The feeling of empowerment has long been a traditional aspect of video gaming. Players take control of a hyper-strong, ultra-powerful protagonist in order to solve a problem that no one else can, standing tall and triumphant at the end of a hard fought battle.

The ability to power through whatever obstacles are thrown in your way has become such a staple of the industry that players take it for granted. When taking control of a video game protagonist they are suddenly the most dangerous being in that world, and many are caught totally off guard when that strength is taken away from them.

This forced normalcy, in which the gamer now controls an average person, has become more prevalent in the recent resurgence of the horror game genre, in which some of the best titles have stripped gameplay down to the bare minimum. In place of frantic action and swarms of undead, designers are becoming more reliant on environmental design, audio queues, and a crushing sense of loneliness and vulnerability in order to procure the most visceral emotional reaction possible.

Outlast (2013)

One of the titles that has garnered high esteem in gaming circles, and one that is often credited with bringing the genre back into a level of mainstream awareness, Outlast is a glowing example of what can be achieved when leaving a player defenseless. Taking the role of a reporter acting on a tip, gamers are released into the worst sort of mental asylum that fiction can create. While mentally damaged men with axes would be easy prey to the traditional gaming hero, players in Outlast are equipped only with a video camera — one that bleeds battery power faster than an iPhone.

Childish as it may sound, there is something truly gut wrenching about hiding under a bed and watching the feet of your pursuer shuffling by. Even veterans of 100 games of Resident Evil and the slayer of countless zombies would have never believed that a game would players shivering in their living room and passing the controller off to a buddy because they couldn't continue.

Five Nights at Freddy's (series 2014-15)

Utterly simple, incredibly bare bones and wildly terrifying, Five Nights at Freddy's takes the point-and-click style of so many delightful childhood games and turns it into something twisted.

You're the night's watchman at a kid's pizza joint with one job: Keep the restaurant and yourself safe.

While a rip-off Chuck E. Cheese may not seem like the setting of your nightmares, developer Scott Cawthon must have been to a different location, for he managed to turn something innocent into something terrifying.

For reasons that won't be fully explained here, the friendly animatronic animals at this restaurant need to wander the halls at night, and identify any human they see as a fur-less robot. In order to avoid being fatally stuffed into a costume by a grinning robotic teddy bear, you must keep your security room locked. Accomplishing your objective boils down to two tasks, closing the doors or turn off the lights without running out of power.

FNaF and its sequels are another masterful example of how much can be accomplished with seemingly so little, cultivating a feeling of being utterly trapped in a desperate situation with no way out, exacerbated by the fact that your character is glued to his desk and unable to leave until the sun rises again. Rapid jump scares, the sense of isolation and some terrifyingly cute monsters all combined to great effect, creating a game whose influence will likely be felt in the industry in the years to come.

Alien: Isolation (2014)

It's the only title on the list not a product of an indie studio. It's also the only successful horror game based on an existing property to hit video games in, well, ever. Alien: Isolation took the survival-stealth gameplay of Outlast and combined it with the claustrophobic, base-undersiege camera work of the Ridley Scott original in order to create something thrilling.

Taking the role of Ellen Ripley's daughter as she investigated just what happened in the first film, players immediately find themselves cut off and alone, with only the franchise's iconic Xenomorph for company. It is in this singular opponent that nearly all the game's fear is derived from, as it quietly stalks you from the shadows, drops on you from the ceiling, and generally makes your life miserable.

Players' nerves are further frayed when they discover that every weapon left around the base is laughably useless, a discovery that usually takes place alongside the image of the alien's claws protruding out of your chest.

The alien itself is a marvel of artificial intelligence, as it adapts to your path and rarely attempts to kill you the same way twice, forcing players to get out of the situation in new ways each time, guaranteeing frayed nerves and sweaty palms.

These titles, among several others, have helped push gaming into undiscovered territory, and the success of the genre will only spur developers on to make more titles of this ilk. Gamers are more willing to have their nerves put to the test and to be pushed in a way that the medium as so rarely achieved, and with so many of these titles lying incomplete, it seems that the games may actually be winning again.