Your conception of "fear" in a video game

Hey guys, been a while

So I was just wondering, after reading a couple threads on these forums, and the Silent Hill Heaven forums, what people consider "fear"

I already know many people consider RF the game that started the "horror" genre, but personally I never found it to be all too...scary. (I hope nobody attacks me for this, it's just opinion :<) It had "jump" and "panic" moments of course, but that isn't what I consider "fear".
I am abusing qoutation marks

This of course brings me to question peoples hatred of RE4 and 5. They seemed to be alot less "survival" and alot more "action", but it didn't necessarily change all that much, aside from camera angles and setting.

To me, fear(in a video game) is a perfect combination of atmosphere, unnerving sound effects, a tense song that puts you on edge, claustrophobic surroundings and a lack of supplies, with an abundance of strong enemies.

How bout you guys?

I don't like it when people refer to RE as being all about fear because it's not. It first started as survival horror and has since become survival action thus I must say you are incorrect about RE no more being about survival anymore. It is, it's just less about the horror. RE is about the aspect of survival and the story about BioHazard.

For a completely frightful game, I'd recommend either Silent Hill, Siren, ObsCure or Fatal Frame/Project Zero.

For a horrifying game, there's always Amnesia.


Btw. nice to see you back Excel.

Silent is much scarier than any RE could hope to be. To me, RE was always about the story and the choices that you must make to survive. Everything in the old REs was extremely scarce, at least compared to the new ones. But even in the new ones, the faster, weapon wielding enemies sort of compensate for the lack of scarcity. Don't let anyone tell you that RE is not RE anymore just because the "horror" is "gone". That's just silliness.

My idea of "fear" in a game is based on the following points:
A single character facing insurmountable odds.
More "running for your life" as opposed to "running and gunning"
Music is key... All RE's have had great music but IMO Silent Hill has the best overall.
Puzzles are great, the harder the better.
Environment... Claustrophobic feeling, dark, dirty, grimy environments... they are the best.

Mass Distraction wrote:

Btw. nice to see you back Excel.

Thanks, ahaha. And yes, I realize Silent Hill is much scarier than RE(I think I made a topic about that?..I can't remember) but I remember along time ago reading a thread about how RE4 killed resident evil, which I always disagree with, and always will. Oh, and my bad, when I said it wasn't more about "survival" anymore, I meant the circumstances changed alot with RE4. It stopped being "conserve your ammo, there's limited supply. Choose who you fight and who you don't" because it became "shoot everything that moves, because now they have freakin' chainsaws and machine guns"

Although, RE and SH are actually very similar, because after the 3rd game of both, the more hardcore fans believe it went downhill. I still don't feel that way about either series, they're both incredibly awesome. Oh, I was planning on making a thread about peoples opinions of OP:Racoon City, has that been made before?

xExcel wrote:

Although, RE and SH are actually very similar, because after the 3rd game of both, the more hardcore fans believe it went downhill.

Most hardcore RE fans thought the series went downhill after CV, which is the 4th game in the series.

ThomVD wrote:

xExcel wrote:

Although, RE and SH are actually very similar, because after the 3rd game of both, the more hardcore fans believe it went downhill.

Most hardcore RE fans thought the series went downhill after CV, which is the 4th game in the series.

Well of course there was RE0 and Code Veronica, but I meant third as in RE 1, RE 2, RE 3
pretty much the numbered ones.

There is already a Operation Raccoon City thread.

NiteKrawler wrote:

There is already a Operation Raccoon City thread.

Thanks.

BOBLATHON wrote:

My idea of "fear" in a game is based on the following points:
A single character facing insurmountable odds.
More "running for your life" as opposed to "running and gunning"
Music is key... All RE's have had great music but IMO Silent Hill has the best overall.
Puzzles are great, the harder the better.
Environment... Claustrophobic feeling, dark, dirty, grimy environments... they are the best.

Agreed. I think that RE fulfills all of these criteria, except the running and gunning part of course (unless playing any on the hardest difficulty for the first time ).

