With the Halloween season in full swing, one can’t help but notice something. Being a huge fan of horror games, I’ve noticed the recent decline in the genre. Not too long ago game companies had the right idea, but their urge to be overly creative took over. There are some basic points on how to make a good horror game, and I want to bring up a few of them.

The first being weapon balance. The general fear factor goes down if your character is a walking armory like in Left 4 Dead. No one is afraid of creatures when they are walking around with a chain gun or a grenade launcher. I keep seeing this more and more with games like F.E.A.R. 2 and Resident Evil 5. Just a few years earlier we had games like Condemned: Criminal Origins where your weapon is whatever you pry from the environment.

Amount of blood and gore is important, but at the same time is the hardest to balance. Games like Saw have a spray of blood everywhere and hope it creeps people out. In actuality, at the most it just disgusts players more than scares them. Games require only moderate amounts of gore to set the tone.

Range is another key factor in horror games and one that continues to be forgotten. Clive Barker’s Jericho and Deadly Premonition are extremely guilty of this. In both games you can see your enemy off in the distance and take potshots from long range. Seeing a creepy monster or undead human is only horrifying if it’s up close and personal. Most games have it so that you can see your adversary thirty yards away and eliminate them with a few well placed rounds.

One of the most horrifying aspects is background noise. Creepy, well placed background noises will keep people’s nerves on edge. The best horror games in the industry have the player’s nerves on edge with the sound of scratching or heavy breathing. Using the audio keeps the players nerve’s frayed and keeps them paranoid in between the huge scares. Most recent games have creepy music and stop there.

Not many people consider my final point as a major factor, but lighting can change someone’s fear level almost instantly. I used to work in the digital media field and lighting is the basis of emotion. Good or bad lighting will affect the fear factor more than any of the above factors. Doom 3 had this nailed down to near perfection.

Now I’m not sure if it’s laziness or just ignorance, but game companies insist on taking shortcuts or giving the players an extreme fire power advantage. A few years ago everyone had the right idea. Granted it could be game companies trying to get creative, but then again sometimes old mechanics work best. I want to give a little short list of games that got it right. Please keep in mind I am only putting games on this list that I’ve played or watched extensively. Also I am only placing games on this short list based off their fear factors alone.

Games that got it right:

Doom 3: iD had the perfect idea when it created this first person shooter. My brother and I spent the first 45 minutes being freaked out and we never saw a single enemy. Using superior lighting and audio, this game sets the standard for scaring players senseless. Even with the high powered weapons, there is limited ammo and what enemies you encounter take a fair amount of shots.

F.E.A.R.: Of all the first person shooter games that had a horror element to them, only F.E.A.R. and Doom 3 executed properly. Focusing less on the lighting aspect as the general imagery, this game found the perfect balance of blood. Many of the events that take place mess with your mind and leave you paranoid through the rest of the game.

Condemned, Criminal Origin: Along with Dead Space this game really sets the standard for horrifying combat. Using whatever you pry from your surroundings (ex. Crowbar, wood plank…manikin arm) you try to defend yourself in some dark, scary environments. With voices in the background fraying your nerves even more, this game has a high fear factor.

Eternal Darkness: This game has a unique fear factor in the confusion it induces and the way it messes with your mind. Often whenever you walk into another room it’ll be upside down, your character will be a zombie, there will be a fly buzzing on the screen or other random instances like that.

I also threw together a quick list of recent games who almost had the idea. Most of these games had potential, but my little rules I listed above were forgotten.

Deadly Premonition: This was an interesting game for sure. However, the game had it set up so the enemy was visible from twenty yards away and even on normal difficulty my pistol had infinite ammo. The game did good with the control of blood and lighting. While the game had its creepy moments it was far from scary.

F.E.A.R. 3: While it was an improvement on F.E.A.R. 2, the most recent installment to the series was far removed from the first one. Every now and again there was a little random scare, but the game left a more shooter like environment and left out many of the fun and creepy things that made the first one great.

Resident Evil 4 & 5: The most recent installments in this classic horror game has shifted far away from scaring players and into mindless zombie killing extravaganza. There was never a scary moment. Walking around with grenade launchers and a magnum with unlimited ammo reminds me that I can go Rambo into any area and leave unscathed. If they can change the lighting a little and aim for a more fearful idea the Resident Evil games could be horrifying again.