There are some great horror games out there, but at this point, it's a risky thing to make one. You may make a good game that has little to be afraid of or a straight up bad game with little to play. These days, the horror aspect has been lost. Movies and games alike, the genre has been a bit dead. Not saying it is in a bad way, it's just that horror has been a laughable. Alien Isolation is a good example: you fear the Alien, but when you encounter him, you just hide and wait until it got away or out of the room. If you died, you can just respawn to the latest checkpoint with somewhat little lost progress. Hello and welcome to this little thought blog.
There are a lot ways I could put this in words: I could be aggressive and say today's gaming rules have made horror bad or be peaceful about it and settle you down that gaming has changed drastically, but all that is too much work and controversy. I'm just going to put it plainly. The gaming society might actually agree with me on this one, but who knows, I might get it turned around. If you have a brave mind or know horror games pretty well, you can face through a game like Alien Isolation or Dead Space without a moment you screamed. It's kind of like a haunted house on Halloween, you go in and every scare has you saying "Ah!" instead of screaming it. The reason for this is because you know that they're not a threat to you. That guy with a chainsaw doesn't have a real revving chainsaw, they have a prop that makes the sound and the guy also works at your local Walmart. That's the same thing with Horror Games, there is nothing to fear anymore. You can say that there's a jumpscare waiting for you, but those are designed to scare you. They only startle you with a little moment of fear.
Gaming Genres have changed a lot and Horror has taken the biggest tole with it all. If you remember the games Resident Evil or Condemned, you might play it and fear progressing the game. That feeling is great in a game. You were scared to open a door, you were afraid to exit your inventory menu, you were afraid to play the game in general. The big reason why? Well it's simple and many people don't see it much, it was the difficult control schemes. Yes, that's the most feared thing in games.I've actually made a science project on this back in 6th grade. My hypothesis was that the lack of control would cause the test subjects to panic more than the subjects who had more control. Turns out I was correct. I made my dad and mom play Resident Evil HD Remaster with Original controls on. I made my sister and my friend play Alien Isolation on Normal difficulty. I counted every time they panicked and believe it or not, but my parents panicked and hesitated to play as the others passed through half the game managing not to die. I got a B on the project for creativity, but not using real science. Anyways, the correct horror game is one that limits the player's control whether it's with not protecting yourself, not being able to move, limited hiding spots or just having a strange button layout. We don't see this type of gameplay any more and it kind of shows in most horror games.
Having less control in a powerful situation is terrifying to a human. We are made to obtain control in our environments and when we can't do that, it's horrifying. It's Madness, it's dangerous! Human Sacrifices, Cats and Dogs living together, mass hysteria! Seriously, if I found you making a project for a class college and it is due in the next few days and I just deleted the project from existence, what you do? Panic, because you had no control over it disappearing. If you were cooking for your family and I ate it all, you would panic in anger because you had no control over me eating it all before dinner. That's the true fear in the human mind and it's not utilized in most horror centric games. A good example is Evil Within. A game not praised by many, but still a good example. It had good enemy art design and some great promise for it's gameplay, but it gave too much control to the player for him to enjoy. Met a giant enemy? Welp, just quickly turn and run around. You can dodge him, it's okay! Oh, a new boss? well, just duck and dodge most of his hits, you can manage his blows! Oh, you need ammo? It's okay, this boss fight has ammo lying everywhere on the floor! The game gives the player too much of a hand with his problems, it's too much sometimes. The game had some great enemies to fight, but the game's control scheme didn't help with the gameplay itself. It held your hand too often and the enemies were child's play compared to the developer's other game, Resident Evil.
This is how I feel about most horror games, they hold you had too much like your mom in a haunted house. "It's okay, Chris Redfield, the Zombie won't hurt you as long as you have a Dagger by your side. Here, have one of mine." That kind of disgusts me when a game does that. Sometimes predictable. Oh, all this ammo here? I bet there's a boss behind this door! Whoa! A Flamethrower? I bet this will help with the Alien! I can't rack on predictability, i can be exciting sometimes. But in a horror, excitement is hard to find, unless it's near the end of the game. It was fun when you were a kid,I mean you were a kid that didn't know what he was doing, but it's annoying when your older. I'm 17 and I don't like when my mom talks to me like a baby.
Most games have tried making the game more horrifying by having the player not have protection, but they tend to go off the rails even there. A game such as Amnesia, the game that is overly used on Youtube and other social media and drainer of our lantern oil, is one of those types of games. Although it gave us a new mechanic to play with, the game only gave us one monster. I mean, you can count the River Monster level, but she doesn't follow you after that. The monster as we know as The Amnesia Monster, has the objective to chase you. That's fun and all, but that gets old quick. You meet him more by using the new Sanity meter and filling it up to max, but even then it's laughable.
I loved the developer's newer game, SOMA, but it follows the same formula. It had a great story, but it felt like Amnesia set in the far future. And how the game utilized sound over music to set the player in a certain emotion. I mean, I said this one of my old blogs. Music is a key feature in a horror movie or game. It can settle the view/player in a panicked mood or a relaxed state. Sound? Well, that's the equivalent of a person screaming in your ear. If I screamed in your ear, you would be slightly angry and scared. I mean, you can argue that it's sometimes music cause the jumpscare, but it has to be done properly or it just sounds like noise. A jumpscare string is just one note played with other instruments playing the same note, basically noise.
Another thing I'd like to point out is when nothing happens to the player in the game. Layers of Fear, another Youtuber Classic, is a good example since it doesn't do anything to the player. Yes, I know you can get killed, but it sets you on a different path, having it be a scripted event with no punishment other than going on a different path. I don't like these type of horror games. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love this game, Layers of Fear is on my suggested list. Other than that, the game lacks real horror. It gives you scars, but what is there to fear besides a small jumpscare. I call these horror games a Haunted House Horror. It's a good name since you have nothing to fear, the monster can't harm you and the game leads you on a straight path. It's basically a showcase game. I wouldn't even call it a game myself. I mean, all you do is walk down a single path laid out for you. Sometimes these games can give you a memorable scare, but the only fun you get out of it is the scripted scares, like a haunted house.
It's just that a horror game is suppose to make you feel accomplished. You are suppose to feel happy defeating the monster, you are suppose to feel relieved to escape the monster's clutches, you are suppose to feel like the horror is over. That is the point of a horror game and I miss that a lot in a game.
Well, I hope you somewhat enjoyed this long, LONG blog of mine. It was fun to write and it was a hassle to finish. I'll be finished with my CWC entry later and I'm going to write a Top 10 soon. Anyways, I hope you got my point or understand it and 'til next time...
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