I feel like I’ve played a good amount of horror titles, and I find I don’t really get scared much anymore.
What are some titles that scared you the most? I would love to hear your recommendations!
PT
the original resident evil. couldn’t even get through the first 15 minutes before i threw the controller across the room. i don’t play scary games anymore, but i love watching other people play!
silent hill was super fun to watch.
The friggin’ dogs in Resident Evil.
I have a kind of funny story about that. I was too young to be playing RE when it came out, but that didn’t stop me from sneaking it out of my dad’s collection of grownup games to try it anyway.
So there’s this well known jump scare, probably in the first fifteen minutes as you say where you’re running down a hallway and suddenly some dogs jump through these glass windows. I screamed, fumbled the controller, and was eaten by dogs. Might have been the first jump scare of my life.
So I hadn’t hit a save point, so you have to start the game over. So I decide to just leave the mansion through the front door instead of going out that way. And you get a cutscene where a dog jumps through the door and you have to wrestle it away.
I still haven’t played the game since.
But my wife and I are a big fan of the series, so eventually we decided to marathon them on the condition that she plays RE1. She’s playing the remake and goes into the room where the dogs jump through the windows and I’m holding my breath waiting for it to happen. Only it doesn’t.
So I’m a little disappointed, but I figure it’s a remake so maybe they’re switching things up a bit and going to put the jump scare somewhere else in the mansion.
Sooner or later you have to backtrack through that corridor though, and on like the third time going through this “safe” corridor the dogs jump through the window. She screams, fumbles the controller, and is eaten by dogs.
Seven-year-old me was vindicated that my adult wife also got punked and I’m not alone.
it’s the dogs! i love dogs, but having them jump through the window destroyed me.
The first Layers of Fear was pretty spooky, very PT inspired. The second one was decent too, but not as scary.
Outlast is the standard I hold walking sim horror games to. I can speedrun through it now since I’ve played it so much, but the first few times were terrifying.
Some people have mentioned Amnesia, so I’ll throw in the recent iteration with Amnesia: The Bunker. It’s like Alien: Isolation in a WW1 setting.
Speaking of which, Alien: Isolation is probably no. 1 for me. Between the alien, the androids, and even other people, that game is very stress inducing.
I really liked Outlast when it first released. Outlast 2 was pretty good as well. I think the tricky part is if you die or mess up too many times in horror games, the fear gets dulled.
I don’t recall layers of fear creeping me out much, but I haven’t tried the second yet. Definitely worth a shot
I find Amnesia titles don’t do it for me anymore. I think maybe I played too much and got too familiar with how the AI works. I’ve peeled back the curtain, so to speak and ruined them for myself, aha.
I really liked alien isolation when it first came out. I thought it was a very cool take on horror. The AI seemed super impressive
If it’s any consolation, Amnesia: The Bunker has a different AI than the previous iterations. I mentioned it’s like Alien: Isolation, and the monster works very similarly, like reacting to how much noise you make and stalking which parts of the bunker you’re in. Most items with every run are also randomized, so you can’t memorize where to pick up supplies. (You can also customize the difficulty, which I thought was really cool.) But if you’ve already tried it, then my point is moot lol.
Yeah, I thought it was pretty okay! I ended up getting about halfway through, I think? I got caught by the monster a couple of times when he randomly decided to pop up, and I somewhat shifted from “this is spooky” to “I’m just avoiding this road block”
It’s super tricky because I don’t know how to keep myself immersed in the experience for a lot of these titles.
I did enjoy the fact that they tried something new with the bunker. I thought it was probably the closest I got to being scared since the Dark Descent, so I think that says something for sure.
I think I’ve been exposed to too much horror, which might have dulled the experience somewhat. I really enjoy hearing about what/why people enjoyed horror games, so I don’t think your point was moot! I think horror is a very unique genre that pushes game design to its extremes in a lot of ways.
Soma is definitely up there. It’s slowburn and not jumpscares. But when that shit hit, it hit hard.
I thought it was pretty good! There were definitely some tense moments for sure
But what type of spooky are you looking for?
Oh man, absolutely anything to make me feel dread or have me not knowing what to expect. Which is vague, I know. I feel like I’ve played so many horror games that they start to feel too gamey? If that makes any sense? It’s like I can predict when scares will happen or the gamey aspects sometimes don’t immerse me.
Oddly enough, subnautica really had me on my toes a few years back. Fatum Betula was an indie that also gave me some heeby jeebies but wasn’t exactly scary either.
