Okay so hear me out, horror is not that bad. In fact, I would argue that horror is a great genre that has not even reached its full potential in any form of media. Look, I get it, there are million terrible pieces of horror media out there, and not everybody is like me and enjoys consuming stuff that fails on almost every level.
However, if we take a look at the horror media that does it right, and the genre as a whole, I think that there are so many topics and themes that could be explored through this medium that people might otherwise not even talk about.
When it comes to video games, there are really two camps of horror game: the big budget and the indie. As you can tell from the image I'm obviously a fan of a lot of well known horror games, such as Resident Evil 4 which is arguably one of the best action horror games in existence currently. (The Evil Within 1 and 2 do a good job of expanding on this concept too, even if the story is total nonsense the design and gameplay are phenomenal). Even though there are plenty of great examples of triple A horror titles, I think the real potential is in the indie development scene. Whether it is a full original game or just a mod of another game, indie developers have proved time and time again that they can take things to the extreme in really interesting ways. One of the best examples of this is the developer of the Amnesia games- Frictional games. The Amnesia series is one of the most popular indie series to come out in recent years, and while there have been a lot of great indie titles, there has yet to be another series that gained the same level of acclaim and attraction. Personally, Amnesia is not my favorite horror game by any means, but it does have a lot of really great world building elements and covers a wide variety of things in a really interesting and specific setting, as well as a whole myriad of fan made mod campaigns that can also contain interesting stories. Frictional games also developed a game by the name of Soma, and while it is not as action packed as Amnesia is, this developer decided to throw all reason out the window and cover the extremely challenging topic of being conscience and what it means to be alive. I won't spoil anything, but the game is sort of old and cheap now so I would highly recommend that you pick it up and give it a try.
In my opinion, these games are proof that video games have so much literary and artistic merit, and the fact that people are so quick to dismiss that before they even really look at the story or all the details that went into making the game is incredibly frustrating. A lot of games are inspired by literature, I can think of three games based around H.P lovecraft's work (Eternal Darkness, Call of Cthulhu, Bloodborne) and all of these games explore really dark and twisted stuff that some people would not even think to see in modern literature, let alone a video game.
I just think that if we want to appreciate all forms of art, we should really appreciate all forms of art, and that includes giving horror games a chance. I get it, they're not for everybody, but I am confident that there is at least a single piece of horror fiction that will speak to you if you just look hard enough.
Thanks for reading, I hope you'll take the time to check out some of the stuff I've mentioned, but since I'm a huuuuuuuge nerd I'm going to write out a whole list of horror game recommendations right here:
Eternal Darkness
Resident Evil 7
The Evil Within 1 and 2 (and all the DLC)
Resident Evil 4
Ib
F.E.A.R series
Lone Survior
Soma
Little Nightmares
Playdead's Inside
Alan Wake
Until Dawn
Dead Space 1 and 2
Outlast 1 and 2
Alien: Isolation
The Cat Lady
The Metro Series (More survival than horror but still)
We Happy Few
The Forest
Kholat
Cry of Fear
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