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Scariest Games: The List.

Teppic

Member
I like the thought of scary games, but I usually just don't like the games.

I don't really know what I want, but I find survival horror boring, and games with cheap scares does nothing for me. I don't like games that are a majority in the dark, since I don't think it makes the game scarier, it just makes things hard to see and kind of dull. Weird puzzles is also not for me.

Maybe something kind of real with a storyline that makes you think. I like when you can't really tell what to believe. Also something that isn't too outlandish, and can offer a good explanation for the things that's happening.
 

tmaynard

Member
Entering Grandma's house in The Path always disturbed me.

lSJSR.jpg
 
I find that the degree of scariness of a game that wants to be scary is directly related to the ability of the circumstances under which it is played to overpower the player. I play all my games on my computer in a dark corner of my apartment with headphones on and the volume fairly loud. as a result, a game that many people have claimed to be not scary, dead space, scares the hell out of me to the point where i don't enjoy playing it. if I play the same game with mediocre speakers and the volume turned down, it's a lot less scary.

I often wonder if people who bemoan the lack of scary games are, by chance, playing their games on washed out lcd tvs in broad daylight on a couch with friends and with the sound coming from the tv's built-in speakers and turned not very loud. I'm convinced that there's a point with audio where your mind doesn't believe it's real because it's too quiet and too muddy, but the clearer it gets and the louder it gets the more your mind starts to believe it's real.
 
Fatal Frame II. But then again, I'm biased. I'm in the game. :)


Say what? Who/What/When/Where/Why?!?

I find that the degree of scariness of a game that wants to be scary is directly related to the ability of the circumstances under which it is played to overpower the player. I play all my games on my computer in a dark corner of my apartment with headphones on and the volume fairly loud. as a result, a game that many people have claimed to be not scary, dead space, scares the hell out of me to the point where i don't enjoy playing it. if I play the same game with mediocre speakers and the volume turned down, it's a lot less scary.

I often wonder if people who bemoan the lack of scary games are, by chance, playing their games on washed out lcd tvs in broad daylight on a couch with friends and with the sound coming from the tv's built-in speakers and turned not very loud. I'm convinced that there's a point with audio where your mind doesn't believe it's real because it's too quiet and too muddy, but the clearer it gets and the louder it gets the more your mind starts to believe it's real.

This, I can easily play half of the games that I consider scary in the daytime or with all the lights on or something similar to the circumstances you described, but I feel that cheapens the game and I just don't do it. Even if it's a game I really want to play, if I can't play in the right environment I won't play until I can. I wait till night to play almost all my horror games.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
I remember vividly that I felt incredibly oppressed when playing the original Fatal Frame. The difficulty, the fact that you can actually screw yourself mid-game if you are using the "ammo supply" carelessly, and the often randomized appearance of hostile ghosts were all conspire to make me feel extremely uncomfortable (in a good way, if it makes sense) when playing it.

Fuck even moving from one room to another room only a few steps away felt like death itself staring at my face.
 

Talyn

Member
I know The Thing is already on the list but I'm actually playing thru it right now and thought I'd share just one example of why it's on the list. My character was leading 2 others, a medic and an engineer, we entered a building and there was gore everywhere. Something had clearly already been there and ripped the people to shreds. This freaked out the medic, literally, there's a fear mechanic in play here and I used my only shot of adrenaline to calm him down so we can proceed. Not more than a minute later, he spazs out entirely and turns into a Thing, naturally he was behind me and I only realize it when the engineer shouts and opens fire. We kill it and now the engineer is freaking out and I have no way to calm him down so he panics and begins firing wildly at everything in sight. I have to taze him to get the weapon away from him and at this point he's curled up on the floor sobbing uncontrollably and dies, apparently from fear. (Had I not taken his weapon away, he would have shot himself instead.) This game really does capture the paranoia and sheer "oh WTF now" mood of the movie.
 
