We asked about books, and then movies.
Now it’s time to talk video games.
Scary, distuuuuuurbing video games.
(insert something something gamergate)
(respond with something something fuck gamergate)
You’ve played video games. Which ones startled you? Freaked you got? Climbed up on your back like a demon monkey and chattered its infernally primitive heresies into your ear as you played?
Drop into the comments, let ’em fly.
Chris Votey says:
FEAR. The demo. Not the game itself, but thanks to the demo I was waiting for it. The game itself was plenty scary, something no other FEAR game provided. The demo had me screaming in a dark room. I was going down a ladder and turned around and little girl Alma was standing there. Freaked me out. It was brilliant. While playing the game, I refused to go down ladders, I rather jump down and take the damage, she wasn’t sneak up on me again.
However, the full game still had some great moments, and I do love the static of the radio.
October 27, 2014 — 12:05 AM
khaalidah muhammad-ali says:
Dead Space.
This trilogy is nerve grating, disturbing as hell, and just why? If I was the main character, no way in hell would I move forward. Ever. I’d crawl in a locker, shut the door, shit myself and die there. 20 years later someone will find my decicated remains in that locker and wonder WTH? No way. I’ve seen my progeny play and I refuse.
October 27, 2014 — 12:11 AM
Jennifer says:
Outlast: journalist armed with a video camera, unable to defend yourself in a dark asylum.
October 27, 2014 — 12:12 AM
boydstun215 says:
It’s still Silent Hill for me. Pyramid Head and the Bubble Head Nurses were pretty freaky.
October 27, 2014 — 12:14 AM
Josh says:
1. The Evil Within
2. Dead Space 2
3. Silent Hill
4. Outlast
5. Slender
October 27, 2014 — 12:27 AM
Priscilla says:
YAY VIDEOGAMES!
Tough question. Some of my favourite horror games are not necessarily the scariest ones, but those with the most compelling plot and atmosphere.
But scary, then. I played Silent Hill recently and it deserves its place as a classic. Even with the outdated graphics, you can still get into the game’s mood. I’m looking forward for Silent Hills, since the demo was already one of the most scary game experiences I’ve ever had.
I’m not sure how it would be today because it was my first survival horror, but the beggining of Bioshock freaked me out. Still one of my favourite settings ever too.
Dead Space was pretty scary for me too, because you have very few resources and everything tries to kill you all the time.
Alan Wake was a good experience too. It wasn’t that disturbing, but it’s a must play for writers, ok?
Yet the game that touched my emotions like no other before and wins the “My cardiologist is not gonna like this” Award is Heavy Rain. Is not even an horror game, more like a thriller or drama. But it grabs you by the guts. Seriously, A++ experience.
October 27, 2014 — 12:29 AM
wildbilbo says:
Original PS1 Silent Hill – chunky graphics and poor controls aside, the limited vision because the fog (really inserted to overcome processing limitations); and the sound of the radio when the monsters were about… tense, frightening.
If you want some Halloween theme music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qsOZbNugbU&feature=youtu.be the Silent Hill Official Sound Track. Gold.
The others were frequently scary too, well worth checking out.
October 27, 2014 — 12:29 AM
annekearneyblogs says:
A three way split between “Hexen”, “Castlevania” & “Bloodrayne” for the Nintendo 64. By today’s standards the graphics were clunky but game play was solid along with enemy designs. The soundtrack and general dreary landscape really sucked me in and made the experience.
I was probably too young to play the games which explains why they still hold a scary place in my dreams.
October 27, 2014 — 12:35 AM
boydstun215 says:
Bloodrayne! I loved that game. And, yes, pretty heart-pounding stuff.
October 27, 2014 — 12:52 AM
Chris Lites says:
Silent Hill 2
Deadly Premonition
Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
October 27, 2014 — 12:45 AM
Toni J says:
Sanity’s Requiem!!! Oh man, that can get spooky. For those who don’t know, your sanity in game can take damage. When that happens, things get weird. Like, whispering voices and the game pretending to shut off.
