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Question of the Day: How Do You Make a Horror Game Horrifying?

Posted by John Constantine



Don’t be afraid. There are no ghouls here. Just nerds.

‘Tis the season for delighting in frights, is it not? That time of year when Halloween is just around the corner, the days get darker, and the things that go bump in the night start getting goosebumps, because, hey, it’s cold out there. As I mentioned last week, it’s also the beginning of game season. Horror, as a genre, doesn’t have quite the presence it did in gaming a few years back, but autumn 2008’s seeing a number of high-profile scary games hitting consoles across the land. Silent Hill’s back after a four year absence, EA is releasing their brand new IP Dead Space in just over a week, and Atari is re-launching their ill-fated Alone in the Dark on PS3. Horror games are an absolute favorite of mine. There’s a visceral thrill they provide that is distinct to the medium, mixing the tension-and-release dynamic essential to horror in any medium with the deep satisfaction of accomplishment that comes from successfully playing a game. The best of them are unique amongst videogames for being almost exhausting to play. The original Silent Hill excelled at this; it made me physically uncomfortable after a certain length of time, further enhancing the reprieve of safety in the game world. This is an essential ingredient in making a horror game truly scary. If it doesn’t make you uncomfortable, if it doesn’t put you, the player, in the shoes of that character compelled to discover what’s making those noises in the dark, it fails. But that’s just my opinion. What is essential to making horror games scary to you, reader? Is it making the game difficult to play on a mechanical level, making it unfair, as Jenn Frank from Infinite Lives hypothesizes? Is it making dogs jump through windows when you totally don’t expect it? Let me know in the comments.

(Note: The image above is from the glorious mess of a horror game called Rule of Rose. It is one of the best games I have ever played. It also happens to be one of the worst.)

Related links:

Gears of LittleBig Fable Music: Considering the First-Party Blitz
OST: Rule of Rose
Overworld: Friday the 13th
Screen Test: Alone in the Dark
Silent Hill: Homecoming is, Thankfully, Both Silent and Hilly


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Comments

Alex said:

I think there's some truth to the "difficulty at a mechanical level" argument. Resident Evil 1 and 2 are both more frightening than Resident Evil 4, partly because you're so weak. In RE4, one of the only "scary" parts was playing as Ashley. She had no weapons, so you had to run. Combined with a dark hallway, it raised my pulse a little.

Even Killer7 had a few tense moments, and I think this was mostly due to a combination of monsters popping out of thin air and the player's restriction to a predetermined path.

Still, all of these games pale in comparison to the earlier Silent Hill games because the atmosphere simply isn't as creepy. Silent Hill had a great combination of slightly unnerving moments and pop-out-and-scare-you scenes. It takes a little of both to create effective horror.

October 6, 2008 8:44 PM

xxsodaboy said:

Silent Hill took the technical restrictions of fog and made it probably one of the best play mechanics of all time. Its combination with the scrambled radio transmissions, Harry's wildly terrible aim, and the downright creepiness of the monsters still makes me uncomfortable.

October 7, 2008 11:29 AM

That Fuzzy Bastard said:

You play Fatal Frame 2, slowly and carefully.  Then you do everything they did.

No, really, that is, hands-down, the scariest game I ever played.  The twins thing, in particular, does very strange things to your sense of self.

One thing worth noting is that horror works much better with Japanese-style fixed camera than Western-style controllable camera---which makes sense, considering that horror movies tend to thrive on crazy angles.  Bioshock is probably the only really scary game I can think of that let you control the camera; maybe Doom 3, though that wasn't really very scary after the first couple enemy sightings.

October 9, 2008 3:57 PM

Dylan said:

I don't hold to the "mechanical difficulty=scary" argument.  This sort of game design is more apt to make me frustrated and want to quit than scared.

I've always thought that the best horror, be it in film, book, or video game form, is essentially a mystery, with the central character gradually discovering the horrifying truth.  This is the element that video games are so good at expressing, because since you are controlling the central character, you get to discover the horror personally.

Also, I'm glad I'm not the only person on earth who loved Rule of Rose despite all of its myriad glaring flaws.

October 14, 2008 4:42 PM

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John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Hooksexup, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

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Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.


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