Horror games with aging graphics

[Menegrothx]

If you watch gameplay videos of old horror games on youtube, you can usually see people commenting "people used to find this scary?" and so on. The human species and the way our brains work hasn't changed much during the last 20 years, so why can some people become scared by "primitive" graphics while others laugh at the blocky polygon monsters? You can't judge the scaryness of a horror game with out playing it yourself and there are a lot of factors that affect the mood when playing a horror game, like how close to the monitor you are sitting, are you wearing headphones, are you alone, is your room dark, are there any distracting noises near by you and so on and naturally actual game design choiches are the most important (AI, can you kill enemies, do you have limited ammo and supplies and so on) but let's focus on the graphics and visuals.

I dont think that games were any more scary or immersive back then than they are nowadays just because ALL (3D) games used to look just as bad. Nor do I think that horror games would have some kind of expiration date

I've played quite many good looking horror games and many of them didn't scare me one bit, while some games with really bad graphics have managed to scare me. For example I had no previous experience (=no childhood nostalgia or anything) of System Shock 1 when I played it for the first time this year and I felt a lot more scared playing it than I did playing Dead Space. The original System Shock looks absolutely awful by todays standards. Dead Space is a modern HD game and many people say it's really scary. And it's not lack of experience, I've played many modern horror games before playing System Shock 1, so seeing modern HD graphics hasn't desensitized me to 1990s graphics.

When I think about "top 5 games that have scared me the most", 3 (counting all the Thief games as one) of them look bad/laughable.
Silent Hill 1. Looks really outdated.

Thief-series. The ambiance and some tight encounters, but most importantly the Shalebridge Cradle. 1 is moderately outdated, 2 is a bit less outdated, 3 still looks absolutely great.
System Shock 2. It's about as outdated as Thief 1/2, Half Life 1-level. Still passable. Very blocky enemies though.
It's worth nothing that all of these games have superb sound design

On the other hand I've played quite many good looking horror games (Doom 3, Silent Hill 2-4+Origins+Shattered Memories+Homecoming, Siren and Deadspace 1+2 to name a few) that I didn't really find scary.


So any theories on why some people can't get scared by primitive graphics?

[J T]

I like this topic. I'm happy to see Alone in the Dark in the pics.

I think horror is a state of mind. Some games help get you into that state, some don't. Graphics can help, but there are many other methods, many of which are more effective than scary graphics. I'm far more scared by strange noises at night that turn out to just be a tree branch blown onto the roof than I am by the realistic skeleton Halloween decorations I have (which are awesome and creepy looking). It's not the visual that really matters, it's what's in your mind. Nobody thinks that books can't be scary just because they have lousy graphics, right? H.P. Lovecraft... Stephen King... Richard Matheson.... Edgar Allen Poe... that's scary stuff!

Games aren't scary for the same reason as novels though. Many of the old horror games like Resident Evil or Alone in the Dark are scary because you feel helpless in playing them. Your character has very little to protect him/her and with the clunky controls, even the player can't do that much to protect them from any real danger.

The scariest game man has ever created (Amnesia: The Dark Descent) is scary because nothing is safe. Turn out the lights, and you can't see the enemy and you lose your sanity. Turn on the lights and the enemy sees you and you lose your life. Oh, and no weapon for you. The fight or flight response happens, but fight is not an option for you. That's scary. I remember people saying the graphics for that game looked too lame to be scary, but then they played it and they had to change their mind and their pants.

The recent Hotline Miami has been getting a lot of negative responses from people that haven't played the game yet complaining about how ugly the graphics are, while at the same time the game is raking in 10/10 reviews from big websites and winning awards left and right. And yes, the graphics are ugly. But the gameplay gets you in that kill-or-be-killed mindset better than anything else out there, so Hotline Miami has become the new hotness.

Horror isn't about spooky looks. It's about horror, real psychological horror.