October 27, 2014 — 9:59 AM
Chris Lites says:
I also agree with Alan Wake as a must for writers.
October 27, 2014 — 12:45 AM
Amanda Hackwith says:
I’m going with classic Silent Hill, forever and always.
But I think the most atmospheric creep-the-fuck-out level design award goes to the haunted ocean house hotel level in the Vampire the Masquarade: Bloodlines game. It was an otherwise average game but holy crap remembering that part of the game still gives me the creepies.
October 27, 2014 — 12:51 AM
Harmony says:
Outlast. That game has atmosphere like a mofo, and will terrify the shit out of you.
October 27, 2014 — 1:02 AM
John says:
My son and I got Five Nights at Freddie’s tonight and despite having seen the gameplay on YouTube and knowing all about it, I still found myself tense as I flipped through the security cameras. Maybe not the scariest game I’ve ever played, but it’s something different (though, without spoilers, I will say the end is scary in how true a chain restuarant treats it’s employees).
October 27, 2014 — 1:21 AM
Melissa Lewicki says:
Pong.
October 27, 2014 — 1:23 AM
Paris Marx (@parismarx) says:
This is probbaly gonna sound silly, but mine is gonna have to be Alan Wake. I don’t play scary video games. I can’t handle them. But I wanted to try that one when it came out.
I didn’t last long. I was scared in the forest and at the abandoned bar, but when the lights went out in the house and Alan’s girlfriend or wife screamed, that’s when I was done. I was not going inside that house.
October 27, 2014 — 1:24 AM
Clementine Danger says:
I’ve played Dead Space and the more recent crop of AAA horror games, but I didn’t find them all that scary. They’re very startling though. Things keep popping up and going boo. Very tense. Not very scary.
“Scratches” does a great job of ramping up the tension to the point where it becomes almost unbearable. It wasn’t until ages after I’d finished that I realized barely anything actually HAPPENS. It’s 99% atmosphere, 1% who the hell even knows.
I could go all day with adventure game recommendations, actually. I really think it’s the video game genre best suited for the “slow boil” kind of horror. Amnesia, obviously. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter for your weird fiction horror. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth falls into that category as well. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. Still Life! That one is great! Not Still Life 2 though. Phantasmagoria and Gabriel Knight have not aged well, but it needs to be on the list. The Black Mirror series is great too. Overclocked is more tense and freaky than scary, but it fits. Oh, Midnight Nowhere! The Dark Fall series! Sanitarium! I’ve got a million of these!
Oh, and The Path is just amazing, I don’t even know what genre of horror that is, or what genre of video game, but whatever it is that happened in that game sure did scare me. That is the game I want to buy everyone in the world a copy of. Same with The Void.
But if you really want to get freaked out, try Pathologic. Even googling screenshots for that game will creep you out. One reviewer I remember called it “Oblivion with cancer” and she wasn’t wrong. Just… Yeah, look it up. It’ll fucking haunt you.
October 27, 2014 — 1:43 AM
Clementine Danger says:
Pathologic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjMhCFcNC0c
October 27, 2014 — 1:47 AM
Steven Cowles (@BritTiggs) says:
Alone in the Dark (played alone, in the dark, with headphones) in my young teens pretty much put me off scary computer games for ever.
+1 for Alan Wake, however. Great game.
October 27, 2014 — 1:44 AM
Merethe Walther says:
Fatal Frame, Silent Hill… those were definitely amazing. Of course there was also Parasite Eve and Resident Evil!!!
October 27, 2014 — 1:47 AM
Kari Kilgore says:
Agree 100% on The Path, and that soundtrack is amazing! Some of my favorite writing music.
