We Are In a Psychological Sci-Fi And Horror Revolution In Gaming

The mind is a very easy thing to fool. This is a notion backed by a litany of psychological science(s) and something the video game industry has also utilized to create some of the most chilling and thrilling games in recent memory. The genres of horror and suspense rely heavily on an atmosphere crafted to off-put the senses and feed into the brain’s natural fight-or-flight response, often thrusting the player into a human’s number one fear factor: the unknown.

Taking this foundational knowledge of horror and putting yet more psychological benders on top is as dastardly a decision as it is deliciously enticing, and, thankfully, developers have been very generous lately in crafting narratives with compelling stories that also possess no shortage of hair-raising or otherwise unsettling elements. Games that skate around your expectations slowly unfurling their sinister plotlines and shining in the dark corners of harrowing locales are a far cry from my usual action-adventure RPG flights of fantasy, but even I can’t bring myself to look away from some of the major happenings in the psychological horror and sci-fi spaces recently.

With summer right around the corner and multiple gaming conventions having come and gone and delivering new and updated gaming news, I’ve noticed the uptick in studios pumping out a generous number of new IPs under the umbrella of suspense and psychological horror. With the acclaimed success of games like Death Stranding, Alone in the Dark, Control, Returnal, Alan Wake 2, and other relatively new and upcoming titles, there is a notable shift towards exploring the realm of science fiction with the primary premises and/or story-driven appeals relying on mind-bending initiatives.

While each of these titles is extremely different in their dispensation of disquietude, their unique approaches to horror and delivering compelling stories while simultaneously implementing peculiar yet alluring gameplay elements that offer replayability and encourage player attentiveness while operating on the fringes of the human psyche make them all the more worthy of their popularity respectively.

Above all, however, these titles simply ooze atmosphere, which I would argue is what makes or breaks a suspense or horror game. Alone in the Dark, for example, while not the most mind-bending title outside of moonlighting as a detective game, does a phenomenal job of dressing each setpiece you traverse through as hauntingly noir.

The characters you meet and interrogate carry an edge to them that exacerbates a sense of unease, further complemented by the liminal-esque dreamscapes the protagonists find themselves in that feel as though the game could become something grotesquely supernatural or more directly psychological at any given point during the playthrough. It’s a knife’s edge point to maintain, but it is done so beautifully. Mixed with a healthy amount of puzzles and combat with nightmarish, shambling creatures, Alone in the Dark is a fine example of the quality of horror games released lately that has me excited about upcoming titles that lean more heavily into those confusing, psyche-flaying IPs coming up pretty soon.

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Namely, such IPs as Dark Fracture, The Alters, and the Silent Hill 2 Remake promise to immerse players within these horror elements we’ve all come to know and adore in tandem with the sci-fi aspects of obscure or futuristic technologies, lifeforms, environments, and the like. Though Silent Hill has an already-established chronology with a dedicated fanbase, Dark Fracture and The Alters are all new with completely fresh narratives and clean slates with which to make their impressions.

Personally, while all of these titles have their appeal, my curiosity is piqued each time I see new information about The Alters. When it was revealed, I was skeptical for all of 15 seconds, thinking that the premise was some relative of Death Stranding, what with the lone wayfarer wandering through hostile terrain with rather unforgiving handicaps burdening his journey further. Though Death Stranding is an astounding game in its own right, I’m not too keen on seeing its formula copied, especially given how vast the possibilities sci-fi horror allows as a genre.

I was overjoyed, then, to see that my initial assumptions were way off the mark. Alone and stuck on a planet in perpetual torrential rain and thunder with rocky crags and shadowed valleys, the reveal trailer for The Alters drew me in immediately, easily drenching me in that richly eerie atmosphere I crave. I was hooked by the central conflict of a protagonist outrunning a planet’s deathly fatal atmosphere by keeping a circle-shaped spaceship in sufficient operation, which itself would only be possible with the aid of an entire ship’s crew.

As if that wasn’t interesting enough, the protagonist finds that help in the form of summoning multiple variants of himself across different timelines where he made different key choices in his life that led him on different paths entirely, and now he must also juggle inter- and intrapersonal relationships of his crew (or himself?) while dealing with the very real danger outside the ship at all times. These are two central conflicts intricate enough on their own to be proposed as plots for two individual games, yet here they are aptly combined in such a way that they do not conflict with one another. It’s an incredibly original idea. Truly, I cannot say I’ve ever encountered anything like it, which only further whets my appetite and excitement for the title.

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These are just a handful of quality games set for release in 2024. After what has been lauded by players on social media as a pretty dry console generation for first-party titles on both the Xbox Series X and the PS5 over the past few years, this summer’s upcoming titles within the sci-fi and horror genres aim to combat that claim all on their own.

I’m not even a fan of the more suspenseful genres, but I’d be remiss to ignore some of the more unprecedented story-driven narratives that are filing into these spaces. It also helps that developers and bigger gaming companies are returning to policies of more transparency about tehir games’ development progress and giving the average consumer more opportunity to be informed about their projects before they purchase. Barring any major upsets, I’d say we’re in for a terrifyingly unsettling remainder of the gaming year, and I can’t wait for all the goosebumps.

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