A Resident Evil 7 advertisement poster, with a RE logo superimposed on a white background

Horror games are an immensely popular genre that tons of people love and enjoy, however, people with certain health problems that may be exacerbated by stressful situations, like high blood pressure, may be recommended to avoid them. What will happen when we take the immersion to a whole new level and put them into VR? I mean, VR Porn can’t get too sexy, but can certain virtual reality horror games be too scary for people? Will VR horror games be unsafe to play due to health issues, and are we predestined to hear that in the near future people will be getting heart attacks due to the Rift and other VR devices?

Resident Evil 7 is coming out soon for VR, the rest of the series was excellent and pretty damn scary (if any of the first 6 games terrified you, you’re in for a treat). Let’s face it, if the game is as horrific as the trailers make it look, there is no way in hell I am going to be able to play through the game without screaming like a little chicken-livered baby at every turn.

picture of girl playing Oculus Rift, and a picture of scary female from the game Dreadhalls beside it.

Not only have they intensified the horror aspects in this game, both sound-wise and graphics-wise, in comparison to previous Resident Evil games, but they’ve done so in such an extreme way that they’ve made certain (or at least they claim it as such) that when you’re in VR it’s going to be so goddamn scary you’re gonna piss your pants. You may have played horror games in the past, or maybe you have even watched some pretty scary movies before, but nothing will prepare you for the level of raw and visceral fear that only becomes capable when you are in something as immersive as a VR headset; in other words, you had better be prepared for (hopefully) some of the scariest stuff that you have ever experienced.

Another serious sign that this game is going to take the scream-factor to the next level is the fact that the game director, Koshi Nakanishi, said on Capcom’s Unity Blog that it takes a measure of responsibility to play the game (I mean seriously, how often do you hear that sort of thing?), which means that if you make the stupid decision to play the game (I’m a wuss when it comes to scary games, remember?), it’s your own fault if you get a heart attack.

A Resident Evil 7 advertisement poster, with a RE logo superimposed on a white background

It isn’t hard for me to see the massive potential a niche such as VR Horror has, both for raw entertainment and killing ourselves with fear, as regardless of my horror-game-wimpiness I have played hours upon hours of horror games (and watched plenty of horror movies), and for the most part (aside from the odd turd left on the carpet) I do just fine. When I first got my hands (head) on a Rift and got the chance to give the oft-touted “crap-yourself-until-you’ve-no-crap-left” horror game Dreadhalls a try, I was absolutely terrified. Unlike the regular terror-in-a-TV-box fair that I was accustomed to, I was now in the game and it was by far scarier than any of those other experiences could have ever hoped to be.
Considering how scary the previous Resident Evil games (which managed to somewhat easily elicit a couple of “oh shits” and an odd scream here or there) were, it’s not hard to imagine that this could quite likely be VR’s scariest game to date; and quite likely deserving of all of the warnings and hype.

Also, as if being in VR wasn’t enough, unlike most of the 3rd person Resident Evil games preceding this one, you will be traversing the terrors in blood-curdling (I wanted to say something about “shit” here, but when you combine that with blood it’s just gross) first-person to increase the immersion and make it all the scarier (Why does it need to be any scarier? Screw you Capcom!).

"Dreadhalls" advertisement

At E3 2016 Kawata commented on the subject saying, “If you feel that this game is just too scary for you to play alone, try playing it when others are there. Why not sit down in the midst of your family or friends, have people stay around you and enjoy the horror together. That will be way better than being alone and driving yourself crazy with this horror game”.

So if the game gets too complicated, too violent, or just plain out too horrific (aaaaaagh!), the best course of action is to close your eyes or just the take the headset off, before your obligatory trip to the washroom to clean up the mess you had just made.

 


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