10 Horror Video Game Tropes That Need To Stop

Alongside carefully managing resources and sneaking around spooky areas, puzzle solving is a common part of most horror games.

Whether the objective is as simple as searching a pitch-black sewer for valves to turn in Outlast or more complex like making a tank shell to blast through a door in Amnesia: Rebirth, the chances are that we'll be spending a substantial chunk of time figuring out how to get to the next area.

Sometimes, though, developers like to get more creative with the puzzles they put in their games.

Look no further than the Resident Evil series’ assortment of peculiar and imaginative brainteasers to see how to make puzzles interesting. As strange as manipulating objects to unlock doors with their shadows is, working out the solutions is never overly difficult.

However, there’s been in a recent trend in which developers have begun to mistake complexity with challenge whereby the steps to solve puzzles have become increasingly convoluted.

As skilfully as Madison is in crating its slow-burn atmosphere, for example, it boasts some of the most unintuitive riddles for us to crack, with Hello Neighbor and Scorn likewise giving many of us headaches trying to work out what we’re supposed to be doing.