[Halloween Special] 5 horror video games inspired by real events

Why on earth should we be afraid of a horror movie? It's all fake, what we see represented on screen cannot really happen, between splatter effects and incarnations of evil. Everything changes, however, when the words "inspired by real facts" appear at the beginning of the film. If it really happened, it can happen again! The same reflection can be addressed to horror video games which usually confront us with situations that are difficult to verify in reality.

Yet even horror video games are now looking for new ways to impress the player and one of the most effective methods is throw it in real situations. There are therefore cases of horror video games based entirely on true stories or only inspired by them, with the addition of some embroidery by the developers.

In this Halloween special, we've compiled a list of five horror video games inspired by real facts.

Video games inspired by real stories

Kholat

2015 horror video game developed by the Polish independent studio IMGN PRO. The story is inspired by the Dyatlov Pass Incident, which took place in 1959 in the Ural Mountains. Specifically, the event took place on Cholatcachl, a mountain located in a region north of the Urals, and saw nine unfortunate protagonists of the story, led by Igor Alekseevič Djatlov, only 23 years old. The nine boys never returned, they were all found dead in unimaginable conditions: some had burn marks, other internal organs destroyed and a fractured skull, but no traces of scuffles or external signs were found that could make us understand the dynamics of the accident. . Various conjectures were made, including UFOs, Soviet government experiments, and even the Yeti. Investigators came to sentence that the fault was of an "unknown force of nature". Kholat does not take up the events of the nine hikers, but those of a single solitary character who goes to the site of the accident, which has already occurred, to discover hidden truths over the years.

To deepen the topic -> Dyatlov's step accident.

Man of Medan

A very recent title, developed by Supermassive Games, the development studio of Until Dawn, Man of Medan is the first episode of an anthology series called The Dark Pictures. A group of scuba-diving teenagers find themselves involved in a hijacking on their boat only to be tossed about by a storm on a haunted ship. Not everyone knows it, but Man of Medan is not only the result of the developers' imagination, because the haunted ship is the Ourang Medan, a boat that really crossed the oceans to then end up in a tragic and mysterious end. The ship was a Dutch merchant ship that sank in Indonesian waters resulting in the death of all crew. When the ship was found, the spectacle that appeared before the rescuers was terrifying: corpses with frightened and terror-distorted faces, arms raised as a sign of help and no kind of mark on their bodies. The most accredited theories exclude the intervention of aliens or unknown forces and are held on more rational positions.

To deepen the topic -> The sinking of the Ourang Medan.

Read also our review.

Neverending Nightmares

Neverending Nightmares is a 2014 video game with simple and intuitive mechanics, but with a distressing and claustrophobic story. The protagonist Thomas explores what is presumably his home, yet the atmosphere of that place is suffocating; blood, disturbing figures and chilling noises cause him, and the player, a strong discomfort. His wandering through the rooms of the house almost seems like a curse, an endless nightmare from which he wakes up and then falls back without any moment of relief and breath. The nightmare is perpetuated and by going deeper and deeper, Thomas risks losing his sanity forever. Neverending Nigtmares is a two-dimensional title that shows the horrors of depression, a story that can be real to anyone who suffers from it, but is actually linked to a specific person: Matt Gilgenbach. Who is he? It is precisely the developer of the game who, disappointed and embittered by the failure of his first video game, Retrograde, fell into depression. With Neverending Nightmares, he stages his nightmares and his fears about an ever-uncertain future. We can therefore define it as an autobiographical horror video game.

To deepen the topic -> Official channel of Matt Gilgenbach.

The Town of Lights

The Town of Light may have been and still is improperly defined as first-person survival horror. The most suitable definition would be that of interactive drama because, despite the thrilling setting and an overwhelming general atmosphere, the story it tells is among the most realistic ever told in a video game. The Town of Light, an español title developed by LKA, puts us in the shoes of a woman who visits the now abandoned asylum of Volterra, in Tuscany. The former psychiatric hospital of Volterra was established in 1887, while its closure, which then led to its present state of neglect, took place in 1978 following the law n. 180, also known as the Basaglia law. Many ghost stories related to this place, The Town of Light, however, does not focus on these legends, but on events that really happened when the asylum was in full swing. Through the discovery of documents and diaries, the player becomes aware of medical practices and inhuman treatments to which patients were subjected.

To deepen the topic -> Asylum of Volterra.

Masochism

A not particularly well-known game available on Steam which has Albert Fish as its central figure. Masochisia is a psychological horror video game with a strong narrative component. The issues addressed are depression, abuse and mental illness. The experience is somewhat disturbing and tells the story of a young boy who suffers from violent hallucinations, which over the years will lead him to become a psychopath. As we mentioned, the game is inspired by the life of Albert Fish, also known as the Brooklyn Vampire and the Wysteria Werewolf. Considered one of the most prolific and heinous serial killers in history, he admitted killing over a hundred children. In addition to being a serial killer, he was also a torturer and cannibal.

To deepen the topic -> Albert Fish.

Read also -> Video games and mental illness.