I’ve never completed FEAR. Well, that’s an understatement to say the least. I’ve never got further than about forty minutes into it. The opening level had me nearly sobbing at my keyboard after the hundredth time something jumped right in my face; ultimately rendering me physically unable to press the ‘W’ key for fear that I might die of shock. And I nearly did die once – that bit in DOOM 3 where a demon bursts out from under some stairs. God. Of course by ‘nearly dying’ I actually mean “letting out a girly scream followed by a pathetic whimper” but that’s nearly the same, right? I don’t handle horror like this very well – I work myself into a mental frenzy well before anything actually scares me and while I suppose this is nothing but the intent of the likes of DOOM and FEAR; I consider it lazy in it’s execution – relying on nothing more than a sophisticated “BOO!” to provide its horror element.
Stuff jumping out at you is always going to be scary. Not horrific, but scary – which I think holds a more significant difference than just scale. Someone jumping at you and shouting ‘boo’ as you walk down a familiar, brightly lit corridor in the middle of the day will make you jump. It’s not a nice experience, and only worsened if you are semi expecting it. With a vague fore-warning a week in advance, suddenly that corridor is an unpleasant environment. It’s not a scary corridor; you are just scared every time you walk down it of what might happen. And yes, we could argue semantics of my use of ‘scary’ here, but you get the point.
The corridor is not horrific, your apprehension is built merely on the suggestion of a cheap scare that anyone could pull off. Games are great at doing this this. Magical code can make things appear right in your face with a crash of sound. They prepare you for it too – the build up of string music and faintly audible noises of suggestion; the equivalent of that vague fore-warning. FEAR does it exquisitely, DOOM 3 does it, Dead Space, Condemned; they all do it. What they aren’t so good at though is genuine horror. Making you scared, not because you know that something is going to get shoved in your face, but because something that goes against what you fundamentally know as right is happening – a primeval fear.
The Cradle; a famously horrible level in Thief 3 took me about 4 months to complete. It’s a level built inside a mental-asylum-turned-orphanage which suffered a massive fire. I couldn’t progress for more than scant seconds at a time without genuine terror building in me. Nothing ever jumps out at you in The Cradle, nothing runs at you screaming. There is actually little drama at all – just a horrible back story, eery shadows and an incessant banging coming from the attic. I was a quivering wreck. For that single level Thief 3 had managed to completely undermine every single self proclaimed horror game out there, and it did it casually. It was one level, a singularity, and it worked.
Going underground in STALKER was much the same. Physically sweating I had to force my way through empty sewers with nothing but a few bullets, a flash-light, and an overwhelming sense of foreboding. I knew there was something there, the whole situation just wasn’t quite right. Creeping through dank tunnels and then suddenly a roar in the distance. It wasn’t loud enough to startle me – it was far ahead, but that fact only made it worse. What the hell was it? I was scared of what was to come. Fearful of the atrocity I was going to find.
Even Farenheit (Indigo Prophecy) had it’s moments of pure terror (before it descended into nonsense) without so much as a ghost or monster hinted at. There is a section in which your character – Carla – is battling with claustrophobia, and it isn’t long before the same fear sets into you to. As you clamber through tightly packed bookshelves in a dimly lit basement you feel uneasy at best. Then, suddenly, the lights go out. My heart raced and all I could do was listen to the sound advice Carla said to herself – “Stay calm. Breath. Keep walking.” Fear like that is far more rewarding than a simple “BOO!”
As horror films progressed from men in monster costumes, games need to progress from this in-your-face nonsense. It’s cheap, joyless thrills that are used at the expense of creating proper terror. I want to be afraid for my life, not afraid of jumping out of my chair. I want exploration into fearful territory, not screaming faces filling my monitor. There is a definite place for horror games in my heart but not when they are making me squeal rather than worry. It needs to mature, to see what the likes of Stalker and Thief did and build on it – and then I might actually complete more of them too.
Nice.
