Halloween is fast approaching and that means the scares, they are a-comin'. The slasher flicks will be trotted out and the creepy costumes will be donned but for us, you just cant beat a good horror game for the prime Hallows' Eve experience. The problem is, once youre familiar with how (especially recent) horror games work, they tend to lose a lot of their effect - "Oh look, another empty pod that a hideous beast is going to burst out of". Repetition is the scourge of horror game, and it desensitises people to any potential fright. However, hiding the really creepy stuff so that players have to actively seek it out is a good way to counter this, and means that a game doesnt even have to be in the horror genre to be scary, since a developer can throw something inexplicably terrifying at the player at any given moment. Something like Mario is about as tame as it gets but delve a little deeper (as we're about to) and you'll find plenty dark subject matter hidden in those games, never mind the more legitimately disturbing franchises that make it their aim. Easter eggs can be a way to get players to keep exploring long after they finish playing or, if theyre anything like what's featured here, simply never go near the game again.
