Does Perma Death make a game scarier?

[Wapez]

Permanent death, meaning that the player has to restart the game when dying, makes a horror game scary in another way than it would have been without it, and changes the way that game will be played.


First of all, it makes the player care for his life more, especially when the game is of the horror genre. The player might hold back his feelings of wanting to explore and discover, because dying would be too much of a pushback for the risk to be worth it.
Secondly, it changes what the player is scared of. Instead of being scared of (using Amnesia as an example) the guardians, the shadow or torture events etc. (whatever you find scary), he will be scared, or maybe even more so, worried of his actual death. Not because the horrific atmosphere chills him to the bone, but because he has to start all over. And while this for some people might be scarier the first time, it certainly won't be during the third, fourth or even fifth time you play it.

And that's probably the worst thing about perma death. You have to play the same thing again. Horror games really aren't very fun to play multiple times, since you know what's going to happen and how everything works. The player will just rush through the maps he completed, unfrightened and fully aware of how to complete the puzzles, and then start to play normally again when he reaches the point of where he died the last time. But during the time it took to get back there, the mood pretty much got killed. He's been facing the monster without being scared, completing puzzles without thinking, and walked through scary events without being affected. That kills the feeling for the rest of the game too. Not to mention the frustration when he dies once again.

I think perma death turns a horror game into too much of a "survival-stay away" game, instead of actually putting the player in the core of the horror itself and scaring him to death when he's exploring the beautiful yet disturbing maps. In a good horror game the player will be caring enough for his life even if he can continue playing after death.

Now that's just me.