"The horror experience is most scary when the player really isn’t sure whether their character is going to live or die." - Shinji Mikami, best known as the creator of the Resident Evil series, discusses what he believes makes horror stories the most tense.
"The horror experience is most scary when the player really isn't sure whether their character is going to live or die."
- Shinji Mikami, best known as the creator of the Resident Evil series, discusses what he believes makes horror games the most tense. Mikami is currently preparing to ship his latest horror game The Evil Within with his team at Tango Gameworks, and has been talking to the Guardian about how to bring the scary in modern video games. “I'm interested in vulnerable characters, in normal human beings,” he says, suggesting that players feel far more scared when they aren't sure whether these protagonists will live or not. "Death and survival need to be on a constant see-saw," he adds. "If there’s a situation where you’re not 100 percent 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 this sort of situation is vital, says the industry veteran, rather than just providing gruesome enemies as bullet-fodder for the player. "I don’t want to just stand there shooting dozens of enemies," he notes. "Die! Die! Die! I don’t have the energy for that."
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