Sunday, November 4, 2012

Scary Games

I know its a little late for Halloween but I wanted to recommend this free horror game called Slender: The Eight Pages.  It's a short but creepy game based off of the big-foot like mythos of an internet meme named Slender Man.

best slender man
An alleged photo of Slender Man 


I don't want to ruin the game for anyone who might play it so instead I want to ask if anyone agrees with me when I say that video games are way scarier than movies.  Honestly, I haven't seen a horror movie that has scared me in a long time, but there's something about a horror game that makes them scarier.  I think this is because in a movie the characters on screen are the ones being threatened.  However, when you play a video game the avatar is suppose to represent you, so any threat feels more like a direct threat to yourself.  You're the one slowly edging forward, shining your flashlight in all the dark corners.  You're the one constantly turning around to see if you're being followed.  You're the one walking down the hallway, putting bullets in the heads of all the corpses just to make sure they don't stand up and attack you as soon as you turn your back.  In my personal opinion, scares are just another good example of video games' powerful ability to elicit an emotional response.

1 comment:

  1. I totally agree with you here. Games can be terrifying, if they're done right. My little brother played left 4 dead when it came out (2008--so I was 17 and he was 13-ish) and he played it alone downstairs in our basement with the lights off. this is one of the only times i've heard my brother scream, and he proceeded to shut the game off (after playing for a few hours when he couldn't stomach it anymore) and came up to my room, woke me up and made me sit with him and talk about how terrifying it was. i also think there's a definite competitiveness in horror games moreso than other games, but not about player talent or technique but rather how long you can handle a game like that. i have just recently gotten over my unadulterated denial of horror movies but i will still not play bioshock with the lights off.

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