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Scariest Games: The List.

excaliburps

Press - MP1st.com
Hotel-626.gif

Hotel 626
Horror, Adventure
Made by Frito Lays. Yeah, the chip company. Wat.
You can only play from 6PM to 6AM.


Has anyone played this? Looking at that list that was posted, this pic really stood out. Hmmm.....

Is this from Hotel 626? If so, I need to play this game again. I've forgotten about it but my cousin told me it's quite good...
 

KorrZ

Member
Silent Hill 2
Amnesia
REmake.

Fuck REmake as a little kid. Going to Lisa Trevor's cabin in the woods when I was 11 years old fuck that shit. No game has ever scared me as much as that game.
 

AkuMifune

Banned
5. Amnesia (PC)
4. Fatal Frame (PS2/Xbox)
3. Siren: Blood Curse (PSN/PS3)
2. Silent Hill 2 (PS2)
1. Resident Evil Remake (GCN)
 

DrPirate

Banned
fbMME.gif


Anyway, I second Amnesia and would like to give an honorable mention to Eternal Darkness. While that game wasn't particularly scary to me, it had it's moments.
Dat bathtub scene.

Umm, no he's right. The level in the Chimeran conversion center where those menials sneak up on you and grab you and you have to shake them off with the controller nearly gave me a heart attack. They're silent, and they're creepy looking as fuck. Fuck that level, and fuck those damn things.

Anyways, +1 for Siren: Blood Curse.
 
If you consider yourself a true fan of horror, you owe it to yourself to play the wealth of Half Life and Half Life 2 mods. Notably Afraid of Monsters for Half-Life and Nightmare House 2 for Half Life 2. In NH2's case, don't worry about playing the first one, because the first level of NH2 is a remake of the original and it's better than the original in every way.

Afraid of Monsters: Director's Cut (make SURE you play the Director's Cut) is bar none the scariest game I've ever played. It puts every single other game to goddamn shame. And the craziest thing? It was made by a teenager with no money, on an engine that was over a decade old. Some of you may not understand the significance of this, so allow me to repeat it in context for emphasis: EA, Capcom, Konami, and several other studios spend millions of dollars on tech, full staffs of professional writers, coders, artists, engineers, designers, etc., and develop specific tech and games with the sole intent of scaring people. Some teenager in Europe with no money, the basic ability to create assets on tech that was over a decade old made something that was scarier.

What the bloody fuck? All of you babies that think Dead Space and Resident Evil are scary would do well to play Afraid of Monsters.

Added. Damn compelling reasons too.
 

lunch

there's ALWAYS ONE
Not to be that guy, but the game's Lone Survivor, and Cthulhu has an h after the l. Great thread though. I really want to try Haunting Ground. It's more first-person games that scare me than horror moments, so I hope I can manage.

I really think every single Half-Life game should be on that list. You guys have balls of steel.
 
Not to be that guy, but the game's Lone Survivor, and Cthulhu has an h after the l. Great thread though. I really want to try Haunting Ground. It's more first-person games that scare me than horror moments, so I hope I can manage.

I really think every single Half-Life game should be on that list. You guys have balls of steel.

No, you're not "that guy" I get super annoyed with spelling mistakes. Grammar placement not so much, but spelling, yeah. Thanks for the heads up.

Half-Life had moments, but it is not an horror title to me. Though, I'm not against putting it on the honorable mention portion if, you can tell me what about it scared you.
 
J

Jotamide

Unconfirmed Member
I think only the first 6 chapters of Dead Space qualify. After that, Isaac is kinda OP IMO and you know what's coming at you.

I'm playing through Lone Survivor and Silent Hill 3 at the moment, good times.

Also, how does Deadly Premonition hold up? I heard its coming to PS3.
 
I think only the first 6 chapters of Dead Space qualify. After that, Isaac is kinda OP IMO and you know what's coming at you.

I'm playing through Lone Survivor and Silent Hill 3 at the moment, good times.

Also, how does Deadly Premonition hold up? I heard its coming to PS3.

I've always been interested in this game, as I'm a huge Twin Peaks fan, and I've been told they share similar themes.
 
Ctrl+F - Scratches - No results

Seriously? The most scariest quest I've played in my life hasn't been mentioned yet? You have some poor taste, GAF.

scratches_obzor2.jpg
 

Tarrasque

Banned
I think Illbleed ranks up there as one of the most terrifying experiences I've had. Watching your heartrate build up till you died of shock was pretty damn stressful.

