Oh man, I had completely forgotten about Hugo's House. I definitely spent more time wrestling with the text parser than being scared in that one ;)

Hugo really shouldn't be mentioned, other than to show the difference between a horror theme and horror atmosphere. I highly doubt anyone was scared by Hugo, nor do I think the designers intended for anyone to be, despite the title.

To make an obvious point: enemy aesthetics should repulse the player before the actual "threat" can be evaluated; ideally the player should feel a sense of "I don't want that thing near me" before it gets close to enough to prove harmful.

Oh, and the "awful revelation" is one technique that's been left out. This is when the player suddenly puts the mental pieces together and realizes some chilling truth about the game world. It can range from the small scale (subtle environmental clues suggest that a room was actually used for torture) to major plot reveals, as the terrible truth behind the town comes to light.

One thing I quite liked in Dead Space, but which this article only alluded to, was the complete external silence of the no-atmosphere areas. The loss of early-warning audio cues provided me many of the scares I suffered in the game, simply turning around and finding a monster a lot closer than expected.

Another useful technique, one I have never seen replicated except once, is unexpectedly meeting the player's imagination.

In eternal darkness, there is the bathtub scene. I was in the bathroom, and I was thinking of things that could scare me in there (anticipation), one of the thoughts was a bathtub full of blood and water, something you see a lot in suicide scenes in movies. When I approach the tub, BAM! The scene is replicated, and I absolutely freak out. I reflexively reset the game. The only thing worse then something unexpected is being unexpectedly right.

One thing that seems to be missing is the difference in tension through different areas.

This is one of the reasons dead space is only 'scary' for the first half hour (maybe an hour if you adapt slowly). The whole game is really high tension, where something will pop out of airvents anywhere. You pretty mcuh never meet friendlies, or get the chance to relax. While this will definitely keep you on your toes, and stress you out, it won't be 'scary'.

Compare this to a game like Fatal Frame 2, where during significant portions of the game, there is no personal danger. Because of this, when danger pops up, the player is no longer expecting it, and it has a greater impact. This is also more greatly enhanced by the combination of passive ghosts and dangerous ghosts. If a ghost pops up suddenly, it might just be a ghost of a little boy peeking through a window. That uncertainty is important.

(Dead Space, on the other hand, is 100% everything bites you. It doesn't really make you scared... just anal.)

Frankly,

The developer commentary in Left 4 Dead explains how they use image processing techniques to heighten the emotional intensity of certain moments. So, the audio cues that prefigure rushes from the zombie horde are accompanied by an imperceptible sharpening of the visuals.

It's tough to quantify the impact of such subtle cues but the idea is ingenious and the game certainly succeeds in being totally engaging.

I feel this articles is a complete nonsense, either the guy is a lame game player or he has borrowed all this information from some sites and tried to write an article, stop writing all these non sense articles for god sake

Two games that were both paranoia enducing that were not mentioned were; Undying (based on a Clive Barker story) and Aliens vs. Predator 2 playing the Space Marines. Both had an amazing way of making you fear dark corners and never feeling secure no matter where you were. A very be quick or be dead experience.

I think Zero Punctuation from the escapist really sums up 'Horror Game' in his review of Condemned 2.
(Note: Condemned 2 isn't the great horror game he was talking about)

I really have to add a gem of horror to this: the chase level in CoC: Dark Corners of the Earth. The previous level ended with the main character going to sleep in a hotel that was hinted at to be run by a murderer. The second level starts in the middle of a dream, hearing voices talking amongst themselves. You wake up and notice those voices still talking, and then there's a thump on the door. Now, very quickly the player understands that there's a mob hacking away at his door with an axe. The only way out of the room is through another door to an adjoining room. You sprint there, close the door behind you and notice a hinge-lock to it. Which you lock, of course. For the rest of the level, you are mostly running hectically from a mob with axes and shotguns, by trying to create obstacles for them (locking doors, pushing closets in front of them), all the while you get flashes of you from the POV of something creeping in the dark...
That level was one of the most unique experiences I ever had in a game to date. No other game I can remember made me run from an enemy without first telling me specifically that I had to.

> When you return to the locker again in the dark world, the same locker is thumping from within. Whispering “fool me once…” to themselves, the player opens the locker again to find…nothing. The locker is totally empty.

> Strangely, this absence of climax was more scary than a monster popping out.

There's a Stephen King story where a little kid meets the devil while he's out walking in the woods. The devil tells the kid his mother is lying dead on the kitchen floor at home - an allergic reaction to a bee sting.

The kids runs home and - she's perfectly fine. It's hard to explain why, but this is a dozen times scarier than it should be - really puts you off balance.

First off, Hugo's House of Horrors is not scary in the least. I can't imagine the writer of this article ever played it if he says it was.

Second, the original Alone in the Dark game did not kill the survival horror genre in the West. It did the exact opposite: It kicked it off. It was one of the first and best.

With gaffs like that, it's hard to believe the author knows what he is talking about.

What makes horror games scary is consistently terrible control, useless camera angles, slow-moving player characters, and over-reliance on scarcity of supplies.
What makes them sell is a mystery.

I have only one thing to say: System Shock 2

Resident Evil is my favorite video game of all time. It hasn't been touched by any other game when you compare scare to scare ratios. I think that one thing tha made this game hugely successful and wasn't touched on in this article is a sense of familiarity with your surroundings. Resident Evil lets you roam around in the same environment for hours and hours giving you access to different parts of the house as the game progresses but you develop a sense of familiarity with the houses halls and the central roomsthat you must traverse over and over. The biggest scares for me came when the rug of familiarity was suddenly yanked out from under my feet unexpectedly, with events such as the zombie dog jumping through the window of that all too familiar hallway and when the previously cleared house is suddenly re-infested with undead. Another big scare factor as you slowly crept up to a never before opened door to confront the unknown evil behind it is the shortage of ammo. You know exactly how many rounds you have left for your scavenged weapons and no idea how many enemies...if any...you will need to confront behind it so that you can search for the next all too valuable puzzle piece, health item or (gasp) ammo! This game will always hold a special place in my heart and remains the one game that I love to go back to over and over again, childishly giggling as now familiar scares approach...

I think Fear Of The Unknown could make person Truly Scary! When we are a child, the audlt would scare us for ghost while no one has seen even a ghost. Human always fear of what they don't know. Though human also has the nature of adventure like I like copy dvd from http://www.copy-dvd.org and convert them to things that I also dont know but, if the "Unknown" could threaten your life, what would you feel?

just wanted to say, the author did not in fact say that alone in the dark killed survival horror. he said it died afterwards. which it did, not DUE TO the game, but because of the genre's perceived illegitimacy for marketing.

it is cool

hmmmm....cool subject but the disgutsing horror bloooooooooooooooody sad story bad contorls meeeeeeeeeeeele weapons makes tha game in the top plus complex puzzels

but it is very boring to play the same game for years ...i meant the same sieres and it is clones i do nt have to mention the name i do nt wonna make u sad...hahahah funnnny..hopely any any game center reales a horror game with a mode and features that never met in gaming planet example how a bout a game samiliar to the hill have eyes...good idea do nt u agree

fatal frame makes the kids only scare out..cold faer unacceteple graphics..clock tower stupid characters ai..even wroste when developed to huanting ground..that things make the games like that funnnnnnnnyyyy(fatal frame is an enjoble game any it is perfect idea)

just wanted to say, the author did not in fact say that alone in the dark killed survival horror. he said it died afterwards. which it did, not DUE TO the game, but because of the genre's perceived illegitimacy for marketing.

i agree with u but alone in the dark is the father of the real horror games