I’m Glad We’re Finally Out Of The Action Horror Era

The timeline of horror games wasn’t always smooth sailing – at one point, it had a horrifying era of its own: when every horror game tried to be an action game.

Starting in the late 2000s and spanning to the mid-2010s, horror games stopped being scary and started being just… loud. Loud in action, loud in acting, loud in everything but the very things that made these horror games so beloved in the first place: fear.

Psychological Horror Adventure Stray Souls protagonist Daniel stands outside his grandmother's home.

We Need More Midwestern Horror Games

There is a distinct void of horror games (and video games in general) that take place in Midwest America – a void that needs to be filled.

It was a dark time for horror gaming, it really was, and it’s an era that I thought we’d never be able to get out of. And yet, here we are, finally out of the Action Horror Era, soaking in all the terrifying beauty that each game brings.

It’s to the point where I do not even care if these new horror games end up being terrible – I’m just glad that they’re genuine horror games.

Horror Fans Are Eating Good

I just platinumed Silent Hill 2 Remake for the third time – on my sister’s account, specifically, after platinuming it on my personal account and my household account. There’s no shame here, just pride – especially since horror now is as good as it’s ever been.

You’d think after playing this game over and over, I’d stop being scared of it – and yet, it continues to terrify me, which used to only be relevant to horror of yore. Horror is good again, and it’s only getting better.

With Silent Hill f, Silent Hill: Townfall, Resident Evil: Requiem, and even Little Nightmares III, horror fans are being blessed with so many new titles for their favourite franchises. Not to mention the several different indie games that have piqued my interest – ILL has me fascinated.

We Need More Horror Games That Embrace The Ordinary

As we enter a horror gaming Renaissance, more developers should incorporate the mundane.

This isn’t even considering the recently announced Silent Hill 1 Remake – which I will be insufferable about, unapologetically. Knowing how excellently the Silent Hill 2 Remake performed, it’s more than likely that we’ll even get a Silent Hill 3 Remake and maybe even a Silent Hill 4: The Room Remake, since Bloober Team has expressed genuine passion for it.

Having literally grown up playing the classic Resident Evil and Silent Hill games, it’s basically coming home.

Seriously, it’s probably the best time to be a horror fan in the gaming sphere, simply because of how well-fed we’re going to be for the next several years. It’s not only fantastic, but it’s relieving, showing that the dark times of Action Horror are finally behind us.

I Thought We’d Never Get Out of the Action Horror Era

Look, if you’re an Action Horror fan, power to you – but there’s no denying the stain it left on the genre and its timeline. For what felt like the longest time, developers couldn’t fathom a horror game that wasn’t non-stop action and not even scary.

There are many easy targets to point the finger towards – Resident Evil, Dead Space, even The Last of Us, but it ended up becoming a trend even in the indie sphere. That is, if it wasn’t just an outright FNAF copycat. Unoriginality has long been an issue in gaming, let’s just say.

Horror Games with Short Runtimes Devotion Resident Evil 3 Remake Outlast

10 Best Horror Games With Short Runtimes

For those looking for a quick (but not cheap) scare.

People want to complain about nostalgia baiting recently, but they forget the absolute drought of pure horror games. In the Action Horror Era, we were more nostalgic than ever for the classic horror games, and all we wanted was for new horror games to replicate that, not be a gun simulator.

Unfortunately, we got Gun Simulator and we had to like it.

It’s easy to be upset about nostalgia baiting – but this is literally exactly what we wanted. I used to hope and pray with everything in me that horror would get good again, and it finally has. We finally have consistent, terrifying content.

It’s not just in the AAA sphere, but also in indie gaming. Developers seem to finally understand that fear is built with inaction.

Horror Hinges on These Games

There’s a lot of pressure involving new horror games – some fear that if these games flop, it might harm the horror genre for many years to come. Especially for franchises like Silent Hill, with a rocky history and an even rockier start back in the gaming sphere. If new, original games end up not performing well, what would that mean for the genre?

There’s a healthy amount of anxiety, needless to say. Many of these new horror games have big shoes to fill – yet, so did Resident Evil 7, and the Silent Hill 2 Remake, and they ended up being fantastic.

I’m hopeful, in all honesty. Then again, I really don’t care if these horror games are “bad.”

Criminally Underrated AA Horror Games Still Wakes the Deep SOMA Blackout Club Layers of Fear

10 Criminally Underrated AA Horror Games

Not quite indie, not quite AAA, but definitely terrifying.

The heart of horror is back in these games, and that’s the most important takeaway in this new era of horror games. Developers have finally returned to their terrifying roots, remembering what it is that made their games so beloved in the first place – and I am so unbelievably excited to see what fresh hell awaits in the incoming darkness.

So long as horror games make a genuine effort to be scary and remain faithful to their own source material, genuine horror fans are going to love them. Even if these games end up being campy, camp and horror have gone hand in hand since film began.

I genuinely don’t care how “bad” or “cringe” these new horror games end up being – they’re going to be terrifying, and that’s all that matters. So long as we don’t return to the Action Horror Era, then the genre will continue to heal.