Jun 27

Jun 27 [Pride 2022] Why I Don't Mess with Horror Games

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It’s kinda weird really. If you like action films, you probably like action games. If you like comedies, you probably like a bit of humour in your games too.

But as a horror fan, I cannot play horror games.

And what’s weirder, is that I know for a fact I’m not alone.

I’ve heard many a tale from fans of the spooky films who do not and cannot play horror games, myself and my brother have this exact issue and it’s for the exact same reason.

We’re in control.

I won’t deny it, when things get particularly scary in a film, I cover my eyes and watch through the gaps. When I do that, the film goes on, the scares come and go and I can continue the film just fine. But it doesn’t work like that with games. If I don’t move, best case scenario, the game just comes to a stop, worst case, jump scare death and back to a checkpoint to start the whole thing over again.

And there’s the other thing, death.

Films are rigid and predetermined; if a character dies during a film, they die every time during the film. But in games, the wrong decision has actual consequences and it’s from a decision you made. The game can’t continue if you don’t move or do something. I recently binged the Zero Escape games, they’re basically the Cube films as a visual novel but with good writing (no disrespect to Cube, I absolutely adore the series) and a bunch of escape room puzzles. In the core puzzle gameplay, there’s no real choices the player has to make so they’re a lot less stressful, no fear of accidentally killing someone. But during the visual novel sections, your decisions matter, if I died that was because of my stupid choice, if best boy Snake got killed, his blood was on my hands.

There’s another thing with horror fans and horror games; seems a lot of the horror games we do risk it with are visual novel type games. My brother plays a ton of them, I played the aforementioned Zero Escape series, Danganronpa, and the Man of Medan. Especially when considering auto-text advance, these games basically play themselves, we’re essentially watching a horror film where we occasionally have to press a button, we can once again hide behind our fingers and peak at the scary bits, at the consequences of our decisions.

It’s also worth mentioning the one horror game I had no issue playing: Silent Hill Book of Memories.

The one that is usually either ranked the worst in the series, or at least one of them. Yet I really enjoyed it, and for obvious reasons. It’s not a horror game, it’s just a mediocre RPG with a spooky aesthetic. The reason I enjoyed it was just because I like RPGs. I wasn’t even into horror films when I first played it. In no way is it a horror game, which is obviously one of the reasons so many people can’t stand the thing. Death had no real consequence, just grind until you can overpower whatever killed you.

There’s nothing at stake, weapons can break but whatever, just find a new one. There are no consequences to how you play the game beyond the different endings, but you'll still beat the game if you get to an ending, so you can just throw yourself at enemies until your so OP you just win like that. But in the original games, or something like Resident Evil. There are consequences, I can’t just bash my head against the wall until I win. In horror films there’s usually a final girl surrounded by random people who’ll all die.

But in horror games, everyone can die, no one can die, I can die, and if any of this happens it’s not just because that how it always plays out, it’s because of me, if the protagonists lost it’s because I lost.

There are stakes.

There are consequences.

And I’m scared I’ll make the wrong decision.