scary game opinions

[ObsessedOne]

A few years back, I started a relatively popular scary movie opinions thread to share opinions on what you considered to be the scariest movies of all time, starting from a list of movies widely reviewed as scary. Over the past few years, I grew bored of horror movies, because several notable horror games made vast improvements in immersion, atmosphere, timing, and chase mechanics since the onset of the Penumbra series in 2007. I want you to tell me games that will scare, disturb, and linger, the scariest games you've ever played. (Obviously, horror is particularly subjective, so a little debate is healthy.)

As before, here are some games widely reviewed as scary, whether in my opinion or not:
System Shock 2 (1999)
White Day: A Labyrinth Named School (2001) **
Resident Evil series (before 5)
Silent Hill series
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (2002)
Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (2003)
Doom 3 (2004)
Condemned: Criminal Origins (2005)
F.E.A.R. (2005)
SCP Containment Breach (?)
Penumbra: Overture (2007)
Penumbra: Black Plague (2008)
Dead Space (2008)
Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2010)
SCP 087-b (2012)
Slender: The Eight Pages (2012*)
Slender: The Arrival (2013)
Pesadelo (?)
Outlast (Beta 2013)
Vapour (Beta 2013)

*long development cycle
**only available on an emulated Korean PC

I've definitely missed a few, particularly a number of quality indie horror games released over the past three years. Try to give an educated or at least well thought out reply.

[DeIirium]

Clock tower, the original one - This is based on giallo and slasher films, particularly Dario Argento's Phenomena. You play as a teenage girl in large creepy mansion, where you are constantly being chased by a serial killer who wields a large pair of scissors. The good thing about this game is that there's no way to beat him, you can only hide, and occasionally knock him over, but you have this "panic meter" which will limit your strength if it goes too high. Overall the atmosphere is really good, and there are plenty of memorable scary scenes in the game

Condemned - In this one you move around in dilapidated areas and fight junkies, homeless people and psychopaths, and eventually some stranger beings. It has an excellent combat system where you have to mainly rely on melee weapons, and it has a realistic damage system where one blow to the head from a shovel can kill you. Firearms are scarce and you have to use them smartly, there are many parts where you have to strategically maneuver through multiple enemies or enemies with firearms. Has quite a good storyline also.

Manhunt - This is a stealth based horror game where you fight against a variety of deranged street gangs. It really reminds me of slasher films from the 70´s and the 80´s, the camera has a filter on it which makes the game look grittier, and it has an eerie synth soundtrack which sounds just like something from Halloween or Escape from New york. The game contains extremely brutal kills with a variety of weapons, which some people even criticized for being too realistic and cruel. I find that the reality increases the scariness of the game. I consider this the best game that Rockstar has released.

Dino Crisis - Similar to Resident evil, but better I think. Not really scary per se but has a good menacing atmosphere as you are a human who has to fight against powerful dinosaurs.

[Sinder2]

Scariest game I ever played? It's a toss-up between Amnesia and Lone Survivor. Amnesia had great atmosphere and Lone Survivor was full of so much WTF it was hard not to be a little nervous.

I feel like I should also mention Organ Trail and that creepy-ass level in Deus Ex at the start of the Paris chapter with the greasils in the abandoned tower.

[Jackho]

At 8/22/13 02:43 PM, Sinder2 wrote: It's a toss-up between Amnesia and Lone Survivor.

Lone Survivor was literally just Silent Hill in 2D, at least presentation-wise. The environments and enemies are virtually identical. Silent Hill's straight jackets, lying figures and nurses (to name a few) look and move very similar to Lone Survivor's zombie things. Lying figures even spit acidic blood later on, like the monsters in Survivor.

So yeah, play Silent Hill. Boot that shit up on epsxe (or PSN if you can). You'll like it.

[Painbringer]

Too bad Realms of the Haunting isn't up there - It is one of the scariest games of all time.

Also, Max Payne 1 is kinda scary in certain parts too.

[ObsessedOne]

At 8/22/13 02:41 PM, DeIirium wrote: Clock tower, the original one - This is based on giallo and slasher films, particularly Dario Argento's Phenomena. You play as a teenage girl in large creepy mansion, where you are constantly being chased by a serial killer who wields a large pair of scissors. The good thing about this game is that there's no way to beat him, you can only hide, and occasionally knock him over, but you have this "panic meter" which will limit your strength if it goes too high. Overall the atmosphere is really good, and there are plenty of memorable scary scenes in the game

Condemned - In this one you move around in dilapidated areas and fight junkies, homeless people and psychopaths, and eventually some stranger beings. It has an excellent combat system where you have to mainly rely on melee weapons, and it has a realistic damage system where one blow to the head from a shovel can kill you. Firearms are scarce and you have to use them smartly, there are many parts where you have to strategically maneuver through multiple enemies or enemies with firearms. Has quite a good storyline also.

