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The best horror games/scariest sections

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But all those games are old, and i guess i wouldn't be scared playing them once again. I've grown too old for this shit. Yeah, Amnesia isn't scary, fuck off. I do love horror themes though, especially when it involves serial killers and insanity with a touch of the paranormal. Think Shadowman, that game has excellent atmosphere.
Outlast is like that. Insanity, killers
and some scifi paranormal crap
 

Eyeball

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One that hasn't been mentioned here yet is 'Scratches', I enjoyed the atmosphere and style of the game, there's a great moment when you go the furnace as well.
The point with the mask popping up behind you is the only time I've actually had shivers run down my spine while playing a video game. Even finding the mask is a masterpiece of suspense building - you've been reading the explorer's diary about this evil mask causing horrors to unfold. You then find a hidden door. "Oh shit, I know what's in here, I just know it, oh FUCK, I was right."

It did an amazing job at making an inanimate object the main antagonist of a video game.
 

Darth Roxor

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the mask deal was good yeah

now if only scratches wasn't such a terrible game overall.
 

Jick Magger

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Silent Hill 2's Toluca prison section. Having James descend to it via an unnaturally long staircase coming from a giant hole in the wall of the historical society, with a foghorn in the distance almost heralding your arrival, always sends chills down my spine. Plus I've always been freaked out by the underground and prisons, so both of them combined as well as gradually becoming more and more surreal in design always scares the shit out of me.

I agree that the Ocean Beach Hotel Section is overrated as hell, precisely because its completely reliant on scripted jump-scares. The atmosphere never got to me, nothing could ever hurt me, and all I really had to do was get from point A to point B, all of this is exasperated by the fact that the game makes you go back there and realize just how harmless the whole thing is. It goes from being one of the scariest moments in the game, to that one section where you can't get hurt, a whole lot of jump scares and spookeh scary sounds pop out at you, and you have to do alot of really awkward first-person platforming.
 

Unkillable Cat

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now if only scratches wasn't such a terrible game overall.

And stopped stealing ambient sounds from Thief.

(Yes, I'm aware of the possibility that both games may have used the same audio library. Frankly I don't care, Thief did it first, and much better.)
 

Grimwulf

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System Shock 2
Alone in the Dark
Clock Tower (ps1 version)
Call of Chtulhu

I don't remember being scared by any other game, except for one more, but I forgot the title. It was either Nocturne or some part of Blair Witch series - they are mixed up in my memory.
 

ghostdog

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First of all fuck jump scares, it's all about the atmosphere. Secondly, I don't really get scared from games anymore, but I do appreciate the atmosphere.

For me it's definitely the first Silent Hill game. The atmosphere, the awesome twisted visuals, the fog, the sirens bringing you into that other- even more nightmarish silent hill, your flashlight piercing the darkness, the sublime blend of reality and delusion, the music- the goddamned music and sound both ambient and melodic is so damn good and imposing, the story that deals with actual personal psychological horror instead of some power ranger vs monster brigade shit... When I played that game my heart was pounding not because something jumped in front of me in order to scare me, but because of the continuously foreboding atmosphere. SH1 is magnificently disturbing.

Silent Hill 2 is equally good, but less disturbing and scary. It's more dreamy and sad.

Call Of Cthulhu DCotE did a fantastic job too, especially at the first half. The first hour of the game captures perfectly the feeling of Lovecraft's "Shadow over Innsmouth" novel. It was a fucking blast. Later the game becomes more action oriented and has some frustrating moments, but it's still good.

Shadow of the Comet also nails the Lovecraftian atmosphere. I don't think there is another 2D third person adventure game that manages to create a horror setting with such competence.

Alone in the dark... damn, I was very young when I first played it and those fucking zombies at the start scared the shit out of me. It felt great when I realized you can bar the various entrances in order to keep them out, for a while at least. In retrospect AitD is a bit dated, but it was a real achievement back in the day.

