What makes a game truly scary?

[Gare]

Pretty straightforward, right? Inspired by this one conversation I had with Ray in the Hangout a couple of days ago.

So, what makes a game truly scary in your opinion? Personally, I find that oftentimes what cannot be seen has a greater effect on the player than something that can be seen. I'm also not the biggest fan of jump scares. Penumbra, a game that was brought up during said HO discussion, was used as an example: you're exploring this abandoned, underground complex in Greenland, surrounded by darkness with no way out, practically buried alive under an enormous amount of ice. You're given subtle hints: you know that there's something out there in the darkness. You don't exactly know what, but when it finds you, it'll probably murder the shit out of you. Or so you think. You'll experience a constant feeling of uneasiness, since the game does a great job at making the player's imagination run wild while there's nothing actually happening in the game itself. It also paces itself rather well, and for an hour or two, nothing really happens, yet you're given the impression that shit might hit the fan any minute, and you have nothing to defend yourself with aside from a rusty hammer. In the end, it just works really well.

Alright, I don't want to make this a lengthy post, so go on and start discussing stuff. What elements and design choices can make a horror game a truly frightening and memorable experience? What games did it just right, and which ones failed to get a reaction out of you? Keep in mind that I'm not asking you to just list scary games. This is not that kind of thread.

[Nemkoon]

You know I'm gonna post in this.
So, I think what makes a game scary, Isn't the jump scares, although they do make me jump sometimes, but the atmosphere,and the feeling that you could die any second,and the grotesque enemies. Also, lack of ammo/other essential items for survival makes you feel desperate, also adding to the fear factor.
And then there's the conspiracies/occult in the game as well. These things make you think, and also scare you if you think about how they suceed.
So Yeah, that's what I think.
Dino Crisis, RE (older play style), And Silent Hill all have these qualities, and that's why I think they're scary.

[Slacker Magician]

The right music, and I'm not talking violin murder, can contribute to a mood a lot more than the setting itself. Playing in dim light and dipping the temperature in your house might make things a little more 'real'.

[TheRealSpiders]

I think you summed it up rather well, jump scares are fine and dandy, but they definitely won't make a good horror game. A horror game? Sure. But definitely not a good one.

I mean I guess it's all subjective, but pacing and exposure is what seperates a good and bad horror game. Leaving it up to the imagination of what ungodly abomination is shuffling around in the shadows is much better than "Oh look at me, I'm jumping out of this vent OOGABOOGA".

And yeah, the violin murder is kinda played out.

[Slacker Magician]

I think you summed it up rather well, jump scares are fine and dandy, but they definitely won't make a good horror game. A horror game? Sure. But definitely not a good one.

I mean I guess it's all subjective, but pacing and exposure is what seperates a good and bad horror game. Leaving it up to the imagination of what ungodly abomination is shuffling around in the shadows is much better than "Oh look at me, I'm jumping out of this vent OOGABOOGA".

And yeah, the violin murder is kinda played out.

Killing violins was never a good mood setter.

[Milady]

As soon as I read the title of your thread, I wanted to write about things that cannot be seen, but it seems you've covered that already.

My favorite horror moment that I've experienced recently is also from the creators of Penumbra -- the first encounter with the water monster from Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The developers are obviously rather good at simply creating an atmosphere that inspires uneasiness in the player. If you've little more than a rusty hammer or a lantern at your disposal, you're obviously going to be a lot more cautious than if you were trotting along through each area with a portable arsenal on your back. The more cautious you are, the more tense you're likely to be as you turn dark corners, enter new areas, etc.

I'd also been playing with a set of headphones, which can make even my tiny 10" screen about 100 times more immersive. The water monsters were clever. You could hear them splashing about in pursuit, maybe feasting on a piece of rotting flesh you'd thrown as a distraction, but you could never see them. You had a pretty good idea where they were, and after a couple of times of distracting them, you could get a pretty good sense of how many seconds you had before it would lose interest in what you'd thrown and return to tear off your face. But their invisibility was enough to make you a little more cautious, a little more tense.

And you can forget about surviving your first entry into that room.

Apart from that game, there haven't really been any horror games recently that have had much of an effect on me. Granted, I've played only a handful of games in the genre and completed even less. I'm still scarred for life after the first Resident Evil, but that's more because I was about seven when it was released and the first time I ever played it was at night in my grandmother's creepy apartment with only my little sister for support.

The slow walking, gray monsters from RE4 that you encounter in the labs (the ones you have to use the heat scope to kill) always kind of creeped me out. I don't know, something about the idea of something slowly, slowly walking over to you -- making that horrible, rasping death sound -- just before it rips out your throat is something that I find to be a bit unsettling. And that's probably what bothered me about the zombies in the original game as well.

[Georgeman]

Unpredictability. By that I mean: random encounters. It was a big reason why Fatal Frame was so scary. You would mind your own business returning to some previous room where you vanquished a ghost and there was always a chance that a new one could appear. And thus you knew that no room was ever safe. And jump scares can actually be very effective if there's no accompanying music/sound effect.

[TheRealSpiders]

Killing violins was never a good mood setter.

Seriously, I agree that the music definitely sets a lot of the atmosphere in a game, but I don't need VREEEE VREEEE VREEEEE VREEEEEEEEEEEE when somethings about to happen. I know its supposed to add a sense of danger and urgency, but really.