Manhunt - This is a stealth based horror game where you fight against a variety of deranged street gangs. It really reminds me of slasher films from the 70´s and the 80´s, the camera has a filter on it which makes the game look grittier, and it has an eerie synth soundtrack which sounds just like something from Halloween or Escape from New york. The game contains extremely brutal kills with a variety of weapons, which some people even criticized for being too realistic and cruel. I find that the reality increases the scariness of the game. I consider this the best game that Rockstar has released.

Dino Crisis - Similar to Resident evil, but better I think. Not really scary per se but has a good menacing atmosphere as you are a human who has to fight against powerful dinosaurs.

I forgot about Clock Tower. Honestly, I didn't find the original Clock Tower that scary, even with the Scissorman chase, although that's mostly because I had played so many other scary games by the time I played it that I found it difficult to immerse myself in it. I totally agree on Condemned. The atmosphere, environments, and timing were all scary, and some situations, such as the mannequin part, were just plain creepy. Manhunt was incredibly violent and realistic, which made it disturbing; I found a few parts, such as fighting Piggsy, disturbing. I think Dino Crisis was scary in concept but not actually scary while playing it.

At 8/22/13 06:13 PM, Jackho wrote:

At 8/22/13 02:43 PM, Sinder2 wrote: It's a toss-up between Amnesia and Lone Survivor.

Lone Survivor was literally just Silent Hill in 2D, at least presentation-wise. The environments and enemies are virtually identical. Silent Hill's straight jackets, lying figures and nurses (to name a few) look and move very similar to Lone Survivor's zombie things. Lying figures even spit acidic blood later on, like the monsters in Survivor.

So yeah, play Silent Hill. Boot that shit up on epsxe (or PSN if you can). You'll like it.

Amnesia goes without saying. I'm going to have to agree with Jackho on this one: if you think Lone Survivor was scary, play Silent Hill. You won't regret it. Well, you might, but that's sort of the point...

At 8/22/13 07:41 PM, Painbringer wrote: Too bad Realms of the Haunting isn't up there - It is one of the scariest games of all time.

Also, Max Payne 1 is kinda scary in certain parts too.

My response to Realms of the Haunting is exactly the same as my response to Clock Tower: it didn't seem scary because I had played so many other scary games by the time I played it that I found it difficult to immerse myself in it. Both of those games were some of the scariest of their time. I didn't include them, however, because they don't scare me today. I know the creepy parts of Max Payne 1 you're referring to; I didn't include Max Payne 1 because it just had a few creepy parts that made up a small subset of the game.

[Ceratisa]

Silent Hill 2 (The series itself is good) and Amnesia really the only scary ones. Silent Hill gets trippy when you look up the enemies and their reason for existing after you beat it.

[destrozar]

One that I remember really freaking me out was F.E.A.R.

Something about Alma that just scared the crap out of me. I think this was the time that a bunch of those little ghost girl movies was coming out - The Ring, The Grudge, etc. - and seeing those added to how freaky she was.

In terms of actually horror, the first F.E.A.R. was by far the best one. The frequency at which they showed Alma, or did anything scary was low enough and in such seemingly random places that you never knew when you were walking down an office hallway whether it was a hallway or a shit-my-pants hallway from hell.

The later F.E.A.Rs just increased the amount of scary moments without doing anything about pacing. It became too saturated with Alma and weird things that those games just turned into monsters jumping out of the shadows saying 'Boo!'.

[soulcailber]

sonic 06- terrifying
e.t-brick will be shit

anything on xbox-because it sucks

[redfield95]

I don't play much horror games (because I'm easily scared) but I played Penumbra, Amnesia, and Vapour and nearly screamed my head off at all of those games

[sephiroth4312]

The Suffering can be... if you actually can get the sound to work.

[Mechabloby]

At 8/22/13 01:34 PM, ObsessedOne wrote: White Day: A Labyrinth Named School (2001) **

I believe I had heard of this before. Wasn't somebody working on a translation and a port (or something) that would work on Western computers? I've heard it's considered genuinely terrifying to the extent that players have had to take time away from the computer before they could continue. I'd love to try that game out sometime.

I guess you could include Clock Tower; the original Alone In The Dark game for MS DOS (although visually it's clearly out-dated, its atmosphere and Lovecraftian inspiration is meant to be enough to still be considered unsettling); Call Of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of The Earth (maybe it's just me, but this game had such an intense and unsettling atmosphere, with plenty to keep the player feeling uncomfortable, from hallucinations to twisted Lovecraftian lore); Forbidden Siren (shit, I need to pick those games up); Fatal Frame/Project Zero (I know you mentioned the sequel, but the first one, in my opinion anyway, executed that cold, morbid atmosphere more effectively).

