There are a lot of horror game tropes I hate, like:
Jump scares
Cliche monster designs such as mutilated human, ghost woman, singing/giggling little girl, and worst of all, asylum inmate :cringe:
Having 'insanity' as a game mechanic
I also hate when horror games basically screams at you to "Be scared now!!!1!" including things like:
Player character breathing heavily when they see something you're supposed to scared of.
Camera effects such as shaky cam, blurry cam, blood on camera or 'insanity vision'.
A monster screaming in your face
A loud jumpscare music sting
Now, I know what you're thinking, "Dirt_Owl, do you even like horror games at all then?"
The answer is no. No I do not.
the worst horror game trope is youtubers screaming at horror games
Today on Hexbear dot net, Dirt_Owl plays Amnesia: The Dark Descent and fills up the bingo card in one go
Reminds me of Japanese and Korean scary movies (need to find some Chinese ones to compare) where they don't have jumpscares but do have body horror and creepy aesthetic which is pretty unsettling.
I once watched a little Japanese movie called "Noroi: the Curse" which was super cool. The psychic character was particularly memorable, as he's the only one that understands what's going on, but he's super autistic so nobody pays any attention to him. It's also a great snapshot of modern Japan and keitai culture circa 2004 (the same year as Lost in Translation immortalized). Highly recommend you download it. It has the creepy reality, we don't have to make anything up, aesthetic in spades. Zero jump scares.
Not really horror scary per se, but Outer Wilds has some good ol' existentialist dread nestled all throughout on top of being an excellent story and puzzle game to boot
The sound of when you get crushed to death by sand is the scariest thing ive ever heard tho
That one time where I shot into the portal in my ship was pretty damn scary
Play soma and play the mode where the monsters cant attack you and enjoy creepy aesthetic and existential horror
See also: yume nikki, kinda up its ass but it’s an interesting experiment in creep
The cat lady (strong content warning for depression and suicidal ideation)
Little misfortune and Fran bow
Yume Nikki - It's all about vibes, and it does it so, so well. Best of all, it's free.
Some TW:
spoiler
Suicide, but really only at the very end.
Scary kids, but that's the worst horror trope in general
Spooky note saying "BEHIND U!!!!!" and you turn around and it's nothing, wow i just shitted my pants
Key hunting
PT clones
FNAF clones
And of course, jumpscares
The only good horror game is Sauna 2000
I love horror games but hate some of the mechanics sometimes. I don't have much of a problem with the repeated monster designs. The tendency to treat mental illness as a spooky otherworldly force that creates evil enemy murderers is really annoying though.
Gameplay mechanics I hate:
Ticky-tacky inventory management, weapons that only operate as a last resort rather than an always available tool, not being told which items are important or which ones I can drop, backtracking only because I can only hold three things (cry of fear), level design focusing on darkness at the expense of navigating, and what I hate most of all is gameplay centered around hiding in lockers or under beds. Yes I love sitting idle watching a monster exhaust its pathfinding until it goes to the other room. I love it when interesting puzzles and story bits are interrupted by a tedious sequence of hiding from a spooky gurgling monster.
I think there's often a hesitation to screw around with the horror formula, in all media. That's what makes some horror games so special.
The best horror game ever made is Silent Hill 4, by the way
I like interface manipulation, like stuff that breaks the fourth wall. Just wish it wasn't tied to a sanity mechanic.
I dislike the trope of forcing an otherwise quick character to slow down to a walk to increase tension. Like I get it, but it feels like it breaks immersion in a bad way and keys in the player.
That said, Silent Hill became infinitely less scary when I went full cardio mode.
YES OMG I LOVE THAT GAME! What I think Spooky's does well is yes there are jumpscares, however the jumpscares are more or less there to make fun of jumpscares as a concept and also kind of making fun of the player for getting jumped.
I think Dead Space doesn't do most of these, other than jumpscares of course. And mutilated humans but at least they get creative.
A lot of your later complaints seem to be the result of Slenderman. Horror games used to be games that were scary, now horror games have "horror mechanics."
Bioshock was pretty scary at the time, minimal jump scares. It was all in the atmosphere.
That's okay
I like the spooky vidgy games mostly because of cool monsters and giving myself a frighten that I can handle (as opposed to gestures at the world)
Hot take: jump scares are the only way games (and movies) can actually make you feel like you're in danger. Without them, monsters end up more just ugly rather than scary
I mean there's also plenty of horror monsters that don't use jumpscares or they're at least clearly established as scary well before any jump scare. The Thing has a couple jump scares but your scared of the monster well before they come into play, same with Alien, actually the first Halloween as well. You don't think Micheal Myers is just some ugly dude until a jumpscare happens.
At least for games, I've definitely felt the raised hackles feeling while being chased by something big and death dealing in FPS games. Those big dog things in the newer Wolfenstein games... yeah. Get me on a place where I know they can reach me and oo-boy.
we'll know for sure if he starts pontificating about Dark Souls