An underappreciated Dreamcast gem.
 

lunch

there's ALWAYS ONE
I think Illbleed ranks up there as one of the most terrifying experiences I've had. Watching your heartrate build up till you died of shock was pretty damn stressful.

An underappreciated Dreamcast gem.
I had no idea the game was actually supposed to be legitimately scary. I might pick it up if it's actually decent. Are Blue Stinger, Carrier, and D2 any good?
 
Ctrl+F - Scratches - No results

Seriously? The most scariest quest I've played in my life hasn't been mentioned yet? You have some poor taste, GAF.

scratches_obzor2.jpg

By all means, enlighten us. I did a wiki search and it didn't get too specific about the game. "The most scariest quest I've played in my life." I guess without too many spoilers, what was the premise?

I think Illbleed ranks up there as one of the most terrifying experiences I've had. Watching your heartrate build up till you died of shock was pretty damn stressful.

An underappreciated Dreamcast gem.

I remember reading reviews about this a loooong time ago. The only thing I can remember is a carnival or carnival like environment.


I had no idea the game was actually supposed to be legitimately scary. I might pick it up if it's actually decent. Are Blue Stinger, Carrier, and D2 any good?
250px-D2_Video_Game.jpg

D2 was sorta good. It had some cool mechanics that were interesting for it's time, but now, I don't think it would stand up. The story also goes into WTF zone an hour or 2 in. If you have nothing better to do or a passing interest, check it out.

Also, by the same producer/director of D,D2 is:
250px-Enemy_Zero_cover.jpg

It was for Sega Saturn though. I never played it, but I did watch a Let's Play and it was pretty awesome.
 

Row

Banned
SH2 is the one game that really, truly scared me. Felt so uneasy trying to play it at night, and I remember tons of times where I just had to stop.

SH1 too, but I played through it with a friend which lessened the anxiety
 

Ominym

Banned
I just found out about Hotel 626 from that website someone posted, and I'm bummed that the website says it's not playable anymore. Bummer.
 

Ra\/en

Member
Clive Barker's Undying had some great freaky stuff back in the day.

I think the sound and weird art direction played into that a LOT.
 

lunch

there's ALWAYS ONE
If you have nothing better to do or a passing interest, check it out.
Sounds like it's a buy then. :(

Everything I've seen of Enemy Zero makes it look absolutely awesome. It received a PC release, but, after buying the original D and not being able to get it work, I really don't want to fiddle around with PC compatibility. It's too bad that it'll likely never get a rerelease.
 
Alien Resurrection

It's one of the scariest games I've ever played. Aside from the facehuggers jumping on your screen and xenomorphs in the vents, the incredible atmosphere creates a feeling of dread that one would expect from the Alien universe. Also, the game is really hard. When you're on your last sliver of health with two shotgun shells and no health packs, you're going to hope that the motion detector stays silent.

It's not a great game, but as far as horror goes, it's fantastic. I'd love to play more, but there seems to be some kind of glitch that is preventing me from going through a certain door.

Also, how does Deadly Premonition hold up? I heard its coming to PS3.

If you can excuse some bad gameplay elements, it's very entertaining and enjoyable. It's not scary at all, however. Well, except for those evil, giant dobermans.
 

Concept17

Member
I know the general hatred for all Silent Hills that aren't 1-3, but I recently started playing Downpour, and I can say its the best horror game I've played since the PS1 days.

There are some technical issues, (mostly just stuttering) but the environment and atmosphere are top notch. The game got shit on before release due to really terrible screens that do not do the game justice. I HIGHLY recommend giving it a try if you haven't had the chance to. The graphics are not the greatest, but far from being bad, and in various parts of the game look really good, especially in combination with the fog and lighting. The artists did a great job.

Silent_Hill_Downpour_Cover.jpeg
 
I would not suggest Nightmare House 2 at all. It's not ACTUALLY scary. I'd put it more in the same category as carnival haunted house rides. It's all loud noises and strobe lights and dudes in rubber masks. I still enjoyed the hell out of it, but I rarely felt any tension or fear from it. Some clever map concepts, though.

I'll double down on suggesting Afraid of Monsters, though. I personally found the non-Directors-Cut scarier, but that might also be because I knew what I was getting in to when the Director's Cut came out. The Director's Cut seems more difficult, too. A lot more scavenging for items.

Similar vein, I hesitantly recommend Cry of Fear, which is by the Afraid of Monsters crew. Unfortunately, I'd say stay away from it if you have a Radeon graphics card as their crazy rendering tricks are super finicky with Radeon hardware and they said they have no plans to fix it. Because of this, I haven't gotten very far, but what I have seen of it looks really great.
 
