Things you like and hate in Horror Games.

[VaeVictis]

On the topic of fictional children (or characters) being killed:

I think it works when an actual emotional connection is made to the character through making it clear that the person is an individual. We should know about their personality. The writer should not assume that just because the character represents A Child that the player will care. That's my problem with Bioshock's rather empty exploitation of soulless children for ineffective "emotional" moments, and that's the issue with AMFP's use of kids too.

In that aspect, Amnesia 1 was alright with making us feel empathy for the victims of Daniel. Less so with linking that girl to Hazel - I wish Daniel's sister had a larger role than just loading screen text.

As for themes and AMFP: the main theme for that game was Industrialized Horror, and I personally thought it was a great dark take on the 'steampunk' motif. It was a lot more sterile and 'cold' than I'd imagined a pig-themed game to be, however.

Pretty much. Silent Hill is as guilty as any of this, too (as well as the hyper sexualization thing, too). Funny though, I never really noticed these things until someone pointed them out to me.
I understand that they wanted to pull emotion from the player, but you can only play that card so many times before people start to get wise and see it coming a mile away.