Poll: what makes a horror game

[zahr]

Things like shock or gore do not make a horror game. All they really do is startle the player. That isn't fear, that isn't horror, it's just surprise or disgust. I was surprised earlier today when I realized I had the speakers really loud as I opened Navras.mp3. I was disgusted when I saw someone claim RPGs originated in Japan.

Fear can be properly achieved by stealth gameplay. It's not scary to run around shooting monsters. It's scary to hide from them. It's even scary to hide from normal people. It's also scary to run from them, but hiding is far worse. And you can horrify people better by simply hinting things rather than shoving them in people's faces. The players' own imaginations will horrify them more than you ever could.

For an example of horror done right, see Thief: Deadly Shadows' level, Robbing the Cradle.

For examples of pitiful attempts at horror, see Dead Space and pretty much every other game that tries to use shock and gore to scare players.

Let me say it again.

Surprises/shock aren't scarys. And anyone who feels genuinely scared by it - good heavens, how did you manage living in the real world?

Gore isn't scary either, by the way. It's been overused.

Stealth is what makes a real horror game.

 

[esperandote]

all of the previous plus anticipation, vulnerability, isolation, the design, the music, the ligthing...

 

[Glover09]

The Unknown. Knowing that there is a thing that will rip you limb from limb not far away, but not knowing where it is. Hearing sounds just behind you. Seeing the aftermath of the things presence. Smelling Knowing that if it gets you, you're fucked, as you have no weapon. Then seeing nothing of the thing anywhere, breathing a sigh of relief, and [HEADING=2]BAM![/HEADING]

You die.

That's true, but you also can't figure out the ending all of ten minutes into the start of the game.

 

[GrinningManiac]

Noises

Freaking Witch cryin' all the time...shudder

 

[hcig]

I was disgusted when I saw someone claim RPGs originated in Japan.

BWAHAHAHA, oh my god, you have to be joking.

Things like shock or gore do not make a horror game. All they really do is startle the player. That isn't fear, that isn't horror, it's just surprise or disgust. I was surprised earlier today when I realized I had the speakers really loud as I opened Navras.mp3. I was disgusted when I saw someone claim RPGs originated in Japan.

Fear can be properly achieved by stealth gameplay. It's not scary to run around shooting monsters. It's scary to hide from them. It's even scary to hide from normal people. It's also scary to run from them, but hiding is far worse. And you can horrify people better by simply hinting things rather than shoving them in people's faces. The players' own imaginations will horrify them more than you ever could.

For an example of horror done right, see Thief: Deadly Shadows' level, Robbing the Cradle.

For examples of pitiful attempts at horror, see Dead Space and pretty much every other game that tries to use shock and gore to scare players.

Let me say it again.

Surprises/shock aren't scary. And anyone who feels genuinely scared by it - good heavens, how did you manage living in the real world?

Gore isn't scary either, by the way. It's been overused.

QFT

i got surprised by that first ghost in cursed mountain (the first one that actually take away health) but i wasnt scared. but when it enters into its "hey, guess what? youre boned" moments, its pretty intense, not scary, but intense.

i just with devs would just freaking focus on real scares, less RE5, and more RE1, in RE1, i stopped playing for months at a time, because i just didnt want to keep going, but with RE4 and 5, i just kinda breezed through (though to 4's credit, the regenerators where insanely creepy, too bad RE5 is so fail they couldnt even get creepy to work)
clock tower is another, i stopped playing that for YEARS at a time, part out of frustration, part out of fear.

 

[zahr]

BWAHAHAHA, oh my god, you have to be joking.

RPGs originated in north america, as an evolution of the pen and paper RPG.

Japan's moviegames are not RPGs.

 

[veloper]

gameplay

It stops being horror when you're on top. When you nolonger need to run. When you easily kill anything they throw at you.

 

[SkylerRock]

I would have to go with creepy noises and any atmosphere that gives an impending sense of doom without actually delivering (with regularity) said doom. Take for example that one flight of stairs (I think it was in the hospital) in Silent Hill 2, everything is quiet then you get to the top and suddenly this half buzz-saw half baby's wail sound effect plays and really creepy messed up music comes on... and absolutely nothing happens yet I ran away twice before spending 5 minutes debating whether or not I should try the door at the top only to find that it was locked.

Then when you come back with the key later there is no noise or music... and that is much, much worse.

A good horror you play with your heart, not your head (granted your heart is that far up your throat it may as well be in your head).

 

[zahr]

I felt the scariest part of SH2 was walking through the mist before arriving in town, hearing intermittent sounds from outside the path. I had no idea what to expect in the town itself, so the sounds let my imagination think of stuff. The fear vanished when I saw the first monster, fought them, etc.

There were similar occasions later in the game, but this was the best, to me.