Horror video games will always be scarier than movies – Reader’s Feature

Silent Hill is now a yearly franchise (Metro/Konami) With Halloween upon us, a reader extols the virtues of survival horror video games and why they’re much more effective than movies. The only good thing about the clocks changing in autumn, and it being dark before 5pm, is that it means Halloween is close and it’s the prime time for spooky movies and spooky game. It’s the prime time for games in general, to be honest, even if this year’s schedules are all messed up because of GTA 6 and I’ve actually not got anything to look forward to at the moment because of that. But it’s been a good year for horror already, as GC pointed out, and while it’s not quite as good as last year it does seem as if survival horror is here to stay as a genre, both big budget and indie. I’ve played the three biggest budget ones already this year – Resident Evil Requiem, Silent Hill: Townfall, and Hellraiser: Revival – and I liked them all. More importantly I was scared by them all. Most people think of Resident Evil as being cheesy and silly, and it is. That’s part of the fun. But the reason it works, and it’s lasted this long, is that it is also scary when it needs to be. But there’s nothing in the series as scary as the early sequence in Requiem where you’re being chased by the light sensitive monster. At that point you’ve got no weapons of any kind and it is terrifying! Much more scary than a movie, because of the immersion. Last year’s Silent Hill f was great, but it wasn’t scary. Silent Hill 2 was definitely creepy but, maybe because I know the game so well, the remake wasn’t that frightening to me. Townfall was probably the weakest game of the three, overall, but for me it was the scariest, with some nasty monsters and very little in the way of weaponry to defend yourself. The stealth action wasn’t very original but with the excellent graphics and atmosphere it’s totally immersive, with a little bonus that the setting is a British town that looks more familiar to me than America or Japan. Want GTA 6 news? Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for the latest GTA 6 news, reviews of new games you should play and exclusive analysis of the biggest stories of the week. That’s the funny thing about survival horrors too: they don’t have to be that great in terms of gameplay to scare you. That means they’re probably the only genre where the developer can get a lot wrong, but as long as they do the main job of being frightening it doesn’t matter and people still love them. Because you’re in the game and the things are happening to your character, because of things you do, it’s so much more engrossing than just watching a linear film with actors. That brings me to Hellraiser, which in terms of gameplay is not great. It’s a poor man’s Resident Evil when it comes to combat (I’m not sure it even needed combat but that’s a different issue) but I still ended up really enjoying it because the horror bits were so well done. Gory and horrible and with a strong sexual element that I’m genuinely surprised they got away with. It also happens to be a really good tie-in to the films and probably better than any of the sequels. And yet if it wasn’t a horror game it’s be a 5/10 waste of time. There’s something about knowing it’s been elevated like that which really pleases me. I’m not sure what’s coming out next year, except for Resident Evil Veronica, but hopefully there’ll be another Silent Hill and a bunch of indie games that we know nothing about right now ,but will suddenly appear out of nowhere and scare our collective pants off. The best thing is survival horror games don’t really age and don’t need great graphics to be effective, so settle down tonight and give your favourite one a go. And if you don’t have a favourite give one of the three I mentioned a try. I can’t guarantee you’ll love them but I’m pretty sure you’ll definitely be scared by them. By reader Aster Resident Evil is still the king of video game horror (Metro/Capcom) The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro. You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you won’t need to send an email. Arrow MORE: Why I will always be a Bubsy Bobcat fan – Reader’s Feature Arrow MORE: Motion controls are great and games should use them more - Reader’s Feature Arrow MORE: American publishers are ruining the video games industry - Reader's Feature GameCentral Get the latest GTA 6 news, reviews of new games you should play and exclusive analysis of the biggest stories of the week.