The one that stays with me even after so many years is Amber:Journeys Beyond. I remember how the song getting warped on the radio sounded to this day. I’m still disappointed Hue Forest never made another game. Another one from that era that stayed with me was I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. A worthy translation of a killer story!
October 27, 2014 — 2:05 AM
Griffin Stiles says:
Maybe not a strictly “scary” game, Alan Wake is one of the darkest and psychologically disturbing games I’ve played and remains my favorite game to date.
A man whose ability to writer is psychologically blocked (my own worst fear) but whose entire world depends on that very ability? That’s ‘staring-blankly-at-the-wall’ levels of disturbing. Not even to mention Mr. Scratch or the ravens. There’s something about swarms of evil birds that gets my hackles up.
As for straight up fear, I’ll have to go with the Penumbra series. Amnesia may have been more advanced technologically, but it never quite captured the desperate, hopeless atmosphere of its forerunners.
October 27, 2014 — 2:12 AM
Griffin Stiles says:
Ability to write, that is. Unless ‘writer’ is now a verb.
October 27, 2014 — 2:44 AM
Michal says:
System Shock 2, definitely.
October 27, 2014 — 2:46 AM
jaggedrain says:
There was something breathing in an old Doom game that I could never find, and it was the most terrifying gaming experience of my young life. I still remember walking up and down the same set of corridors trying to find the thing that was breathing and grunting in my ears. *shudders* I never did find that thing, and I never got much further in the game either.
October 27, 2014 — 2:48 AM
orava says:
System Shock 2, no question.
October 27, 2014 — 3:40 AM
Craig Forsyth says:
Of all the games I’ve ever played. I think BioShock is probably the one to have freaked me out the most. Rather than just one element, I think it’s probably just the cumulative impact of plot, graphics, music, sound effects and characters that gave me chills.
October 27, 2014 — 4:57 AM
addy95 says:
especially during the first few areas, unfortunatly once you have an arsonal on your pack you feel more comfortable, (cue big daddy noise and me dropping the guns and running)
October 27, 2014 — 5:26 AM
Priscilla says:
I’m glad other people were also freaked out by Bioshock. They chose well their first levels, because those are the most scary and you’re also short of supplies. I almost screamed when my first Bid Daddy appeared.
October 27, 2014 — 8:18 AM
Jason Rogers says:
I see a lot of comments here for Silent Hill, and I would add another +1 to that, but something else deserves a nomination at this point. Played The Last of Us recently and it was pretty damn nut wrenching at moments, so yeah, thats my pick.
October 27, 2014 — 5:24 AM
Priscilla says:
I absolutely love The Last of Us, but I’m not sure if I find it scary. Still a must play for horror fans, though.
October 27, 2014 — 8:15 AM
addy95 says:
alien isolation is getting me at the moment. other than that it will have to be allan wake, the shadow chainsaw and the fask ones where the worst.
October 27, 2014 — 5:25 AM
solgarmur says:
Yep, alien Isolation is so damn scary I’m not sure I want to finish it. I’ve never loved closets so much in my entire live as when I’m playing it, they make me feel so safe against the horrifying monster that stalks me even through my dreams.
October 27, 2014 — 1:28 PM
addy95 says:
although if in the game you are weak and vulnerable, needing to realy on stealth then that will freak me out.
October 27, 2014 — 5:29 AM
mambutcher says:
It has to be Silent Hill 2 which has a great story line, perfect musci and sound design and lots of atmosphere. I always wondered why they chose 1 and 3 to turn into films…
October 27, 2014 — 6:08 AM
Andrea Stanet says:
I never played either of these, but I often watch my husband while he games. I’d have to say the scariest ones were Silent Hill 2, Fallout, and America McGee’s Alice.
October 27, 2014 — 6:19 AM
Bookewyrme says:
Second American McGee’s Alice, though I’ve only ever played the sequel, Madness Returns. Not scary so much as just super creepy. Great game though.
