All Hallow’s Eve is the night before All Saints Day when ghouls and ghosts ascend from their graves in search of succulent jelly babies. It’s also a good excuse to talk about creepy-arse video games. So er, let’s go.
For me, no game will ever be scarier than Aliens on the Amstrad CPC. With three colours and a primitive sound chip, it managed to replicate the nail-biting dread of the movie to astonishing effect. This one time, my cat leapt onto the keyboard at the exact same moment the music went “boop-boop-BOOOOP” and my friend literally shat his pants in terror. He got sent home, natch.
What do you think is the scariest video game ever made? Unleash your nominations while laughing maniacally in the comments section below.
Comments
64 responses to “What Is The Scariest Game Ever Made?”
Scratches was pretty spooky. The slow burn kind of spooky. Also, System Shock 2 genuinely had me cowering in a crawl space for a while cause I heard foot steps down the hall. The Von Braun, man. Stuff of nightmares! (BioShock had some genuinely scary parts too…)
Houdini Splicers?You know it!
Heavy Rain’s DLC “The Taxidermist” was pretty damn terrifying. D:
System Shock 2 is a game I wish I’ve played.
I love Bioshock.
Pretty spooky when you first get the fire plasmid you’re dropped into darkness. A nice effect when you set splicers on fire and they light up the room running around ablaze.The sound design in System Shock 2 was exceptional. Not sure how it holds up these days, but it’s on GOG and Steam now!
I can describe for you how well it stands up.
I went through two dozen pairs of underwear in 5 minutes. So yeah, it still holds up.
Or maybe you need to see a doctor!
😀
Good to hear, my friend!
It holds up remarkably well.
Disturbingly well.
Amnesia The Dark Decent, wasnt scary at all, maybe because i watch horror movies every day but it was more of a shock, because i had my headphones on max volume over my ears then started up the game
Amnesia on an Oculus Rift?
I found Amnesia no where near as scary as people made it sound. I guess it’s that hype thing backfiring, better going in knowing nothing. Also I played Scratches the week before which I found genuinely scary. 😀
hmmm can’t say that I have ever really been scared by a game. Even the ‘zombie comes in through the window’ moments from Res Evils for example weren’t really scares I don’t think. Others like Doom3 attempted to use things like ‘lack of light’ to invoke a feeling of dread, but to me just ended up being more annoying than suspenseful. Most of the horror games I’ve played aren’t really scary in my book, most are too cliched I think, you kind expect what happens when something sudden jumps at you, again not really a scare in my books
That ‘amensia’ game was supposed to be a bit scary wasn’t it? Not played it myself. What was supposedly scary about it? Was it the themes or the content or just ‘things jumping out at you unexpectedly!’ type of scary? Other?
For me it’s the feeling of helplessnes and constant paranoia that something is following you.
Spoilered, not because i got very far but just in case
I’ve only played about 20 minutes, but the entire claustrophic feeling of the castle you’re in… The constant howling of the wind, creaky floor boards, the feeling of your character is going insane, all comes together in a nice fright cocktail.
I guess i should admit that i’m pretty timid person and perfectly happy to admit that games like Dead Space, F.E.A.R etc scared the living crap out of me as well
I loved little mechanic details in Dead Space like the map not pausing the game and the like.
thanks for the reply. I might have to check it out to see what everyone is talking about 🙂
Same. I think I’m just too comfortable with games. I can get really into the game but there’s just a disconnect when it comes to fear. I’m by no means fearless but games don’t do it.
Amnesia scared me shitless,
Alan Wake had one of the most eerie atmospheres i’ve ever experience (very well executed)
But i concur that if it’s pants-change-inducing scary we’re talking about i concur with @dc that you can’t go past System Shock 2
When I was a kid I found Maniac Mansion genuinely terrifying. When Edna caught you in the kitchen! D: Only years later I learned it was a comedy. XD
As a kid Resident Evil 2 had me obsessing (in a paranoid way) over being eaten alive by zombies.
