My brother-in-law once asked me: “How can a video game be scary?” He’s never played a horror before. He prefers to play strategy games and the genre in general isn’t really his thing. I, on the other hand, have had the bejeezus scared out of me by a great variety of titles. There was one jump scare in a film I saw years ago that caught me both by surprise and with my mouth open, eliciting a very funny shriek — and I mean funny for everyone else.
2013 saw an onslaught of horror games, from freeware to AAA (a term I don’t agree with for big-publisher-games, but that’s another story), some good and some really bad. Last year I simply played a few games with my good friends here at 1001-Up.com but this time around and with The Evil Within, a game that promises to take us back to the roots of survival horror, I’ve been thinking: what are the games that have scared me the most?
So I give you the bejeezus files, those titles that have frightened me throughout my gaming life. Next week over on The Mental Attic, you’ll see the other side of the files for the scariest films and television shows.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent:
What made Amnesia special for me was its insanity mechanic because it made everything more tense, made you fear the shadows – even your own. The light kept you sane and calm, but it also drew monsters to you. Your only option was sticking to the shadows and turning off your light as much as possible, but that made you slowly lose your marbles. Every corner explored, every strange sound, every flesh-covered wall gave me goosebumps and more than once made me run in a panic to a safe spot; a semi-illuminated dank corner I could hide in, suck my thumb and cry for my mommy.
And that’s without considering the monsters. They were horrible, not in a scary way mind you, just badly designed; but it wasn’t likely you’d see them under a light. Just a silhouette, a twitchy shape shambling in the darkness ahead, hunting for you and with a knack of finding you and send chills down your spine and adrenaline rushing through your senses.
Amnesia made me whimper and save as often as possible.
Dead Space:
The original Dead Space had something no other game before had, a very familiar vibe, reminding me of one of the scariest films I’d ever seen: Event Horizon. Stranded on a derelict ship where everyone had died, you were on your own trying to find a way out, investigate what had happened and above all survive.
This title had a flaw of using the same tricks against you too often thus losing its impact over time, in addition to the standard survival horror weakness: once you’re a walking armory, there’s no need to fear. But up until you cross that line where you can safely predict what is going to happen, when the game loses everything it built up, you were constantly afraid. You’d jump at every corner, save at every possible moment and slowly inch your way forward. From the standard slashers and leapers to the creepy babies, this game freaked me the hell out!
The Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth:
Corners had something on PC that made its tension much more palpable: you moved at a sixth of the speed that you moved in the Xbox version. Why? No one knows, but you did so every chase, from the angry mob trying to kill you in your hotel to the Shoggoth escape, were so tense, so scary you were probably hyperventilating the entire time. The atmosphere is already oppressive and chilling and the speed handicap just made it worse.
What makes the title special though is the fact you had to go look for the best scares. You’d hear someone whispering your name, or a sound behind you and you could ignore them, keep moving forward without worry; but if you gave in to the curiosity, to finding out what lurks in the darkest corners then the game had rewards for you… you just wouldn’t like them.
Doom 3:
Atmosphere is what Doom 3 had going for itself. The series often had monsters but never before were they scary; but in this game holy-shit they were. Even the Imps, the Chewbacca lookalikes from the original Doom received a sleek redesign that made them scary-ass monsters. The Lost Souls became human heads with gaping maws. Also, the title had the scariest and creepiest and most disturbing monster of the franchise: the Cherub – upper torso of a baby, lower torso of a mechanical wasp. Nothing is more disturbing than those little bastards.
Sure, the torch-and-gun thing was dumb, but it worked wonders for the atmosphere. Using your gun meant being enveloped in constant darkness, where every sound made you jump. Using the torch meant you had limited offensive capabilities and very few things died to a torch wack.
Doom 3 kept you on your toes and in near constant panic for most of the experience, until the survival horror weakness and the repeat visits to the same environments kill the mood.
System Shock 2:
I never got to play the original System Shock but I did play this. I received it as a gift, though I doubt my aunt had any clue what she was giving me. System Shock 2 is very similar to Dead Space and Doom 3 though it released many years before them, which may explain why I like these titles so much.
For most of the game you have no clue about what’s going on and when you finally do, the revelations are as terrifying as the journey itself. From mutants roaming halls to monstrosities in every deck, I will never forget how the spider’s cries chilled me every time I heard them. They were so intense and so frightening (and plentiful) they came out with a patch for arachnophobiacs to remove them from the titlee entirely. I don’t have that particular type of paralysing terror, but the spiders did strike fear deeply into my heart.