I feel like I’ll probably need to crawl through dozens of indie titles or something. Or possibly go back to titles made prior to 2005. I’m also not caught up on recent games in the past couple of years, so maybe there’s something special I’ve missed.
But I’m also just curious to hear what made everyone else scared, too!
Welp, as a tie-over I can recommend plowing through some of the stuff on Gamejolt.
There’s a few pretty good indie spookies for free. They aren’t too long, but have some pretty good concepts if nothing else.
But yeah, one tends to get a bit numb on horror after a while. It helps to take a break every now and then.
I don’t know if I’ve ever been on gamejolt before, thanks, I’ll take a look!
Yeah, that makes sense. I guess I’m chasing that next scare. Something to wow me again, haha. I’m sure there’s gotta be something out there
Metro 2033 and Half-Life 2 lol, I cannot play horror games. I quit Metro, couldn’t help myself.
But at least I completed all HL games apart from Alyx. With all achievements on base HL2 and EP2.
Ravenholm was manageable if I play without sound 🤣 But there was a long tunnel section in EP1 that was very uncomfortable and dark, felt longer than Ravenholm.
Alien: Isolation. That shit is unplayable it’s so scary.
When it came out, I saw the trailer and decided that it’s not for me. Way too scary. Then recently I watched a commented speed run and thought “Yep, I was right”.
It was definitely intense, that’s for sure. The aliens AI is pretty cool. At release, it was very exciting to see how advanced it seemed.
It has a VR version and I’m pretty sure if I tried it I’d run into a wall in a panic a few times at least.
I am not a fan of horror games all that much, but and Half-Life Alyx is not one, but the horror elements are stronger than previous titles and I still haven’t finished the game because of that. The game is incredible, but I just can’t get past the scary parts.
“Hey there, Jeff” (0.0) that bit had me stuck for a month until I decided to push through it!
Amnesia.
cliched yes, but I will always remember how scared as hell I was playing Silent Hill for the first time in high school, when you go down that dutch angle alleyway and the evil toddlers stab you to death…
i couldnt play any more for a few days haha, it was truly a scary as hell experience in a game.
I’ve yet to play the first 3 silent hills. I feel like they’re the elephant in the room for me lol
F.E.A.R (the first one only) was absolutely scary and psychologically nerve wrecking…
The multiplayer was amazing though, the nail gun was something else !
The nail gun was so satisfying! The AI was cool! The way they would flank was pretty good for the time! The light and shadows were really great. Lots of tension mixed with the gun fights. In a lot of ways, Condemned reminds me of it, too.
The AI was cool! The way they would flank was pretty good for the time!
So truee ! Yeah I remember that was something really unique to FEAR ! Never had seen a similar AI in other games :/
Yeah now that you mention it, there really haven’t been too many releases similar to FEARs gameplay style since then. It was a very unique combo of fps and horror. I would love to see someone tackle that style again
Minecraft probably. I avoid legitimate horror games (and movies) and the fact that you don’t have saves can get a little stressful when you’re down in a cave, don’t know how to find your way back (and thus probably won’t find your body) and then basically get jumpscared by dangerous enemies or holes in the ground.
if you want to know how to get back, pick a side (i chose left) and always put torches on that side going down. to come back up, keep the torches on your right. 🔥
Doesn’t work that well when the way is constantly twisting and splitting. Cave layout can be extremely confusing.
Lol that’s true. Nothing like a creeper or two to sneak up behind you in the dark.
I found 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors to be very unsettling. I played it in bed at night with headphones on and it totally sucked me in. I guess this is a different type of horror to many of the games suggested here, which I personally don’t find scary.
Ohh I’ve wanted to play the zero escape series at some point. I didn’t realize it could be unsettling! Cool I will put it on the list, thanks!
The first game is much creepier than the second, I think due to a combination of the character designs, the writing and the general plot. The second game feels more akin to Danganronpa, in that the characters and setting are a bit surreal. Because it was a 3DS game, it also uses cartoony 3D models that make everything a bit lighter and less gritty than the original game. I haven’t played the third one yet (still need to get around to 100% completing the second game).
Killing Floor VR
Oh man I haven’t gotten a chance to try VR yet and I bet that would help immerse me in a whole new way. I can’t wait to see how VR improves over time
I don’t know if I would call it horror, but Dredge is fantastic with creeping dread
Silent Hill 2
Halo: Combat Evolved (the Flood levels are horror masterpieces)
