I've watched other people play installments of the Silent Hill series, I sat down with a friend and we enjoyed the bad voice acting of the original, front to back, and most recently I saw a friend running through Homecoming.
I'm not only speaking of tension in regards to my comparison with Rogue Spear, while Silent Hill had some effective creepy cinematic scares, it didn't really have the adrenaline rush or doubting hints of fear that Rogue Spear did.
I feel that if gaming feels the need to distinguish itself, it needs to place you in a state of fear that not only draws its focus from horror elements or typical cinematic tricks - including such things as zombie dogs jumping through windows in Resident Evil, the transition from Otherworld to Foggy in Silent Hill - but also the fear for your character.
It's difficult to explain, if you had played System Shock 2 (sad that your PC can't run it, it's definitely worth experiencing) I could have related to you a story that I'm absolutely certain everyone who has experienced that game gone through at some point.
Played it or not, it's still a good point, this is my idea of what a perfect horror game strives for.
System Shock 2 sets itself up quickly, you emerge from a cryogenic chamber with alarms screaming all about you and the small room you're within shaking and filling up with debris. As soon as it starts, it places you in a false sense of danger, even though the scripting prevents you from being harmed in this early segment, you feel urgency, you feel that your character himself is in harm's way.
An urgent individual contacts you through audio communication, and implores you to make your way out of the unstable sector of the Von Braun, as you're crawling through ducts and passages in the now suddenly silent ship, you see through a window, mere feet away from you, some strange humanoid creature - obviously misshapen - shooting down a screaming victim, then running off with disturbing grunts and screams.
The game immediately introduces you to your first enemy without you even fighting him at all, yet you already feel threatened simply because you realize that they're killing with impunity.
So what happens when you meet your first Hybrid? Shambling towards you and imploring you to run away as the body it no longer controls limps and swings your way, you feel fucking afraid.
What did I do?
I didn't smack it with a wrench.
I didn't shoot it with a pistol.
I ran away and hid under a desk.
The whole while it moved about, I could see its legs, hear its breathing and see it shuffling around, looking for me, calling out for me.
That scared me shitless, it wasn't scripted, no one intended it to happen, it wasn't apart of the gameplay, but somehow the game itself extended that fear of physical harm, of helpless persecution and terror in the charge of some disfigured monstrosity. Somehow, no matter how irrational, I actually feared for myself, my character, because of this single weak beginner enemy.
I didn't exactly see that in Silent Hill, or Resident Evil, there wasn't much character in the creatures you encountered, they were weird, but they were absolute fodder for the most part. Those annoying flying things in Silent Hill 1 for example, sure they scare you when they first crash into the diner, but after that they're just annoying and most of the scares simply rely on age old cinematic tricks.
My point was that Rogue Spear somehow makes you fear for yourself, it provides tension, but not only that it provides fear that is only felt in the medium of horror because the game makes you feel like you are at the mercy of your enemies, much like System Shock 2 did.
I'm not only speaking of tension in regards to my comparison with Rogue Spear, while Silent Hill had some effective creepy cinematic scares, it didn't really have the adrenaline rush or doubting hints of fear that Rogue Spear did.
I feel that if gaming feels the need to distinguish itself, it needs to place you in a state of fear that not only draws its focus from horror elements or typical cinematic tricks - including such things as zombie dogs jumping through windows in Resident Evil, the transition from Otherworld to Foggy in Silent Hill - but also the fear for your character.
It's difficult to explain, if you had played System Shock 2 (sad that your PC can't run it, it's definitely worth experiencing) I could have related to you a story that I'm absolutely certain everyone who has experienced that game gone through at some point.
Played it or not, it's still a good point, this is my idea of what a perfect horror game strives for.
System Shock 2 sets itself up quickly, you emerge from a cryogenic chamber with alarms screaming all about you and the small room you're within shaking and filling up with debris. As soon as it starts, it places you in a false sense of danger, even though the scripting prevents you from being harmed in this early segment, you feel urgency, you feel that your character himself is in harm's way.
An urgent individual contacts you through audio communication, and implores you to make your way out of the unstable sector of the Von Braun, as you're crawling through ducts and passages in the now suddenly silent ship, you see through a window, mere feet away from you, some strange humanoid creature - obviously misshapen - shooting down a screaming victim, then running off with disturbing grunts and screams.
The game immediately introduces you to your first enemy without you even fighting him at all, yet you already feel threatened simply because you realize that they're killing with impunity.
So what happens when you meet your first Hybrid? Shambling towards you and imploring you to run away as the body it no longer controls limps and swings your way, you feel fucking afraid.
What did I do?
I didn't smack it with a wrench.
I didn't shoot it with a pistol.
I ran away and hid under a desk.
The whole while it moved about, I could see its legs, hear its breathing and see it shuffling around, looking for me, calling out for me.
That scared me shitless, it wasn't scripted, no one intended it to happen, it wasn't apart of the gameplay, but somehow the game itself extended that fear of physical harm, of helpless persecution and terror in the charge of some disfigured monstrosity. Somehow, no matter how irrational, I actually feared for myself, my character, because of this single weak beginner enemy.
I didn't exactly see that in Silent Hill, or Resident Evil, there wasn't much character in the creatures you encountered, they were weird, but they were absolute fodder for the most part. Those annoying flying things in Silent Hill 1 for example, sure they scare you when they first crash into the diner, but after that they're just annoying and most of the scares simply rely on age old cinematic tricks.
My point was that Rogue Spear somehow makes you fear for yourself, it provides tension, but not only that it provides fear that is only felt in the medium of horror because the game makes you feel like you are at the mercy of your enemies, much like System Shock 2 did.
While I can't relate exactly to what you're saying about System Shock 2, or even Rogue Spear, your story did have resemblence of plenty of moments of my own in various videogames. I was even somewhat reminded of some moments in Hitman games. It just wasn't something that I associated word "horror" with. "Horror" for me meant being scared shitless even when there are no enemies around, just by atmosphere alone. Although english isn't my native language so I may have convoluted it in certain cases to suit my purposes.. 
Ah the good times..