I think an honorable mention should go to the Dementium games for the Nintendo DS - two indie first person survival horror titles that actually have a surprisingly unsettling atmosphere. I'll admit - I wasn't expecting to either - but these games had me jumping plenty of times despite the games being on the Nintendo DS (a small console like that, surely it can't deliver any true frights, right? R-R-RIGHT?). They're not the scariest games out there, but it's surprising how well they manage to pull off the survival horror genre as well as how effective some of the scares can be - it's not all jump shocks or cheap thrills either.

[Mechabloby]

Oh shit, apologies for the double post but I also remembered Yume Nikki. It's not so much a horror game as it is a game about a young hikikomori girl who only leaves her apartment through her dreams, in which she visits different worlds. The amount of depth to these worlds is fairly impressive and will leave you exploring for a while, finding various items. Some locations and characters, however, have been viewed as unsettling and disturbing (for example, UBOA is a very popular "character" many have found unsettling). It's a free download too if anybody is interested: click click.

[MrBeer]

Here my list!

Resident evil 2

Silent hill 2

Fatal frame

Forbidden siren 2

Dead space 1

Isn't an horror game,but Bioshock is very creepy in my opinion

Nightmare house 2 (Half life 2 mod)

Amnesia

[ObsessedOne]

At 8/23/13 12:05 PM, Ceratisa wrote: Silent Hill 2 (The series itself is good) and Amnesia really the only scary ones. Silent Hill gets trippy when you look up the enemies and their reason for existing after you beat it.

I wouldn't say they're the only scary ones, although I'd probably put them in my top 10. The great thing about Silent Hill, especially the earlier games, is the depth of thought invested in enemy design and background. Traditionally the unknown is considered scary, but a little background can also be haunting.

At 8/23/13 02:17 PM, destrozar wrote: One that I remember really freaking me out was F.E.A.R.

Something about Alma that just scared the crap out of me. I think this was the time that a bunch of those little ghost girl movies was coming out - The Ring, The Grudge, etc. - and seeing those added to how freaky she was.

In terms of actually horror, the first F.E.A.R. was by far the best one. The frequency at which they showed Alma, or did anything scary was low enough and in such seemingly random places that you never knew when you were walking down an office hallway whether it was a hallway or a shit-my-pants hallway from hell.

The later F.E.A.Rs just increased the amount of scary moments without doing anything about pacing. It became too saturated with Alma and weird things that those games just turned into monsters jumping out of the shadows saying 'Boo!'.

I've always wondered what makes children so frightening, because I found that game more scary for the pacing and randomness and threat of Alma than I was of Alma herself.

My theory is that difficulty contributes to fear, which escalates gradually as the player moves farther and farther from the last checkpoint, because more is at stake, which magnifies the threat. Therefore, decreasing the frequency of checkpoints tends to increase horror. Unfortunately making them too infrequent poses a few problems. First, the player is more likely to rage quit and stop playing. Second, if the game is too difficult, the player will end up spending more time close to the checkpoint. So, it may be that an ideally scary game maximizes the time that a player spends far from a checkpoint without quitting.

At 8/23/13 04:12 PM, soulcailber wrote: sonic 06- terrifying
e.t-brick will be shit

anything on xbox-because it sucks

Obviously :p

At 8/25/13 02:37 AM, redfield95 wrote: I don't play much horror games (because I'm easily scared) but I played Penumbra, Amnesia, and Vapour and nearly screamed my head off at all of those games

Agreed.

At 8/25/13 03:51 PM, MikeyS9607 wrote: Half-Life 1 on your first go is pretty scary.

I know what you mean. I considered it in the same category as Doom 3 and System Shock 2. I've decided to remove Doom 3, because it's not that scary by today's standards. To me, the original Half Life falls under the same category, especially since I consider recent HL2 mods, especially the Nightmare House mods, to be much scarier than the entirety of HL1. That said, I definitely remember being scared a few times on my first play-through of Half Life 1.

At 8/25/13 09:25 PM, sephiroth4312 wrote: The Suffering can be... if you actually can get the sound to work.

I thought it was borderline because the horror wasn't that innovative in my opinion.

At 8/26/13 09:15 PM, Mechabloby wrote:

At 8/22/13 01:34 PM, ObsessedOne wrote: White Day: A Labyrinth Named School (2001) **

I believe I had heard of this before. Wasn't somebody working on a translation and a port (or something) that would work on Western computers? I've heard it's considered genuinely terrifying to the extent that players have had to take time away from the computer before they could continue. I'd love to try that game out sometime.

I guess you could include Clock Tower; the original Alone In The Dark game for MS DOS (although visually it's clearly out-dated, its atmosphere and Lovecraftian inspiration is meant to be enough to still be considered unsettling); Call Of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of The Earth (maybe it's just me, but this game had such an intense and unsettling atmosphere, with plenty to keep the player feeling uncomfortable, from hallucinations to twisted Lovecraftian lore); Forbidden Siren (shit, I need to pick those games up); Fatal Frame/Project Zero (I know you mentioned the sequel, but the first one, in my opinion anyway, executed that cold, morbid atmosphere more effectively).