When I would shower before bed I would lock the door and windows of the bathroom and stand in the shower staring at the shower screen, waiting for a silhouette to creep up, rip back the curtain and devour me.
Looking back now I think this might have accumulated towards my love for zombie movies (especially the old-school ones) being fascinated with them at a young age.
Also might explain why I shower with a knife.
😛Also Silent Hill 3.
I recall playing it one night with a friend. I’m pretty sure it was in the hospital where we descended down stairs to find a tipped over wheelchair with the wheel spinning around.
Biggest ‘NOPE’ moment I’ve had. We put Tekken back on after that.
haha “Biggest ‘NOPE’ moment I’ve had. We put Tekken back on after that.” too funny. I remember those moments all too well.
The licker crawling across the window of the police station near the start is a memory that stays with me.
Yuup! There’s also a licker busting through a window scene later on that made me yelp.
Outlast does a pretty awesome job of scaring the crap out of me.
Silent Hill 2 did a good job as well, trying to run through the prison near the end was freakish thanks to the camera angles.
Dead Space 1 – playing that in the dark with surround sound I was hearing stuff crawling through my walls!
ZombiU had a similar effect, especially in that nursery.
Fuck that nursery.
Dead Space was great but I remember the über scare moment in my gaming up to now was the opening scene of dead space 2 . those who haven’t played it yet, I recommend a dark room and an headphone( keep reserve pants and underwear nearby) and play through it
The first Dead Space freaked the hell out of me when I first played it. F.E.A.R is also another good one. When I went back and replayed it again after a few years it still creeped me out.
Almathat is all 😛
Ocarina of Time.
Damn those ReDeads.
HAHA i just had the exact same feeling in Wind Waker XD
AND THAT’S NOT EVEN MEANT TO BE SCARY
Having said that, Dead Hand in OoT WAS BLOODY SCARY!
oh man! They freaked me out! Especially when you came across them at night. That noise they made and the fact they just stood there swaying a little bit. Pants crap!
Scariest game I ever played – Siren: Blood Curse on the PS3. Somehow, being able to attack what’s after you, and see that fighting back is useless, is far more terrifying than not being able to do anything but run and hide. Never finished it, and I curse the clerk that recommended it.
Same thing with Dead Space’s regenerating necromorph… until you lure him into the output of a jet engine, at least.
I remember playing the original Siren on the PS2 and thinking it was pretty scary. I’ve had Siren: Blood Curse on my PS3 hard drive since it came out and haven’t even touched it.
Clive Barker’s: Undying as well, certain parts of that were kinda freaky.
Like when you hear a voice whisper “Look” and you turn around and the family portrait on the wall has changed.Also, The Suffering on XBox, I remember having an intense feeling of dread after playing it for a while.
Also, the first Resident Evil, or anything that gives you limited ammo.
That could well have been me. I recommended Siren to anyone who would listen for years. So difficult to track down at retail, though!
Fatal Frame / Project Zero. Something about the heartbeat that would start when you got near something, the corner of the screen would have ghosts flicker past, or walking through somewhere all of a sudden they’d all be hanging from the rafters and gone again, and then fact you had no way of defending yourself except to take pictures.
Yes! So much yes!! Not many people remember this game.
Yup this.
I found the first one the scariest. A lot of people compare Project Zero and Siren, but I found Siren just frustrated me.
Growing up, this springs to mind…http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Standard_Headcrab
Super Mario Bros. 2
I was scared that the design direction in that game would carry on….thankfully not.
Those masks when you took the key. They scared me 😛
Eternal Darkness on Gamecube (or was it N64?) had a few moments that freaked me out. The fact you couldnt tell if certain things were in front of you or your character was going insane and seeing things added to the weirdness.
Yeah, ED was pretty chilling. I couldn’t get the visual of being thrown into a well filled with corpses to die for months.
I love that game.
Clive Barker’s Undying. The ectoplasm ability and sound design overall made things very creepy.
It’s a shame it never really was that popular though.
In a different way, Aliens vs Predator 2 as a human marine being hunted by Predators and Aliens in multiplayer was scary at times!
