Resident Evil creator along with the upcoming release of The Evil Within, Shinji Mikami, made mention of what the key element is when it comes to creating the prefect horror experience and what he used for his video game developments.
Speaking to The Guardian, Shinji Mikami talked about horror video game genre and the faults he sees currently. There seems to be a trend lately where horror video games or more specifically, survival-horror, has turned into action oriented. Mikami notes that he doesn’t want unlimited bullets to take out the enemy.
I don’t want to just stand there shooting dozens of enemies. Die! Die! Die! I don’t have the energy for that.
According to Shinji Mikami, to make a survival-horror truly terrifying there is one element in general that should be used. This element is placing the thought into players minds on if he or she will in fact survive or not. Giving that uncertainty will make players tense and put into a fight or flight mode.
The horror experience is most scary when the player really isn’t sure whether their character is going to live or die–death and survival need to be on a constant see-saw. If there’s a situation where you’re not 100% sure that you can avoid or defeat the enemies, if you feel maybe there’s a chance you’ll make it–that’s where horror lies. Creating that situation is vital.
The Evil Within is Shinji Mikami next upcoming video game release that will be launching on October 14, 2014 for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC.