Horror games and how to enjoy them as a chicken

(Wasn't really able to find a suitable existing post to ask this question, so decided to create a post)
Let's talk horror games.

I'm bad at dealing with fear, especially fear with supernatural stuff. Jump scare is a big nono for me in movies, games, and pretty much any interactive entertainment (well. ideally no jumps care in real life either). And it's not that I've never tried them. I've watched horror movies and got scared into a pile of crap. I've tried horror games and stop before anything happen because I couldn't deal with the suspense and the stress from anticipating a jump scare scene.

The one genre of games that is more acceptable to me is zombie shooter, but even then it's a case-by-case situation. I got through Left4Dead2 and Last Of Us pretty easily, but Dying Light was unbearable. So I'm not tooooo sure where I draw the line. Even BioShock Inifinite's opening scene had me really stressed out.

That being said, I've also heard a lot about some horror games that I really want to try: notably Soma and the Dead Space series. So here's the million dollar question:

Will I never be able to enjoy these types of games, or is there something I can do to help ease up this stress/fear when attempting them? Little quirks like turning up the light, or having some background music playing to mask the silence.

Yakkity Sax on repeat.

Maybe you'd be better off watching Let's Plays of the horror games that interest you. Then if you really want to play it some of the edge will be gone.

I'm really bad with jump scares and audio, not so much visuals, and I love horror settings. So, the things I'll do to manage the stress are:

1) Know how to immediately pause. I'll often just pause the game immediately when a jump scare hits. If I do that, I can collect myself enough to unpause and deal with whatever is going on.

2) If that's not enough, I just turn the audio down really low.

3) Garion's suggestion is actually pretty good. Or, if you could just get a friend to hang out with you while playing, that totally helps.

I've managed to get through quite a few horror games like Soma and Alien: Isolation, and it's always been worth it.

garion333 wrote:

Maybe you'd be better off watching Let's Plays of the horror games that interest you. Then if you really want to play it some of the edge will be gone.

That's a really good alternative... and not sure why it never pops into my mind. Probably because I'm always subconsciously filtering out those contents

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I've managed to get through quite a few horror games like Soma and Alien: Isolation, and it's always been worth it.

Glad to hear SOMA is worth it to you.. What prompt me to even create this post is because Soma is still up there on my wishlist and everytime I open up my "to-buy" log, it's staring down right at me

Jonman wrote:

Yakkity Sax on repeat.

Imagine using that as the generic background music for a survival horror game

SOMA, in particular, has just added an official "safe" mode where you can stop the creatures in the game actively causing you any harm, which I would say is a good place to start. I believe "Perception" does this as well, going by what I saw of Eleima streaming it.

In fact for me, I tend to prefer these sorts of horror games, where there's no active threat you need to worry about and you can just bask in the atmosphere. Stuff like Outlast, etc just ends up being either too stressful or too frustrating if you end up getting caught all the time and having to repeat sections. Much as I love Alien Isolation, it was the same and it was a hell of a struggle to get that game finished.

lucci.tonight wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I've managed to get through quite a few horror games like Soma and Alien: Isolation, and it's always been worth it.

Glad to hear SOMA is worth it to you.. What prompt me to even create this post is because Soma is still up there on my wishlist and everytime I open up my "to-buy" log, it's staring down right at me

Oh yeah, and Dead Space 1 & 2 are both really great. They'd be up there on my list too, but were also rough for me to get through. A lot of times I get over a hump at a certain point and jump scares bother me less. For example, you kinda get desensitized to getting caught by the Alien in Alien: Isolation at a certain point and can just immediately quickload if you know it's gonna get you.

Get on a conference call and talk to people. Making fun of the game also helps.

I watch Let's Plays of horror games. While some scare potential is there you do have a level of separation so it is a bit better.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Oh yeah, and Dead Space 1 & 2 are both really great. They'd be up there on my list too, but were also rough for me to get through. A lot of times I get over a hump at a certain point and jump scares bother me less. For example, you kinda get desensitized to getting caught by the Alien in Alien: Isolation at a certain point and can just immediately quickload if you know it's gonna get you.

This entirely. The first third/half of Dead Space was scary. The last half wasn't. I got used to scary aliens jumping out and it morphed from a horror-action game into a straight-up action game.

Once you fully upgrade the 1st weapon in Dead Space and it can shear limbs off in one shot they become a bit less scary.

I always put scary games on easy. It's not my favorite genre, and I don't need it to be a slog on top of the icky moments.

On thing my fiancee and I have been doing is play Fatal Frame together. Every room or so we'll pause and she'll catch up on a walkthrough. Then we'll go in knowing what to expect. She looooooves the genre, but it's too hard for her to play, so she'll ask me to play so she can still experience it.

If a horror game lets you turn the music all the way down, that's a good way to reduce the stress! No more ominous hum sounds and shrieking violins...

