Now, I have been following the production of Dead Space ever since I read about it, and I was itching to get my hands on a copy, I was also gearing up for another trip to Silent Hill, when I started thinking about what, exactly, makes the best horror games. So, the only way to get to the bottom of this is to analyze one of the good, the bad, and best horror games and see what that particular “je ne sais quoi” is that separates the men from the boys…
The Good:
We have to go old-school for this one. One of the lost gems of gaming, System Shock and its sequel, were both ahead of their time in terms of control (the first one, at least) and intricate storyline integration. System Shock 2 even managed to work in a decent RPG element into the mix. The way you interact with your surroundings and pick up scattered clues as to the fate of the different environments; not to mention one of the greatest video game villainesses of all time…
For those who missed these two, the premise of the games is fairly similar. In the first, you play a hacker who wakes up on a space station to find that the AI system has gone completely nuts and has either killed or modified the entire station population. In the second, you’re a military recruit who wakes up to find the crew killed or mutated by zombie-inducing worms. It’s up to the protagonist to figure out what happened and stop the malevolent forces therein.
What makes them good: Since this is about what makes them good horror games, I’ll focus on that. First and foremost is the sense of isolation. “You’re the only one left” is one of the classic tropes in horror fiction, and it works. There is outside communication with someone, but at best they are almost an ethereal voice with no real connection to your events. They watch with an almost all-seeing eye and shout down to you. The second is a feeling of claustrophobia. You can’t escape because you’re on an isolated space station. You can’t risk leaving and having whatever it is that destroyed the crew free to do what it wants, so you’re stuck there.
But, those simply apply a base coat. What truly makes these games frightening is the constant scarcity of ammo, the inhuman sounds emanating from all corners, and the really messed up storylines that have you shuddering almost from the get-go. You can see and hear and read all the small ways in which things will go horribly wrong in these messages left behind.
The Bad:
Ok, so maybe that’s a little misleading. Maybe “ill-conceived, half-assed, poorly written departure from the original concept” is a better way of stating it. When I was first introduced to the Alone in the Dark series, I was immediately taken in by the world it portrayed. Stuck securely in the world of H.P. Lovecraft, the AitD series was the stuff that nightmares were made of. This series was one of the foundations on which the likes of Resident Evil were built.
So, when I heard that, after several years of nothing from that series, they were making a new one, I was thrilled! The series that got me started on survival horror was coming back. Ever since the one for the Dreamcast came out, I was patiently waiting for the next one. I died a little inside when I heard Uwe Boll was making a movie out of this beloved series, and I hoped the new game would be a return to sanity (and yes, I do realize how ironic saying that is).
Alas, my hopes were dashed when the second part of the game turned out to be a glorified car chase. I was reminded of a quote by one of the writers that Uwe turned down when he said that his script wasn’t chosen because it “didn’t have enough car chases.” The newest Alone game is a perfect example of a good franchise gone bad.
It wasn’t that it didn’t have its redeeming qualities (the graphics were really well done) or that it was difficult to play (the controls were pretty standard fare). But it just refused to be frightening. It was an action/platformer given a horror-esque topcoat. The parts that should have/could have been frightening, scary, and a challenge, were just irritating and trite. The entire time you labor through this game it feels like a chore. Even the parts that one would think are really cool, simply pound another nail into the coffin of this game. It may be an ok action game, but it’s horrific for in all the wrong ways.
The Best:
Ok, as much as I may love System Shock 2 and hold it up as one of the pinnacles of the survival-horror ideal, in terms of sheer mind-numbing, spine shuddering, pee-inducing horror, Silent Hill takes the prize. Talk about a game that does almost everything right. I’m not calling this a flawless game, far from it. What I am saying is that it happens to be one of the best examples of the survival horror genre. The chilling storyline, creepy setting, the nerve-wracking enemy detection system, and the fact that our protagonist, Harry Mason, can’t hit the broad side of a barn, makes this game one of the most horrifying games I have ever played.
The catch is not necessarily new, finding your lost daughter, but there the catch becomes something wholly more dangerous. The town is shrouded in fog, the roads out are all destroyed, and it’s snowing in the middle of September. The first time I played through this game I missed a lot of story elements, namely because I was just trying to keep Harry alive. In subsequent play-throughs, however, I managed to glean much more of the story. It is nowhere near as simple as it appears on the surface, and the town of Silent Hill has a way of trapping the unwary.
What makes this my ultimate example is the combination of all of the elements; setting and atmosphere, storyline, all bound up with periods of claustrophobia punctuated by periods of fear of the unknown (Yeah, you may be outside, but you’re alone, you have no ammo, and you can’t see more than 15 feet in front of you. It’s almost like the town is sarcastically sneering “Good luck, asshole”). Also, this game makes references to all kinds of horror fiction writers, so that’s an added bonus.
The Endgame:
Ok, I realize that I certainly have my biases. I definitely prefer my horror to be more psychological than physical and there are so many I didn’t mention. Plus there are games I would throw into the mix that aren’t strictly survival horror (I have No Mouth and I Must Scream comes to mind first), but the point that I am, hopefully, trying to make, is that each person is frightened of different things, and the best horror games will frighten you in the ways that most scare you.