By all means, enlighten us. I did a wiki search and it didn't get too specific about the game. "The most scariest quest I've played in my life." I guess without too many spoilers, what was the premise?
Scratches is a pretty good point-and-click haunted house adventure. You play an author who's just moved into an old abandoned house with a history to try to conquer writers block (not the most original premise, granted). It has excellent atmosphere and sound design that creates a great feeling of dread and unease as you progress. Not a lot of jump scares (though there a few, but the build-up makes them effective), it's more about exploring a creepy environment. It definitely creeped me out, I'd add it to the list.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
There is so many I could add that aren't already here, but due to tiredness I will only add one right now. One that is so obscure but I can never stop raving about, the number one scariest game I have ever played.

White Day: A Labyrinth Named School

356738_t_0105110816.jpg


This is a 2000 Korean PC horror game that is incredibly hard to find and even harder to run these days. I found it at a second-hand game store in my city, I had never heard of it back then and decided I would give it a shot since it was relatively cheap there. I had problems for a while getting it to run, so I sort of gave up on it. Two years later I decided to give it a go again now aware that the game was Korean and needed Korean system files to run properly. I managed to get it working and started the game...

The graphics are outdated was the first things I noticed, the second being not living in Korea I couldn't understand shit of what was being said on screen. However, by experimenting I began to figure out how the game worked. Surprisingly the game's mechanics were very solid with a lot of real life logic, such as you put coins into a vending machine to use a vending machine, you have to pick up a step-ladder and carry it over to a higher vent to reach it. Lots of small things like that all through the game.

Saying it now, this game was incredibly ahead of it's time. It reminds me of Half-Life 2 and Amnesia in a lot of ways, but this released years earlier. I kind of don't want to spoil the game for anyone who decides to try it out, but here's how the game essentially works: There is no combat, like Amnesia you have to hide and survive. The game has a LARGE variety of scares, and all of them are randomized. The game has a HUGE difference in difficulty settings. Some whole elements of the game won't even occur on the easier difficulties, and a lot of the scares can only happen on the harder difficulties. There is a crazy janitor who roams the school. His whereabouts are random as he has no scripted path, but you can hear him as he has a pair of jingling keys that get louder and louder as he gets closer. He will chase you upon seeing or hearing you, and will give chase until you're able to shake him or hide somewhere successfully, or else he'll beat you to death. Hiding in the darkness is the best bet for hiding from the janitor, but not the best idea overall. In the darkness, strange things happen in the school, including a scary as shit corpse who has a terrible habit at appearing from unexpected locations while you dwell in the dark (with limited lighting, I might add. Things like a match, and they only last so long and you only have a limited number). The game only gets more and more twisted and more and more scary as you go in, but I don't want to spoil any of it.

This game was so scary that the developers had to release optional patches to make the game less scary since so many players were emailing the developers they couldn't finish the game since they got too scared shitless.

There unfortunately isn't any really good videos of White Day on Youtube (most go on the easier difficulties, likely not aware of how the difficulty structure of the game works, and there aren't many of them), but here is a early scare in the game. This literally only scratches the surface of the game as it gets more and more terrifying as it goes on, but shows a bit how the game works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7idUhl4jA8

I'll add more to this topic later, but White Day deserves all who likes scary games attention.
 
Alien Resurrection

It's one of the scariest games I've ever played. Aside from the facehuggers jumping on your screen and xenomorphs in the vents, the incredible atmosphere creates a feeling of dread that one would expect from the Alien universe. Also, the game is really hard. When you're on your last sliver of health with two shotgun shells and no health packs, you're going to hope that the motion detector stays silent.
Maybe blasphemous, but I never played this. I've read and watched reviews and thought it looked fantastic. Added

I know the general hatred for all Silent Hills that aren't 1-3, but I recently started playing Downpour, and I can say its the best horror game I've played since the PS1 days.

There are some technical issues, (mostly just stuttering) but the environment and atmosphere are top notch. The game got shit on before release due to really terrible screens that do not do the game justice. I HIGHLY recommend giving it a try if you haven't had the chance to. The graphics are not the greatest, but far from being bad, and in various parts of the game look really good, especially in combination with the fog and lighting. The artists did a great job.

