The Only Thing We Have to Fear

[JaKhajiit]

I can remember playing Silent Hill 2 and being scared to the point of almost NOT wanting to play it anymore! It's been a while since I've simultaneously loved and hated a game like that. I feel like the ability to relate to the surroundings of the main character makes a game truly scary.

 

[Aptspire]

I can remember playing Silent Hill 2 and being scared to the point of almost NOT wanting to play it anymore! It's been a while since I've simultaneously loved and hated a game like that. I feel like the ability to relate to the surroundings of the main character makes a game truly scary.

I agree, Silent Hill 2 always crept me out the most. I remember getting in the apartment for the 1st time. 15 minutes later, I was outside and scared to death.
it's power isn't through weird, it's through familiarity D:

 

[mGoLos]

That was an excellent article.

For me, Dead Space stopped being scary when I found the first gun, but then later it got very scary when I ran out of ammunition, but that didn't last long either.

I really enjoyed dismembering those things and I wish I had played the game on hard instead of medium.

 

[Robyrt]

I enjoy both startling and creepy kinds of horror. The best example I know of "creepy" horror is System Shock 2. You are constantly running out of resources, you can hear things long before you see them, and there's always another audio log splitting your attention so you're not so focused on leaning around the corner. Only towards the end of the game, when you've amassed a giant pile of stuff by the engineering elevator, does it stop being "Can I take him on?" and start being "Bring it on!"

I haven't played Dead Space, but Resident Evil 4 crosses that line WAY too fast. You may run low on health packs thanks to adaptive difficulty, but you can always pause, steady your nerves, and switch to a bigger gun.

 

[smallharmlesskitten]

What about a game that is so creepy, gross and scary it makes you want to vomit and go have a shower... Ton's of people would at least try it

 

[Serious_Stalin]

I was actually pretty scared after I played Doom 3 for the first time with the lights out. It wasn't creeped out scared but i was very jumpy and probably squinting at the bright day and jumping at loud sounds. Condemned was scary in the same way, just.. jumpy.
Unreal was pretty scary as a kid as well, the monsters were pretty gruesome and the thought of them having the ability to wield guns rather than jump at you and gargle was pretty terrifying.

 

[acebrainbuster]

dead space really is scary its like the PS resident evil you walk into a room nothing is there you have your weapon ready then ...BAM!!!!! the creature pops out of nowhere and kills you when i was younger that was scary as hell the game dead space just brought back thoses memorys

 

[OuroborosChoked]

I don't feel fear. Incidentally i've never played a silent hill, resident evil, fear, condemned, that japanese zombie game, the japanese game with the cameras, system shock or any other horror game at all, except bioshock but there's no incentive to not die in that so that isn't very scary at all.

Haha, you mean "Fatal Frame?" that is the only game that I won't play at night!

Fatal Frame is indeed one scary game.

I was sad when I realized I had finally grown desensitized to it, though

It was the first game in a long time that made me actually afraid to progress to the end (Fatal Frame 2, that is. It's the one I started with.).

 

[stompy]

This article does really lamp-shade the reason why certain settings scare the shit out of me: it might happen to you! Of course, music and loneliness don't help...

 

[huntedannoyed]

I don't feel fear. Incidentally i've never played a silent hill, resident evil, fear, condemned, that japanese zombie game, the japanese game with the cameras, system shock or any other horror game at all, except bioshock but there's no incentive to not die in that so that isn't very scary at all.

Haha, you mean "Fatal Frame?" that is the only game that I won't play at night!

Fatal Frame is indeed one scary game.



I was sad when I realized I had finally grown desensitized to it, though

It was the first game in a long time that made me actually afraid to progress to the end (Fatal Frame 2, that is. It's the one I started with.).

Same here. I played Crimson Butterfly (FF2) untill you get to that house across the bridge and it just got too freaky! I don't care how much you enjoy scary movies, Fatal Frame 2 is one of the few experiences that will give even the most hardcore of us all a scare. The weird thing is that it does it without over the top sound effects. Anybody will jump when the music goes from silent to a earpiecing, but FF2 gets under your skin in a different way.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

There's a mod for Half Life called "Get a Life" (easily found on Google) that shows why this goes wrong for most people.

The headcrabs have been replaced by Black Widows, and although I still get heart-jumps when they leap at me, it's more annoyance than actual fear. Similarly when

Spoiler

You're in the ship underwater and the cargo crate falls on you

What is scary is when

Spoiler

Near to the source, the scientist zombies take 4 shotgun blasts to kill instead of the 2 they've taken for the rest of the game. You unload both barrels and they KEEP coming. First time that happens, the rug gets ripped out from under you. Classic case of getting the PLAYER scared.

 

[Trace2010]

Good... I thought I had arrived too late. I'd just like to say before anyone else says it
"... is fear itself."

I agree about the music thing. One time I watched a horror movie (I honestly can't remember which one) that earlier on I was too frightened to watch properly, but with a happy music playing in the background (the sound of the movie being muted) at the drunken behest of a friend, the difference it made was astounding.

Watch almost any horror movie with the sound turned off, and you realize not only how important composers and musicians are to the movie industry, but also foleys.

 

[OuroborosChoked]

Same here. I played Crimson Butterfly (FF2) untill you get to that house across the bridge and it just got too freaky! I don't care how much you enjoy scary movies, Fatal Frame 2 is one of the few experiences that will give even the most hardcore of us all a scare. The weird thing is that it does it without over the top sound effects. Anybody will jump when the music goes from silent to a earpiecing, but FF2 gets under your skin in a different way.

What I loved best was probably the spirit stone radio. I always looked forward to every new stone, mostly because all that ultra-low frequency sound stuff is interesting to me.

You're right. It really does get under your skin. The story... learning WHO the ghosts were and what they did when they were alive... the fact that you have to WAIT for the best moment to take the pictures! You don't just blast away and hope they drop... you're forced to CONFRONT them... up close and personal.

There's a new Fatal Frame for the Wii, apparently. Too bad I don't own one.

 

[Copter400]

After racing home at a breakneck clip that night last September, intent on rendering any would-be intruders into a tasty Chevrolet bisque...

Mmm...Chevrolet bisque...

 

[Melaisis]

Something I've covered before [http://www.3scapism.net/2008/04/shock-treatment. html].

As you say, Matt, its important that games try to get inside our heads, not just providing us with a physical or mental challenge. FEAR's frightening parts are so because they're put against the player just spraying and praying against normal shoot 'em up enemies. If you can defeat the scare itself through pretty easy means (like what happens to monsters in Deadspace) then they have no lasting effect after their death. Developers should see their horror titles as psychological thrillers, not simple 'zombies in a FPS'.

 

[li0nh34r7]

when ever i play zombie games im never scared when the zombie is there its when the zombie i know should be there but is not and the evil house is empty as i wander through it.