Horror Games: Genre Research Essay

There are a lot of video game enthusiasts that just don’t understand the appeal of horror

games. Many users play for the thrill of the adrenaline rush. The scares are like riding a roller

coaster: they’re safe and tested every day, and don’t actually pose any danger. So because they

don’t provide any real threat, the scares are actually very fun. They give the illusion of danger in

a virtual reality, get players emotionally involved and typically create a better story because of it.

Video game companies began to explore the horror genre in 1992, as the game ‘Alone in the

Dark’ became popular by Infogrames. How and why did it become popular? What made it so

interesting to gather that attention? But mostly, what makes these games so scary?
 Games that involve

more fantasy or sci-fi

elements tend to focus

more on story and

implications in the

environment and dialogue.

A good horror game uses

immersion, atmosphere,

and building tension through story elements. First person narratives are the first step to great

immersion, but it needs more. They can be improved by adding to the atmosphere through

visuals and 3D sound. What’s so great about using a first person perspective is that it puts the

player in the protagonists place, and attempts to make them feel like the protagonist. They must

have to experience emotions that the protagonist experiences this way. In terms of empathy, the

character must be unbalanced, imperfect and relatable in order to get this specific and important

content (Stubbs & McAllister, “Six Elements That Make for a Quality Survival Horror Game”).

Survival games are also an interesting section of the horror genre. They often focus on

defeating enemies or trying to stay alive in desperate situations. The struggle to survive is one we

have always had evolutionarily, and as such survival games focus on hitting those fears we have

rooted deep in our biology. Playing off these base fears, but with twists that go outside our

ordinary lives, creates horror games that are both close enough to home, yet surreal enough to

shock, to completely make us feel some sort of terror.

There’s a lot of symbolism within the horror genre as well. It’s usually darker than most

fiction, focusing on death, punishment, the human psyche, and our deep-seated fears to push us
over the edge. Take for instance, the Silent Hill series. It is set in a town with a history of

execution -- its very setting a symbol, and tie to something we fear. And yet executions were a

common thing even just a hundred years ago, and so it is a normal thing, too. But perpetually

surrounded by fog, empty, and plagued with monsters, Silent Hill is a corruption of our normal

environment, symbolizing the fears we keep within ourselves in our everyday lives. In Silent Hill

2, the main character is James and the monsters in it represent different things within himself.

For example, Pyramid Head, an unnamed grotesque humanoid with a metal pyramid housing his

head, represents his wish to be punished for his wife’s death. In the hospital, the nurses represent

his severe anxiety surrounding his wife’s death and his sexual deprivation. The latest in the

Silent Hill series, known as P.T. standing for Playable Trailer before its working name was

revealed to be Silent Hills, takes place in the hallways of a small house, and features the ghost of

a woman named Lisa who is missing her right eye, and a baby in a sink. A photo in the hall is

one thought to show the lady and her husband, and the writing on it reads ‘’gouge it out.” It may

be a reference to Matthew 5:29 in the New American Standard Bible, reading: “If your right eye

causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your

body than for your whole body to

be thrown into hell”. This

connects, again, to familiar things

within our homes: religion and

family upbringing gone wrong.

A very important key

feature when making a good

horror game is to enhance the feeling of isolation and disempowerment. This can be done by
creating creatures or monsters that can kill you or stun you. Without giving you any weapons and

forcing you to hide, it will make you powerless and enhance the feeling of fear and desperation.

This is done very well in Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Made by a small Swedish company called

Frictional Games, it takes place in 1839 in a castle filled with evil spirits, mystery, creatures and

dark history around every turn. In this setting, ugly and gorish creatures wander the castle and

underground tunnels scouting for intruders and people to take captive. The main character,

Daniel, has no way of defending himself against these monsters, only being able to hide or run

from them. Being powerless against these monsters enhances the feeling of helplessness -- and

brings out the adaptive nature of our subconscious. To quote one of the developers for Frictional

Games, ”...by giving the player weapons that are ineffective the desperation of the situation is

further heightened. This is a slippery slope though as once you show a weapon to the player it

instantly puts them in an action game mindset.” (“10”) Though using creatures may seem a bit

overdone, and there are dangers to how it affects players’ mindsets while playing, they can still

be used well if you know how to manipulate and arrange the atmosphere.

Puzzles games do really well in the horror genre because they require the player to use

critical thinking in a terror sort of state. There are lots of different examples of puzzle horror

games. They almost always feature a character, and are usually in third person omniscient or first

person perspective. Typically they use an inventory system to keep track of items, and some

puzzles make use of these items by need of combination or usage in certain circumstances. It’s

also a really good way to ensure interaction with environment, story and continuation with the

game. The thing about horror games though, is that they focus heavily on creating atmosphere,

and certain types of puzzles can either make or break the game. Puzzles that are immersive are

especially effective, involving little challenges that one would have in the character’s situation
(light, protection, evading danger). Amnesia: The Dark Descent does a good job of including

these puzzles, requiring frequent clever thinking to evade monsters and insanity. Keeping your

lantern lit keeps you sane -- but exposes you to the creatures that roam the castle, which you

must protect yourself against by

making use of the environment and

either using furniture or hiding

yourself.

There are of course many

other types of systems that can be

used to produce a fulfilling horror

game. While the use of dread is

very convincing in movies and in

games, it can be taken to a whole other level when combined with science fiction and creatures

within a horror game. A good example of using dread as a main key aspect would be SOMA, one

of the newest games from Swedish company Frictional Games. It features Simon, a millennial,

who wakes up in 2105 to a new world: underwater, and filled with “Strong AI.” It takes place

after ‘The Singularity’ occurs, a term which here means that people could upload their cognitive

existence into machinery to in a sense live forever. The goal of this project was to ship hundreds

of peoples’ cognitive minds into an Ark which would then be sent into space. But something

happened that postponed this new quality of life. It thrusts the player into a mindset which is

unfamiliar, new, and filled with danger. The only way to get through it is to, well, keep going. It

puts the player in emotionally uncomfortable situations that get on nerves, it’s very

psychological whereas other sci-fi horror games rely on scares and combat.
 Horror games build off of a variety of elements to both twist what is comfortable and

introduce what is not. In this way they manipulate our sense of safety and incite our most primal

survival instincts. They go deeper than these base things, though, imbuing symbolism and

environment to convey a unique and captivating story to keep the player interested. Using a

variety of gameplay mechanisms, literary techniques, and narrative elements, horror games are a

very specific niche of products that capitalize very well on key areas of the human mind and

behavior. In this way they are influential to popular culture in being unique in form and function

and with a very simple target appeal.

Works Cited

"10 Ways to Evolve Horror Games." In The Games Of Madness. Frictional

Games, 26 Apr. 2012. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.

"Six Elements That Make For A Quality Survival Horror Game." The Federalist.

3 Mar. 2015. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

 Byrd, Christopher. "‘SOMA:’ An Existential Horror Game." Washington Post.

The Washington Post, 24 Sept. 2015. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.

Pruett, Chris. "Tracing the Tendrils of Item Management." Chris's Survival

Horror Quest. N.p., 25 Oct. 2015. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.

"In The Games Of Madness: Puzzles in Horror Games. Part 1." Frictional Games, 9 Aug.

2009. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.

"En 'Silent Hills: PT', ¡ni Pausando Estás a Salvo!" Redbull, 13 Jan. 2015. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.