Games

Horror Games That Are Great Despite Frustrating Combat

Published

3 weeks ago

November 1, 2024

Horror games provide some of the most enthralling, atmospheric experiences players can find on the shelves today. Few genres have the same attention to tension and tone as horror titles, with the intended feeling often being one of suspense, dread, or simple, outright terror. Even among the many subgenres within horror that exist today, such as survival horror or psychological thrillers, the best games available will instill players with this unsteady feeling they can’t quite put words to.

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Horror games are not usually known for their combat, but the aforementioned survival horror format does tend to give players a few more tools at their disposal. Between the many options of horror games available for players, however, there are some absolute gems that stand out beyond the rest. Unfortunately, among these gems, there are some titles that will nail their setting and atmosphere, but fall short where combat is concerned.

7 Silent Hill

A Magnum Opus Among Horror Titles With Clunky Combat

Systems

Released: January 31, 1999

The Silent Hill series is known for many things. It holds one of the most disappointing cancelations of all time as a badge of honor, it essentially rewrote the rules for atmospheric horror games on consoles, and it created one of the most iconic horror settings in any medium.

What it did not do, unfortunately, was revolutionize combat. Combat in Silent Hill is slow and clunky, and while this does make the many enemies in game more of a threat, it also can frustrate the player simply trying to navigate an area of the town.

6 Silent Hill 2

The Recent Remake Shines A Light On Some Glaring Combat Flaws

Silent Hill 2

Released: September 24, 2001

While the remade Silent Hill 2 controversially decided to revamp the game’s combat, causing fans to stir at the faithfulness of this project overall to one of the best horror games of all time, the original Silent Hill 2‘s combat, while innovating on its predecessor, left much to be desired.

There were a few different weapons in Silent Hill 2, most of them improvised but effective in the right contexts, but the game’s clunkiness and occasional lack of hitbox detection made combat still less of a hit and more of a miss.

5 Sweet Home

A Classic Horror Title That Shows Its Age

Sweet Home

Systems

Released: December 15, 1989

Sweet Home is a gem of a horror title, serving as the inspiration for Resident Evil and, funnily enough, also being one of those rare video games that falls into the category of being a successful movie tie-in, being based on a Japanese horror film of the same name.

The turn-based combat is reliable, but often incredibly difficult to the point of frustration, and enemies often appear out of nowhere that are well beyond the party’s current capabilities.

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4 Koudelka

The Start To An Avant Garde Horror JRPG Series

Koudelka

Systems

Released: December 16, 1999
Developer(s): SNK
Publisher(s): SNK

Koudelka is a fantastic horror JRPG, celebrating the works of Gothic masters like Mary Shelley and the eldritch stories of Lovecraft. It’s a unique JRPG in so many ways, and so is its subsequent series, Shadow Hearts, with each title hosting multiple endings and an overarching story of mysticism and occult magic.

JRPG combat in this game is at its most sluggish, with fights often taking a while due to tanky enemies and some slow animations that can really bring down the pace of this otherwise fantastic game.

3 Prey

A Great Sci-Fi Horror Title That Misses With Enemies

Prey out of Arkane Studios is an impressive, gripping sci-fi horror title with a lot going for it in terms of its environment design and the overall narrative. Talos 1 might be a small location, but it’s jam-packed with personality.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the game’s combat, which frustrated many with its lack of weight and impact, alongside the shallow variety of useful weapons and enemy placement.

2 Resident Evil 2

Combat Can Detract From An Otherwise Great Atmosphere

Another opus of the horror genre, Resident Evil 2 and its predecessor were as influential as Silent Hill in bringing horror to an entirely new medium, beginning a franchise that would host some of the best survival horror games of all time within its ranks.

The combat in this game does miss the mark however, with fighting generally feeling clunky and unsatisfying. Unlike the previous title, combat is more frequent in this game, and this draws more attention to the ways that it falls short.

1 We Happy Few

A Great Title With Some Poor Combat Mechanics

Released: August 10, 2018
Developer(s): Compulsion Games
Publisher(s): Gearbox Publishing

We Happy Few is a game with a fantastic premise, and to an extent, the execution of this premise matches suit, giving players a grim, stark environment they’re forced to navigate both sober and also while hopped up on dangerous hallucinogens.

But this solid, unconventional title has weightless combat that fails to leave an impression – even if combat isn’t the core focus of the game, it’s unavoidable for the most part, and players will find themselves frustrated with how ineffective virtually all forms of combat feel in this title.