I personally share quite a fancy for horror. It's always held a spot close to my heart and I love it in many different mediums. When I look at horror games today compared to stuff we got back then I can't help but notice how true horror games are few and far between and its a genre on the downhill slope.
Silent Hill is a complete mess and hasn't had a decent game since 3, or an amazing game since 2 which is arguably one of the greatest survival horrors of all time. Hideo Kojima is wanting to reboot Silent Hill and I would actually said a tear of joy if this comes true.
I'd freaking love to see another Eternal Darkness also.
Resident Evil has pretty much abandoned all traces of survival horror in exchange of generic action movie style and its rather shameful how the series that pretty much coined the term survival horror would lose its way like this.
With the real heavyweights of the genre slacking off what do we get coming at us now? Mostly assault rifles attached to flickering lights and weak jump scares. When Dead Space first showed up I liked how it was a little like Alien but do I consider it a horror game? Not really. Now it's funny how Dead Space 3 is looking like Lost Planet and Lost Planet is looking like Dead Space. Quite frankly I don't care about either series anymore at all. F.E.A.R. has some neat little things that pay homage to things like The Ring but in the end it's mostly just a shooter with a ghost who decides to f*ck with the light switches every now and then. The genre really has slacked off but thankfully we have indie games which really seem to fill the void.
Looking to recent memory:
Amnesia: The Dark Decent was a great indie title with a very nice atmosphere and knew what a horror game was all about. I'm anticipating a Machine For Pigs. Then also I'll mention a title which people think is overrated and that perception makes me think the game is rather underrated. The game I'm talking about is one that made lots of waves among the internet sea and that is Slender.
I for one, actually like The Slender Man and I think it's pretty cool how he's become the new generation's boogey man. As a fan of horror I think he's a pretty damn cool horror figure. I don't think Slender is scary but what this simple game does good is actually what very few big name horror titles always seem to f*ck up. Atmosphere. Honestly when the Slender Man actually shows up he doesn't look all that freaky but playing when you have only a flashlight in a dark forest with no sounds but your own footsteps and breathing. You also hear faint sounds in the back which adds to the experience. Imagine you going out in the middle of a dark forest alone with just a flash light right now. It's the psychological tension that starts to build up and you start to scare yourself more than anything if you let it. Silent Hill 2 knew how to establish it really well and if you develop something scary that creeps you out even when nothing is happening then you got something scary. Slender was a game that couldn't capitalize on this completely but was looking down the right road and after so many horror games fail to do even just something as simple as that today then I hold a nice applause for these independent developers.
Other games that really captured something cool for the fear factor were nice indie gems like Hide as well. It's minecraft like graphics didn't stop me from loving the element of mystery that was offered here and I just knew I didn't want to get caught by that light even if I didn't know anything about the game.
This is sort of just a rant thread but I just miss horror games. I hope it really starts to pick itself up and I guess I can ask what are your most memorable horror games or experiences? Some of my favorites are up in the alley of Silent Hill 2 and Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem but let's talk horror games I guess.
Silent Hill is a complete mess and hasn't had a decent game since 3, or an amazing game since 2 which is arguably one of the greatest survival horrors of all time. Hideo Kojima is wanting to reboot Silent Hill and I would actually said a tear of joy if this comes true.
I'd freaking love to see another Eternal Darkness also.
Resident Evil has pretty much abandoned all traces of survival horror in exchange of generic action movie style and its rather shameful how the series that pretty much coined the term survival horror would lose its way like this.
With the real heavyweights of the genre slacking off what do we get coming at us now? Mostly assault rifles attached to flickering lights and weak jump scares. When Dead Space first showed up I liked how it was a little like Alien but do I consider it a horror game? Not really. Now it's funny how Dead Space 3 is looking like Lost Planet and Lost Planet is looking like Dead Space. Quite frankly I don't care about either series anymore at all. F.E.A.R. has some neat little things that pay homage to things like The Ring but in the end it's mostly just a shooter with a ghost who decides to f*ck with the light switches every now and then. The genre really has slacked off but thankfully we have indie games which really seem to fill the void.
Looking to recent memory:
Amnesia: The Dark Decent was a great indie title with a very nice atmosphere and knew what a horror game was all about. I'm anticipating a Machine For Pigs. Then also I'll mention a title which people think is overrated and that perception makes me think the game is rather underrated. The game I'm talking about is one that made lots of waves among the internet sea and that is Slender.
I for one, actually like The Slender Man and I think it's pretty cool how he's become the new generation's boogey man. As a fan of horror I think he's a pretty damn cool horror figure. I don't think Slender is scary but what this simple game does good is actually what very few big name horror titles always seem to f*ck up. Atmosphere. Honestly when the Slender Man actually shows up he doesn't look all that freaky but playing when you have only a flashlight in a dark forest with no sounds but your own footsteps and breathing. You also hear faint sounds in the back which adds to the experience. Imagine you going out in the middle of a dark forest alone with just a flash light right now. It's the psychological tension that starts to build up and you start to scare yourself more than anything if you let it. Silent Hill 2 knew how to establish it really well and if you develop something scary that creeps you out even when nothing is happening then you got something scary. Slender was a game that couldn't capitalize on this completely but was looking down the right road and after so many horror games fail to do even just something as simple as that today then I hold a nice applause for these independent developers.
Other games that really captured something cool for the fear factor were nice indie gems like Hide as well. It's minecraft like graphics didn't stop me from loving the element of mystery that was offered here and I just knew I didn't want to get caught by that light even if I didn't know anything about the game.
This is sort of just a rant thread but I just miss horror games. I hope it really starts to pick itself up and I guess I can ask what are your most memorable horror games or experiences? Some of my favorites are up in the alley of Silent Hill 2 and Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem but let's talk horror games I guess.
