Horror in Video Games

As we all know horror movies are made with suspense, creepy vibes, and goosebump scenes. But it is nothing like being put in the same world as the characters you are watching. Watching someone in danger of a serial killer on the loose is entertaining and all but being the character in danger brings more fear as you sometimes will feel like you are the one in danger of losing your life to a hockey mask-wearing, machete-wielding, tall as heck, a beast-like mad man named Jason.

The first game I say that is very good in terms of making my skin crawl is indeed Amnesia. It is a first-person thriller game that makes you get out of a labyrinth of a castle mansion. Just the way you move is scary as you cannot run, which makes the game slower-paced, essentially making chase moments that much scarier as you can only go one mph. The house itself is menacing as it gives off the vibes of a Dracula’s Mansion. You hold a small torchlight that can barely light up 5 feet ahead of you. A wrong turn will get you cornered, and the broken jaw monster will get you. The jaw is so broken it goes down to his belly button, and his eyelids drip down to show more flesh, making him that much scarier. Good luck trying to find your way out!

The next game is the Outlast series. These games have had my friends, and I shook to the bone when it comes to rotten creepy moments in a game. Scenes like an undead woman trying to eat you? or kill you? The only thing you need to know is that you have to escape while using the only tools set around the map to help you. Be aware that the recent Outlast 2 is quite the scare as the graphics have been upgraded along with the feeling of actually getting attacked, by the small things like the soundtrack and sound effects and controller vibration and graphics. The game has no sense of remorse as it includes scenes of hanging little girls and a zombie woman with a Minecraft pickaxe chopping off your junk… yeah, that’s actually in the game. Trigger warning! Next game!

Resident Evil Series is one of the most famous series for its jump scares and story mode. The game is based around a company called the Umbrella Corporation that conducts experiments that lead to a virus that infects an area around Racoon City. The group of individuals is Freelancer-like in the sense that they try to stop the corporation from causing any more harm to their city. However, it is too late as the Umbrella Corp. gets them caught in situations against zombies and mutated monsters to get to them. This game is based around the subgenre of horror games as a survival horror game where you are slow-paced by the game to experience fast-paced action. However, the limit to your physical activity adds to the immersion as you feel like you are stuck against crazy monsters that will eat you alive or infect you. I recommend this as this series holds 12 games (including remakes) which add up to a lot of playtimes.

The next game is Silent Hill. This game is quite a creepy one. It is based on the story of a man who loses his child after a car accident. He gets stuck in a ghost town that is in a perpetual fog. Not only that but if you know anything about the movie The Mist the environment is just like that. Foggy and filled with random monstrous enemies that will come to eat you. All you have is the things you find and a gun a cop gives you to find your daughter. I believe this game goes through the husband’s guilt of loss and trauma. He is continuously led to a random woman (supposedly his wife?) that makes him question things over and over. At the same time, he is trying to find his daughter. I recommend this as it is a classic horror game that was revolutionary for its animations and immense pressure on your feelings. Throughout my gameplay, it was a rollercoaster of feeling bad for the dad and feeling scared completely.

Until Dawn. I’d say this one of the most controlling games of 2015 — a game surrounded by the idea that you controlled the story’s outcome. Whether you kill off everyone, some, or none the endings are satisfactory to you since you made the decisions. The story is in short about a friend group going to a cabin, and two sisters fall off a mountain after being chased by a monster called a Wendigo. Essentially a Wendigo is a demon that possesses people who go cannibalistic. As said before the sisters fall off and one survives and eats the other and becomes a Wendigo. The group goes back after a year and goes through a whole campaign of running and surviving against the Wendigos and Josh. Josh is the brother of the sisters, and he mainly wants to get revenge on the group as he blamed them for killing his sisters. In the end, you can save everyone, kill everyone, or kill some people. However no matter what Josh will die and Wendigos will scare you.

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