Check out the 10 things every horror game needs to be terrifyingly amazing
Who doesn’t love great horror games? There’s nothing like spending hours in the dark, glued to your TV, and wondering if that sound you heard was just your imagination or if something’s about to slice into your virtual (or maybe actual) head. Check out what makes the horror games we love so great and find why we are always coming back to them for some good scares.
10. Unpredictability
What’s truly horrifying is not knowing what’s lurking around you. For all you know in a moment Alien will pop down from the ceiling and rip right through you. That tension is painful.
The consistent unpredictability of a game is what separates good horror games from the bad. When you can’t memorize the enemies and their patterns you’ll always be on edge for a fatal strike. Once a horror game becomes predictable it becomes utterly boring and isn’t likely to scare you. A great game will reduce predictability by introducing new enemies and game play elements.
These creeps are ready to pick you off at any time
When playing a horror game for the first time you have no idea if the next door you open, item you pick up, or puzzle you solve will trigger a slew of enemies or other unsightly horrors. Many games will create fear through their enemies. A good set up will make an enemy introduction truly terrifying. A great horror game will build up the anticipation of an incoming horror with subtle sounds or images, rather than throwing it right at you.
Your mind will make everything that you can’t see scarier. The player’s greatest power in games is their knowledge of the game’s environment and enemies. Without this knowledge players are weak and vulnerable.
9. Puzzling Solving
Puzzling solving probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think about great horror games, but it is a staple.
Puzzles force players to interact with the world they are in. These puzzles might give players a must needed break from the deranged creatures after them, or just tick them the heck off (get some Silent Hill 1 piano puzzle flashbacks). There’s also the stress of not knowing if completing the puzzle will thrust you into a hellish monster battle if correctly completed, or impale you to death on some spikes.
This puzzle destroyed lives
Players might also have to backtrack throughout the game to find any items or codes they might have missed to solve a puzzle. Fleeing from room to room won’t do players any good when there’s puzzles to be solved. Puzzles don’t care that you just sprinted from a horde of zombies across the map, missing key items and codes.
Don’t let puzzles stop you from making progress because you’re too anxious to throw yourself back into a realm of horrors.
8. Isolation
What is scarier than being split from your group and left alone with a bunch of nightmare inducing terrors? Not much. Isolation is a great and simple method for increasing terror in players.
Alien loves that you’re all alone
We find comfort in the presence of others and when we become isolated it’s natural to feel scared. Imagine exploring a rundown hospital by yourself like in Outlast or Silent Hill. The grime, rust, and decayed environment will keep players on edge. Knowing that players will have to face the monstrosities that lurk in these buildings by themselves is nerve-racking.
Many modern games feature cooperative game play, like with Resident Evil 5 and 6. Your gaming experience becomes way less scary with someone at your side. That is unless you’re playing with pretty incompetent AI and you’re scared that they’ll make you game over.
7. Threatening Scares
If the player can dismiss a game’s disturbing sounds, images, and enemies easily than that game is lacking. A good horror game needs actually threatening scares that make players worry.
Being forced to walk down a blood stained hallway or seeing enemies drag away and brutally kill NPCs is an indicator of what’s to come for the player. When seeing these things the player knows that they’re in for something awful.
The Keeper has no problem ripping his own head off, forget yours
What else could be more threatening than being trapped with Pyramid Head and his giant sword in a too small room? Knowing that he can end your horrified character’s life in one swing isn’t going to relax ny player.
Even the most hardened of horror gamers know a real threat when they see one and don’t underestimate it.
6. Vulnerability
When you’re all powerful in a game, what do you have to fear? But when you’re vulnerable, everything is immensely dangerous.
Vulnerability is a great tactic that good horror games utilize. In games that lack combat like Amnesia and Outlast, players don’t have any weapons to depend on. The player’s only chance for survival is running and hiding from whatever is out to get them.
