A great example of this are unreliable narrators or a riveting plot twist. It sets the player in a precarious situation with unpredictable characters, fueling the confusion, paranoia and uneasiness of the surrounding events. It’s a hard-to-describe genre, but very effective if utilized correctly. This leads us to psychological horror, a fresher approach to frighten gamers. In addition, these are now considered horror tropes and clichés, not exactly ingredients of a masterpiece. But one can succeed in mastering only one of the aspects of scaring gamers.
Combining all of the above, a masterpiece can be born. Some get scared of realistic portrayal of events, for example utilizing found footage technique in games. Most of us are probably scared of the unknown, such as creepy creatures that are unpredictable and threatening, or a desolate house with no occupants and scarce light sources.
Having played all these games, it made me question: Is there a recipe for true horror? What does actually make a person scared playing video games? Last year’s Man of Medan, Until Dawn’s spiritual successor, didn’t manage to scare me at all, even though it had all the “right” ingredients: a creepy, abandoned ship and plenty of jump scares. Not because of the unpredictably mutating members of the Baker family, but because of the constant gut-wrenching feeling of something sinister. The following year, my brother and I were scared to death playing Resident Evil 7. Its horror mostly comprised of terrifying and unknown creatures, a spooky atmosphere and gullible high school students. I recall little of that game, but I’m sure it had something to do with a haunted house and horrifying ghosts, which are frequent fixtures in the horror genre.įast forward twelve years, and I had just completed my first horror game, Until Dawn. I used to watch my uncle play the game on his computer, since I was too young (and too scared) to play it myself. It was called “House of Horrors”, or something along those lines. My first experience with a horror video game when I was about five, far too young to familiarize myself with such spooky things.