There are plenty ofgood horror gamesout there, but how many are truly great? How many make the short list of legendary titles that get referenced and recommended year after year? Only a precious few do, with Resident Evil, Silent Hill 2 andDead Spacebeing prime examples. What is it that ties these titles together and makes them great? Good gameplay certainly, but also their atmosphere and ability to immerse the player into the experience. Even more than gameplay, that ability to draw one in and keep them there is what sets these titles from their competition.
The original Resident Evil is notorious for its goofy voice-overs, but it’s just as legendary for always managing to maintain a threatening, oppressive atmosphere. It does this through a variety of design choices, such as fixed camera angles, scarcity of resources and enemies that are capable of taking surprised or unprepared players down. Players are of course me with plenty of monstrous creatures and chilling ideas too, but they only serve to enhance the tension created by the gameplay. Without that tension, chances are thatResident Evilwould have never made it out of the 90s.
The first Dead Space probably maintains its position on most “Best Horror Game” lists because it manages something very similar. While Isaac Clark can eventually become an overpowered, corpse-slaying beast, the corridors of the Ishimura never really feel safe. Players can be crack shots, know how to quickly and efficiently take down each Necromorph form and know more or less where they’ll come from, yet the dread before their inevitable appearance still persists throughout.
Dead Space manages through a combination of item scarcity, music, ambient sounds that could be made by enemies, somewhat unpredictable spawning of said enemies and the utter grotesqueness of the Necromorphs themselves. They’re terrible to look at and could always pop out at any minute.The Dead Space remake will supposedly go even harder with this,so fans might be in for something truly unnerving come January.
On the other end of the scale sits Silent Hill 2. It doesn’t constantly batter the player with enemies or make them scrounge for resources like the previously-mentioned games do, but it still maintains a similar kind of atmosphere. Where Resident Evil and Dead Space are loud, Silent Hill 2 is quiet. Monsters do walk the town’s streets, but most of the time there’s nothing but the sound of James Sunderland’s steps on the pavement. Where the other two games lean more into either traditional monsters or cosmic body horror, Silent Hill 2 is a psychological experience centered on James himself.
The monsters are grotesque to be sure, but only truly scare when the curtains hiding their true nature are pulled back. Where the other two maintain, Silent Hill 2 builds until all is finally made clear. It’s still a tense, dreadful atmosphere; it’s just powered by a different source. Hopefullythe newly-announced remakewill be able to maintain it.
There’s actually a new game on the horizon now that might just be capable of hitting similar heights. This game, called “ILL,”appears to be attempting something similar to Dead Spaceat first glance, but there seems to be more to it than that. The highlight of the footage release thus far is the horrific enemy design. Many of the enemies look like they’d be right at home in The Thing thanks to their grotesqueness and quick, erratic movements. They’re an unmistakable threat that’s downright unpleasant to confront, so those are some serious horror points in the game’s favor already.
Beyond that, though, Team Clout appears to be going for a minimal UI style, with players having to manually check their ammo and such. Also, there appears to be a lack of sound cues for when enemies notice and/or decide to attack the player. Both of these together equate to a realistic (and thus scary) lack of information on the part of the player, meaning that they likely won’t be able to feel safe even when it’s quiet and no obvious enemy spawn points seem to be near. We don’t yet know if ILL will go the full psychological distance like Silent Hill 2, but so far it’s looking like it’s taken solid inspiration from the latter game’s eerily silent streets.
There are plenty of “horror” games out there, but only a few actually manage to be scary in a practical sense. It’s only those that manage to create a dangerous atmosphere, one that actually makes the player themselves feel unsafe, that manage to fulfill the full meaning of the word. There are other games besides those mentioned here that manage the feat, but the list of game that do this is still short. With the likes of ILLand possibly Callisto Protocolcoming soon, though, it’s looking like many horror developers are doing their best to achieve this for their games. If so, then perhaps the long-awaited new golden age for horror may yet come to pass.
