Why are we playing Horror Games? I am sure that many answered this question before me. Basically mentioned the release of adrenaline. Someone even said that horror films generally strengthen immunity and help burn calories. However, the horror genre is not for everyone, he requires a high spectrum of fantasies from the reader \ player \ viewer and the ability to move away from ordinary life. For this reason, the majority prefers stories about banal feelings and events, and about straightforward deviations in them. Personally, I feel a sense of comfort and even nostalgia from some representatives of this genre. Why? I will try to answer this question. We will also talk about the best conceptual Horror game about visiting the abandonment, which embodies the sensations of the line space.
Horror – the most native genre for video games.
These two phenomena are sharpened to call certain unique emotions. Games – control of what is happening, and Horror – sensations and visual component.
"There is no consciousness without pain."
Experiencing emotions of fear, a person grows internally and empathy develops in him. The fear of something is an ancient one of the feelings inherent in a person, especially the fear of the unknown. But it was this fear that pushes evolution and allows humanity to take a new step in opening or achieving something.
“There is no consciousness without pain, Mr. Reid. In difficult times, everything becomes crystal clear.
The Sinking City
Answering the question, I would like to highlight the criteria for good games in the Horror genre:
1. Empage to the heroes.
Only a mundane image of a hero, in the place of which is not difficult to imagine yourself, will help to immerse a head in history. His personal goals, feelings precisely produce that very empathy of the player.
2. The unclean nature of creatures or evil.
The emergence of questions unanswered both the hero and the player only fuel interest. After all, evil in the history of this genre is a comprehensive antagonism. The origins of the occurrence, intangibility, a flair of secrets – all this is like a maze of red curtains, in which the player must plunge voluntarily and the less he will receive answers to his questions, the more he will want to return.
By the way, the veil of secrets sometimes applies to visual. It seems to me that 4K resolution deprives the image of the depth and gives it more “understandability”. When I watched the comparison of the VHS publication of the films, I was convinced of this even more.
Here, look how Michael Mayer looks threatening thanks to technical restrictions.
By the way, I will also give an example the Silent Hill 4 The Room trailer . A small number of frames per second and permission do not allow you to completely make out what is happening. Try to imagine the same video for a moment, but in a high-level resolution.
Crypine unnatural pose
Samara from the movie "Call"
That is why many indie developers begin to resort to retroesthetics when creating graphics, making them more like releases with PS1.
3.Implementation of intentions from a number of possible options.
This criterion refers to gameplay and how it works with the environment. Here it is necessary to find out how justified the concept of the game. For example, the presence of weapons. You can deprive the player of the protective means so that he simply investigates the secret world (as amnesia does), or give him the opportunity to repulse evil spirits and at least somehow level the chances with the upcoming threat.
Survival of an experienced agent
4. Balance between calm and anxiety.
Many representatives of the genre, as you know, resort to cheap ways to scare you. Famous “BU-MOMS” can be generated in life, if, for example, some subject will fall in silence in silence. But it also happens that the developers are so tied in attempts to scare that sometimes they forget that it may not be interesting. A person either quickly gets used to frightening conditions, or simply turns off the computer or prefix and no longer dares to experience himself for strength.
I will give examples
The Forbidden Siren series is one of the most unique Japanese creations, terribly terrible. She can scare it before the start of the game starts. Siren does not use "bo-mugs", but her problem is in another. For all its conceptuality, namely, the opportunity to look from the enemy’s eyes, act hidden or go into battle, she forgets to let the player catch her breath. Because of which many secrets, especially in the first part, could not be revealed due to the fact that being in it is simply uncomfortable.
Another example of Silent Hill Shathedered Memories . The game is divided into two emotional components. The player first, under a pleasant musical accompaniment, can calmly study the winter half -abandoned town, find out a couple of secrets of life and death, sometimes indirectly meet with ghosts. However, then, when the city is covered with ice, then its angry Simple begins to climb out, which strives to grab the main character. It seems to me if there was a genre Comfort Horror, then this game should be in its representatives as one of the best. Although most likely this is probably not a genre, but only a type of sensation.
You should also mention the preservations from the Resident Evil series . When the player enters them, he is relieved. Knowing that nothing threatens him, he calmly takes a breath and moves further towards adventures.
I love Dead Aim for this composition
5. Nostalgia for children’s fears.
The player, being in the process of studying virtual worlds, is like a child. When a person only comes to the world and begins to gain consciousness, he, like an alien who sees the world differently. Probably, many will remember that when we were children, they experienced a constant desire to explore, but because of the restrictions in freedom things that we did not understand, we could scare us.
In my childhood area in a place where there is now a park for walking, there used to be a landfill for refrigerators. Why precisely refrigerators, I don’t know. But to cut the path to the right destination, I was often driven through the grove, past the collapsed cars, which were once an integral part of each person. Association was born in my little head. If the refrigerator stores food, then many families are left without food and may have died from hunger. Strange yes? I am sure that you had something similar.
Worlds in video games in the Horror genre are amazing, showing the usual things sinister, which sometimes causes those very forgotten feelings.
Now let’s get hung up at the last point. Have you ever been to abandans in childhood? I think the majority will answer – yes. The fact is that if you were born in a provincial town, then even such places are still present in it. Our country has changed and experienced many problems. At the site of industrial zones, where the work used to boil, now you can see the places that are covered with graffiti in several dozen layers and devastation. At the current time, even inconsistent can be found that remained of moss due to a lack of budget for the implementation of construction.
Remember how interesting it was to visit such places with friends. Were there projects that could convey these sensations?
Abandonment in video games.
One way or another, abandons most often appear as locations in a separate episode of a particular game. Abandoned hangars or bays are the most hackneyed research areas. To receive information, the main character is a couple of times to visit places such as it was in Max Payne, Fear, Batman Begins and Splinter Cell .
There are games that take place in specially prepared places, as for example, a punishment cell from Manhunt or a zone of abandoned hotels and boiler houses in Saw: The Video Game .
Saw: The Video Game
Silent Hill mentioned in this video, would be ideal for the title "Best game \ series of games about abandoned houses". However, there is mainly two-story America of the 20th century, which does not always cause similar associations with our reality. Stalker, Fallout and The Last of Us – all these are projects about post -apocalypse. The abandoned places are essentially relevant for visiting, because you clearly will not find new buildings in such a world.
Now we will talk about a series of games that best shows the urban horror, the most mundane atmosphere, similar to our reality and conveys indescribable sensations of stay in abandoned places. I will talk about Condemneded .
Condemned: Criminal Origins
Condemned: Criminal Origins was released in 2005 and was in the Xbox 360 starting line, and a year later it visited the PC platform. Despite the strict conditions and "Kranch", in just 15 months the small Monolith Production team, which in the same year released the sensational Fear, also managed to create a new genre – FIRST Person Melee Detective. (Which is translated into Russian: First -person detective with an emphasis on hand -to -hand combat with elements of horror). Many Jour. the publications called it the pioneer in the genre Beat ‘Em Up with a first -person view. Although I note that the first attempt to realize this was The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, which came out a year earlier. In Riddik, such a gameplay had more episodic in nature than the main.
The path of concept: from The Dark to Condemned.
Before you talk about what the game turned out, I want to mention what path the concept of the series went to find your face.
Initially, the project was called The Dark And he looked extremely curious. The player had to take on the role of the FBI agent with magical abilities that would be related to murders associated with supernatural forces. These opportunities would allow the agent to use telekinesis tearing weapons from the enemy’s hands. However, the environment, although it was recognizable, the gameplay The Dark barely resembled the final product.