I’m inclined to agree. But I would say that the fear of being made to jump is one of the few things games can actually do to exert an unpleasant situation upon the player. I mean, you may see things within the fiction that are disturbing or perilous but you know you’ll ultimately be OK cus it’s all pretence. It may be a cheap device, but you can’t really steel yourself against being startled – if the game wants you to jump it can easily make you.
I think perhaps being made to jump and losing something you’ve spent hours creating are the big two when it comes to ‘real world’ nasty gaming feelings.
That said, I would certainly rather devs put their efforts into creating uncanny, unsettling environments like Silent Hill, Stalker, Call of Cthulhu etc. Much more my thing – though I did enjoy FEAR.
I’m not a huge fan of horror in games, but I did think Stalker pulled it off remarkably well, largely because it played on the potential of something to happen, rather than the act itself.
Those moments you describe, above often leave me dry, especially if the musical cue acts as a forewarning, but watching Stalker’s mutated wildlife drag off corpses and chase each other around gets to me, because I know at any moment they could decide I’m lunch, and I will get no warning whatsoever.
So true, so true. I’m jittery the same way. When I know I really shouldn’t be. I’m starting to really get used to the overwhelming feeling of STALKER nowadays, so that’s fun, because it’s such an excellent game in terms of gameplay.
I’m looking forward to the day I start playing Call of Pripyat. It seems glorious in keeping that tradition. Emergent gameplay for the win! Especially if it involves horror! Actually, now that I really think about, procedural techniques with emergent gameplay in horror is a VERY effective idea…
I haven’t been genuinely scared since I played the original Silent Hill on the PS1. I was hoping that Alan Wake would be the triumphant return to decent horror gaming but IT’S NOT COMING TO THE PC! NERDRAGE NERDRAGE NERDRAGE!
Heck, I’d add the Blowout in Stalker too. Was playing a mod – Oblivion Lost, I think – which turned more open-ended than most. I still remember as both one of my favorite AND most terrifying moments in gaming life that night where (MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT!!!)
…I was soundly asleep on the first floor of an abandoned house. All of a sudden… low growl in the distance, the sky slowly turning blood red, gigantic flashes and massive radiation. For all the minute or so of the thing I was on the edge of my chair thinking “OH CRAP WHAT’S HAPPENING”. Pure beauty.
Oh and btw: don’t forget the big uncle of gaming psycho terror, System Shock 2. Two moments of beautiful horror: first appearance of the cyber-nurse or whatshername (alone on the deck, a low clanking in the distance, and that horrendous metallic voice blabbering “liiiiittle onesss need a lot of careeee *crack*”) and the upside-down chapel. Nuff said.
Good article, you made quite a good point there. Just one little thing I noticed:
“a sophisticated “BOO!” to provide it’s horror element”
I think that’s a possessive ‘its’.
Thanks, on both accounts.
one word: PENUMBRA
Good call, Penumbra is really good at creating an oppressive sense of menace without resorting to jump scares. The monsters are a bit rubbish though, when eventually revealed.
Agreed, but the new penumbra coming out does look very promising, less clunky engine and hopefully some better ‘scary things’ to avoid and be afraid of.
Have a look at this video…
Hey, you got mentioned on Kotaku: http://kotaku.com/5493012/the-difference-between-scary-and-horror
And RPS, obviously :)
Although I agree with your overall point, I disagree that all horror games should try and mature. I feel like there’s a niche for campy jump scare games, sort of like how there’s a place in horror films for both Return of the Living Dead and Roman Polanski’s Repulsion. Sometimes you want the horror aesthetics with more of a pop-corn munching film. And as long as I’m talking about films, I didn’t like your over simplification of horror films ‘maturing’ from guys in monster costumes because on a lot of levels it really hasn’t. I know I’m being nitpicky here but you’re glossing over actual film history for a good analogy. Plenty of jump-scare heavy flicks still hit the big screen and they’re not capable of delivering the same sort of grueling discomfort as Eraserhead.
