The worst was probably that huge descent in the Abyssal Scar biome. Every encounter making you certain that death was seconds away and that the DualSense was careering into the neighbour’s garden via your open window. The run through the first three biomes to finally face the Nemesis boss was a palm sweatfest made all the more so by the fantastic 3D audio screaming through the headphones. That terror of losing all your blood echoes whilst searching in vain for a shortcut back to a lantern or (as in Returnal) trying to avoid those accursed kamikaze drones dive bombing you into oblivion in the Derelict Citadel. The fear that titles such as Bloodborne and, more recently, Returnal give you. is by far the most unnerving but rather than retread through the reasons that it is I’ll opt to mention a different version of fear. Silent Hill, Forbidden Siren, Amnesia, and I’d probably say P.T. The usual suspects can be named for survival horror games. That horrible creepy breathing noise you hear so you know one is nearby, the way they lunge at you and bite your neck! And then you get ones with added spikes to impale you! Outstayed its welcome by the end but I quit due to my anxiety levels a few times.Īlthough Resident Evil 4 is more tense than scary I find one enemy very unsettling: the Regenerators! You were helpless for most of the game, which added to the fear. Hiding in lockers while the xenonorph patrolled the room was terrifying to me at the time. I’m generally not that scared by games, or films for that matter, but Alien Isolation really stressed me out. The backgrounds sounds used to put me on edge, but what really made me jump was the monsters who would appear to your left or right as you walked down a corridor.Īs they were unexpected I’d end up jumping off the sofa. I used to play it late at night in a dark room. The most scared I’ve been in a game is in Doom 3. It might seem a bit tame looking back now but at the time there was nothing like it, very few games have ever managed to create a moment as scary as that. By the time it handed you back control of the game you were close to a state of panic. The way the game suddenly switched to the creature’s point of view and made you watch as it ran through the level opening doors heading straight for you was a moment of true terror. There were lots of scary moments on Resident Evil, the infamous dogs through the window was a decent jump scare, but the truly terrifying moment came bit later on when you returned to the mansion and met your first Hunter.
Those first two were low tech games even at the time, and Silent Hill is almost unplayable now, but the atmosphere, the disturbing imagery… just like movies it proves that it’s not a big budget and fancy effects that makes things scary, in fact it’s probably the exact opposite.
0 kommentar(er)
