The best horror games/scariest sections

[ghostdog]

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


Just finished it yesterday, really good atmosphere.

Rat trail in the basement.

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

Damn, I forgot to mention this one. Especially the first chapter in the big mansion is pretty scary. Later on it becomes more fantasy and less horror, though the game never ceases to be awesome. Normality's 3D engine is crazily updated and looks very good and even the 2D sprite/model limitations, where certain things turn around as you turn, worked great here. I specifically remember that all those suits of armor, with some kind of green light burning in their helmets, turned around as you turned the camera, it was damn creepy.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Daikatana's first level after D1P. Truly there wasn't something more horryfing and scary than this.

 

[Xathrodox86]

VTMB: Bloodlines.

Yes, all of my yes.

Also F.E.A.R (the first one), Bioshock, Prisoner of ice, Eternal Darkness (Game Cube only) and Fatal Frame for PS2.

 

[pippin]

I didn't find Bioshock to be that scary. It was more "shocking" (duh) than scary. System Shock 2, though, is truly scary, even for me. Even those damn monkeys can scare you if you're not paying enough attention.

 

[Gord]

Clive Barker's Undying is a really amazing game, for some reason it was seriously under-noticed. It's not scary like Amnesia or anything, but it has its scary moments. Nevertheless, it definitely is the best title in this thread (or second to VTMB).

I've never understood what's supposed to be so great about Undying. The story is largely dissapointing and drops the ball right away, the gameplay is ok, but nothing great either. There are a few moments of greatness every now and then, but they are drowned in an otherwise rather mediocre game.

 

[Heresiarch]

Huh, I must be the only one...who doesn't find SS2 scary. Atmospheric? Enjoyable? Sure. But scary? Nah.

Sure I am alone in a spaceship surrounded by mutants and crazy cyber midwives (shit those are disturbing as fuck) wielding guns with limited ammo AND durability...but during the whole game I have never experienced heart-pounding, short-breathing moments. Perhaps it's due to the bright environment, due to the audio logs lying around, or due to the techno music.

For me, scary things should consist of the greatest fear Lovecraft proposed, the fear of the Unknown. Silent Hill 1 and 2 captured those "WTF is happening" moments perfectly. What the fuck is a fucking wheelchair doing in an alley? What the fuck is that dude with a fucking pyramid as a head? What the fuck is this place with all the rooms connecting to random places?

Similarly. In DCotE, what the fuck are these..."human" villagers? Why the fuck do I *feel* that everyone is going to murder me?

Perhaps, I am more or less immune to SS2's scare because "scary things" is a wide term and I just happen to immune or at least resistant to it. I am also immune to darkness and zombies and ghosts, so games like Fatal Frame and Resident Evil does little for me. However I do am scared to psychologcial things. Some of the jump scars aren't too bad either, as long as they are carefully done and not used as spam. Silent Hill games for instance have a couple very evilly done jump scares.

 

[muds_animal_friend]

Deus Ex: Invisible War and that slowly creeping sense of dread that the whole game is probably going to be as shitty as it initially appeared to be. Even thinking about it now makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Half Life, because it had a thing in the water, and I hate things in the water. Fucking things in the water man. Even the slaughterfish in Skyrim scare me. Any game with things in the water means I don't go into the water.

 

[skacky]

Oh yeah I can relate to the water bit.

 

[Starwars]

Deus Ex: Invisible War and that slowly creeping sense of dread that the whole game is probably going to be as shitty as it initially appeared to be. Even thinking about it now makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Half Life, because it had a thing in the water, and I hate things in the water. Fucking things in the water man. Even the slaughterfish in Skyrim scare me. Any game with things in the water means I don't go into the water.

Yeah, I hated the water boss in Shadow of the Colossus also. Things moving around beneath your down in the depths... Fuck that.

 

[Cyberarmy]

You guys should play Far Cry 3 then to see the real water horrors

 

[muds_animal_friend]

I played Far Cry 3, but I stood on the beach and waited for the sharks to come close to the shore so I could shoot them with an assault rifle without actually going into the water.

:chiefbrody.jpg:

 

[octavius]

Don't really play much horror games, but the Aliens TC for Doom was quite scary, at least the first time I tried it. My easily scared buddy (even a cute little pink demon could make him jump half a meter up from his chair) who belonged to the master race when I was still a lowly Amiga boy quickly refused to play it anymore (we used to play co-op). When I replayed it a year or so ago the first ambush still was scary, but I soon learnt how to deal with the aliens.

Also the first level or two of The Legacy - Realm of Terror was a bit scary. Good atmosphere combined with "will I survive the next encounter?"

And of course the Haunted levels of Thief 1.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Penumbra: Black Plague. Especially those fucking dog cages, mang. Also the whole research area corridors.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R - The first X-whatever research base. Also more of a jump-scare with that Mind Flayer-looking thing but it got me.

