作者：Thomas Grip

将近10年前，游戏行业中出现了许多非常有趣和划时代的恐怖游戏，包括《寂静岭》（1999）、《零》（2001）和《Forbidden Siren》（2003）等。

自此之后，恐怖题材的电子游戏作品就没有发生过重大的改变。那么，怎样才能将电子游戏中呈现的恐怖感再推向新的高度呢？针对这个问题，我在下文中分享了自认为能够将恐怖游戏提升到更高层次的10个要点：

1、正常化

在多数游戏中，玩家通常会处在某些奇怪和非正常情境中。在我们自己的游戏《健忘症》中，故事发生在19世纪早期，主角在哥特式的城堡中醒来。在有些游戏中，玩家所控制的角色出于奇怪的原因而陷身于吓人的城镇和村庄中。所有这些都是相当异常的情境，很少人会真正碰到这种情况。

但是，其他媒体中许多优秀恐怖作品的情境就显得平凡自然。它们构建的场景能够让受众联系到自身和自己的生活。对于恐怖游戏来说，这意味着可以构建玩家相对熟悉的情境，然后在此背景下慢慢引入恐怖内容。

恐怖的目标不只是以游戏中的虚拟世界为背景，也应当具有一定的真实性。

2、长时间的酝酿

多数游戏都意图尽快让玩家体验到恐怖感。即便是像《寂静岭2》这样花相对较长时间引入恐怖内容的游戏，也在游戏的早期就呈现出恐怖元素。

问题在于，尽管短期的爆发能够呈现高层次恐怖感，但受众能够对比的内容越多，达到的恐怖感巅峰就会越高。

《午夜凶铃》便是个绝佳的例证。尽管电影也在很早就呈现出恐怖内容，但是从根本上来说整部电影都在努力构建最终的恐怖时刻。恐怖游戏也需要多使用此类方法，但是要实现这个目标，游戏需要具有两项普遍特征。

首先，游戏必须减少对重复性核心机制的依赖，因为我们想要让玩家尽量少处理真正的恐怖元素。其次，我们可能必须修改游戏长度，使体验的持续时间不长于3个小时，这样就可以专注于构建单个或少数几个巅峰的恐怖体验。

3、怀疑

许多优秀的恐怖故事会让受众产生问题，怀疑这种现象是否真正存在。主角是真正看到了鬼，抑或都只是他的主观臆想？

电影和书籍等其他媒体扎根于现实性，所以这种念头的产生是很自然的（游戏邦注：尽管维持这种怀疑并非总是件容易的事情）。但是在游戏中，玩家处在有着一定规则和实体的虚拟世界中，这减小了玩家的怀疑和想象空间。

解决这个问题并不是件简单的事情，但是我想首先要接受这份列表中的前两点：正常化和长时间的构建。如果玩家将游戏同“现实生活”联系起来，并且有足够的时间来牢固树立这种想法，那么他们最终会开始将虚拟世界中的特征与现实情况做对比。

最后，他们或许会开始怀疑，鬼怪和怪物是否真的存在。而且，游戏可以借用某些心智机制，但是必须做得更为精致。由此让玩家不再将其视为游戏系统，而是当成他们自身思维的内容。

实现这个目标不容易，但并不等同于无法实现。

4、最小化战斗内容

我之前曾多次提到这一点，但是它确实值得我再说一次。

战斗带来的最糟糕的问题是，它让玩家专注于与恐怖无关的内容，让他们忘却了许多对营造恐怖气氛颇为重要的微妙线索。它还产生了让玩家在游戏世界中体验到舒适感的核心游戏系统。这种舒适感不是我们想要的东西，我们的目标是让玩家产生紧张的恐怖感。

当然，战斗并非完全不适合恐怖游戏，精巧地使用也有助于营造气氛。比如，给玩家提供无效的武器，这样就会使玩家进一步加深在无助情境的绝望感。如果你向玩家提供强大的武器，就会马上让他们进入动作游戏的思维。

这并不意味着我们要弃用武器和战斗，只是应当谨慎地使用。找到合适的平衡点，这将是未来恐怖游戏面临的巨大挑战。

5、没有敌人

这里我并不是说不应当在游戏中添加威胁玩家的内容。我的意思是，我们不应该将任何添加到游戏中的生物视为“敌人”。“敌人”这个词会让我们联想到战争和肢体冲突，这不是恐怖游戏应当关注的内容。

