Top 10 Scariest Games

[Jason Tandro]

Another top 10 list so soon? Well I like doing these. You know, putting my very limited opinions out on display for everybody else and revealing my ignorance. Since I wanted to break my usual mold I've decided to talk about a genre that rarely appears on any of my other lists... Scary Games.

Now I have, alas, not yet played some of the staples of the genre. No Resident Evils (except a brief stint of Resident Evil 4) and no Silent Hill (except a very brief stint of Silent Hill 2... well and I owned the Silent Hill 3 Soundtrack, which was awesome, by the way.)

But I have played some scary freaking games in my day. Now this is going to be a much less universal list than my others as my gaming interests in this genre have been so sporadic, not to mention my rather broad definition of "scary". But I'll have a go at it and see what we can make of this list.



10. Medievil (Playstation)

This game was a lot of fun, but I put it pretty low on the list. It wasn't genuinely "scary" it just had a spooky atmosphere. It was a lot of fun definitely and thanks to the Playstation Demo disk was one of the first games I ever played for Playstation. Good fun.


9. Return To Zork (PC)

Okay, so I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with Infocom or the Zork games, but when I was a kid I loved them. Not just the text adventures which are one of the many reasons I was such a good reader at that age, but also the CD-ROM point-and-click game Return to Zork.

The game actually had more silly elements than scary, but there were three things that always freaked me out about it as a kid. First, the soundtrack. Here's a few of the tracks:

Valley of the Vultures
Hardware Store
Every game song in one video, if you are so inclined...

Just plain creepy stuff. Two, the visuals. Zork, while having a humorous side, has always been a dark and uninviting place, and never so clearly as in Return To Zork. I'm trying to keep this thread image free for space reasons, but seriously look it up. There's some creepy stuff in this game.

And finally, Grues. They were in all the Zork games, but there were present a lot in this one. They are monsters that are only present in the dark. And they eat you. Literally every Zork game features this line in some capacity:

"It is dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue..."

God that's a creepy ass concept for a kid. Go to sleep kid, turn off the lights, don't worry about the f-ing Grue in the corner. Seriously, no joke, their presence alone made me scared to turn off the lights until I was 10 years old. I am not even close to kidding. 4 years of night terrors earns you a spot on this list.


8. Eternal Darkness (Gamecube)

A touch of a cult classic, and a very interesting game experiment, although I actually was never that scared by it. I was more intrigued by the concept of the Sanity meter. In fact the remainder of the game was pretty forgettable aside from this concept (and the fact that depending on your choices there were some 6 different game combinations).

I remember playing with my sister, we would intentionally let the Sanity meter run as low as possible to see what freaky things would happen. And actually that is why Eternal Darkness only rates a number 8 on this list. When you know what's happening isn't real, then it loses its edge. It becomes more about the spectacle and less about the unknown. IF there were actual consequences and I dreaded my sanity meter running low then it would be a great element. As is, it's just okay.

Still a decent game, I'll give it a play any time.


7. Clock Tower 3 (PS2)

Oh yes, now we're getting into some legitimately creepy territory. The idea of relatively real world scenario, where you are chased by monsters and are forced to solve puzzles is just brilliant. And Clock Tower manages to be a really unique game... well until they crap all over it with boss battle sequences and then it becomes a game of "don't die first".

But an element that a lot of games in this list capitolize on is the instinctual fear of pursuit. Are we running because something is chasing us, or is something chasing us because we run? Clock Tower has more than a few jump scares, but the panic of hiding in a closet and hoping beyond hope that the monster chasing you won't think to look there is terrifying. Then nothing is more nerve-wracking than going a long stretch of gameplay without running into the monster and then- OH MY GOD THERE HE IS! RUN! F-KING RUN!!!!!

True story about this game. When my little sister played this game for the first time, it was at our old place, on a big ass TV, in the total dark. She literally went into shock and we had to take her into another room to calm down.


6. Ju-On Haunted House Simulator (Wii)

Okay, okay, don't hate me. I really like the Grudge movies. I honestly think that both the American and the Japanese (although, not to sound pretentious, but especially the Japaneses) films have captured the very essence of supernatural horror. We don't go to horror movies to see good triumph over evil, we go to get scared. And nothing is scarier than an enemy which has no weakness, will never stop pursuing you, that you cannot escape from and that simply by seeing them once you become eternally marked as a target of their destruction.

I've quoted this many times when referring to this series, but there is a line in the 1959 horror movie House On Haunted Hill in which one of the main characters refers to the ghosts of the house as such.

"There could be a million people around her. If they wanted her, they'd get her."

That's what the Grudge movies create. Now I know what you're asking. Does any of that sensation come across in the game? Well... kind of. Your first time playing it is very creepy. And even occassionally you will replay a level and miss a scary element that you may have missed before. But where it suffers is (as I mentioned above) there really is no fear of pursuit, any more so than in a haunted house. You clear one scary obstacle and then you're good until the next one. Hell some objectives have you literally walk right back into the area you were running from. I am dead serious. Still, the scares work when they work, and this game does have some psychological horror. Definitely wins points if for no other reason than ambiance.


