RoxannaRachnid

Roxie

@RoxannaRachnid

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Indulgent furry artist, character designer and cartoonist, NSFW 🔞

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RoxannaRachnid
@RoxannaRachnid

I have been watching a bunch of indie horror game playthroughs lately, and I don't mean this near as condescending as it's going to sound, but what modern horror games are actually good at the horror side of things? Many of these games have been good games at their core, but just regurgitating the same generic creepypasta imagery in lieu of actually building a setting or story that serves to horrify or unnerve. These are the fast food of horror. Sometimes I want a nice expansive meal.

So let's just say out the gate: jumpscares don't count. They're like CGI or salt, in moderation they can be an effective tool to enhance something but over-reliance is just going to end up ruining things. Then there are games like Phasmophobia or Lethal Company, which are extremely good at generating tension but largely are relying on fear of the dark/unknown to do so, there's not much of a world there to speak of. And maybe I'm being overly subjective striking them, this has certainly been an effective tool in other horror media through the years, but it's not what I'm looking for with this train of thought.

So I am genuinely curious to hear other folks takes or recommendations on games that nail the horror part of themselves, or innovate in some wat. Or if you disagree with my premise in the first place. I am coming up with very few examples off the top of my head myself; Mack mentioned Bramble the other day and I think that game had a lot of what I'm looking for, and while also mechanically similar Inside and Limbo are very good at creating a spooky atmosphere and having you uncover their world through progression.

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in reply to @RoxannaRachnid's post:

space-engineer-julia
@space-engineer-julia

one game that comes to mind is Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. It relies primarily on atmosphere and storytelling for its horror, as opposed to having you get chased around by monsters like the first amnesia game, though you still get chased around a bit. It also does a lot of thematic horror, where the horror comes from just the general idea of whats happening in the story overall.

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Ririsu
@Ririsu

I found Subnautica to be the right kind of scary for me, though it depends on how you feel about being alone in the deep ocean. It might not fit your criteria but I figured I'd throw it out there. As you said, a lot of games either feel like cheap tropey jumpscare horror or are trying too hard and miss the point. I like that Subnautica can sort of get away with pretending that it's not scary since it also has other themes and gameplay elements.

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RoxannaRachnid
@RoxannaRachnid

I will agree, it definitely manages to put you on your back foot in spaces by just, like, not having safety rails on its open world, again kind of echoes that fear of the unknown thing because you just don't know what's down there with you. I think "underwater" is just generally a great setting to make stuff isolated and spooky; Iron Lung had some similar vibes and I haven't played Barotrauma but I hear good things.

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Alterutra
@Alterutra

the haunted cities packs on her itch have some great offerings, CHYRZA is v good. there are some patreon exclusives but the bangers are mostly on itch. her games are definitely more in the vein of spacial-explorable narratives or kinetic poetry / fiction. There are some facets to these games like jumpscares/loud audio (though very rare) but suggesting as a particular flavor of horror game that I dont see very often

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ceryl
@ceryl

I'm curious about what games you've been watching. My friends and I like doing group discord streams of the Chilla's Art games, which are brief, moody, and tight, but could arguably be the sort of trope-y thing you're not enjoying too.

If you haven't checked them out, I do recommend them!

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RoxannaRachnid
@RoxannaRachnid

I will look into these, thanks!

The ones that kinda set me off on this tangent were Poppy Playtime and KinitoPET which honestly both of them I could say a lot of good things about as games but still managed to get under my skin in different ways. Been going through a couple horror streamers' backlogs since then and it's been a parade of mostly the same thing, a lot of retro-styled and meta horror all kind of running the same playbook or aesthetics.

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