What horror game series should be resurrected? | Team Talk

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It's Halloween (everybody scream) and so our terrifying trilogy comes to an end with a look at horror which should be raised from the depths of the past.

There's been something of a resurgence of horror in gaming in the last few years, and it doesn't seem ready to let up with The Callisto Protocol, an Alone In The Dark remake and of course more Resident Evil and Silent Hill than you can shake a spooky stick at.

The latter might have been a good candidate for this question in fact, but now it's happening, so what will you choose? Let us know in the comments or chit chat in our Discord.

by Team PTC

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​@pass_controller

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The Darkness | Chris Brand

Yet another exception to my, now rather loose, "no horror games" rule, The Darkness was a gripping first-person shooter which I'm going to compare to the reboot of DOOM and its sequel.

Aside from the shared supernatural horror theme, they feature a story that's almost too good for a shooter and give you a bunch of overpowered toys (read: shotguns) to play with.

​Having no prior knowledge of the comic books, this introduction to Jackie Estacado was all I knew of the character. We were about the same age and possibly dressed in a similar way and maybe we both found ourselves in situations where we had to run and hide from authorities from time to time. Sure, Mr. Estacado was getting paid for being a little shit, but we're basically the same, making this tale feel all the more personal.

The Darkness 2's story ended in one of two ways, neither of which really worked out great for Jackie. It was kind of a red pill/blue pill thing but both pills are the same, one just tastes a little worse, but death is only a minor setback in gaming.

There's also the prospect of a totally different protagonist, set either before or after the Darkness inhabited Jackie, though it would be a shame to lose such a likeable character.

It's not uncommon in media for a parasitic entity to augment its host with supernatural traits and abilities, but the Darkness, as much as it assisted Jackie Estacado (even saving his life multiple times), was the de facto antagonist.

Other hosts could have embraced the power of the Darkness, opening up the possibility of a follow up with a very different tone.​

House of the Dead | James Parry

While it's not been long dormant, there was a fresh arcade game called House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn back in 2018 and even a Switch remake of the original this year, it's been a long while since we've had something fresh from this series on console. With motion controls a little more comfortable on PS5 and Switch these days, surely you could make it work.

To take the immersion up to 11, there's always VR – perhaps a candidate for PSVR2? But on the other hand maybe that would just be too intense and spooky…

The strength of this series isn't so much the scares as the shock value, as the enemies attack and the steadily rising panic and tension builds as you begin to fire more and more frantically.

A moment which sticks out from the second instalment, from way back in 1998, is the intense fight against The Magician (who doesn't look like what you imagine from the name), and surely there are more tarot cards left to name bosses after.

The tone of the series is what allowed for the Typing of the Dead spin-offs in the first place and that balance of silliness and intensity is something we don't get enough of in horror games these days – everything is so dark and intense.

Apparently the game director has said he'd like to do three more so perhaps I'll get my wish? We shall see.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem | Liam Andrews

I never actually played Eternal Darkness when it came out, but I remember reading about it in GameCube magazines and thinking it looked pretty cool, which was probably because of the combination of monsters and historical characters.

Having researched it a bit more since, I sort of regret not giving it a try. I like the idea of dipping in and out of different time periods depending on the chapter you’re currently playing, with a character’s weapons/abilities determined by the technology available at the time.

I also like the sound of different story paths that encourage you to choose a different route on another playthrough, and that you can target specific enemy limbs when attacking them. The latter seems like it would have been a very impressive feature at the time and makes me want to try the game even more.

Although I’m still not great with horror games, this would probably be one of the titles I’d make an exception for. I’m not sure I can handle a full remake, with modern, horribly realistic visuals and sound effects, but a remaster which keeps the chunky graphics and nostalgia and is easily accessible on modern platforms would be well worth a try.