Editorial Altercations: Does Pixelated Terror Still Exist?

Survival horror is a genre that has quickly become overcrowded; there are far too many games trying to cash in on the success of Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Despite this, some truly fantastic games have appeared through the gaps left by the genre heavyweights. The big question however, is whether any of these games are actually scary? Do they instill a sense of fear and/or dread?  What does it even mean to be scared while playing a game? Our editors had some time to think about their most bed wetting adventures in gaming; an act some of them may be indulging in later… repressed memories and all that.

Dave Barlow-

I’ve had my behind handed to me in the FEAR 2 demo (on normal, before you ask). While playing through it, the various “world goes weird, see creepy shadows of things that aren’t there” moments added a decent chunk of atmosphere to wandering around the halls and various other seemingly tornado-hit locations. Lots of little things added up to make me feel as if I really wasn’t in control of the situation, and there’s a greater power at work that could crush me in an instant if it was so inclined. Add to that the various ghost-shooting incidents which genuinely made me afraid of the dark with their “don’t shoot me and you’ll lose some life; shoot me and it does nothing to me” attitude (ghosts are RUDE), and by the time I actually got into gunfights I was a bag of nerves, made even more nervous by the speed at which the AI enemies would strut confidently in my direction before I’ve even had time to think. There weren’t really any “BOO!” moments as such, but the game’s world made me feel nervous and uncomfortable throughout, culminating in an exhilarating little horror experience; and that was just the demo.

Now, over an hour in to the full game, and the pacing of the mind-bending scary parts are a lot less full-on than I expected. There seems to be a decent sci-fi thriller plot unfolding, mixed in with the supernatural Alma undercurrent. The eeriness is much more of a slow burn thing and I’m finding myself carefully looking around corners and creeping into rooms rather than strutting up and down the corridors of whatever creepy super-soldier hospital I find myself in.

Bob Alaburda-

Like you said, there weren’t many “BOO” moments in the demo, which has me worried. The creepy atmosphere loses its effectiveness if it never actually startles you. Those moments are tense and nervous because you are wondering when you are going to be “scared” next. Tension needs to build to SOMETHING. But scare too much and it just feels like a cheap trick, and also loses effectiveness. Fear 1 struck an excellent balance, as did Condemned 2 (the first half, before it turned into a bad FPS).

I loved Fear 1, but I fear(!) its sequel will disappoint me. It all depends on how my upcoming time with Dead Space turns out. If that sucks, I will probably turn to Fear to get my dose of scary.

Cory Appleton-

I didn’t find the way they went about it in FEAR to be scary at all. Every gamer has their own view on what’s scary, but this type of game just doesn’t do it for me.

Games like Dead Space are the type of games that get me going. They keep you in claustrophobic areas with enemies that are so smart they’ll climb back in vents and not show up for another 10 or 15 seconds. The part that f***ed me in particular was the regenerating zombie infected creature thing. F*** THAT.. I mean.. seriously, when I kill something and it keeps coming back, and I’m trying to run away and think of how to kill it? The worst thing was it came back what… four times? But the scariest one in particular was when you move through a tunnel that has moving bays that you need to shift in order to get to the other side. Simple going in, but when you have that creature chasing you on the way out, it’s a mind f*** and a half! You spent your sweet time getting in and now all the sudden you need clutch, you need to be able to think on the fly, but you’ve got this beast crawling up your ass. Now THAT is scary my friends. So In conclusion.. yes.. games can be scary, but not the way FEAR has done it, in my opinion.

Liz Wise-

I’m inclined to agree with Bob here. I like the games that have a sudden shock factor. Scary is subjective but a sudden burst of noise or something dropping out of the ceiling gets anyone. Doing it over and over gets old though and that’s where the creepy environments and music come into play.

Games can be very scary (RE 2, hello!) but I’m also thinking if it depends on other factors too, such as are the lights of? What time of day is it? Are you alone?

Allan Bowden-Smith-

My only genuinely scary experience was with Resident Evil 2. I was eleven at the time, and I just booted it up off a Demo Disc (Ultimate PC for those that can remember that far back in the UK; before they had the massive crackdown on age-restricted magazines). I scared myself half to death playing that game. Granted, it proves that Age Ratings do have a purpose (I had nightmares for a week), but it was just… disturbing.

Other than that, Dead Space again. Being attacked from behind while you’re self-absorbed in a puzzle in zero-g was a scary moment, but more for startling me than the actual horror.

Gabriel Marchisio-

I gotta agree and disagree on the “BOO” factor. Take Bioshock as an example: there were no honest-to-goodness BOO moments, but most everyone that plays it agrees that they are pretty afraid while playing it. The way the atmosphere is built, it instills a different kind of fear: Rather than “What will happen?”, you wonder “What might happen?.” It doesn’t take a big scripted action like an alien breaking through a door and chasing you down, rather it contents itself in scaring you with the simple sight of an enemy coming on screen. Depending on the environment, a rat moving underfoot can be just as effective as a supposedly dead enemy springing back to life.

Also, like you mentioned, to much of a scary thing can be bad. By the time I finished with Dead Space, i was pretty immune to “WHAT IS THAT THAT SUDDENLY STARTED ATTACKING ME” moments, but-getting back to the main point here-it DID scare.

Dave Hatfield-

I think Bioshock did have it’s Boo moments. Those enemies that would just appear next to you, scared the living crap out of me.

An environment that makes you feel like you will only survive with luck, is the kind of game that scares me the most. Bioshock felt this way almost until the final act. When Bioshock fist started and you are expected to get out of the diving bell, I did not want to go because I was legit scared. I have a friend who could not finish it because it disturbed him so.

Another game that scared me in a different way was Eternal Darkness. Most of the horror value I found in that was in the hallucinations generated by the insanity meter.

Tyler Curtis-

Let me start off with the following: I am a pussy.

When those f***ing skinned dogs jumped through the window in RE 1, I screamed so loud my mother thought I had cut off my thumb at 4 pm that fateful day in 1997. When she found out what I was doing, I was laughed at. I am an avid horror fan and  the one medium that delivers more bang for my buck has consistently been in pixelated form.

That being said, the first F.E.A.R never freaked me out with its “Ring” girl rip off antics and blood cascading through the hallways a la the “Shining”; And now that they’ve ripped the elementary school out of “Silent Hill” and the Replicants out of “Half Life 2″  for F.E.A.R 2, I feel more hollow than scared. While all forms of art borrow and steal from one another, its hard for a visceral experience like video games to trespass on each other without appearing totally contrived. Mechanically, why do they make you feel so claustrophobic in your helmet and flicker the lights so much? I want to see the s*** that will scare me. You know when something bad’s gonna happen or you’re gonna trip due to obvious sound cues. The sound design is key to getting your goosebumps raised. This is where Bioshock and Dead Space excelled. They timed everything asymmetrically and the result were Hershey squirts in me drawers. But when you plop me in a nearly indestructible mech with regenerating missiles and ammo….its hard to stay terrified for very long.

Dave Hatfield-

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