它还让我们更少地思考这些生物存在于虚拟世界中的原因。“敌人”这个词是很容易贴到任何生物上的标签，让人们觉得只需要消灭或避开即可。毕竟，这就是战争的形式。

反之，如果我们将这些生物视为我们所创作的虚拟世界中的居民，那么我们就需要询问自己他们存在的原因以及他们的行为动机等。

这会给游戏赋予新的深度，使玩家的想象内容更加丰富多彩。如果我们将敌对生物构建成智能生物，那么我们就能够显著增加玩家遭遇的紧张感，让恐怖感更加强烈。

6、开放世界

这里我指的不是说恐怖游戏应当有类似于《侠盗猎车手》的沙盘化体验，而是说它们应当让玩家更自由地移动。多数恐怖游戏设置了特定的移动路径供玩家行走，即便它们有着可供探索的广袤世界，比如《寂静岭》。

我认为，未来的恐怖游戏应当允许玩家跳过某些地区，自由地前往世界的每个角落。这会增强玩家心中的真实世界感，其他相关情感也可能获得提升。

这个方面也同实现正常化的目标密切相关。摒弃强迫性的结构，塑造更加开放的世界，这样游戏的日常生活感应该就能够更容易地呈现出来。

7、代理

恐怖游戏之所以能够引起玩家的恐惧，原因在于它们能够让玩家感觉恐怖事件就发生在自己身上。其他媒体，尤其是恐怖题材的内容，都在努力地实现这个目标，但是对游戏来说，这种感觉的产生似乎是自然而然的。所以，恐怖游戏不利用这点优势简直算是浪费。

最大的问题出在过场动画上，尤其当游戏在玩家动作本应是最重要元素时将其移除。另一个问题就是上面所说的开放世界，玩家只能根据游戏设计选择特定路径和做出特定动作。

在这个方面需要改进的是，确保玩家能够参与到发生的所有动作中。场景是恐怖体验的关键部分。在所有可行情况下，玩游戏的过程应当注重于玩家个人的操作而不是单纯的观看。

8、反映

在各种媒介中，电子游戏更容易让用户产生责任感。如果屏幕上发生了某些由主角引起的事情，玩家也属于这些事情的一部分。这使得游戏能够影响玩家，让玩家在玩游戏时思考自己的行为。

过去游戏行业已经尝试实现这个目标，但是我并不认为目前已经成功。所谓的“道德选择”在游戏中相当普遍，但是却受到预先确定选项（游戏邦注：选择A、B或C）和游戏动态的束缚。

我觉得，选项的呈现应当更为自然化，让玩家真正感觉到是自己做出的选择。要实现这个目标，就必须呈现强烈的代理感（游戏邦注：即第7点内容），必须让玩家真正感觉到这是他们自己的选择（游戏邦注：这与上述“开放世界”的呈现有所关联）。

我还认为，这方面还可以进一步加深，而不是简单地测试玩家的伦理观。游戏可以将玩家放在非常不舒适的情境中，让他们能够真正评估自己。游戏还可以尝试诱惑玩家进入他们从未体验过但确实存在的思维状态。它可以探索善与恶的本质以及其他类似的主题，这是其他媒介无法做到的。最终，它可以将玩家引向某些个性化和恐怖的体验。

9、隐喻

真正能够让玩家感到恐怖的是隐喻现实生活的故事。这可以是《午夜凶铃》呈现的那种让人对电视机产生的恐惧感，也可以是Lovecraft的故事所勾勒的真实恐怖场景。

这些元素几乎完全未出现在电子游戏中，而且它与列表上述元素都有关联。正常化可能是最重要的，如果我们能够实现这个目标，那么将游戏元素与日常生活融合就会变得简单得多。

能够成功实现这个目标的游戏会将恐怖感提高到新的层次，让玩家在放下游戏控制器后仍然能够感受到。

10、人际互动

最后的提升方法也是最困难的方法：在游戏动作中融合人类戏剧。

其他媒体中的多数恐怖本质上并没有呈现真正的现象或情景，但是也能够对人们产生影响。《驱魔人》便是绝佳的范例，《闪灵》也是如此。但是，在电子游戏中，主要动作仍然会围绕各种静态对象或无脑敌人演变。通过直接对其他人输入玩家动作，恐怖变得更具个性化和紧张感。

