New Psychological Noire game - Inside

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My theory is that combat can actually work in a horror game, but that it is quite difficult to implement it in the right way - thus making it a lot easier to create a good horror experience by leaving it out completely.

I think the important point is that in order to not destroy the horror experience, combat has to carry a lot of weight. That doesn't mean that it has to be artificially difficult (since frequent player death does not help create fear in an atmospheric way), but every encounter with an enemy must feel meaningful to the player and create more emotion instead of putting him in a mindset where he'll be distracted by thoughts of health points and damage.

The aforementioned Condemned does this quite well in my opinion. When fighting, every hit feels like it has enormous impact, both when you hit an enemy as well as when you're being hit. How much life your enemy has can only be seen though his body language. While actually not being that difficult, fighting in this game always feels like you're desperately fighting for your life. The fact that you're up against living, thinking humans instead of mindless monsters also helps give the confrontations more emotional impact.

However, with that being said, Horror which involves combat definitely creates a different range of emotions than horror which focusses on fleeing and hiding. The first tends to create stress and panic with quiet, suspense-filled sections often tending to evoke fear-induced agression in the player (who might even start actively seeking out the enemies) while the latter is obviously more about feeling helpless, weak and paranoid while avoiding all confrontation. Both can be a great experience but one should think carefully about what suits the game at hand best.