Clock Tower (SNES). Can a 2D side-scrolling be scary ? It sure can. Maybe it's not so scary, as it is tense. The atmosphere is fantastic and crates perfectly the feeling of the helpless protagonist trying to escape the seemingly supernatural serial killer inside a huge, sinister mansion.

System Shock 1. SS2 may be a better game overall and one of my favorites, but I actually think that SS1 is scarier. Maybe partly it's the clunky controls, maybe it's the low(er) res graphics, maybe it's the darker areas, maybe it's the fact that I played this one first, but anyway I find this one more disturbing. Shodan is definitely much scarier in this one.
 
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Grimwulf

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Clock Tower. Can a 2D side-scrolling be scary ? It sure can. Maybe it's not so scary, as it is tense. The atmosphere is fantastic and crates perfectly the feeling of the helpless protagonist trying to escape the seemingly supernatural serial killer inside a huge, sinister mansion.

Good sir, can you be more specific on which Clock Tower do you speak of exactly?
- Clock Tower on SNES, which I never played, but people describe it as a unique game for SNES. It's about the only slow-paced game on the entire console. Maybe too slow to be scary and tense, actually.
- Clock Tower on ps1, which I personally consider one of the most tense and shitbrickin' games in the genre.
- Clock Tower 2 on ps1, which is overall a good sequel, but it's basically an add-on, with not a single new idea, but rather prolonged experience.
- Clock Tower 3 on ps2, which I missed and eager to know more about.

Edit: Nevermind, just noticed "2D" in your description. I figure it's SNES then. Seems like I fuck my eye, sorry.
 

Jick Magger

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Clock Tower. Can a 2D side-scrolling be scary ? It sure can. Maybe it's not so scary, as it is tense. The atmosphere is fantastic and crates perfectly the feeling of the helpless protagonist trying to escape the seemingly supernatural serial killer inside a huge, sinister mansion.

Good sir, can you be more specific on which Clock Tower do you speak of exactly?
- Clock Tower on SNES, which I never played, but people describe it as a unique game for SNES. It's about the only slow-paced game on the entire console. Maybe too slow to be scary and tense, actually.
- Clock Tower on ps1, which I personally consider one of the most tense and shitbrickin' games in the genre.
- Clock Tower 2 on ps1, which is overall a good sequel, but it's basically an add-on, with not a single new idea, but rather prolonged experience.
- Clock Tower 3 on ps2, which I missed and eager to know more about.

Edit: Nevermind, just noticed "2D" in your description. I figure it's SNES then. Seems like I fuck my eye, sorry.
Which one of them was the 2D side-scrolling game?
 
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Silent Hill 1 and 2. Definitely the most memorable horror gaming experiences ever for me. I've enjoyed a few other horror titles since but nothing came close to making me feel the way I do when playing these games. Truly a heaven for atmosphere fags and some of the best "games as art" examples. Silent Hill 2 is the game that actually left a strong emotional impact on me, something that happens to me with games pretty much.. never. Or maybe I'm just a big sucker for weird surreal Lynch-esque touches. Either way, I hope something like this can come along in medium again someday.
 

ghostdog

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Clock Tower. Can a 2D side-scrolling be scary ? It sure can. Maybe it's not so scary, as it is tense. The atmosphere is fantastic and crates perfectly the feeling of the helpless protagonist trying to escape the seemingly supernatural serial killer inside a huge, sinister mansion.

Good sir, can you be more specific on which Clock Tower do you speak of exactly?
- Clock Tower on SNES, which I never played, but people describe it as a unique game for SNES. It's about the only slow-paced game on the entire console. Maybe too slow to be scary and tense, actually.
- Clock Tower on ps1, which I personally consider one of the most tense and shitbrickin' games in the genre.
- Clock Tower 2 on ps1, which is overall a good sequel, but it's basically an add-on, with not a single new idea, but rather prolonged experience.
- Clock Tower 3 on ps2, which I missed and eager to know more about.

