Horror: The Neglected Genre

Horror, in gaming, is the strangest genre. Mostly, a genre tag tells us what we'll be doing in a game – shooting, forming strategies, managing, flying, walking – but horror tells us what the game will be doing to us. That might explain the emergence of the term “survival horror”, which attempts to add a guiding verb. If our prime purpose is to survive rather than to triumph, then we expect to be outnumbered and overwhelmed, in desperate need of ammunition, improvised weaponry, healing items, a safe/save location, a hiding place. Along the way, we expect to be startled, unnerved and terrified.