et. However, there are very few that I would actually consider "scary," as in, "I dropped the book and literally jumped out of my seat scary." Creepy maybe, or disturbing, but not overtly scary in a fight-or-flight way, in the way that many horror games and movies are. Some horror media simply uses disturbing subject matter to make a philosophical point (for example, the original Frankenstein novel, which is considered "horror" but is not inteded to be scary in the traditional sense) or to provoke thought.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I've always considered horror to be based more on atmosphere than any scare factor. Take the old 80's horror classic, The Thing. Is it scary? No, not really. Does it have one hell of a tense and grim atmosphere, a hopeless vibe to it? Damn right it does, and it's all the better for it. Another good example are the first two (but mostly the first) Resident Evil games. Not really scary, but very atmospheric and dark. Struggling against all hope to survive in a very grim world. That's what I consider to be horror.

Cannibal Holocaust is another good example of a horror classic that isn't scary, but relies on atmosphere to ensure tension and hopelessness.

So in my opinion, no, a horror game (or film) does not require any scares, but the right horror atmosphere.

Man that one dog in The Thing's first act was SCARY. And the arms/torso/head scene? You know the one.

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

If you have to ask that question, then I think you should look up the word "horror" because I don't think it means what you think it means.

 

[Wilco86]

It's in the definition.. If a horror game isn't scary, then it isn't a horror game...

Next topic is "does a puzzle game need to make you think" or "does a love flick need to have a romance"...

Enough "player as übersoldat" -games in the market; I like to feel scared now and then, to get the adrenalin going with my imagination playing tricks on me, etc.

 

[Richard Keohane]

As anyone who's played The Walking Dead can tell you, a game can be horrifying without being scary. Dread and sadness make for something that is horrifying without being scary.

 

[darlarosa]

Uh, yeah? Isn't that the definition of horror? Now if you're asking does a game intended to be of the horror genre, need horror to be FUN, the answer is no. It can fail at being a horror game and still be enjoyable.

No it is not.

The horror genre in any medium tends to rely on fear, but it covers multiple themes that are woven together. Horror classically incorporates elements of suspense, mystery, occasionally the supernatural, and almost always reflect aspects of human psyche often in the form of fears, repressed desires, and the dark side of the human mind.
The Yellow Wallpaper and The Anatomy of Desire are both horror stories, but are not necessarily scary, so much as they are tense and filled with "horror of personality". The overarching theme of the Horror genre is the tendency and desire to make the audience uncomfortable or disturbed

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

I don't see how a game that isn't scary be called 'horror.'

The Horror genre is used for media seeking to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers.

Its like asking if a serious documentary about World War 2 could be called a comedy.

 

[Rariow]

Yes? I mean, that's what horror IS, isn't it? It's an extension of fear, and as such a "horror" game is a game that is scary. It's kinda the point. Me, I don't consider stuff like Dead Space 3, Castlevania, or FEAR 3 horror games. They definitely have elements typically associated with horror, that's for sure, but they're no longer being horror. I guess I'd call them "Gothic-style" games, or something along those lines (That term only really works for Castlevania).

The first three Silent Hills or Amnesia are horror games. They work on your very basest instincts to create a tense, scary, and well, horrifying atmosphere. Dead Space 2 (never played 1, haven't played 3 yet) is an action game: You're not fighting your fight-or-flight instinct, and you don't actively dread... anything, really. It's a fun stomp through creatures that look horrifying, but the feel of complete and utter dread, of danger way beyond your scope, of being a little worm wriggling against powers much greater than you is not there, and that's what horror really is.

 

[HeadMcGee]

I don't think there should be the term "Horror Game". Just as silly to say that's a "Comedy Game".. but what if I don't laugh.. Games can have elements of horror within them, but doesn't classify as a "Horror Game". There are some tense moments in a lot of games out right now which invoke similar feelings as if you're watching a "horror" movie; Nervous, Anxious, Creeped out, etc.. Dark Souls, Bioshock, Dead Space.. but those aren't Horror Games. I don't get the constant need to classify everything.. you know what I call those games.. "Video Games".