What makes a Horror game scary?

[JackSkull]

I wanna know what you think makes a Horror game scary. Is it the enemies,the atmosphere,the unexpected, or the ability to have no control over the camera angle?

[slayer20]

The atmosphere and build-up.

If you don't have these, you don't have a scary game.

[NegativeReign]

^What he said

Psychological horror is better than these pop-ups and stuff you see here and there, in my opinion. But disturbing things adds to it. Just don't put a game filled with only pop-ups and call it a horror game.

[Beezy]

I agree with the above stated.

I played through F.E.A.R. and F.E.A.R. 2 and it seemed like it was just the "BOO!" kind of scary.

Other games like Silent Hill, and all those zombie games floating around are just a joke.

In Dead Space I think the communicator made you feel even more alone once it turned off.

That feeling of being alone, mixed with the creepy ambient sounds made the game scary for me.

I have to admit though, that "KKKKSSSHHHHHH" sound the communicator makes scared me more often than anything.

The Suffering and Ties That Bind were also pretty scary games for me.

I agree that it's all about atmosphere and buildup though.

With buildup you know something is about to happen, so you get nervous.

With something just popping out at you unexpectedly... it could be scary sometimes.

[wolis]

I found the Penumbra games excellent as you did not have decent weapons and often the only solution was to just hide and wait and hope not to get caught.

I love the way that your vision would blur and hiding position exposed if you looked at an enemy for too long.. so you _had_ to look away.. but you wanted to look!

Dead space had a great atmosphere but I found it impossible hiding or sneaking and it demanded me to shoot the monsters - and run out of ammo - and die - and install the trainer - and turn it into a shooter just so I could progress the story (which I enjoyed).

Oh.. the whispers in Dead space were great for scary atmosphere.

[Beezy]

I found the Penumbra games excellent as you did not have decent weapons and often the only solution was to just hide and wait and hope not to get caught.

I love the way that your vision would blur and hiding position exposed if you looked at an enemy for too long.. so you _had_ to look away.. but you wanted to look!

Dead space had a great atmosphere but I found it impossible hiding or sneaking and it demanded me to shoot the monsters - and run out of ammo - and die - and install the trainer - and turn it into a shooter just so I could progress the story (which I enjoyed).

Oh.. the whispers in Dead space were great for scary atmosphere.

Lol I installed a trainer when I first bought the game.

But then I realized how to use the in-game store (after 50% of the story.)

After having something other than that little nailgun I was set.

[Uncle Smile 8)]

For me, the best on those games is the "survival horror" aspect. You know you have to keep resources and use them only when necessary, but you have to stay on your edge because you know that if you ♥♥♥♥ up on the next battle you may survive... but not for long.

[xytan4]

Dead Space scared the living ♥♥♥♥ out of me. The atmosphere really added to it and amplified the jump out moments. Without the awesome atmosphere the jump outs would've gotten boring very fast.

[kara_bulut]

This game follows the Doom 3 style approach with the scary jumpy moment cliche.


But I have to admit it that it does a lot better than Doom 3 because of the better ambient sounds and better graphics.

[Neonwarrior]

The sounds, ambience, and atmosphere make me scared. If you make zombies that sound like insane humans, it just isn't that scary. If you make zombies that sound like a mutant getting it's throat cut out, then it's scary.

Also, Dead Space suprised me with how many unscripted events could scare you, like a slasher coming out of a vent after it going into another one.

[Nickq2007]

Other games like Silent Hill, and all those zombie games floating around are just a joke.

You're using Silent Hill as an example of a series that relies on cheap horror? Also you're tagging it as a zombie game?