Serimah wrote:Strangely enough it was the quiet moments that would freak me out the most in Amnesia.
Water monster? No problem. Being hunted? Alright.

Silence? OH GOD NO!

It's always those tension-building moments that get you. When it's been silent for a while in a horror game, you know something bad is going to happen soon. The thing that gets to you is that you don't know exactly what to expect or where and when to expect it. I think that's what made the scare in SCP-087 so effective, minus the fact that I stood there staring at the thing before walking towards it.

LukeDude759 wrote:

Serimah wrote:Strangely enough it was the quiet moments that would freak me out the most in Amnesia.
Water monster? No problem. Being hunted? Alright.

Silence? OH GOD NO!

It's always those tension-building moments that get you. When it's been silent for a while in a horror game, you know something bad is going to happen soon. The thing that gets to you is that you don't know exactly what to expect or where and when to expect it. I think that's what made the scare in SCP-087 so effective, minus the fact that I stood there staring at the thing before walking towards it.

Dan Pinchbeck, head of The Chinese Room mentioned this in a blog post of his on horror in video games.

This is what Frictional understood so brilliantly with The Dark Descent. the first hour of that game is not terrifying because of not having any tinder boxes, or some visual FX to suggest you are going a bit nuts. It’s terrifying because of what is missing. And what is missing is a monster.