实现这一点并不是件简单的事情。我的观点是，它不是个技术问题，而是设计问题。它让玩家产生更丰富的想象。

模拟全感知的人类确实是非常困难的事情。游戏经常会采用对话树等简单的解决方案。然而，游戏应当采用的是动作和互动方式，而不是像书籍或电影那样通过对话来呈现恐怖元素。

如何实现上述目标，这个问题仍有待讨论，但是任何贴近成功的进展和步骤都意味着能够让恐怖体验获得改进。

游戏邦注：本文发稿于2012年4月30日，所涉时间、事件和数据均以此为准。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

10 ways horror games need to evolve

Thomas Grip

Around 10 years ago, a lot of very interesting and ground breaking horror games were released. These include Silent Hill (1999), Fatal Frame (2001), Forbidden Siren (2003) and a few more.

Since then not much has happened in the video-game horror genre and little has evolved. So what exactly can be done to push horror in video-games further? To answer that I will here present a list of my top 10 things I think could take horror game to the next level:

1) Normality

In most games the player usually starts out in some strange and not very normal situation. In our own game, Amnesia, the story takes place in early 19th century and has the protagonist waking up in gothic castle. Not something very easy to relate to. Other games see the player has some secret agent, has them trapped in a spooky town/village, etc. All of these are very abnormal situations, and something few of us will ever find ourselves in.

However, much of the good horror in other media starts off very mundane. They build on the having the audience strongly relating to what is taking place and being able to draw close parallels to their own lives. For horror games this would mean establishing a very familiar situation and then slowly introducing the horror there.

The goal is for the terror to not just be inside the game’s virtual world, but to reach into the real as well.

2) Long Build-Up

Most games want to kick off the action as soon as possible. Even games with a drawn-out introduction, like Silent Hill 2, introduce the horror elements very early on.

The problem is that sustaining a really high level of terror is only possible in shorter bursts, and the more the audience has to contrast to, the greater the peaks intensity will feel.

Ring (Japanese version) is a prime example of this. While it does kick off the horror early on, the whole movie is basically one long build-up to a final scare moment. Horror video games need to embrace this sort of thing more, but in order to do so two common traits need to be let go.

First of all, the game must rely a lot less on a repeatable core mechanic, since we want the player to deal with actual horror elements as little as possible. Secondly, we must perhaps revise the game length and be satisfied with an experience lasting three hours or less, so that all focus can be on establishing a single (or just few) peaks of terror.

3) Doubt

Many of the best horror stories raise the question of whether a phenomena really exists. Is the protagonist really seeing ghosts, or is it all in her mind?

Since other media like film and books are very grounded in our reality, this sort of thing comes naturally (although it is still not always easy to sustain). However, in video games the player is in a virtual world with its own rules and entities, and this leaves little room for the player to doubt if anything could really exist.

Solving this is no easy feat, but I think a first step is to embrace the previous two entries in this list: normality and a long build-up. If the player relates to the game as “real life” and gets enough time to establish this idea, then she will eventually start to compare any features of the virtual world with the real.

Eventually she might start doubting if the ghosts, monsters or whatnot are really there. Also, some sort of sanity mechanic can also do the trick, but it must be a lot more subtle then any previous attempt. The player cannot see it as a game system, but has to view it has a feature of their own mind.

This is not an easy thing to establish, but that is not the same as it is impossible.

4) Minimal Combat

I have talked plenty about this before (see here and here for instance), but it is worth stating again.

The worst thing about combat is that it makes the player focus on all the wrong things, and makes them miss many of the subtle cues that are so important to an effective atmosphere. It also establishes a core game system that makes the player so much more comfortable in the game’s world. And comfort is not something we want when our goal is to induce intense feelings of terror.

Still, combat is not a bad thing, and one could use it in ways that evokes helplessness instead. For instance, by giving the player weapons that are ineffective, the desperation of the situation is further heightened. This is a slippery slope though as once you show a weapon to the player it instantly puts them in an action game mindset.

That does not mean weapons and combat should be abolished, but that one should thread these very carefully. Finding the right balance is a big challenge for future horror games.

5) No Enemies

By this I do not mean that there should be no threats to the player lurking about. What I mean is that we need to stop thinking of any creatures that we put into the game as “enemies.” The word “enemy” makes us think about war and physical conflict, which is really not the focus in a horror game.