Edit: Nevermind, just noticed "2D" in your description. I figure it's SNES then. Seems like I fuck my eye, sorry.
Yeah, it's the SNES game. I tried the PS1 game but I quickly dropped it due to the atrocious writing and voice overs at the beginning. I'm guessing the original Japanese was pretty butchered. I probably missed some good tense moments but I just couldn't get into it.
 
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barker_s

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No love for SCP Containment Breach? It's got heavy atmosphere, interesting mechanics and procedurally generated levels. It's a little buggy and the visuals aren't that great, but it's free. Its randomness combined with unpredictable monsters make it a very tense experience.
 

skacky

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Silent Hill 1 and 2 are some proper scary games for different reasons. SH 1 is all twisted and the atmosphere is one of the thickest I've seen. I'm currently replaying it on Hard and yeah, it's the real deal. The ambient tracks are absolutely perfect and the environments are really insane. SH 2 is mostly scary because of James' realization of his actions, the psychological horror aspect of this game is still the best I've ever seen in any game, by far. It's true it's more "dream-like" compared to SH 1 even if the dream in question is still a nightmare.

Thief 1 has the thickest atmosphere I've ever witnessed in a game though. It's just really crushing. Everything feels dirty, ancient and mysterious, and the undead threat always looms even though you know that you most probably won't meet a zombie or a haunt in a dark street (that and the Pagans were so much better in Thief 1). The City in particular is full of dark mysteries. Some missions like the Bonehoard or the two Cathedral missions are really impressive in terms of scary atmosphere. It's never cheap.

System Shock 2 is pretty scary as well. You're all alone in a spaceship lost somewhere in outer space with hybrid creatures, some horrible biomass growing around the hull and a vicious AI with a god complex giving you orders and treating you like shit. I think the game would've been even scarier if the environments weren't as shiny and were darker like SS1's.

Other good games with horror elements:
- AVP 99.
- Alien: Isolation.
- Amnesia: The Dark Descent (A Machine for Pigs can go fuck itself though).
- Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (the Shoggoth section is terrifying).
- STALKER has some genuinely scary areas (X18 and X10 in CoP) and the fact that you can encounter pretty much anything during your trips in the Zone makes you be on your toes almost constantly.
- Cry of Fear is a pretty good one though it tends to use scare jumps a bit too much for my taste. Excellent ambience though and really scary parts.

Also definitely agree concerning the Hotel in VTM:B. It's not scary in the slightest, even though the end part is quite well done. The snuff movie house was way more disturbing in comparison.
 
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Grimwulf

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No love for SCP Containment Breach? It's got heavy atmosphere, interesting mechanics and procedurally generated levels. It's a little buggy and the visuals aren't that great, but it's free. Its randomness combined with unpredictable monsters make it a very tense experience.

I would love any SCP game as soon as it's finished. I saw only short episodes like stairs-descending simulator and the likes.
 

Unkillable Cat

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SCP Containment Breach has reached 1.0 release, plus a few bug fixes since then.

The problem with that game for me? The SCP "lore" literally has thousands of interesting things, of whichs hundreds could be implemented into a survival horror game, yet we're seemingly stuck with a 2-meter tall wooden mannequin (SCP-173) that stalks the player incessantly throughout the installation. If the emphasis on "Billy" (as one YouTuber calls him) was less and the other SCPs got more time in the spotlight, this game could go some interesting places.

On a related note, I've been playing the games from the Humble Halloweekly Bundle, of which two got my attention. "Home" manages to set up some creepy atmosphere at the start, but at the end of the day it's just an experiment in gaming narrative, as each action you choose to take changes the story and its end.

"Knock Knock", on the other hand, goes a long way towards being one of the creepiest and plain weird games I've played in a long time. It has actual gameplay combined with some strange activities. Shame that it also goes down the "overly vague storytelling" road that plagues so many indie games.
 
