People like me like to rattle on about how games were better in the old days and how modern games are all just bang bang bang but regardless of whether you think the original PlayStation is well past it or not, it’s fair to say it had some pretty scary games in its catalogue. Not that horror games started with Sony, of course – I distinctly remember Fright Night giving me some chills on the Amiga, and even the humble Spectrum managed to create a sense of suspense and terror now and again (Ant Attack did this brilliantly).
In the first of what I hope to be a fairly regular series of discussions on the site, though, I managed to prise our Peter away from his Halloween whiskey and cake to chat briefly about scary games from the PlayStation onwards. Looking back at the rudimentary graphics might make you think that there’s nothing in those giant pixels that could keep you behind the sofa, but that’s simply not the case – there were some crackers on the old PSone, and Peter agrees.
Peter: I think survival horror had a kind of golden age on the first PlayStation.
Alex: Examples?
Peter: Well, the first two Resident Evil games, Silent Hill, Alone in the Dark and some weird Japanese ones I played like something to do with a clock and I think one called Echo Night that might have been set on the Titanic, for starters.
Alex: Silent Hill was really, really scary. I remember having to turn down the sound and have Yoshi’s Story plinkering away in the background instead, the N64 providing an altogether more soothing audio soundtrack.
Most would happily cite the Resident Evil games as being major catalysts for the horror genre, the first two in particular were brilliantly executed and managed to create a tangible, inescapable sense of dread and fear. The lack of ammunition, limited save states and an enemy that in number were deadly all added up to being perfect Halloween fodder with a few mates. It hasn’t aged well, but still manages a better set of scares than the current Resi titles.
Alex: What about the PlayStation 2?
Peter: There were some great scary games on that, too, but they were mostly continuations of the series that were established on the PS1. I remember looking for a game that might have been called Ruling Rose too but could never get it. It might have been a Japanese game that never got released here.
Alex: This seems to have been a running theme.
Peter: I don’t know, I just remember seeing it in a magazine and thinking it would be like Resident Evil and Silent Hill then hunting for it for weeks, back when we still had independent games shops that you had to phone up or drive to.
Silent Hill 2 was great, yes, but the best last generation was probably Project Zero, a game that drew heavily on Japanese horror traditions and replaced weaponry with a camera. It was purely about ghosts rather than zombies, and was all the more scary to play as a result – the twisted visages of the enemies and the fact that you were largely defenceless meant that just playing the game was an exercise in real discipline.
Forbidden Siren, too, was a powerful game.
Peter: I think this generation has missed the scares to a great extent.
Alex: There’s been Dead Space…
Peter: Sure, but even that got less “survival horror” in its second outing and the third looks potentially more like Gears of War than Resident Evil. There was another Siren game but I didn’t hear much good about that so never bothered with it.
Alex: It was really smart, actually, and an early episodic title that was probably ahead of its game.
Peter: I suppose we got an upscaled release of Resident Evil 4, that had a few scares in it but was started that series’ move towards more action too and Resident Evil 5 wasn’t even mildly unsettling.
Alex: It’s been all about the zombies this gen, though, hasn’t it?
Peter: Yeah. Dead Island got a kind of cult following but nothing about it ever appealed to me and I didn’t find it scary at all. It was a bit gruesome, I suppose, does that scare some people? I think I need it to be a little bit psychological to make me scared and with open worlds and controllable camera angles, I guess that’s hard to do.
There were others, of course. There’s the Undead Nightmare spin off from Red Dead Redemption and, in some senses of the definition, the Zombie mode on Treyarch’s Call of Duty offerings. But publishers have been playing it safer this gen, and apart from a glut of PSN-based zombie shooters, there hasn’t really been a game that’s been as powerful as the likes of the early Resident Evil games, or the first couple of (brilliant) Silent Hill games.
Sony’s Until Dawn might change all that, of course, but that’s still to be released.
cam_manutd
If only Slender was on consoles….
Megamoppy
Funnily enough my vote would be for the Gamecube as it hosts the only game that ever scared me, Eternal Darkness (With the exception of Amnesia: The Dark Descent).
Even then I don’t think there has been any game that made me feel scared persistently most of the times its the odd jump scare.
Bilbo_bobbins
Resident Evil 1 & 2 were my scariest moments, probably because I was younger and it was new. I think Silent Hill is pretty bad too, had me jumping. I reckon the PS1 had the scariest titles.
theberzerka
Silent hill on the ps1. My little sister bought it with her pocket money for my birthday. She bought it of a kid at school. I remember thinking that I hate scary games but she made an effort and therefore I had to play it. I could only play it with someone else in the room. It scared the bejeebus out of me. That bloody fog and the sounds was enough to make me paranoid for weeks.
The Lone Steven
Horror died this generation. Most horror games tend to focus on action and have horror as an afterthought. Barring the odd game that focuses on horror. Even the iconic horror franchises suffered this fate. Resident Evil 5 was just an action game and Silent Hill seems to be ditching it’s horror roots or just fails at it, due to every bloody publisher thinking that horror is not worth doing and it must be action oriented. :( I flat out refuse to believe there is no market for horror games when there still is a market, which is at risk of being neglected.
When i play a horror game, i play it for the horror aspect not the oh by the way, here’s a ton of ammo, the lights are on, you can punch your way through the game as well as shoot your way through aspect. If i wanted to play an action game, i would. I remeber feeling a bit of fear when i first played Resident Evil 4 and it seems that was the last horror game that i actually played. :(
Why can’t a few publishers release some actual horror games instead of catering to the majority? EA are guilty of this as it seems every franchise they own has been dumbed down to appeal to the majority. Such as Dead Space 3, last time i checked, it was supposed to be a game that caused you to soil yourself.
Kaminari
@Peter
Wasn’t it Glass Rose by Cing?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_Rose
RudeAwakening
The scariest game for me during the PS1 day’s was Resident Evil 1, it was the first proper horror game i played and man the fear it used to dredge up, the not knowing what was around the corner. Even those loading screens between rooms of the creaky door opening was terrifying, again it was the not knowing of what the hell you are walking into and the couple of rounds in the weapon and one green health weed/leaf that you had left.
This gen Dead Space was the only horror game that could dredge up that same fear that i got from resi 1 within me. There was times’ in Dead Space that i didn’t want to go back to an area that i had been as it was so freaking creepy. That’s the sign of a great horror game for me.
allan_treebeard
I have to echo everyone with resi 1. Fantastic horror game, the whole setting, the feeling of vulnerability everything. That bit where you encounter the first hunter and it retraces your steps chasing after you, *shudder*
Resi 2 wasnt quite as scary, the setting just wasnt as atmospheric. Resi 3 sort of brought it back with the constant threat of nemesis but it was a different kind of scary.
and again, silent hill 1+2 fantastic, Project zero – terrifying. Dead space was also fantastic, its always a good sign when you really dont want to go round the next corner…
I have to reccommend amnesia: the dark descent though, that game is terrifying…
Toffee91
I got one thing to say…. Slender. More for i aint been scared that bad since playin resident evil 2 when i was 7 and here i am 20 and this basic simple tiny terrifies me and iv missed that feeling in games sooo much