Weapons or no weapons in horror games?

[Cranky Old Man]

So... you're asking for Dark Souls but as a horror game?

Who are you responding to exactly? I was the last poster, but that doesn't mean much.
Dark Souls still has weapons. Just as I don't have guns, I certainly don't have any swords or armour either. Dark Souls is also in third person, which makes it at most HALF as immersive as a first person experience.

Bloodborne might be a decent fix if you have a PS4. It is an excellent game from what I've heard.

I'm not after "fixes". I'm not a game junkie. I'm content with not playing games if there aren't any good ones to play. I've got real and actually important stuff to do most of the time.

Also are you sure it's not your mindset keeping you from relating to characters with weapons? I mean this kind of mindset: "I haven't played the game yet but I just KNOW I can't relate to this character - oh great, she has a gun, my immersion is broken before it even fully formed".

She is a she, she has a gun (or a sword, or other possessions that I wouldn't have), she is seen in third person, she has dialogue, she makes choices that I wouldn't make, et cetera, et cetera. All of that breaks immersion. Does Super Metroid scare you? If Super Metroid was in first person, featured YOU, armed with nothing but a rolled up newspaper and some pocket change, no special abilities, and you could only monologue "Mommy!" in a quivering voice as the monsters came at you, then Super Metroid would be scary as fuck. ...because you feel like the monsters aren't coming at a game character - you feel like they're coming to eat YOU.

Approaching things more open-mindedly might benefit you! Maybe those games that felt immersion-breaking will actually be thoroughly enjoyable if you stop fretting over whether the character's ideal to relate to. If I nitpicked like that, every game involving even the mildest violence or played through the eyes of a male protagonist would be completely unenjoyable because it doesn't reflect me (and thus I can't relate to it).

Next you'll be recommending Final Fantasy to me.

First of all, I'm not out to "enjoy games". That's not what my life is about. Games are something that you waste your life with. It's like if SOMA was a piece of cake. I bought it because I heard that it was a very TASTY piece of cake. That doesn't mean that I want to find out where all the cakes are and eat all of them, because ultimately cakes will make you obese. If I play a game, I want it to be an experience that I feel has some worth. SOMA explores existential issues, and challenges people to piece together a mystery, and is about unarmed survival. These skills can be useful after you've turned the game off, so I feel like it's been less of a waste of time. I feel enriched. This is also why I stay faaaaaaaaar away from games like Final Fantasy, because that's basically game crack.

Secondly, I can relate to a lot of things, but when it comes to horror, the more I relate to ME, the more horrified I will be.
The only other way to make me fear for a character, is if it has fallen afoul with the game creators. In Halloween, Laurie Strode is ugly and obnoxious, and the first Clock Tower ALSO features an ugly and obnoxious character. I don't feel like she "has the right to live", so the saving graces of the game creators are somewhat out of the picture.

That's one of the beautiful things about video games! You can experience something you would never experience otherwise without fearing long-term consequences. As the old addage goes, you can walk a mile in someone else's shoes, and that is wonderful for a whole multitude of reasons.

Well, that's nice and all, but as I said, that doesn't work for horror.


Every time I hear somebody requesting a gun in a horror game, I question if they're trolling, or if they have any clue about what a horror game is. Having a gun almost nullifies the horror in a horror game, because a gun is a tool of extreme safety. Horror games that have guns in them, has those guns only DETRACT from the horror. I don't understand why anybody of right mind would want to have guns in a horror game, if it wasn't for a want of lessening the scares.
Is that it? Is SOMA too scary for you?