Other than that I think the point you are making is an excellent advice for building a genuinely horrifying atmosphere. I was surprised you didn’t mention any of the Silent Hill games. Silent Hill 2 does a good job of delivering a mix of constant anxiety and the occasional monster skittering out from under a car for a quick jump. The ghosts in Silent Hill 4 sort of straddled the line between atmospherically oppressive and just too obnoxious to be emotionally effective but it also had this incredibly disturbing enemy that looked like half a cloaked torso with two ceramic baby faces, very Brazil influenced. They would stand perfectly still balanced on one hand with the other pointing into space and they had a delay before they attacked you so the first time I turned the corner and saw one down a hallway it was like a statue and I had a second to relax because I didn’t think it saw me and then it started loping down the corridor at me on its hands, no scary noises, no big snarling mouth, just this implacable thing and I was horrified.
Another fun thing to notice about the most disturbing monsters in the Silent Hill series is they never have huge pointy teeth or claws.
I agree with this comment – I don’t think horror games *need* to mature, the same way that horror films don’t. Games like “Sanitarium” and films like “The Orphanage” simply aren’t as popular as cheap gore-fests, and both have their place. Sure, the mature versions are “better,” but they’re less enjoyable. I honestly couldn’t say which goal is the point of the horror genre.
A note on excellent horror in non-horror games: Levels like “The Cradle” work well because they’re a part of a game which has other, more enjoyable merits. I might well enjoy a game which worked like that level the whole way through, but I don’t think Thief would be the success that it is were it a pure horror game.
The article is an excellent piece on what’s scary, though.
Ya see, I hate horror or gore films. I am sexist. I can not stand to watch a woman being ripped to bits or butchered etc. I find it equally as hard sometimes to see a guy get brutally killed. In games it is the same. I can not stand to see a woman get the above mentioned treatment. Having said that, I do not mind seeing a guy cop it. Not one bit. That’s maybe due to the fact that for the most part, guys have always been on the bad end of a chainsaw, shotty etc in games.
Regarding the “fear” effect in games. I have to say that Dead Space really gave me the creeps. There were a few times in that game that I jumped out of my chair due to a cheap bit of screen play or whatever. Suspense movies and games are great!!! I love em. I like getting the hell scared out of me. I love sitting on the edge of my seat. In games it is the same. What was the name of that game where you take photos in the haunted house? Subject Zero or something like that. That game gave me the worst case of the creeps it was not funny! Brilliant stuff.
Thanks for reading.
Edit: Paragraph 1 “I can not stand to see a woman get the above mentioned treatment” should have had “in video games” at the end of it.
To extend on that part. This comment is in regards to horror or gore based gaming as well. “Plastic” shooters and basic games are not really included here.
I found a few moments in Scratches to be quite horrific. The game itself was not a AAA title, but the horror factor was really well done. It has a real feeling of isolation. What was truly scary for me was having to explore the house in the dark after you are woken up by strange noises. I really really didn’t want to leave the bedroom, lol.
Here’s a link to the scene I’m thinking of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvtCFhiNag4&feature=related
Okay, yeah that’s pretty creepy.
Great article.
I agree with some of your points but I think moreover, “jump scares” are just one of many tools that a horror game designer or filmmaker has in his/her toolbox.
For instance, the film “Halloween” is mostly known for a slow-burn and dreadful build that culminates in some jump-scares. When Laurie goes into the house across the street in the third act and discovers the three bodies, the first disovery is a slow reveal, the second is a jump-scare and the third is slow reveal.
It all works because director John Carpenter knew to build and then release that tension in different ways or the audience not only loses interest, but will feel cheated from a payoff.
The same can be said for the original Resident Evil game. The gamer has a feeling of dread for having to go into, what is essentially, the ‘dark haunted house on the hill.’ The gamer’s first encounter with a zombie isn’t a jump-scare but a slow reveal as he/she stumbles on the creature feasting on a corpse on the floor. The head slowly turns and then the creature slowly shambles toward the player.
