[Haunted]

Yes, I know. I sort of want to try it out, but The Void was very difficult to play. Cargo's better, but obviously not horror. Ice-Pick Lodge is an interesting studio. Their games are very "janky", but also extremely creative and original.

dat euro jank

[Dascu]

dat euro jank

It's up to European PC devs to make progress in the horror genre.

See also: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=455526

[maeda]

It's up to European PC devs to make progress in the horror genre.

Mikami's Project Zwei says otherwise.

[Dascu]

Mikami's Project Zwei says otherwise.

And now why do you think the game has a German name? And where was RE4 set again? And the name of the protagonist of PN03?

Mikami rocks because he knows what the Best Continent (tm) is.

[kunonabi]

fairly spot on. I don't agree with everything 100% but I do think he is leagues ahead of the people doing console horror games right now. The Fatal Frame people are really the only people doing great work on the console side of things.

[nyong]

After playing DayZ, I'd like to see a horror MMO. Maybe one in a sprawling Metropolis with outlying towns\villages...with multiple factions (zombies, military, civilians, bandits, etc) all vying for control. I'd prefer something akin to Eve Online with a single server and multiple population centers. If the population of the game rises, they'd add a couple of towns..if it drops, the military faction nukes a city, effectively killing off the equivalent to a server.

Bring back old school Everquest traveling where the trek is dangerous and takes time.

Also: other players are far more frightening than predictable AI.

[Dascu]

fairly spot on. I don't agree with everything 100% but I do think he is leagues ahead of the people doing console horror games right now. The Fatal Frame people are really the only people doing great work on the console side of things.

They're good, but they've also been recycling the same gameplay and setting forever now. Give the franchise one more title on the WiiU (it'd be a shame not to utilize the controller potential as a camera), and then let the team do a new type of horror game.

[MuddyDonut]

Completely agree with 7. I think Cry of Fear does this where they introduce a monster through a cut scene. It really cheapens that first encounter and would have been better if they brought him out in a different way. Other games do it well, but most I have played tend to fail at it.

[Dascu]

Completely agree with 7. I think Cry of Fear does this where they introduce a monster through a cut scene. It really cheapens that first encounter and would have been better if they brought him out in a different way. Other games do it well, but most I have played tend to fail at it.

My experience with Cry of Fear is limited to Helloween4545's LP, and just while watching I see so many things that are... wrong.

[ToLateToLove]

Is there a good horror game where there aren't monsters/ghosts in it? You know, maybe something simple like escaping a mad, relentless murderer

Glass Rose on the PS2. Anyone here play it? Feels like I'm the only one. Anyway, it's like a modern point and click game.

From wiki:

Glass Rose takes place in the 1920s. The player assumes the role of Takashi Kagetani — a rookie reporter. After waking up on the floor of a strange house seventy years in the past, Takashi must embark on a new case and in answering these questions he can return to his own time. Takashi realises that the time warp has left him with special powers - the ability to read a person’s mind, with which he has a brief glimpse into the mind of the person he is talking with. These powers will be invaluable to Takashi if he is to decipher what is fact and what is fiction.

A detective mystery thriller. Really creepy and I liked it.

[kevinski]

This is exactly what I want. Give me a standard, Americana suburban town with banal townspeople, bland fetch-quests and trivialities. Something that can be played as a straightforward adventure game. But allow the player to explore the town and discover the real secrets and hidden areas. Wander out at night and witness a cult sacrifice. Accidentally enter a house you weren't supposed to enter and find a load of bodies in the basement. Create a feeling of paranoia and fear in the player, working towards a climax where the townsfolk realize that you know they're not really human. Lovecraft + Silent Hill + Majora's Mask + Twin Peaks + Deadly Premonition + Flower, Sun and Rain

This is a great idea, although I do think that randomization is important in a scenario such as this. A game like this needs to be unpredictable. Let's say that you're in an unfamiliar town, visiting a friend or something. You witness the aforementioned sacrifice and end up retreating to your friend's house. Upon telling your friend about the sacrifice, several different possibilities pop up. One possibility would be said friend joining you in an effort to stop or expose what's going on, while another possibility would be said friend actually being part of it and you having to escape your friend's attempts at your life.

Really, there just can't be one way of any given thing unfolding, and there should be a lot of situations in which you could find yourself. Really, no two players should have the same experience.