The worst game of hide and seek
Games with very limited ammo like Silent Hill will keep players scared. However, modern Resident Evil games are practically over following with ammo and firearms, giving players tons of comforting resources.
Playing alone, with no weapons or extremely finite ammo, will keep any player wholly absorbed in the game so no baddy stabs them up.
5. Atmosphere
A surefire way to keep a player uneasy is through a game’s atmosphere. An unnerving atmosphere will flood players with the feeling of dread.
Everything looks cozy
What would Silent Hill be without the town’s iconic rust, metal, gore, and decay? A lesser town for sure. When the Silent Hill games take a visual shift from a normal creepy town to the traditional nightmarish atmosphere of the horrific Silent Hill, this is a terrifying change that shakes players to their core.
The game’s atmosphere sets the tone of what is to come for the player. A nice field of flowers is going to freak out players far less than an abandoned mental hospital will. Playing a first-person game will make things even more intense for players as they are forced to look through the eyes of the character and directly face the game’s terrors.
4. Tension
If a player is comfortable and confident as they play a horror game then this game has failed to be scary. But if a game creates enough tension the player will constantly be on edge.
Video games create tension in players through mental or emotional strain. This tension can be created in tons of ways. A game might have low resources, like heath and ammo, but is crammed with tons of dangers.
Think you’re safe up there from all those zombies?
Players will need to constantly search the game’s environment for supplies putting themselves at risk. It’s a tough call when deciding to open a door that might lead you to items you desperately need or a monster you’ll need to spend your last bullets on.
Perhaps a game will make players dump items due to limited inventory space. It’s not easy deciding if you should drop weapons, ammo, health items, or a key item by mistake. Forget about too few save points, one bad move and you’ll lose hours of progress. This is what nightmares are made of.
3. Iconic character
When we think of amazing horror games we’ll also be thinking about their iconic monsters that terrorized us in every game play session.
Our good old pal Pyramid Head
Iconic characters will leave a lasting image of the game in player’s heads. When we think of Silent Hill we are bound to think of Pyramid Head and his massive blade. Bioshock will bring back imagines of hulking Big Daddies. Alien: Isolation makes us cringe at the thought of hiding from the scariest creature in all of space.
These characters become figure heads of their respective games for players. Our time with these iconic baddies might have left us scared, but they’re what we love about our favorite horror games.
2. Promise of a good story
What good is a game if it lacks a decent story? Great graphics and combat can only support a horror game for so long.
This great story might just scar you for life
The promise of a good story will keep players sucked into any horror game. Many players will put up with lackluster combat and graphics if they’ve committed themselves to the game’s story. The need to progress from chapter to chapter to get a step closer to solving the mysteries in the game will keep players hooked.
Coming closer to figuring out what caused the game’s world to fall into chaos and to see what will remain of our characters once we reach the game’s end will have any player pour themselves into a game.
1. Psychological Horror
The scariest thing we face off with in video games might not always be a grotesque monster dripping with blood, but something that preys on the fears in our minds.
After tons of gory game play sessions we often get desensitized by most of the graphic violence. To keep the scare factor up great horror games will utilize psychological horror to scare players to their core. Horror games can create this discomfort in players by exposing common fears like self-doubt, distrust, and paranoia.
Ready to discover your biggest fears?
Psychological horror games focus on mental conflict. These games will build tension through atmosphere, creepy sounds, and exploitation of ours and our character’s fears. Psychological horror can exist in a game that deals with supernatural entities, but will generally keep the monsters hidden. Our innate sense of fear will create plenty of horrors.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a game that plays on our fear of the unknown, and rightfully so. We never know if the sounds we hear are an indicator of what’s to come or are from our character’s failing sanity. This uncertainty is what makes Amnesia excel, a constant state of unease will warp players’ minds as we transverse the game.
Agree with the list or do you have different criteria that you look for in great horror games? Comment below with that makes your favorite horror games amazing and check out the following horror articles!
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