Happy Damned Halloween (like everything else, horror games trend toward multiplayer)

[ZedClampet]

Resident Evil 5 came out in 2009 and Dead Space 3 came out in 2013, both trying to capitalize on the multiplayer movement, but most of the trends these days seem to be set by indie studios.

The first commercial, asymmetrical horror game I remember was Damned, which came out in 2013. The only asymmetrical horror I'm aware of before that were all mods for other games, like The Hidden, a Half-Life 2 total conversion, which came out maybe 5 - 7 years earlier. There were some other multiplayer horror game total conversions in there, but I don't remember any big commercial projects.

But then Dead by Daylight hit in 2016 and, since then, the most successful horror games have mostly all been multiplayer, with games like DbD and Phasmophobia selling millions of copies.

And just in the last two weeks (thanks to Halloween), we've had numerous multiplayer horror games release, with several of them doing very well.

I mention this only because, as a singleplayer horror nut, it kind of saddens me that there is a huge disparity in how well multiplayer horror is doing now versus how well singleplayer horror is doing. You have a crappy, hobbyist game like Fear Surrounds, which came out 10 days ago, having thousands more user reviews than Amnesia: Rebirth that came out a year ago. And just in the last few days, Fatal Frame (admittedly probably the worst in the franchise) is getting trounced by In Silence.

You would have to be nuts to be a AAA developer and make an SP horror game these days, and that kind of sucks.

Okay, off my Halloween soap box....

 

[Pifanjr]

The first commercial, asymmetrical horror game I remember was Damned, which came out in 2013. The only asymmetrical horror I'm aware of before that were all mods for other games, like The Hidden, a Half-Life 2 total conversion, which came out maybe 5 - 7 years earlier. There were some other multiplayer horror game total conversions in there, but I don't remember any big commercial projects.

Does Left 4 Dead not count? It was released in 2008 and has an asymmetrical versus mode.

 

[Frindis]

I have never understood the horror multiplayer trend. I have tried some of them, but most of them just feel grindy and boring. Jeesh, ain't I the big pessimist
Visage (That game is killing my nerves!) and Alan Wake nightmare was recently released on Xbox Game Pass so hopefully, we get a bump in the SP scares.

 

[DXCHASE]

I was excited for 1 split second when i saw the PCG article "A Dune...Mutliplayer.." and got sad. I just hope that its good, i so want a good Dune game but i dont want to be forced to play with others.

 

[ToxicOffender]

I have never understood the horror multiplayer trend.

I guess too many devs these days are more like bandwagoners rather than creative minds, first they jumped onto the Battle-Royale-Bandwagon with releasing one BR-Game after another and now it´s happening with Horror-Movie-Franchises.

"KILLER CLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE" is actually just the next asymetrical-mp-game coming.

 

[ZedClampet]

Does Left 4 Dead not count? It was released in 2008 and has an asymmetrical versus mode.

Sorry to everyone. Don't know why I never came back to this thread. Hey, it's almost Halloween again!

People's opinions vary, and mine tends to be in the minority, but I don't consider Left 4 Dead a horror game. Zombies, by themselves, aren't more scary than anything else trying to kill you. Granted, I did find the weeping witch a little unnerving, but there weren't a lot of other horror components to the game.

But I'm not saying Damned was the first. It's just the first that I remember.

All that said, Rely on Horror considers any game with zombies to be horror games, a stance I debate with them occasionally. But they also think that Layers of Fear was a survival horror game, so side with them at your own risk

I have never understood the horror multiplayer trend. I have tried some of them, but most of them just feel grindy and boring. Jeesh, ain't I the big pessimist
Visage (That game is killing my nerves!) and Alan Wake nightmare was recently released on Xbox Game Pass so hopefully, we get a bump in the SP scares.

I have to admit that after all my whining in the OP that I've only played a couple of SP horror games since then, but have played a number of Phasmophobia-like games.

 

[Pifanjr]

Sorry to everyone. Don't know why I never came back to this thread. Hey, it's almost Halloween again!

People's opinions vary, and mine tends to be in the minority, but I don't consider Left 4 Dead a horror game. Zombies, by themselves, aren't more scary than anything else trying to kill you. Granted, I did find the weeping witch a little unnerving, but there weren't a lot of other horror components to the game.

But I'm not saying Damned was the first. It's just the first that I remember.

All that said, Rely on Horror considers any game with zombies to be horror games, a stance I debate with them occasionally. But they also think that Layers of Fear was a survival horror game, so side with them at your own risk


I have to admit that after all my whining in the OP that I've only played a couple of SP horror games since then, but have played a number of Phasmophobia-like games.

Phasmophobia definitely made me a lot more scared than Left 4 Dead ever did.