Where the hell are the horror games?

[Sofa King Kool]

Does anyone else feel as if horror games are getting little to no love on the current consoles?

I remember thinking, back before any of the new consoles were released, how great survival horror would be on next gen. Unfortunately, survival horror seems to be a dying genre. Now, everything has to be action packed, co-op, social games, (thinking specifically of Resident Evil). Don't get me wrong, I thought Resident Evil 4 was great, and I'm sure I'll enjoy 5, but as fun as they are, I really can't help but miss the old mansions, slow zombies, and changing camera angles.

Off the top of my head, I can't even think of ten good scary games for next gen consoles, while there seems to be an over abundance of them on last gen consoles. (I can't count Resident Evil as horror anymore. Resident evil 5 is now more of an action game with horror elements).

Current Gen (Off the top of my head - alphabetical):

Condemned
Condemned 2
Dead Space
Fear
Fear 2
Silent Hill 5 (Which is supposed to just be "ok")
Siren: BC

Out of these, I personally only enjoyed the Condemned games (I haven't played Siren, though. No PS3. I'd really love to try it). I understand that the current consoles still have a lot of life left in them, but I can't even think of any good scary games that have been announced/are in production, except for the next Fatal Frame, and maybe Winter, but who knows if that will ever be picked up.

Last Gen (Off the top of my head - alphabetical):

Call of Cthulhu
Clock Tower 3
Cold Fear
Fatal Frame
Fatal Frame 2
Fatal Frame 3
Haunting Ground
Manhunt
Resident Evil 0
Resident Evil
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil: Outbreak
Resident Evil: Outbreak 2
Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill 3
Silent Hill 4
Siren
Siren 2

I'm sure there are more, I just can't think of them.

I sort of came here to vent, but I need to know if anyone else is as disappointed by the lack of good horror games as I am.

[lokizz]

yeah i am. during the ps1 and ps2 era there were alot of awesome horror games coming out. i remember playing silent hill for the first time or re 2. now the re series is more about action and very fw games that get dropped into the horror genre are actually scary. deadspace was ok but the whole time all i could think was wow they really ripped off event horizon bigtime. it was a col game but not scary more frustrating than scary but it did have some cool stuff.

i though with this gen games would lean more towards realism and interactivity but it all kinda feels the same. so far the one game ive been most impressed with is uncharted and in playing many games i cant help but to see how one game could be better if it had parts or pieces of another game( like gta 4 would be better with uncharted's combat/shooting mechanics).

my biggest wish for the horror genre is that they finally make a damn zombie game that is like a zobie movie. itd be great to play in the romero undead world but any world would be cool as long as they follow the rules.

and im pissed off at how they gimped the re5 single player by making you have to work with that chick. makes it very difficult to play those kinds of games when you have to rethink everything to keep someone else alive.

[Drizzt]

Coincidentally, I read a Gamasutra opinion piece that covered the elements of what makes a good survival horror game today. I have to say I agree with most of what they've listed, and it seems as though developers haven't been able to bring some of those elements to the next gen consoles either for fear that they would appear too outdated, and thus cause such a game to be shunned, or they just haven't figured out how to properly use the newer technology to make something along the lines of some of the better survival horror games that we've seen in the past. Anyways, here's the link, it's a good read:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=22388

[Kerig]

Add for Last Gen:
Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare
Ghost Hunter
Manhunt 2: Static Boogaloo
Rule Of Rose
Silent Hill: Origins
The Suffering
The Suffering: Ties That Bind

Possibly for current gen: The Darkness.

BTW: If you're going to count Manhunt, you should really count RE:5.

[Capitalizt]

Get a PS3, download all four episodes of Siren: Blood Curse, and be happy. ;)

review: http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3169096&p=37 (http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3169096&p=37)

It has some of the most freaky enemies and scenes you will ever encounter...surpassing the Silent Hill series IMO.

[Interstella 5555]

yeah i am. during the ps1 and ps2 era there were alot of awesome horror games coming out. i remember playing silent hill for the first time or re 2. now the re series is more about action and very fw games that get dropped into the horror genre are actually scary. deadspace was ok but the whole time all i could think was wow they really ripped off event horizon bigtime.

lol, I thought the exact same thing. I even went as far as to dig in my old VHS collection and watch it just to see how similar they were. Yeah big rip off.

[Over easy]

The only one I can think of before looking up the list is Left 4 Dead, but I'm not sure whether that fits into your definition of horror here.

Looking at the 360 and Wii list from gamefaqs for stuff that I recognized:
Dead Rising 1 & 2
Clive Barker's Jericho
I Am Alive (is that even horror?)
Obscure 2
Escape From Bug Island
Dead Space Extraction

Not much horror genre games at all. I guess the market isn't big enough for companies to develop games in.