"Fear" in a game is also, to me, the kind of game where you are sitting in your room at night, and think "is this really the best time to play this game?"

A game that can make your heartbeat and heart pressure fluctuate also passes as a "fear" filled game in my opinion lol.

NiteKrawler wrote:

Silent is much scarier than any RE could hope to be. To me, RE was always about the story and the choices that you must make to survive. Everything in the old REs was extremely scarce, at least compared to the new ones. But even in the new ones, the faster, weapon wielding enemies sort of compensate for the lack of scarcity. Don't let anyone tell you that RE is not RE anymore just because the "horror" is "gone". That's just silliness.

THIS.

I loved reading that. It's what I think of Resident Evil.

Anyway, for me, fear in a video game mainly has to do with how dangerous the enemies are, and how much of a threat they are to me. Atmosphere does play into it, but if the enemies or the things bumping in the night that are trying to kill me aren't dangerous or are even very concerned with killing me, I suddenly don't feel scared or have fear. Again, that's why I don't find Silent Hill 2 to be scary. Every enemy is a total joke. None of the enemies are a significant threat. You also have more than enough ammo to kill them in the rare occurrence they become a problem.

The only way, for me, that SH2 is ever scary is with the "nothing is scarier" trope where what you don't see is scary. That's all it has for me. But Silent Hill 1 and Shattered Memories are very scary because they have that trope in effect as well as very dangerous and aggressive enemies. That's why all of the Resident Evil games are scary, because the threat is very large. Even the slow, dim-witted zombies are more dangerous than all of the enemies in SH2. When they see you, they don't stand around for a couple seconds then slowly walk over to you and attack, they just attack. When you get close to a zombie in any of the RE games, they almost immediately lunge at you and eat you. No waiting around to be had. Heck, Wesker is scarier than most enemies in Silent Hill. He may not be creepy and horrific, but he's really freaking dangerous and can kill almost anybody very fast. That's what fear is to me, going up against or being chased by something that's aggressive and dangerous.

I did a lot of running in Silent Hill 2. But it wasn't running from the bad guys, it was running around them to get to the next point of the story. No chasing to be had aside from one part.

To me fear is all about feeling vulnerable. For example Amnesia: The Dark Descent is one of the scariest games I've ever played. Biggest reason for me was the fact that your completely defenseless, the game lacks any method of physical self defense. In RE you have the tank controls, camera angles and scarce ammo that makes you feel vulnerable. You don't have full control over the character. That's why I thought Dead Space wasn't scary. It had flawless controls and a shitload of weapons and ammo.

ThomVD wrote:

To me fear is all about feeling vulnerable. For example Amnesia: The Dark Descent is one of the scariest games I've ever played. Biggest reason for me was the fact that your completely defenseless, the game lacks any method of physical self defense. In RE you have the tank controls, camera angles and scarce ammo that makes you feel vulnerable. You don't have full control over the character. That's why I thought Dead Space wasn't scary. It had flawless controls and a shitload of weapons and ammo.

Dead Space isn't horror,it's just another Rambo tale.Also don't forget the scarcity of health.

What I look for in horror games is,
*Eerie,desolate locations.
*Things that will hunt your ass down deliberately.
*Maybe only 5 guns throughout the area.
*Smart storyline,that doesn't go,"Hey guys!Let's go to a haunted house in the middle of this forest people have been going missing in since last June where they found that deformed bear with a SUV full of people in it's stomach right after it killed 2 SWAT teams!"
*A realistic earthly character that you can relate to,not Duke Nukem,Rambo,or Godzilla.
*Lengthy storyline that will drain you of supplies really fast.
*Powerful enemies that you can either sneak around or try to take down.
*No cliche ass characters,or none other than the protaganist at all.

Deagle50 wrote:

*A realistic earthly character that you can relate to

That's one of the reasons why Claire is so awesome. She's not trained or anything, just a normal civilian. It's easy to relate to her.

