Game Theory: Why Scary Isn't Scary Anymore
Posted 06/27/09 at 01:00:09 PM by Thomas McDonald
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Ringu, the movie that kicked off the Japanese horror craze, scared me as much the third time I saw it as it did the first. It’s a moody, unsettling movie that still packs a punch and its signal image of Sadako, a creepy little girl with long dark hair and ashen skin, quickly entered the visual vernacular.
Monolith did a fair job of exploiting elements of J-Horror to create a genuinely creepy FPS experience with FEAR (2005). The developer understood that Ringu was successful because a) it used atmospheric, psychological horror to produce unease, and b) relied on fleeting images of horror, glimpsed as if in passing. This, coupled with the relative freshness of J-Horror and its stock images, made FEAR one of the few truly frightening PC games in recent memory.
That FEAR managed to do this in the context of a fast-moving shooter was a well-nigh miraculous bit of design juju. That it ultimately ran aground on its piddling level design (the same rocky shoal that always manages to hull Monolith games) was disappointing, but not fatally so.
Four years later, Monolith is attempting to recapture the magic with FEAR 2: Project Origin. Its failures tell us something interesting about games and movies as creative art forms, namely this: They don’t play by the same rules. The best horror movies are scary even when you know all the tricks, even when you know what’s going to happen. Because you are an objective, passive viewer of an artist’s vision, you can be more readily drawn into the inner life of the film.
Games, however, put you inside the nightmare, subjectively, actively, and they don’t hold up as well. I’m not sure just why, but FEAR 2 drives the point home with a vengeance. It is a perfectly fine shooter, but the frightening effects that worked in the first game simply fail to scare anymore.
Perhaps this failure has something to do with subjective/objective differences. But part of me fears it has more to do with the gamer brain being hardwired to demand constant change and new experiences. If that’s the case, then we will, eventually, reach the bottom of the bag of tricks, when there’s nothing left to scare or thrill.
Thomas L. McDonald has been covering games for 17 years. He is Editor-at-Large of Games Magazine.
F,.E.A.R.
Submitted by maniacm0nk3y on Sat, 06/27/2009 - 9:48pm
FEAR slowly became something of a drag. The first time I played it was great. Then the more you went through the more it seemed to be average. I just installed it again and it wasn't even as great but that's just my opinion.
One Game that truly horrified me was...
Submitted by Stry8993 on Sat, 06/27/2009 - 1:21pm
and though most people may have thought it a BioShock rip-off (I can't see the comparison), Cryostasis had this eery sort of feeling. And that was exactly it, you knew it was coming, not when, but you knew. And with dethawing tortured, demonically driven axe-wielding mummy men, you'd write it off as being so so, this and that, same old same old. But what really caught me, is how it drew contrast in some moments, between how these men became what they are, to the crazy spawns of hell in the frozen waists of the artic, waiting inside the belly of the beast. And the setting as well, this huge Icebreaker, lodged in the depths of the coldest parts of the world... could posses such a horrific and terrifying experience.
Enough why, this is how.
At one point in the game, very near to the beginning, you find your way to what looks to be a generator room, the walls, covered in frost-bitten steel. Looking around, there isn't much there, to hint at what to do, and no where else to go but outside. All the while, this tortured soul, its face, frozen, but its revolting appearance ever present, its axe, swinging down. You fiddle with this and that, all while the only thing holding that axe back from being behind your head, is the cold depths that you are both kept it.
Another thing, though slightly off topic, is thats exactly it, to progress, you need to unleash your exit, and at the same time, the horrors present before it.
So stepping out your put into a flash back, of three russian men, huddled by a small fire made of scraps they could find, talking about how good it is to have the fire... but are worried, about food...
The flashback finishes, and there you are... the room, the generator, its on... why, you ask yourself, are the walls running with a thin layer of water... and then you remember... if it's thawed out, then so is that guy. You walk in... and he's not there.
You see your exit, a momentary sign of safety, and a modest though quick, lapse in judgement, you make your way to it... and behind you, you hear it. A muffled, throaty grunt, as that axe drags along the floor, until it see's you, lifted high in the air seeking your neck.
You run, but you're just not fast enough, you're not going to make it, you can't make it, he's too fast, and too close, and just as that axe is about to get you...
it was all just a horrific vision..
never have i felt horrified in a game... scared, suprised, yes. but nothing like that.
Man
Submitted by AkuPenguin on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 5:36pm
Wow, that was a really good narrative. No sarcasm present.
you know youve mad me want
Submitted by nekollx on Sat, 06/27/2009 - 1:32pm
you know youve mad me want to get that game...
------------------------------
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Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
Submitted by LatiosXT on Sat, 06/27/2009 - 10:57am
I think it depends on a few factors that you may or may not be able to explain very well. For me, what gets a game really scary, is a sense of helplessness and maybe teasing as well. Call it childish or whatever, but I hate dying in a video game, and when death (in a video game) is just around the corner, that's almost enough to keep me on edge. Of course it also depends on how well the game immersed me.
Take for instance STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. The scary parts in the game for me seem to be when they shouldn't be scary. Those include the Agropom Research Facility and the lab in Dark Valley. The latter especially because the place is practically derilect, but I can't get over that and I still hate going there.
And then there's just one game I seem to refuse to play for some reason, that's Sweet Home for the NES. I don't mind watching someone play it, but some inner child fear in me or something gets summoned up every time I play that game. Which is funny considering other games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil are less thrilling.
Submitted by neo1piv14 on Mon, 06/29/2009 - 8:34am
Dead Space is another game that gives you the eery "might die any minute" feeling. The first time those monsters drops in behind you, you'll never go back.
Submitted by JDK on Sat, 06/27/2009 - 10:43am
"Monolith did a fair job of exploiting elements of J-Horror to create a genuinely creepy FPS experience with FEAR"
My how PC of you.
They (Monolith) straight up jacked the ideas and could probably be sued for infringment of some sort for the little girl character.
Submitted by tehR0XX0Rz on Sat, 06/27/2009 - 5:33pm
You tell um, Dawg!!! Straight up bust a cap in 'is head!
I don't think you can copyright little girls with long hair. Maybe if Alma had crawled out of a TV set....
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