I know The Thing is already on the list but I'm actually playing thru it right now and thought I'd share just one example of why it's on the list. My character was leading 2 others, a medic and an engineer, we entered a building and there was gore everywhere. Something had clearly already been there and ripped the people to shreds. This freaked out the medic, literally, there's a fear mechanic in play here and I used my only shot of adrenaline to calm him down so we can proceed. Not more than a minute later, he spazs out entirely and turns into a Thing, naturally he was behind me and I only realize it when the engineer shouts and opens fire. We kill it and now the engineer is freaking out and I have no way to calm him down so he panics and begins firing wildly at everything in sight. I have to taze him to get the weapon away from him and at this point he's curled up on the floor sobbing uncontrollably and dies, apparently from fear. (Had I not taken his weapon away, he would have shot himself instead.) This game really does capture the paranoia and sheer "oh WTF now" mood of the movie.

Yup, from what I've seen of it, that seems to be the theme of the game. I wish it was available for PC or on XBLA/PSN as i'd still love to give it a play-through. I am a huge fan of the movie, it's one of my favorite movies off all time.
 
I know The Thing is already on the list but I'm actually playing thru it right now and thought I'd share just one example of why it's on the list. My character was leading 2 others, a medic and an engineer, we entered a building and there was gore everywhere. Something had clearly already been there and ripped the people to shreds. This freaked out the medic, literally, there's a fear mechanic in play here and I used my only shot of adrenaline to calm him down so we can proceed. Not more than a minute later, he spazs out entirely and turns into a Thing, naturally he was behind me and I only realize it when the engineer shouts and opens fire. We kill it and now the engineer is freaking out and I have no way to calm him down so he panics and begins firing wildly at everything in sight. I have to taze him to get the weapon away from him and at this point he's curled up on the floor sobbing uncontrollably and dies, apparently from fear. (Had I not taken his weapon away, he would have shot himself instead.) This game really does capture the paranoia and sheer "oh WTF now" mood of the movie.

Okay now I really want to play this game.
 

CheesecakeRecipe

Stormy Grey
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

While Scratches had an unbeatable atmosphere during most of the game, I had a few problems with it.

The eventual payoff was incredibly disappointing for me. Perhaps it was the age of the CG at the end showing the kid monster coming at you, or the goofiness of the answers gotten during the Last Visit chapter. I just felt like for all of the heft the old mansion carries, by the time you finally leave the doors you won't really remember the scares. The boiler door scare was telegraphed too obviously to cause a jump and I didn't even notice the mask during the nightmare until after the scene was fading out. It was all just not as strong as the rest of the game.

Despite those nitpicks, and they may just be because of my experience in the horror genre, I can recommend the game for people who want a point and click that will give you some quality shivers. It's available on steam for the cost of lunch now, I imagine it will be probably $2.50 or something during the summer sale.
 

Talyn

Member
Yup, from what I've seen of it, that seems to be the theme of the game. I wish it was available for PC or on XBLA/PSN as i'd still love to give it a play-through. I am a huge fan of the movie, it's one of my favorite movies off all time.
It is available on PC, that's how I'm playing it. The problem is it doesn't seem to be available on any DD sites, I'm playing the disc version which I bought years ago. It is in-stock at amazon though, the $4.99 version shipped from the UK is probably the same Sold Out Software value rerelease I bought at the time. The nice thing about that is it's already patched so it has an optional mouselook mode so you have full free camera movement, the lack of which hurt it in the original reviews. Without that mode you can't aim up or down which is silly given that the most common enemies are those damn tiny spider things that skitter and leap about so it's no surprise that annoyed the reviewers.
 
RE1 only got me a few times like the dog jumping through the window, but fucking Silent Hill was some scary shit when the flash light went out...
 

