Horror game
A video game genre designed to scare the player.
Horror games are a category of video games built around horror fiction, with the main goal of frightening the player. The label can also apply to tabletop games that include horror elements. Unlike most other video game genres, which are sorted by how they play, horror games are almost always defined by their story or visual style, and they can use many different types of gameplay. What draws people to the genre is often its power to create fear through a sense of dread in the narrative and through game mechanics that make the player feel less in control—a phenomenon researchers call intraludic transgression.
**Sub-genres**
In general, video game genres are grouped by gameplay style, game mode, or platform, ignoring narrative themes like science fiction or fantasy. Horror games are one of the narrative-based classifications that break this pattern, as the term is widely applied to any game meant to scare players—similar to how science fiction games are defined by their theme rather than gameplay. Because of this broad link to the horror theme, there are no well-defined sub-genres. Many gameplay-defined genres include horror-themed titles—for example, the *Castlevania* platformer series borrows monsters from various horror myths. These games are still classified by their original gameplay genre, with the horror aspect seen as a literary element. Still, a few specific areas within the horror classification have been recognized as unique sub-genres.
**Action horror**
Action horror games combine action-game elements from first-person and third-person shooters with survival horror themes, making them faster-paced than typical survival horror titles. Their popularity grew after the 2005 release of *Resident Evil 4*, and the trend continued in *Resident Evil 5* and *Resident Evil 6*, which emphasized combat over puzzles and problem-solving (though *Resident Evil 7* later returned to the series’ survival horror roots). Examples include *The House of the Dead*, *Dead Space*, *Left 4 Dead*, *The Last of Us*, and the original *Alan Wake*.
**Survival horror**
One of the most common and clearly defined horror game types is survival horror. These games focus on keeping the player-character alive in a frightening setting with scarce resources, making them more like action games or action-adventure games. A frequent theme is escaping or surviving something like a zomb
- field
- Video game genre
- known_for
- Centered on horror fiction, designed to scare the player
- subgenres
- Action horror, survival horror, psychological horror, jump scare horror, reverse horror
Lore & Background
The incorporation of general horror genre themes into video games came early on in the medium, inspired by horror fiction and especially horror films. One early example is a Haunted House overlay included with the first video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey (1972), though this was a board-game-style overlay rather than a video game in the modern sense. Taito's classic arcade video game Space Invaders (1978) has also been cited as a precursor to horror video games, as it involved a survival scenario where an alien invasion slowly descends and increasingly destroys the landscape while menacing sound effects gradually speed up, which created a sense of panic in players when it first released.
Reader's Guide
Horror games are significant as the only narrative-based classification that has generally not followed the pattern of other video game genres, which are classified by gameplay. This broad association to the narrative theme of horror games leads to the lack of well-defined subgenres. However, several specific areas have been identified as unique subgenres: action horror (e.g., Resident Evil 4, Dead Space, Left 4 Dead), survival horror (e.g., Resident Evil series, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame), psychological horror (e.g., Silent Hill, Amnesia, Doki Doki Literature Club!), jump scare horror (e.g., Five Nights at Freddy's, Outlast), and reverse horror (e.g., Carrion, Dead by Daylight). The genre's legacy includes influencing game design through intraludic transgression and the use of limited resources, unreliable narrators, and fourth-wall-breaking mechanics.
Did You Know?
- The Haunted House overlay for the Magnavox Odyssey (1972) is often cited as an early horror-themed game, though it was a board-game-style overlay rather than a video game in the modern sense.
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