By Graham Taylor
Monster movie marathons, copious amounts of candy, and
general celebration of spooky; yes, autumn is here, and gamers are getting
excited.
During these fall months, waves of new games will be hitting
store shelves in preparation for the coming holidays. Horror games, however,
will especially take the spotlight with Halloween right around the corner, and though
the market for them has been saturated the past few years, gamers are hoping
that this generation will breathe some fresh air into the genre.
Horror games are almost as old as gaming itself, but
became significantly more mainstream when Resident
Evil was first released in 1996. It took the world and genre by storm, even
successfully spawning the survival horror sub-genre.
The game presented players with a lack of items, emphasized
exploration and puzzle-solving and deemphasized combat, lead players to be
filled with a sense of dread. Developers began to use these gameplay elements
as models for future horror games, trying to recreate this feeling of
hopelessness.
But when
first-person shooters started gaining mainstream popularity in the early 2000s,
many horror games started changing. Series like Alone in the Dark, F.E.A.R.,
and even Resident Evil became less focused
on the survival elements and the frightening elements. Instead they became generic
shooters set in creepy locations, as is the case with the 2008 installment of Alone in
the Dark, F.E.A.R. 3, and Resident Evil 6, especially Chris’s story.
This lead to interest in the genre
dwindling.
Because of this, many gamers turned to the indie scene, and
what they found was plethora of exceptional games to satisfy their need for
scream. Games like Amnesia: The Dark
Descent and Slender: The Eight Pages
completely removed all combat, instead of focusing on action. This left players
almost completely helpless to the terrors that lurked within the game.
Small time developers were now the place to go to get a
unique, alarming experience. Even today, indie games are relevant to the horror
genre, with games like Outlast, Five Nights at Freddy’s, and Neverending Nightmares.
But as we inch closer to celebrating the one-year
anniversary of this console generation, what can we expect from the future of
these games? Where hardware is concerned, devices like the Oculus Rift and
Project Morpheus will literally throw the terror in your face, especially
seeing as both already have support for some horror games.
Nevermind is a game
that is also looking to reinvent horror, with game specific hardware. The game
will use both the Rift and heart rate monitors, along with other sensors, to
track the player’s mental state and real-life fear intensity. It will then
tailor the levels depending on how the player reacts, creating a one-of-a-kind
experience. If this takes off, it could redefine what the horror genre is, and
even if it turns out just to be a gimmick, it could inspire others to create
the perfect, personal horror game.
Where games are concerned, we have a few releases coming up
that could set the tone for prospective horror games. Alien: Isolation just hit store shelves, and has been well
received, especially compared to last year’s Aliens: Colonial Marines. While Colonial
Marines fell into the generic, buggy, shooter model (with jump-scares), Isolation took the limited-combat,
exploration-heavy approach. Case in point, fending off the alien is still possible,
just usually a bad idea.
The Evil
Within also released this month, and while it was still a
combat-heavy game, it seems to be taking the Resident Evil 4 route in terms of handling its action and horror.
This makes sense, seeing as Shinji Mikami, the father of the genre and one of
the key people involved in the Resident
Evil series, is leading the project with his new studio, Tango Gameworks.
We can look forward to a new Silent Hill installment, named Silent
Hills. It was announced during the Tokyo Game Show via a downloadable
“playable teaser” called P.T., for
the PS4. While P.T. didn’t give much
representation of the gameplay, or any guaranteed connection to the story of Silent Hills, it did give us some
insight as to what we could expect horror-wise. Despite limited player input,
the teaser managed to create a surprising amount of tension and genuinely bloodcurdling
moments.
Each play through is unique; Doing certain actions triggers
certain events, making each scare unpredictable and new. Some of the necessary
steps needed to complete the teaser can even be considered convoluted, such as
having to plug in a microphone or taking a certain number of steps. Whether
this will be reflected in the full game is unknown, but being directed by Hideo
Kojima, the mastermind behind the Metal
Gear Solid series, anything is possible. Guillermo del Toro, director of Pan’s Labyrinth, will also be lending a
hand in producing the game, and with these two behind the wheel, it’s clear
that this won’t be your average horror game.
It is impossible to know for sure what will come next for
the genre, but the above games all point to a shift from the influx of “shooters
with horror elements” we’ve seen in recent years. The Amnesia-esque, zero-fighting style of gameplay has begun to rise
since the game’s release, and developers have been taking note. They seem to be
gearing back towards the survival elements, and the fear that comes with desperation,
and this has many gamers excited.
The future of survival horror is looking bright (or dark, more
accurately). Between new IPs, fresh minds supporting old ones, and a whole new
generation of hardware to work with, the genre may just experience another renaissance.
Graphic by Meghan Duffy
Images: Digital Spy, Video Gamer, PC Games
