Horror Games: Hide-And-Seek Gameplay
Is running and hiding over and over again scary?
Why Are You Running?
As I played the Eclipsium demo, I had a tough time traversing the game, not because it was faulty, but because it was working as intended. From sound design to the uncertainty, it was an enjoyable and unnerving experience. And as I look at Hollowbody, Mouthwashing, and Edge of Sanity, I realize something.
Run Away!
Many years ago, I first experienced my first hide-and-seek horror game when I played Amnesia: The Dark Descent after watching Youtuber play it. It wasn’t the first time I played a horror game, that would’ve been Resident Evil 2’s (PS1) demo. But it was frightening being spotted by the monster, and I couldn’t get more than an hour in because of how scared I was.
As time went by, and I started to get more interested in the horror genre, I ended up trying a diverse set of horror games. By no means am I a horror aficionado, but it is something I do enjoy. But there was something that I realized when I just couldn’t finish some horror games. What does Soma, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Outlast, Alien Isolation, and Layer of Fear, to name a few, have in common? Hide-and-seek gameplay.
I didn’t stop playing these games out of fear, but out of frustration. I always hit a point in the game where I became too impatient and would die because I would always go for a sprint. I was enjoying Outlast 2 before I became impatient, but it was only scary until you had to wait for the monster to get to a certain part of his loop for you to progress in the story.
Many of these games, from what I’ve seen or been told, have amazing and scary stories, but because they have this gameplay, they stop being scary and become tedious. Think about how hard Dark Souls is until you learn everything has patterns. I see it as these horror games stop being scary and fun once you realize that they have a route they will repeat.
These games intrigued me because of their storytelling, setting, worldbuilding, and atmosphere, but all frustrated me because at one point it would boil down to me hiding inside something and waiting for the monster to walk by. I understand that is more on the preference side, and my only gripe is when the game is just hide-and-seek.
There are many elements to horror games, and while I don’t agree with hide-and-seek mechanics, it is purely subjective. Dread, tension, suspension, uncertainty, anguish, fear, and many other emotions are the main drive for horror, so whatever works, works. But for me, if I have to hide inside a locker, in a basket, or under a bed until the enemy walks away, and that is the main gameplay loop, it feels more like a stealth game. Still, I’d revisit these games just to see how the story develops.
But what do you think? What makes a game scary, to you?
I'm not a fan of horror games. But I've gotten into Phasmaphobia recently with friends and it's a blast. The better you play, the scarier it becomes because you start taking bigger risks.