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Ebonsword

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Mar 7, 2008
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But all those games are old, and i guess i wouldn't be scared playing them once again. I've grown too old for this shit. Yeah, Amnesia isn't scary, fuck off. I do love horror themes though, especially when it involves serial killers and insanity with a touch of the paranormal. Think Shadowman, that game has excellent atmosphere.
Outlast is like that. Insanity, killers
and some scifi paranormal crap


I picked up Outlast over the weekend. I'm only about an hour in, but it's pretty great so far.
 

Cowboy Moment

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2. Amnesia's HOOMAN SACRIFICE memory. PAINT THE MAN! *SLASH CARVE* CUT THE LINES! *CHOP SLASH*. I remember it left me thinking 'ho boy, that's some serious shit right there'.

That actually got to me too. Don't really know why, as nothing terribly disturbing actually happens in that segment. In hindsight, I think it's down to Alexander's voice actor really selling that scene with his half-manic chanting. That guy did a pretty great job in general, come to think of it.

Similarly, the ending of Penumbra: Overture is just really nasty. Even disregarding what you have to do at the end, the very final segment where you glimpse a human figure in the distance and then the lights start going off is one of the best set-pieces I've seen in horror games.
 

barker_s

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The problem with that game for me? The SCP "lore" literally has thousands of interesting things, of whichs hundreds could be implemented into a survival horror game, yet we're seemingly stuck with a 2-meter tall wooden mannequin (SCP-173) that stalks the player incessantly throughout the installation. If the emphasis on "Billy" (as one YouTuber calls him) was less and the other SCPs got more time in the spotlight, this game could go some interesting places.

I think it was a concrete sculpture actually :D . And since that SCP was the first one implemented and there's a whole gameplay mechanic built around it (blinking), I think it's fair that he takes the spotlight. Plus, with the other SCP's being less common, there's a reater chance of you crapping your pants when you eventually come across them.

PS: I watch Markiplier too, he's a p. cool guy.
 

Johannes

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Don't think I've been really scared by any game except System Shock 2 playing it as a kid, maybe 13 years old. When I replayed it as an adult it didn't have nearly same effect and don't think any game is able to at this point.

And what was scary was not the setpieces, holograms or any of that shit, but the basic gameplay - not knowing where the enemy's patrolling, and being also afraid to die due to the 2 minute loading times you'd get from retrieving a save.
 

Grim Monk

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No one seems to have mentioned: "Realms of the Haunting"


Just finished it yesterday, really good atmosphere.

Rat trail in the basement.

Now :salute: that's how you do "tension build up"!
 

Carceri

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Dunno how this sounds, but during a playthrough of System Shock 2 the chair I was sitting on suddenly broke and I fell. Needless to say it was one hell of a scare. Goddamn Shodan, she got to me.
 

A horse of course

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- Clock Tower 3 on ps2, which I missed and eager to know more about.

You should play it just for the sheer lulz.

It's a pretty awful game though.

I poasted a bunch of somewhat spoilery screenshots here:

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/screenshot-thread.72409/page-165#post-2716357

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/screenshot-thread.72409/page-167#post-2719502

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/screenshot-thread.72409/page-170#post-2725144

I doubt anyone actually played this game for the story in the first place, it's nonsense.
 

markec

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Of those that arent mentioned the part of Arx Fatalis were you are hunted by unkillable monster.
 

Cyberarmy

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Freaking Dark Seed games man... I was such a naive child before touched by Giger.
Alone in the Dark 1, zombies are slow but that "two legged dog-like biters ?!?!" scared the shit out of us good.
First Silent Hill game really disturbed me a lot.
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Eart, brilliant start, captured Lovecraftian feeling pretty well.
Stalker has some good moments.

But my real horror was the Predator movie, again I was very little when watched it at cinema (6 or 7 I think) Spend most of the Predator parts behind my uncle hiding and peeking... Arnold became my hero after defeating it.:salute:
 

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