[Dascu]

Certainly. Nothing is scarier than the unknown, and randomization can ensure that gameplay remains unpredictable and that no two playthroughs are alike.

[goodfella]

Alan Wake nails the normality point.

[jufonuk]

Alan Wake nails the normality point.

I would say deadly premontion too, sorta

EDIT:
I would like a survival horror based on the Aliens Franchise, yes I know dead space etc, but imagine
the noise of the motion tracker the fact the enemies coudl be coming from above or below, acid splash back, being constantly out numbered..

[JoeBoy101]

Alan Wake nails the normality point.

Funny you should mention that as the earlier gameplay concept for the game I was REALLLY looking forward to. Open World horror game ala GTA and RDR. You can kinda still see some of the elements when you have the driving missions later.

Really wished they went down that road.

[kevinski]

1) Normality - I agree that normalcy can heighten the atmosphere in a game. While SWAT 4 isn't a horror game, I do consider it to be rather frightening at times. Part of what makes the game so effective at keeping me on edge is how normal most of the environments appear to be initially. Sure, you're aware of what's wrong before you even enter, so things are already tense. Thing is, the environments have this way of further intensifying matters once you stumble upon areas within those environments that almost turn your stomach. Example: You're trying to get things under control at an apartment complex in which a bunch of cultists are holed up. It's evident shortly after you enter that they're planning a mass suicide by blowing up the place (not to mention an entire city block), but what really intensifies the entire situation for me is stumbling upon their children's graves in the basement.

I think that part of the problem with horror games is that they're labeled as horror games. They're known to be horror games before you even play them. I'm not sure how you'd really sell a horror game that wasn't somehow advertised as a horror game without potentially wrecking your audience, though. I expect that you'd open yourself up to a lot of lawsuits by selling a product as one thing and having it turn out to be another.

I'll comment on the other suggested points in the article later.

[kevinski]

I would like a survival horror based on the Aliens Franchise, yes I know dead space etc, but imagine the noise of the motion tracker the fact the enemies coudl be coming from above or below, acid splash back, being constantly out numbered..

You should check out Enemy Zero for Saturn. Your enemies are invisible, and the only way you know of their presence (aside from them killing you) is through use of audio queues from some sort of sensor.

Happy Video Game Nerd's Review of Enemy Zero (Saturn)

[Hot Coldman]

I would say deadly premontion too, sorta

Deadly Premonition makes weird strides in that direction, what with a day-night cycle including opening times for shops and houses, sidequests (not exactly a horror game staple), and what is pretty much an open world you can explore (if not at your leisure).

Problem is, the game is so bonkers in pretty much every area that horror is only ever really present when you're close to having a butt load of progress obliterated, because replaying shit you've already done in that game is truly a nightmare. So shit like the hooded guy QTEs (tense, at least). Also, the fucking massive demon dogs in the middle of the fucking town, because that shit is bizarre. Plays well on the normality of things, though. But for the most part, it's got all the pieces to make a convincing world and give itself a chance to play around with horror in a convincing world, but then just says "NOPE shit be weird dawg". Bizarre, but eh. Swery.

I still say one of the most convincing "worlds" ever in a game is Termina, and that's why the horror of the apocalypse actually works in Majora's Mask.

[animlboogy]

You really like the phrase "ideas are cheap," huh?

[jufonuk]

also I have to mention dementium II the atmos in the game is nice so is the random "hell" transistions, makes me wish for a dementium III on the 3DS

[HK-47]

His quote about combat and the mere presence of combat mechanics being something comforting to players is so true, I kept nodding while reading that paragraph. Helplessness is terrifying.

Then why is Condemned so terrifying despite having a lot of combat? There is nothing comforting about the combat in Condemned.

[HK-47]

The problem with Amnesia, and really the horror genre in general, is that it goes against pretty much everything console games stand for today. Developers wanna make players feel empowered and ready to confront enemies and feel badass. They want their games to be accessible so players will actually be able to beat them. Horror games are built on pretty much the opposite emotions. Basically all I want really is just the philosophy behind Silent Hill 2, but with a modern camera and control scheme. The other problem with Amnesia in particular is that it never lets up, ever. It goes between intense and really fucking intense. The game should be letting up every now and again on its own - you shouldn't have to take your own breaks every 15 minutes.

Silent hill without the disturbing fixed camera is a lesser game. It hurts the atmosphere.

[Neiteio]

Alan Wake nails the normality point.

