The horror genre has long been popular in gaming. It doesn’t quite have the appeal and pull of RPGs and sports games, but horror is a powerful genre in its own right. The question is, why? Well, we know horror movies have been popular for decades. We can go all the way back to 1931 and Tod Browning’s Dracula to see that. Then, of course, the iconic Alfred Hitchcock came onto the scene and made horror mainstream with movies such as The Birds and Psycho.
Other directors have taken the baton and ran with it since Hitchcock left us, but they’re not the only creative types to do so. Video game developers have also embraced horror as a genre. It’s generally accepted that the first mainstream horror game was Haunted House. Released in 1982 for the Atari 2600, the game was labeled as a survival horror, but there were clear puzzle elements to it.
The Birth and Evolution of Horror Games
That game sparked a new wave of horror offerings from a variety of developers, including Nintendo. The genre was taking shape, but elements from other genres were already creeping in. For example, Monster Bash, an arcade game from Sega, was first released in Japan before hitting the US a year later in 1982. It’s seen as an action-horror because there are various challenges that require quick reactions, logic, timing, and skill. All of these action elements are wrapped up in a cloak of horror.
Bring it forward to today and the two genres are still intertwined. Resident evil was almost exclusively a horror game when it was first released in 1996. By the sixth installment of the series, action was the order of the day. The 2012 game sold 8 million copies, but critics were split on its departure from its horror roots. The addition of campaigns moved it into the action arena, but subsequent Resident Evil games moved back to the survival horror genre. A horror franchise drifting into action and back again is interesting, but the question is why does this happen?
Action is a Genre that Welcomes Others
The first reason is that “action” is a holistic genre. Look through some popular action games online and you’ll see that they incorporate fighting, platform elements, shooting and other skills. Because players need to use various skills, action games can take place in a variety of settings. From medieval RPGs and 5v5 real-time fights to hero-based MMORPGs, the options are almost endless. If all of these genres can come under the action banner, why can’t horror? The answer is, it can and does. However, if we dig a little deeper, there are specific reasons why horror and action go well together.
A core component of action games is combat. Horror survival games tend to put players on the back foot i.e. you’re trying to avoid confrontations. Action horror games put players in an attacking mode. This creates a more dynamic experience that some people prefer. What’s more, it gives developers the chance to crank up tension-inducing elements such as the use of shadows, music, and unexpected twists that players have to react to. Essentially, action elements make horror games more dynamic which, in turn, injects a sense of pace. A lot of players enjoy this, which is why horror has absorbed the best bits of action games and will continue to do so.
