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Including a Raid add in another horror video. I respect the honesty in including an add that matches the genre. I hope they paid you well so my favorite trash man editor gets his pay and charity gets some well deserved donations.
@@jamalshelton5746 Last I heard, I am pretty sure Raid is as much of a scam in sponsor as it is in-game. But... Things could change. It has been a while since I heard the news.
@@thealientree3821 yep. That's why I called it a horror game. The horror is from wasting your life and money for digital objects that have no real value. Heck Raid is a live service game, so when the company shuts down all purchases made will be gone too. Kind of like Blizzard and the Overwatch series.(not to say that the first was bad, just bricked by corporate whim)
Don't worry the patch didn't help Security Breach. There's a challenge run on the latest patch for a glitchless run. Let me repeat myself, it's considered a challenge to beat the game without glitches
@@redheadboi2120 yeah if I remember the run I saw correctly they had yo have multiple checkpoints because of how painful it would be to play without it
Horror is a combination of many feelings, fear, tension, uneasiness, dread. a good horror game doesn’t need to make you scream loud enough to break glass but make you feel like you or your character is in a situation or place that you don’t want to be but are forced to be in and you have to find your way out with what the game offers you
A movie that is horror but I didn’t really find scary is Evil Dead 2, maybe it’s because of my desensitized gamer brain to violence in media IDK I just don’t find it scary BUT I can feel the unease and tension Ash is going through even with the more comedic edge Raimi took the film in with it especially shown in things like the atmosphere of this lonely cursed rickety cabin in the woods and in scenes like when Ash cuts off his hand or the when the cabin itself starts laughing at him, Evil Dead 2 is not really “scary” like it makes me scream, but you can feel the horror in the predicament the characters are in and the atmosphere, which is a similar thing I feel represented the early resident evil games, not necessarily scary but you can feel the tension of the situation
Recently played FAITH The Unholy Trinity, despite having its artstyle based entirely on 80s computers such as Apple ][, it seriously nailed down everything about being a horror game. Having to replay the entire apartment section was a nightmare for me, specially when there are random elements going on that you won't expect and catch you off guard (Such as the Seal Lady when riding on the elevator)
Silent Hill is a good example (you can tell from my pfp that I am having Silent Hill brainrot, anyways). It's a psychological horror that really nails the uneasy and dreadfulness a lot of modern horror games lack. The first 4 gsmes were made by the original Team Silent and Silent Hill 2 in particular is considered the best. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone!
Honestly my best example of this was Darkwood for me. There are almost no scripted jumpscares, and of those there are no loud noises or cheap tricks. The horror Darkwood thrives on is the sound design, grotesque body horror, and the feeling of isolation while roaming the world. The only moments of calm being the small chats or exchanges between some npcs. And most of all this game makes effective horror because you have the capability to fight back, but it's limited in a way that's realistic. Since the entire game is played from a top down view with a cone of vision, so you can see the environment and objects that don't move. But the space outside that cone doesn't show enemies or perhaps something changing or switching out as the game plays tricks on you. Basically my stance on horror is that quiet or non jumpscare horror is extremely effective if a game actually tries.
For me horror isn't needed to be scary, but it does require dread. For a weird example let's use the first Luigi's Mansion game. Luigi is a character that many a Nintendo kid could identify with through the fact he'd been in so many of our childhood games; he was formative. So, despite the goofy @$$ looking ghosts we wanted to protect our friend.
Horror involves the feeling of shock and repulsion: it is therefore usually based more on short-term scare tactics, such as jumpscares, grotesque and disturbing imagery, it is the fear of an immediate and present threat. Terror, meanwhile, is more suspenseful, more about the feeling of dread (as you mention about Luigi's Mansion) and apprehension of something frightening occurring: thus, terror is more long-term, a slow burn, the steady rising of a roller-coaster before it reaches the crest of the track for the terrifying plunge that make people close their eyes and scream, as it simulates the feeling of plummeting through the air and hitting the ground with the splat of a ripe tomato, or alternatively, waking up in the middle of the night in your large, empty, two-story clapboard house to the faint creaking of a door or the sound of quick scuffling footsteps... and remembering you live by yourself, with no other houses or roads for miles around.
The best types of horror games are the ones that keep you on the edge of your seat. They make you really jumpy and you’re always slowly inching along wondering if there’s something behind the corner
the games where there's barely any jumpscares at all, but you're constantly thinking what things may or may not be jumpscare triggers. now that's some scary shit, the game doesn't have to scare me when my brain makes up stuff in the game that scares myself.
I felt that way my entire time playing Subnautica, even on subsequent playthroughs and I knew where everything was I was like, “no there’s something out there that’s gonna get me I just know it”
Frankly, I think the Iron Lung background lore works really well at what it's trying to do. It's not trying to be some big mystery. It's like those old Twilight Zone episodes that didn't really have a moral, or like the original FNAF before the lore spiraled into sci-fi insanity. It's just, "Hey, isn't this pretty fucked up?" You're in an ocean of blood in space after 99% of humanity and the universe has vanished. It doesn't want to tell a story, it wants to unsettle you, and it does.
I think a good horror game out there is Who’s Lila? For those who don’t know, Who’s Lila? Is a click and point horror game where you have to make facial expressions to interact with characters. The overall aesthetic and vibe makes me very nostalgic because it really reminds me of a DS game from the late 2000s The whole facial expressions mechanic is interesting and you can make very goofy faces, but what gets you is when your character makes a facial expression on their own, specifically at inappropriate times. Like, it’s mentioned that someone is missing and your character starts to smile and if you want to appear “normal” you want to prevent them from smiling. It can catch you off guard and can say a lot about your character. The story is a little confusing but it is a great game overall and I hope more people play it, because it did give me a lot of dread
THANK YOU!! it's so underrated it deserves sm more recognition. The story really isn't that confusing once you start piecing it together but not enough people are talking about it to figure it out.
Who's Lila is the first horror game that has ever given me a literal nightmare. It was just a moment long but it woke me up. And I hadn't even played it, just watched someone else play. (I bought it afterwards. I feel like they earned it) It's a game that fills you with discomfort and sticks with you long after you've experienced it, which is my favorite kind of horror. Reminds me of how I feel about Junji Ito comics, actually.
Oh, THAT game. If you dont like the uncanny valley I strongly recommend either playing it or staying FAAARR away from it. That expressions mechanic is really.. something.
The horror that really fucks with me is when horror is used in games that arent primarily horror. When fear is used to emphasise other emotions. Omori is my go to example of this, I think there is only one jumpscare, but honestly that is not what scared me in the game. Its the mirages of times long gone, the unknown entities flickering in at the edge of the screen, the eye that appeared once you check an image, only to be gone the next time you look.
I thought Omori was just gonna be a shittier yume nikki but no, the Hellmari sequences were legitimately pretty creepy, and it's just something lurking in the corner of the screen.
Actually there’s I think 2 jump scares. But because there so sparse in the for me, almost 24 hour long game(if you want to get 1 of the endings) it scares you even more
The fear of the unknown to me makes a good horror. I know that this isn’t horror, but stands in jojo are scarier when you don’t know how they work, but once they do they aren’t as scary, (cream, king crimson, the world, etc)
@@Mangakamen Cheap trap would have been undefeatable without the ghost alley. That stand needed creative thinking to beat. It would have been invincible in any other part. Araki loves horror. He knows how to make tension well.
For me, personally, fear is to see human degradation or animals levelling up to humans. Jotaro and Josuke fighting the Rat, and Rohan fighting Cheap Trick becomes just as terrifying as Polnareff vs Cream, Vanilla Ice. Or how about the rest of Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan made me appreciates Rohan grew used to the horrors of Morioh. But nothing beats the pure terror of getting hit by Okuyasu's the Hand by the face.
The Thing 1980 was a very scary movie cause the fear wasn't just the monster, it was who the monster is We know what the monster looks like, but how do we know the man next to you isn't Maybe the true horror wasn't the Thing, it was human nature under pressure
Something I’d like to point out is that video games have a HUGE advantage in horror. Movies and books are constrained by the fact they need a solid plot, and thus characters. And those characters must both act normal and get themselves into isolation. Video games sidestep it, because they can just dump you in a room like FNAF and Iron Lung, establish a gameplay system and set you on your way.
I'd argue the games need that just as much or it'll take you completely out of the experience. The advantage book have over all is they leave the visual descriptions open to interpretation for the reader. Yeah they'll give you a general description but the rest your mind fills in.
I’d argue any good horror story from any medium needs a good plot. It’s just that it’s much easier for creators to disregard that and simply go for short term gratification. Usually that comes in the form of jumpscares
In my opinion what makes a good horror game is what creates an atmosphere that makes you uncomfortable and tense making you alert to everthing while at the same time making you fascinated and immersed in this universe in what makes you interested in understading and exploring every detail possible and still keep that fear of the unknown while surprising you with the discoveries like for in American mgcee alice and Alice madness returns
Psychological horror is my favorite by how much it makes me think and how horrific some implications can be like in Silent Hill 3 when a character tells Heather, the main protagonist something that chilled me. (If you know, you know)
A perfect example of the "Good graphics aren't necessary" aspect Kamen mentioned is Faith: The Unholy Trinity, the first part is about a priest that returns to a house to attempt to free a girl from demonic possession
@@danieladamczyk4024 yeah, since if you want to go this route a game with less high quality graphics has the advantage of obstructing information, yet not in the way for it to be annoying, just in the way for it to be creepy
i cant remember hydrophobia, i think it was more of a psychological game? as for why purchase both subnautica games despite thalassophobia, mayhaps you wanted to face your own fears?
Seeing Sayori like that still makes me deeply sad, even though I "saved" her in the end. Also for me, psychological horror is normally the only form of horror that gets to me anymore, as the atmosphere my mind creates and interprets is far worse than anything someone else can think of
Unless it turns out to be the actual Night in the Woods "game". Started out intriguing, but became so boring that I don't ever remember the last third of it, despite having played through the whole thing.
@@whitemagus2000 Night in the Woods is my favorite game ever made so I gotta disagree. However, I can totally understand why you'd feel like that. It's the kind of game that can be really boring if you're not into it at 100%.
I'm really glad that you brought up the overdone trope of notes in horror games. The fact that no one talks about them made me wonder if I was the only one who noticed it.
I think another thing to consider is characters because even if a story isn't the best if the characters are fleshed out and we care about them that can compensate greatly. Village had its messy parts yes, but I think the reason why people like it is because the characters from Ethan Winters to Mother Mirranda are interesting and we want to know more about them
The horror that really gets me involves the cutesy or harmless looking stuff. That's why the segment of the school in FEAR2 and Dead Space 2 still get me. Seeing once cheerful smiley decoration covered in blood and guts is heartbreaking.