October 27, 2014 — 7:42 PM
James says:
Very surprised not to see the Fatal Frame / Project Zero series yet. Extremely tense, the right combination of ghoulish and grisly, and a decent protagonist (though arguably, with a lack of depth)…
…though the real innovation is a weapon. You have nothing but an enchanted camera to protect you. Which is a brilliant innovation for two reasons, one: it doesn’t feel nearly as reassuring as a good old shotgun, and two: anything you want to kill, you have to look in the eye.
October 27, 2014 — 6:28 AM
andreas habicher (@ahabicher) says:
Half Life.
One factor that made Half Life gruesome (for those who thought about it) was that Gordon Freeman is a.k.a. YOU ARE directly responsible for everything that happens. Every death and every bit of destruction is on YOU, because YOU pushed that sledge into the energy source in the beginning.
That’s why you don’t have an option to just back out. You fucked it up, you are responsible to find a way to end it and save as many lifes as possible.
October 27, 2014 — 6:43 AM
Fi Phillips says:
Has to be Bioshock. Completely freaked me out. My brother in law has purchased the latest upgrade of the Oculus Rift. Playing Bioshock with that would probably give me a heart attack. *shudder*
October 27, 2014 — 6:50 AM
Wendy Christopher says:
Ohhhh lordy, I’m gonna sound like the biggest wuss in the world now…
System Shock 2. Didn’t even get past the first level, where I was wondering around empty corridors with only a crowbar as a weapon. I finally lost it at the point where a couple of zombies leapt out at me from round a corner, and I randomly flailed my crowbar at their heads (i.e. bashed a button on my keyboard while peeking through the fingers of my other hand.) That sickening ‘thunk’ sound every time my crowbar hit their soggy and oh-so-horribly-detachable limbs freaked me out, and I ended up squealing like a Valley Girl and wailing “ohmygodIcan’tdothisanymore!”
Had to switch to drowning Sims in their backyard pool for a while after that. For therapeutic purposes, of course 😉
October 27, 2014 — 6:59 AM
Lee Mountford says:
Like many others here I have to agree that Silent Hill 2 is the pinnacle of horror games so far. Great story and atmosphere and it is, in my view, a work of disturbing art.
Other notable mentions would be: Amnesia Dark Decent, Outlast (not great, but some good jump scares), Dead Space 1, Silent Hill 1,3 & 4 (5 is okay in sections), Resident Evil 1-4, Alan Wake (loved this though not overly scary). I even have a soft spot for the Mega CD (not sure what the system was called in the US and Canada) full motion video game; Dracula Unleashed. Kind of served as a cheesy sequel to Dracula, but it did have a certain charm.
And there are many I haven’t played that others have mentioned that I am very intrigued by and will have to try. Horror games are having something of an indie resurgence, which is great.
October 27, 2014 — 7:11 AM
Ben Johnson says:
Super Mario Bros. I mean what kind of deviant Jigsaw like fiend is that Toad with his “another castle” games? Disturbing beyond thought, stomping innocent turtles, bullets with eyes, smashing my head into bricks, mutating from a tiny plumber into a larger more obese one that has flames pouring forth from his hands? This is horror…
October 27, 2014 — 7:21 AM
kmcambion says:
The Fatal Frame series, hands down. Creeping, oppressive Japanese horror coupled with the fact that you can’t fight your enemies in a traditional way. You only have a special camera to drive the ghosts away, which means you usually end up looking them right in the eye as they lunge at you.
October 27, 2014 — 7:24 AM
Priscilla says:
I wanna play Fatal Frame so much! I love horror games and I feel I’m gonna fall for this one.
October 27, 2014 — 8:20 AM
Eric B says:
This. Especially Fatal Frame II. So good.
October 27, 2014 — 12:55 PM
Robert Sadler says:
Not the scariest of all time, but since others have already touched on many of them, I’ll throw The Evil Within out there.
