Horror in Non-Horror Games

While horror games are specifically created to frighten the player, video games across all genres have incorporated horror elements. Developers have also dedicated entire sections of their games to being scary. While this is not true of all games, many well-known titles have incorporated the occasional 'scary level.' I will discuss a few that I have played in today's post.

Independent Versus Mainstream Games

Kristen, author of the blog Historical Character Creation, asked if I could explain the difference between indie games and the more mainstream titles in a comment on my my "indie games showcase" post. I apologize for being so late to answer your question, but I intend to answer it to the best of my abilities.


While neither mainstream nor indie games have a standard definition, the two can be examined best by looking at a few key factors.

Interview with Trey Blankenship: Mechanics of Horror

While conduction the previous interview with David Budd I was able to have another member of David's team, Trey Blankenship, answer my questions about their work on Depth, a modification for Amnesia: The Dark Decent. Even though the two were asked the same questions, their answers cover different topics in horror gaming. In this interview, Trey Blankenship discusses more mechanical elements and design.

Ghosts in Gaming (Guest Spot)

Hello, I am the writer of the ghost hunting blog Skeptical Ghost Investigating and I will be writing a guest blog about ghosts in video games.

Ghosts in videogames vary from Boo from the Mario games to Alma, the ghost girl, from the horror game series F.E.A.R.. Some ghosts are there for a light form of entertainment and some are created to scare you to the bone.

My favorite survival horror games are the older Silent Hill and Resident Evil games and neither Silent Hill nor Resident Evil contains ghosts, just monsters and zombies. I have come to notice that few games deal solely with ghosts and I have a theory on why.

Interview with David Budd: Importance of Story in Horror

I have been having issues finding people who would be willing to do an interview with me on the subject of horror video games. Most major players are extremely busy with new projects to discuss the subject. However, I was able to have email correspondence with someone going into the field and working on a horror game project, David Budd. The game is a survival-horror mod using Amnesia: The Dark Decent  as a base. David discusses some very interesting topics, such as the importance of narrative and how players prepare to play horror.

'Off-Beat' Horror

The games that could be considered off-beat do fall within general categories of gaming. However, the elements found within these games cause them to fall into ‘outsider’ status even though some of these games were developed by major studios. Still, these games have elements that are outside the norm or are strange by the standards of the average gamer. I am still working to create this classification and trying to discover if it is an effective means of classifying games in general. Listed are games that have 'off-beat' elements and could be considered horror games or are in fact horror games.

Installing a Video Game Mod: Cry of Fear

This guide will instruct those whom do not know how to install a mod the proper steps in successfully installing a computer game mod. This guide is for installing the Half-Life mod Cry of Fear onto a PC. This is meant to be a general guide and it is always important to read any installation instructions specific to a modification. Always be sure of what you are downloading and do not download software from an untrusted source.

Game Modification Showcase

Game Modifications, or mods, are user-created games that use an existing game as a basis. Counter-Strike for example began as a mod for the PC game Half-Life. Mods can use assets that already exist in the base game, or they can build a game using original assets. Within the modding world exists the same gameplay mechanics and genres that are in regular games, including horror. Horror mods are usually zombie shooter games but some mods can be scarier than their retail counterpart, such as the ones below.

Indie Horror Game Showcase

I recently discovered that Lone Survivor, an indie horror game, had been released. When I say indie, it is meant much in the same sense as an indie film. Indie or independent games are often created by small, unknown developers without the financial backing of a publisher. Indie games exist in every genre of gaming and can have just as many gameplay mechanics. In this post I will cover some indie horror games, including Lone Survivor.

REVIEW: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
PC, 2007

Players assume the role of an amnesiac in search of their identity in the Chernobyl exclusion zone in this unique PC game by Czech studio GSC Gameworld. I know this is an older game—released in 2007—but I am going to review it because,

• It is the latest game with strong horror elements that I have played
• It is worth noting the game since it blurs the lines between action-horror and survival-horror.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is loosely-based on Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky (which was made into the movie Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky). The story in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. revolves around stalkers, individuals who sneak into the exclusion zone to, among other things, find and smuggle out artifacts, surreal objects with strange properties. players take control of a stalker who has lost their memory, whose only clue to the past is the note "Kill Strelok" found on the player's PDA.

Comparing Action-Horror and Survival-Horror

Resident Evil 6 is on the way, but it is going to be more of an action game with less emphasis on horror. The reasoning behind this shift away from horror is that the market for the genre “is small, compared to the number of units Call of Duty and all those action games sell,” according to Resident Evil: Revelations producer Masachika Kawata (Graft, 2012). Many would point to this as further proof that the horror genre is dead. However, I see this as an evolutionary step towards action-horror becoming its own genre. Many horror games use fast-paced action to create terror and a sense of urgency much like a chase scene in a slasher film. A great example of this is Valve’s Left 4 Dead series, which is a multiplayer first-person shooter in which players work together to survive the zombie apocalypse.

What I am saying is that action is not the death of horror, but another aspect of it that does not take away from survival-horror games and it does not ruin horror as a genre. When gamers look at these two subgenres—action-horror and survival-horror—they view them as conflicting categories, fighting for the right to be called horror. In reality these are two parts of a whole that each have their own strengths and weaknesses which we will be going over.

After the jump, I will go over the differences of survival-horror and action-horror

History Time: The Rise of Action-Horror

Continuing our look at the history of horror games; we now look at horror gaming in the 21^st century. 

Within the short span of a decade, horror games have changed dramatically. Some horror fans consider the 2000s the death of horror gaming, due to the rise of action-horror. I however think there is room for crossover and co-existence, but that is a topic for another post. After the jump is part two of the history of horror gaming.

History Time: Early Years of Horror Gaming

Before we go any further, we should talk about the history of horror games. 

Horror gaming has been around for quite a while and covers a multitude of genres. As such, Horror gaming history nearly spans the history of gaming itself, but since I don’t have the time or space to go in depth I will cover this history by decade. For each decade I will highlight some key games and note a few relatively unknown titles. And for the sake of space, the history will be split by century because the turn of the century saw a shift in the way horror games were presented; this in turn led to the birth of action-horror.

This look at the history after the jump.

Introduction to the Blog

Welcome to my corner of the internet, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

I am Dan, a twenty-something student who loves games, movies, and 80s music. This blog focuses on the former of the three: games, and more specifically horror games.

Games in general have the potential to be intelligent works of art. However, in contrast there are many games that are well known yet reduce the artistic value of this medium, such as the annually-released Call of Duty franchise. Horror games are a great example in showing video games as an artistic medium since their key feature is generating an emotional response, whether this is panic, terror, or in some cases humor. Horror games also contain varied mechanics, art styles, and stories that give a broader view of gaming as a whole—how many point-and-click action games have you seen lately?

Through all of this, Horror games allow us to take a look at the following across the history of gaming:

•  Mechanics 
• Art Direction
• Development
• Evolution

Along the way we will look at different games in order provide a sense of what’s out there. Not just commercial games but indie games as well—such as Ben Croshaw’s 5 Days a Stranger—and also video game mods (if I can gather the courage to play Cry of Fear). I hope to make this fun as well as educational. As we discuss these topics I want you to discover exciting new games and perhaps something about game design along the way.