What makes the FEAR2 school even scarier is finding and reading the logs throughout the level. They start off simple enough, but slowly get more unnerving as you discover just what the hell is going on there (I first raised an eyebrow when it said that one group of students wasn't going to be having lunch that day).
There definitely needs to be some type of contrast. Monster horror gets old really quick. At the very least if the horror itself doesn't involve the cute elements I they still need to be in story and preferrably endangered in some way. There needs to be light so that darkness can be truly dark.
For me, the game that does fear the best is Omori. Sure the game uses a few jump scares, but where the real fear comes from is how scary the scares are to the game's main character, Sunny. I find that since this kind of fear is based on empathy instead of shock, it makes it more effective and long lasting. During my second playthrough of the game, even though I knew where all the scares were and reason for why they exist, they still caused a bit of fear in me because I knew how personally scary they were for Sunny. That's my though, great video.
Also, the few jumpscares the game does have are really good? That's obviously subjective but the couple of scares that really got me have become really fond memories, in like a "haha you really got me there" kind of way
It’s hard to describe omori’s horror, every horror game I’ve played hasn’t hit me nearly enough as omori has. SPOILERS for omori in this next part Seeing a clicker tear my neck out and eat me alive in The Last of Us? No reaction. Seeing maris hanging body with zero blood and no gore? So terrifying that it gives me goosebumps and makes my eyes water.
@@granmastersword out of your friends, which are you? Truck freak Crazy ass H̶̨̨͚̜͉̫̺̱̠̭͉̟͗͌̿e̴̩͎͙̬͇̗̥̜͖̙̳̍̓̓̀̚l̴̢͇͔̹̜͎̗̅̋̂̒̀̈́̉ͅĺ̴̨͎͖̯̱̞̟͐̋̆̒́ ̷̧̡̧͉̯͔̹̱̹̭̱̦̰̓͆̒͛̆́́̚M̶̡̨̫͈̳̯̏̈̒́̄̇͘͘ã̸̢̨͚̖̪̜̲̮͎̮͖͖̐͌͆ͅr̵̹̹͇͕̣̜̲̫͓͕̾́̀͆̋͂̓̏̆̓̀͊̆͑ȉ̶͔̒̈́͌͋́͗̄̕̚͝͝ The fighter
@@JustANormalGuyForReal And the way the first time it's revealed the image goes slowly from essentially a black blob to... that. I was all like "ooooh no. No no no no. You wouldn't. Oh fuck, nooo"
One way to resolve the issue of the saferooms making the threat obsolete is to make it so that certain monsters can break into those rooms, and effectively break the safe room so it can no longer be used as a safe room. It's not like resident evil hasn't tried to attack the players in the safe room before. If a few zombies breaking into an otherwise safe room after opening a seemingly safe door can set a player on edge, than an enemy that can take those safe rooms away from you because you tried to use them to cheese an encounter will make you paranoid.
I see Resident Evil Village missed a massive opportunity because they could have made the entire game revolves on Donna Beneviento's theme. I'd pay to see Lady Dimitrescu and Heisenberg's horror took over the actual final boss of the game. They have more relatable personalities, so to see them succumb to perversion - either by competition outside of the main plot or seeing our hopes dashed to befriend them in a heartbreaking way - would have been phenomenal. Have Heisenberg befriending Ethan before trying to convince him to become Soldat (Mechanized Zombie) so he can become immortal and supported by Heisenberg or Lady D asking Ethan's accompaniment only to be rejected until the end of slow and deplorable mutation would be twisting the horror knife with a heartbreak. Even having the gigamutacyte being quite literally a baby seeing Ethan as a more capable father figure would be horrifying because that relates to me on personal level seeing many orphanages and how children gets there. Parental Neglect is a horror on itself and having the protagonist to do that is horrifying. F**k Moreau.
RE Village was as scary as RE4, which is not at all and never shoud be used as an example of horror games. Same with Dead Space 3 or Evil Within series.
@@MrConredsX Evil Within was gross in theme and visuals alone, but I do agree that it shouldn't be considered horror, only thriller. My main gripe with the series is that it never tells you, only implies, about Joseph's death. There could have been so much more when it comes to the horror regarding that mystery alone of what happened to Oda. We could have had serious horror themes in the second game revolving around Sebastian's guilt having his partner die and there be nothing to do about it. BUT NOPE. WE NEED TO REVOLVE AROUND THE CUM WAIFU AND THE KID.
@@MrConredsX I agree and I loved RE4. Even the puppet shows advertisement explicitly told that the reason RE8 made that way is because Capcom's player survey said it was too scary. (I am aware that there are better horror that Resident Evil would rather not be, its still survival action game at its core)
nitro rad said something about horror i really agree with. how older shooting horror games like silent hill used uncertainty. he used outlast as an example on how the lack of it can hurt a game. with how "in outlast, if you see a monster, the only option is to run and hide. so i have total faith in that hiding will work." so if you give the player multiple options, both can fail. and it would probably scare the player. "if i run, i might not be fast enough or panic and die" & "if i fight, i might slip up and die" especially with how deeply and itntentionally clunky the combat was back then.
Personally, and this is entirely my opinion the best horror is the kind that makes you anxious even when there is no immediate threat. A technique often found in classic horror movies and thrillers as well Just look at anything from John Carpenter or Spielberg's most classic movies For the former, lets take Halloween. Michael isn't treated as just a serial killer, but as sort of a boogeyman. Even tho much of the movie is during the day, you still feel anxious because he's always there just out of sight Then, with Spielberg we have Jaws where its easy to forget that the titular shark is only in ~20% of the movie , yer we still feel this sense of dread for whenever the music starts going and someone is in the water This is why games like Dead Space, RE 1-4 and 7, Silent Hill etc Work so well, because they take that technique and just put it into videogame form. Because when the threat DOES appear, the player usually goes into panic mode.
TBH I haven't been able to get scared in Silent Hill. It seems to work for a lot of people, but not me. I think the main reason is that the monsters don't feel super threatening, where they can be killed somewhat easily or you just run around them. I really like the atmosphere of it though, I just don't find it scary,
9:41 I mean, if you played Jason or dbd you know that keeping everyone together might be a bad idea, you're stakes in a buffet. But if you spread you spread the enemy too thin, it might be better to do this after you know the enemy and it's part of a bigger strategy.
I think another good way a jumpscare can be used is as a way to reset the tension for a new section. I really like the opening nightmare sequence in Cry of Fear cuz it builds up to the scare, and that scare resets the tension to introduce the main game.
Souls-like games can be some of the most horrifying games out there even if their themes are not exactly creepy like Jedi Fallen Order and even if they give you a NPC companion like Code Vein. The threats at every corner, the potential of even the smallest enemies to kill you and make you lose your progress create an atmosphere where the world you are treading through are overwhelmingly hostile to you, like you are being rejected at a cosmic level, like you are not supposed to belong here. AND on top of that, it's a genre where repetition does little to alleviate the pressure you are put under, if at all.
Love code vien, wouldnt call it the scary but dreadful is a good word, tight corridors mixed with the spike in heartrate seeing an enemy drop your health by like 70% in 1 hit, the scarist area is probably to me the howling pit
@@sdbzfan1 I see code vein as a melancholic story of post-apocalypse with a despondent and pessimistic cast. Like the bleakness overrides anything that's scary. Dark Souls 2 on the other hand, the section before flexile sentry, the area of the sinner and the gargoyles, the iron king dlc, those are really scary areas
I think Fran Bow did Isolation well. Many times the people around you, that are supposed to give you security, are hollow. They can just... die. In a second. And no matter where you are, you're only around noone or husks. Then when you get used to it, you meet someone that doesn't die due to that. But you're always nervous about him dying. And this mix of dread and fear is great.
Felt the same way for a lot of the comedic shows from my childhood. I rarely ever laughed to any of the jokes or slap stick. Growing up I later found out through video essays about how the jokes in X show were good or bad that I was supposed to laugh to most of the stuff. I could definitely call them "funny", but it's the kinda funny where it comes as a thought "That was pretty funny" or "That joke was pretty nice". So maybe the same could apply to horror? Idk it's something I always come back to as a thought. Do you have to make people laugh to be a comedy? Do you have to be scary to be a horror? Makes my head run in circles
This sorta reminds me of more surreal horror like the original dhmis and salad fingers. They’re not scary in how they have jumpscares in them, it’s a more different kind of horror. Ig my point is that there’s a spectrum to horror and it’s not locked to a specific style
I think what makes a good horror game is balance. You're not completely helpless when the monster comes by, but you're not a ninja badass that can slice through the monsters by the dozens like butter either. You can swing a pipe or a knife at the monster and kill it after a few hits, but you've got to be careful or it'll kill you and sometimes you might be better off running, but you never *have* to run. There are jump scares yes, any horror worth it's salt has jump scares, but they come after a few minutes of tension building and a fake out or two. Like you're walking down a hallway for a couple minutes with tense music or even no music at all and you see the shadow of a person from around the left corner, so you go look all ready for a fight... and it's a lamp or something... *then* as you're laughing at yourself and letting the tension drain out, the monster suddenly appears behind you and attacks. The thing that's important is tension and expectations. A horror game has to build up tension over time. It's what gets a player emotionally invested. At the same time you've got to keep from being predictable, at least the first time through. A jump scare the player sees coming isn't going to scare them. Nor is having jump scares every 2 minutes. You have to space out the scares and allow the player to anticipate them but be wrong about it. A big part of that is you have to be alone. Not that there can't be other people in the story, but you've got to face everything in the story on your own.
I honestly like horror that’s deeply unsettling on a visceral level. Psychological, existential, liminal, and nostalgic horror are probably some of my favorite things. Most minds are good at filling in blanks. I’ve never been a fan of that reactive horror with lots of jump scares because despite being a horror fan I’m also easily startled. I feel that jumps scares work best as a means to create tension. Honestly Omori didn’t live up to what I thought it would be mostly because of the old trailer. I was hoping for more of that collage paper cutout vibe of course it does utilize that to highlight certain moments and things but in my opinion didn’t do it enough. I mean Omori as a piece of storytelling is phenomenal and it’s a good depiction of grief, trauma, and self-forgiveness. Fnaf suffers from over explanatory exposition. Sometimes it is enough to say that you killed a coulee of kids and stuffed them into suits and now they just possess that shit. Like there doesn’t need to be a science surrounding it. I think fnaf peaked with its fourth game. Like the fact you are taking the concept of what is supposed to be a safe environment and turning it into something more alike a prison is great. The fact you must listen for breathing and check behind you is a pretty great mechanic that heightens the experience. I think security breach is more interesting as a story but it’s sad to see that they sanitized it for a younger audience because it could’ve been a new avenue to go down. Honestly I don’t know if I’m making sense but I hope I am I am writing this way too late lol
Few thoughts: 1) Andy's apple farm is legit just a copy of walten files episode 3 and I liked it before seeing WF and how it did the story better. 2) despite it's many, MANY flaws, until dawn is the one game I played where I felt like the "story through documents " really worked for me, since the places where it's most prevalent are in a hospital (where rigorous note-taking makes sense) or they are intentionally left out by the 'antagonist' to f with the main cast. You also don't need to read the notes to understand why you are playing the game in the first place, or why anything you do in the game makes sense. There needs to be a balance.
