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Better Horror Than Hollywood

March 07, 2010 in Blog comments 13

GameZone's Stefanie Fogel explores the differences between the horror genre for Hollywood and the video game industry. Among the games analyzed were Dead Space and Zork.

Video games have much in common with movies when it comes to scare tactics. Both rely heavily on music and sound effects to create suspense and atmosphere. EA Redwood Shores' 2008 sci-fi horror gem Dead Space is a prime example, taking home awards for Audio of the Year and Sound Design of the Year at the seventh annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards. And, as anyone who's played the game can tell you, those awards are richly deserved. From the disturbing audio logs of the U.S.S. Ishimura's crew to the skittering sounds of necromorphs in the ventilation ducts above your head, every sound effect in the game has been designed precisely with the sole purpose of scaring your pants off.
Caspel via gamezone.com »
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  • 0
    Gamesta100 Mar 8, 10
    Pfft DS was just as unscary as any horror movie.
  • 0
    Paradox Mar 8, 10
    Deadspace was scary. The only game that had "Oh shit" moments and had me pacing around my room with the wireless controller. Sadly, Deadspace 2 is going to be focused more on action. We really need more horror based games.
    • 0
      Hideo1 Mar 8, 10
      Making you jump a little with pop out monsters isn't exactly horror.
      • 0
        Gamesta100 Mar 8, 10
        That's why I say I didn't find DS scary.The only thing it made me do was jump very slightly twice.

        FF/PZ on the other hand had me crapping my pants the entire time I was playing it

        DS on the other hand I spent my time being annoyed and bored of fighting 10 enemies every 5 seconds.That's what removed the scare factor of DS for me.
  • 0
    Gamesta100 Mar 8, 10
    I didn't find the game scary in the slightest.I actually found the Merc section of AvP scarier than DS.

    Poject Zero/Fatal Frame was a scary game.I have started the game twice and both times stopped playing after my initial gaming session.


    Strangely RE5's Lost in Nightmares while wasn't scary as a whole actually gave the the biggest scare of my life.I almost hit the roof and for the first time EVER screamed a little.
    • 0
      girlgamer77 Mar 8, 10
      I love the Fatal Frame games as well. They were a good scare. F.E.A.R. has some good moments, although I never finished it. My all-time favorite scary game, though, is Silent Hill 2.

      And I do wish that horror games these days would focus a little less on action and more on scares. I didn't find RE5 very scary at all! But I have high hopes that Alan Wake will bring the spookiness back.
  • 0
    silencedcricket Mar 8, 10
    Both horror movies and films can be great, it just depends on whether you're in the mood to interact with the experience or just watch it.
    • 0
      Gamesta100 Mar 8, 10
      The funny things is I don't like horror movies much and rarely watch them.Horror games on the other hand I LOVE.
    • 0
      Euphoric Mar 8, 10
      Movies and films are the same thing.


      For the record, I thought F.E.A.R. was pretty scary. I get scared probably more easily than most. I enjoy it though. The adrenalin rush is maybe why I never really let myself get desensitised to horror.
      • 0
        Gamesta100 Mar 8, 10
        I find it very hard to be scared other than jump out scares.Games with ghosts scare me though.The demo of FEAR 2 scared the crap out of me because of the ghosts.
        • 0
          Hideo1 Mar 8, 10
          I want to see a horror game in which you play a character who eventually comes up against a never ending swarm of enemies and has a CoD-Nuke like death scene where you have to watch zombies/crazies/aliens just beat and slash you to death after following you around a large building (after you'd just assumedly cleared it out and triggered whatever drew them) and slowly surrounding you before closing in as you try with futility to make an escape with whatever weapons you have.

          If done right that would be terrifying.
  • 0
    Ech0ez Mar 8, 10
    The more and more people say Dead Space is scary the more and more I'm left wondering whether growing up watching the Alien films and playing Silent Hill caused me some serious desensitization in regards to 'horror', or whether the rest of the gaming community would die of a heart attack if they even attempted to watch/play any classic horror films/games.

    I know it's subjective but this near universal appreciation of Dead Space is seriously making me wonder if there's something wrong with my perception of what is and isn't 'scary' or maybe that my standards are far too high. That or the lack of any decent horror in the last five years or so has caused the current generation of gamers to become incredibly sensitive to things like DS, but I digress.

    Anyway regarding the actual topic at hand, I personally think games have potential to be a lot better at horror than movies simply because of the interactive nature to them.
    • 0
      Hideo1 Mar 9, 10
      I'd say yeah it's more down to ignorance, since a lot of the people who think DS is scary haven't seen horror at it's peak in games. It's kind of like CoD gamers thinking MW or MW2 is the best game in the world whilst only otherwise playing Halo or sports games

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