survival-horror / action-horror / whatever you want to call it-horror

What elements do you think make for the best in horror gaming? Does it currently feel like the genre is on a good trajectory? Any up-and-coming games that you’re looking forward to? Share thoughts here.

The older survival horror games really pull me in. They had a great formula of creepy backdrops, disturbing creatures, thought provoking puzzle-solving, limited inventory management, great soundtracks, and survival. Primarily referring here to the Resident Evil and Silent Hill series of the Playstation-Playstation2 years.

Resident Evil felt like it played on a more primal fear of fight or flight. The science fiction narrative of a viral outbreak being a more external threat to the player, with a clear goal of survival and escape. Silent Hill on the other hand created a disturbing atmosphere of supernatural powers, and told depressing stories of broken people who created and projected their own monsters and who ultimately might be better off not surviving the journey. Both formulas worked really well respectively.

After the success of RE4 (which was a great game) it seems like most franchises followed the more action packed formula. Dead Space is one of the few more action oriented modern shoot ‘em up style horror games that blew me away. Horrific monster designs and an absolutely haunting atmosphere, a modern classic.

Never got to play games like Clock Tower, Fatal Frame, Rule of Rose, Alone in the Dark, or Haunting Ground. Some of these are rare and quite expensive these days. A lot of the newer games I simply don’t have the hardware to run, but some look quite good.