[Gamerforlife]

This generation places so much emphasis on graphics, graphics, graphics. Hell, it's the whole culture. I just saw an article on usatoday about the new ULTRA HD televisions coming out soon

If you think about what the average joe gamer considers "realistic" these days, it's just graphics. So what if the gameplay is not even remotely realistic? That's where the emphasis is on everything now. So the idea of a an old horror game on old hardware being scary is crazy to some people. How can something be scary without the most advanced textures, particle effects, draw distance, lighting effects, blah, blah, blah, etc. etc.

When someone says, "people used to find this scary LOL", they really just mean, "any game with old graphics like that sucks"

Read between the lines. People will tell you that the latest popular shooter is "immersive" just because its graphics are amazing, despite the fact that your guy soaking up bullets like a machine makes any kind of REAL immersion impossible. The average modern gamer's definition of "immersive" just means, "man, look at those freaking awesome graphics!"

Again, read between the lines

[Cronozilla]

I didn't really play Silent Hill at all when it came out ... but that game is creepy as hell even now. It's not the believability of being able to see every pour on Harry's face ... it's the tension of the situation and what the game is asking you to do. The threat of invisible children ghosts who like stabbing you while running around a derelict rusted out pitch black hell hole of an elementary school is always frightening.

As for modern graphics superiority complexes go ...

modern game graphics are actually pretty sub-par, they should be better right now, but developers don't HAVE to push it because the only current platform that can even do it is the PC, which they refuse to adequately support. I suppose it's shifting back again like it did in the late 90s ... but, I suppose my point is that, making your definition of good graphics based on dedicated, unmodifiable, years-old hardware ... doesn't make a lot of sense. There's a lot of console games that look wonderful, even beautiful ... but graphical fidelity is something else.

[AppleQueso]

This generation places so much emphasis on graphics, graphics, graphics. Hell, it's the whole culture. I just saw an article on usatoday about the new ULTRA HD televisions coming out soon

It's not "this generation", emphasis on graphics has been a huge deal pretty much since gaming became a big thing.

Intellevision was supposed to be better than the 2600 becuase the graphics were better. Just take any look at the Genesis Does ads, etc.

Graphics have always been a big deal.

[3DSStrider]

Honestly, I think that in a few cases, low poly graphics make things scarier. I guess it has something to do with the uncanny valley.

[AppleQueso]

Honestly, I think that in a few cases, low poly graphics make things scarier. I guess it has something to do with the uncanny valley.

I'd say we're a lot closer to the uncanny valley now than we were two generations ago!

[Xeogred]

I played Thief for the first time at the beginning of this year, and I'd say it is probably the scariest game I've played next to the Fatal Frame series (which actually gets in your head). Thief was also a different kind of scary and one I loved, it was just pure intensity. You're a fragile human guy with a measly sword that's next to worthless and can only take a hit or two before you're dead. You're constantly living in the shadows, or you're dead. The world was insanely twisted and weird. Suddenly, caverns with odd deformed dinosaur like monsters you know nothing about, random zombies, a mansion that's upside down, so many creepy things throughout. And of course the sound design took everything to the next level.

It truly blew me away in that regard once I really got pulled into it, I just can't stress enough how legit it was and how it was like one of the most intense games I've ever played, and its age didn't hurt it at all.

The Dark Engine in general just has a weird creepiness to it. The character models are ugly as hell, but really tall looking and creepy. Maybe in this regard its age helps, but yeah there were definitely times in System Shock 2 when I'd turn a corner and see one of those shotgun/wrench guys standing right in my damn face and it was scary as crap.

Games like Dead Space, Resident Evil, etc, don't really get to me at all. Cool atmosphere and all but that's about it. Fatal Frame is the only series that creeped me out because it gets into your head and then yeah, Thief, it was so out there and extremely weird.

[Goregasm]

I think sound is especially important with horror games, probably more so than graphics. The people that say that "old games can't be scary" probably have a much different definition of scary then we do. It takes more then unexpected loud noises and things jumping out at you to classify as scary for me. I'ts the same with movies aswell. Most people I talk to think that the shining is old and boring but that movie still scares me more then any modern horror movie

[Erik_Twice]

To be frank, most people haven't really played those games. Specially not Alone in the Dark, it's not the graphics you should complain about