Gaming in Hell [Hallowe'en Special]

Hallowe’en, that time of year those little gits outside annoy the hell out of you further by coming onto your doorstep asking for candy… little bastards. But if you are like me then you are never home for the festivities or you are home, but everything is under strict lock-down to watch a crappy horror film.

But this year, it might be an idea to take a different approach to Hallowe’en and play a scary game that will get you all shivered up! Sounds like a plan? Well then my side-show traveling friend… read on!

Making Hell

Now, we all know to turn the lights off and sit in the dark is a pretty good way of playing a scary game, but there is a way of increasing the horror element.

These little tip-bits should help you get the most out of a horror/scary game rather than it just being another romp through. You see, to make a game scary involves a little extra work rather than just loading the game up. Oh no! So here’s the deal on how to setup your evening of ruining perfectly good sets of underwear!

Get you back to a door or window

A tip from my brother who is a bit of a horror lover and published author of a number of bizzarro books said that to really get a good experience of horror is to have your back to a door and leave it open slightly. This increases paranoia and leaves you wondering if somebody is there or not. Trust me on this one; in a dark room with a door open a-jar, you can’t help but to think that somebody is there!

If this is not possible to have the door open or even have a back to the door then try and crack a window open and have a back or arm exposed to it. When the chill blows through on a tense part of the game it will really add to your paranoia and might scare the living hell out of you!

Remove distractions

Sounds odd but the idea here is to immerse yourself in the game without thought of what is going on around you. So starting to play a game with the washing machine going and keeping an eye on when it will finish will ruin the experience of horror completely as you have a world outside that’s safe. Lots of people say it’s bad to loose yourself so much in a game, but this is something I think is important to getting the most out of a horror game.

So if you remove distractions, you focus on the world in the game, if anything happens outside that game world, you’ll be sure to get some new underwear!

Surround in sound

Half of how horror works is the sound. Take this for example; think of the sound of a dentist drill, nobody likes it and we all tense up when we hear it… and that’s just the sound. The sound leads our fear, be it no sound or a lot of it, just be sure it’s in the game!

An affordable way of having great sounds is to put on some headphones as they will block out the outside noise. Obviously noise-cancelling ones are the best in this situation, but anything that you can hear with clarity is great. But if you got cash, then a 5.1 sound system is awesome as you’ll hear noises behind you, and with the other two points I’ve metioned, this will surely make you so paranoid that they could possibly be after you. The best in my opinion… 5.1 surround sound headphones… noise-canceling ones at that!

Right, so with those three key things in place (as well as all the the lights out in your room), you are ready to pick a game!

What To Play In Hell

It’s almost gamer law to play certain games on Hallowe’en if you’re not going to watch a scary film or out for a party.Yes there are those who don’t like scary games and/or films so if you are one of them then why are you reading this?

Rather than select from a list of current-gen games I’ve racked my head for some of the best horror games I’ve played and can remember. I’ve also tried to stear away from the obvious choices that are so often metioned so I’m looking more for black sheep.

This is by no means a conclusive list but some of the best that did stick out for me.

Siren Blood Curse [PS3]

It hasn’t got the best graphics,camera angles, or even gameplay; to be honest, it’s bloody difficult to play due to the poor choices in development. But this adds to the charm of it being a focking scary and the only game I can’t play because it’s too tense for me! But to play the game properly you have to play it in the dark at night… alone. My friends bought me this title for my birthday the end of 2008 and I’ve only a quarter the way through. But thanks to it being a short and punchy game, this a good for a late night Hallowe’en gaming session alone (it is a Saturday night any way so no work for us office drones the next day).

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis [PSone and GameCube]

There is a particular reason why I’ve selected this Resident Evil over the others; it’s the subtitle! Yes, Nemesis makes this game the reason to play on Hallowe’en. Unlike other Resident Evil games, this one uses the creeper feeling of being watched all the time and never knowing when it’s safe to stay in one place as Nemesis is always after you. There were a few times where you set down in a safe place to sort your equipment out, to find that when you leave the equip screen, Nemesis makes his appearance and scares the hell out of you; and yes, you will only have limited health!

Silent Hill 2 [PS2]

Silent Hill really did make us think how survival horrors should be played by putting a nobody in the middle of unspeakable horror and never fully explaining the who, what or why thus leaving the gamer to solve the riddles. But Silent Hill 2 was the one that did it with one of my favourite horror figures of all time, Pyramid Head! It’s because of him that this game really did work for me, any “thing” you see for the first time gang-raping other unspeakable “things” by himself in a kitchen with the garbage disposal unit going has got to take the cookie! But the story was something else as well leading to question your character to some great lengths. It’s a shame the US studio that took over the Silent Hill games messed it all up.

Dead Space [Xbox 360 and PS3]

Although very action oriented, it works to give you the scares in the traditional shock-tactics way of horror so that you run down a hall way and “RARR! I’m a scary thing” pops out. But it adds an extra level in that everything you need to do in the game is all done in real-time; so traditionally if you needed to sort out your equipment, look at a map or read/watch something, the game would stop in it’s tracks and let you get on with it, but Dead Space removes that so although you are able to pause the game, this stops the game the same as a movie; so if you want to look at all the important in-game stuff, you’ll have to be aware that you are a sitting duck. This adds to the horror as you can’t stop the game to sort your guns out but rather carry on even though you are about to die.

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth [Xbox]

One reason this game gets in there and it’s not because it’s based on certain H.P. Lovecraft novels but when you have to do the chapter “Escape the Fishmen” where you are escape the villagers in Innsmouth! Anybody who has done this know the thrill and how many expletives where shouted while doing this. Those of you who played on a PC with the wrong setting will know it even worse, like I did, when it was impossible (no kidding) to do that bit.

So hopefully those games will provide an experience that should keep you up all night. To add an extra little thing here, if you’ve never played the game then it’s perfect as although playing something through again can still provide frights but not in the same way that a new fright does. Rather than playing what you know, treat yourself to something that will trick you!

Concluding Hell

Hopefully you have learnt a thing or three here and will put it to good use. By all means this is not an exhausted list of games and ways on increasing your fright factor, but should certainly help in giving a start on getting some kicks out of scaring yourself this Hallowe’en. If you think of any extra ideas and/or games I haven’t then please suggest in the comments and maybe next year I’ll add them… if you’re alive to see it!

That was totally a cheese ball line! Sorry…

Related posts:

1. Dead Space Extraction [Wii First Impression]
2. “Play Dante’s Inferno, Go To Hell”
3. BAFTA Gaming Award Voting Open