Does it, though? Alan Wake was very effective horror, but the game starts off in a dream sequence that introduces the horror right from the get-go. It "normalizes" itself in between the "fight or flight" sequences with the shadow beings, and does so well, but I'm not sure it's quite as Grip suggests, doling out the darkness slowly but surely. That being said, Alan Wake is definitely one of the best horror games ever, imo. I was blown away when I played it for the first time on PC earlier this year; I never see it mentioned in horror game discussions, and I have no idea why. There was one part where I was listening to a radio in a well-lit cabin in the middle of the woods at night, and I turned the camera to glimpse someone walking by the window in the underbrush outside. I screamed and nearly slammed my gaming laptop shut. Talk about preying on your periphery.

Glad to see people mentioning the line-blurring of Deadly Premonition, as well as Catherine with Vincent's doubting after Chapter 7. Catherine was especially compelling horror, in the sense of anything and everything seeming suspect. An excellent depiction of madness (and boy do I want a sequel of some sort).

[Sylver]

:S I think horror games are nice as they're problem this gen is that we don't get many of those.
We need more of these:

f.e. Siren: Blood Curse

If evolution means what Resident Evil have gone as horror game we got f*ed.

[Neiteio]

I'm a U.S. gamer who imported Siren Blood Curse from Australia because I didn't want to clog up my PS3 hard drive. I'm willing to do something like that for a good horror game. And it -is- a good horror game, but I wish it was easier to control. It doesn't heighten my fear, feeling inept at movement. It merely frustrates me, and distracts me from the scenario on screen. Alan Wake perfected third-person gameplay in horror games, with a character that feels fluid and a camera that's effortless to control. And you know what? The game was -more- scary for it, since I felt like there was no barrier between me and my survival in-game, which meant it felt like -I- was surviving by the skin of my teeth, barreling blindly through the underbrush of some dark forest, looking for safety. Alan Wake often empowered you with a good amount of firepower/flashlight, but when it took those tools away it was scary as fuck.

RE: Amnesia never letting up, going between "intense" and "fucking intense," as someone put it: That's not completely true. It became clear rather quickly that the sanctuary was a safe hub of sorts for a good portion of the game. What's funny is it acted as a foil to the horror that made all of the areas branching off from the sanctuary all the scarier. You knew once you passed through any of those doors and found yourself standing in a pitch-black hallway with no music playing, that you were susceptible to danger. I shudder thinking about one area that I believe was a cellar of sorts... Absolutely, unequivocally dreadful.

I'm so eager to see Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and Shinji Mikami's Project Zwei.

I love that someone here mentioned Termina in Majora's Mask as a place of palpable fear. Simply incredible what the game pulled off with the scenario of the falling moon.

[simtmb]

My favourite in the past decade or so is definitely Forbidden Siren 2 on PS2. The original deserves a mention too but it had some pretty bad design issues.

Weapons or not, you honestly always felt outpowered in these games and of course outnumbered. Really made many moments truly intense. The PS3 version never really felt like this to me, but a solid title regardless.

We just need more of these games.

[Haunted]

Then why is Condemned so terrifying despite having a lot of combat? There is nothing comforting about the combat in Condemned.

I really enjoyed the melee combat in Condemned. It was heavy, it was satisfying, it had cool finishers. These are not the right feelings to evoke horror.

Also, your post made me think about when Condemned was the most horrifying, and it definitely wasn't when I was engaged in combat with an opponent opposite of me and my 2x4. It was when I was stalking around abandoned buildings, hearing things, something falling down over there, a crazed hobo grunt here... without seeing anything because it was so dark, these moments of quiet, the tension rising before anything had actually happened. When I could see my enemies, engage them 1on1 or 2on1, maybe even with a gun in my hand... that was not the terrifying aspect of Condemned.

And don't get me started on Condemned 2, that one was just bad in comparison with the exception of that fucking bear. :lol But that was a different kind of "horror" altogether.

[Sylver]

We just need more of these games.

This.
Horror games is all about the plot. This gen lag about great stories. Where're the greater writers from past gens?.

Noboru Sugimura R.I.P.

[encephalon]

It'd be nice to see Siren 3, with Japanese people as protagonists. Nothing wrong with Americans, but the treatment of the characters in Blood Curse/New Translation in comparison with 1 & 2 ...