Yeah,and don't forget the believability of a character.RE hasn't done anything to contradict this,but FarCry has.In FC2 there was an IRA operative,Kosovar Albanian,Mauratain body guard,and a US RA guy that was just there.None of these guys would have any buisness in war torn Africa,let alone out of their own countries.

There are plenty of these kind of examples throughout games,but I salute RE for NOT doing something that dumb.

And the only characters that you can't really relate to are the 3 mainstays,Leon,Jill,and HeMan(Chris).I don't know anyone that's gone through as specialized training as those 3 in the series.

ThomVD wrote:

To me fear is all about feeling vulnerable. For example Amnesia: The Dark Descent is one of the scariest games I've ever played. Biggest reason for me was the fact that your completely defenseless, the game lacks any method of physical self defense.

I have a love/hate relationship with that game. I hate to play it because I'm seriously scared but I can't get enough of it. It was fun playing with my friend on mumble but then he deleted the game and I haven't played since :/

Still, even seeing the creatures face on the internet I get shivers. That thing has implemented pure fear in my head. I bow to the creators of that game. The finnish guys who made the music also did a very good job.

Mass Distraction wrote:

ThomVD wrote:

To me fear is all about feeling vulnerable. For example Amnesia: The Dark Descent is one of the scariest games I've ever played. Biggest reason for me was the fact that your completely defenseless, the game lacks any method of physical self defense.

I have a love/hate relationship with that game. I hate to play it because I'm seriously scared but I can't get enough of it. It was fun playing with my friend on mumble but then he deleted the game and I haven't played since :/

Still, even seeing the creatures face on the internet I get shivers. That thing has implemented pure fear in my head. I bow to the creators of that game. The finnish guys who made the music also did a very good job.

The creators definitely did a great job. It was the first game in a long time that scared the hell out of me.

I'm playing Silent Hill 4 now. Just as I thought, it's a much scarier game than Silent Hill 2. Why? Because there's actually a threat. The enemies are really dangerous and really vicious, and are pretty darn focused on getting me dead.

WAIT A MINUET THOUGH

I'm not saying it's better than Silent Hill 2. I'm just saying it's scarier. It will never have the same charm that SH2 has, and so far it's not written as well as SH2, which I say had the best story in the series. It just goes to show that a SH game doesn't have to be scary or difficult to be good.

But yeah this is almost, if not a little more, as scary as the first SH. Aside from Henry being very unbelievably cool with the whole SH thing (although there might be a reason for that, as explained by one of my friends), it's still very scary and very well done. So far, anyway. I've yet to experience the apparently frustratingly small inventory system, so that may change my mind. However, it's still a satisfyingly scary game to me.

Say, Ravior, what did you think of the other SH games? Haven't seen you on the Silent Hill -series thread so I thought I'd ask.

Oh, and on the subject, I found one really creepy game based on one of the best horror movies I've seen. Ju-On for the Wii.

Mass Distraction wrote:

Say, Ravior, what did you think of the other SH games? Haven't seen you on the Silent Hill -series thread so I thought I'd ask.

I guess I forgot about that thread but it's safer here then it is there.

SH1: Is probably my favorite. The world feels more open and huge, there's more places to go and explore. The graphics are very scary, leaving a large impact, despite being somewhat primitive. The locations are especially scary (elementary school, sewers, ect). Plus, Harry actually acts like a normal person, more so than the other protagonists. He's always asking questions, and being surprised by things that he just saw a couple moments ago. That's how a real person would react. They wouldn't just accept it after fighting the first enemy. (I would really love a scene in a SH game where the protagonist flips out and has a panic attack the first time they enter Silent Hill, like a normal person would.) And, of course, the enemies. They're dangerous and aggressive, and will always be trying to kill you when they know you're there. It's beautiful. True horror. Near the end of the game, you're on the run for your life. You cant stop to fight enemies-they'll rip you apart. That's what makes a game truly scary for me. A threat. Where I feel tension and my blood is pumping while I'm being chased. This and Shattered Memories are the only ones that give me that rush. For now.