It also makes us think less about why these creatures are in our virtual world. The word “enemy” is such an easy label to put on other beings, and then not worry about anything except that we need to destroy or avoid them. This is how wars work, after all.

If we instead think of these creatures as merely inhabitants of our virtual worlds, we need to ask ourselves why they are there, what their motivations are, and so forth.

This brings a new depth to the game which is bound to color the player’s imagination. If we can establish our hostile beings as calculating, intelligent beings with an agenda, we vastly increase the intensity of any encounter and can make the terror so much stronger.

6) Open World

By this I do not mean that horror games should strive to be GTA-like sandbox experiences, but simply that they should allow more freedom of movement. Most horror games set up a very strict path for the player to follow even if they have, like Silent Hill, a large world to explore.

Instead, I think future horror games should allow for the player to skip certain areas and to go about in the world in a free way. This increases the player’s feeling of being in a real world, increasing any emotions associated with it.

This is also closely related to the goal of achieving normality. Without a forced structure and more open world, it should be easier to give the sense of everyday life.

7) Agency

Horror games are so effective because they can make the player feel as though they are there when the horror happens. Other media, especially in the horror genre, have to try really hard to accomplish this, but for games it comes almost automatically. It is then a waste that many horror games does not take advantage of this properly and destroy the sense of agency in all kind of ways.

By far the biggest culprit are cutscenes, especially when they take away control at scary moments when the player’s actions should matter the most. Another problem is connected with the open world entry above, with the player constantly being fed where to go and what to do.

The way to go forward here is to make sure that the player is involved in all actions that take place. The scenes that are so often left out (and replaced by cutscenes) are often vital aspects of the horror experience. Whenever possible, the playing should be doing instead of simply watching.

8) Reflection

The video game medium tops all others in giving its consumer a sense of responsibility. If something caused by the protagonist happens on the screen, the player has been part of that. This opens up for the game to be able to reflect itself upon the player and to make players think about themselves while playing.

Games have tried to do this in the past, but I do not think it has come very far yet. So-called moral choices are very common in games, but are hampered by being obvious predefined selections (choose A, B or C) and by being connected to the game dynamics (making the choice more about what is best for the player stats wise).

I think that the choices need to come out as much more organic for the player to truly feel as if they have caused them. To be able to do this, a strong sense of agency (as mentioned in the previous entry) must be achieved, and the player must truly feel like it was their own choice (which ties into the “Open World” entry above).

I also think that this can be taken a lot further than simply testing the player’s ethics. It can put player in very uncomfortable situations, and really make them evaluate themselves as human beings. The game could also lure them into mind states that they never though they had in them. It can explore the nature of good and evil and similar subjects in a way that would be impossible other medium. In the end this can lead to some really personal and terrifying experiences.

9) Implications

What really brings some horror home is when it has implications in real life. This can be something like the fear of TV sets that Ring manages to achieve, or the bleak and disturbing universe that Lovecraft’s stories paint.

Elements like these are almost entirely missing from video games, and again it ties into other entries on the list. Normality is probably the most important, and if we are able to achieve that, it will be much easier to tie elements of the game into everyday life.

A game that can achieve this successfully takes the horror to a new level, by being something that the player carries with them long after having put down the controller.

10) Human Interaction

The final entry will also be the hardest one: to bring human drama into the game’s actions.

Most horror in other media does not have the phenomena/situation per se as its focus, but instead its effect on people. The Exorcist is a great example of this, and so is The Shining. However, in video games the main actions still revolve around inanimate objects or brainless foes. By typing the player’s actions directly to other people, the horror gets so much more personal and intense.

Achieving this is not an easy task. My opinion is that it is not a technical problem, but one of design. It places a larger burden on the player’s imagination.

Simulating a fully (or at least seemingly) sentient human being is a really hard problem. Simple solutions like dialog trees come often out as stiff and prefabricated. Instead, one should go the route of simple actions, like the hand-holding in Ico, and build upon that by being vague and hinting instead of trying replicate a book or movie.

Exactly how to go about is an open question, but the any steps closer to success can mean a lot to evolving the horror experience.

End Notes

That concludes my 10 steps for better horror games. It will be fun to see if they are still valid 10 years from now or not. If you have any other ideas on how to evolve horror games, please say so in the comments! (Source: Gamasutra)