Not a perfect game, but with the lights out and the volume turned up, it’s pretty fucking scary. Of course, having my wife beside me jumping at every sound and shadow only adds to the tension.
October 27, 2014 — 8:20 AM
Raven Blackburn says:
Resident Evil Remake, Dead Space 1, The Evil Within, F. E. A. R..
October 27, 2014 — 8:22 AM
David Wilson says:
Not really scary per say but The Secret World is the best for creepy atmosphere.
October 27, 2014 — 8:22 AM
Chris Irvin says:
Dead Space and The Evil Within. Both are intense!
October 27, 2014 — 8:44 AM
Peg says:
It’s been a few years since I’ve played any games, but 1996’s original Resident Evil for Playstation was one game I could not play alone and made my tween daughter at the time, who, for some reason, has always loved to watch mom play video games her whole life, stay in the same room with me. It was a game I could not play at night. Those dogs.
October 27, 2014 — 9:09 AM
Steve Kozeniewski says:
Eternal Darkness was a stupendous game with a “sanity” meter I’ve never seen replicated since for reasons I don’t fully grok.
October 27, 2014 — 9:16 AM
Elaina M. Roberts says:
I don’t play many scary games but I watched my daughter play the Fatal Frame games and they were pretty messed up. Kids are creepy. Dead twin girls are creepier.
October 27, 2014 — 9:20 AM
gaeliceyes says:
The original Silent Hill. God that was creepy/terrifying. The lack of music, only the sound of your footsteps or water dripping…always feeling like something was following you just out of sight. Random screams in a completely silent town…
When I was walking around the town, I would periodically turn my character around to look behind because I was SURE something was following me….really effective scare tactics.
October 27, 2014 — 9:33 AM
birdonabird says:
Fatal Frame. Thanks, Japan. I didn’t even PLAY it; I sat in the room and watched my college roommate play it. FFFFFffffffffff.
October 27, 2014 — 9:35 AM
Rachel Rush says:
Scratches. Going into the basement the first time I played was so traumatic that I’d go out of my way to avoid the whole back half of the house whenever possible.
October 27, 2014 — 9:45 AM
mikes75 says:
It’s a short iPad game, but LIMBO is tense as hell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJih1aOM_ng
October 27, 2014 — 9:52 AM
Robert Sadler says:
And beautiful, too.
October 27, 2014 — 10:37 AM
Christopher Wright says:
The Secret World (an online MMO) has a mission in it called “The Black House.” It has no combat, and it is very simple — basically you just go from room to room in an old, burnt-out house where a woman died. It was damned intense.
October 27, 2014 — 10:55 AM
Kristopher Neidecker (@Kris_Neidecker) says:
Fatal Frame 2. It’s the wife’s fault. I was watching her play that game in the dark, at night. My blood was already pumping from the atmosphere alone. Then she hit the wrong button on the controller, bringing the camera in the game up and we got a first person view through the viewfinder….of a woman with a crooked head, neck broken, gnashing at us. Holy shit. That woman still haunts my ass half a decade later.
October 27, 2014 — 11:50 AM
Shiloh A. Ohmes says:
Hands down, it would have to be Outlast. You play a journalist who goes into an asylum for a story and all you have is a handheld camera. The patients have been experimented on and become zombies (some just walk around or harmlessly creepily follow you, others are out for blood) and you get chased from the top floors to the sewers to the outlaying grounds in the dead of the stormy night. You get no weapons. You can’t fight back. All you have is your camera, which has night vision to help you see, and you have to play hide and seek to get out of there. Worse, you have to be very conscious of where you step and when you run, because the zombies respond to noise. My brother showed it to me and even he refused to play that at night, it was seriously the creepiest thing ever.
If you wanna see the gameplay, go here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs1-UdHIwbo73jXMnIZcLDBuqQF3R-eP9&feature=em-share_playlist_user this guy recorded a lot of it and he’s absolutely hilarious.
October 27, 2014 — 12:26 PM