Look at Silent Hill 2 as a classic example. There is time for the dread to take form and for its unsettling tendrils to take hold.

We already know the crushing effect that a slow build can have when a game is played solo. A good, single player horror game offers something much more haunting, often at a slower pace, with the scares coming from the plot as well as the enemies. Playing horror games with friends is often an exercise in quick decisions, frantic mechanics, and the endurance challenge of not being the first to die. Good horror is a psychological challenge more than a physical one, and multiplayer games tend to put their focus on the latter. We have a weird desire to be challenged by things which can be horrifying, disgusting, or that come leaping at our sense of comfort and normality. While playing online with others is about fun, about teamwork, about skill, and about who is going to get scared the most, but horror isn't just about how much something can make you jump.ДЄs a genre, horror can often be characterised by what it does more so than what it is, but fear comes in many forms. Sales of PCs also increased, so it all makes sense that playing online with friends, even in a horror setting, is the way to go right now.Д«ut there is a loss to this, I feel it's a kind of Faustian bargain in which playing horror games on with friends on or off stream is fun as hell, but it loses that deeper connection that horror has with the human psyche. It's also no coincidence that games like Phasmophobia and Dead by Daylight skyrocketed to notoriety almost as soon as people were finding themselves isolated at home. This improved tech is part of the reason multiplayer even is the in thing in the first place. Online servers have become more powerful and reliable, and with the introduction of games as service, although itвЂ™s yet to fully take off, games that function as multiplayer titles are currently in demand. Multiplayer games are the in thing right now, but I think a lot of it is to do with the fact that, technologically, gaming has advanced several folds over the years. It isn't entirely new, of course (Back 4 Blood is, after all, standing on the shoulders of Left 4 Dead), but there's been a definite uptick recently. The tagline even says вЂњweвЂ™re in this together.вЂќ It still has a single-player campaign, but the latest trailer emphasises a collaborative effort on the part of the players. Red BarrelsвЂ™ upcoming Outlast Trials is touted as a multiplayer horror experience, in which players will work together toвЂ¦ wellвЂ¦ outlast the nightmare that is the Murkoff Corporation.

IвЂ™m enjoying the above games, and others including the hidden gem that is Devour, but even games that were previously single-player horror have fallen prey to the allure of the many-gamer philosophy. And look, this isnвЂ™t a criticism towards this new trend. Not in all cases, of course, but there is definitely a shift occurring. The solo, isolationist terror felt when playing horror on oneвЂ™s own is seemingly making way for something that favours group interaction, collaboration, and people banding together against a greater evil. A thought has been brewing in the cold recesses of my mind for a while now, and it is simply this: when did horror become a team game?

Maybe IвЂ™ll be running from Pyramid Head in Dead By Daylight with my pals in tow.

Or perhaps IвЂ™ll be creeping around a haunted house in Phasmophobia, my smudge stick in-hand and a cavalcade of petrified friends whimpering down their mics. By the time you read this I'll be playing Back 4 Blood, gunning down hordes of the undead until viscera and gore cake my playerвЂ™s clothes, and my eyes become infinite pools of horror that have seen more than enough death for one lifetime.

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