Hello Guys,
We are in the middle of creating a horror FPS game. We are fully aware that there are a great deal of people who hate horror games with a passion. If you are one of those people please reply to this thread as you will be helping us do research for our game. Why do you hate horror games? We need answers so we can avoid doing what majority of people hate. So spill it guys!
I hate most modern day horror games. Horror games nowadays are becoming way too cookie cutter and they lack all originality. Many of the horror games nowadays use cheap jump scare tactics, loud noises, etc. Theres no fun in being cheaply scared.
I’m a huge fan of older Horror games like STALKER, Silent Hill, Resident Evil Outbreak, Penumbra, The Suffering, Cryostasis, and Condemned. All the horror games that I love and have partially listed here are nearly perfectly done. Perfect amount of atmosphere, ambience, surprises, etc. Another thing I love about older horror games is the way they mess with your head and make you feel anxious, depressed, etc.
fully aware of what? what statistics do you have?
I also love the old style horror. I don’t find blood and gore scary, just disgusting and wouldn’t play a game like that. Use mystery, surprises, atmosphere, etc., to make a game scary, not splatters of blood and intestines.
I think there is probably a Dave Chappelle skit about black people at horror movies “providing commentary” about how stupid most of the characters are. The problem with games is the stupid one happens to be me, because I’m the one having to do it.
Add in a reliance on jump scares and cheap tactics, they just end up being far longer than I want to spend with them. Hell, that’s a good chunk of the reason I still haven’t gotten past a few hours of any of the shock games save for infinite.
I think in the year 1995 or so… i played Doom in my PC i played this games alone and i like that game in the start when times run the sound and the music started to irritate me and i puked 
… Then after few years later i played Alien vs Predator alone , again sound and the music started to irritate and scared me but this time luckily i didn’t Puke LOL 
… . What i am trying to say is if i play this games without sound and music i don’t think i would have scared that much or Puked. the Sound and Music are very important for any games especially for the Horror Games … again this is only my experience on Horror Games. and there is one game i liked… it is “Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines” Nice RPG and its like mine GTA
Because they’re not horrific.
Some games are too scary, or not scary enough.
stalker did it right, you have more control over your character, leaning, shoot stance, prone,
being able to bleed out… being effected by radiation, mind damage, heat damage
stalker has been the only video game that Ive been scared while playing…
stalkers levels are so dangerous, you can die at any moment, so you have to be suuper cautious,
you want to enter locations, like warehouses or buildings… you want to enter them, to see if you can find loot, but youre afraid what crazy stuff might be going on there that could instantly kill you…
i played it with mods to make it harder… i loved using a bolt action rifle, it made it alot more tense…
the feeling you are really weak compared to the enemy… like in the beginning you have a crappy pistol … once i got a good assault rifle, the game felt alot more boring haha
outlast, ive never played, but seen it played entirely, and it seems REALLY TOO linear… like only one path was available… maybe im wrong, i never played it, but it seemed lamely linear… and the fact you cant fight back, to me feels lame…
you should feel like you can fight back, but maybe, that your ability to fight back is weak
horror games generally just arent for me… im not scared by fake stuff… zombies, vampires, werewolves, ghosts etc… what scares me lol is thugs, like people breaking into my house and killing me while i sleep LOL… fake stuff is just lame…
stalker made it somewhat believable i guess… but really, its a shooting game, and the fear is mainly from “i can die at any moment, do i enter this building… ooohhh nooo im not sure i can handle it, i just have a handgun with 20 bullets”
the reason I hate horror games, is usually theyre full of fake crap … and people hype them up way too much lol … five nights at freddys is total crap… i dont get why anyone likes it ???
theres nothing really for me to say why it sucks, it just does… its like those games from 10-15 years ago that sucked even then…
all said… i suppose im not the person to ask, because, generally, i just will not care about ANY horror game at all… i usually laugh at what people think is scary, more than iam ever scared… like really most horror stuff is just comedic… unless its based in reality, like messed up psychos doing stuff i guess… but then, i just dont want to know about that stuff and its not entertaining…
i cared about stalker cause it was a shooting adventure game… but im surprised that i was genuinely scared much of the time, it made me feel like i didnt ever want to leave the safe zones, because the world was too dangerous.
Does he need an International Data Corporation research to find out some people don’t like horror games? lol
@OP: I hate horror and thriller movies and games, simply because I hate being scared/desperate. Really do.
I would be out of your target, for example. 
