Most horror games fail to scare you, and here is why

A long, long time ago… in a galaxy far awa… No, wait, that is something else! A long time ago, when Flash was not only around, but the norm for rich internet content, I was a game developer. I was young, nothing noteworthy was released, and it was only a small part of my journey into the world of programming, but was an important part that shaped me a little. But, even before I started making small Flash games, I was a gamer.

I still remember the first time I opened Starcraft, the main menu from Age of Empires and the countless nights wasted enjoyed playing Heroes 3. Not to mention other classics like Doom, Quake, Silent Hill (even though I was a bit late to the party here), and many many more. I still believe that one reason WHY I started programming was that I was fascinated by these games and I wanted to make my own. Back then, I was unaware of the tricks that game developers use to hook you in and keep you on the right track.

Eventually, as I learned more about programming and game design, I started to see patterns, techniques, and craftsmanship. I was already out of the game development “industry” (if you can even call it that for the small niche I was in), but I was still a gamer, and I still am, with more than 1000 games in my Steam library. I don’t have the time I used to, but I still like to get my hands dirty in a well-made shooter, put my brain to the test in a strategy game… or get scared in a nice horror one.

What makes a horror game a good one

Even before I was technically old enough for them, I played horror games. Once I started to grow older, fewer and fewer such games managed to offer the rush that old ones used to, even though the graphics are nicer and leave little to the imagination, the worlds are bigger and more complex, and I started to understand the psychological part. From the “modern” area, since when I actually understood everything that was happening and it wasn’t just “run from this monster”, the most iconic horror game I can remember was Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Up until that one it was quite a while since a game actually managed to scare me. And even fewer managed to do it since then.

So, as I was playing Maid of Sker these days, I was thinking: What makes a horror game, a good horror game? Many games provide explicit gore, but so does Doom, and you can’t say that it is a horror game. The enemies maybe? All games have enemies, and most are monsters, mutated creatures or aliens, things that would be frightening in real life. There has to be something that made Amnesia great, and that other games lack.

So, after thinking a bit, I came up with three main ingredients, all of which can be summarised in one word: immersion.

• The plot – Why are you in that location and circumstances in the first place and what is your motivation to get out
• The scenery – How the location looks, is it consistent with the plot and is it believable
• The atmosphere – How that game manages to inflict the sense of dread and horror back to you, the player

The plot can be hit-and-miss, but you can still get a game that genuinely scares you. And you don’t need a complex plot to have a good horror game. Yes, Silent Hill has a complex plot, but for Amnesia (and again I must turn back to it), it was simple and straightforward: you have amnesia and you must stop an evil scientist. A plot too complex can actually ruin a game that would be otherwise good. See the first Outlast, where budget constraints and other problems that arose from being a small studio, actually hurt the game.

The scenery is the easiest to make nowadays. There are many good game engines that simplify work a lot. You can easily change things on the fly, experiment with different lighting and textures, and add or remove elements to suit your plot. You can even find pre-made asset packs that can be combined to create a plausible and realistic scene.

The atmosphere… now here is where things get complicated.

It is easy to know that you are in a game

We play games to have fun, to challenge ourselves, and to escape this reality, and explore a new, more fascinating one. For horror games, maybe more than for other genres, it is essential to be completely surrounded by the atmosphere, the scenery, and the plot of the game you are playing. If the game doesn’t manage to properly portray the atmosphere, everything starts to fall apart, and fast.

I am not saying that, if the scenario from most horror games was to happen in real life, I would survive. Most probably I would be hiding in a corner scared until the enemy finds me and kills me in less than 5 seconds. However, I am not in the game. My character is and I am merely a puppeteer controlling it. Yes, my actions impact the game, but it is not just my personality and motivation, but the character’s as well. With that being said, many, if not most modern horror games fail to give any sense of urgency, off danger, and most of the time they fail to explain the limitations that are given.

Limitations are essential for creating a good atmosphere, however, when these limitations are arbitrary, the 4th wall is broken and the player quickly finds himself back in the chair in front of the computer, instead of actually in the game. And this is what breaks the atmosphere, the immersion, and what fundamentally makes a horror game into a bad horror game.

Artificial limitations break the game

I reached this conclusion for quite some time while playing a different horror game: Amnesia: Rebirth. For each decision that made The Dark Descent so good, there was an equal amount of decisions that made Rebirth worse. The game was still quite OK, mostly because of the rich story-telling, but it failed to immerse me in its universe the same way the first game managed, and it all came down the artificial limitations imposed by the designers.

At their core, the limitations had good intentions: make the game darker. However, that is not how things work in real life. Let me provide a concrete example. From the start, after the initial cutscene, you find yourself in a cave system where your former crew stayed for a few days. They left there their belongings, mostly abandoned silverware, and cloth. Now, to explore these dark caves you need torches… which are limited. So, despite the fact that there are many rags and old cloth in the cave, right at the entrance, you can’t use them to make the most important items needed for exploring further.

The same happened to me in a different game: The Forest. In the game you crash in a remote island inhabited by mutants. You need to explore, build shelters, hunt, and eventually escape the island. Without going into too many details, the game suffers from some of the same limitations. Even though there are suitcases, you can’t use most of the items there, regardless if you want to make bandages or torches. Furthermore, in order to make the game darker, the way light works inside caves is unrealistic, with most mutants not having the same eyesight limitations.

And I see the same artificial limitations spread through many games in the genre. This brings me back to Maid of Sker. In this game, you explore a hotel that is roaming with blind people that can’t see you, but they can hear you. Again, I won’t go into details as to why they are blind (I don’t want to spoil the story). The problem is that there is absolutely no sense of danger, which breaks immersion.

Even though there are all sorts of things scattered on the floor, including glasses and silverware, they don’t make a sound. Well, it would have been too hard if they did, so MAYBE that is why. But what really bugged me is the lack of reaction from the player’s character. In real life, you could easily attack people with a chair and be done with it. Not here. Later in the game you obtain a contraption that temporarily stuns the enemies. What can you do once they are stunned? Run! You can’t attack them, you can immobilize them or in any way dispose of them. To make things even worse, you can even throw items to make noise and distract them. But you do cough at the slightest dust in the air.

For a game that makes sound such important, they do have limited ways of actually making sound. I know why limitations must be imposed and I know that they are essential for having a good game. But when these limitations are so artificial and so out of place, they break the immersion, completely breaking the game. Yes, attacking enemies can also break the horror. That is why Doom is not a horror game. But make it at least plausible and believable as to why you can’t attack them.

In The Dark Descent, the enemy was presented as bigger, stronger and out-of-this-world. I wouldn’t attack a bear if it was the enemy. But if was in a room with one or two blind people trying to kill me, I would at least try to fight back. Outlast 2 managed to explain why attacking is not an option quite well: they were many crazy people with weapons. Even if you could take one or two down, the rest would still get you, so the best option for survival was still hiding. The same is true for SOMA, another great horror game, which had enemies that were visibly stronger and faster than the main character.

The silver lining

As game engines become more powerful, lighting techniques better and game designers push their limits, horror games will become better as well. Some of the limitations currently in games are because of technical reasons. Yes, there are games that managed to solve these in an elegant way, but as technology progresses, there will be fewer reasons to have them. Then, game designers will focus more on building the right atmosphere in their games and, with a bit of luck, manage to scare you.