I know that when I played the game for the first time, I was fumbling in fear with the controller trying to figure out how to shoot the shambling zombie in the confined space. It was terrifying due to the situation and not at all a jump-scare.
Later in the same game, when moving down a corridor a zombie dog exploded out of the window, scaring me. If I had come across a similar scene as I experienced earlier where the dog slowly turned and then attacked me I’d be more annoyed than scared.
So I believe it’s up to the game designer to look in his/her toolbox and choose the right tool for building that particular scare-moment. If one tried to build an entire house with a hammer, one would have a pretty shoddy house. But choosing the right tool for the right job will yield a better overall house of horror.
AllHallowSteve
HalloweenAddict.com
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|Penumbra Spoiler Alert|
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I saw Penumbra mentioned before. That game (Black Plague specifically) sets a great atmosphere, I think, and while the creatures look a little strange for horror creatures, you have to remember: They’re disfigured, possessed humans. And you’re becoming one of them. (The voice isn’t the only thing that shows that; Your DNA isn’t even human anymore!) Plus, they don’t really jump out at you. They tend to break through doors and things, but you always have warning, either you already know they’re chasing you or they’re down the hallway and you just have to hide. You’re faster than them if you just walk, but they DON’T give up. The point of that is that, instead of fighting, you have to sneak around, you’re unable to kill them. (You truly are. I tried killing one by throwing boxes at it, and it can’t be done. I was lucky enough to get into a position that made me invulnerable.)
Anyway, just wanted to point this game out because it actually has the kind of terror you’re talking about. It had me shivering in fear the entire time. (Plus, it didn’t follow me out of the game. It was just a good atmosphere.)
Personally, as quite a big fan of all things horror, I’ve been trying to find games and movies that actually scare me these days. The biggest one on my list would have to be, contrary to this article, Dead Space. The “frights” weren’t even that scary to me. But the fact that you’re all alone, with no one to rely on, in this ship full of monsters, really got to me. This and the Dunwich Building in Fallout 3 are the two examples I can think of that were truly scary. To me, someone who actively seeks out scares, that means a lot.
I think you’re half right. Horror games don’t really need to mature, but there should be more games like the ones you describe on the market, as well as the “jump out” varity
I think it’s easier to create a horror game that’s based on “jump scares” than it is one that is frightening through the use of environment and narrative. Any FPS, for instance, can have a monster closet or a scripted cave in, but games where there has been substantial time creating a situation where both the narrative and environment combine to unsettle and unnerve the player cost more in time and money to create.
The original Silent Hill is a case in point, and I don’t think it’s been bested by its descendants – although I haven’t played them all. STALKER, too, famously had five years or so invested in creating The Zone. Doom 3, on the other hand, regardless of id’s done-when-it’s-ready attitude to development time, is a jump scare game that’s not really frightening. Doom 1 was, but, in the same way that The Exorcist isn’t as scary now as it was on release, that’s because we’d never seen its likes before.
I think it’s less a case of horror games needing to mature, and more that, as the industry has matured and become more technologically sophisticated, true horror games are easier to create, although require more time and effort to produce. And that’s why jump scare games are more common than true horror titles.
That said, I imagine that the ratio of slasher flicks to true horror movies is about the same…
Damn I know how you feel I think that in my case it’s much worse I get scared really easily when things jump at me.
Every time I say to myshelf “It’s just a game, you shoulden’t be afraid you can go on.” I’m forcing myshelf to play thinking that eventually the fear will pass, but it wont, the fear is too strong and I find myshelf exit the game pretty fast.
I will also be happy if somone will tell me how can I get treatment to my fear please reply
The only treatment I’ve found is wailing like a school girl when anything remotely scared you, including wasps and spiders.
You mean just scream every time something jump at me? Lol :P But how will it help me to overcome my fears?