Randomization is a pretty big component if you want horror. Along with atmosphere that actually feels like it has some underlying depth rather than just cheap "jump" scares which should be used conservatively. Cut-scenes are horror poison unless they are somewhat interactive, or if they are literally short transitional scenes which lead directly into the gameplay but even then they have to be directed well (the Licker scene in RE2 is a great example). Generally they shouldn't be there unless they are well-directed and enhance the horror, since story exposition can be performed in the gameplay itself, which can often be more foreboding. Some cut-scenes in RE1 (Zombie intro, door Zombie, Hunter) were well-done because they were sudden and threw you straight into "shit is getting real" territory.

I don't know if we should be so quick to always dismiss jump scares as "cheap." A strong atmosphere creates the sensation that something terrible is waiting around the corner. If you have the atmosphere, then why not have it jump out at the player, capitalizing on the atmosphere?

[Endo Punk]

Take the camera out of players control. It's far too comforting knowing you can spin the camera 360 and see everything. Fixed Camera is not and outdated method but fantastic mechanic to show only what you need to see, it was made for horror games.

[Teknoman]

The soundtrack needs to be of higher importance. Siren, Silent Hill, and Lone Survivor really excel in this area.

EDIT: Actually unique soundtracks should be something every game that isnt using licensed music should have.

[Sega1991]

I've had ideas for a horror game that incorporates most of these elements for years

Too bad ideas are almost worthless on their own!

[OMT]

More uncertainty. Little to no guarantee that weapons or recovery items will work every time exactly as they should. On the other hand, every area has a means of getting through unscathed, but you have to learn how. At no point does the game tell you either of these things.

[Dascu]

The soundtrack needs to be of higher importance. Siren, Silent Hill, and Lone Survivor really excel in this area. EDIT: Actually unique soundtracks should be something every game that isnt using licensed music should have.

Lone Survivor manages to play with player's expectations rather well at some points. Three of them come to mind:
- You're quickly introduced to the standard enemy type. This enemy can only shuffle left/right, or run at you if it notices you. But later in the game, you meet an enemy that looks exactly the same, but when you shoot it, it can jump up to the ceiling and then land behind you.
- The other common enemy type, the little ones, walk around like the other enemies at first. And when you shoot them, they fall down. You think they're dead, but in fact they're still alive and its "corpse" can charge at you.
- Speaking of corpses, dead enemies keep laying there for the rest of the game. Now there was one point where I thought that there used to be an enemy, but the corpse wasn't there. Now maybe there was no enemy in the first place and I was just misremembering, but I do know that each time I passed through that hallway, I was on my guard and wondering if the enemy had respawned.

It's things like that that can be so effective at horror. Toy with the player's expectations. Give enemies new patterns or attacks. Alter room and map layouts when you backtrack through them. Have "dead" enemies suddenly rise up again. (Hello, Crimson Heads) In principle, don't let the player feel safe or in control.

[54-46!]

Permadeath.

[Navidson REC]

Permadeath.

I played Justine for the first time last night (after having finished Amnesia a few weeks ago). At some point I was being chased and I ran in the wrong direction. Next thing I know, a dark silhouette slaps me in the face. Then: Desktop.

Me: Holy shit.

That said, this only works with rather short games. I spent about 10 hours on my first playthrough of Amnesia and died about 10 times, I think (damn water sequence). If every death had set me back to the very beginning, I would've probably never finished this fantastic game.

I do agree though that real penalties to dying should be more prominent.

[AdventureRacing]

It's just a shame that there aren't more horror games in general.

Permadeath.

Diablo 2 may not be a horror game but damn if hardcore doesn't get your blood pumping.

[Luffymania]

Some levels in THIEF games were really scary ;_;

Thief 1 had moments where I almost crapped myself.

[TheYanger]

Do you know of Pathologic? Certainly not exactly like you described it, but the feeling of "there's something very wrong here" is basically constant in that game while you explore that town. Here's a disgustingly good RPS analysis of the game, fascinating to read.

Yeah that RPS article made me snag the game.
The issue is...it's vastly more fun to read about than to play :( It made me very sad since I desperately WANTED to like it. it nailed the atmosphere. but god is it jank.

[bengraven]

I want a Condemned-style first person Silent Hill game.

You have no idea how awesome and yet tense that would be. And the best combat ever.

:S I think horror games are nice as they're problem this gen is that we don't get many of those.

That's the biggest problem. Regardless of what you define as great horror, we didn't get many horror games this gen, period.