The thing with horror to me is I love the mystery. When you have like Poppy Playtime or Security Breach where the people wanting to kill you are talking to you it really takes me out of the idea these are horrific monsters wanting me dead. Not saying this is always bad, not at all. But I thing a lot of the things missing from mainstream horror is just the loveliness of silence and being with your own thoughts
It may also have something to do with the atmosphere and how the world works. Scream is considered one of the best horror franchises, and Ghost Face is known for the phone calls made to taunt the targets of his next attack. But, to your point, there is a appreciation for this tactic when the killer is a regular human versus a supernatural, lumbering entity. Just a thought, but when FNAF started, the animatronics didn’t talk at you. If there was any noise at all (outside of the death state screams), it was choked wheezing, which is an unsettling noise. Balloon Boy’s “Hello” in FNAF2 was uncomfortable because you knew he was about to get in the room and ruin your flashlight. I understand wanting to shift to more upgraded animatronics in Security Breach, thus the talking makes sense in the world, but I agree that the unyielding sound of their voices doesn’t always have the effect of scaring you that they’re suddenly closer than you thought they were. If you’d been sneaking around in silence for quite some time, focused on completing a task, and Monty’s voice suddenly growls loudly in your ear “there you are,” it would be an effective scare, but it would need to be used sparingly, and in a game where the voices are being used as “Marco Polo” signals, I don’t think that’s possible.
I personally think the last scary FNaF game was the sixth or seventh and even than it was falling off. Security breaches scare factor fell off and it was more of an action adventure game with mild horror.
Have the character get together but have something else split them up like a cavern caving in, a monster picking them up 1 by 1 regardless or even a betrayal occurs. Now that’s a proper split up.
Yeah there's definitely ways to organically split a party up that doesn't involve people just being stupid idiots. And I really wish horror stories would use these more.
The first Predator took place in a jungle primarily in the day. It's not where that matters, it's the feelings it wants to convey. I felt more genuine terror and dread playing thief trying not to get caught then throughout the entirety of Silent Hill. No amount of darkness, or fog, or obfuscation will stop a particular moment from coming off as silly if done poorly.
I'm glad you brought up the whole jumpscare aspect of FNAF, I've had that same thought too. Honestly this whole video brought up a lot that I've occasionally thought about when it comes to horror games, or at the very least the "mainstream/modern horror" genre.
I haven't played many horror games, but the ones I have played and scared me often keep me at the edge of my seat. Atmosphere and building suspension really gets the player to feel fear. But there's also a lot to gain from with horror elements but focus on eother beinf goofy or fun to play. Like the Devil May Cry series does make me feel uneasy in any room, though I don't think I'll die in every room, there's something about the settings that always give me a sense of unsettlled.
The best horrific foes are ones are either hinted at(A colleague's radio comm goes silent after a scream and some strange noise), appear suddenly(Pa from Resident Evil 7), or are lurking about while you look at them from a hiding place(I can't really recall any enemies like that right now aside from the mummies in Rayman 3, they made me stop playing that game as a kid). Something that you can barely outrun, something you cannot fight(Unless you're in a boss arena), and something you HAVE to hide from. That's _my_ opinion.
I think in context of Horror games specifically, there needs to be a feeling of rising unease that stays with you from a certain point of discovery till the end of the game no matter the atmosphere. I personally don’t believe horror games have to be scary, some of the best ones I played started super unassuming and made me question my mental state by the end. Sometimes the brighter the colors the scarier it can be going by color theory. Contrasting colors, and atmospheres, leave an impression in your brain. Example in a kid’s show: Courage the cowardly dog, the colors are ridiculously bright and the show itself is dark as hell. To this day the bright pink screams danger every time I see it in media. There’s an anime called Houseki No Kuni that uses those bright colors perfectly, make no mistake this show/manga is a psychological horror in its own right, but the color pink specifically is always when something horrible happens. The impact is there. I think that’s why games like Ib, despite it being pixelated, scares the hell out of me as it nails all of those aspects.
a good way to do the log thing is through giving the location security system that you can view through all of the footage and naturally find the horrible things that happens staring through the recordings
I think the best kind of horror is thinking what's around the corner. Good sound design and atmosphere can really build up dread, and when you reach that corner and there's nothing there when you know something was, can be truly terrifying. Though an example of good sound design I can think of is from Corpse Party when Ayumi is blindfolded and hears the other children dying, that was pretty horrific in my opinion. I won't say the game in general is super scary but that part and Yuka's death by a ghost kid really freaked me out.
I've always been really bad with horror. I jump easily and I hate it, so I'm pretty picky with my tastes. I prefer the more psychological type of horror, where it's less of a "spooky thing coming to get ya" and more of a "what the hell is anything" kind of scary. Though oddly enough I've also been fond of the old RPG maker horror games like The Witch's House and Ib.
I feel like the last of us is an excellent example of a good horror game based on stuff you mentioned. Also yes, it is considered a horror game One good example of the horror in the last of us is when your with Ellie but then you get separated due to something like a fallen elevator and your forced to climb your way back up with very limited supplies It gives you a sense of safety and then takes it away and leaves you nearly helpless
The scariest game I've ever played is Infra. Horrifying. Nothing can really hurt you accept the dangerous tunnel collapses and chemical spills or maybe some mushrooms, but the isolation, lack of visibility, no real sense of location or direction, and the discovery of Mörkö on a first play through makes it utterly terrifying for me.
Personally, the witches house has always stuck with me as a horror game. Theirs a lot of cheap jumpscares and deaths but the story just chills me to the bones honestly. Its unsettling and tragic, I can't help but to love it.
Omg literally! The ending where the witch switchs with the girl scared me so bad! It made me cry cause of how sad it was! Such a good game! Same with Mad father and the other RPGs of that time. I always loved RPGs.
One of the best horror gamrs I played is Darkwood. Survival horror with messed up setting, a lot of unique use of graphics and very atmospheric. It has everything I love in those games. Resource management, survival aspect, spooks and actually interesting story that you want to understand. Also FNaF1/4, RE2/4, SCP:CB(love that game so much even though it's working only half of the time. It combines a lot of good stuff and genuenly scares me, though I usually don't get spooked. It's just one of those games that gets me.), and other stuff that I can't remember right now.
I still find it bizarre that people find a game as passive as Subnautica somehow relevant to horror discussions. I am terrified of spiders but I don't turn around and declare the Harry Potter movies a horror series despite the spider scenes being literally unwatchable for me because I'm that scared if them. A lot of people find games like Subnautica therapeutic because of how relaxed it is if you just hang out and slowly expand
@@Matt_History im not saying that subnautica is a horror game, because it isn't Yet the game has some really good horror or terror moments, that can genuinely give fear or a scare Im not saying that subnautica as a whole should be analysed or taken as a horror game, instead im saying that those aspects or moments of fear in the game can be good examples on how it works, to better understand how to do it. Because i don't have a specific fear for the deep, yet subnautica made me stop play it for a period pf time for a couple of times, before i finally beat it, because i was afraid of going in some of the zones to progress Although i will admit that the lava zone and ghost river are way less scary
With the 'does horror need horror in it to be scary' section. I'd say, yes and no I mean, a games great if it makes you feel scared But I would say look at the RatMan lairs in Portal, though the ratman is actually a good man, just insane, I found those areas not scary, but intimidating and uneasy. Almost scary, but in a phycological way. Take the tons of taken apart PCs, cans, and the scramblings on the walls, along with the fact that the ammount of holes and crevaces mean that the 'RatMan' may be able to still see you, and may still be. Its just terrifying and I love it!
Hi Kamen! Loved your video and I see you adjusted your character design slightly. I hope you have a happy Halloween and live life to the fullest. See ya later!
Jumpscares are scary when they happen like the first few times, after that though, they feel either cheap or just lose the fear factor that freaked me out, this is especially true for fnaf and any max out challenge in these games It can still work, but half the times they feel super cheap and just catch you off guard
One thing I particularly love in horror games is when you're faced with a big monster you can't kill. Something that will chase you for an extended period of time. A good example of this would probably be the Xenomorph from Alien Isolation. It's a persistent threat throughout most of the game, and you are given enough tools to evade and even distract it. You do get the flamethrower which can get it to back off for a short time, but that's not until the late game and ammo for it is incredibly scarce which prioritizes careful use of it. A bad example would be, in my opinion, Mr. X from RE 2 Remake for one simple reason. He's way too easy to lose. All you need to do to make him back off is chuck a grenade or shoot him in the face with the magnum which, unlike the flamethrower in Isolation, can be unlocked fairly quickly. Hell, you can even use the shotgun to head shot him a few times, and it's just as good. Say nothing about Claire who gets the grenade launcher. There may not be too much ammo for it, but there's more than enough to keep him at bay.
also, you dont really need to waste grenades on mr. x. you just need to keep running from him (unless there is a licker nearby of course). he also wont go into the film development room and security and stars offices. He is still a good pursuer even when i figured out his mechanics, i still get jumpy as soon as i hear his boots stomping around.
@@djangofett4879 Respect, but for me, I just find him threatening when you don’t know how to deal with him, but when you do, he becomes kind of a joke. Also, I like to call something like Mr. X a stalker.
Thank you for this! I thought horror games were basically jumpscare, jumpscare, jumpscare, aaahhhh, but I understand now the real concept and this helped me make my horror game
Imo there are plenty of effective ways to make a…well, effective horror game. Whether it be with creepy and foreboding atmosphere, limited combat options or frightening environments, the reason why horror is one of my favorite genres is due to how diverse it is in terms of its ideas and executions. Some of my favorite horror games, that being RE4, RE8 and the Evil Within games, might not necessarily be always scary due to leaning more into action rather than horror, but they nail the tension and atmosphere that at least makes it so you’re still apprehensive at just what you’ll encounter next. Even story-driven horror games like Fran Bow, Doki Doki Literature Club, Ib and The Witch’s House can work great too due to have genuinely dark or unsettling themes and moments within them. Whereas for me the worst horror games are pretty much the legion of ones that flood Steam where there’s nothing remotely interesting about them and they only have a surface-level understanding of what horror is. Hence why the ones that are truly effective always end up staying with me.