Teppic

Member
I find that the degree of scariness of a game that wants to be scary is directly related to the ability of the circumstances under which it is played to overpower the player. I play all my games on my computer in a dark corner of my apartment with headphones on and the volume fairly loud. as a result, a game that many people have claimed to be not scary, dead space, scares the hell out of me to the point where i don't enjoy playing it. if I play the same game with mediocre speakers and the volume turned down, it's a lot less scary.

I often wonder if people who bemoan the lack of scary games are, by chance, playing their games on washed out lcd tvs in broad daylight on a couch with friends and with the sound coming from the tv's built-in speakers and turned not very loud. I'm convinced that there's a point with audio where your mind doesn't believe it's real because it's too quiet and too muddy, but the clearer it gets and the louder it gets the more your mind starts to believe it's real.
It doesn't work for me. I'm not afraid of the dark, and the sound volume thing is mostly for cheap scares. I think cheap scares definitely have their place in horror games, but when a whole game revolves around them I just get bored.
 

chemicals

Member
Early Resident Evil titles can't be touched for pure scares... the horrible controls had me fearing for my character's life at every turn.
 
In terms of scary fierce enemies, Silent Hill :The Room beats all the Silent Hill games. You actually want to avoid combat at all costs as some of the enemies don't die and just stalk you by going through walls. Very frightening.
 
I find that the degree of scariness of a game that wants to be scary is directly related to the ability of the circumstances under which it is played to overpower the player. I play all my games on my computer in a dark corner of my apartment with headphones on and the volume fairly loud. as a result, a game that many people have claimed to be not scary, dead space, scares the hell out of me to the point where i don't enjoy playing it. if I play the same game with mediocre speakers and the volume turned down, it's a lot less scary.

I often wonder if people who bemoan the lack of scary games are, by chance, playing their games on washed out lcd tvs in broad daylight on a couch with friends and with the sound coming from the tv's built-in speakers and turned not very loud. I'm convinced that there's a point with audio where your mind doesn't believe it's real because it's too quiet and too muddy, but the clearer it gets and the louder it gets the more your mind starts to believe it's real.

I specifically wait to play horror games in "just the right conditions". This is why I haven't played Silent Hill Wii yet, because I am waiting for the stars to align to where I finally sit down and experience the game.

I played Clive Barker's Undying in the "right conditions". I didn't find the game scary at all. I found it to be colorful, and pretty cartoonish. The "scariest" part of the game wasn't really very scary; it was mainly just difficult, because Howlers moved in unpredictable patterns at very high speeds and did obscene amounts of damage on normal difficulty. That's not scary, that's a test of your reaction time.

Little else about the setting seemed very haunting. I struggle to even remember a lot of the game after that point; I remember a ghost with (literal) meat hooks, maybe a vampire, and monks in the snow. If it wasn't for its propensity to show blood, it may as well have been Disney's The Haunted Mansion (the actual ride, not the watered-down movie).

I played Nightmare House 2 in the "right conditions". I had fun, but was not very frightened. It was a pretty typical Half-Life 2 mod, with reskinned versions of slower headcrab zombies and the faster leaping zombies. At one point you can tell the authors really loved F.E.A.R., because NH2 turns in to an homage to that at some point. It had a couple of creepy ideas but never went very far with them and generally stuck with generic horror tropes inside a fairly familiar shell.

I did not play Amnesia in the "right conditions". It was 6 in the morning. The demo still drew me in. The game showed me something right out of the worst nightmare I've ever had in my life (
an invisible monster that you cannot see, but can hear, and be killed by
). I couldn't finish the demo. I ended up getting the full version anyway (Steam wishlist, birthday present :p).

I downloaded the SCP Containment Breach game linked earlier in the thread thinking videos looked stupid. I was fully expecting to mock it, given numerous suggestions in this thread regarding games I do not find scary in the slightest. For an alpha with little in the way of textures or animation and a monster that looks like a balloon animal, it was surprisingly terrifying and did its job with disturbing precision.

Short answer: "Scary" is subjective.
 
