The cinematic and survival horror games of 2024 prove that taking risks is keeping the genre alive
Dec. 10, 2024Year In Review | The magic of the horror genre is its constant reinvention
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Roads untaken
I’m glad Alien Isolation 2 will be a sequel instead of a remake, proving that survival horror has a future beyond rehashing its past
As said in myHellblade 2 review, Ninja Theory’s haunting cinematic sequel pushes the technological limits of what the Xbox Series X is capable of. It’s both a video game and a narrative experience, putting greater emphasis on the latter at times to create what many might (incorrectly) dismiss as a horror walking simulator with combat encounters. This is not necessarily a huge risk, seeing as Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice follows a similar puzzle-centric structure, but the fact that so many hold that design factor against it is a point of interest to me.
Hellblade never pretended to beGod of WarorAssassin’s Creed Valhalla. It is neither a Viking action game nor a Norse god power fantasy, but a deeply harrowing character study of a mentally ill woman facing horrors inside and out. I was glad to see Ninja Theory doubles down on those themes further in Hellblade 2, proving something poignant: horror is not meant to be approachable and easy to digest. It doesn’t always have to be a high-octane combat thriller like thebest survival horror games. Horror can have powerful, human stories as a central driving force, and there are too few of such games out there right now. By refusing to conform to genre conventions, Hellblade 2 stands out as one of the most important horror games in recent years – and there’s nothing “safe” about it.
Bokeh’s risks paid off to deliver a truly singular horror game.
That said, Hellblade 2 was a known quantity from aMicrosoft-owned developer, and thereby affords itself a degree of preconceived quality. The same cannot be said of November release Slitterhead, a fresh horror IP from a brand new studio.
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Risk is the secret sauce that keeps the horror genre in a constant state of growth.
On the other side of the risk-taking coin, we have Silent Hill 2. As a remake of a beloved classic horror game, the pre-release concerns were absolutely rife; from asinine griping overcharacter remodellingto just how faithful Bloober Team would be to its source material, there was plenty more bad sentiment than good floating around it earlier this year. But Silent Hill 2 wowed critics and the public alike. Its biggest risk? Modernizing the gameplay in line with the third-person perspective popularized by the Resident Evil remakes.
In hindsight, making adjustments to conform with an industry standard is perhaps theleastrisky thing Bloober Team could do – what else is the purpose of a remake, after all? – but in reality, the decision carried a lot of weight. The fixed camera angles fed into the constant terror of the original, with something always lurking just beyond the player’s field of vision. Allother changes were made to accommodate this perspective shift, from more complex combat to reworked puzzles, expanded world exploration, and monster functionality itself. In a way,Konamitook a risk not by innovating on the horror genre, but by rebuilding its most iconic game for an extremely critical audience and daring to stand by its decisions.
From shooters to zombies, here are thebest horror gamesto play next.
The Thing Remastered shadow drops on PC and console with a new trailer showing how far the cult classic survival horror shooter has come in 22 years
