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What are you guys' favorite horror games? Might be cool to have a thread that lists them where we can find out about games we haven't actually played before. My list of other horror games that I like would include:
- Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth - C'mon, we knew this was coming, if only because I'm a Mythos/Lovecraft sucker. Look at my username, for Azathoth's sake. Good game, even if it does tend to run a bit gun-heavy at times (Dagon fight, I'm looking at you in particular).
- Dead Space series - Great atmospheric game, which showed that you can have (essentially) RE4's gameplay without sacrificing the horror...at least to the extent that RE4 did.
- Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem - Really good game, although I wish it lacked 1) the sanity meter visible on screen, and 2) a spell to restore sanity. It would be much more interesting if you could only gauge your sanity by the effects it caused.
- Haunting Ground - In my opinion, it's the best survival horror game of the PS2 era. Yup, even better than REmake.
- Parasite Eve series - I need to revisit these, I may be colored by nostalgia. The 3rd Birthday didn't really qualify as a horror game, though.
- Resident Evil series - Yeah, it's gone downhill in terms of being a horror series, but when it was good, it was very good.
- Silent Hill series - It's had it's ups and downs, but it's still one of the better survival horror series out there. Hell, even the lesser entries are better than most attempts at survival horror.
I'm sure some of you will be asking: Where's Fatal Frame? I've tried, but I just can't get into them. Same with Siren: Blood Curse and a few other, less well-known horror games I've picked up over the years. Some of them have been good games, but just didn't grab me for whatever reason.
And oh yeah, there are a couple more that deserve special mention. Because, compared to these games, the entire preceding list might as well be Mario Kart. I'm talking about the games from Frictional Games: Amnesia: The Dark Descent and the Penumbra Collection (technically two games and a expansion). These games are, bar none, the best the video game industry has in terms of horror. I'm not even gonna add an "in my opinion" because it's pretty much blatant fact. If you like horror games, get these! You will NOT be sorry.
Dead Space by far. Play this in the dark btw, there are times the game will make you jump out of your seat.
Resident Evil - While I loved 5, it was more of an action game than horror. 4 on the GC was creepier. I still love the series.
Silent Hill 1 was awesomeness personified.
Alone in the Dark = waste of money.
The first Resident Evil when the dog jumped through the window was the first time a game ever scared me. Silent Hill was creepy, but it was not like R.E.
I haven't played it, but I heard that the Fatal Frame series was incredibly creepy.
Maybe it's an age thing, but creep-factor matters so much more than jump scares to me. Give me unsettling imagery and audio over heavy action/panic sequences any day.
In addition to what's already been mentioned:
- Clive Barker's Undying - an old favorite
- Darkness Within 1 & 2 - Lovecraftian, atmospheric, and damn creepy
- Rule of Rose - a f#%&ing twisted title
- Condemned series - good games, lots of visual fun
- Sanatarium - classic Baldur's Gate style interface
- Scratches - solid story, good atmosphere, and the best soundtrack I've ever heard in a game
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- Rule of Rose - a f!$&ing twisted title
I actually own this one, but I've never been able to get past the controls to enjoy what looks to be a nicely creepy game. Combat is simply broken...it's not just nerfed like in Silent Hill to simulate a guy who doesn't have any experience with firearms/melee weapons...it's flat out broken.
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- Scratches - solid story, good atmosphere, and the best soundtrack I've ever heard in a game
Had quite a few people recommend this, and I've noticed it on Steam, I may give it a try if it's fairly cheap.
I actually own this one, but I've never been able to get past the controls to enjoy what looks to be a nicely creepy game. Combat is simply broken...it's not just nerfed like in Silent Hill to simulate a guy who doesn't have any experience with firearms/melee weapons...it's flat out broken.
- Rule of Rose - a f!$&ing twisted title
I've seen a few Youtube channels with complete playthroughs. It's one of those experience-over-story games anyway.
Also Scratches is $10 now (well worth it).
Most of the top notch horror games have already been noted, so I'll add stuff that I didn't necessarily find scary, but I think are still worth checking out. Both take a different tactic, but have similar locales: the Pacific Northwest. And, naturally, they each owe a big debt to Twin Peaks- but each takes different parts.
Deadly Premonition is a budget game- brand new, it retailed for $20 and it has its flaws. The graphics are pretty basic by most standards, especially for a PS3 or Xbox 360 game and the music is often jarringly peppy, with some very abrupt shifts in tone. You play the psychic weirdo FBI profiler Francis York Morgan trying to solve a series of murders in a small forest town. Combat hews close to the RE4 over the shoulder model and works pretty well. The only time you'll really be scared is if you're terrified of mimes, which is what most of the enemies resemble. But the cast is full of strange but lovable characters (the protagonist chief among them), the town itself is large and full of things to do off the beaten track of your investigation and the story is quite good in my opinion- I couldn't put it down. It goes from affably strange to completely nuts in the last section, but I'm willing to forgive it because I came to care so much about the characters. This game takes the oddest qualities of Twin Peaks- the quirky protagonist, the mysterious "red room" psychic space- even a Log Lady surrogate.
Alan Wake is billed as a "psychological action thriller" which, I guess it is, but it's mostly about the main character surviving ambush after ambush from light-fearing Taken as he tries to find pages of a manuscript he doesn't remember writing in order to save his wife. Combat has some frantic moments as you use your flashlight, flares, etc. to break down your enemies' defenses so you can shoot them the old fashioned way- but it's difficult to like the protagonist, since he seems like such an arrogant jerk. What the game does manage, however, that Deadly Premonition never does is atmosphere. You really feel lost in the woods walking through many of the maps and while the manuscript pages you find offer some rather overwrought narration, they also give you a clue both on hazards to come and about what else is happening in town. There's also a radio station that fills in the background a bit more and episodes of a Twilight Zone type show to offer some occasional comic relief. While Alan Wake cribs a whole lot from Stephen King (name-dropping him several times) and the constant narration from the protagonist grows tiring, it is often quite fun and has an excellent sense of atmosphere. This title has the lurking dread of Twin Peaks, the feeling that the sinister is hiding behind the banal, just waiting to peek out.
Both run about $20; for my money, I actually enjoyed Deadly Premonition more than Alan Wake.
The Suffering (XBox) - Great horror/survival/action game. The sequel, however, was crap.
Phantasmagoria (PC) - If you can find a copy of this old 7 CD point and click horror adventure, I highly suggest doing so.
Dead Space (360) - Its sequel is great as well, though I felt the origional was the stronger in the series as far as horror goes (with the exception of the driving a needle through your eye part).