8 Horror Video Games That Broke The 4th Wall
Invading your fears, and your homes for good measure.
When looking at what makes horror video games so appealing, one might point to the fact that it's the closest experience we can get to the real thing. With horror films you're placed into a passive role, the events will happen no matter your reaction and that's that. With video games, however, you're in direct control of your avatar, which means if you mess up, that's them done for.
However, there's still that relative level of safety. After all, you're in control of the game and can pause the experience or even turn it off if things get too much. So of course that's when some games choose to go that one step further and obliterate any sense of the fourth wall in order to get a rise out of you.
These are eight such examples, of times when simply killing, maiming, or frightening the player character wasn't enough and that it was the player themselves who were on the chopping block. So brace yourselves as these games won't let you quit if the going gets tough, and trust me, they make sure it does.
8. Calendula
The concept of a game that refuses to be played seems, on paper at least, like the worst USP for any title on the market. After all, we choose video games as a form of entertainment so why would we want to be locked out of it?
Well, Calendula is no ordinary game, and from the moment that it refuses to let you play, citing issues with your own hardware, you know something is deeply wrong here. Calendula operates almost exclusively on fourth wall breaking moments and challenges the player to work out how to actually play this game all the while positing that there is an evil force behind all of this.
What makes all of this so unsettling is that when you do get glimpses of the "game" itself, you'll wish you hadn't as the images are disturbing, to say the least.
Still, because it teases out what is behind all the tricks and traps, you'll press on... although when you see what's in store at the end of Calendula, maybe you should just put the whole program in the trash.
What do you mean I can't?