Horror genre isn’t only related to TV series and movies. It is also often used in video games. There are many horror topics that are used in video games, it’s much more than mutant monsters slaughtering characters in the game. Just like TV series and movies; games may also use visual and audio representations that support the depictions of horror related situations. Old horror games include Uninvited, Phantasmagoria and 11th Hour. Popular series of horror games include FEAR, Silent Hill, Doom and Resident Evil. Often, horror games are based on first person shooting with immersive horror situation. This makes horror games quite appealing. Proper images and audio can be used to manipulate our mind into thinking that these horror scenes are real. The first Silent Hill game in Playstation can be quite appealing with its foggy surrounding and creepy sound effects. It can be like watching interactive horror movies and we can’t close our eyes when something scary appears on the screen. The situation can be scary enough to cause veteran FPS gamers to get a little fidgety and nervous. For game developers, it’s obviously a good thing, because they manage to deliver the proper gaming environment for their consumers. When we are playing horror games, we often roam around in dark building, sometimes covered with blood. The situation is so unnerving that just a noise of dripping water can cause to get petrified suddenly. Just like in real life, we may feel fear to walk to a room that we haven’t explored before; worse, we may need to enter dozens of such room in the game.
The Lovecraftian setting is ideal in many games to produce the sensation of creeping dread. We may find numerous disturbing imagery and startling scares. Compared to TV series and movies, horror games should have definite advantage in terms of raw tension and immersions. With games, we could enjoy wonderful narratives and we will feel that we are inside the game. There are no other mediums that can deliver the sensation in the same way. Resident Evil is probably the most popular survival horror series and it appeals many people until today. New series are released regularly, giving us new kinds of enjoyment. One big question among us is why we love to experience horror. Why is it appealing to get scared by various digital depictions on the screen. Since childhood, we develop a sense of fear and it helped us to survive, so we will make attempts to deal with possible threats. However, we should also know that people often have irrational forms of fear; such as fear of balloons and clowns. These elements can be combined to create an additional sense of fear. Because horror games are highly interactive, we will be eager to experience it over and over. We will be able to reproduce the level of fear that we are comfortable it. It is quite possible that the adrenaline rush that we experience can be quite appealing to many people.
