So we’re about a month away from Halloween. We can all finally stop acting like we enjoy Summer and finally lean into Autumn, a season that somehow goes on for two and a half months but feels like we’re only allowed to enjoy it for about eight days. According to studies on mice, we can mention enjoying sweater weather and pumpkin flavors exactly twice before it becomes annoying to everyone else in our lives. Which, to be completely fair, is true. But, outside of seasonal flavoring and its odd class-coded dynamics, Autumn brings another joy: Playinghorrorgames before Halloween. And almost every single one of those games is better invirtual reality.
I know a lot of people say thatvirtual reality is a dying art form. We’ve given it the chance and it just hasn’t taken off, right? But virtual reality isn’t dying! It’sundying! Ah! Ah? I don’t care if I’ve used that joke before elsewhere. And the people who say virtual reality is dying are wrong. Yes,games made for VR platforms often undersell. Yes, the PS VR2 was not a huge success or evenasuccess. Prices drop while new headsets are announced and I’ve got no idea what state the business currently is in. Yes, many people get VR headsets for Christmas, play with them once, and then lose them in a box somewhere deep in a closet. I was going somewhere with this, I think. Anyway, none of that matters. Because they keep making horror games for VR and, baby, they are good.
Virtual Reality Makes The Scary Even Scarier
Lemme start off with something simple.Resident Evil. Great series. I love it. You love it. The recent incarnations and remakes? What a treat! We can all agree on that, I tell you! Now, have you played any of the Resident Evil games in virtual reality?Resident Evil 7,Resident Evil Village,Resident Evil 4,andthe Resident Evil 4 remake can all be played in VR now. Yes, that’s right,bothversions of Resident Evil 4 are in VR.
And you know what? They areso scary that it scares me how scary they are. Those games are all scary normally, don’t get me wrong. You’re walking through dark, narrow spaces and rotting, abandoned towns - jump scares will get you no matter what. But it’s a whole different beast being chased in VR. It feels terrifying trying to hide in that creepy ass mold people house when you can turn your head to look behind you.
And it ain’t just Resident Evil, folks.
While I haven’t always been Bloober’s biggest cheerleader, they do look like they’re doing some solid work with theSilent Hill 2remake. Now,thatisn’t in VR, but their earlier game Layers of Fearis. Layers of Fear has more in common with walking simulators than, say, Resident Evil. On a regular screen, you get plenty of jump scares and melancholic moments. But in virtual reality, it’s like walking through a theme park haunted house. What I would call a decent horror game turns into something you’d spend $100 to do at Universal Studios on Halloween. Even knowing the little “look away and look back” jump scares that were coming didn’t reduce how fun they are. It made me appreciate the game more.
That’s just the versions of games that you can playnormally. Horror games made for VR have scared me harder than any movie, novel, or belt held by my father. Have I talked about Duck Season on this website before? Because, if I haven’t, I have been asleep at the wheel. Duck Season isn’t just one of my favorite horror games or my favorite VR games, it’s one of my favorite games of all time. To give you the fun bits without spoiling anything, you play a kid in the 1980s who just got a new video game for an NES-like system.We’re really living in a world of fake classic games made for fake video game systems, aren’t we? Anyway, this ‘new game’ is a spin on Duck Hunt. Over time, it gets creepy. First, you realize you’re playing within the television and can actually turn around to see into the living room. Two, the game’s version of the Duck Hunt dog becomes increasingly ominous until a point when you know he’s done something absolutely brutal to [someone] and your only way forward is to actually look. There is nothing as good as making you feel that bad.
Editor’s Note:Mike Drucker has indeed talked about Duck Season before for this website.
VR Traps You, And That Makes It Spooky
But wait, there’s more to fear! Paranormal Activity in VR? Very scary. Blair Witch Project in VR? Super scary.Five Nights At Freddy’sin VR? Even scarier than the most scary. It turns out ghosts are much creepier when you may’t just look away from the screen. And the fact that you’re expected to move your body means you genuinely react with fear at the things in front of you. Until Dawn: Rush of Blood is set up to feel like a haunted roller coaster ride, but I absolutely dove out of my chair the first time I blinked and - the game recognizing that I blinked - suddenly saw a zombie in my view.
I’m barely mentioning atmosphere. Jump scares are great, but part of the wonder of VR is how much dread it can build. Hauntify is still in early access after two years, so who knows what’s going on there. Then again, I can only manage to play maybe 10-20 minutes of it before I just can’t anymore. Unlike a few of these games, Hauntify is augmented reality. Here, it darkens your apartment, gives you a flashlight, and makes ghosts start appearing. In your home. You spend the whole time wandering your apartment, moving a virtual flashlight around, desperately hoping nothing comes out. You’re worried the whole time. It takes your own space - the place you live - and makes every familiar corner creepy.
Want to scare someone who doesn’t play games? Easy. Richie’s Plank Experience opens up an elevator and lets you walk a creaking wooden platform dozens of stories above the city. Don’t step in the wrong place and don’t fall. You can also add a giant spider to verify your friends fall. It’s something that would look entirely stupid on a regular screen - but in virtual reality, it’s one of the scariest things I’ve put people through. They visibly panic. They’re not trying to reload a gun so they don’t have to restart from a checkpoint; they just don’t want to die.
I’m as happy with the state of horror games as anyone else. We got some great stuff out there, and - true - most of it is not in virtual reality. But if you happen to have a dusty headset sitting anyway or you bought one on sale recently - and if you want to enjoy Halloween the way God never intended - you need to get on those horror games now. Trust me. If you want proof VR is worth it, scare the crap out of yourself.
