Horror in videogames - Videogame History #45 - Retro Review

gabox (68)in #gaming • 6 years ago (edited)

One of the things that I love the most in a video game is the unknown and more when it comes to a title that has to do with terror, as time went by the video games that covered this genre have evolved from a surprising way, making players experience feelings of anguish or panic as if it were real life, this can not resist any person, that is why these video games have an exclusive audience that have previous experiences that allow them to face different types of situation and control the nerves on several occasions, although the latter is very difficult.

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Despite the fact that we currently have very realistic horror games, this was not always the case, as indicated previously, this was a genre that evolved, its beginnings go back to the early 80s, with a video game called Mystery House, where We took the role of a detective who had to investigate a series of murders in a mansion, but there was a murderer in the shadows, they were the first steps of feeling discomfort and suspense because if we made a mistake our life would be in imminent danger.

Mystery House (Apple II)
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The graphic evolution caused a great change within this genre, this allowed the developers to innovate so that final consumers could have a unique experience that was separated from any other videogame, games like Project Firestart or Sweet Home served as foundations for future projects for his advances in history, drama, suspense and many more features, giving the necessary foundations to welcome him to one of the games that is considered the father of the Survival Horror, Alone in the Dark in 1992.

Project Firestart (Comodore 64)
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From this moment the terror in the video games took a quite radical change, the fear for opening a door of an unknown place, that an enemy appeared surprisingly making our heart beat fast or face a boss which we have no idea of how eliminate it by making our hands go cold are experiences that we can hardly feel with another type of video game, obviously the developers knew this, seeing the great impact that Alone in the Dark had on the gamer community came a great avalanche of video games They had many surprises.

Alone in the Dark (PC)
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Between 1995 and 1998, terror played an important role in classifying it in several types of games, such as the graphic adventures with the Clock Tower video game or survival with Resident Evil and Dino Crisis, video games with unique stories and experiences that caused a fear of being introduced in their worlds, but an inevitable addiction to know how was the outcome of their story, however there was a video game that sealed in history a point and apart delivering what we know as "psychological terror", Silent Hill.

Resident Evil (Playstation)
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It was no longer just a matter of survival, now it was a totally twisted world where the environment, the sounds, the music, creatures that were fears linked in the mind of our character, scenarios where light was the most sacred element, fatigue and exhaustion to know that there is a lack of life or bullets for our weapon among many other things made escalate terror on an unimaginable scale, sometimes I am surprised by the great creativity that developers have to move our mind and keep an unexplained attention in front of our console and the TV.

Silent Hill (Playstation)
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In 2001 came an element that had not been taken into account in an important way, the ghosts and photography, this was observed thanks to Fatal Frame, a videogame that made us experience an abyss of emotions with its beautiful protagonist and her great camera, to be able to visualize a ghost, take a picture or suddenly appear behind us with a terrifying scream was very shocking at that time, but that same year a video game caused something very curious that had not been seen in any other, Eternal Darkness , fear was an important factor in our protagonist, if his bar of "fear" rose to great levels the game made us understand that we no longer had control directly in the gameplay, distorted our screen, deceived us by making us understand that we deleted our games saved or it seemed that the video signal of the console was lost from the television, just a video game worth remembering.

Eternal Darkness (GameCube)
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In 2005 there was a big point and apart with one of the most recognized sagas changing in an unexpected way his own video game, Resident Evil 4 gave a new way of representing suspense and terror, despite the fact that many of the fans of This great saga did not like it, it can not be denied that it was the inspiration for many videogames that came out later, without a doubt it gave us enough hours of terrifying entertainment in those years.

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Since 2006 with the technological breakthrough of both the pc and the consoles, the realism arrived in a celestial way in the horror games, this we could see clearly in games like FEAR or Dead Space, they gave us to understand that it was not only the surprise element that could affect our nerves, but also the "realism" that amazed us in each step we advanced in its history.

FEAR (PC)
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But the point where the role of "photorealism" and virtual reality comes in, from 2014 a videogame in the form of DEMO hinted that horror video games would enter a new era, Silent Hill PT showed impressive realism photo effects causing a great impact on players of this genre, later with virtual reality video games like Outlast (2013) made jump out of fear and panic to an infinity of gamers who had days without touching this video game for the great terror that caused them in their minds.

Silent Hill PT (Playstation 4)
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Personally I am a fan of this type of video game, they are the only ones that can give me an experience that no other videogame can give me, have the volume on top, light off, and have control in our hands, concentrating and getting into the story assuming the role of our protagonist and suddenly that a simple sound make our beautiful bristle, hit a jump or throw the air control and make a scream that is heard even on the moon is something that is unique to be able to feel, but it is a pleasure to see how we eliminate or exterminate that enemy that gave us suffering for a long period of time.