Feardemic Weekly Round-Up #4
An interesting fact about video games is that they are arguably the only entertainment medium that is not categorized by narrative genre.
Movies, books & comics are all split between fantasy, romantic, thriller, comedy, science fiction, adventure, horror… and so on and so forth.
Albeit the logical distinction between video games and all other mediums is that the former are interactive, thus the need to put the gameplay mechanics into perspective during their categorization, this leaves to the consumer a wider way to interpret the genre when the narrative component of the game is a prevalent part of it.
Let’s take the horror genre as an [absolutely not casual] example of this conundrum.
What is a horror game?
Depending on which generation you got initiated into video games, the first title coming to your mind upon reading “horror game” might be different.
If you were a PlayStation fan in the late 90s, the universal symbol of horror games for you was probably Resident Evil – a game that made the “survival horror “ gameplay popular and that inspired countless other series. Back then, survival horror games were characterized by fixed-camera angles, resource management, and crippling control schemes.
However, if you are a slightly older player that grew up with desktop computers in the early 90s, chances are you were familiar with the terrifying “graphic adventures” produced by Horror Soft Ltd., such as Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, Personal Nightmare, or Waxworks.
Then again, players from the 2010s era are very familiar with “first-person horror adventure” games such as Amnesia, Outlast, or Layers of Fear.
And in every era, we have bumped in everything in-between what we have mentioned so far: in the late 80s arcades Splatterhouse was the go-to horror game, whilst in the 90s the “rail-shooter” The House of the Dead was the standard for horror arcade experiences.
There are multiple complex “role-playing games” based on the Cthulhu mythos, and at the same time side-scrolling platform experiences such as DARQ are still horror.
And in all of this, most of these completely different games also have settings that vary from contemporary, fantasy, sci-fi, historic, and more.
So, what is a horror game?
If you ask us, a horror game is any gaming experience that evokes the most important of human emotions: fear, trepidation and revulsion. These are the feelings that keep us safe and warn us of impending disaster, and in turn frame our understanding of joy, elation and happiness.
Cross-medium horrors news
After having talked for so long about the diversity that can be seen in the horror gaming scene, allow us to mention another recent case of things that got mixed up in the name of horror.
Ever heard of the synth-pop/witch house band CHVRCHES? Well, the legendary horror-movies director John Carpenter certainly did, because his personal remix of the band’s ‘Good Girls’ hit has been released just today.
Check it out on Spotify, and if you want to know more about it head out to one of our favorite sources of news regarding horror: Bloody Disgusting.
Latest news from Feardemic
Let’s close this weekly round-up with a recap of what happened in the house of horror in the past few days:
The physical edition of DARQ is now available for preorder — unless you have been living 6 feet under the ground, this news should have popped into your email inbox and/or social media feed at least twice over the past ten days. If not, stop wasting time and go secure your copy on Limited Run Games now!
Scott Millard has been appointed as CEO and President of the company — while this information might sound appealing just for people wearing expensive suits with deep pockets, it is actually a change in structure that will shape the future of Feardemic games and their communities. Many interesting things are happening in the shadows, and we can’t wait to unveil more to you all.