Bloober is "moving away from psychological horror" with SH2 Remake

[jdnation]

Reported by Endgadget here:
https://www.engadget.com/bloober-team-i ... 39512.html

Site is down at the moment, but a quote from the article mentions that SH2 Remake will be our first taste of Bloober's new direction. Which is into"mass market horror." As in more action and player input/gameplay mechanics.

Alt link:
https://www.destructoid.com/bloober-tea ... ror-games/

Not to jump the gun and panic, but perhaps this just means that by Bloober's past standards and titles, this will be the first game they make that has more traditional 3rd person combat, not that SH2 is suddenly going to play like modern Resident Evil.

[Burning Man]

I feel Silent Hill 2 coined the term "psychological horror," though, somewhere I think fans started associating the term with Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Amnesia-like games that followed there after. It sounds almost as weird as if Shinji Mikami were to say that he was moving away from survival horror with The Evil Within.

I've never heard the term "mass market horror" until now. I think zombies when I hear that term.

[jdnation]

Yeah, I get this idea that Bloober might be defining psychological horror as experiences like their output and other smaller games on the indy scene that are more experiental, or depowered escape type games with something stalking or chasing you.

And by mass market horror, they mean combat games where you play aggressively.

Traditionally, psychological horror like SH were also games with combat, but the emphasis was more on narrative and environment scares and puzzles meant to get into your head, versus survival horror like RE, where you manage scarce resources with greater emphasis on combat and health management, versus action horror like Devil May Cry or Doom where you are powerful and fighting scary looking things with emphasis on skill and taking on many enemies.

[leftshoe18]

I really think they just mean that the gameplay is going to be more mechanic-rich than their previous games (combat, more involved puzzles, etc). There's somewhat of a language barrier with the developers being Polish and it wouldn't be the first time they said one thing but meant another.

[Hammerin'InMyHead]

All horror is psychological, in essence.

[Vixx]

All horror is psychological, in essence.

IKR. It's weird that people disassociate it, given horror isn't scary unless it makes you feel uneasy/scared - which is an entirely subjective, psychological response and it's why I'm not scared by, say, intruder games, but cannot play a game with spiders in it - but I suppose it's to differentiate between body horror and other sub-genres.

[jdnation]

It was likely just a fan-base distinction the regular mass-market action horror games and the more 'art-house' ones.

Classic fixed camera Resident Evil could be quite good at getting into your head and under your skin and building dread when it tried.

I think a better differentiator would be whether or not you are questioning the reality of what is going on around you, the "They look like monsters to you?"/ "Aren't you Maria?" mind-fuckery that Silent Hill has which is what makes for true psychological horror - versus the just-the-facts-ma'am straightforwardness of Resident Evil that's "Yup, those are zombies alright, everyone can see them, now let's get to the choppa!"

Granted, the two genres can blend together very often, but one is more what-you-see-is-real, whereas the other questions your character's sanity and you aren't actually sure whether your perceptions are true on the surface.