Co-op Horror

At first glance, co-operative horror seems like an oxymoron, after all a large majority of horror games create scenarios where the player is isolated and helpless to emphasise the hopelessness of their situations; whether it's a Resident Evil type location that no one else can get to or in an entirely different reality like Silent Hill, it's common for horror to make you feel alone and helpless.

So surely, a horror scenario involving a few people working together wouldn't quite be as effective, but after delving into some co-op horror games over the last few months I've found that they can be even more terrifying than their singleplayer counterparts, and a lot more fun, too.

Devour is one of many fun co-op horror games available right now

The core of many co-op horror games is the players up against an AI threat with an objective to complete, for example games like Devour and Pacify require you to collect and destroy certain objects in order to dispel a demon, with the demon you're trying to dispel hunting everyone down and getting more aggressive as you destroy more objects. This culminates in a terrifying experience that only gets more difficult as the game goes on, and I think playing it with friends only heightens the tension as you and your friends frantically try to coordinate yourselves while a blindingly fast demon blazes through the halls, trying its best to kill you.

In Silence is another variant on the co-op horror genre that does something unique as it prioritises stealth and being, well, silent, as your opponent is nearly blind but has superior hearing. In Devour and Pacify you can charge about without a care, and in some cases this behaviour is encouraged, but In Silence punishes any noise made that is more than a crawl by alerting the game's monster - the Rake - to your position. On top of this, talking in game also counts as noise, so communicating with your pals goes from an action that doesn't take much forethought to a constant decision of whether or not you want to risk alerting the Rake in exchange for giving a warning or an instruction to another player.

Now, In Silence has a mode that lets someone play as the Rake, however after a few games with someone playing as the monster we found it was a much more enjoyable experience to have it be controlled by an AI, but why?

In Silence's mostly-blind Rake requires players to be smart with their noise

The problem with multiplayer horror games like Dead By Daylight or Friday the 13th is that the main threat, controlled by a player, can "break character" per se. Either through ineptitude or simply wanting to mess around, they can act in a way that doesn't quite reflect the calculated, brutal nature of a murderous psychopath or monster. On the other hand an AI always acts the part perfectly, reacting as they should and, by doing so, being erratic and unpredictable. A person in this position can be convinced to hold off for a second or go for another target but a computer doesn't care, they have a target and if nothing gets in their way, they will kill it.

Probably the best example of how well all of this can work is in Phasmophobia, a game that pits you against a ghost and tasks you with figuring out what type of ghost it is. The core of the game is based around the unpredictability of the ghost, with each game being different as you don't know what the ghost will do and when, leading to a tense back and forth with the players provoking the ghost and waiting for a response. Every aspect of Phasmophobia utilises how co-op horror works as much as it can, as the ghost will react to you talking in game which can make communicating with other players in-game risky, especially when the ghost is hunting for you. On top of that, since players can only hold three items at a time it is beneficial to have more than one person to bring enough things in to detect the ghost with; it's not impossible to play Phasmophobia alone, but it is a lot more difficult and in some respects, tedious. However, what really brings it all together is the fact that it isn't a person controlling the ghost.

2020 smash hit Phasmophobia pits 1-4 players against a violent ghost

In my opinion Phasmophobia just wouldn't be as good with a person playing the ghost, it all works because it is unclear just what prods the ghost to respond, with some games having the ghost immediately show its hand and others in which five to ten minutes go by without so much as a peep. This facet is the best part about co-op horror games: the unpredictability that requires multiple people to communicate and work together to survive which is mixed with some kind of limitation or punishment for that communication, adding to the tension.

Co-op horror is a genre that I believe hasn't been explored enough; the select few games that belong to the category are absolutely brilliant, but I'd love to see what else could be done with it given how much fun the co-op horror games I've played already have been. But with games like Phasmophobia, In Silence, Pacify and more leading the charge, I am incredibly hopeful for the future of the genre.