This guy is clearly scared even though they play a sort of coop. They're talking over Skype but each one plays single-player on their own computer. Haven't played the game so I dunno exactly what's so scary.
Well, if this was single player, he might be scared
There is no way the other player can help him apart from warning him that he'll soil his pants around the next turn - and if the game is good, he will soil them even with that knowledge.
For me, horror is being alone with many around you - making maps that allow players to see eachother but having it impossible to help the other. Let's picture this - there is a great hall, and the players are on the opposite side of a large balcony. They must go around to meet. Suddenly, player A sees a monster behind player B. He shouts over his VOIP, but the game blocks that. That is horror for player A in the way that he can feel and see the inevitable and can't do anything. Player B will be scared the normal way, while he feels a gentle poke and notices a claw pointing out from his belly. Some games that actually aren't even horror can pull that off nicelly, given some distortions and lag over the VOIP or having none to begin with. Time Splitter's haunted house section made me and my brother scared the first time around, and we are well beyond the phase of believing in monsters under our beds
There really isn't a formula of what is cary or not - it is how you deliver, how much the player wants to be afraid (turning off lights, good headphones, no distrubnace from family) and how much the gamers can believe (immerse?) in the story given.
It has been said before maybe, but shock tactics is not fear. It is an irksome feature that makes you jumpy and sarcastic. No further than yesterday in Dead Space 2 me and my brother started betting on from which vent a monster would jump. We kinda both lost, as those vents were just to fill empty space and did not contain enemies. True nature of fear is music, it's sound effects - sublte whispering of a name, scuttling, a child's cry or a silent scream that builds up to a banshee whail - that is fear and it makes my hair stand and hands sweat. Also a few things I did not notice in games but would scare the f*ck out of me would be:
- You are going through a corridor. You see that a pair of hands reaches out from behind you to grasp your mouth. You turn around, given you got the FPS instincts
and see nothing. You turn back and face a deformed, painfull expression that jumps at you. The screen goes dark and goes back to normal again. It was just a mirage.
- You hear scuddling and notice a leg or shadow of something moving out of sight. You can still see it's shadow, unmoving. If you decide to move towards it, it will be only a candlelight sheding light on an inanimate object like a chair. A bloody footprint on the wall slowly dissapears...
- Lights go out. A pair of eyes flare up with a white, delicate glow in the distance. They close in. You run, they emerge before you. They are all around. They vanish
- A motive from Condemned: Criminal Origins that made me loose all my ammo. A bunch of dolls was in a room. A flash of light. The dolls were closing in. I ran. Flash. The dolls are closer, they gain expression of grief. RUN. Flash. Their hands reach out for you as you fall down through the floor.
Holy, it made me have goose bumps while even writing it
Too mcuh imagination. Hope this helps/wasn't said before a 1000 times in this thread
) - as soon as we have some spare time while devoping the Wild Boundaries 
