Ever since prehistoric man emerged from the caves and started the long journey towards civilisation (of sorts, at least), the sense of constant danger that informed early life changed forever. Now, the largely sedentary lifestyle of modern humans sanitises peril to the periphery, as genuine terror becomes an ambiguous, far away concept. However, the desire to feel the fear remains true in people, which is one of the reasons why artificially-created scares are still so alluring. For those not keen on extreme sports or outrageous risk-taking, horror-themed video games can get pulses racing and palms sweating. From Resident Evil to Silent Hill , games have provided some genuinely terrifying moments, but it's also tricky to maintain that fine balance between fear and farce. Digital Spy caught up with the team behind the supernatural first-person shooter series F.E.A.R. to discuss how to put genuine terror into games.
We have previously listed the top ten scariest video games , along with the most frightening moments ever created in gaming , including the zombie dog attack in Resident Evil, the fearsome Pyramid Head battles in Silent Hill and the spooky moment in BioShock when a statue terrifyingly comes to life. The best horror game franchises generally follow the same principles as good horror films: it's all about what you don't show, as much as what you do. Monsters, ghouls and knife-wielding killers can easily be recreated with enough of a budget, but the mere thought of their existence deep in the shadows is often much more powerful at creating a scare.
The F.E.A.R. franchise, developed by Monolith/Day 1 Studios and published by Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment, puts the player in the shoes of Pointman, a member of the elite First Encounter Assault Recon force tasked with combating paranormal threats for the US government. The franchise, which has so far spawned two games and two expansion packs, derives most of its horror from Alma, the creepy little girl with some wacky supernatural powers. It also uses age-old techniques of horror storytelling, mixing light and darkness carefully to mask the player's view, while also occasionally shocking the senses with full-on supernatural set pieces under the power of Alma.
F.E.A.R. 3 will be released next month, bringing the FPS trilogy to a close. The story once more focuses on the genetically-engineered super soldier Pointman, but also brings back his brother Paxton Fettel, the main enemy who was killed in the first game. Due to the power of Alma, Fettel has come back to life but this time he must ally with Pointman for the fully co-operative main campaign. Ernest Zamora, a F.E.A.R. producer from WBIE, explains that the team was keen to ensure that the final game wrapped up the story, but also kept things simple.
"The story of F.E.A.R. 3 is all about the brothers. It's about their quest to figure out their relationship with each other, figure out their past, and also understand their relationship with their mother," says Zamora. "Alma is the true source behind all the psychic and paranormal energy in the universe and as such her sons are very powerful as well. So as her power is growing in F.E.A.R. 3 , Paxton Fettel is able to feed on that and use Pointman as his conduit to come back into our world. Now he's a ghost, but he is also tied to his brother. He needs to ensure that Pointman stays alive, because Fettel has his own agenda."
The F.E.A.R. franchise has been heavily influenced by acclaimed horror cinema from Japan. Alma draws comparisons to Sadako in Ring , the evil little girl bringing terror to people via a cursed video tape. There are also roots in the character to fellow Japanese horror classic Dark Water and the spooky girls in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining . The name Alma is said to derive from the character Alma Mobley in Peter Straub's novel Ghost Story . Zamora says that Japanese horror was certainly a "source of inspiration" for the team working on the original F.E.A.R. , along with a wide range of horror films, books and other source material.
For F.E.A.R. 3 , though, the team decided to up the tempo by bringing on two of the greatest names in horror storytelling. John Carpenter is probably best known for directing the Halloween slasher flick series, but he has also masterminded a huge slate of further horror and science fiction movies. Steve Niles is an American comic book author and novelist, probably best known for publications 30 Days of Night , Dark Days and Criminal Macabre . Zamora says that the duo came on board to "really amp up the horror", with Niles helping the team develop the story and Carpenter overseeing the big, cinematic horror moments.
"They brought ideas and a fresh perspective to the project. In fact, both of them surprisingly are gamers and they both dropped references to games that they had played in the past or were currently playing. It was awesome to hear John Carpenter talk about that," he says. "So they totally got what we were trying to do with F.E.A.R. 3 , including that we were trying to innovate and add an extra layer of co-op gameplay. That aspect also helped develop the ideas of horror that we were bringing to the table. It was like, 'We can amp up this moment because the brothers might do this or that'."
As storytelling in video games becomes ever more sophisticated, working with such luminaries of the horror genre seemed essential to push F.E.A.R. 3 to the next level. However, the tendency to use the limitless creative boundaries made possible in video game production also brings the danger of over-egging the pudding, going all out for shock value when the most powerful scares often reside in a sense of mystery. For example, 1999 horror movie The Blair Witch Project showed how audiences could be terrified and millions of dollars taken at the box office with only a shoestring budget and a lot of imagination. Horror storytelling is all about setting the right tone and building that sense of dread-filled anticipation for what might be lurking in the shadows.
"You build that anticipation and then there is the ultimate payoff," says Zamora. "There are tenants of F.E.A.R. that we follow in all of our titles, and it's about setting up the horror properly and trying to keep players on their toes and giving them something unexpected. That also requires lots of iteration. You have to play test and figure out what is going on. Sound is also a big part of that, as it adds an extra layer of atmosphere. I don't think that there is a single magic bullet; you just try to follow similar methods that have been successful in the past and build on that."
F.E.A.R. 3 will be released on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on May 24 in North America and May 27 in Europe.
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