The Mortuary Assistant Could Predict the Success of an Eternal Darkness Revival

gamerant.com:

The Mortuary Assistant quickly became a viral sensation among YouTubers and streamers thanks to its atypical approach to scaring players. Following the story of Rebecca Owens as she battles her figurative and literal demons during a shift as the titular mortuary assistant, the player will experience a range of unsettling and scary encounters that vary from the subtle to the dramatic. In fact, The Mortuary Assistant takes a significant step away from the overuse of jump scares endemic to the horror genre, especially among indie games, which could explain why it surged in popularity.

This departure could therefore be indicative of a return to earlier horror game mechanics that focused on subversion and discomfort rather than shock and gore. The most infamous example of this lies with Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem which became popular through its «sanity effects,» seeking instead to scare players through similar subversive means that ranged from in-game hallucinations to fourth-wall-breaking events. If The Mortuary Assistant could help encourage future horror games to embrace a like-minded ethos towards its scares, then this could finally pave the way for a long overdue revival of Eternal Darkness.

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To claim that The Mortuary Assistant doesn't utilize jump scares whatsoever would be inaccurate, but instead, the game moves away from these and incorporates a broad spectrum of methods to unsettle or frighten its players. Some are plainly obvious, often the result of hallucinations that see Rebecca being attacked by her grandmother to being back in her apartment when she was an addict. However, others are less overt and subtly use visual and auditory scares designed to be in