Summary
Horrorgames thrive when they can incite fear, suspense, and dread in their players. When creating a game of this genre, the setting is just as important as sound andmonster design, if it is indeed a creature feature. Players need to feel immersed in thehorrorworld and fear whatever could lie around the next corner.
But, a good setting can do more than set the tone and instill suspense. It can offer small glimpses into what sort of world surrounds them, or even tell a story, even while maintaining a frightening facade.
A Game Centered Around Uncovering a Mystery
Observation
Developer No Code and publisher Devolver Digital bring you their latest indie adventure sci-fi horror game in space for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.Observation is a sci-fi thriller uncovering what happened to Dr. Emma Fisher, and the crew of her mission, through the lens of the station’s artificial intelligence S.A.M. Players assume the role of S.A.M. by operating the station’s control systems, cameras, and tools to assist Emma in discovering what is happening to the station, the vanished crew, and S.A.M. himself. You’re not on the station, you are the station!By manipulating SAM, the player can control various elements of the station, such as opening or closing hatches, activating safety systems and choose to complete tasks as instructed by the crew.Blending narrative adventure, puzzles, exploration, and cosmic existential horror, uncover the true nature of yourself, your crew, and the mysterious always-present hexagon on Saturn…What’s going to happen to Dr. Fisher and her crew?
As the title suggests,Observationplaces the player through the lens of an observer,in this instance an AIknown as SAM, scanning the environment to try and uncover the tale of what happened to the scientists onboard, and the origin of an unknown signal that delivers an ominous message.
Players will find clues scattered throughout the environment as they cycle through the various cameras to view different rooms and scan them for any clues they can relay to Emma. The entire game centers around an environment and the story that it tells by paying close attention to it.
Explore the Castle to Piece Together the Story
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
The last remaining memories fade away into darkness. Your mind is a mess and only a feeling of being hunted remains. You must escape.Amnesia: The Dark Descent, a first person survival horror. A game about immersion, discovery and living through a nightmare. An experience that will chill you to the core. You stumble through the narrow corridors as the distant cry is heard. It is getting closer.Amnesia: The Dark Descent puts you in the shoes of Daniel as he wakes up in a desolate castle, barely remembering anything about his past. Exploring the eerie pathways, you must also take part of Daniel’s troubled memories. The horror does not only come from the outside, but from the inside as well. A disturbing odyssey into the dark corners of the human mind awaits. A sound of dragging feet? Or is your mind playing tricks on you?By using a fully physically simulated world, cutting edge 3D graphics and a dynamic sound system, the game pulls no punches when trying to immerse you. Once the game starts, you will be in control from the beginning to the end. There are no cut-scenes or time-jumps, whatever happens will happen to you first hand. Something emerges out of the darkness. It’s approaching. Fast.Amnesia: The Dark Descent throws you headfirst into a dangerous world where danger can lurk behind every corner. Your only means of defense are hiding, running or using your wits. Do you have what it takes to survive?
Amnesiais the most famed and popular title inindie horrorhistory, showing what excellent games companies can make with a more limited budget and smaller team. This title is set in the ominous Castle Brennenburg, a dilapidated facade of grace and elegance, which houses a substance referred to as the shadow overtaking the place, as well as roaming monsters, as protagonist Daniel tries to regain his memories.
Exploring certain locations and reading the diary pages scattered throughout the castle help Daniel regain memories and piece together what happened in the past, and what he must do next, the story slowly coming together through the surrounding environment.
The State of Rapture is Highlighted Through the Environment
BioShock
BioShock is a shooter unlike any you’ve ever played, loaded with weapons and tactics never seen. You’ll have a complete arsenal at your disposal from simple revolvers to grenade launchers and chemical throwers, but you’ll also be forced to genetically modify your DNA to create an even more deadly weapon: you. Injectable plasmids give you super human powers: blast electrical currents into water to electrocute multiple enemies, or freeze them solid and obliterate them with the swing of a wrench.No encounter ever plays out the same, and no two gamers will play the game the same way. Biologically modify your body: send fire storming from your fingertips and unleash a swarm of killer hornets hatched from the veins in your arms. Hack devices and systems, upgrade your weapons and craft new ammo variants. Turn everything into a weapon: the environment, your body, fire and water, and even your worst enemies. Explore an incredible and unique art deco world hidden deep under the ocean.