I love scorn: theres no jumpscares or anything but the atmosphere is pretty fucked up and things may crawl out of the gnarly environment. You keep on hearing squealches and breathing but you cant really tell if its the monsters or the weird flesh all over the place. Despite having means to defend yourself, your character isnt exactly doomguy and ammunition is incredibly scarce. And I love that its not gore for gore sake; the gore in this game shows us the weird ways of this biomechanical alien culture, with living technology all over.
You know what a lot of horror games have not used as a scare factor, making the character high on something so it sees a lot of random shit that doesn’t make sense
I feel like, if you (rightfully) criticize Poppy's Playtime for being a soulless husk that exists solely for profit and relies on the good word of UA-camrs to perpetuate its sleezy business; and then proceed to spend a tenth of a video on a sponsorship from Raid: Shadow Legends; you instantly lose any and all integrity.
Hahahahaha. I appreciate the "parents believed Pokémon to be satanic" era reference as that was my exact upbringing!!! If I was ever caught with a Pokémon card...oh boy would that have been bad. Instead I drew my own cards with lizard varieties to play with 😅
On the Silent Hill front, there are trailers for upcoming installments like Silent Hill F, which seems to be indicative of Japan considering the architecture in the trailer, Silent Hill Ascension, and Silent Hill Townfall. Also, some producers would like to take a stab at the James and Mary plot from Silent Hill 2 for their movie Return to Silent Hill. Found the trailers on UA-cam.
Ever thought about making your own horror game? If so, what would be your plan. Not saying it sarcastically or a "If you think it's bad, why don't you make one" type of thinking, just out of genuine curiosity. I've talked to people who wanted to make there own horror game. Some are trying to make it their magnum opus, others are just going simple to see what works before they go for something big. Many of whom who use things from rpg maker to unity.
Well, for me, I'd love to do a bit of a combination of Lisa the Painful and Soma - Like have a combat/artstyle similar to that of Lisa, meanwhile have a setting similar to Soma and following the idea of robots and having psychological terror, and maybe some body horror.
Project Moon makes games that are not horror genre but deal with things so horrifying that they might as well be, and they ramp up the scared and fear by playing it into the games genre. L corp is a simulator where you extract energy from monsters, but wrong moves will cause breaches, and as things go more out of control and the music goes more haywire, until 3rd trumpet, where it’s a dreary, terrifying calm in that everyone is dead. Ruina has you use random generated numbers from pages to battle, higher one wins. This plays into fear because there’s no telling if your perfect plan will work or not.
I don't really play many horror games but I do know some things that incite fear in other games that are probably important to keep in mind. The primary one being not having an ideal strategy, making it so a certain action includes consequences, and in a horror game the more actions you can tie consequences to, the more you'll instill a sense of anxiety in the player. It also works well if the game forces you to take actions that put you at risk. I think it works better if the game eases you in early on by giving you a moderate safety net to ease you into the mechanics and then iterates on it making it clear that the strategy you employed in the early game won't work throughout.
I think the notes help with horror, personally I like collecting notes throughout a game because it helps develop the world but the thing about them being collectable is that their optional. If you want to enjoy the atmosphere and don't want to spoil the ambience of the spookyness then you can just ignore the notes. Usually the only reward for collecting them is either a trophy, extra content or just more context for the lore of the world. But depending on the game can add to the horror, for example if their vague or hint at something you haven't come across yet. Or you collect a story of notes showing the slow descent of a character who went on their own journey resulting in you finding the remains later. Like you said, it all depends on the execution.
Iron Lung has a ton of its questions answered as well as a much more comprehensive background universe built up with the pc in the game's beta. While a PC in a "submarine" doesn't make a ton of sense, the entries in it are what really hooked me onto the Iron Lung community. Although it still doesn't answer why the disappearence or blood moons happened, the extra background elaborates, like for example that the oceans are filled with human blood. The developer, if I remember correctly, said he wanted to return to the world of Iron Lung, so with that in mind I can get really hooked in the near-hopless universe and the quiet rapture.
Currently playing alien isolation and I think the lack of information is the real horror. The moment I die once in a horror game I immediately loose all fear
So kind of related to your jump scare question, yes jumpscares are important in video games (not just horror) but you have to know how to use them. One of my favorite examples of an effective jumpscare is Punch Out Wii (please hear me out). Everybody's first time with Mr. Sandman goes more or less the same... you get pretty much rocked by him. This sets up a dynamic that you should be really scared of his speed and power and it really works somehow. However, there are litteral small jumpscares in his fight meant to make you screw up and that's durring his dreamland express move. Mr. Sandman will start the move by stepping back and saying 'AFRAID?', at this point it's pretty much a game of chance on whether he will do this or not, but he has a chance to say 'BOO!' Before throwing his first uppercut. The camera will shake a little and if you dodge it might just spell your doom and knock you out. It's very smart as a jumpscare.
Now I'm wondering if one could replace the ever-present 'apocalypse log' notes in horror games with something like Soulsborne item descriptions or Metroid Prime's Scan Visor. Not that the "notes" thing isn't so bad so long as it's somewhat justifiable like communicator logs off corpses or journals/study notes in a scholar's manor.
I wouldn’t say DDLC is a horror game. It’s creepy and disturbing at points (mainly when you get halfway done with it) but sense your never in danger of failing or dying I don’t think it really qualifies Also the RE 1 remake also had those defensive tools in it. They were just used automatically if you had them equipped My favorite horror games are the ones that make nervous about what’s ahead and if I can face it. RE1 remake did this very well for me on my first run. I can breeze through it now but I take that as a sign that I’ve conquered my fear. I don’t really care for psychological horror sense my brain is dumb and will likely just miss something important. RE is my favorite kind of horror. Experiments gone wrong. Or right depending on how one looks at it
Dead Space 1 2 and even 3 to some extent are my favorite type of horror. I can still fight but not forever I can still use movement to get out of situations and it scares the shit out of me constantly
Horror games don't need to BE scary, but they should always endeavour to do so. Part of what makes a horror game such is the mood, the world, the themes, and the story. Dark Souls and Bloodborne aren't even actually horror games but many consider them such primarily from the atmosphere and the dread that comes part and parcel with the gameplay. Meanwhile you have many survival games which have a lot of horror game tropes, just sans the mood and atmosphere.
I've been trying to figure out to put it in words on why I love Survival Horror games. I grew up with the old Resident Evil games for PS1. For me it is something to face your fears. I mean I got seriously scared of when Nemesis broken into the Raccoon City Police Department. I got so scared I ran back to the S.T.A.R.S. room and I just stopped. So when I came back to it and beat the game.
For me what makes a horror game good is It keeping you on edge and unsettling you, beacause personally in such conditions, i always expect a jumpscare but dont know when its coming which makes it even more unsettling and uncomfortable
FUN FACT FOR FNAF SECURITY BREACH If you go into an open bin in the endo part of the game the Endos actively stare you down as they walk past, showing that they see you but can't be bothered to remove you from your hiding place.
Security Breach feels like such a 180 from the first set of fnaf games. Even ignoring the glutches, the atmosphere, visuals and sound design were soooo good in the first 4 games.
No Way Bro! Honestly, I want to see more "horror themed" things. Cause, I think it'd be funny. This maybe a hot take, but Devil May Cry kind of is in that mold. Got horror elements to it, but you can 100% say it's not scary. Which, side note, if they were want to make a Live Action movie about DMC, get Sam Raimi. Anyway, having a game that just uses horror as the setting I think would be cool to see more of. Now, onto things that scare me! -Rollercoasters- In media it's 100% the alone factor, and having a limited way to fight back also adds to that. A feeling of powerlessness is something humans also hate, so using that effectively in games works well. But just hiding well, does suck gameplaywise at times.
One of the issues I've found with Security Breach in particular is it's over-reliance on one big bad. You see Afton show up and the reaction often is no longer "oh shit, that's the child killer come to kill me" and more "You again? Why won't you die already?!" Even when they tried to hype up a new antagonist instead of making her an actual threat they just threw her into scripted scenes and oh, she turns up if you wait long enough. Lame. My friend and I actually joked that the game is really a horror for all the characters except Gregory.
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The actual horror is you being sponsored by Raid.
NO WAY BRO!
Including a Raid add in another horror video. I respect the honesty in including an add that matches the genre. I hope they paid you well so my favorite trash man editor gets his pay and charity gets some well deserved donations.
@@jamalshelton5746 Last I heard, I am pretty sure Raid is as much of a scam in sponsor as it is in-game.
But... Things could change.
It has been a while since I heard the news.
@@thealientree3821 yep. That's why I called it a horror game. The horror is from wasting your life and money for digital objects that have no real value. Heck Raid is a live service game, so when the company shuts down all purchases made will be gone too. Kind of like Blizzard and the Overwatch series.(not to say that the first was bad, just bricked by corporate whim)
Don't worry the patch didn't help Security Breach. There's a challenge run on the latest patch for a glitchless run. Let me repeat myself, it's considered a challenge to beat the game without glitches
What's even more crazy is that the run is technically impossible.
@@redheadboi2120 yeah if I remember the run I saw correctly they had yo have multiple checkpoints because of how painful it would be to play without it
@@Blandy8521 Plus at the end there is a unavoidable glitch right at the end of the game.
What's even more crazy is that the game is genuinely boring to fully playthrough more than once
Doesn't every game have a glitchless run
Horror is a combination of many feelings, fear, tension, uneasiness, dread. a good horror game doesn’t need to make you scream loud enough to break glass but make you feel like you or your character is in a situation or place that you don’t want to be but are forced to be in and you have to find your way out with what the game offers you
A movie that is horror but I didn’t really find scary is Evil Dead 2, maybe it’s because of my desensitized gamer brain to violence in media IDK I just don’t find it scary BUT I can feel the unease and tension Ash is going through even with the more comedic edge Raimi took the film in with it especially shown in things like the atmosphere of this lonely cursed rickety cabin in the woods and in scenes like when Ash cuts off his hand or the when the cabin itself starts laughing at him, Evil Dead 2 is not really “scary” like it makes me scream, but you can feel the horror in the predicament the characters are in and the atmosphere, which is a similar thing I feel represented the early resident evil games, not necessarily scary but you can feel the tension of the situation
For me, that's specifically the monster fetus moment from resident evil 8. If only the whole game had been that tense and horrifying
Recently played FAITH The Unholy Trinity, despite having its artstyle based entirely on 80s computers such as Apple ][, it seriously nailed down everything about being a horror game. Having to replay the entire apartment section was a nightmare for me, specially when there are random elements going on that you won't expect and catch you off guard (Such as the Seal Lady when riding on the elevator)
Silent Hill is a good example (you can tell from my pfp that I am having Silent Hill brainrot, anyways).