The slow walking, gray monsters from RE4 that you encounter in the labs (the ones you have to use the heat scope to kill) always kind of creeped me out. I don't know, something about the idea of something slowly, slowly walking over to you -- making that horrible, rasping death sound -- just before it rips out your throat is something that I find to be a bit unsettling. And that's probably what bothered me about the zombies in the original game as well.

The Regenerators and Iron Maidens were awesome, Blow off their limbs? "LOL SORRY BRO IMMA JUST GROW THAT BACK SHORTLY." That, the rasping, the slow lumbering, and the fact that they could stretch their limbs made great nightmare fuel. Too bad eventually I figured out that I could waste nearly no ammo by knifing them to death.

[ponury_indor]

For me good horror games shouldn't have music at all, just foot steps and heavy breaths. Also graphics and effects are improtant - black, gray, brown blood and motion blur make the perfect combination (something like in 'Condemned' games).

Someone remember this?

Spoiler warning:

[Mr. Nemo]

The lack of save points and shoddy controls are what scare in me in every game. I remember falling to my death many times playing tomb raider due to the character rolling off a landing spot.

Being serious though, most video games don't scare me the way movies can. The scope of vision is vastly different compared to film and that alone can determine when you trick yourself into thinking you are going to die. The better you are able to be tricked into thinking the model you are playing on screen is you, the easier it is to be scared. Makers of horror games should take the time and brush up on psychology classes before trying to make a horror game.

For me, The Thing was a good example of a scary game and movie. You don't know who is truly friend or foe, but the game is frightening when you are by yourself and those fast aliens come sprinting your way. You know they can't die quickly and you need to run as you shoot them. The lack of allies and the inability to ever one-shot the bigger aliens make for a scary fun time.

[Sergei Dragunov]

The lack of save points and shoddy controls are what scare in me in every game

Yes.

I remember falling to my death many times playing tomb raider due to the character rolling off a landing spot.

loll

[TheFreelancer2501]

I've had rather limit exposure to horror games since, truth be told, I'm a total chicken about that stuff. It depends really but for my part I've never met a Resident Evil game I thought was scary. They're absolutely a ton of fun and I'll love them eternally but I was never scared until I met Silent Hill. Many people have said it but for my part atmosphere and setting are the key. Also, I think maybe that fear of what you don't understand. RE relies on science to explain things but I find the really scary games (to me) use supernatural elements.

Actually, a good example of both atmosphere and what a chicken I am is in the game Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon on Wii. The creators actually say the game wasn't meant to be a horror game at all but I'll be if it doesn't get to me just the same. In one scene very early in the game you have to find a key. Keep in mind, for those who haven't played, you are one of the few people left in the entire world. You're in a subway station and it's pitch dark so you use a flashlight to see much like Silent Hill. Anyhow I went into the bathroom looking for this key and while it was dark I didn't see anything. I turned to examine the area and right in front of me were these ghostly hands reaching from the wall. Needless to say i let out a brief scream of shock. There wasn't a dramatic change in music, no cutscene, and the hands weren't bloody of grotesque, they were just there. That's when a scare is best, I think, when there's no build up to it, the world just draws you in and when you're comfortable it just places something in front of you. The difference between this and a jump scare is that the creature/scary object wasn't around and then, boo, there it is. The other was always in the room, you just failed to notice it.

[HowlerMonkey]

I think that just having the big scary moments kind of happen instead of having the game make a big deal out of them help a lot, in terms of making you never really feel safe.

I kind of worded that badly,but what I mean is like, you know in Resident Evil 2 B scenario when you're walking down this creepy yellowish hallway with the stuffed mountain lion or whatever, and you come up to a corner and Mr. X is just rounding the corner as you get there? Stuff like that. He didn't smash through the walls or drop in through the ceiling like he normally does, he was just kind of there. Yeah, they blast his music at you, but not until he appears.

I think it's really hard for a game to be scary, but what it can do a lot more easily (and better) is be creepy.

[Yubson]

Great thread, love it. I started a similar in a local gaming community in my language some time ago, but I talked more about mood while playing.

Here, there are more things to read and to actually discuss.

For me, playing a game without proper music isn't right gaming. So I always either wear my full 5.1 stereo headphones or any other I can get. Even if it scares crap out of me.
Recently while playing FEAR 3, bells tend to give me creeps. Just hearing them isn't so "appropriate" while running and exploring dim lighted hallways. Goose-bumps.

All the sudden apparitions of Alma also gave shit to me, and the demon voices and screams. Pretty tense, but you can actually get used to it.

IMO, the most obvious dangerous-places are not that scary when you can expect something to happen, a sudden pop, a sudden battle or an important event. Few things that tend to give me a fall of my chair is a scare out of nowhere - and I mean literally - while climbing ladders - of course not being fair, or either checking drawer or just taking a piss.

I remember my first scream experience with my MOM playing Parasite Eve 2 for PS1, and the first level or scene where all the SWAT members are slaughtered and you're there alone to check whats up. It just took me 5 years later to play it for myself.

Other is the angle of the camera. A close up can make you feel safe but your vision is limited so any sudden change of direction of movement can give a heart attack.

And I could go on and on..


And what about that feeling when you just don't want to open THAT door or turn the flashlight so you don't have to face whatever is out there...

˘_˘/

[scarymonsters]

I think it's all really about the atmospheric sound. You can probably play the most horrifying game out there without sound and call it boring. Take for example what was said previously about the regenerators in Resident Evil 4. They make this horrible raspy breathing sound that is just disturbing. Play the game in mute and shotgun to the head and your done. Didn't even jump. It goes the same for just about every game out there. It's all in the sound