I think Alien: Isolation did a reasonable job at forcing you into situations where you had to learn how to use what tools are available to you against hazards such as the Alien, Synthetics, and other enemies. I think the only thing about that game that didn’t make it very scary was the fact that the music practically warns you when a dangerous situation is happening. Some people get more scared because of the music, but I think that any form of warning you when danger is coming takes away from the fear factor. In my honest opinion, people are more scared of what they can’t detect that can kill them as opposed to what they are aware of that can kill them. What did make the game a bit more on the scary side is the Alien constantly tracking you and its footsteps making you think it is close (especially if you have no idea where in the room it might be), however the Alien also gives a hint that it can see you by doing a certain hissing noise which gives the player a chance to react and kinda takes away from the fear factor.
Resident Evil 1 is a very good example of a horror game done really well. Not only do you need to worry about Zombies, but you have to worry about Hunters, dogs, traps and bosses. In the RE Remake you also have to worry about Crimson Heads (I don’t remember if they were in the original, I don’t think so but I could be wrong) where if you kill a Zombie and didn’t burn it, it would spawn as a faster and more lethal zombie making it much harder to complete your objectives in a particular room.
The item limitation in Resident Evil also made situations scary, because it’s harder to figure out what you’ll need before exploring the mansion and you have to determine what to prioritize between weapons/ammo, healing items and items that will help you progress through the game. Not only that, but you were pretty much penalized for killing Zombies (because ammo you use in the beginning might have an effect on what you can do in the middle of the game and also because of the previously-mentioned crimson heads). You had to be careful about your choices.
Edit: Sorry I know the topic is called “Why do you hate horror games?” and I don’t hate horror games unless they’re labeled as horror games but really don’t seem very scary.
I can’t stand horror games because it requires the game to jar and shock/scare the player which requires original experiences, but ofter horror games pile on the tropes and rip off anything original into oblivion. That or they get so far up their own ass they forget to be fun.
I think I’ve liked, at best, four horror games for their horror factor:
-Alone in the Dark
-X:Com
-Left 4 Dead
-Slender
Then as for the “popular” titles I can tell you why I didn’t like them:
Outlast - could not stand the pacing and the agressive screen filters all over the place.
Resident Evil - Cheesy Alone in the Dark clone with terrible story. Then it turned into an action game.
Amnesia - Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored. Also, this was better when it was called “Eternal Darkness”.
Freddy’s - Have not played it to be honest.
Dead Space - Very EA, and it was mostly action, not horror.
I hate horror games because most techniques to scare player (like jumpscares, gore etc.) are overused and it lacks originality!
Check horror movie reviews, they generally get bashed. This is one of the best horror movies ever made, possibly the best: 73 on metacritic. Stephen King, story goes, actually bought every seat in a single showing of the movie and sat right in the middle, just so he could enjoy the movie with zero interruptions. King of horror loves it, still people are like… meh.
People hate horror because it scares them, its horrible and they don’t like it. But they keep watching them, so horror makes money even though people hate it… maybe because they hate it. Ironic, isn’t it?
What you should be asking yourself, is how do you intentionally upset people in such a way that they can’t take their eyes off your game without going so far that they get grossed out and turn it off. That’s the ticket!
Do yourself a favor and read Danse Macabre, he basically tells you how to do it.
28 days later is awesome!! … i saw it more as an adventure movie…
not scary… interesting to imagine yourself in the situation… for the adventure… lol
people think of it as a horror movie?? … weird…
that movie i think is a HUGE reason sooo many zombie video games exist, while i was watching that movie, i kept thinking, what would i do in that situation? and it was so exciting…
i think the first thing i thought, when i saw the city empty of people was… damnn!! im gonna go get me a ferrari … or some expensive awesome car!! … loool
We must have seen two different movies, the 28 Days Later that I have seen twice was not a fun adventure.
nah same movie… i was a teenager i guess… and fictional horror literally has 0 effect to scare me… only like… being raped or killed in my sleep by thugs or something… or being nuked… or damn… lol i have alot of nightmares about airplanes hunting me down haha
… i guess i seen the thriller element, but it was more adventure thrill …
Well, to be fair, you can’t be scared of something that you are incapable of relating to. If your takeaway from 28 days is that it’s a thrilling adventure, but you’re scared of rape and being killed in your sleep or being destroyed by military psychopaths… literally, all of that is in the movie.
but it was a movie lol … fictional, scripted nonsense thats happening an unknown infinite distance and time seperate from my own…
…yeah… horror fiction has no effect on me lol … unless its “realizational?” like … “NUKES EXIST SUCKAH IT MIGHT HAPPEN WATCH OUT!!” lool
oooh… no… whats horrified me is documentary films… never fictional movies…
im waay too skeptical of a person, about everything… im really not the right person to be talking to about horror stuff so ill stop now LOL
Ok. So? Do you not relate to fiction, comedy isn’t funny because it’s on TV? Action isn’t exciting because it’s not really happening? I don’t think I understand what your meaning is.