What Makes a Good Horror Game?

[Functional Panda]

This may be a strange thing to discuss, but I feel compelled to ask about fears and horror things currently. Strange thing to do on a Pok?mon Forum, I suppose. xD Nonetheless, it's a topic I think is worth discussing.

Here, I'm going to be fancy and organized so it will be somewhat decent to look at and read. (It will look a bit silly on this topic, but oh well. x3)

Making You Helpless

Or feel helpless. It's a lot more frightening in a game where you have no means of protection. Anything can come at you from any angle, and you can't fight it off. You could only run from it, and hope you lose it. The video game Clock Tower is good at this, forcing you to hide from your predator instead of having the ability to face him.

Making You Lonely

You feel safer in groups, right? Most horror games are able to understand that other people reinforce safety, either making you alone from the beginning, or picking off the group one by one. I personally prefer the idea of being completely isolated from the very start, as you don't automatically think "So and so's gonna die." When they branch off by themselves. (Although some games execute the group thing quite fantastically.)

Psyching You Out

Kind of like having an extra shadow loom over you when you catch the light, but nothing's there when you investigate further. You see a figure staring at you out of the corner of your eye, and when you turn to look, nothing's there. Nails clawing on the wall, a strange clamoring noise behind you, heavy, concentrated breathing right in your ear, echoing sobs... What could be there? You don't know what could be there, and that, my friends, is something of a big deal.

In other words, a horror game that tugs on the human mind's greatest fear. The Unknown. Not knowing what could be with you, lurking, is frightening. Psychological horror, the one that gets under your skin and makes it crawl is the most effective type.

That's basically it for my thoughts, but I'd love to hear yours! :33

[Spectra]

1. Survival Horror, not Survival Action. Every horror game from Resident Evil 3 onwards has totally lost sight of the fact that it is the suspense, and not the action, that makes a horror game scary. Sure, the later games have had their moments, but these have been interspersed across an entire game. Take Resident Evil 4. Critically acclaimed, and deserving of it, to be sure. But there was ONE scary moment in the whole thing: the first encounter with the Regenerators. That was it. The rest of the game wasn't even remotely scary. Action is NOT scary. You need more than just occasional starts for true horror; you need to be on the edge of your seat constantly.

2. Proper soundtrack. I have NEVER come across a horror game with a proper soundtrack, and people just don't realize how important OST is to actually conveying the mood of a game. Most are happy with just random noise, or a famous composer. I guarantee that if the soundtrack for a horror game was done properly, it would make the game far more terrifying. Whilst these aren't horror games, I'm going to draw on two instances of amazing use of background music to illustrate my point:
- NieR. I found walking along the Aerie more atmospheric than any horror game I've ever played, because this was playing in the background the entire time. It was CRAWLING with enemies, and it's a village built into the side of a cliff, with a lot of perilous platforms and bridges being all that stands between you and plummeting to your death. This was for a VILLAGE. Not a dungeon, or somewhere that you expect to be attacked, but a freakin' village, a place where, traditionally, you can rest. I can't see that sort of composition working in a horror game, but it's that element of suspense that it needs.
- Dark Souls. This more so than Demon's Souls, because the game was utterly silent save for two locations, and every boss battle. This made boss battles INCREDIBLY dramatic and filled with suspense. After about an hour of silence, to suddenly get something like this blasting your ears really gets your pulse hammering, especially when the boss can kill you in one or two hits, is twice your size at least, and comes at you hard and fast. Again, I wouldn't suggest the same sort of composition, but it's the principle. I'll come back to Dark Souls in a minute, actually.

...that said, OST can work if you do it in stages. Corpse Party is a fantastic example of this, as it eases you into the game with an easygoing song and then occasionally stops the music entirely...right before you encounter a ghost, or something similar. When the music stops, you KNOW something is wrong, or soon will be, and it builds up the suspense. Either have no music save for dramatic moments, or constant music save for dramatic moments, depending on your preference. Not just random crap noise that adds nothing to the atmosphere of the game; a flaw of every horror game that has consistent background music.

3. Awkward controls. The Resident Evil remake is a fantastic example of this; the controls were clunky and awkward, but that was actually a point in it's favour. You can see a zombie, you've got time to deal with it, but are you actually going to be able to? This got even worse when zombies started coming back as Crimson Heads, or you had Hunters stalking the corridor, or zombie dogs smashing through the windows...at that point, you had about a split second to deal with it, and the controls impeded this immensely. But it was pulse-pounding and terrifying because of it. Easy access is important for players, yes, but it should be a little harder than just point-aim-shoot. Going through the motions of having to load and reload your gun, for example, could serve in place of this.

