Horror games have always been a genre that I shy away from. The idea of knowing something lurks in the room ahead and having no other option than to walk in and face it was too much for me. I’m not saying I jumped every time a pixel moved on-screen… but let’s just say my controller has had its fair share of airborne adventures.
The issue for me has always been down to being in control. At least when a movie, you can look away or pretend you are watching but you are actually looking at the brand logo on the TV frame so nobody notices you are too chicken to actually look at the screen. With a game, you need to stay in control or you can’t progress. You need to fight the monster or solve the puzzle in time, press the QTE prompts etc.
You know those moments where your character is standing in front of a dark, ominous doorway and you’re torn between coaxing them forward or just… not? Yeah, initially my default choice was ‘nope, not today’.
Gradual Desensitization FTW
A few games from the Dark Anthology series made their way onto PlayStation Plus and I decided to give them a go. These games felt like a reasonable middle ground between being in control, and allowing the events to unfold on their own. There are QTEs and plenty of scenes where you must control the characters, but the game does firmly fall between being a game and a movie.
I am not going to lie, the game scared me on numerous occasions, but, like eating spicy food, the more encounters I had with the unknown shadows, the more I started to get used to it. The jump scare still gets you but when you saw it coming, it’s not so bad.
Turns out, there’s a strange kind of charm behind that sweaty palms, heart-racing sensation. Who knew, right? So, the question now is do I attempt to take the venture into the genre of video game horror a little further? Has my journey through the Dark Anthology series given my nerves enough of a wake-up call to be able to handle the likes of Resident Evil?
There’s a buffet of terror out there waiting to be played. I still stand firm that games with punishing difficulty levels are not for me, which puts the Souls franchise and Bloodborne out of reach, but there are plenty more games that have shown up on my radar in the past but were dismissed. Silent Hill maybe?
There’s no saying how far I will get with this. I am coming in with an abundance of confidence that I might have the stones to not be too scared to make it through the game but that confidence could be quickly smashed out of me by something too scary for me. I guess there is only one way to find out!
