Weapons or no weapons in horror games?

[Kreekakon]

I can definitely be able to cook up some further thoughts on this topic given the time, but off the top of my head here's a bit of what I've thought of.

We can take a look at one of my favorite games: Dead Space 1 and also horror games in general. In Dead Space 1 you have weapons. You can kill the Necromorphs. The game is also obviously meant to be scary.

However the time I found myself scared (Albeit minimally) in Dead Space the most was when no combat was taking place. I could hear Necromorphs scittering around. I was suffering from insane visions of the demented crewmates.

When the Nercomorphs showed up however, I was in power. I could kill them. It was in these segments that it turns from a claustrophobic horror experience into an action game where you aim and shoot. Horror effectively takes a backseat.

Dead Space may be argued as a poor example since it is as much action as it is horror, but I believe it highlights a very large issue surrounding weapons in video games. The moment you hand players the power to fight back, then the players will be able to do exactly that: fight back. When you are able to fight back then the elderitch monsters which are after you become video game enemies.

This issue is also present in even the legendary Silent Hill 2. Normal enemies are not scary because you have the means to kill them off. EVEN IF you didn't had the ammo to kill them at the moment they were also no longer scary because the game has already established that these beings are beings which are capable of being felled by your trusty weapons. They had already been dethroned as a horror icon. Before you stood not a horrifying creature, but a 3d model driven by AI in the game's framework that you currently did not have the ammo to kill.

Some also may argue that this issue can be solved by lessening the effect of the player's weapons to heighten the tension and make the game less focused on action. But to this I direct you towards Alien Isolation. Once you acquire the Flamethrower, careful strategic planning can make the Alien never able to touch you again. The Flamethrower fuel burns extremely fast but like I said, proper planning will make the Alien significantly depowered in the face of the previously weaker player.

I suppose the point is this: Weapons empower the player and give them means to strategize against their foes. Once they have the ability to strategize, the horror icons in the game world become pieces on a chess board to strategize against as opposed an overlooming force. It de-horrors the icons which are one of the very important generators for the fear of the game.

Taking it even a step further: I believe that in Amnesia and SOMA, the game is scariest when the monsters are NOT part of the gameplay AKA stealth sections. Even putting them as monsters in these parts greatly detracts from my horror experience because now I view them as guards that I must avoid and a gameplay strategy element as opposed to a horrifying presence.

AMnesia and SOMA were always scariest to me from a narrative perspective which left things up to my own paranoia and imagination and also when I knew I could take the game at my own pace without "fear" of unwanted enemies breaking my sense of flow in the game forcing me to not get killed.