Starting to see the source of horror becoming source of annoyence is a thing that no creator wants. Though this concept has to be balanced by other mechanics, as my experience with Amnesia and Outlast showed me that the player will then be fatiqued and later on become annoyed more than scared as he\she may have been at the start. Through the proxy of the character players feel they themselves are on the run, and they have to run or really ugly things are going to happen. I think the sense of being hunted is the most tense and probably terrifying the games can provide. Those two are not hunting the player through the entire game, but at certain points they end up on the player's tail and for the most parts players can't do jack about it. The best examples I have are Sae and Nemesis. Strike right when they feel safe and are trying to catch their breath, right here at this moment the games give the players just enough room to lessen the probability of a heart attack and then strikes even harder. Creators also at times can strike gold with abusing the preconceptions the players have. As in any piece of media that centers around horror, the protagonists (aka victims) have to feel vulnerable and in a way their situation should feel hopeless. The reason why Dead Space didn't work for me. At least that is the halmark of the good horror games.Īnother way the horror games work on us are the protagonists. The strange thing is that even if we know that bad things are going to happen, we still get caught by surprise.
The way these games make us fight the very basic survival instinct creating conflict between our basic instincs and higher conscience. But damn I ain't going nowhere close that freaking dark hallway because there's bound to be something with way too many teeth ready to eat my face." just this I think could sum up experience of many players when they start with horror games. A simple example "I need this key, I really need it. The games also create strange mixed feelings within the player's mind. Despite some missteps, Haunting Ground is one of the most tense games I have played It doesn't have to be completely taking away means of defense as some make them the reason why we are scared in the first place, most notably the Project Zero franchise. The best horror pieces take away our sense of safety. The reason, I came to see as the main one responsible, why I play horror games is the way they are constructed and throw players into very, very uncomfortable situations. It may capture a basic gist of the reason but it is also not saying how these pieces of media work and affect us.
The easy thing to say "People just like being scared" is not descriptive at all. Upon looking up quite a few materials on the role of fear in the entertainment and also some "hard science" psychology books I have drawn my own not-at-all scientific conclusion. These three games, cemented my love for the genre and after I was done I went back to actually take my time and think of why exactly I went and played also many frustrating games that were less than optimal in some aspects, yet I finished them just on the basis that they were horror games. Here I think came to the pinnacle of what I could find. Then I played probably some of the best that I came across and that was the Project Zero franchise (or Fatal Frame).
WHY WE PLAY HORROR GAMES SKIN
From there on I was seeking games that would challenge me but also reward me for taking on extra challenges and at the same time make my skin crawl and sleep with the lights on.Īfter the initial shock my mind, I guess, got used to being under constant assault of moody soundtrack, atmospheric camera angles and tough enemy encounters. I think those three games, with RE2 being the main influence, steered me in that direction. I obviously came across the original Resident Evil and later in 1999, Silent Hill. And after I was done with Resident Evil 2 I went on to search for more experiences such as this. I guess it was the overall design and pacing of the game that kept me going even if I was scared out of my mind. I was way too young to have played it, eight years old and terrified. It all started on a stormy Christmas night of 1998 and a gift box that contained a copy of Resident Evil 2. When it comes to video games I mostly for at first to me unknown reason enjoy horror games. THE game that has shaped my tastes and gaming habits. In advance I am saying sorry for any butchering of the English language. I've been lurking for a while, then posting here and there and now I think it is the time to jump among the big boys. Video games are my main hobby next to reading and tabletop gaming. I guess introductions are in order as this is my first foray into the world of blogs here on Giant Bomb.
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