SH2: I've already expressed my opinion on SH2 many times. But I do, however, think it's a fantastically written game. The story is very interesting, and I feel so determined to get the endings. The final boss is also very epic, if not way, way too easy. James is a very likeable and deep character, if not a little accepting. Plus, if you think not seeing what's dangerous is scarier than actually seeing it, this game would be terrifying. However for me, I need the threat to eventually show itself to be scared, and this game never gives one. This game was the first traditional SH game I ever owned, so I will always have that awesome nostalgia for it. It's like playing an interactive movie. You're along for the 2-hour ride, and there isn't much that's going to stop you from enjoying it.

SH3: I haven't played much of it. It seems like it has the same kind of slow and tired enemies from SH2, but a bit more aggressive. Heather is really awesome, though. She says funny things and is very likeable in her character. Plus, the main theme of the game is awesome. Glad the soundtrack comes with the game.

SH4: Just got this one. So far, it's pretty scary. The enemies are actually dangerous, and are also pretty scary looking. It's like this game goes all out. "How about Samara's body, but with three scary baby heads on top? And it moves at you fast." Pretty awesome ideas. I wonder how these monsters are tied to Henry (who doesn't seem to care that this stuff is happening. He could be stabbed in the balls and he would just be like "Ow. Aw man, that sucks." There's probably a reason for this, at least I hope so), or perhaps the other characters he meets. Plus, fast enemies that cant be killed through conventional means that can still hurt you just by being near you? That's just terrifying.

Shattered Memories: My first owned SH game. This one is pretty darn scary, and may even be the scariest for me. You're so vulnerable to the Raw Shocks who viciously pursue you without stopping. The first time I played I was very, very scared. And it felt good. However, since there's no threat outside of the nightmares, it feels like there's a lot of missed opportunities for potentially scary places. Plus, the story is interesting. I didn't really understand it until I read the wiki, and now that I do, it makes it more fun to play through.

Interesting... You haven't played Homecoming yet? That game will give you a rush, especially on hard Some of the enemies just rape you. Especially Needlers, Schisms and the boss named Scarlet. The final boss felt a bit easy, though. Some enemies can also make surprise attacks.

It's funny how they were able to make the mobile games at least somewhat creepy. Not too common in mobile games.

Btw. Shattered Memories, for me, was the least scary entry to the series, then SH4. The first has been by far the scariest, then Homecoming.

Mass Distraction wrote:

Interesting... You haven't played Homecoming yet? That game will give you a rush, especially on hard Some of the enemies just rape you. Especially Needlers, Schisms and the boss named Scarlet. The final boss felt a bit easy, though. Some enemies can also make surprise attacks.

It's funny how they were able to make the mobile games at least somewhat creepy. Not too common in mobile games.

Btw. Shattered Memories, for me, was the least scary entry to the series, then SH4. The first has been by far the scariest, then Homecoming.

I actually got SH5 today, and I'm really liking it! The enemies are dangerous and are actually a challenge to fight. However I heard it gets too easy once you get a gun, so I'll probably just use melee weapons if it gets too easy.

Also, I heard it was short, but just about every SH game is short so it doesn't really matter. As long as it has multiple endings (and I know it has to since there's branching dialogue) and other little extras, I'm fine.

Also, I really like Alex. Probably my favorite SH protagonist now. He's just cool for some reason, and I really love that army jacket. His voice is also pretty cool. He reminds me of Chris, actually. Funny how both are "5" games and both have almost equally detailed graphics.

true fear to me is silent hill thats the only game i have played that i ACTUALLY screamed at yeah i can't stand silent hill I beat shattered memorys and i was done

My idea of fear in all types of media is things that actually look scary not sudden things that make you jump (that many filmakers seem to think is the key of horror movie making). My idea of fear in a videogame is the same as yours xExcel

oooh, found another good one!




It's kind of like a mix of Fatal Frame (Project Zero) and the grudge. Awesomeness!