It doesn't work for me. I'm not afraid of the dark, and the sound volume thing is mostly for cheap scares. I think cheap scares definitely have their place in horror games, but when a whole game revolves around them I just get bored.
Balls of Steel my friend. I'm no scaredy pants by any means, but I allow myself to be absorbed in the atmosphere and try to place myself in the shoes of the character. I try not to look at survival horror as a game and more like an experience. I try, doesn't always work out like that though.
 
V

Vilix

Unconfirmed Member
Condemned.jpg

Dead_Space_Box_Art.jpg


Both of these scared the ever living shit outta me. Both redefined the survivor horror genre IMO.
 
It doesn't work for me. I'm not afraid of the dark, and the sound volume thing is mostly for cheap scares. I think cheap scares definitely have their place in horror games, but when a whole game revolves around them I just get bored.

what does cheap scares really mean though? cause you take away sound effects and music and there's no such thing as a scary game in my view. because then you've got nothing to drive player anticipation of being attacked at any moment. the bad guy footsteps, the breathing, the sound of a door opening nearby. and sometimes those sounds actually indicate that you're about to be attacked, so you have to pay careful attention to them because otherwise you're gonna die.
 
Clock Tower

Silent Hill 2

Amnesia

Dead Space 1


...those four fucked me up bad...

Also...Chapter 10 and beyond on Hardcore mode in Dead Space 2 evoked a sense of panic and anxiety unmatched by most games.
 
I specifically wait to play horror games in "just the right conditions". This is why I haven't played Silent Hill Wii yet, because I am waiting for the stars to align to where I finally sit down and experience the game.

I played Clive Barker's Undying in the "right conditions". I didn't find the game scary at all. I found it to be colorful, and pretty cartoonish. The "scariest" part of the game wasn't really very scary; it was mainly just difficult, because Howlers moved in unpredictable patterns at very high speeds and did obscene amounts of damage on normal difficulty. That's not scary, that's a test of your reaction time.

Little else about the setting seemed very haunting. I struggle to even remember a lot of the game after that point; I remember a ghost with (literal) meat hooks, maybe a vampire, and monks in the snow. If it wasn't for its propensity to show blood, it may as well have been Disney's The Haunted Mansion (the actual ride, not the watered-down movie).

I played Nightmare House 2 in the "right conditions". I had fun, but was not very frightened. It was a pretty typical Half-Life 2 mod, with reskinned versions of slower headcrab zombies and the faster leaping zombies. At one point you can tell the authors really loved F.E.A.R., because NH2 turns in to an homage to that at some point. It had a couple of creepy ideas but never went very far with them and generally stuck with generic horror tropes inside a fairly familiar shell.

I did not play Amnesia in the "right conditions". It was 6 in the morning. The demo still drew me in. The game showed me something right out of the worst nightmare I've ever had in my life (
an invisible monster that you cannot see, but can hear, and be killed by
). I couldn't finish the demo. I ended up getting the full version anyway (Steam wishlist, birthday present :p).

I downloaded the SCP Containment Breach game linked earlier in the thread thinking videos looked stupid. I was fully expecting to mock it, given numerous suggestions in this thread regarding games I do not find scary in the slightest. For an alpha with little in the way of textures or animation and a monster that looks like a balloon animal, it was surprisingly terrifying and did its job with disturbing precision.

Short answer: "Scary" is subjective.

Very very very true. I don't really get scared in the true sense, as I'm sure most don't, as to be truly scared there must exist the possibility in your mind that you can be hurt/killed in real life. So in that sense, I don't get scared, but damn if games don't get me tense, especially when played at night. And then when I need to go get a beer from the kitchen downstairs, because I've been playing a horror game, I think I develop an irrational uneasiness, and find myself turning on all the lights just to grab a beer, and then turning them all off after I have it, so that I can be completely absorbed in the atmosphere again.
 

deejay

Member
Clive Barker's Undying made me feel uneasy at times, because of the different dimensions and all.