4. Scarce ammunition. For crying out loud, it's not really horror if you can just blast your way through everything without having to worry about ammunition. This links back to my first point about less action, as well - make it a proper fight or flight response, not just fight fight fight. Risk shooting it, or just turn tail and run and save your ammo for when you really need it?

5. Sudden death. Here, I come back to the Souls games; there was not only a possibility you were going to die, it was practically guaranteed multiple times on your first run-through at least. Horror games need to be Nintendo Hard; you need to know you're going to die in a horrific manner if you mess up. Later horror games don't have this...sure, you've got chainsaw wielding maniacs who can instakill you, but this is ONE enemy. It needs to be ALL of them. EVERYTHING should be a threat.

6. Less science, more supernatural. This links into the fear of the unknown thing. I hate science in general, I think it's pretentious, and that aside, the point is that if you can explain something, it loses the mystery. Things that are just inexplicable are definitely more terrifying: where the hell is that monster coming from? Who knows. People fear the unknown, so don't ruin it by giving it a scientific explanation. I'm looking at you, Resident Evil.

7. Illusions, or royal mind screws in general. One of the best horror games I've played is Eternal Darkness, because it toys with your sanity: you could enter the room with a monster that isn't even there, start exploding for no reason, or walk right into the floor and disappear, and then you'd appear unharmed again seconds later. A more modern example of this are the Scarecrow segments in Batman: Arkham Asylum, although it shouldn't be quite as obvious; it reached a point with that where you KNEW what was happening to you. As far as I'm concerned, you shouldn't know what is happening until the point where you "die" and are suddenly right back where you were before, unharmed and alone. Keeping people unbalanced is the way to go.

8. Foreshadowing. Alan Wake deserves a mention here; it's a psychological thriller, but that is far more of a horror genre than survival action. Alan Wake is a fantastic example of the game toying with you: it gives you segments of his novel, and it gives you just enough to know what is coming next, but not WHEN it is coming, or even IF. It gives you enough to make you think these are predictions, and then it stop for one or two passages, leaving you waiting for something that never comes. Then it starts up again without warning and you're shocked and horrified when you find out the hard way. It's impossible to distinguish fantasy from reality after a point, as well; the two blend together so perfectly you literally have to play to the end to figure it all out. Coupled with the combat, which is more strategic than most - you need to shine a flashlight on enemies BEFORE you can shoot them - it's exactly the sort of thing modern horror needs to look to for inspiration.

[Functional Panda]

"1. Survival Horror, not Survival Action."
I agree completely. Action is really not that scary. Well, unless you're not quite good at it. xD

"2. Proper soundtrack."
The audio to a game is very important. The more senses you add to the game, the more immersed the played can get because they are closer to feeling the environment. Though I thought Fatal Frame (at least the second one) had a soundtrack that reflected the mood properly. I also think .flow had a relatively good soundtrack as well. I've heard Cry of Fear had a good soundtrack, but I'm unsure of whether or not it adds to the atmosphere.

"3. Awkward controls."
That would be quite annoying and frightening at the same time. I would be screaming at my character to hurry up, guaranteed.

"4. Scarce ammunition."
That would be quite frightening if you were out of a weapon. Or like... When melee weapons break after a certain amount of uses, too, especially when there aren't very many of them. :c

"5. Sudden death."
o: That's perfect.

"6. Less science, more supernatural."
I personally love science, but the supernatural belong in horror games, though I think it's sometimes good to have a little science in the games. More or less along the lines of chemicals and that, instead of the monsters themselves.

"7. Illusions, or royal mind screws in general."
YES. The inexplicable things in horror games are the best elements. Ones that make you be afraid that more things are to come in the future. Just out of nowhere, the question of "how" and its lack of answer would be beautiful. Mind-boggling things are awesome.

"8. Foreshadowing"
I think if you were going to foreshadow it would have to be rather vague. I would still want them questioning what was to happen. o:

You gave some really good points, Spectra! I've heard that Slender is positively frightening because of its ability to build tension. (With the notes, and the setting, things as such) The tension without delivery is quite terrifying as well. SCP-087 builds tension quite well, I think.

[Xa2]

I don't really have anything to contribute along the lines of what MAKES ideal horror, since Panda touched on all the important stuff, but I do have a few examples for you guys to check out if you enjoy watching/trying horror games.

TobyGames and Pewdiepie do, in my opinion, the best Let's Plays on the webz. I've seen all three of these from start to finish, so I'm sure you'll enjoy them.

1. Slender



2. Amnesia: The Dark Descent



3. Penumbra: Black Plague