5. Extermination (PS2)

I've mentioned this TPS game before, so I'll be brief. It's got all the action and excitement of a shooter game, with a heavy dose of zombie horror elements, and a bit of the surreal. Again, the soundtrack does wonders to make it a creepy game, but the imagery as well. The process of seeing this place slowly succumb to the virus and morph into a monster itself is just so creepy. And then its ruined by the final boss being a giant fish. No joke. Still creepy and still worth a play through.


4. Without Escape (XBLA)

So the next four games are by indie developers. Does it say a lot that indie developers are making scarier games than the big guys? Probably not, because indie developers don't have self-imposed restrictions. In the case of Without Escape it was a game that could desperately have used a bit of QA in the Gameplay department, but in terms of ambiance, it was wonderful.

It, like the next entry, is a point-and-click game which uses imagery and music to convey its tone. The gameplay isn't that great and the story leaves a lot to be desired, but it still manages to get the right feel down. Genuinely creepy for all the right reasons, even for a low budget.


3. Decay (XBLA)

I actually created a whole thread to this game, so again, I'll be brief. It's the perfect example of a point-and-click game. Bar none. It's broken into four parts which individually create amazingly surreal and creepy worlds and together tells a very damn good horror story. Really, I've spoken volumes about this game, but trust me, you should look into it.

Side Note: I also happen to be something of an expert on the game having authored the only existing complete walkthroughs of Parts 2-4 and a comprehensive review of each part. I also, of course, have a walkthrough of part 1 (all of this is on GameFAQS).


2. Witch's House (RPG Maker VX)

Oh yeah. This is REAL Indie. If you haven't downloaded it, download it. If you don't want to then watch TobyGame's "Let's Play" of it. You wouldn't think that an RPG with it's sprite graphics would be one of the higher ups on this list. But you know what, I give it bonus points for pulling it off and doing it damn near flawlessly.

The jump scares work. The psychological scary works. The puzzles work. The imagery works. The music works. The ending is unbelievably terrifying. This game is incredible and if this had been made in the SNES era of gaming, it would be an integral part of all of our childhood nightmares. It's that good.


1. Slender (PC)

Don't hate. While this game does not have creepy music, or overly creepy imagery, aside from the pages and the forest at night, what it does have is something that literally no other game on this list can offer. A genuine experience of pursuit. It's not just pursuit until you get to a safe point, or past an obstacle, or to the next level.

Slender is coming for you. He will get you. And there isn't a whole lot you can do about it but try to survive. While our dear friend Slender may have become a bit over-saturated in recent months, I believe the inherent fear that stems from (again) an enemy of his nature is everlasting. So much so that I've actually played halfway decent copy-cat games, like the Monastery (which was terrible) and White Noise (which was actually pretty good)

So give Slender some love, and good luck trying to get to sleep tonight.

[inferiare]

Oh man, two words: Fatal Frame.

Those games can be utterly terrifying. The guy who came up with the concept said that while games like Silent Hill gives you machetes and machine guns and stuff, Fatal Frame arms you with a camera.

This video sums it up nicely, and while it's not exactly the part I was looking for, this ghost is the worst, but the guy playing is hilarious. It does that shit ALL THE TIME in the third game. Later on you get this candle that, when it runs out? The last boss of the game appears in random rooms and if she catches you? One-hit kills you. Plus all of the ghosts get stronger. Yeah. It's brutal and they're terrible.

Silent Hill has those ambient creepy moments, except in SH2 near the beginning (aka the most I've seen of James the Pillow King) and going into a room where a mannequin jumps out at you. That was pretty terrifying too.

An oldie but a goodie is the PSX game "Echo Night". This says it all for me, it legit creeped me out as a kid. Even in real life, after playing goddamn Echo Night? I immediately turn on lights in a room, even to this day. Says something about how it affected me when I was 16.

[SoulBlazerFan]

Although it's a bit dated now, I thought Condemned: Criminal Origins was pretty scary. I didn't (ney, couldn't) get very far into the sequel, it wasn't that good... but when that was first out, a near launch title for the 360, it was pretty terrifying.

Dead Space as well. Those creatures are very close to the creatures from John Carpenter's The Thing... gross, relentless... everywhere. I never got around to playing the sequels (Those I will at some point) that first game was extremely tense.

Now, mind you, I don't necessarily get "scared." I jump at some jump scares, but I don't get that strangling, hard to breath kind of fear... especially since I've been watching horror movies since I was three.

A game like Slender, for instance, works entirely on jump scares, building tension. I think its brilliant in its simplicity, and that is why it works.

And I think the only thing that matches Slenderman in the sort of "pursuit" is Nemesis from Resident Evil 3. Ever been chased by him with only a pistol to defend yourself? Now that is scary.

A guy chasing you in the woods? Nervous tension. A giant monster with a rocket launcher? Shit-your-pants-scary.

[inferiare]

I only got the verge-of-an-anxiety-attack sort of... thing while playing Fatal Frame 3. I volunteered to play as one of the characters, and at one point she has to crawl under the house.

Here, I'll just link the video: right here. I ended up hyperventilating when she was army crawling under the damn house, and my friend told me to pass the controller so I could get up and walk around. Anytime the story forced us to go back through the crawl space, I would have to get up and walk around the kitchen.