BioShockis one of themost terrifying FPS gamesof all time, taking players deep into the ocean to the once beautiful underwater city of Rapture. By the time the player descends, it is a run-down shell of what it once was, filled with leaks, broken buildings, and home to splicers, Little Sisters, and the dreaded Big Daddies.
The environment does a brilliant job of telling the story of how Rapture has fallen and that it is now a place filled with dangers, such as bloody warnings or messages on the wall and skeletons or dead bodies strewn throughout Rapture. Everywhere a player looks, there is another hint chronicling the downfall of Rapture.
The Last of Usdrops players into apost-apocalyptic worldthat has fallen to zombie-like creatures known as Clickers, with many cities and humans falling to the infection, other than Ellie, who has an immunity to the bite.
As with most apocalypse games, the environment does just as good a job of relaying this narrative to the players along with the game plot itself. Many buildings have fallen to ruin, entire cities are decimated, and nature takes over, large vines and leaves thrive on the sides of buildings, and wild animals such as giraffes freely roaming. It is one of the few games that has some of its environmental cues showing some beauty can grow through all the decay.
Visual Clues Are Scattered Throughout the Ishimura
Dead Space
A massive deep-space mining ship goes dark after unearthing a strange artifact on a distant planet. Engineer Isaac Clarke embarks on the repair mission, only to uncover a nightmarish blood bath , the ship’s crew horribly slaughtered and infected by alien scourge. Now, Isaac is cut off, trapped, and engaged in a desperate fight for survival.The Necromorphs are unlike any enemies you’ve seen before. Headshots do about as much damage to them as flicking rubber bands. To survive, you’ll need to dismember their insect-like limbs, one at a time.There aren’t many traditional firearms aboard the Ishimura, but there’s plenty of stopping power in Isaac’s toolkit. Send horizontal or vertical blasts of energy at enemies with the Plasma Cutter, remotely control a high-speed sawblade with the Disc Ripper, and fill hallways with wide swaths of destruction with the Line Gun. Switch things up with alternate fire modes, and purchase upgrades to increase ammo, power, and reload speed.
Dead Spacetells the terrifying tale of a space-faring crew investigating a mining vessel by the name of Ishimura. But the more Isaac explores, the more apparent it becomes that something is wrong, through clues left across the environment.
Even if it weren’t for the necromorphs swarming through the ship ready to tear Isaac limb from limb, the environment does a good enough job of telling the tale of the ship’s downfall. Messages smeared in blood, barricades intended to come something in–or out, and conspicuous piles of posed corpses all hint towards the horrors that unfolded before the player even arrived, and thehorrors that they will soon have to facefor themselves.
The Weight of James' Guilt is All Around Him
Silent Hill 2
THE SILENCE IS BROKEN…James Sunderland’s life is shattered when his young wife Mary suffers a tragic death. Three years later, a mysterious letter arrives from Mary, beckoning him to return to their sanctuary of memories, the dark realm of Silent Hill.Now James must go back to that special place to uncover the truth, unaware that the answers he seeks require the ultimate sacrifice.• Return to Silent Hill in an entirely new adventure with all-new characters and monsters.• Battle horrifying creatures with a new arsenal of weapons and items.• Riveting storyline, stunning graphics and true-to-life CG movies leave you on the edge of your seat.• Atmospheric lighting and ambient 3D surround sound shift and change at each terrifying turn.• Dynamic camera angles, beautifully rendered environments, and real-time weather effects deliver a cinematic horror experience.
Silent Hill 2is often touted as thebestSilent Hillgame, breaking away from the story laid down in the first game for a more personal tragedy about a man who lost his wife to a terminal disease, but has received a letter summoning him to the eponymous town. The town they once enjoyed for many a holiday is no less a dream location and more of a twisted nightmare.
The thick fog, broken down buildings, and the NPCs and monsters encountered along the way are all evidence of James’s broken psyche and his fractured relationship with Mary even after her death, all culminating in a twist that was hinted at all along. The story-telling of the environment ofSilent Hill 2is more subtle than other games, but that only makes it all the more brilliant, so gamers can still be shocked by the reveal.
