Scary Games?

J

J W

[H]ard|Gawd
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Mar 8, 2008
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I'm looking for some scary games. I finished FEAR a while ago, and while the gameplay was fun, I found the horror to be rather tame. Anyway, I'm looking for some scary shit. Anything from the last 10 years or so is fine.

How are Clive Barker's Undying and Clive Barker's Jericho?
Is System Shock 2 scary? Is it as boring as Bioshock (sorry to all the Bioshock fans)? Too bad SS2 is such a PITA to find.
 
Penumbra Overture and Penumbra Black Plague had an eeriness/creepiness factor it.
 
^^penumbra will scare the junk out of you, entire game is smothered in a constant state of horror and suspense with almost no relief. metro 2033 is pretty good for atmosphere too.
 
Clive Barker's Undying only has 1 "jumpy" moment in it, the rest is your normal run of the mill first person shooter with the eerie feeling to it.
System Shock 2 is just an awesome game on its own and would be worth playing just for the fun of it, might not be overly scary, but still good gameplay to it.
 
I've only just started playing Dead Space (which I picked up at the Steam sale) and I'm totally freaked out. Highly recommended for scares.
 
seconded for Dead Space...I guess it may be too tame for some people, but I thought it had a pretty good horror/scare factor.
 
Does it just have to be First Person games?

Penumbra series does fit that bill nicely though.

If not, Silent Hill 2 and 3 are great.


Undying and Jericho really aren't scary. More gory than anything. Mindless fun though.
 
Mindless fun is not necessarily a bad thing, it just isn't what I'm looking for at the moment. I suppose I'll hold off on Undying and Jericho.

I'll definitely checkout the Penumbra series.
I've heard a lot about the Silent Hill series, but have never taken the plunge because the first game is on a console. Does the first game need to be played in order for the later games to be fully enjoyed?

The Suffering honestly looks pretty flipping awesome. Ravenholm always gets talked about for being a scary level on HL2, but I have always preferred Nova Prospekt. Something about dark prisons that brings out the scares.
 
Scariest game I have played is probably Condemned: Criminal Origins. Probably $10 or lower on Direct2Drive right now. It's not on Steam, though.

System Shock 2, Dead Space, F.E.A.R. are also up there. Haven't played the Penumbra games, but may get them if they go on sale again soon.
 
Resident Evil 1 and Doom 3. No other games have ever given me such and since of fear, uncertainty and claustrophobia.
 
Mmmmm SS2 for sure. Though you need to let yourself get drawn into the game before it starts to get scary. If you play it "detached" then it's not going to give you as much of a fright.

The Stalker series can also be pretty scary from time to time. I guess it depends what you're looking for though. Most of the games people consider scary are "pop-out from nowhere" scary, as opposed to setting a genuinely spooky atmosphere and using ambient sounds to up the tension level, to the point where ordinary in-game events are scary.

Depends what you're looking for I guess.
 
+1 for system shock 2, its a bit older so the graphics are a bit on the weak side but its still one of the all time greats.
SS2 should not be confused with bioshock. bioshock really dumb down the gameplay elements of SS2. SS2 has a fastastic story and excellent RPG elements. It also makes you manage your gear, your not a walking death machine like in bioshock.


if you liked fear, try fear 2. i had a blast with that game and it was definatly creepy. explore a bit and you'll be rewarded with extra scares.

dead space while not having the best story, had very good atmostphere and the actual deap space universe is very well thought out.
 
ya, dead space was awesome, very visceral. stalker also could be creepy spooky at times
 
Outside your 10 year range but Phantasmagoria messed with my mind as a young kid :)
 
Ripskin said:
Outside your 10 year range but Phantasmagoria messed with my mind as a young kid :)
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Cool side note on Phantasmagoria. My latin teacher did the translations for the latin in the game. Guess what my side project over the summer was? Sheesh that has been what? almost 15 years ago? Sigh. I'm getting old.
 
Dead space really made me jump especially in the first half when your weapons etc kinda suck. The first time in the morgue *shudder*
 
That penumbra sounds pretty creepy. I love the mine setting, reminds me of 'the regulators' by stephen king in some way. Also, any team that has h.p. lovecraft as its inspiration is good by me, I will have to check it out.
 
Dead Space is highly recommended. Especially with a good surround sound system. Penumbra is also good.

I'd also give call of cthulhu dark corners of the earth (say that ten times fast) a try.

