run n' hide vs combat in horror games

Not knowing what's after you is spoopy, and if you're running away then you can't look at the creppy ghoulie about to make you his next meal. You know the biggest problem with the horror genre is that the gameplay just stinks. Walking sims? Puts me to sleep. I guess the argument goes that if the player is having too much fun, they can't be scared? Give me Mario 64 but I'm permanently scared shitless and you got horror game of the year.

The issue is getting spooked or getting a game over doesn't really mean much in a gameplay sense. Failure isn't punished so there isn't much tension if the bad guy finds you or catches you. You're sent back two minutes or so to experience the same spook of you fail again.

No idea how to make a spooky game work, not my job. Limited resources or using failure as part of the games narrative could be interesting to play with of implemented right.

>>380850695
>What's so scary on running away from enemies
gee, I don't know. fucking getting caught?

Imo a good horror game will have a mix of both. Look at RE4 for example. The chainsaw enemies you could kill but the first times you encounter them it's best for you to run away and save ammo which creates a lot of tension without making the hero feel like a total pisswad.

>>380851919
Resident Evil 1-3 has save scarcity. Saving consumes items you find in the world, encouraging intelligently spaced saving and giving tension when the player is in danger and they have not recently made a save.

>>380852002
so you get a game over
then what? repeat the same thing that has ceased to be scary

SOMA would be one of the best games ever with actual combat and enemies with scarce resources and save system without checkpoints.

>>380852002
For the first time maybe. Then it becomes a puzzle game where you figured the AI out and play it to your advantage. That's not scary imo.

Don't know about scariness, but running around like a tull is the most boring gameplay that I have ever seen, like fucking hell. Imo when it comes to action gameplay in horrors RE4 and The Evil Within are the best bet, on other hand old Silent Hills have so magnificent atmosphere that gameplay is not that important, but sadly that's an exception.