It's a psychological horror that really nails the uneasy and dreadfulness a lot of modern horror games lack. The first 4 gsmes were made by the original Team Silent and Silent Hill 2 in particular is considered the best. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone!
Honestly my best example of this was Darkwood for me. There are almost no scripted jumpscares, and of those there are no loud noises or cheap tricks. The horror Darkwood thrives on is the sound design, grotesque body horror, and the feeling of isolation while roaming the world. The only moments of calm being the small chats or exchanges between some npcs. And most of all this game makes effective horror because you have the capability to fight back, but it's limited in a way that's realistic. Since the entire game is played from a top down view with a cone of vision, so you can see the environment and objects that don't move. But the space outside that cone doesn't show enemies or perhaps something changing or switching out as the game plays tricks on you. Basically my stance on horror is that quiet or non jumpscare horror is extremely effective if a game actually tries.
For me horror isn't needed to be scary, but it does require dread. For a weird example let's use the first Luigi's Mansion game. Luigi is a character that many a Nintendo kid could identify with through the fact he'd been in so many of our childhood games; he was formative. So, despite the goofy @$$ looking ghosts we wanted to protect our friend.
the Luigi's Mansion games are the exact opposite of scary and there is no dread in them.
@@djangofett4879 dawg shutcho ass
@@djangofett4879 agreed, it takes the horror genre and makes it more kid friendly with a fraction of the horror they take inspiration from.
Horror involves the feeling of shock and repulsion: it is therefore usually based more on short-term scare tactics, such as jumpscares, grotesque and disturbing imagery, it is the fear of an immediate and present threat.
Terror, meanwhile, is more suspenseful, more about the feeling of dread (as you mention about Luigi's Mansion) and apprehension of something frightening occurring: thus, terror is more long-term, a slow burn, the steady rising of a roller-coaster before it reaches the crest of the track for the terrifying plunge that make people close their eyes and scream, as it simulates the feeling of plummeting through the air and hitting the ground with the splat of a ripe tomato, or alternatively, waking up in the middle of the night in your large, empty, two-story clapboard house to the faint creaking of a door or the sound of quick scuffling footsteps... and remembering you live by yourself, with no other houses or roads for miles around.
@@djangofett4879 and they somehow are still better than modern indie horror games looking at you poppy
The best types of horror games are the ones that keep you on the edge of your seat. They make you really jumpy and you’re always slowly inching along wondering if there’s something behind the corner
True overuse of jump scares and a lack of building tension is why allot of horror games fail
One of the key examples of what you just said is Madison
the games where there's barely any jumpscares at all, but you're constantly thinking what things may or may not be jumpscare triggers. now that's some scary shit, the game doesn't have to scare me when my brain makes up stuff in the game that scares myself.
I felt that way my entire time playing Subnautica, even on subsequent playthroughs and I knew where everything was I was like, “no there’s something out there that’s gonna get me I just know it”
what a stupid non-comment. "Good things are good when they're good :soywojak: "
Is Adam: lost memories an example?
Frankly, I think the Iron Lung background lore works really well at what it's trying to do. It's not trying to be some big mystery. It's like those old Twilight Zone episodes that didn't really have a moral, or like the original FNAF before the lore spiraled into sci-fi insanity. It's just, "Hey, isn't this pretty fucked up?" You're in an ocean of blood in space after 99% of humanity and the universe has vanished. It doesn't want to tell a story, it wants to unsettle you, and it does.
I think a good horror game out there is Who’s Lila?
For those who don’t know, Who’s Lila? Is a click and point horror game where you have to make facial expressions to interact with characters. The overall aesthetic and vibe makes me very nostalgic because it really reminds me of a DS game from the late 2000s
The whole facial expressions mechanic is interesting and you can make very goofy faces, but what gets you is when your character makes a facial expression on their own, specifically at inappropriate times. Like, it’s mentioned that someone is missing and your character starts to smile and if you want to appear “normal” you want to prevent them from smiling. It can catch you off guard and can say a lot about your character.
The story is a little confusing but it is a great game overall and I hope more people play it, because it did give me a lot of dread
THANK YOU!! it's so underrated it deserves sm more recognition. The story really isn't that confusing once you start piecing it together but not enough people are talking about it to figure it out.
Who's Lila is the first horror game that has ever given me a literal nightmare. It was just a moment long but it woke me up. And I hadn't even played it, just watched someone else play.
(I bought it afterwards. I feel like they earned it)
It's a game that fills you with discomfort and sticks with you long after you've experienced it, which is my favorite kind of horror. Reminds me of how I feel about Junji Ito comics, actually.
Oh, THAT game. If you dont like the uncanny valley I strongly recommend either playing it or staying FAAARR away from it. That expressions mechanic is really.. something.
Damn, I didn't know other people knew about this game
The horror that really fucks with me is when horror is used in games that arent primarily horror. When fear is used to emphasise other emotions. Omori is my go to example of this, I think there is only one jumpscare, but honestly that is not what scared me in the game. Its the mirages of times long gone, the unknown entities flickering in at the edge of the screen, the eye that appeared once you check an image, only to be gone the next time you look.
Isn't omori a a physiological horror tho?
@@dachel683 that is exactly what they are describing in their first sentence, i think they meant horror as in "loud scary monster in your face" horror
I thought Omori was just gonna be a shittier yume nikki but no, the Hellmari sequences were legitimately pretty creepy, and it's just something lurking in the corner of the screen.
Actually there’s I think 2 jump scares. But because there so sparse in the for me, almost 24 hour long game(if you want to get 1 of the endings) it scares you even more
@@pogsothothhellmari being one of the most disturbing thing I’ve seen:😭
The fear of the unknown to me makes a good horror. I know that this isn’t horror, but stands in jojo are scarier when you don’t know how they work, but once they do they aren’t as scary, (cream, king crimson, the world, etc)
I dunno, Cheap Trap scares me.
@@Mangakamen Cheap trap would have been undefeatable without the ghost alley. That stand needed creative thinking to beat. It would have been invincible in any other part. Araki loves horror. He knows how to make tension well.
Jojo is about as scary as Naruto or DBZ.
For me, personally, fear is to see human degradation or animals levelling up to humans.
Jotaro and Josuke fighting the Rat, and Rohan fighting Cheap Trick becomes just as terrifying as Polnareff vs Cream, Vanilla Ice.
Or how about the rest of Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan made me appreciates Rohan grew used to the horrors of Morioh.
But nothing beats the pure terror of getting hit by Okuyasu's the Hand by the face.
The Thing 1980 was a very scary movie cause the fear wasn't just the monster, it was who the monster is
We know what the monster looks like, but how do we know the man next to you isn't
Maybe the true horror wasn't the Thing, it was human nature under pressure
Something I’d like to point out is that video games have a HUGE advantage in horror. Movies and books are constrained by the fact they need a solid plot, and thus characters. And those characters must both act normal and get themselves into isolation. Video games sidestep it, because they can just dump you in a room like FNAF and Iron Lung, establish a gameplay system and set you on your way.
I'd argue the games need that just as much or it'll take you completely out of the experience. The advantage book have over all is they leave the visual descriptions open to interpretation for the reader. Yeah they'll give you a general description but the rest your mind fills in.
Horror movies are so bad.
I’d argue any good horror story from any medium needs a good plot. It’s just that it’s much easier for creators to disregard that and simply go for short term gratification. Usually that comes in the form of jumpscares
In my opinion what makes a good horror game is what creates an atmosphere that makes you uncomfortable and tense making you alert to everthing while at the same time making you fascinated and immersed in this universe in what makes you interested in understading and exploring every detail possible and still keep that fear of the unknown while surprising you with the discoveries like for in American mgcee alice and Alice madness returns
Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye
the alice games arent very scary. maybe if i was a little kid
Silent Hill. More specifically, the first 4 games and especially Silent Hill 2
Psychological horror is my favorite by how much it makes me think and how horrific some implications can be like in Silent Hill 3 when a character tells Heather, the main protagonist something that chilled me. (If you know, you know)
Silent Hill deserves more love!
@@TheRealAmadeusMozart Hopefully the other games will come to GOG. SH4 is already on there.
"this town is full of monsters. why are you eating pizza?"
A perfect example of the "Good graphics aren't necessary" aspect Kamen mentioned is Faith: The Unholy Trinity, the first part is about a priest that returns to a house to attempt to free a girl from demonic possession
"good graphics are the problem" they explain too much
@@danieladamczyk4024 yeah, since if you want to go this route a game with less high quality graphics has the advantage of obstructing information, yet not in the way for it to be annoying, just in the way for it to be creepy
I, as a person with thalassophobia (the fear of the ocean), still question why I bought both subnautica games
there was "hydrophobia" with realistic water but the plot wasn't anything that great because i don't remember it
i cant remember hydrophobia, i think it was more of a psychological game?
as for why purchase both subnautica games despite thalassophobia, mayhaps you wanted to face your own fears?
Seeing Sayori like that still makes me deeply sad, even though I "saved" her in the end. Also for me, psychological horror is normally the only form of horror that gets to me anymore, as the atmosphere my mind creates and interprets is far worse than anything someone else can think of
You know a video is gonna be good when it begins with Night in the Woods.
Unless it turns out to be the actual Night in the Woods "game". Started out intriguing, but became so boring that I don't ever remember the last third of it, despite having played through the whole thing.
@@whitemagus2000 Night in the Woods is my favorite game ever made so I gotta disagree. However, I can totally understand why you'd feel like that. It's the kind of game that can be really boring if you're not into it at 100%.
I'm really glad that you brought up the overdone trope of notes in horror games. The fact that no one talks about them made me wonder if I was the only one who noticed it.
I think another thing to consider is characters because even if a story isn't the best if the characters are fleshed out and we care about them that can compensate greatly. Village had its messy parts yes, but I think the reason why people like it is because the characters from Ethan Winters to Mother Mirranda are interesting and we want to know more about them
The horror that really gets me involves the cutesy or harmless looking stuff. That's why the segment of the school in FEAR2 and Dead Space 2 still get me. Seeing once cheerful smiley decoration covered in blood and guts is heartbreaking.
What makes the FEAR2 school even scarier is finding and reading the logs throughout the level. They start off simple enough, but slowly get more unnerving as you discover just what the hell is going on there (I first raised an eyebrow when it said that one group of students wasn't going to be having lunch that day).
