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What Is The Horror Score ?

Horror is notoriously subjective. What keeps one player awake at night might bore another to tears. While standard review scores tell you if a game is good, they rarely tell you how it scares you.

Horror Score

A data-driven approach to quantifying the horror genre, from psychological dread to visceral shock.
The Malefik Horror Score at the core of the application measures intensity. It differs from a critic's rating that usually assesses the production quality or fun factor of a game, in that it specifically addresses the intensity of a game. The interface has a clean, responsive presentation of games with a method for filtering through the list by platform, developer, and release year. The most distinctive feature of the application however, is its tiered ranking system. The applications tiered ranking categorizes games based on their overall intensity, this allows the user to immediately discern between a hardcore psychological horror experience such as Silent Hill 2 (Remake) and a fast-paced but primarily an action-based title such as Dead by Daylight.
Tier Description Score
S
The apex of horror
Masterpiece level intensity
 90+
A
Intense and terrifying
High-quality scares
 80-89
B
Strong horror elements
Solid genre entry
 70-79
C
Mild horror
Action-focused or light scares
 <70

Specifics: The 5 Metrics (For Now)

The logic behind the ranking is transparent and consistent.
The Application will display a Fear Finder for each metrics in both its detail and view to show how much of that dimension you could experience. The overall score is then determined based on all the dimensions.
Metric Definition
Psychological Measures gaslighting, sanity effects, and mental strain.
Atmospheric The use of sound design, lighting, and environmental storytelling to create unease.
Adrenaline Chase mechanics, combat pacing, and heart-rate spikes.
Shock & Gore Visceral imagery, body horror, and jump scares.
Existential The narrative weight, emotional impact, and lingering dread after the game ends.

Behavior: How Scores Are Calculated

Every title is assigned a value between 0 and 100 for each of the five metrics.

The Average Calculation

There is nothing arbitrary about the Horror Score, which is an arithmetic mean of the five metrics. The Malefik Horror Score helps to make sure that games relying solely on "jump scares" or "shock" and lacking "Atmosphere" are scored as less intense than more rounded horror games.

The Comparison

Additionally the tool has a strong compare mode. Once a user has chosen to view two games side-by-side for comparison, the application will open a new view to show the comparisons between the two games. The application shows the visual winner of each metric, so the user can easily determine if one game is based more in psychology than another or based more in adrenaline.
Development: The Logic Behind the Tool
Built with performance and user privacy in mind.
Smart Search
One of the most challenging aspects of the site is its advanced search function. The search function is able to recognize gaming terminology and thus does more than simply search for titles, it will also parse commands (ie: "Psychological Score > 80") in addition to searching for titles and even more.
Fear Fingerprint Chart
Using the 5 factors with trigonometric calculations to convert those points into a circle allows the system to create a new Sigil for each game which is a distinct geometric form. A balanced horror game looks like a perfect pentagon while sharp spikes show games where the design was focused niche.
Privacy-First Data
It has a "Favorites" and "History" feature, but is based in a very private way of operation; all of your data will be saved only on your device, and our cookies are designed to seek out your permission before storing one byte of data about your gaming preferences so they can stay private.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions regarding the Horror Score.
Some more information.

Metacritic is a compilation of reviews that provide an overall opinion on whether a game is "good" or "bad". The Malefik Horror Score gives you an idea of just how frightening a particular game is. While a game may be a highly praised example of storytelling (High Quality Score), it may not be frightening (Low Horror Score). We provide both scores so you get the total picture of what a game has to offer.

Yes. The "Fear Finder" section of the tool includes individual sliders for each of the 5 categories used to evaluate fear. You can use these sliders to create your own customized search parameters; for instance, you could look for a game with a very high level of Psychological dread but no gore by setting the respective sliders to filter your results accordingly.

The tool evaluates the games you've put in your "Favorites". The tool then uses the Genre Tags and Fear Intensity metrics of those games to match you with other games based on a common "Fear Profile".

Yes. Our database currently includes games across all major platforms, including PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch. Using the "Quick Filter" sections you can select which platform(s) you'd prefer to see.

It is a visual radar chart viewable within the game details page. Each game's "Fear Fingerprint" is a unique visual representation of its five Fear metrics (Psychological, Atmospheric, Adrenaline, Shock, Existential) giving you a visual representation of where that game shines and where it falls short, rather than having to read a reviewer's opinions about it.

No. The tool was built with a user's right to privacy as a top priority. All information regarding your search history and your favorite games are saved locally on your device. We have no knowledge of your preferences or data.

At the current time our comparison engine is designed to perform comparisons on a one-on-one basis (1v1). As such we're able to keep the visual comparison clean and easy to understand while providing clear and definitive "winners" for each metric being compared.

Clicking the microphone icon located in the search bar will allow you to use voice commands to search for games. You can say things like "Show me all the Capcom games", or "Show me games released in 2023" and the natural language processor will automatically apply the filters you requested.

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