I'm very in the same boat. I love horror games, but have a really hard time playing them. This has been going on since basically forever, and I've never really solved it. The things I've done that have helped:

- Play during the day. When playing at night, I could only manage about 30 minutes of Fatal Frame. During the day, that goes up to a whopping 45 minutes! Yes, I timed this, it's consistent.
- Force yourself, reminding yourself that getting killed isn't actually the end of the world. Set a timer for an hour or whatever and commit to playing that amount of time on a schedule. The schedule part is important, because it's easy to play an hour one day, then not go back later because stressful.
- The most successful option has been to have a co-pilot, and talk as you play. The few times I've gotten my wife to watch me play a horror-ish game, my natural MST3K instincts kick in, and I noticed I had 0 stress, and it was great. Unfortunately, my wife's got no interest in watching me play horror games, so it wasn't a real fix.

So I took the suggestion of watching Let's Play instead of actually playing it... mostly for financial reason.

Picked Dying Light as a guinea pig because I've played some of it. While not really belong as a "horror game", I had enough trouble finishing it that I figure it's a good starting point.

I like it. Probably because there's someone narrating it as he plays, it sort of feels like you have someone playing with you (I guess that's the whole point of Let's Play).

I'm tempted to start on the Soma let's play video by Cryoatic... but I don't like his voice So I'm still searching through youtube to hopefully find a narrator I like.

Try this guy...

I love horror games probably because they affect me so much, but that does mean I struggle with them harder parts like having to do anything while scared! I have to be careful though because I'm home alone quite a lot and if I give myself The Fear it makes all the noises my cats make give me super adrenaline rushes, not good for the sleeping.

For games I know I won't be able to play but I want to experience I check if Hybrid Panda has played them, I just love his cheery voice narrating the experience The one I watched recently was Resident Evil VII, so good!

I played Soma with an unofficial 'wimp' mod before the official safe mode update came out. Without the frustrating hide-n-seek bits it's actually way better. One of those games where you wish you could wipe your memory to experience it fresh again.

I'm "middle wimpy." I've played a number of horror games, but I'm not someone who likes scary movies or tries to maximize immersion. I really enjoyed the Dead Space trilogy, but like many horror games, it relies on the tension of a few jump scares... and a whole lot of you thinking more jump scares could come at any time.

Psychologically, what helped is just accepting that taking a few unavoidable hits was part of the game, and why you got healing items.

But, my biggest tip: only play during the day with plenty of light. Don't play marathon sessions without breaks.

With Dead Space, in particular, there are a couple of pieces of what might be called "pay to win" DLC. Spending a dollars or two for really good armor significantly lowers the tension. You can also buy overpowered weapons if you really want a cakewalk, but I think that would ruin the fun by leaving you with no challenge. (You can also experience this in a New Game+.)

I'm playing Dead Space at the moment, and whilst it's very good, I don't think you'll enjoy it. There are a lot of jump scares.

Yes, you do kinda become desensitized to it after a while, but it's still stressful IMO.

Chaz wrote:

Play during the day. When playing at night, I could only manage about 30 minutes of Fatal Frame. During the day, that goes up to a whopping 45 minutes! Yes, I timed this, it's consistent.

Fatal Frame is the first thing that popped into my head when I saw this thread. And I still haven't played it. My thinking, when FF2 came out, was if it's not really that good? Then I've wasted my money. But OTOH what if it's really good? Then I'll never be able to sleep again.

I don't like jump scares because I think they're cheap. I've played Dead Space and Left 4 Dead, but they're just action games with dermatological issues. It's creepiness, usually of the straggly-haired Japanese ghost variety, that literally keeps me up at night. But maybe I should finally hit up a LP of Crimson Butterfly.

pyxistyx wrote:

Try this guy...

That hits the spot... way more tolerable than Cryaotic (no offense to him. Just personally). Cookies for you!

Also, I see a lot of you mentioning Fatal Frame... so I'm just going to wikipedia this game to pass some work time.

Fatal Frame is probably one of the best horror series I can think of. You're always dealing with Asian ghosts, and you always get a camera as your weapon. Since you're dealing with ghosts, they do a lot of "did I just see that?" kind of gags. When you fight, you use the camera.

To aim the camera, they put you into a first person camera with a restricted field of view. This thing acts like a shotgun, in that the closer the ghost is when you fire, the more damage it does. If they're really close, you do a critical hit, and knock them back. So basically, they come straight at you, and you have to wait until they're right in your mug before you shoot. It's a great mechanic that lets you fight, but the fights are terrifying.

The atmosphere is just fantastic all the way through. I've got the first three, but I never got around to getting the Wii U game. I'd love that to come out on the Switch so it's not stuck languishing on the Wii U.

Speaking of the horror pile, I just added Resident Evil 7 Gold to mine, because it was $20 and I'm very dumb.

Follow up: I put in about an hour or two of RE7 this afternoon, and it wasn't so bad!

I feel EXACTLY as you do about the horror genre lucci. It helps me to play with someone or to put on a funny or distractingly cute movie or tv off on a second monitor or TV. Kind of eases the tension in the room. OH and always play with lights on, lol

If you can handle Fatal Frame, try DreadOut as well.

Chaz wrote:

Fatal Frame is probably one of the best horror series I can think of.

If by "best", you mean "scared me more than any game since", then yes.