What are the scariest games you've played?

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

Are we talking pure scares? Because Fatal Frame--even in YouTube videos--looks frightening as f***. I'm glad somebody mentioned Thief. Those games would be my pick, as they had the most 'intense' atmosphere I've felt. I'm certain something like Amnesia or Outlast would come next for me, or maybe System Shock 2. I haven't played Silent Hill, first or second game, so no comment there. Also, no mentions of Eternal Darkness? It was fourth wall breaking, but seeing your memory stick erased was pure fear.

 

[Kainan]

The Asylum level in Suffering, was freaked out by the whole game but damn that asylum.
Thief 3 Cradle and T1 Cathedral levels.
FEAR ending part before the explosion.
SS2 the whole game.
Some parts of Stalker.

 

[octavius]

I can't think of anything scarier than facing Duriel in Diablo 2.
It's bad enough in single player, but I can only imagine how it was like playing online with a slow connection.

 

[compvet24]

Agree with some parts of Stalker. Not so much when outside but going into some of the desolate underground areas and coming across some fucking abomination have had me shit scared. Even when having a gun, noises are startling and it doesn't help for the most part the mobs look grotesque.

 

[Kainan]

Especially underground but even though not scary outside still gave a kind of malevoleant feel constantly.

 

[Black Plague]

Richard Burns Rally with a pad.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

The Asylum level in Suffering, was freaked out by the whole game but damn that asylum.

I fondly remember that game as well, particularly in regards to the monster designs. Shame that it wasn't more popular.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Dead Space was pretty scary in the beginning but you eventually get used to fucking up aliens. I think action and horror don't really mesh all that well. The oppressing atmosphere of the mansion in Resident Evil 1 still does it for me even after several playthroughs, particularly in the REmake version.

 

[Erikkolai]

Actually the 7th Guest. Played it when staying at a friend's place. We'd wait until his parents had fallen asleep, then sneak outside and go to their nearby farmhouse, where they'd installed a PC. We'd play it from around midnight to 4 AM then sneak back in the dark.

Also "It Came From the Desert". Watched my cousin play it, as a kid. Great ominous atmosphere.

 

[Citizen]

luigi mansion

 

[Arryosha]

Silent Hill 3. Scarier than SH2, for sure. I actually had nightmares about it.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Thief (2014)
Doom Eternal
Resident Evil 3 Remake
Bioshock (all of them)

Spoiler

 

[Kainan]

Silent Hill 3. Scarier than SH2, for sure. I actually had nightmares about it.

Will have to try that.

 

[Mexi]

Resident Evil: Director's Cut PS1. Scared the fucking hell out of me. I think I was like 10 to 12 or so when we played it. Well, I didn't play it, but my cousins and brother did. I remember we went to the store to buy 2 PS1 games, we could only buy 2. My brother bought 3-Xtreme, and my cousins were pressuring me to buy Resident Evil even though I didn't want to buy it. Well, I ended up getting it to look cool, and they said I'd get to play it. The cover looked fucking monstrously scary, and I really didn't want it. Anyways, we'd pass the controller around everytime someone dies or saves the game with the ribbon. When it came time for me to play it, I ran into the first zombie I saw and got grabbed, freaked out, threw the controller at my oldest cousin, then fucked off from ever attempting to play it. I fucking loved watching someone else play it, but it scared the shit out of me.

Resident Evil: 2 PS1. I never played it, nor ever owned it. My brother and me were walking around our apartment building when I was like 8 or 9. Some guy that had his PS1 outside in his patio was showing us all his cool games. Like he had his patio wired with a TV and a PS1. I actually think he might've been a friend of my dad's from his job. He had like Oddworld and Resident Evil: 2. I still remember it quite fondly because that was my first ever insight into a scary game. He was at the part where you play as Claire after crashing the police car. As soon as he gets to the first zombie, I get shook and he turns off the system or we leave. I forgot why we had to leave. Anyways, scared the shit out of me, and that was why we bought Resident Evil later on after we got a PS1.