Dead Space 1 - the chases
(Mirror's Edge had one chase as well, man, that stuff just creeps me out, haha)

Amnesia was completely unsettling. Never was able to finish it.

RE2 - dog scene

F.E.A.R. 1
 

Teppic

Member
what does cheap scares really mean though? cause you take away sound effects and music and there's no such thing as a scary game in my view. because then you've got nothing to drive player anticipation of being attacked at any moment. the bad guy footsteps, the breathing, the sound of a door opening nearby. and sometimes those sounds actually indicate that you're about to be attacked, so you have to pay careful attention to them because otherwise you're gonna die.
Then what about books? Sound effects are important but the game shouldn't rely on them too much. I think a good horror game should be scary even in broad daylight.
 

Nizz

Member
Anyone know if they ever plan on bringing Amnesia over to consoles? I see a lot of good things mentioned about that game. Plus Patrick and Ryan at Giant Bomb have been talking about the game lately and it sounds like something I'd love to play.
 
Anyone know if they ever plan on bringing Amnesia over to consoles? I see a lot of good things mentioned about that game. Plus Patrick and Ryan at Giant Bomb have been talking about the game lately and it sounds like something I'd love to play.

Don't think so. I'd imagine they would have announced something by now. Too bad, as it's such a great time.


That aside, I've decided to try the Afraid of Monsters Mod for Half-life 1. Saw a couple Youtube videos and it looks awesome. Would love to play it Co-op with anyone who has never played it either. Shoot me a PM if interested.
 
Don't think so. I'd imagine they would have announced something by now. Too bad, as it's such a great time.


That aside, I've decided to try the Afraid of Monsters Mod for Half-life 1. Saw a couple Youtube videos and it looks awesome. Would love to play it Co-op with anyone who has never played it either. Shoot me a PM if interested.

You can play AoM in co op mode? Interesting... Never even heard of it until someone mentioned it earlier in the thread.
 
You can play AoM in co op mode? Interesting... Never even heard of it until someone mentioned it earlier in the thread.

I didn't know either until I saw a co-op video myself. Which immedietly made me more interested as I've heard it's a very tense game and would love to see how that translates to a 2 player experience.
 
I didn't know either until I saw a co-op video myself. Which immedietly made me more interested as I've heard it's a very tense game and would love to see how that translates to a 2 player experience.

Haven't seem any video of it myself, but I recall someone (dusk golem?) mentioning that it was a stronger effort than Major studios in the scare/tension department. I'll have to look into it. I love co op experiences and am curious as to how an allegedly terrifying experience would hold up when playing with someone else since most of these types of games are far more unnerving when played solo
 

Droog

Member
Just don't expect it to be consistent or logical when it comes to who can and does become the Thing. Decent game, but nowhere near its promise.

This killed the game for me. What's the point of blood tests if your team mates immediately turn into monsters having just tested negative in the previous room?
 
Then what about books? Sound effects are important but the game shouldn't rely on them too much. I think a good horror game should be scary even in broad daylight.

I've never really read a scary book, but I concede that maybe such a thing exists. that said, there's a difference between the mental experience of reading a book vs real-time media like film or videogames. the way they express narrative is totally different and, to my view, incomparable.

I think a better question would be whether there is such a thing as a scary movie that is still scary muted and with subtitles. i would be fascinated to know if anyone has any deaf friends (i don't) and what they would have to say about this issue.
 

Cosmozone

Member
Wanted to mention "Lurking Horror" Infocom text adventure. Not particularly scary though, but it has a very nice lovecraftian feel to it.

And for the honorable mentions section, I'd suggest the last area (Atlantis) of the first Tomb Raider. Pretty scary with those eggs that only hatch after you get near them and are otherwise unbreakable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DEaU7TBYz8
 

ThankeeSai

Member
Condemned and Silent Hill 1 and 2 for me.

