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Which Horror Game(s) Had the Best DLC?
Between the release of Layers of Fear: Inheritance earlier this week and the imminent arrival of Doom: Unto the Evil, August has two of the year’s most high profile DLC releases. This got me thinking about the somewhat divisive relationship between downloadable content (DLC) and the horror genre, which has struggled publicly to meet the growing demand for online functionality from a genre that typically prefers to isolate its players.
You might remember one of the more unfortunate phases the genre went through about a decade ago, when the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 effectively made online functionality a mandatory part of modern game design. This involved some tremendously clumsy attempts to introduce a competitive aspect to games like Condemned 2: Bloodshot, Dead Space 2, and Resident Evil 5, among others. And that was just the beginning.
DLC has been around for about as long as the Sega Dreamcast, and it’s far too complex to simply label as objectively good or bad. It’s a term that encompasses a wide range of topics, from free content updates to paid DLC, single-player vs. multiplayer content, standalone vs. add-on expansions, the worth of season passes, and so much more. Unfortunately, each of them is worthy of its own in-depth discussion, so let’s keep it simple.
Back in February 2015, I asked about the state of horror game DLC, to which nearly two thirds of those who participated in the poll agreed that DLC was still an obstacle for the horror genre — of which a startling 45% claimed it was a serious problem — with less than 7% who considered it a non-issue. Have the last 18 months done anything to change that opinion, for better or worse?
While we’re on the subject, which horror game(s), if any, do you consider the most successful in finding a meaningful approach to incorporating DLC? I’ve included some examples below to make this question easier to answer, but this list is in no way conclusive:
Alan Wake — The Signal, The Writer
Alien: Isolation — Corporate Lockdown, Crew Expendable
BioShock 2: Minerva’s Den
Bloodborne: The Old Hunters
Dead Rising 2 — Case Zero, Case West
Dead Rising 3 — Untold Stories of Los Perdidos
Dead Space 2: Severed
Dead Space 3: Awakened
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls
Dying Light: The Following
The Evil Within — The Assignment, The Consequence
F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn
The Last of Us: Left Behind
Left 4 Dead 2 — The Sacrifice, The Passing
Outlast: Whistleblower
Resident Evil 5 — Lost in Nightmares, Desperate Escape
State of Decay — Lifeline, Breakdown
All of us here at Bloody Disgusting are deeply saddened to learn that George A. Romero Foundation Founder and President Suzanne Desrocher-Romero has passed away.
GARF shared in a statement on socials, “It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Suzanne Desrocher Romero. Suzanne passed away of natural causes on June 24 at her home in Toronto after a prolonged illness.”
The statement continues, “Suzanne was the fierce leader of the George A. Romero Estate and The George A. Romero Foundation. She worked tirelessly to preserve George’s legacy. Her work at the foundation will continue to inspire and live on for generations to come. The family asks for privacy at this time.”
Desrocher-Romero founded GARF in 2018, after her late husband’s passing in 2017, and has been a fierce advocate for his legacy and the arts. It was her mission to “strengthen horror as a serious field of global study,” and she was a tremendous fighter on behalf of Romero’s works and supporting new filmmakers inspired by his legacy.
It was Desrocher-Romero who spearheaded the recovery and restoration of The Amusement Park, and, as the person in charge of the George A. Romero estate, worked closely with author Daniel Kraus on completing unfinished novels like Pay the Piper and The Living Dead. She most recently celebrated the restoration of her favorite of Romero’s zombie films, Day of the Dead, and was hard at work producing the upcoming film Twilight of the Dead.
That passionate advocacy led to Suzanne Desrocher-Romero becoming family to Bloody Disgusting as well.
2023 marked the start of an ongoing partnership between Bloody FM and GARF on The Dead, a scripted audio series spanning multiple seasons that saw Desrocher-Romero working closely with the Bloody FM team and mentoring the series’s contributing writers with GARF. To say her loss will be felt internally is an understatement.
“Anytime George Romero is mentioned is good, because what we are doing is to provide a healthy legacy. We’re uplifting his legacy, we’re supporting the archive, and we’re also supporting the Horror Study Center. So, all of these three things are what the Foundation is striving to do. As far as I’m concerned, the more we say George Romero’s name, the better it is,” Desrocher-Romero recently told BD.
It’s the perfect encapsulation of her unwavering enthusiasm for supporting Romero’s legacy and the horror genre, and just a glimpse at how much she contributed to preserving it. She is, in short, an inspiration.
We send our deepest condolences to Suzanne Desrocher-Romero’s family, friends, and GARF.
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