What separates stealth from horror? - Gaming Thoughts
Been playing Outlast and a few other games that either have stealth elements or are all about being sneaky and going around enemies without being caught and this thought sort of came to my mind: if horror games have stealth in the idea of hiding, moving past monsters without drawing their attention, and overall trying not to get caught, what really distinguishes actual stealth from a horror situation?
The obvious answer is what you're sneaking past: it's the monsters. But what if you had the ability to knock the monsters out? Or kill them outright if you were daring enough to try to get close to one of them? Would that lessen the horror of getting caught anymore? It would be easy enough to argue that, yes, it would lessen the horror value of the game if you were able to defend yourself. Yet there are plenty of instances in horror where attempting to get past monsters through combat can be as just as harrowing. The trick would be to make it not feel easy, to make the fear of failing the attempt more intimidating than actually slipping past the monster unseen.
So what else would separate most modern stealth games from horror games? The combat is already an idea that can be carried out by both and has simply been ignored. It's not part of our current genre of horror. Resident Evil 7 has horror and combat, but whether it sets any trends anytime soon has yet to be seen. The idea of having multiple monsters to worry about, limited ammunition, and monsters that pursue you that combat is only a means of temporarily putting them down may well be something that we see in later games..but I digress from my original subject now.
I think what primarily distinguishes most stealth games from horror is the number of enemies that the player often has to sneak past. In many stealth games, like Mark of the Ninja or Splinter Cell, there is a multitude of enemies, often all on different patrol routes that cross one another. The challenge of the game comes from distracting the right guards, slipping into the patrol routes at opportune moments, and if necessary, eliminating guards through lethal or non-lethal means. Hiding bodies, breaking lights and using gadgets are all part of the stealth genre. Thief has various arrows and steampunk tools, Splinter Cell has Fisher using a multitude of gizmos, and Mark of the Ninja has bamboo darts and other distraction items or ninja weaponry.
Horror, on the other hand, often doesn't have a multitude of enemies if stealth is involved. If running in blind terror, it may be quite a few enemies that one has to worry about...and certain stealth games also have a habit of pushing for multiple mindless enemies, where stealth often functions like it does in the other genre. However, lately, horror games have opted to shift towards a "one enemy" motif. I feel that this is because of how they decide to portray the enemies that the player has to slip away from. Outlast, for instance, has a number of enemies that are unique and have a striking personality. The fact that they also hunt for Miles/Waylon relentlessly, that no weapons can be used, and that the game is in a first-person perspective with limited "quiet" movement may have a lot to do with the choice.
But even that can be done in other "non-horror" stealth games if done well enough. Thief, for example, has several instances where the atmosphere of horror blends into it. There only becomes one monster, or perhaps various monsters that are all quite a bit more powerful than regular enemies. Suddenly, taking down the monsters becomes a hard task and one that is often difficult to undertake without the possibility of failure. There are options but the fear of getting caught becomes more embedded thanks to the atmosphere presented and the monsters themselves.
This is all been a roundabout talk of sorts that I don't intend to have formatted in any given sense, but the point comes to mind that, really, games with stealth options don't have to push too hard to make horror happen. This may well just be the fact that horror can be introduced to any genre if done right and make itself known without much hassle, though I intended to look primarily at the current horror genre as compared to other stealth games. In that regard, the primary differences are the use of atmosphere continually through the game, the monsters or madmen to avoid, and how the stealth is paced as well as the options available becoming very limited. That being said, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to imagine a horror game later taking what should otherwise be a "normal" stealth game and having it become horror simply by rearranging the aforementioned traits to present a horror situation.
The obvious answer is what you're sneaking past: it's the monsters. But what if you had the ability to knock the monsters out? Or kill them outright if you were daring enough to try to get close to one of them? Would that lessen the horror of getting caught anymore? It would be easy enough to argue that, yes, it would lessen the horror value of the game if you were able to defend yourself. Yet there are plenty of instances in horror where attempting to get past monsters through combat can be as just as harrowing. The trick would be to make it not feel easy, to make the fear of failing the attempt more intimidating than actually slipping past the monster unseen.
So what else would separate most modern stealth games from horror games? The combat is already an idea that can be carried out by both and has simply been ignored. It's not part of our current genre of horror. Resident Evil 7 has horror and combat, but whether it sets any trends anytime soon has yet to be seen. The idea of having multiple monsters to worry about, limited ammunition, and monsters that pursue you that combat is only a means of temporarily putting them down may well be something that we see in later games..but I digress from my original subject now.
I think what primarily distinguishes most stealth games from horror is the number of enemies that the player often has to sneak past. In many stealth games, like Mark of the Ninja or Splinter Cell, there is a multitude of enemies, often all on different patrol routes that cross one another. The challenge of the game comes from distracting the right guards, slipping into the patrol routes at opportune moments, and if necessary, eliminating guards through lethal or non-lethal means. Hiding bodies, breaking lights and using gadgets are all part of the stealth genre. Thief has various arrows and steampunk tools, Splinter Cell has Fisher using a multitude of gizmos, and Mark of the Ninja has bamboo darts and other distraction items or ninja weaponry.
Horror, on the other hand, often doesn't have a multitude of enemies if stealth is involved. If running in blind terror, it may be quite a few enemies that one has to worry about...and certain stealth games also have a habit of pushing for multiple mindless enemies, where stealth often functions like it does in the other genre. However, lately, horror games have opted to shift towards a "one enemy" motif. I feel that this is because of how they decide to portray the enemies that the player has to slip away from. Outlast, for instance, has a number of enemies that are unique and have a striking personality. The fact that they also hunt for Miles/Waylon relentlessly, that no weapons can be used, and that the game is in a first-person perspective with limited "quiet" movement may have a lot to do with the choice.
But even that can be done in other "non-horror" stealth games if done well enough. Thief, for example, has several instances where the atmosphere of horror blends into it. There only becomes one monster, or perhaps various monsters that are all quite a bit more powerful than regular enemies. Suddenly, taking down the monsters becomes a hard task and one that is often difficult to undertake without the possibility of failure. There are options but the fear of getting caught becomes more embedded thanks to the atmosphere presented and the monsters themselves.
This is all been a roundabout talk of sorts that I don't intend to have formatted in any given sense, but the point comes to mind that, really, games with stealth options don't have to push too hard to make horror happen. This may well just be the fact that horror can be introduced to any genre if done right and make itself known without much hassle, though I intended to look primarily at the current horror genre as compared to other stealth games. In that regard, the primary differences are the use of atmosphere continually through the game, the monsters or madmen to avoid, and how the stealth is paced as well as the options available becoming very limited. That being said, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to imagine a horror game later taking what should otherwise be a "normal" stealth game and having it become horror simply by rearranging the aforementioned traits to present a horror situation.
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