The Thief series of games also had their moments.
 
For newer stuff I would say Dead Space. If you are willing to go old school I think SS and the first Silent Hill are the best.
 
As others have mentioned Silent Hill 2 is probably the most immersible horror game on PC. Penumbra is good but so goddamn hard.
 
Metro 2033 is pretty scary at parts, but Im still not very far into it so I can't say how it is all the way through.
 
+2 for System Shock 2. Its an old game now, but there was a project to update a lot of the models and textures a few years back, when i looked they'd only done a few of the monsters so I don't know if they finished it. But like a lot of these 'scary' games, it relies on the player to be willing to suspend disbelief enough and allow themselves to be scared.

Without wanting to give any spoilers, one of my strongest memories of that game was down on the lower decks of the ship in an area with a lot of doors. I was low on ammo which didn't matter so much as my gun was in such a state it would probably jam before I finished the clip. I was searching a room for supplies and i heard a door open in the distance, and then another slightly closer as something was getting closer...

I remember some pretty scary moments in the Thief games too, the cathedral full of undead in Thief 2 springs to mind.

Doom 3 I didn't realy find scary, the BOO! monster closets where more annoying, and after a while you could tell when something looked like a trap, it probably was.

The 'They Hunger' Total conversion mod for Half Life 1 was a good one, it lost its way abit toward the end, but the first couple of parts where pretty creepy.
 
J W said:
Mindless fun is not necessarily a bad thing, it just isn't what I'm looking for at the moment. I suppose I'll hold off on Undying and Jericho.

I'll definitely checkout the Penumbra series.
I've heard a lot about the Silent Hill series, but have never taken the plunge because the first game is on a console. Does the first game need to be played in order for the later games to be fully enjoyed?

The Suffering honestly looks pretty flipping awesome. Ravenholm always gets talked about for being a scary level on HL2, but I have always preferred Nova Prospekt. Something about dark prisons that brings out the scares.
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No Silent Hill 2 is it's own story. It's fantastic. Whenever you see a top 10 list, it's usually either number 1 or 2 (since consoles are factored Fatal Frame 2 is the scariest game ever imo)

Penumbra series is cheap and good! You can find the whole trilogy for about $15 bucks. Sometimes even cheaper.

Suffering didn't really scare me. Had potential I give it that. But the creature designs just didn't do it for me. It wasn't bad though either though.

Forgot about Condemned! That game was freakin awesome! Freakin abandoned mall *shudders*
 
I almost cried at the ending of Silent Hill 2. I got the bad ending. The really bad end. Super Super depressing ending.

as the above said. Silent Hill 2 is completely Unique no knowledge of anything related to Silent Hill is required.
 
J W said:
I'm looking for some scary games. I finished FEAR a while ago, and while the gameplay was fun, I found the horror to be rather tame.
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Serious?? I thought FEAR 1 was FREAKY as! Especially playing late at night, alone, in the dark. Seeing that bitch crawl at you in the ventilation ducts and those other enclosed spaces made my blood turn cold. Always kept me on my toes and afraid to see what was around the next corner.

Resident Evil 1 definatley had quite a few "OH SHIT" moments. Bit older than 10 years though now.
 
I have been gaming on PC's since 1988-1989 and freaking Dead space I could not finish as I really take the deep space theme to heart. My god did it get my heart racing alot, I wouldnt even play it when the sun went down and Im usually a hardcore gamer. I dont know what it was DOOM3 all of the dooms even were nothing but run and gun Dead space.......... I wont go there again lol. Also Stalker is wicked creepy once your out poking around looking for weapons and artifacts then BAM freakin bloodsucker in your face. It gave me cold chills many many times even the scripted events I played over and over I freaked out.
 
the scaries games i have played personally

1. dead space- at night with a great sound system or head phones. creepy. the soundtrack is tremendous.

2. system shock 2, amazing game, great pacing, more terrorfieing that scary

3. clive baker undying, very scary, great atmosphere

4. doom 3, not bad, but it's scary in a mechanical,intentional way, like resident evil, the other 3 games, the scares are more organic, and less predictible.
 
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Screw Dead Space the game is too obvious like f.e.a.r with scary harmless parts and and opportunitys to shoot something.
The good stuff for me would be Clive Barkers Undying, System Shock 2 and a very atmospheric not really horror dedicated but still very scary for at least half of it is Metro 2033.
The Penumbra series is more puzzle oriented just FYI.
 
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