My first Chris’ Survival Horror Quest post appeared on August 6th, 2003. That means that this is the Quest’s tenth year running, which I’m finding a little hard to comprehend. Since I started I’ve had two kids, shipped a bunch of games, founded a game studio, and moved across the Pacific ocean twice. I’ve also finished over sixty horror games, and have written about most of them (which, by the way, is a little over half of the games cataloged here).
Since it’s Halloween, and since there’s more interest in horror this year than in recent memory, I thought I’d call out a few of my favorite posts from the last ten years.
- My Guide to Understanding Japanese Horror
- The Two-Factor Theory of Emotion and how it applies to horror games. A version of this was later published in Game Developer Magazine.
- What’s wrong with Silent Hill Downpour
- Thinking/Doing/Easy/Hard: Mapping horror games to better understand them.
- Siren is the Scariest Game Ever Made, an article I wrote for Well Played, based on things I learned here.
- Why Illbleed isn’t fun.
- The varying uses of the Otherworld in the Silent Hill series.
There are a bunch more that I am proud of, but these are some of my favorites.
You might also be interest in this podcast I did with Patrick Klepek over at Giant Bomb recently, or the short history of horror games that I wrote this week for EDGE Online.
Thanks for sticking with me as I continue to dig into this fascinating genre. Happy halloween!
Happy ten year anniversary!
I was just replaying Illbleed. There is something fantastic about that game, but it is SO horribly flawed. I’ve described it to friends and from what they hear they think it’s some wonderful hidden gem. hahaha But it got me wondering, how would one fix/make an Illbleed sequel?
I think the best part, outside of the “story”, are the traps. But you can’t trigger them and see them without getting hurt. Maybe a Wario Ware style game play for the traps instead?
I’m really looking forward for new reviews! Keep up the good work!
Happy 10 years!
A lot of great posts here, and looking forward to many more.
Nice post and thank you for this great site 🙂
P.S. I miss the forum :,(
I also miss the forum… I don’t suppose we’ll be getting it back anytime soon, however.
I agree with Justin, about the forums. They are useful for fans to have their say. Congratulations to Chris nonetheless.
2003? man how the years fly by huh? I ve been checking this site every week since 2006. It almost makes me feel old
HAPPY 10 YEARS! I think I must have read everything on your site except for the Silent hill otherworld article. BUT that because I haven’t played silent hill yet.
So stoked to hear you on a podcast. I love podcasts and survival horror and have noticed a lack of their crossing.
Happy ten years!
And here’s hoping we can look forward to another ten years of insightful game critiques.
Also good luck with the “quest”. With the advent of indie horror games it’s kinda of a Sisyphean type scenario.
That’s crazy. I have no idea whatsoever how I first found my way onto this site, but I still check it semi-regularly. I love reading about game theory in regards to horror, and not enough sites go at it with the wholeness and dedication that you do. Your article about the two-factor theory of emotion was incredibly interesting.
Congratulations on ten years!
Dude, your site is awesome; you really are the ultimate Horror Video Game fan, in the sense that you’ve made it into something fairly viable.
Congrats on your 2 kids you’ve had in the past 10 years – my wife and I are expecting a little girl in just under a month and I swear to you, all I can think about is that I can’t wait until she’s old enough so I can show her the Resident Evil and Silent Hill games!
Anyway, keep up the good work; I’ve always followed your work on this site but I never commented, and now I have commented on 3 of your articles in one sitting; I guess I’m feeling the Survival Horror vibe right now!
CHEERS MATE!
I occasionally check what’s new in Chris’ database and it seems much has happened since his last update, like “The Last of us” or “Resident Evil Revelations” to name a few.