I'm pretty sure you would love bugsnaxs especially once you realize the big
There definitely needs to be some type of contrast. Monster horror gets old really quick. At the very least if the horror itself doesn't involve the cute elements I they still need to be in story and preferrably endangered in some way. There needs to be light so that darkness can be truly dark.
For me, the game that does fear the best is Omori. Sure the game uses a few jump scares, but where the real fear comes from is how scary the scares are to the game's main character, Sunny. I find that since this kind of fear is based on empathy instead of shock, it makes it more effective and long lasting. During my second playthrough of the game, even though I knew where all the scares were and reason for why they exist, they still caused a bit of fear in me because I knew how personally scary they were for Sunny. That's my though, great video.
Also, the few jumpscares the game does have are really good? That's obviously subjective but the couple of scares that really got me have become really fond memories, in like a "haha you really got me there" kind of way
It’s hard to describe omori’s horror, every horror game I’ve played hasn’t hit me nearly enough as omori has.
SPOILERS for omori in this next part
Seeing a clicker tear my neck out and eat me alive in The Last of Us? No reaction.
Seeing maris hanging body with zero blood and no gore? So terrifying that it gives me goosebumps and makes my eyes water.
@@JustANormalGuyForReal and then there's Hell Mari...FUCK HELL MARI, THAT SHIT IS SCARY
@@granmastersword out of your friends, which are you?
Truck freak
Crazy ass
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The fighter
@@JustANormalGuyForReal And the way the first time it's revealed the image goes slowly from essentially a black blob to... that. I was all like "ooooh no. No no no no. You wouldn't. Oh fuck, nooo"
One way to resolve the issue of the saferooms making the threat obsolete is to make it so that certain monsters can break into those rooms, and effectively break the safe room so it can no longer be used as a safe room. It's not like resident evil hasn't tried to attack the players in the safe room before. If a few zombies breaking into an otherwise safe room after opening a seemingly safe door can set a player on edge, than an enemy that can take those safe rooms away from you because you tried to use them to cheese an encounter will make you paranoid.
I see Resident Evil Village missed a massive opportunity because they could have made the entire game revolves on Donna Beneviento's theme.
I'd pay to see Lady Dimitrescu and Heisenberg's horror took over the actual final boss of the game. They have more relatable personalities, so to see them succumb to perversion - either by competition outside of the main plot or seeing our hopes dashed to befriend them in a heartbreaking way - would have been phenomenal.
Have Heisenberg befriending Ethan before trying to convince him to become Soldat (Mechanized Zombie) so he can become immortal and supported by Heisenberg or Lady D asking Ethan's accompaniment only to be rejected until the end of slow and deplorable mutation would be twisting the horror knife with a heartbreak.
Even having the gigamutacyte being quite literally a baby seeing Ethan as a more capable father figure would be horrifying because that relates to me on personal level seeing many orphanages and how children gets there. Parental Neglect is a horror on itself and having the protagonist to do that is horrifying.
F**k Moreau.
RE Village was as scary as RE4, which is not at all and never shoud be used as an example of horror games. Same with Dead Space 3 or Evil Within series.
@@MrConredsX Evil Within was gross in theme and visuals alone, but I do agree that it shouldn't be considered horror, only thriller.
My main gripe with the series is that it never tells you, only implies, about Joseph's death. There could have been so much more when it comes to the horror regarding that mystery alone of what happened to Oda. We could have had serious horror themes in the second game revolving around Sebastian's guilt having his partner die and there be nothing to do about it. BUT NOPE. WE NEED TO REVOLVE AROUND THE CUM WAIFU AND THE KID.
We all know the real reason you like Lady Dimitrescu
@@MrConredsX I agree and I loved RE4. Even the puppet shows advertisement explicitly told that the reason RE8 made that way is because Capcom's player survey said it was too scary.
(I am aware that there are better horror that Resident Evil would rather not be, its still survival action game at its core)
nitro rad said something about horror i really agree with. how older shooting horror games like silent hill used uncertainty. he used outlast as an example on how the lack of it can hurt a game. with how "in outlast, if you see a monster, the only option is to run and hide. so i have total faith in that hiding will work." so if you give the player multiple options, both can fail. and it would probably scare the player. "if i run, i might not be fast enough or panic and die" & "if i fight, i might slip up and die" especially with how deeply and itntentionally clunky the combat was back then.
Personally, and this is entirely my opinion the best horror is the kind that makes you anxious even when there is no immediate threat. A technique often found in classic horror movies and thrillers as well
Just look at anything from John Carpenter or Spielberg's most classic movies
For the former, lets take Halloween. Michael isn't treated as just a serial killer, but as sort of a boogeyman.
Even tho much of the movie is during the day, you still feel anxious because he's always there just out of sight
Then, with Spielberg we have Jaws where its easy to forget that the titular shark is only in ~20% of the movie , yer we still feel this sense of dread for whenever the music starts going and someone is in the water
This is why games like Dead Space, RE 1-4 and 7, Silent Hill etc
Work so well, because they take that technique and just put it into videogame form. Because when the threat DOES appear, the player usually goes into panic mode.
TBH I haven't been able to get scared in Silent Hill. It seems to work for a lot of people, but not me. I think the main reason is that the monsters don't feel super threatening, where they can be killed somewhat easily or you just run around them. I really like the atmosphere of it though, I just don't find it scary,
@@Madmonkeman that's completely fine tbh. Different strokes for different people.
9:41 I mean, if you played Jason or dbd you know that keeping everyone together might be a bad idea, you're stakes in a buffet. But if you spread you spread the enemy too thin, it might be better to do this after you know the enemy and it's part of a bigger strategy.
I think another good way a jumpscare can be used is as a way to reset the tension for a new section. I really like the opening nightmare sequence in Cry of Fear cuz it builds up to the scare, and that scare resets the tension to introduce the main game.
Souls-like games can be some of the most horrifying games out there even if their themes are not exactly creepy like Jedi Fallen Order and even if they give you a NPC companion like Code Vein. The threats at every corner, the potential of even the smallest enemies to kill you and make you lose your progress create an atmosphere where the world you are treading through are overwhelmingly hostile to you, like you are being rejected at a cosmic level, like you are not supposed to belong here. AND on top of that, it's a genre where repetition does little to alleviate the pressure you are put under, if at all.
Love code vien, wouldnt call it the scary but dreadful is a good word, tight corridors mixed with the spike in heartrate seeing an enemy drop your health by like 70% in 1 hit, the scarist area is probably to me the howling pit
@@sdbzfan1 I see code vein as a melancholic story of post-apocalypse with a despondent and pessimistic cast. Like the bleakness overrides anything that's scary. Dark Souls 2 on the other hand, the section before flexile sentry, the area of the sinner and the gargoyles, the iron king dlc, those are really scary areas
I think Fran Bow did Isolation well. Many times the people around you, that are supposed to give you security, are hollow. They can just... die. In a second. And no matter where you are, you're only around noone or husks. Then when you get used to it, you meet someone that doesn't die due to that. But you're always nervous about him dying.
And this mix of dread and fear is great.
Felt the same way for a lot of the comedic shows from my childhood. I rarely ever laughed to any of the jokes or slap stick. Growing up I later found out through video essays about how the jokes in X show were good or bad that I was supposed to laugh to most of the stuff. I could definitely call them "funny", but it's the kinda funny where it comes as a thought "That was pretty funny" or "That joke was pretty nice". So maybe the same could apply to horror? Idk it's something I always come back to as a thought. Do you have to make people laugh to be a comedy? Do you have to be scary to be a horror? Makes my head run in circles
This sorta reminds me of more surreal horror like the original dhmis and salad fingers. They’re not scary in how they have jumpscares in them, it’s a more different kind of horror. Ig my point is that there’s a spectrum to horror and it’s not locked to a specific style
I think what makes a good horror game is balance. You're not completely helpless when the monster comes by, but you're not a ninja badass that can slice through the monsters by the dozens like butter either. You can swing a pipe or a knife at the monster and kill it after a few hits, but you've got to be careful or it'll kill you and sometimes you might be better off running, but you never *have* to run.
There are jump scares yes, any horror worth it's salt has jump scares, but they come after a few minutes of tension building and a fake out or two. Like you're walking down a hallway for a couple minutes with tense music or even no music at all and you see the shadow of a person from around the left corner, so you go look all ready for a fight... and it's a lamp or something... *then* as you're laughing at yourself and letting the tension drain out, the monster suddenly appears behind you and attacks.
The thing that's important is tension and expectations. A horror game has to build up tension over time. It's what gets a player emotionally invested. At the same time you've got to keep from being predictable, at least the first time through. A jump scare the player sees coming isn't going to scare them. Nor is having jump scares every 2 minutes. You have to space out the scares and allow the player to anticipate them but be wrong about it.
A big part of that is you have to be alone. Not that there can't be other people in the story, but you've got to face everything in the story on your own.
I honestly like horror that’s deeply unsettling on a visceral level. Psychological, existential, liminal, and nostalgic horror are probably some of my favorite things. Most minds are good at filling in blanks.
I’ve never been a fan of that reactive horror with lots of jump scares because despite being a horror fan I’m also easily startled. I feel that jumps scares work best as a means to create tension.
Honestly Omori didn’t live up to what I thought it would be mostly because of the old trailer. I was hoping for more of that collage paper cutout vibe of course it does utilize that to highlight certain moments and things but in my opinion didn’t do it enough. I mean Omori as a piece of storytelling is phenomenal and it’s a good depiction of grief, trauma, and self-forgiveness.
Fnaf suffers from over explanatory exposition. Sometimes it is enough to say that you killed a coulee of kids and stuffed them into suits and now they just possess that shit. Like there doesn’t need to be a science surrounding it.
I think fnaf peaked with its fourth game. Like the fact you are taking the concept of what is supposed to be a safe environment and turning it into something more alike a prison is great. The fact you must listen for breathing and check behind you is a pretty great mechanic that heightens the experience. I think security breach is more interesting as a story but it’s sad to see that they sanitized it for a younger audience because it could’ve been a new avenue to go down.
Honestly I don’t know if I’m making sense but I hope I am I am writing this way too late lol
Few thoughts:
1) Andy's apple farm is legit just a copy of walten files episode 3 and I liked it before seeing WF and how it did the story better.
2) despite it's many, MANY flaws, until dawn is the one game I played where I felt like the "story through documents " really worked for me, since the places where it's most prevalent are in a hospital (where rigorous note-taking makes sense) or they are intentionally left out by the 'antagonist' to f with the main cast. You also don't need to read the notes to understand why you are playing the game in the first place, or why anything you do in the game makes sense. There needs to be a balance.