Oh sure, the naysayers will pull 1 or 2 out, because if there's one really good one (Amnesia) they automatically think the entire gen is saved.

[Auto_aim1]

I know Thief 3 isn't consistently good like its predecessors, but some of the horror elements in that game were brilliantly executed. There was one level called the 'Shalebridge Cradle' which was divided into two sections: the first one didn't feature any enemies, but if it's your first playthrough, you will realize how easy it is to get scared and feel trapped even though there were simply no enemies in that section and that's mainly because of impeccable level design and lighting techniques the developers employed.

Actually, here's a better explanation for that: http://gillen.cream.org/thecradle.pdf

The designer of that Cradle level had a lot of interesting things to say as well (interview in that pdf).

Where do you think horror in games goes wrong? We’ve got a deficit there, and it’s far from exclusive to gaming; horror ingeneral tends to ooze along the path of least resistance. Think back – in your entire life, how many movieshave drawn you in deeply enough tomake your guts go cold in genuine fright? They probably number less than ten, if you’re reasonably hardy. With games, I suspect you could count them on one hand. Fear is regarded as one of theeasiest emotions to stimulate withany audio-visual medium. It is trivial to frighten a reasonably receptive audience. You need only shout,“boo!” at the optimal moment, and your victims will find themselves clinging to the ceiling, quivering and hissing expletives. Our reptile brains instantly respond, ready to brandish the adrenals at the drop of a hat. But will the memories last? Typically, no. They are warning signs, written in a very basic language. As the mind rights itself, these messages fadeaway, leaving it largely unblemished. I want my scares to leave scars.

The one reason why we don't see many pure horror games is that the market for such games is really minuscule now. There've been some brilliant games no doubt, but I don't think we will be seeing a lot of them in the future, which is unfortunate. I mean, Resident Evil 4, 5 and 6 shows how Capcom slowly evolved the franchise into something that is more suited for the mass market.

[Dascu]

That's the biggest problem. Regardless of what you define as great horror, we didn't get many horror games this gen, period. Oh sure, the naysayers will pull 1 or 2 out, because if there's one really good one (Amnesia) they automatically think the entire gen is saved.

There's been plenty of horror games this gen. But:
- They're mostly on PC or Wii and therefore get ignored by the general (console) populace.
- Quality differs greatly. Some really great ones, some really bad ones.
- The big Japanese names from the PS2 era are gone. Silent Hill has gone down the drain, Resident Evil is more action now and Capcom's ignoring its other horror franchises like Clock Tower or Haunting Ground.

My point is: If you know where to look, and if you're not too picky, there's a lot out there to satisfy the horror gamer. There's a little bit of rose-tinted glasses nostalgia going on when looking back at the PS2 era.

[codecow]

It's just a shame that there aren't more horror games in general. Diablo 2 may not be a horror game but damn if hardcore doesn't get your blood pumping.

Diablo's perma-death was the inspiration for Hardcore mode in Dead Space 2 (limited save). Caring about dying definitely has a psychological/physical effect at least it does for me. DayZ is a good recent example.

[EGM1966]

Does it, though? Alan Wake was very effective horror, but the game starts off in a dream sequence that introduces the horror right from the get-go. It "normalizes" itself in between the "fight or flight" sequences with the shadow beings, and does so well, but I'm not sure it's quite as Grip suggests, doling out the darkness slowly but surely. That being said, Alan Wake is definitely one of the best horror games ever, imo. I was blown away when I played it for the first time on PC earlier this year; I never see it mentioned in horror game discussions, and I have no idea why. There was one part where I was listening to a radio in a well-lit cabin in the middle of the woods at night, and I turned the camera to glimpse someone walking by the window in the underbrush outside. I screamed and nearly slammed my gaming laptop shut. Talk about preying on your periphery. Glad to see people mentioning the line-blurring of Deadly Premonition, as well as Catherine with Vincent's doubting after Chapter 7. Catherine was especially compelling horror, in the sense of anything and everything seeming suspect. An excellent depiction of madness (and boy do I want a sequel of some sort).

I don't think Alan Wake really nailed normality either. Like most modern horror films (few of which really are I'd argue) it rushes to get you into action and doesn't really have enough "normality" time to remotely make the setting feel real.

I'd also argue Alan Wake isn't even horror. It's a thriller in construction and execution - focusing on "skin of your teeth" escapes and winning battles with a smattering of horror atmosphere.