Most recently though, Fatal Frame 2.

Never played any of the Fatal Frame games until I got Fatal Frame 2 for the Wii on Wednesday.

My god....Pant shittingly scary.

So many "Ohhhh, you bastard!" moments.

Love it :)
 

Myriadis

Member
Honorable mention to Metroid Fusion and other Metroid games. Not the scariest, but the scariness was very well-done.

Absolutely. The Metroid games aren't Horror Games at all, but sometimes it can be very unnvering. Especially the Metroid Prime games, like the first 20 minutes of Metroid Prime 2, where you see all these dead soldiers and read how they died, and then they start to move.
Or Elysia in MP3, where I stood very close at the door like always, and suddenly, as it opens, I'm looking on the face of a dead Space Pirate at point blank, moments before it decays. And there, you can also read how they all died. As I said, it's pretty unnerving, but really great.

Bioshock also have some moments like these, like the moment when some of the Splicers just play dead. If you want to loot them, they suddenly stand up. And other moments, like the doctor one or some of the plaster splicers that suddenly attack you. Especially this moment. I didn't know it and almost jumped. Same as Metroid Prime, it doesn't primarly aim to be a Horror Game, but it really has some moments.


And good to see SCP mentioned. I think that it is really well done, especially by someone who does this as a hobby.

deejay said:
(Mirror's Edge had one chase as well, man, that stuff just creeps me out, haha)
Oh man, that one also creeped me out. Especially since you always hear that they're right behind you and you can't look back.

On a similar note, Marathon really scares me. I even can't get past the first level because of that, and I don't know why.
 
The first RE and the first Dead Space are the only games that made me jump in my seat.

silent hill is creepy and bizzare, but not scary IMO.
 
Terrific thread. Want to check a lot of these games out.

I think the REmake gets my vote. There were times when I has to stop playing I got so unnerved. I never played the Silent Hill games - where is a good place to start? YouTube 1, get the HD collection for 2 and 3? Or should I try and find 1? Not sure how these games aged.
 

Combichristoffersen

Combovers don't work when there is no hair
Terrific thread. Want to check a lot of these games out.

I think the REmake gets my vote. There were times when I has to stop playing I got so unnerved. I never played the Silent Hill games - where is a good place to start? YouTube 1, get the HD collection for 2 and 3? Or should I try and find 1? Not sure how these games aged.

If you have a PS3, just get SH1 off PSN. the graphics and controls haven't aged all that well, but it's still a very good game, and I definitely recommend it.

Stay far, far away from the trainwreck of a HD collection. If you have a PS2, get SH2 and SH3 for PS2, or eventually get the PC versions if you don't have a PS2.
 
Afraid of Monster: Directors Cut is awesome. Just played 2 player Co-op with Sykotik and couldn't believe how crazy it can get. It's a Half-Life 1 mod and it is great. There are so many moments where it is just pitch black and you're running low on ammo with your flashlight battery going dead and then all of a sudden the creepiest looking "creature" just starts shambling towards you.
There'll be whispers in your ears, or ghosts that just walk by the screen, or just...just.. fucking craziness that it just plain awesome. It's the only Co-op "horror" game I can think of that doesn't just become a shootfest which takes away from the tension. Even though it's not a Co-op game, it's a singleplayer mod which interacts with another mod(Sven Co-op) that lets you play AOM. Supremely fun, I suggest people who can play Half-Life 1(everyone) at least check it out for a level or two. I'll gladly play again with anyone who'd like to give it a shot, just shoot me a PM.
 

Alo81

Low Poly Gynecologist
Already been said im guessing but ...

Penumbra
Amnesia
Cryostasis
Resident Evil 1
Condemned
Thief 1 (Also Cradle level from Thief 3)
Silent Hill 1

Good to know I'm not the only person who saw that screenshot and thought it worthy of an avatar.
 
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