The thing with horror to me is I love the mystery. When you have like Poppy Playtime or Security Breach where the people wanting to kill you are talking to you it really takes me out of the idea these are horrific monsters wanting me dead. Not saying this is always bad, not at all. But I thing a lot of the things missing from mainstream horror is just the loveliness of silence and being with your own thoughts
It may also have something to do with the atmosphere and how the world works. Scream is considered one of the best horror franchises, and Ghost Face is known for the phone calls made to taunt the targets of his next attack. But, to your point, there is a appreciation for this tactic when the killer is a regular human versus a supernatural, lumbering entity.
Just a thought, but when FNAF started, the animatronics didn’t talk at you. If there was any noise at all (outside of the death state screams), it was choked wheezing, which is an unsettling noise. Balloon Boy’s “Hello” in FNAF2 was uncomfortable because you knew he was about to get in the room and ruin your flashlight. I understand wanting to shift to more upgraded animatronics in Security Breach, thus the talking makes sense in the world, but I agree that the unyielding sound of their voices doesn’t always have the effect of scaring you that they’re suddenly closer than you thought they were.
If you’d been sneaking around in silence for quite some time, focused on completing a task, and Monty’s voice suddenly growls loudly in your ear “there you are,” it would be an effective scare, but it would need to be used sparingly, and in a game where the voices are being used as “Marco Polo” signals, I don’t think that’s possible.
I personally think the last scary FNaF game was the sixth or seventh and even than it was falling off. Security breaches scare factor fell off and it was more of an action adventure game with mild horror.
Have the character get together but have something else split them up like a cavern caving in, a monster picking them up 1 by 1 regardless or even a betrayal occurs. Now that’s a proper split up.
Yeah there's definitely ways to organically split a party up that doesn't involve people just being stupid idiots. And I really wish horror stories would use these more.
Video Idea: Best Horror Villains
The first Predator took place in a jungle primarily in the day. It's not where that matters, it's the feelings it wants to convey. I felt more genuine terror and dread playing thief trying not to get caught then throughout the entirety of Silent Hill. No amount of darkness, or fog, or obfuscation will stop a particular moment from coming off as silly if done poorly.
Honestly this video gave me some good perspective for a future project in the survival horror genre. Appreciate you making this video ^^
I'm glad you brought up the whole jumpscare aspect of FNAF, I've had that same thought too. Honestly this whole video brought up a lot that I've occasionally thought about when it comes to horror games, or at the very least the "mainstream/modern horror" genre.
I haven't played many horror games, but the ones I have played and scared me often keep me at the edge of my seat. Atmosphere and building suspension really gets the player to feel fear.
But there's also a lot to gain from with horror elements but focus on eother beinf goofy or fun to play. Like the Devil May Cry series does make me feel uneasy in any room, though I don't think I'll die in every room, there's something about the settings that always give me a sense of unsettlled.
The best horrific foes are ones are either hinted at(A colleague's radio comm goes silent after a scream and some strange noise), appear suddenly(Pa from Resident Evil 7), or are lurking about while you look at them from a hiding place(I can't really recall any enemies like that right now aside from the mummies in Rayman 3, they made me stop playing that game as a kid). Something that you can barely outrun, something you cannot fight(Unless you're in a boss arena), and something you HAVE to hide from. That's _my_ opinion.
I think in context of Horror games specifically, there needs to be a feeling of rising unease that stays with you from a certain point of discovery till the end of the game no matter the atmosphere. I personally don’t believe horror games have to be scary, some of the best ones I played started super unassuming and made me question my mental state by the end. Sometimes the brighter the colors the scarier it can be going by color theory. Contrasting colors, and atmospheres, leave an impression in your brain.
Example in a kid’s show: Courage the cowardly dog, the colors are ridiculously bright and the show itself is dark as hell. To this day the bright pink screams danger every time I see it in media. There’s an anime called Houseki No Kuni that uses those bright colors perfectly, make no mistake this show/manga is a psychological horror in its own right, but the color pink specifically is always when something horrible happens. The impact is there.
I think that’s why games like Ib, despite it being pixelated, scares the hell out of me as it nails all of those aspects.
0:00 Start
5:28 Environment and Isolation
10:38 Gameplay
17:50 Mystery and Story
23:10 Fear
27:21 Final Þoughts
a good way to do the log thing is through giving the location security system that you can view through all of the footage and naturally find the horrible things that happens staring through the recordings
I think the best kind of horror is thinking what's around the corner. Good sound design and atmosphere can really build up dread, and when you reach that corner and there's nothing there when you know something was, can be truly terrifying.
Though an example of good sound design I can think of is from Corpse Party when Ayumi is blindfolded and hears the other children dying, that was pretty horrific in my opinion. I won't say the game in general is super scary but that part and Yuka's death by a ghost kid really freaked me out.
Link?
@@Super-7327 The one with Ayumi has major spoilers but I'll give the link for the one death for Yuka.
ua-cam.com/video/neUPzqpBZSM/v-deo.html
YOU KNOW KILLER7 ??? DUDE THATS ONE OF MY FAVORITE GAMES EVER MADE
I've always been really bad with horror. I jump easily and I hate it, so I'm pretty picky with my tastes. I prefer the more psychological type of horror, where it's less of a "spooky thing coming to get ya" and more of a "what the hell is anything" kind of scary. Though oddly enough I've also been fond of the old RPG maker horror games like The Witch's House and Ib.
I feel like the last of us is an excellent example of a good horror game based on stuff you mentioned.
Also yes, it is considered a horror game
One good example of the horror in the last of us is when your with Ellie but then you get separated due to something like a fallen elevator and your forced to climb your way back up with very limited supplies
It gives you a sense of safety and then takes it away and leaves you nearly helpless
People who edit in music titles into their video are under appreciated ngl
Especially when this one edits it in a touhou-esqe style 👍
Eyyy, glad you appreciate it. I love making musical montage openings, and I was honored to use the music of a close friend of mine in this case.
The scariest game I've ever played is Infra. Horrifying. Nothing can really hurt you accept the dangerous tunnel collapses and chemical spills or maybe some mushrooms, but the isolation, lack of visibility, no real sense of location or direction, and the discovery of Mörkö on a first play through makes it utterly terrifying for me.
Yahzee once said that the jump scare is to horror what the fart joke is to comedy. A quick and easy way to get a visceral reaction.
Personally, the witches house has always stuck with me as a horror game. Theirs a lot of cheap jumpscares and deaths but the story just chills me to the bones honestly. Its unsettling and tragic, I can't help but to love it.
Omg literally! The ending where the witch switchs with the girl scared me so bad! It made me cry cause of how sad it was! Such a good game! Same with Mad father and the other RPGs of that time. I always loved RPGs.
The scariest thing someone can experience is getting a Raid Shadow Legends ad when they weren't expecting it
One of the best horror gamrs I played is Darkwood. Survival horror with messed up setting, a lot of unique use of graphics and very atmospheric. It has everything I love in those games. Resource management, survival aspect, spooks and actually interesting story that you want to understand.
Also FNaF1/4, RE2/4, SCP:CB(love that game so much even though it's working only half of the time. It combines a lot of good stuff and genuenly scares me, though I usually don't get spooked. It's just one of those games that gets me.), and other stuff that I can't remember right now.
The fact that the isolation part has not even a single frame from subnautica is a crime
Although I kinda feel the same, it's not a "horror" game. It just happens to hit all the good spots for sheer human terror
I still find it bizarre that people find a game as passive as Subnautica somehow relevant to horror discussions. I am terrified of spiders but I don't turn around and declare the Harry Potter movies a horror series despite the spider scenes being literally unwatchable for me because I'm that scared if them. A lot of people find games like Subnautica therapeutic because of how relaxed it is if you just hang out and slowly expand
@@Matt_History im not saying that subnautica is a horror game, because it isn't
Yet the game has some really good horror or terror moments, that can genuinely give fear or a scare
Im not saying that subnautica as a whole should be analysed or taken as a horror game, instead im saying that those aspects or moments of fear in the game can be good examples on how it works, to better understand how to do it.
Because i don't have a specific fear for the deep, yet subnautica made me stop play it for a period pf time for a couple of times, before i finally beat it, because i was afraid of going in some of the zones to progress
Although i will admit that the lava zone and ghost river are way less scary
Glad to see someone else loves Rom M
With the 'does horror need horror in it to be scary' section. I'd say, yes and no
I mean, a games great if it makes you feel scared
But I would say look at the RatMan lairs in Portal, though the ratman is actually a good man, just insane, I found those areas not scary, but intimidating and uneasy. Almost scary, but in a phycological way.
Take the tons of taken apart PCs, cans, and the scramblings on the walls, along with the fact that the ammount of holes and crevaces mean that the 'RatMan' may be able to still see you, and may still be.
Its just terrifying and I love it!
Hi Kamen! Loved your video and I see you adjusted your character design slightly.
I hope you have a happy Halloween and live life to the fullest.
See ya later!
Thank you! You too!
@@Mangakamen U R welcome.
Jumpscares are scary when they happen like the first few times, after that though, they feel either cheap or just lose the fear factor that freaked me out, this is especially true for fnaf and any max out challenge in these games
It can still work, but half the times they feel super cheap and just catch you off guard
One thing I particularly love in horror games is when you're faced with a big monster you can't kill. Something that will chase you for an extended period of time. A good example of this would probably be the Xenomorph from Alien Isolation. It's a persistent threat throughout most of the game, and you are given enough tools to evade and even distract it. You do get the flamethrower which can get it to back off for a short time, but that's not until the late game and ammo for it is incredibly scarce which prioritizes careful use of it.
A bad example would be, in my opinion, Mr. X from RE 2 Remake for one simple reason. He's way too easy to lose. All you need to do to make him back off is chuck a grenade or shoot him in the face with the magnum which, unlike the flamethrower in Isolation, can be unlocked fairly quickly. Hell, you can even use the shotgun to head shot him a few times, and it's just as good. Say nothing about Claire who gets the grenade launcher. There may not be too much ammo for it, but there's more than enough to keep him at bay.
This convention is called a pursuer. it started with the original Clock Tower game in 1995 afaik.
also, you dont really need to waste grenades on mr. x. you just need to keep running from him (unless there is a licker nearby of course). he also wont go into the film development room and security and stars offices. He is still a good pursuer even when i figured out his mechanics, i still get jumpy as soon as i hear his boots stomping around.
@@djangofett4879 Respect, but for me, I just find him threatening when you don’t know how to deal with him, but when you do, he becomes kind of a joke. Also, I like to call something like Mr. X a stalker.
Thank you for this! I thought horror games were basically jumpscare, jumpscare, jumpscare, aaahhhh, but I understand now the real concept and this helped me make my horror game
Horror has always been my favorite genre of gaming because when it’s done right, it’s SO satisfying.
