Weapons or no weapons in horror games?

[Cranky Old Man]

Reason for that is:
when a person finds himself in life threatening situation, basic instinct is to defend himself the way his mind is giving the orders to the body . It's subconscious even if the player is cornered and has no where to go. He/she is guided by instincts.

Yes, "you'd LIKE to" have a gun. You'd instinctively LIKE to be able to defend yourself. ...because that would improve your (characters) situation in terms of safety right then and there. ...but that's not the same as: "I'd like this game to have guns in it." Horror explores what happens when you CAN'T defend yourself - when you can't choose to fight, or isn't even given the option to choose between fight or flight. If fleeing bores you, then maybe you're looking for a game like Doom instead. Doom has some scary LOOKING monsters, but Doom 3 barely touched on the horror genre.

Fleeing is still a means with which to defend yourself: Respect the monsters as lethal, invulnerable killing machines, and stay as far away from they as possible. If they see you, it will mean a chase, then fleeing becomes your way of defending yourself. ...and if you fail that means, then you are greeted with impending certain doom. Impending certain doom is fine, as long as it's deserved.

...and it's not like it's hard to evade these monsters either. Even basket cases like PewDiePie, Markiplier and DSP, can evade them. In Thief, evasion was much more complicated: Players had to rely on shadows and the noise their footsteps made against various surfaces, and stepping on broken glass, or even metal flooring, meant detection and death.

I think I died ONCE in SOMA - I forgot to what. If the game gave me a gun in SOMA, I would try to drop it. I AVOIDED picking up the HUD implant in the beginning, because I didn't want any sort of HUD ruining the immersion, or telling me how many hits I would be able to survive, since it would ruin the fear.

Challenge is present in every direction, however player must feel he has something to rely and survive based on his accomplishments.

I experimented with revisiting locations and lighting candles as game mechanics in Amnesia. If you could go around lighting candles, and had a monster that couldn't see you, but responded to your vicinity, then you could possibly "build" something out of the level. Opening shortcuts past difficult sections would be another way to "accomplish".
This is on top of the basic mechanics of exploring the area that you're in, and growing familiar with it. Once you explore the very first area in SOMA, you discover that it's just one big loop. This would allow you a way to escape the monster indefinitely if it would discover you there. That makes that area pretty safe, and it becomes an asset to you.
You could also maybe find/buy softer shoes, or darker clothes, to aid you, if you want upgrades.

Personally when it comes to horror games, I'm not looking to "accomplish". I'm looking for a bitch slap to my face. With the exception of jump scares, and deaths being completely random, the more the game makes me its bitch, the better. If you presented softer shoes or darker clothes, I wouldn't buy them or get them. I would probably open up the shortcuts, however, since those feel more "earned" for some reason. Repeatedly going through hard sections, becomes tedious if they can be avoided.

---

In response to Old Man: based on your name I honestly don't know what I expected as a response, but that was rather cranky.

I am sorry if I have offended you. I just have very stern opinions. ...but after all, they're just the opinions of an old man, which you are free to dismiss.
In the end, after all our prayers and lamentations have been said, we all have to submit to the almighty will of Frictional Games. *bows*