Deus Ex: Invisible War and that slowly creeping sense of dread that the whole game is probably going to be as shitty as it initially appeared to be. Even thinking about it now makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Half Life, because it had a thing in the water, and I hate things in the water. Fucking things in the water man. Even the slaughterfish in Skyrim scare me. Any game with things in the water means I don't go into the water.

Oh you would LOVE Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It has the best kind of things in the water, invisible things.

 

[Johannes]

Deus Ex: Invisible War and that slowly creeping sense of dread that the whole game is probably going to be as shitty as it initially appeared to be. Even thinking about it now makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Half Life, because it had a thing in the water, and I hate things in the water. Fucking things in the water man. Even the slaughterfish in Skyrim scare me. Any game with things in the water means I don't go into the water.

Oh you would LOVE Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It has the best kind of things in the water, invisible things.

SS2 has some water small parts too, though they're really not among the best parts of the game.

 

[Multidirectional]

Huh, I must be the only one...who doesn't find SS2 scary. Atmospheric? Enjoyable? Sure. But scary? Nah.

No you're not the only one, I wasn't capable of finding anything scary about SS2. It is tense and atmosphere is great, but I can't see any "horror" in it. I'm also more creeped out by weird surreal things such as found in Silent Hill, stuff like mutants or zombies is just campy fun to me.

 

[Carrion]

I've never understood what's supposed to be so great about Undying.

Agreed. I think the shooter gameplay also detracted from the scariness, because you didn't really feel threatened at all when playing it, which is one of the main requirements of a good horror game in my opinion. Then again, I only played some small parts of it.

I didn't really find SS2 scary either. It was tense, incredibly atmospheric and made you feel like a pathetic insect, but it always felt more like thriller than horror to me.

As for the water creatures, Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight had a number of incredibly nasty monsters. The game doesn't really belong to this thread but I remember truly hating those fucking things.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

The only part about SS2 that creeped me out was the audiolog of the nurse who just discovered what the doctor had in store for her...

Clive Barker's Undying starts out being all creepy and spooky (I still love the painting and the main theme) but as Carrion says, the shooter elements detract from the scares and horror.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

Obviously all the shit is mentioned but my best recent experience was probably Condemned. Playing with environmental audio stuff makes it really intense. All the crazy hobo dudes hiding around corners and breathing and shit. Really good audio design.

 

[Goat Vomit]

Aliens vs. Predator (1999). Those fucking facehuggers... The sequel was heavily scripted and had unlimited saves, so it didn't really have the same kind of effect, but the first game was really tense and you felt vulnerable all the time.

Yeah, I replayed it since I got it for free on GOG and those damn face huggers were still the scariest thing. The limited save system works great to mechanically reinforce your fear of the blazing fast alien buggers and things can get really intense on the director's cut difficulty. I wish more games did that but I suppose it's financial suicide in this day and age.

 

[Starwars]

Fucking shit. After replaying Amnesia (which is scary as hell though less so as it goes on), I decided to also replay the Penumbras.

I actually thought they wouldn't hold up at all but I've just gone for an hour or two in the first game and it *is* still terrifying. I also love the "simple" stuff about the spiders, not any overly grotesque monsters from the start. It's very effective.

Can't wait to see what they cook up for Soma.

 

[TheGreatOne]

No one's mentioned Siren yet, that's one to check out. I haven't played those myself but I've read that the first game on PS2 is one of the scariest horror games, IIRC it had some original Team Silent members behind it, though it's more like Fatal Frame&Japanese horror movies than Silent Hill.

Speaking of PS2 games: is Rule of Rose worth a try?

 

[dnf]

No one's mentioned Siren yet, that's one to check out. I haven't played those myself but I've read that the first game on PS2 is one of the scariest horror games, IIRC it had some original Team Silent members behind it, though it's more like Fatal Frame&Japanese horror movies than Silent Hill.

Speaking of PS2 games: is Rule of Rose worth a try?

I'm playing it right now. The soundtrack reminds me of Arcanum... Bad Omen i guess.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I leafed through the October issue of Retro Gamer, and they brought up some interesting scares from yesteryear.

# Aliens on the 8-bit computers (1986). I've mentioned this myself, but the amount of suspense this game could cook up was terrifying. Note that I'm not referring to "U.S. Aliens" but the other one.

# Tomb Raider (1996). The T-Rex. It's been previously discussed here on the Codex. What made this scene work was that it wasn't really announced beforehand, at best only hinted at by the raptors. On that note...

# Rescue On Fractalus (1984). For those that are too young, this is a very primitive flight sim (if you could call it that) where you pilot a ship that flies across the surface of the planet Fractalus, picking up downed pilots. The scare factor here is quite clever, as some of the pilots may actually be hostile aliens in disguise, and they reveal themselves by jumping up on the ship's windshield and try to break their way through. The player has a 2-second window to turn on the ship's shields and fry the critter. The really devious part about this scare is that the aliens weren't mentioned in the game advertising or box screenshots, and only hinted at in the manual. To make it even more effective these aliens don't show up until Level 5, lulling the player into a false sense of security by having him think that the pilots may not present a threat.

# Super Mario 64 (1996). The piano.