Silent_Hill_Downpour_Cover.jpeg
I actually liked this game too. I did think it wasn't the strongest in the series, but it was good, graphics were good, story was pretty good, though I wasn't a fan of the end. The enemy design was a little weak too, not enough variety. But, i thought the music by Daniel Licht was fucking awesome and deserves to be highlighted. That mine cart section was awesome. Added to the list!
 

corn_fest

Member
I just finished playing Amnesia with a friend via voice chat. I didn't find it that scary, but he did... screamed and threw his mic a few times, lol. I dunno, I thought the setting was interesting and definitely disturbing, but it didn't really seem scary once you realized that you just had to hide in a corner for a while every time you encountered an enemy. The ony really scary parts were when they threw stuff at you unexpectedly, like opening a door and there being a monster right there, which they did a few times. But that's more of a cheap scare rather than building up a scary atmosphere. Maybe I just wasn't immersed enough... playing with voice chat and all. Probably had a few lights on too. I was just able to see past the environments they were presenting and recognize the underlying game mechanics, which made it far less scary.
 

Tarrasque

Banned
I had no idea the game was actually supposed to be legitimately scary. I might pick it up if it's actually decent. Are Blue Stinger, Carrier, and D2 any good?

Unsettling and stressful like the Thing on PS2 is a good point of reference for Illbleed. You were thrust into an amusement park full of 'attractions' meant to kill you in different ways. They toyed around with some very interesting gameplay ideas, which made it incredibly memorable.

I haven't had a chance to play Carrier or D2, but Blue Stinger wasn't scary at all. It felt more like a terrible Resident Evil clone with some interesting plot twists. Awful controls.
 
Scratches is a pretty good point-and-click haunted house adventure. You play an author who's just moved into an old abandoned house with a history to try to conquer writers block (not the most original premise, granted). It has excellent atmosphere and sound design that creates a great feeling of dread and unease as you progress. Not a lot of jump scares (though there a few, but the build-up makes them effective), it's more about exploring a creepy environment. It definitely creeped me out, I'd add it to the list.

Added

There is so many I could add that aren't already here, but due to tiredness I will only add one right now. One that is so obscure but I can never stop raving about, the number one scariest game I have ever played.

White Day: A Labyrinth Named School

356738_t_0105110816.jpg


This is a 2000 Korean PC horror game that is incredibly hard to find and even harder to run these days.


This game was so scary that the developers had to release optional patches to make the game less scary since so many players were emailing the developers they couldn't finish the game since they got too scared shitless.


I'll add more to this topic later, but White Day deserves all who likes scary games attention.
Added on this aspect alone. Holy Shit, so there isn't an english conversion at all? You've sold me on what you've typed already.
 

feel

Member
I wonder how many people have not clicked on the small "Justine" button in the corner of Amnesia's launcher that leads to an expansion where you play as a woman in a side story?

I just finished playing Amnesia with a friend via voice chat. I didn't find it that scary, but he did... screamed and threw his mic a few times, lol. I dunno, I thought the setting was interesting and definitely disturbing, but it didn't really seem scary once you realized that you just had to hide in a corner for a while every time you encountered an enemy. The ony really scary parts were when they threw stuff at you unexpectedly, like opening a door and there being a monster right there, which they did a few times. But that's more of a cheap scare rather than building up a scary atmosphere. Maybe I just wasn't immersed enough... playing with voice chat and all. Probably had a few lights on too. I was just able to see past the environments they were presenting and recognize the underlying game mechanics, which made it far less scary.
Yeah, you ruined it for yourself with the voice chat.
 

DigiMish

Member
Both Condemned games are scary as hell - I particularly found Condemned 2 to be even more scary that the first one. The level on the barge... shivers.
 

corn_fest

Member
Yeah, you ruined it for yourself with the voice chat.
Yeah, pretty much. I don't think either of us were really looking for a horror experience, though, just something interesting to do together. So in that aspect I think we succeeded. We're playing Penumbra now, lol.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
Added on this aspect alone. Holy Shit, so there isn't an english conversion at all? You've sold me on what you've typed already.

There was an English version being made, but it got into development hell and unfortunately was never released. There is a fan translation, but it's really... Engrish and not very good. I do hear a group is working on making a better English patch for the game finally though.

I will say to anyone who wants to play the game that it starts off fairly mild on scares, but it only gets more so and more so as you get further and further into the game and more crazy elements start piling up on each other.

It's also amazingly like Amnesia considering it came out ten years prior. I have this sneaking suspicion that Frictional took a bit of inspiration from this game in some aspects, but I have no proof behind that claim besides some of what Amnesia does is very similar to this game, but I feel this game pulls it off better with far more variety. However, like Amnesia, immersion is key and it might be harder to do since the graphics for the game are, as said, outdated.