Probably the scariest two games ever because I was introduced to them as a kid. Kind of scarred me for life, though. I remember when I had to finish my thesis I would work nights at my isolated biomedical lab. It was in the middle of nowhere, and I would have to stay past midnight working in a big facility. Fuck me, it wasn't that bad because I would turn on all the lab's lights and I was in the zone, but when I had to take a break to use the restroom, I had to pass up several fucking hallways and libraries to get to the bathroom. That walk would be fucking scary as shit. Anyways, I'm still surprised I was able to do it considering I'm a huge chickenshit when it comes to stuff like that. I guess when I get in the zone I don't really think about anything other than my work.

 

[DalekFlay]

Thief is a good one mentioned by others. I remember teenage me being pretty unnerved by a lot of sections in that game.

I remember a section in Dead Space where you heart chanting in the distance in candle-lit rooms that kind of freaked me out a bit.

Honestly having trouble thinking of many others. I'm not usually someone susceptible to being afraid with games or movies. However I do get anxiety sometimes, like when there was an invincible enemy, either in Dead Space or DS2, that you had to run from and could be insta-killed by. Similar thing in Alien: Isolation, when the alien was stalking you and you didn't have a flamethrower it gave me a lot of anxiety because I didn't want to repeat a bunch of shit if I died. Not sure that's the same as being scared though, more just not wanting to be frustrated or annoyed. I think that's why I don't get the "limited saves make you more tense" thing, because for me I'm just sitting there thinking "man I really don't want to redo all this shit" rather than thinking "oh no the alien is gonna get me!!!"

 

[Jack Of Owls]

I don't think I was ever scared playing a video or PC game once I became an adult, just as very few movies scared me once you grow up, but I remember playing Heretic for the first time on my first pentium-level PC and finding it atmospheric enough so I felt some tension wondering what new enemies were going to come at me from just around the corner or from behind some secret door. The novelty wore off though by the time I got to Hexen and Quake. God, that was soooo long ago.

 

[Dramart]

Silent Hill 1, Amnesia, and Outlast.

 

[jfrisby]

Chzo Mythos

 

[Wyatt_Derp]

The Thing game was buggy as hell but it had a few scary parts. The early section where the dog monsters are running around the base gave me the creeps the first time I played it.

And FEAR. Didn't really get the whole 'creepy ghost girl' in games and movies, but some of the gameplay itself was scary. Hated those ninja things that would jump around. Hearing them off in the corridors and breaking through windows almost made me creep-quit the game.

 

[Terra]

Silent Hill 1 opening - nothing like realising you're trapped in a pitch black alley with a bunch of knife-wielding demon-kids at your heels and your only way out is blocked off, and the only thing you can do is die. Disturbing opening, when played at a young age.

 

[Kitchen Utensil]

I found my first playthrough of Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen's Bitterblack Isle quite scary.
The first time you experience night in the main game can also be scary.

Already mentioned:

AvP (1999) Marine Campaign
Dark Souls (in parts)
Resident Evil 1, 2, REmake
Silent Hill 1

 

[JDR13]

I don't know about actually being scared, but I've found a few games unnerving.

Alien Isolation did a great game of building the kind of tension I like in a horror title. Dead Space 1 & 2 also had some genuinely creepy moments.

The Outlast games are also pretty good. I just finished Outlast 2 last week in fact.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Amnesia The Dark Descent

Nothing topped that for me. Nothing.

And Robbing the Cradle in Thief 3. And probably Dead Space 1.

 

[NJClaw]

Unpatched Knights of the Chalice 2 was legit terrifying because you knew that the game could crash after every single fight and force you to go though it once again. For the tenth time.

I'm not even joking, my heart started racing before killing the last enemy in every major fight.

 

[Ash]

Top ten survival horror games. So therefore has to have gameplay with more depth than walking, occasional puzzles and hiding in cupboards shit.

1. System Shock 2
2. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
3. Darkwood
4. Resident Evil 1-4
5. Silent Hill (original and best)
6. Parasite Eve 2
7. Dead Space 1 & 2
8. Martian Gothic
9. Manhunt
10. Cold Fear

As for the scariest, It would have to be Silent Hill, Call of Cthulhu: DCotE and perhaps Martian Gothic as the top three.

Honorable mentions to (good) horror games without the survival focus that are more than just walking sims: VTM:B, Nightmare Creatures, Alien Trilogy & AvP, Doom and many more.
Honorable Mentions to (good) partial-horror games: classic Tomb Raider games, Thief series, Arx Fatalis, Dark Souls, Dying Light and many more.