Suggestions for Future Horror Games

[Zaffre]

I would like a horror game that is mentally disturbing.

One problem I had with Amnesia was that the monsters were too normal. Sure, Brutes with their facelessness look horrifying, but it has a rather traditional way of killing you: a stab. That's too normal. I would like a video game with an enemy that's so strange and bizarre it will chill the player to the bone. I'm thinking a shadow that subtly changes its size and / or shape every moment you look at it, and for no reason other than to fuck with your mind. As the creature closes in on you, it specifically develops very eerie humanoid features, but with just something odd about it, like having legs on top of its face. When you look at the shadow, you will only see a face smiling at you through the darkness, and nothing else. The face bears an impossibly wide grin, a smile stretching across the entire screen. As the shadow attacks, its limbs and neck suddenly curls into giant bizarre spirals that slowly wrap around your body, inflicting no visible pain, but enshrouding you into deeper and deeper darkness. When you die, all you see is that face smiling at you through the darkness. Game over.

The environment should be an enemy too. In outdoor places there is no monster; the very area wants to destroy you. As you get closer to the heart of the environment, your vision distorts, you start seeing strange laughing faces hanging in the air, jeering and taunting you. If you get caught by the environment - i.e. falling into one of its traps - your vision will become completely distorted until you see a landscape that horrifies you to the bone. Game over.

Spoiler below!

I think the whole "faces in the dark" idea is overdone, but a bizarre enemy is a good idea. Consider the opposite of this. You'd better hope you have enough battery to keep that light on, because when it goes out the only safety measure between that monster and you is gone. It hides in the shadows and you're impervious to it in the light because the light will keep it at bay. When you enter the darkness, there's nothing keeping at bay.

Even worse, it's invisible in the darkness. You literally have no idea where it is so you could be walking straight into it with no idea. The Lurker is different because the splashes show you where it is and it makes enough noise that you can safely see where it is when it's standing still or chasing you. But the monster here? Nope. Not a single trace of it until it swallows you.

There should be some kind of early warning system, though, otherwise it would enrage a lot of players. Maybe a deep inhale/exhale sound from time to time or a slight distortion in the ambience or music to signify that you are not alone.