I've been a gamer for most of my life. I was about 5 when I got my NES and I loved every second of it. I've owned many gaming systems, although not all of them. Anyway, as the title says, what has happened to the horror genre in gaming?
 
Remember back to the middle of the 1990's when the Playstation was gaining some serious ground. I remember one day I went to the video store to rent something. I wanted a game like Resident Evil 2. To be honest, back then, I was really intrigued by the full motion CG video that the Playstation could produce. I wanted a horror game, but also it had to have some sort of CG videos to keep me in awe and entertained. I found a game called Silent Hill. I checked the back of the disk case and thought it looked kind of interesting. It wasn't Resident Evil or anything, but I was sort of drawn to it by the mysteriousness of it. I got home and I started to play it. My Brother was in the same room watching me as I played. After playing the first 10 minutes of the game, I really liked it. Whole town covered in fog, all the town residents disappeared, your daughter disappears and you playing as Harry Mason needs to find her. I also liked the lack of explanation as to why this was happening in the in this town. Most of the time I would like any game (or movie) to explain the strange happenings in the story, or at least give some hint to it. Silent Hill was a rare case for me, as I preferred not to know why the people were missing or why the whole town was in a fog. It felt much more massive in scale, not knowing why these events were occurring.
 
Moving on, I played the game all the way up to the first real level of the game, the elementary school. Just to note, I really enjoyed the whole atmosphere before the school, walking in a ghost town covered in fog, being chased by some strange creatures. I still love it, even today. So I got to the school and entered it. From this point on, Silent Hill really changed my perspective on games forever. The school was incredibly atmospheric, more so then I was anticipating. Of course I was in Junior High at the time, so the school had a more profound effect on me then it would have if I had first seen the game today. Before Silent Hill, I had never seen an elementray school in this fashion before in any media, movies or games. My Brother was even unnerved. I remember him sitting on the couch as still as a rock and just staring at the screen. I got the artifact I needed and I breathed a sigh of relief as I climbed the clock tower in the court yard. I remember thinking: "Thank god that's over". So I exit the clock tower and I was still in the school courtyard. I remember this feeling of terror just gripping at me as I walked around the court yard, thinking: "I thought I was finished the school, why am I still here". I then entered the school and compete horror ensued. The school had changed from a scary school, to OMG WTF hell hole of death and decay. I walked around the evil school around 2 minutes, and I said "I've had enough", and I shut off the game. I didn't shut off the game because it was a bad game, I shut it off because I never felt so scared playing a video game in my whole life until that point. Sure I played some scary games before Silent Hill, but nothing like this.
 
And this leads me the question: Why are games sacrificing a good atmosphere, a good story, for over the top action and meaningless violence? Why aren't so called "horror" games scary anymore? Take a look at the recent Silent Hill game: Silent Hill Homecoming. The developers went for a tactical approach to fighting the creatures, to improve on the combat, which in my opinion was the wrong way to take the Silent Hill series.  Below are a list of things that make supposedly scary games, not scary:
 

• Engaging combat. A scary game should never have enjoyable or engaging combat. The combat system should work, but it is a mistake to put tactics into combat for a scary game. It ruins the mood and it makes the creatures less scary. For example, take a look at Silent Hill 2. The creatures do not run at you, except for one, and they look as if they are wind up toys; not creatures that can anticipate attacks or block or anything. Also they have no "weak points", you just shoot them or hit them until they die. By adding a tactical combat system, one to exploit weak points, and making the creatures able to dodge attacks, takes away from the horror and of the whole feeling you should have about the creatures.
• Cut scenes: This one is a bit of a stretch, but think of it this way, a boss is going to burst through the door, you get ready for it then.....Cut scene! You are forced to watch as the main character narrowly escapes death as the boss bursts through the door and tries to hit our hero. Think of that again, but without a cut scene. You don't know that something will burst through the door and when it does, you can guarantee it will make you  jump and force to react quickly. You must escape the boss while controlling your character and not watching it through a cut scene. This will be much more terrifying and more satisfying to the player.
• Weak Antagonist: I remember playing some scary games and when I finally get to see who caused all the mess was just one weak ass looking last boss. In my opinion any evil that you are up against in these scary games, has to be much bigger than you are. It has to be everywhere, like a plague.