Bitching About Horror Again

One thing I tend to bitch about pretty often on this blog is the state of the horror genre.  I'm pretty much convinced at this point that horror games in general are sort of dead and no one knows how to make good ones any more.  That isn't to say that there have been zero decent horror games in the last few years but the good titles get buried under so much shit and then that shit gets so much attention from idiots that it's easy to forget that good horror games even exist.

I did some searching around for upcoming horror games and a few titles keep cropping up so I thought I'd bitch about some individual games rather than just the genre as a whole so here we go.

1. Allison Road

I'd be lying to you if I said that I wasn't at least a little bit interested in Allison Road, the game does actually look sort of scary.  If you haven't seen it there's plenty of footage on YouTube but it's sort of like the PT that we never really got.  The difference between this and PT is that I'm not mad at this game because it isn't pretending to be a Silent Hill title and instead does its own thing.

That doesn't mean it gets a free pass because while it does look interesting and genuinely creepy it also appears to be nothing more than a walking simulator.  If I wanted a walking simulator horror experience I'd go to a theme park haunted house, I want a horror GAME.  A game implies that there is some kind of challenge, puzzles to solve, a fail state, things that are characteristic of a GAME.  Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs proved that putting a walking simulator in a scary setting a good horror title does not make and I get the feeling that once the novelty of VR wears off then Allison Road will be nothing more than another forgettable horror experience.

I will end this little bit by saying that information on Allison Road is limited and maybe there will be a bit more to the game play than I'm expecting so I'm hoping to god that's the case.

2. Friday The 13th

Like Allison Road, I'm sort of interested by Friday The 13th but while it's an interesting idea it doesn't look like a good HORROR game.  This game involves 1 player controlling Jason and the other 8 controlling camp counselors as they attempt to not get brutally murdered.

What makes this game particularly interesting is the sheer number of ways the Jason player can off the counselors where basically everything ever is a potential death trap.  If I remember correctly, all the animations are being motion captured and the captures for Jason are being performed by the original actor so that's a nice little touch.  If I'm wrong about that fact or if it's changed please let me know!

Anyway the problem is that it's a multiplayer experience and as Left4Dead proves, while these games are highly enjoyable they aren't really what you'd call "horror".  Just basing the title on a famous horror movie doesn't immediately make it a "horror" game.  If this classes as horror then, judging from the footage we should be adding Mortal Kombat and God of War to the list of "horror" titles as well since it seems we're just labeling them based on violence levels.

3. Outlast 2

Oh boy, I have so few hopes for Outlast 2.  There seems to be a pretty large group of people who liked the first game despite it being a complete abomination.  If you want to know what I thought about the first game, here's some posts I did on it ages ago.

http://identitygaming.blogspot.jp/2014/04/outlast-is-terrible.html
and pre-release
http://identitygaming.blogspot.jp/2013/05/how-scary-is-outlast-not-very.html
and I even did a play through of it on YouTube so you can see how not scary it is in real time!
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6Wc5_JYKZyM3StiKH1ZrxvuojfxUbGoj

A part of me is obviously hoping that Outlast 2 actually ends up being an amazing horror experience but I REALLY fucking doubt it.

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But before I end this post, how about I end on something positive?  Look back at the top of the page, there's a logo for a game called We Happy Few.  This is a survival game where instead of fighting away shit monsters with tits for eyes or walking around dark rooms being jumped scared you have to survive in an alternate 1960s England against drug addled loons.  The game boasts randomly generated worlds, permadeath (if you want it) and a story line to work through.

I don't know about you but when I lived in Manchester and I was walking home at night in areas with not too many people I'd always fear the idea of drug addled loons coming and trying to mug me or kill me or something.  This game takes that concept and turns it right up to 11 but then adds charming visuals and some ACTUAL FUCKING GAME PLAY (take note Outlast and Allison Road).  A truly interesting idea that you can get your hands on right now if you're the kind of thick twat that thinks early access is a good idea.  Something I'm definitely looking forward to though.

Although if none of these new games tickle your fancy you could just go play Silent Hill 3 or Resident Evil 2 again like every other person...