Blog: "10 Ways to Evolve Horror Games"

[AspiringFailure]

SH 2 wasn't about the group of people, though. The direction wasfocus exclusively on James. The other characters were inserted with the purpose of SUPPLEMENTING James's course, in order to make it more eerie or disturbed, or to add more variety and keep the player enticed. The problem is that they felt misplaced. No in the good way that seeing a wheelchair outside of the context of a hospital feels misplaced, but in a bad way. Like they were tacked on. Now there are some inherently deep ties that the characters have with the game, such as how the help direct the story from one part to another, but the only character that ever should have been there was Maria in my opinion. Allowing James to interact with other real people just ruined the mystery of the town. Execution does not solely mean the personality given to the characters. They're placement and purpose are important, too.

It's important for me to say, too, that I don't strictly think the inclusion of people always RUINS horror games. No, they don't. Sometimes they DO work out for the better. But they ARE NOT necessary for the game to be better, nor does their inclusion make the game better. It really depends on the kind of atmosphere the game is shooting for, if the people are beneficial or not.