I really don't like horror games anymore

By thomasriis1987 March 24, 2011 39 Comments

Hi everybody!  
 

Say, how come that (almost) all horror game developers have become convinced that fast pace encounters with hundreds of zombies/monsters is scary? I mean, I don't find stuff scary when it's being presented over and over again, in the hundreds, with 200+ ammo.... opposed to when you have to look out for every single corner, encounters only a few enemies and has 1 clip and a knife left. 
It's like they followed the rest of the gaming industry, where everyone has to be nursed through the experience and they don't want to challenge the gamers too much in fear of it becoming a niche game. - Yeah! Those kinds of games can be fun, but scary? No way, I say! 
Let's just take the obvious as an example: Resident Evil. 
I nearly pissed my pants when I was a child playing the first of the series on my old PC. I know, I know - things were different back then, and graphics weren't that important (or developed), but there was something about the atmosphere and the locked camera-angels which was scary as hell! I could go on and on, but the fact is that an action/horror isn't a survival/horror, and those don’t exist anymore... (Please enlighten me). 
The best thing that happened in years for the RE series, was the remake of the original on the GameCube, dammit, why couldn't there be a remake of the sequel too? Well, we can only hope i suppose. 
 
All in all, I don't like the trend... For things to be scary you need atmosphere, few but deadly monsters, preferable locked camera-angles and limited ammo and health.  - You guys might say; "turn dead space up to Hard", but you know it's not the same... not at all. You always end up feeling that it was scary at the beginning, but repetitive towards the end.  
Maybe it isn't possible at all to recreate that kind of games, maybe those times has passed and the game industry has spun itself into a web where there is a textbook for making games, a template even.
 
I might just be nostalgic today, but I need someone to reinvent the genre, or maybe just uninvent it. 
 
Have a fantastic day, I love you all! (Insert: brain hungry zombies, sexually frustrated monsters and a red ball jumping down the stairs)        

39 Comments