Imo there are plenty of effective ways to make a…well, effective horror game. Whether it be with creepy and foreboding atmosphere, limited combat options or frightening environments, the reason why horror is one of my favorite genres is due to how diverse it is in terms of its ideas and executions. Some of my favorite horror games, that being RE4, RE8 and the Evil Within games, might not necessarily be always scary due to leaning more into action rather than horror, but they nail the tension and atmosphere that at least makes it so you’re still apprehensive at just what you’ll encounter next.
Even story-driven horror games like Fran Bow, Doki Doki Literature Club, Ib and The Witch’s House can work great too due to have genuinely dark or unsettling themes and moments within them. Whereas for me the worst horror games are pretty much the legion of ones that flood Steam where there’s nothing remotely interesting about them and they only have a surface-level understanding of what horror is. Hence why the ones that are truly effective always end up staying with me.
I love scorn: theres no jumpscares or anything but the atmosphere is pretty fucked up and things may crawl out of the gnarly environment. You keep on hearing squealches and breathing but you cant really tell if its the monsters or the weird flesh all over the place.
Despite having means to defend yourself, your character isnt exactly doomguy and ammunition is incredibly scarce.
And I love that its not gore for gore sake; the gore in this game shows us the weird ways of this biomechanical alien culture, with living technology all over.
Been watching and reviewing horror media for a very long time. Haven't heard anybody voice all my thoughts better than this guy.
You know what a lot of horror games have not used as a scare factor, making the character high on something so it sees a lot of random shit that doesn’t make sense
I feel like, if you (rightfully) criticize Poppy's Playtime for being a soulless husk that exists solely for profit and relies on the good word of UA-camrs to perpetuate its sleezy business; and then proceed to spend a tenth of a video on a sponsorship from Raid: Shadow Legends; you instantly lose any and all integrity.
24:42 was very funny to me haha. "Yar ya win some ya lose some. 🎵YARYAR🎵"
Hahahahaha. I appreciate the "parents believed Pokémon to be satanic" era reference as that was my exact upbringing!!! If I was ever caught with a Pokémon card...oh boy would that have been bad. Instead I drew my own cards with lizard varieties to play with 😅
Same here unfortunately
Parents freaking out about kid's media is making a big comeback recently. the satanic panic is back in 2022
On the Silent Hill front, there are trailers for upcoming installments like Silent Hill F, which seems to be indicative of Japan considering the architecture in the trailer, Silent Hill Ascension, and Silent Hill Townfall. Also, some producers would like to take a stab at the James and Mary plot from Silent Hill 2 for their movie Return to Silent Hill. Found the trailers on UA-cam.
LOVE hearing Rom M in a video like this!
Ever thought about making your own horror game? If so, what would be your plan.
Not saying it sarcastically or a "If you think it's bad, why don't you make one" type of thinking, just out of genuine curiosity.
I've talked to people who wanted to make there own horror game.
Some are trying to make it their magnum opus, others are just going simple to see what works before they go for something big. Many of whom who use things from rpg maker to unity.
Well, for me, I'd love to do a bit of a combination of Lisa the Painful and Soma - Like have a combat/artstyle similar to that of Lisa, meanwhile have a setting similar to Soma and following the idea of robots and having psychological terror, and maybe some body horror.
I feel that the earlier Fear games did well. you had a lot of guns but it was still scary and the AI being smart was also a major plus.
10:36 But it's interesting that those examples go literally dark anyway lol. One that keeps being colorful would be interesting.
The only horror game that has made me feel a sense of dread is Alien Isolation, every sound made me paranoid and think the Alien was nearby
Project Moon makes games that are not horror genre but deal with things so horrifying that they might as well be, and they ramp up the scared and fear by playing it into the games genre.
L corp is a simulator where you extract energy from monsters, but wrong moves will cause breaches, and as things go more out of control and the music goes more haywire, until 3rd trumpet, where it’s a dreary, terrifying calm in that everyone is dead.
Ruina has you use random generated numbers from pages to battle, higher one wins. This plays into fear because there’s no telling if your perfect plan will work or not.
On behalf of all Metroid fans, thank you for the SAX image from Metroid Fusion in the beginning
Had nightmares for weeks after I played fusion.
22:44 BanBan...
I don't really play many horror games but I do know some things that incite fear in other games that are probably important to keep in mind.
The primary one being not having an ideal strategy, making it so a certain action includes consequences, and in a horror game the more actions you can tie consequences to, the more you'll instill a sense of anxiety in the player.
It also works well if the game forces you to take actions that put you at risk. I think it works better if the game eases you in early on by giving you a moderate safety net to ease you into the mechanics and then iterates on it making it clear that the strategy you employed in the early game won't work throughout.
I think the notes help with horror, personally I like collecting notes throughout a game because it helps develop the world but the thing about them being collectable is that their optional. If you want to enjoy the atmosphere and don't want to spoil the ambience of the spookyness then you can just ignore the notes. Usually the only reward for collecting them is either a trophy, extra content or just more context for the lore of the world.
But depending on the game can add to the horror, for example if their vague or hint at something you haven't come across yet. Or you collect a story of notes showing the slow descent of a character who went on their own journey resulting in you finding the remains later. Like you said, it all depends on the execution.
Iron Lung has a ton of its questions answered as well as a much more comprehensive background universe built up with the pc in the game's beta. While a PC in a "submarine" doesn't make a ton of sense, the entries in it are what really hooked me onto the Iron Lung community. Although it still doesn't answer why the disappearence or blood moons happened, the extra background elaborates, like for example that the oceans are filled with human blood. The developer, if I remember correctly, said he wanted to return to the world of Iron Lung, so with that in mind I can get really hooked in the near-hopless universe and the quiet rapture.
Currently playing alien isolation and I think the lack of information is the real horror. The moment I die once in a horror game I immediately loose all fear
So kind of related to your jump scare question, yes jumpscares are important in video games (not just horror) but you have to know how to use them. One of my favorite examples of an effective jumpscare is Punch Out Wii (please hear me out). Everybody's first time with Mr. Sandman goes more or less the same... you get pretty much rocked by him. This sets up a dynamic that you should be really scared of his speed and power and it really works somehow. However, there are litteral small jumpscares in his fight meant to make you screw up and that's durring his dreamland express move. Mr. Sandman will start the move by stepping back and saying 'AFRAID?', at this point it's pretty much a game of chance on whether he will do this or not, but he has a chance to say 'BOO!' Before throwing his first uppercut. The camera will shake a little and if you dodge it might just spell your doom and knock you out. It's very smart as a jumpscare.
Between the Rom M. remix and 8:10 I have deduced that this man is a fellow Wambu enjoyer.
Now I'm wondering if one could replace the ever-present 'apocalypse log' notes in horror games with something like Soulsborne item descriptions or Metroid Prime's Scan Visor. Not that the "notes" thing isn't so bad so long as it's somewhat justifiable like communicator logs off corpses or journals/study notes in a scholar's manor.
I wouldn’t say DDLC is a horror game. It’s creepy and disturbing at points (mainly when you get halfway done with it) but sense your never in danger of failing or dying I don’t think it really qualifies
Also the RE 1 remake also had those defensive tools in it. They were just used automatically if you had them equipped
My favorite horror games are the ones that make nervous about what’s ahead and if I can face it. RE1 remake did this very well for me on my first run. I can breeze through it now but I take that as a sign that I’ve conquered my fear. I don’t really care for psychological horror sense my brain is dumb and will likely just miss something important. RE is my favorite kind of horror. Experiments gone wrong. Or right depending on how one looks at it
Dead Space 1 2 and even 3 to some extent are my favorite type of horror. I can still fight but not forever I can still use movement to get out of situations and it scares the shit out of me constantly
Horror games don't need to BE scary, but they should always endeavour to do so. Part of what makes a horror game such is the mood, the world, the themes, and the story. Dark Souls and Bloodborne aren't even actually horror games but many consider them such primarily from the atmosphere and the dread that comes part and parcel with the gameplay. Meanwhile you have many survival games which have a lot of horror game tropes, just sans the mood and atmosphere.
I've been trying to figure out to put it in words on why I love Survival Horror games. I grew up with the old Resident Evil games for PS1. For me it is something to face your fears. I mean I got seriously scared of when Nemesis broken into the Raccoon City Police Department. I got so scared I ran back to the S.T.A.R.S. room and I just stopped. So when I came back to it and beat the game.
SOMA is my king if horror. Psychological drama and horror of helplessness against continuity. No jumpscares.
This is totally unrelated to the video, but ur intro is so cool. The music is 🔥
i think 5:23 is when the actual video starts
5:25
when anatomy was shown I got very happy lol
For me what makes a horror game good is It keeping you on edge and unsettling you, beacause personally in such conditions, i always expect a jumpscare but dont know when its coming which makes it even more unsettling and uncomfortable
FUN FACT FOR FNAF SECURITY BREACH
If you go into an open bin in the endo part of the game the Endos actively stare you down as they walk past, showing that they see you but can't be bothered to remove you from your hiding place.
Or they just are programmed to always look at the player even if they technically can't
Security Breach feels like such a 180 from the first set of fnaf games. Even ignoring the glutches, the atmosphere, visuals and sound design were soooo good in the first 4 games.
Hm, fair and valid points and opinions, i wonder what kind of Horror will come out next?
No Way Bro!
Honestly, I want to see more "horror themed" things. Cause, I think it'd be funny.
This maybe a hot take, but Devil May Cry kind of is in that mold. Got horror elements to it, but you can 100% say it's not scary. Which, side note, if they were want to make a Live Action movie about DMC, get Sam Raimi. Anyway, having a game that just uses horror as the setting I think would be cool to see more of.
Now, onto things that scare me! -Rollercoasters-
In media it's 100% the alone factor, and having a limited way to fight back also adds to that. A feeling of powerlessness is something humans also hate, so using that effectively in games works well.
But just hiding well, does suck gameplaywise at times.
One of the issues I've found with Security Breach in particular is it's over-reliance on one big bad. You see Afton show up and the reaction often is no longer "oh shit, that's the child killer come to kill me" and more "You again? Why won't you die already?!" Even when they tried to hype up a new antagonist instead of making her an actual threat they just threw her into scripted scenes and oh, she turns up if you wait long enough. Lame. My friend and I actually joked that the game is really a horror for all the characters except Gregory.
Security breach otta be the saddest horror game after those amazing trailers
But uhh i dont think horror games Neeeed to be scary. More of it should at least be scary in concept
20:07 so I just randomly remembered Markiplier referring to Freddy dancing on Security Breach as the gun