Fatal Frame:
Nothing is scarier than Fatal Frame, and every game in this series freaks you out. I’ve only played part of the first game even though I’ve followed every title. My friend Vanessa and I used to play it co-op; she controlled it, I kept my eyes open for clues and items and we were both terrified. From the first time you hear the Blinded moan ‘My eyes! My eyes!’ to the random ghosts that just pop through the walls, Fatal Frame just kept upping the scares more and more, never faltering and never losing the oppressive and wonderfully chilling atmosphere to the bane of survival horrors. You were never safe, not even near save points.
I have wanted to play the rest of the titles in the series for years, but I’ve never owned a PlayStation and the Wii titles never released in America so no luck for me. Vanessa on the other hand vowed to never play the games again.
Silent Hill:
While Silent Hill 2 is generally lauded as the best in the series and many internet ‘personalities’ claim it’s the best or their favourite, for me it was the original that did it for me. I remember the first time I entered the alternate school and heard that unplugged phone ring. It freaked me the hell out. This was another game I played with friends because they had the PlayStation 1. I remember us getting lost in the strange Silent Hill map, partly annoyed and partly terrified at the different monsters that kept hounding us.
The disorientation didn’t make us quit though, it only scared us even more when the radio started crackling. Every new place we visited that turned into a nightmare fuel set piece just added to our terror and made us take frequent breaks.
I still remember how chilling the game was the first time I played it and that’s why it’s on this list.
Clive Barker’s Undying:
Would you believe I didn’t know who Clive Barker was before playing this game? I’d heard and seen Hellraiser but the name didn’t stick with me, not until I played this fantastic game. It’s a flawed title and it loses its bite after the first segment, but up until then it’s outstandingly terrifying. What made it so scary is that you’re in this large mansion and ground where everything wants to kill you, from the haunted kitchens to the deadly werewolves around the property.
In addition to that, you carry a stone with two powers: improving your spells and nightmare fuel. Its second power reveals the unseen. Trust me you don’t want to do that. I did and it scared the hell out me, and then, like every horror game masochist, I kept on doing it.
Alone in the Dark:
The original Alone in the Dark was ugly, so ugly its werewolves looked like were-roosters. But as the first of its kind and at a time where there were no other games like this, it managed to make its cartoonish blocky graphics extremely terrifying, more so than any other title in the series.
Add very limited supplies and one of the weakest and flimsiest main characters in horror and you get the mix that led this game to be such a success it spawned so many disappointing and embarrassing sequels. It’s also why it’s so damn effective in its fear-making.
Thief: Deadly Shadows:
Thief games aren’t horror games, not straight up, though their undead are always terrifying. But it was Thief: Deadly Shadows that really did its worst with the Shalebridge Cradle, an abandoned orphanage turned insane asylum. It’s dilapidated, abandoned and haunted to hell and back.
You visit the Cradle late in the game but it’s the most memorable location because of its fear-factor. It’s a small self-contained horror film, with an asylum filled with the ghostly echoes of past employees and shambling undead patients, still bound in their straitjackets. Worse still, and which added to the chilling atmosphere, was the knowledge that the orphanage itself was sentient and it wouldn’t let you out once it knew you. You had to make it forget you in order to escape and not become one of the many undead trapped inside.
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines:
Much like the previous game, this isn’t really a horror. There are creepy and downright disturbing moments but generally it’s an action-RPG with some FPS sprinkled on top of it.
But there is one instance in which this game is scarier that most straight-up horrors out there: the Ocean House Hotel. Your task is to go inside and banish the entity haunting it because restoration on the hotel, to make it suitable for guests once more, has stopped because the crew refuses to go in as they’re too spooked.
The Hotel plays a straight haunted house scenario and by combining creepy events, vanishing ghostly characters, sound effects and very moody music the game creates such a wonderful atmosphere that keeps you trembling well beyond your escape from the location. Nothing else beats the sheer scare-factor of the Ocean House Hotel. I have friends who don’t like ghost stories and they hate this part because it’s their worst nightmare come true. Even I was shaking well after I left its haunted doors.
So there you have them: the games to scare me the most in my gaming life. Do you have your own bejeezus files? Share them with us in the comments, or recommend some others I should play that’ll freak me out even more.