Also, since no one has mentioned it here, I'll bring up the freeware game, Ao Oni.

1844494-ao_oni_large.png


When I first played this game, I thought the enemy looked incredibly stupid and had no idea how the heck that thing was supposed to scare anyone. More so, the game is a 2D RPG Maker game so I really couldn't see this being that bad. Fortunately, I was very, very wrong.

An example of what I mean.

The game has a randomized element if you diddle daddle too long in the mansion, the monster (Ao Oni, aka Blue Demon) starts coming after you. There's also a few set pieces later into the game that are quite disturbing or spooky, though be warned the game provides quite a few jump scares. There also is many different versions of the game, which include changes in the story, mansion, scares, and the like.

It's a freeware game though, and pretty easy to find for its cult status, so something to check out for someone who wants to have a bit of an enjoyable time. Play it for a while before you judge, I know it doesn't seem very scary... At first.
 
There was an English version being made, but it got into development hell and unfortunately was never released. There is a fan translation, but it's really... Engrish and not very good. I do hear a group is working on making a better English patch for the game finally though.

I will say to anyone who wants to play the game that it starts off fairly mild on scares, but it only gets more so and more so as you get further and further into the game and more crazy elements start piling up on each other.

It's also amazingly like Amnesia considering it came out ten years prior. I have this sneaking suspicion that Frictional took a bit of inspiration from this game in some aspects, but I have no proof behind that claim besides some of what Amnesia does is very similar to this game, but I feel this game pulls it off better with far more variety. However, like Amnesia, immersion is key and it might be harder to do since the graphics for the game are, as said, outdated.

Also, since no one has mentioned it here, I'll bring up the freeware game, Ao Oni.

1844494-ao_oni_large.png


When I first played this game, I thought the enemy looked incredibly stupid and had no idea how the heck that thing was supposed to scare anyone. More so, the game is a 2D RPG Maker game so I really couldn't see this being that bad. Fortunately, I was very, very wrong.

An example of what I mean.

The game has a randomized element if you diddle daddle too long in the mansion, the monster (Ao Oni, aka Blue Demon) starts coming after you. There's also a few set pieces later into the game that are quite disturbing or spooky, though be warned the game provides quite a few jump scares. There also is many different versions of the game, which include changes in the story, mansion, scares, and the like.

It's a freeware game though, and pretty easy to find for its cult status, so something to check out for someone who wants to have a bit of an enjoyable time. Play it for a while before you judge, I know it doesn't seem very scary... At first.

I admit I did not give this a fair look, but I could not stop laughing as soon as
3363489663_186273ae5a.jpg

started giving chase.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
I admit I did not give this a fair look, but I could not stop laughing as soon as
3363489663_186273ae5a.jpg

started giving chase.

There's no worries, I had about the same initial reaction that you did. I guess in one way it works in the game's favor, but I almost passed it off since the monster looks incredibly silly and dumb. Later in the game
when you find out there's other monsters in the mansion and some can take on the appearance of your friends or objects to give you a false sense of security
things do start to pick up a lot on the spooky factor, but a lot of the scares comes from the paranoid element when it starts sinking in that this thing can literally appear from anywhere at anytime. Part of it is that this monster has absolutely no restraints in what he can and cannot do. I started to realize how much the game was getting to me when I took a break to get some juice in complete darkness and realized I was be cautious of a giant blue monster could pop up anywhere. Sometimes he won't appear for long periods of time, sometimes he'll appear very shortly after just appearing. Also the methods in which he appears can be very unexpected... But this all said, it's not something I would list as grade-A terror. It's just something I recalled since I checked it out recently after hearing several people raving about it.

I should sleep now but I'll see if I can compile a list of some more unknown indie horror games tomorrow. Horror happens to be a favorite genre of mine as well.
 

CO_Andy

Member
yumenikk2a.png


Yume Nikki: Freeware RPGMaker game about a recluse girl and her bizarre dreams.

Game is both disturbing and shocking for its imagery (especially if you make it to the ending).
 
This list is missing a lot of classic PC horror;

Undyingcover.jpg


Sanitarium-PC-0.jpg


I could go on for a long time.

By all means, please do. But, valid explanations/reasons would be appreciated. "Not, ### is good, it should be on the list, you don't know shit." I'd love to learn more about games I've never played and maybe why they should be played.
 
If you're going to put Ravenholm as an honorable mention, then that mansion/hotel level from Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines should get a mention too.
 
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