User:LuluMew52/suspense in horror video games

Techniques

Immersion

Immersion (relating to a deep mental interest or involvement); building strong suspense using immersion throughout the game. This intense involvement means that the player effectively becomes part of the virtual world, interacting with it and with the laws and rules that characterize it. The quality of suspense usually relies on how immersed the player becomes in the game, and in turn, the game can scare the player, or give them a feeling of suspense.

Virtual reality headset Oculus Rift- designed to fully immerse users within it's games

Ambiguity

Ambiguity in recent horror games leaves players wondering what’s going to scare them, and how big the scare is going to be. Lack of music, detailed environment, or instructions can give the player a feeling of dread, but urges them to keep moving forward, even if there are no “enemies” or obstacles encountered in a particular section or level of the game. This sense of ambiguity can trigger curiosity in the player. Curiosity can be generated by the inclusion of optional features, objectives and challenges that offer the player the freedom to interact with a greater number of elements.

Skills

Skills are based on how well the player plays the game to progress forward. These personal achievements urge the player to finish the game, and overcome the fear instilled from beginning to end. Once they have assimilated the games objectives and rules, how they address the game’s challenges to reach the different objectives and rewards is a matter of skill.

Discovery

Discovery motivates the player, despite the scares that lie ahead over the course of the game. Players discovering new secrets, skills, and pieces to the puzzle of a main story often gives the player a feeling of motivation and fufillment, allowing them to press forward despite his or her awareness of the scares that lie ahead.

Effects

Elements done within a horror game can affect a player’s mental and emotional state.

Emotional

Storytelling and characterization allows the player to gain an emotional attachment to the character they control. Emotional attachment to a character can rely on how strongly the player wishes to finish the game, and how good characterization is. If a character's personality and emotions are strong enough to reach the player, it affects the outcome of the player's experience entirely. Suspense in drama is conceptualized in literature as the degree of subjective certainty will suffer harm or failure. However, the viewer cannot be 100% certain that their loved character will fail or die, or they will experience despair and non-enjoyment. There must be some hope, however small that the tide can turn.” Because the player gains such hope, and even willpower towards their character to make it out alive, it builds emotional connection between the character, the player, and the game as a whole. The player is in charge of controlling the character, and has the choice to progress even though such a buildup of fear and suspense is displayed throughout the game.

Mental

Different types of scares in a horror game leave different impressions on the player altogether. Common elements of horror displayed throughout such games include a startle scare, or a “jump scare”. It is more common for players to experience a startle suspense to games with fictional words because the atmosphere that triggers the anticipation is more easily created through fictional clues. This is especially the case in games that portray dark alleys and scary-looking monsters that can easily jump out at us unexpectedly. Just as with films, this kind of suspense is mainly experienced in response to games in the horror and thriller genre. In horror games like Condemned 2: Bloodshot [Sega, 2008] and Silent Hill [Konami, 1999], for instance, the player has to move his character around a dark/foggy city with all kinds of scary and dangerous monsters on the loose. The atmosphere in this game is highly suspenseful. It is always dark/foggy, and the music/landscape is continuously suspenseful. Because the game is a 3D environment, antagonists can appear from all directions.

Several in-game elements leave a psychological impact on players during and after gameplay.

• Music in horror games is mainly consistent of long, drawn-out notes and keys, placing emphasis on a dreadful, ominous tone as the player treks through a level. Other notable examples include music that increases in tempo when an enemy or obstacle approaches; emphasizing tension.

• Level and enemy design has left a lasting impression on players as well. Enemies that are given a horrifying or just unsettling appearance (some examples being the characters of Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2 of the Silent Hill series, and The Slenderman of Slender: The Eight Pages) have left many players claiming “to have nightmares” after their experiences with such horrible enemies.

In RPG

Japanese Role Playing Games ("RPG" or "JRPG") and RPG maker titles have garnered attention for heavier emphasis on exploration and puzzle solving mixed with the horror and suspenseful elements. Protagonists in RPG and RPG maker games are usually silent, and usually contain one of more “party members” who may accompany the protagonist along the way. Player progression is often gained through a series of puzzles, codes, and collected items throughout the game. Many of the player’s actions often trigger one of several endings ranging from the “best ending” to the “worst ending”, and a party member tagging along with the protagonist has the potential to die in a particular “ending” in a specific way. Something as simple as a conversation with another character could alter the ending of an RPG horror game entirely, but the player will not know this until the game's completion.

Aside from gameplay, RPG horror games often give a strange juxtaposition of a cute character, or “sprite” thrust into dangerous, or surreal events.

RPG horror/puzzle game “Ib” features the titular silent protagonist (a small, nine year old girl) exploring an art museum when the exhibits suddenly come to life. With little explanation, and a few clues to start out, the player must solve puzzles to unlock new areas while also avoiding the now-living attractions in the museum who are out to kill Ib. The player is given little to go on with what can kill the characters, and what cannot. Ib wikia page

Yume Nikki, a popular RPG “surrealistic adventure game”, centers around a girl named Madotsuki traveling through her dreams through a series of doors upon falling asleep. Each dream world is unique in setting, but all have a common theme of ranging from playfully weird, to surreal, to frightening and quite disturbing. The game features different types imagery such as dismembered body parts, colorful mazes against a dark, endless background, and the main protagonist being turned into a variety of random things such as an “oni” (demon). The player is given no explanation or clues as to where they go; and because the story is nonlinear, anyone can end up in any dream world at any given time. While the game does not contain enemies to fight, or any difficult challenges to overcome; the constant, unsettling feeling of having to travel through such bizarre and demented settings can instill a feeling of suspense all on it's own.

See also

Survival Horror (genre)

List of horror video games

RPG maker