Many horror games take the form of a FPS in terms of their controls. I was wondering how/if the differences between controls can affect the overall scariness of a game? I am far from a master of FPS games (I get slaughtered every time I play Halo), and so for me ease of control is an important factor when playing games. I feel like the rationality of controls becomes more important than difficulty of controls; a game with difficult controls to master but that make logical sense is more attractive than a game with more simple controls whicn aren't intuitive.

When I think of FPS console games and their controls, I picture a controller with 2 joysticks, 4 buttons on the right, a directional pad on the left, and four bumper/trigger buttons on top (two on each side). The control scheme I have encountered most involves the use of both joysticks: the left joystick controls directional movement (forward, backward, strafing left or right) while the right joystick controls the direction of the player's gaze (looking up, down, left, or right). This combination, largely through familiarity by repetition, seems logical and allows me to play a number of games immediately without learning new controls. Other games I have played have a control scheme which left me frustrated and annoyed. Silent Hill 2's control scheme only uses one joystick for all player motions, which for running is fairly easy (push the joystick forward and rotate slightly to turn), but the lack of any subtle movement control made combat with even the easiest enemies extremely difficult. Rather than progress quickly through the beginning of the game, I found myself getting hung up on crawling zombies who were much more nimble than my character. The controls felt too simple; all my attention was spent trying to maneuver my character rather than the narrative of the story. In the end, I died fighting an easy monster who I wasn't scared of at all.

Since I have not played many FPS games, and not a single one all the way through, complicated control schemes, which are meant to give additional control to the player, end up hurting my gameplay. Hopefully I'm not alone, but games such as RE5 or Gears of War, with features such as double-tap a direction to dive, result in my character dying a lot. Is it possible to design a perfect control scheme which would work for all levels of gamers? Could games possibly have different control schemes programmed into the game which players coulc choose from based on their skill level and preferences? Any thoughts?