I think an honorable mention should go to the Dementium games for the Nintendo DS - two indie first person survival horror titles that actually have a surprisingly unsettling atmosphere. I'll admit - I wasn't expecting to either - but these games had me jumping plenty of times despite the games being on the Nintendo DS (a small console like that, surely it can't deliver any true frights, right? R-R-RIGHT?). They're not the scariest games out there, but it's surprising how well they manage to pull off the survival horror genre as well as how effective some of the scares can be - it's not all jump shocks or cheap thrills either.

I haven't heard of a translation or port, although it's definitely possible to play White Day: A Labyrinth Named School on an emulated Korean PC. I may consider including Clock Tower and Alone in the Dark in a later list, although I consider them more "historically scary" in the sense that I no longer find them scary by today's standards, which was my primary purpose for this thread. I agree on Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of The Earth and Forbidden Siren. I've played Dementium, and I must admit I'm impressed at what it managed to accomplish on a handheld platform. For that reason alone, I'll probably add it, even though I wouldn't say it blew me away.

At 8/28/13 11:55 AM, MrBeer wrote: Here my list!

Resident evil 2

Silent hill 2

Fatal frame

Forbidden siren 2

Dead space 1

Isn't an horror game,but Bioshock is very creepy in my opinion

Nightmare house 2 (Half life 2 mod)

Amnesia

I agree with almost everything on that list. I don't agree with Bioshock, even though some parts are very creepy. I thought about Nightmare House 2 mod, although I eventually decided that I wouldn't include mods on the list.

Updated List:
System Shock 2 (1999)
White Day: A Labyrinth Named School (2001) **
Resident Evil series (before 5)
Silent Hill series
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (2002)
Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (2003)
Forbidden Siren series
Condemned: Criminal Origins (2005)
F.E.A.R. (2005)
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (2006)
Dementium: The Ward (2007)
Penumbra: Overture (2007)
Penumbra: Black Plague (2008)
SCP Containment Breach (?)
Dead Space (2008)
Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2010)
SCP 087-b (2012)
Slender: The Eight Pages (2012*)
Slender: The Arrival (2013)
Pesadelo (?)
Outlast (Beta 2013)
Vapour (Beta 2013)
Lost in the Rift (2013)

[ObsessedOne]

By the way, I believe horror games have been a driving force in innovating the gaming industry, especially in recent years. The reason for this is that no other genre has provided as strong of an incentive for experimenting with immersion technology, particularly the Oculus Rift. I originally thought it would have the same effect as 3D glasses did on movies, which was disappointing, but the Oculus Rift looks much more promising. One game Lost in the Rift, released about a month ago, has driven this home:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y52XyWLzZqY

To me, this is the future of horror gaming.

[Splats]

At 8/22/13 02:43 PM, Sinder2 wrote: Scariest game I ever played? It's a toss-up between Amnesia and Lone Survivor. Amnesia had great atmosphere and Lone Survivor was full of so much WTF it was hard not to be a little nervous.

I feel like I should also mention Organ Trail and that creepy-ass level in Deus Ex at the start of the Paris chapter with the greasils in the abandoned tower.

Lone Survivor was too jumpscare imo, it ruined the suspense it had going on by throwing the monster in yo face instead of building up the tension by uncovering it slooowly, and they just could have done that a lot better, but since it was the core mechanic of the game and it didn't really have much going on besides that, it mostly ruined the experience for me. Welcome to the BBS btw.

[Orochi]

There are many scary games, but few good ones compared to the load of others with jumpscares all the time, a really scary will have great atmosphere and sounds, also ennemies that are threat, it's not neccesary to make the ennemy super disturbing as long as it's an actual threat, Amnesia is a perfect example.

I could mention Lone Survivor, but it's fast pace of zombies showing up can get rid of th threat feel, tought the game was made by one guy who specialise in sounds.

[Auz]

At 8/22/13 01:34 PM, ObsessedOne wrote: System Shock 2 (1999)

Over the past two weeks or so I've played through this game for the first time and I do agree that it is a very horrifying, disturbing game. And it's the good kind of horror. Not the cheap jump scares and loud orchestra strings and other tricks that actually only make you feel uncomfortable (if anything). You genuinely feel alone, scared of what you're going to encounter next, confused about what has happened or is still happening and disturbed by what you find out.

So I think System Shock (2) definitely deserves a place in a scariest games of all time list.

[KatMaestro]

Cry of Fear is a good one. Condemned: Criminal Origins can give you good chills. Dead Space 1 & 2 (I don't like 3rd one)

[Creeper5589]

Slender The Eight Pages is actually not scary.