Horror Games That Shouldn’t Have Been Horror

Considering how popular horror games have become over the last few decades, it means any developer who wants to dive into the genre needs to ensure their game stands out from the crowd. While there have undoubtedly been a plethora of spine-chilling, immersive, and exciting horror titles released over the years, there are some that felt like they didn’t quite hit the mark in terms of providing enough scares and tension to keep fans on the edge of their seats for an entire playthrough.

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In fact, it feels as though many of these games would have been much better received had they taken a slightly different direction, potentially focusing on a genre that better fits the gameplay and overall aesthetic. Simply put, these are horror games that really shouldn’t have even been horror at all, and while that doesn’t inherently mean that they are still bad to play, they would have greatly benefited from taking an alternative path during development.

7

Dead Space 3

Fans Were Already Too Accustomed To The Necromorphs By The Time Dead Space 3 Was Released

While Dead Space and Dead Space 2 are both critically acclaimed horror games that still stand as fan favorites in the genre even to this day, the third game entry is a lot more divisive. Because the game doesn’t introduce too many new enemy types, it can make the Necromorphs feel a little too predictable, especially considering many players had already had their fill of taking on these monsters in the last two entries. Not only that, but the inclusion of co-op drastically reduces the intensity of the moment-to-moment gameplay and ends up feeling like a final quick addition rather than something naturally baked into the game.

Though the game does admittedly lean a little more into the action genre than the first two, one way the developers could have alleviated the aforementioned problem is just by going all in with the over-the-top nature of the gameplay. Rather than trying to produce more scares, turning the game into a sort of hack-and-slash shooter hybrid where players can take on swarms of enemies at once in wide open areas could have been a pretty fun experiment to try out, especially with a friend.

6

The Quarry

The Quarry’s Sluggish Pacing Can Dampen The Scares

The Quarry is far from being a bad game, but while it looks jaw-dropping from a visual perspective, one area where it struggles is the pacing. Despite being a horror game, The Quarry has several pretty long stretches where there is nothing even remotely scary to get spooked about. On the one hand, this does give players a chance to familiarize themselves with the lovable cast of characters, but with the scares being so few and far between, maybe it could have benefited from being a humorous and quirky team drama instead.

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For example, the game tries to include multiple different antagonists in a desperate attempt to raise the scare factor, but it could have been a lot more focused if they had only included a single one, such as the werewolf. If, for example, one of the teenagers had a secret identity of being a werewolf, this could make the game a kind of parody where the dialogue options still matter, but the general tone and feeling of the game feel much different and more unique than what Supermassive is known for.

5

The Callisto Protocol

Callisto Could Have Differentiated Itself By Leaning Into The Hack-And-Slash Genre Even More

The Callisto Protocol is a game that feels like it came out at the wrong time. With many horror fans eagerly awaiting the release of the Dead Space Remake, which was released not long after, it was constantly being compared to Callisto, with the game receiving a pretty rocky reception from fans when it came out. However, it does at least feature a fairly unique gameplay system which involves attacking the enemies up close with an array of melee weapons, which isn’t usually seen in horror games.

While the combat is immensely fun, it does also feel a bit underbaked, so having the game be a fully fledged hack-and-slash title definitely would have made it a little more exciting, while also distancing itself from the Dead Space comparisons. Rather than centering around the horror aspect, presenting the game as a kind of spooky beat ’em up surely would have done wonders for Callisto Protocol, but gamers are only able to imagine how this would have turned down.

4

Amy

Ditch The Horror, And This Could Have Been A Pretty Unique Game About Bonding

Amy

Systems

Released

January 11, 2012

Developer(s)

VectorCell

Publisher(s)

Lexis Numérique

For those who are unfamiliar, which is completely understandable given that the game was largely overshadowed upon release, Amy is a 2012 title where players take control of Lana, the guardian of a young girl named Amy who is immune to an ongoing zombie infection. The plot is slightly reminiscent of The Last of Us, and as that game demonstrated, having this guardian and child dynamic can be very effective and even emotional, but unlike Naughty Dog’s game, the horror doesn’t do Amy any favors in this department.

The clunky gameplay and frankly bizarre enemy encounters actually detract from the experience more than anything, so being able to focus a lot more on the actual relationship between the two main characters would have been a much better play. This can still be achieved even without trying to shove in a bunch of horrific imagery and enemy types, but at a time when horror games were all the rage among streamers and let’s plays, it’s not all that surprising that developers Vectorcell jumped on this trend.

3

OverBlood

OverBlood Barely Even Warrants Being A Survival Horror Game

OverBlood

Systems

Released

August 2, 1996

ESRB

Teen // Animated Violence

Publisher(s)

Electronic Arts

Considering that OverBlood was released back in 1996, it’s hard to be mad at the developers for trying something so creative and experimental, but the idea to create an action adventure and survival horror hybrid ended up being a little misleading. While players will definitely run into a few eerie enemies and sinister locations now and again, they are very easy to forget about, considering much of the game is based around completing puzzles, speaking with NPCs, and running through hallways that feel like they stretch on for miles on end.

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However, OverBlood is still considered extremely ambitious for the time it was released, but the desperate attempts to infuse some horror into the gameplay come across as out of place and even tone-deaf. That being said, the game is well worth trying out, especially for those players who love returning to classic games on the original PlayStation.

2

Alone In The Dark (2024)

A Fresh Reboot Could Have Taken The Franchise In A Different Direction

The first Alone in the Dark game is often credited as marking the birth of the survival horror genre, though due to the franchise remaining dormant for large gaps of time, it would eventually be overshadowed by the likes of Resident Evil and Silent Hill. When it was announced that a reimagining of the original would be released in 2024, while fans were definitely excited, there was a lot of speculation about how much things would actually change, considering how dated the original game has become by this point.

While the game is still definitely a lot of fun to play, especially thanks to the two protagonists who have slightly different stories, it ultimately felt a little bland and predictable for a horror game releasing in this day and age. The monsters just aren’t all that scary, and the unresponsive controls can easily end up taking players out of the experience. Considering this is a reboot, there could have been an attempt to focus on the aspects of the games that revolve around solving crimes, making players feel like a true detective who isn’t constantly being intercepted by ghouls and monsters along their journey.

1

Hello Neighbor

Hello Neighbor’s “Horror” Becomes Laughable After A Few Hours

Hello Neighbor has had a pretty bizarre history as a franchise. The alpha version of the original game received a lot of positive reception from horror fans, with the gameplay loop of sneaking into a stranger’s house and uncovering his dark and dirty secrets being something that hadn’t really been seen before in the genre. However, the game almost immediately lost its charm once it was officially released, with the gameplay becoming so repetitive that the horror elements not only became predictable but even laughable.

Sure, the first time the neighbor leaps out of his chair to catch the player red-handed is an effective jump scare, but when this happens five or ten times in a row, just because players are trying to find where they need to go next, it becomes more annoying than anything. This isn’t even mentioning the overly dramatic music, which can border on parody because of how often it is used. Considering the game already has a solid foundation, it should have just been a fully focused stealth game, since this would have given the developers more time to focus on the different ways that players could navigate through the house and their environment, as opposed to making the whole thing feel as scary as possible.

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