Engineering Fear

We as a species have always been obsessed with fear, and it's quite evident when you look back at how prevalent the horror genre is in every medium. The reason for this is quite simple. We need fear to survive. Whether it is in a human fleeing from a crazy axe murderer or a crab scuttling away from a fisherman, the need for fear exists in all sentient life.

Commenting on Alien: Isolation, Dr. Russell Green, a psychiatrist, said, "If you look back at pre-human primates, most of our days were spent living a life that wasn't that dissimilar from that game. You're kind of walking around this environment, waiting for stuff to jump out and get you. And desperately trying to find things that mean you can live to the next day."

While video games as a medium prides itself on giving a player absolute control, horror games rely on taking it away; they break the norm to make us feel uneasy. Resident Evil 4 not only features an isolated character navigating dark, claustrophobic environments, it also "de-powers" the hero. In RE:4, ammo and supplies are scarce and the suitcase means you can't carry everything you find, forcing you to be in a constant state of fear and alertness. The next enemy encountered might kill you, or make you use up your supplies and leave you helpless. RE:4 also has difficult shooting mechanics like not being able to run and shoot together. Developer oversight or not, they further diminish player control.

If you've ever had the misfortune of watching PewDiePie play "Amnesia" you'll know that it is a testament to how great the game is that you can still get genuinely scared even with his goblin-like voice in the background. Besides the absence of weapons, Amnesia has an insanity meter, filled up whenever you stay in darkness, which you need to remain undetectable.So every step you take you're making an active decision on whether to maybe get killed or slowly go insane. What's genius about this is that as insanity goes up, the screen distorts and sounds become magnified to mess with the player's imagination, causing them to be paranoid of dangers that aren't there. This in turn causes them hide longer in the darkness, pushing themselves further into insanity.

Developers also use techniques that affect a player subconsciously, like colour schemes and sound design. 
Silent Hill 2 uses colors related to blood, rust and darkness like greys, reds and browns, creating an oppressive atmosphere of death and decay. While music doesn't really matter when you're launching a rocket at a chopper, it does matter when you're slowly walking down a dark corridor to (maybe) your certain doom. Most horror games focus on a mix of overbearing silence and menacing music, ending in a crescendo when you encounter an enemy that doesn't let up until you kill it. Dead Space 2 instead cues music based on your proximity to the Necromorph. The closer you are to it the louder the music becomes, complementing the heightened sense of danger you feel. 

These are just some of the techniques developers use to elevate tension and apprehension. So the next time you see a game that's nothing but jump-scares, feel free to eye-roll.