Despite the horror genre having been popular in the video game industry for more than two decades by this point, this doesn’t mean that every developer has embraced horror with open arms. While there are many excellent horror games out there that contain all the spooks and scares that have become synonymous with the genre, some developers have created titles that may flirt with the idea of being truly horror-like, or even incorporate some creepy elements into the gameplay without diving headfirst into the genre as a whole.
Merging genres is always difficult, and while all the games listed below managed to do this extremely well, it does still feel as though they probably would have benefited from simply going all-in with the horror, creating an immersive and terrifying experience that will linger in players’ minds long after the credits roll. That being said, while the games below are still well worth playing, it would have been great for fans to have seen them lean into the horrifying aspects of their gameplay and stories just a little more than they actually ended up doing.
Resident Evil 5
Too Much Action Turned Resident Evil 5 Into A Shooting Gallery
To try and modernize the franchise so that it could appeal to a new audience, Capcom decided to fuse horror with action in Resident Evil 4. With the enemies being a lot faster than zombies, along with a brand-new third-person camera angle, the game did an excellent job at balancing intensity and scares with high-speed action to keep players engaged at all times, and when looking at how well the game was received critically, it makes sense that Capcom would try to replicate this once again for Resident Evil 5.
The truth is, many fans agree that the fifth mainline entry is where the series truly started to get carried away with the non-stop action. Because of how massive the swarms of enemies are, along with the addition of a second player, Resident Evil 5 can often feel like more of a mindless shooting gallery than an actual horror game, and this is an issue that only worsens as the game goes on. While Resident Evil 5 is still beloved for its story, lore, and important character moments, fans have long wondered how the game would have turned out if it had been a solo adventure that centered a lot more on horror, which the series has always been synonymous with.
Metroid Dread
Despite Being Darker, Dread Never Goes Too Far With Its Horror
There’s always been a creepy and eerie vibe to the Metroid games, but in the lead-up to the release of Metroid Dread, Nintendo emphasized that the latest entry would be a lot scarier than what the players are used to. As players reverse through each of the giant hub worlds, they will eventually encounter lightning-fast enemies known as EMMIs, robotic guardians who will chase Samus to the ends of the Earth in an attempt to capture and kill her. There’s no doubt that these sections can be pretty terrifying, but they only make up a fairly short portion of the game’s overall runtime.
Most of the game is simple Metroidvania gameplay where players must use Samus’ large variety of gadgets and weapons to navigate their way through each area. The game almost feels like it’s desperate to go full-on with its horror, but pulls back at the last second, probably because Nintendo didn’t want to get too carried away in order to protect their family-friendly image. Still, it’s fun to theorize how Metroid Dead would have been received if it had been a true survival horror experience that encourages players to scavenge every last missile they can to try and survive the hellish nightmare.
Firewatch
Firewatch Already Has The Atmosphere On Point; It Just Needs A Few More Scares
Most people will find it difficult to describe what kind of game Firewatch even is, since it doesn’t exactly fall into one specific genre. On a basic level, it could be classed as an adventure game, since players will spend most of their time wandering around a massive and vibrant natural landscape while talking with their new friend over the radio. As the game goes on, though, it starts to become clear that something sinister is going on behind the scenes, but outside, an animal making a loud noise here or there, there are not too many scares packed into the game to catch players off guard.
Firewatch feels like it was a perfect opportunity for the developers to get experimental with psychological horror. In a way, it could have been similar to something like Doki Doki Literature Club!, a game which seems innocent and cute on the surface, thanks to its visuals, but is actually a horrifying experience once players actually jump into the game. Because Firewatch never goes too far with its horror elements, though, it feels like a glaring missed opportunity, but with that being said, it’s still always going to be a relaxing time wandering around a sun-drenched forest in the middle of nowhere.
The Stanley Parable
The Quirky Choice Game Is Very Sinister, But It Could Have Gone Even Further
At its core, The Stanley Parable is a game that essentially acts as a parody of video games in general, though despite being quite comical in its presentation, it is still hard to ignore the unnerving atmosphere that can be felt while playing through the game. As players navigate their way through each room, they will have a narrator telling them which way to go, though whether players decide to follow their orders or rebel is completely up to them.
Because of the lack of music and other characters it creates this sense of dread that lingers throughout. At the end of the day, though, The Stanley Parable is primarily focused on its clever narrative rather than horror, so despite setting the perfect foundation for a mind-bending psychological horror game, the developers instead decided to keep it fairly simple. If the decisions players were forced to make were a little more creepy and unnerving, it definitely would have raised the tension of the experience a lot more.
Control
Remedy Could Have Taken A Page Out Of Their Alan Wake Playbook When Creating Control
Remedy is a development team that has proven time and time again that they are masters at creating horror games that can easily get under the players’ skin through their monster designs and spine-chilling characters. When creating Control, though, it was clear that Remedy was instead prioritizing the otherworldly abilities and environments as the main focus of the gameplay, with horror taking more of a backseat.
With that being said, the developers still inserted at least a few tricks and techniques that they had learned from their previous horror games into Control, such as the oppressive lighting, which goes a long way in amplifying the eeriness of the gameplay. While the game ultimately didn’t fully embrace horror, it’s hard not to wonder how it would have played if Remedy had made the decision to insert even more terrifying elements to prevent players from ever feeling truly safe while playing.
Tomb Raider (2013)
Lara’s Adventure Is Brutal, So Maybe Going All-In With Horror Would Have Worked
After the series began gradually losing steam in the mid-2000s, developers Crystal Dynamics decided to give the Tomb Raider franchise a fresh reboot in 2013. This would become an action-adventure game where Lara, stranded on a mysterious island, must do everything she can to survive by using any weapons and supplies she gathers along the way. Anyone who has played this game will know that Lara’s journey is a pretty brutal one, with the protagonist being shot, stabbed, and thrown around the environment countless times throughout the journey, giving the game a more mature and even slightly darker vibe that wasn’t really associated with the previous entries.
Because the game also plays like a traditional third-person shooter, it means that it can also end up feeling like a shooting gallery, making it difficult to insert too much horror into the experience as a result. The franchise has never been a stranger to incorporating spooky, spiritual, and even mutant enemies into its games, and the same could have been applied to this 2013 reboot, where the horror could have come from the monsters that Lara would encounter. Though the game largely resorts to using regular human enemies, it seems as though the developers were teasing the idea of going into a more horror-filled direction, but also wanted to jump on the latest trend of third-person shooters, which were taking over the industry at the time.