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.
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
Jump scares only work because you're already feeling tense.
arguably because you know a jumpscare could come up
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.
Relevant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq7xIicAfWI
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.