OH GOD YES!
i had completely forgotten about this underrated gem of a game…
so well designed!
I don’t play scary/horror games normally, so out of what I’ve played:
999. Axe Ending. Couldn’t sleep properly that night…
(I can’t wait for the 3rd Zero Escape game ^_^)
Amnesia scared the shit out of me.
As a kid I couldn’t play Diablo because I thought it was too scary.
Definitely Project Zero 1 for me. Also Condemned was pretty creepy in some areas.
Everyone knows Silent Hill 2 will give you brown trousers every time. But seriously, its the only game iv ever had to put down the controller and walk away from the tv because I was freaked out so much…..
I’m honestly not scared by games (I mean properly scared, not shock “jump out of dark corners at you” scared).
However, the game that did the best job of creeping me out would definitely have to be Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem.
Dead Space.
the first time I played it, I was really stressed. I couldn’t wait to get to a checkpoint usually.
That’s why it’s such a shame what happened to the series. It lost what made it unique.
Thrill Kill (ps1) – Especially if your friends managed to fill the rage bar and come after you!
Silent Hill 2 – The best in the series. The atmosphere is dense, dark & claustrophobic.
Resident Evil 4 – Some of the boss fights in this game are distinct enough to keep coming back for.
Has anyone mentioned Slender Man? I played it during the day and it still scared the crapcakes out of me!
Clocktower…. no other game EVER was as scary or has been since… it gave me a phobia of clocktowers,
Countdown on PC scared me as a kid and I still freaks me out a little.
– Resident Evil on PS1 (Them dogs man, them dogs.)
– Silent Hill 2 on PS2 (I can hear them but not see them)
– Bioshock on PS3 (Nothing like hearing a Big Daddy in the room)
– Aliens vs Predator on PC (The first one, not the remake. Playing as the Marines with just the motion scanner)
Silent Hill 2.
Doom 3 – particularly when in hell.
Illbleed on Dreamcast.
Space Quest IV: I couldn’t sleep for weeks after walking into the zombie with his eyes propped open with metal. Then it screamed… and I cried.
Terror From The Deep. As if it wasn’t bad enough being paranoid that there was an alien around the corner with overwatch on, or a tentaculat hovering nearby, the atmospheric music would have these random blarp moments that always freaked me out. It was especially bad when it coincided with a number in a glowy box appearing on screen, indicating an alien had been spotted.
As a teenager it was these two games.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantasmagoria_(video_game)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantasmagoria:_A_Puzzle_of_Flesh
I’d never seen anything like it and they scared the crap out of me.
Dead Space 1
F.E.A.R 1
F.E.A.R 2 but not to the same extent
Res Evil 1 and 2
Dino Crisis One
Near the end when a giant T-Rex was hunting you downSystem Shock 2
To less extent
Bio-Shock 1 but more at the start then near the end
Silent Hill 2 – The Pyramid, that scene where Maria is in the prison cell, climbing into your own grave and it becomes a door into a prison, the sound of that goddamn radio…
System Shock 2 – “You’re song is not ours. You do not hide forever. We are we are we are we are… The many sings to us. REEAAARRGGHKILL ME! I’M… SORRY!” “Babies need rest”
No “The Suffering”?
I’d love/hate a HD remake!
It used to be only Doom 3 for me, until I played Dead Space. Scariest game I’ve ever played. Wish I played the Silent Hill games as they are always mentioned in these lists. But I just don’t see any guns in any screenshots. I need my guns dammit.
The scariest part in Dead Space?
Where you use telekinesis to move all the shipping containers around to get through to the other side, then you are confronted with a necromorph that reforms after being killed. You had to turn around and remember the containers you moved, in what order, only in reverse… AND mirrored. Oh, did I mention that it’s DARK TOO!? OMGWTFBBQI also loved the FEAR games. Fell asleep during FEAR’s office corridors, but I remember FEAR2’s school level was freaky as heck. Haven’t played FEAR 3 but judging by most, it’s not worth the time. :/ I really don’t want to add that aswell to my pile of shame.
Slender – Jump scare jungle