The modern evolution of the horror genre or why now is the best time for horror games [Cadelta Horror Month]
The golden age of horror games came at the dawn of survival horror, starting in the mid-90s for the next 10 years. Despite the simple graphics, series like Silent Hill and Resident Evil explored psychological horror that was something new for players of the time. When compiling any list of the scariest video games of all time, it will be hard not to find games from this series. That was the Golden Age of horror, but looking at the state of the genre today, we can say that we are definitely on the threshold of a new century, if not already in it. Kotaku examines the modern evolution of the horror genre. Formulas, even the best ones, are outdated, and in 2005 Resident Evil 4 entered a new era that combined horror with plentiful action, giving players an intuitive playthrough experience. The success of this game paved the way for projects like FEAR and Dead Space, which tickled nerves, but accelerated the pace of the game, which attracted a wide audience. Alas, publishers began to focus on action, forgetting about fear, and fans quickly got tired of games that were a little more than "scary" shooters. Resident Evil 6 and Dead Space 3 are proof of this and they were rightfully defeated by players and critics. In the early tens, the genre seemed almost dead ...
This gap has been filled by indie developers who have placed accents much better than their big-budget league brothers. 2010 Amnesia: The Dark Descent turned the genre upside down by taking the weapons and skill leveling that players are so accustomed to. You, as the protagonist, could only hide. Outlast and Five Nights at Freddy's scared the players, trying to reduce their resistance paths to zero. Much of Outlast's gameplay consisted of constantly searching for batteries for your night vision camera so you can navigate the dark halls of Massive Asylum.
Five Nights at Freddy 's generally limits players to one room, where they look at monitors to find nightmarish animatronics in which ghosts have entered. These games, as well as the genre that is slowly rising from its knees, became popular thanks to the violent reaction of YouTube bloggers who arrange let-plays and races on them. The genre seems to be experiencing a real renaissance.
The next evolutionary milestone was PT, Hideo Kojima's "playable teaser" for the canceled Silent Hills. It is a game-changer for modern horror movies. This project is strikingly simple in design and concept, but it is remembered even today.
Players walk through a single L-shaped corridor with doors at each end and a bathroom on one side. Unlike previous installments in the Silent Hill franchise, there is no combat here. The horror in this game is presented in its purest form and makes players endure new fears every time they walk through the door. This is a merciless and seemingly endless nightmare where you are pursued, and from all sides you hear moans and crying of children.
I once told my friend, who is not a gamer, why PT is so scary and how she scared me by making me scream at the TV screen and even cry a little. However, he still wasn't sure if the game was capable of scaring a person that much, so I sat him down and turned on the game. And it didn't take long for him to get scared, even though I was holding the controller in my hands. Every time I turned around, he was nervous. He screamed as the door slammed shut. They screamed even louder when Lisa, the ghost of a dead girl who was chasing the hero down the hallway, grabbed me. When the window shattered and the fragments fell to the ground, he screamed again and said that he had had enough. I was also more than happy to turn off the game; although I know what to expect from PT, goose bumps still run through my skin.
PT was indeed beautiful and provided hope for loyal Silent Hill fans, so it should come as no surprise that she is still mourned today. It only lasts an hour, and perhaps the complete game could be quite different from what we saw. But it is still one of the most powerful horror games of our time that has ever existed. The gaming community has come together to solve all the riddles and abstract puzzles of the game [PT was a phenomenon, and even today, 5 years after the release of the game, new secrets are found in it - WorldOfTopics]. So it comes as no surprise that he continues to have a huge impact on the genre. She has inspired several other games like Visage, Ghost Theory and Allison Road [this game is dead and we wrote about it - WorldOfTopics], all of which strive to succeed by spiritually inheriting Kojima's game. In addition, PT stirred up the second dead king of horrors, bringing him back to action - Resident Evil / Biohazard. The seventh installment in the series beautifully combines classic survival horror elements such as exploration, finding secrets, strange monsters and puzzles, with a first-person perspective and emphasis on panic atmosphere. Fans were worried about the dramatic departure from earlier titles in the series, but the game ultimately became a hit. Horror becomes stale and secondary when boring, but Resident Evil 7 proves that a fresh take on a classic genre can revive a jaded fanbase.
In many ways, the narrative element that has always been the mainstay of horror movies eventually became the basis for games. Games like Until Dawn, Layers of Fear, Soma, Observer and Kholat favor storytelling and elements that go against the traditional characteristics of the horror genre in games. These games proved that players want not just a scary game, but a scary story that would tickle their nerves.
But this does not mean at all that the players have ceased to like the approach called: "turn each monster into a bunch of blood and meat." The Evil Within 2 offers players not only a scary atmosphere, but also a rich arsenal to kill enemies. The Resident Evil 2 remake brings players back to the classic gameplay with strange and frightening monsters, while making the battles as severe as possible and one only headshots are not enough.
On the other hand, games about zombies are not so scary for a long time, and although Walking Dead Season 3: A New Frontier and Dead Rising 4, although they received good reviews, they are sooo far from the genre and have long been rejected by fans. And while casuals are killing zombies in such singleplayer games, real hororr fans play asymmetric multiplayers where they kill each other. Friday the 13th and Dead by Daylight turned out to be the most successful, and Friday the 13th is especially close to all those who grew up on this slasher. White Noise 2 pits four players against one monster trying to kill them, and although it gets the least attention, it is perhaps the scariest project in this subgenre. While I would love to see a few iconic franchises like Silent Hill return, they had to die for the genre to evolve. After their death, indie developers were at their best, experimented with the form, moving away from the old. After that, large gaming companies noticed their successes and turned their old, previously familiar projects into something new. There are such a wide variety of horror games currently on the market that no matter what experience you are looking for, you will find it. Horror games are still going strong, both old school and new. Also read our history of the horror genre in games. The Topic of Article: The modern evolution of the horror genre or why now is the best time for horror games [Cadelta Horror Month]. |
