Primarily here, I will focus on Resident Evil, as that is the only horror game I have truly played.
There are certain things that are important in a horror game. If it is a fighting game, there must be limited ammo, and resistant enemies. Limited saving ability is also quite possible, especially in long games. There should be a sense of loneliness or emptiness, or possibly just general dread. Enemies encountered should be pretty scary, but that isn't a deal breaker. A game can be scary using mundane enemies in surprise occasions.
Resident Evil included all of these. There was quite limited ammo, and very limited saving. There was a dark atmosphere, and it was empty and lonely. Zombies were encountered rather sparingly, but were quite horrifying when they were. The final boss of the game, (I only got to the ending of the second, through Leons route) was very challenging, and scary. The first time you encounter one of these zombies (the licker) -
Resident Evil gets a little less scary with it's later incarnations, mostly because zombies become easier to kill, and less surprising, but it's still the classic example of a horror game.
Horror games work better than horror movies in some situations, particularly because you are directly interacting. If John Jingleheimer walks into a room and sees some sort of zombie monster it's scary, but if you, acting through John Jingleheimer walk into a room and see a zombie monster, it's horrifying. It's you running away or shooting at it, it's you getting eaten, and it's you that screams, as opposed to an actor.
“The
sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us
little; but someday the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will
open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and our frightful position
therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from
the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.” - See
more at:
http://weirdtalesmagazine.com/2012/08/20/strange-lovecraft-quotes/#sthash.d9jlqhn5.dpuf
What
do we know… of the world and the universe about us? Our means of
receiving impressions are absurdly few, and our notions of surrounding
objects infinitely narrow. We see things only as we are constructed to
see them, and can gain no idea of their absolute nature. With five
feeble senses we pretend to comprehend the boundlessly complex cosmos,
yet other beings with wider, stronger, or different range of senses
might not only see very differently the things we see, but might see and
study whole worlds of matter, energy, and life which lie close at hand
yet can never be detected with the senses we have. - See more at:
http://weirdtalesmagazine.com/2012/08/20/strange-lovecraft-quotes/#sthash.d9jlqhn5.dpuf
What
do we know… of the world and the universe about us? Our means of
receiving impressions are absurdly few, and our notions of surrounding
objects infinitely narrow. We see things only as we are constructed to
see them, and can gain no idea of their absolute nature. With five
feeble senses we pretend to comprehend the boundlessly complex cosmos,
yet other beings with wider, stronger, or different range of senses
might not only see very differently the things we see, but might see and
study whole worlds of matter, energy, and life which lie close at hand
yet can never be detected with the senses we have. - See more at:
http://weirdtalesmagazine.com/2012/08/20/strange-lovecraft-quotes/#sthash.d9jlqhn5.dpuf
What
do we know… of the world and the universe about us? Our means of
receiving impressions are absurdly few, and our notions of surrounding
objects infinitely narrow. We see things only as we are constructed to
see them, and can gain no idea of their absolute nature. With five
feeble senses we pretend to comprehend the boundlessly complex cosmos,
yet other beings with wider, stronger, or different range of senses
might not only see very differently the things we see, but might see and
study whole worlds of matter, energy, and life which lie close at hand
yet can never be detected with the senses we have. - See more at:
http://weirdtalesmagazine.com/2012/08/20/strange-lovecraft-quotes/#sthash.d9jlqhn5.dpuf
