Horror in media has always been popular, be it through books, films and most recently, video games.
Fear is something that people love to put themselves through, almost in a controlled environment. It gives the viewer, or reader, a thrill of sorts and of course, can be hugely entertaining.
Online gaming takes horror one step further by allowing the player to become the protagonist or even the antagonist in some instances. Much of the allure began when consoles became powerful enough to deliver experiences that could terrify; when sound chips allowed the right combination of atmosphere and silence, when graphics could accurately depict the images that our minds conjure up when wanting to be scared.
Of course, the absolute best horror is in your mind, not on the screen. Gore fests such as Friday 13th delivered frights, but they were instant jumps rather than deep-seated, long-lasting worries that played on your mind. Friday 13th is a great example of how one character endures through time; Jason Vorhees first made an appearance on screen in 1981, curiously in the second Friday 13th film. Online players have now been given the power to either be camp counsellors or Jason Vorhees in the Friday The 13th game. It mixes a yarning for retro horror with the opportunity not to just fear for characters in a film, but fear for yourself. Ever had a nightmare about running away from that fearsome white hockey mask? Well, you can now make it a reality.
Across online gaming, horror is a genre that is proving to be incredibly popular, not just in terms of outright slash and hack titles. Online games provider Tuxslots has a number of slots with classic horror themes, such as Creature From The Black Lagoon, Frankenstein, and Dracula. Other, more recognizable brands, have been used to create puzzle games, including the aforementioned Friday The 13th: Killer Puzzler and Slayaway Camp Butchers Cut.
Resident Evil is a game that very much mixes the obvious horror with the less obvious. It was one of the earliest genuinely scary video games when it dropped on PlayStation and began to define the survival horror genre which has now moved online. Along with Silent Hill, they influenced not only the future direction of horror games but even made their way onto the big screen in an early example of games becoming movies, as opposed to the other way around. Both produced genuine moments of intense fear and particularly the latter played on gamers’ minds as long as any horror film coming out of Japan.
Credit: Capcom
Resident Evil Village is due to land on PlayStation 5 later in the year, another example of how the genre endures across generations. Thus far, the series has remained very much single player though, which is perhaps a reflection of horror. True fear is something that rises and falls in the eye of the beholder, and group games perhaps dilute that a little. Still, titles such a Dead by Daylight continue to play on the 4v1 deathmatch modes, which seem unfairly weighted in games such as Call of Duty but have an altogether new and exciting element when one player is the fearsome antagonist.
As consoles become more advanced, the horror game industry will continue to grow, both online and in single-player mode. Some famous directors, such as Guillermo del Toro, have even stepped into the immersive world of video games, releasing P.T. with acclaimed video game maker Hideo Kojima. Kojima continues to push the boundaries of gaming in the same way Hitchcock pushed the boundaries of on-screen horror a generation before.
Whilst the game-playing public yearn for scares, or the chance to frighten others, online gaming’s obsession with horror looks set to thrive.
