Horror games can only function in a single player game since things are only scary when you are alone. If you are ever play a game you know it is more fun to play with a friend but you also know it is less scary since you and your friend will make jokes and talk throughout it. A state of loneliness is what creates fear since it makes you feel defenceless.
Combat is important the worse the combat the bigger the scares, think of the game that is considered the best horror Silent Hill 2 the combat is like trying to navigate a river using a cat on crack as a boat. A game that isn’t scary at all is F3ar (F.E.A.R 3 but they released it as F3ar so that is how I will refer to it) you can fight like a Sylvester Stallone character where you can kill everything. A game where you walk around with an assault rifle and you have bullet time (with a partner) can’t be scary.
This is a quote from Wikipedia which I completely hate “Survival horror is a subgenre of action-adventure video games inspired by horror fiction.” Survival horror is not in any way an action game, an adventure game sure. All the action should running of fear away from the threat. There are some horror games where you can’t fight at all, the only option is to run and hide from the monsters/enemy. The only good horror game I can think of where you are powerful and still scary is Resident Evil 4.
I think that we should play to human’s natural fears such as fear of the unknown, the easiest way to do this is to use fig and darkness to limited people’s view. Using music and audio cues is also important. The best example of this is in a good zombie a well timed zombie groan is terrifying which is why sound is the one of the most important aspects of a horror game.
I hope they release a proper triple A horror game right now we rely on the indie developers and they make great games but I hope they make a big budget horror game.
Thanks for reading.
