Boo! scary games

corblimey

In honour of Hallowe'en (er, last night) I was thinking about some of the scary games I've played over the years. By far, the one that made me mess my pants the most was Silent Hill, although Project Zero/Fatal Frame runs it a close second. Any more for any more?

L31mr0d

Scariest for me was F.E.A.R, specifically the expansion "Extraction Point". I found the first game made you twitch when something jumped out at you. But extraction point had me shaking with adrenaline throughout the whole game. It was the first game that made me shut it down, not because I was tired or bored but because I was starting to feel sick from the constant stream of adrenaline in my bloodstream. I usually played it at night, from around 1am to 5am, which kind of made it worse.

There was definite browning at the point in the game with Douglas Holiday

humanji

I remember the first time I played Silent Hill. Me and my friend were fairly stoned and scared ****less. We were both hidding behind the sofa while playing. Bizarre.

But the one that scared me the most is Call Of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of The Earth. There was one part of it that I had to stop playing because I was getting too worked up and knew something was about to happen in the game. Needless to say, when I went back to it, I shat myself.

Vegeta

I actually cant play these games

I can manage gore and atmosphere but I cant ****ing stand games/films that just make things pop around the corner or jump out of closets and go BOO!!. I jump a fcuking mile out of my seat, really annoys me too as its the cheapest form of "scary"

Its much harder to freak people out with atmosphere and weirdness. Anyone can make a game where its dark and creepy and then something big and loud flys at the screen. Gets me every time and then just pisses me off.

Dacelonid

For me it has to be Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. The part where you have to go to the Haunted House. Everytime I play it, it always sends a shiver down my spine. There is something so well done in that mission that it really does unsettle you (or me anyway). I can't play that mission if it is anyway dark at all.

L31mr0d

Vegeta wrote: »

Its much harder to freak people out with atmosphere and weirdness. Anyone can make a game where its dark and creepy and then something big and loud flys at the screen. Gets me every time and then just pisses me off.

You shouldn't play FEAR then It has its moments where things jump out at you. But most of the time its the atmosphere and noise that keeps you on edge. This is what I found with Extraction Point, it never let up. If it wasn't making things jump out at you, it was making doors creak or lights flicker. There where some bits where I nearly screamed out loud. Like you'd be looking through the broken glass of a door peering at something in the distance then suddenly something would stand up in front of the door right in front of you. I think I wasted most of my ammo just shooting at shadows

um7y1h83ge06nx

Condemned - great atmosphere and definitely a few jumps.

Silent Hill - need we say more.

faceman

Yeah silent hill gets my vote, the second game on the PS2 being the most enjoyable for me.

Silenceisbliss

silent hill freekiest thing ever, playes it years ago when i was only like 9 or 10 or summthin in the middle of the night....disturbed me for a while after.

condemned criminal origins and FEAR both for the same reasons as L31mr0d said, just the general eeriness of the atmosphere with subtle creepy sounds or a light flicker. keeps u on the edge of ur seat for the majority of the game

this game also seems to have freeked a certain kid a little http://youtube.com/watch?v=QHWXf1xyFBs

Retr0gamer

The best for me was Silent Hill 2. No 'boo' moments as such but just a thoroughly disturbing and depressing experience the whole way through.

Steez

First with the Thief 3 at the Cradle Level!

One game that spring to mind for me is Condemned, but it's the jumpy sort of scares as has been mentioned.
I second the playing Silent Hill stoned, not a pleasant experience.

Rhyme

Silent Hill 2 takes the cake and cutlery for me. First play through was the worst though... creeping through the dark hospital equipped with the pipe, turn a corner and the flashlight illuminates a nurse with her arm raised. I fell over with a scream.

Can't find my copy at the moment but i used to play it with people who'd never played it before... they usually crack when one of the torsos scuttle out from under a car or pop up from behind the mannequin in the apartment block.

Amazing game, the tension built up, the sound, the set pieces... everything is a masterpiece.

rgiller

This is the one that got me:

[HTML]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh87njiWTmw[/HTML]

Anyone else play it?

D'oh just noticed the link above

bizmark

Dacelonid wrote: »

For me it has to be Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. The part where you have to go to the Haunted House. Everytime I play it, it always sends a shiver down my spine. There is something so well done in that mission that it really does unsettle you (or me anyway). I can't play that mission if it is anyway dark at all.

Yep a truely excellent mission only game that has ever scared me

hotnipples

The original Resident Evil. Silent Hill 1 and 2. Aliens vs Predator. Probably loads of others but I cant remember them at the minute.

Now as to WHY they scared me like a little pre pubescent girl.

Resident Evil, well.. mainly because I was a little pre pubescent boy when I played it I guess. Sure it was released in ehh umm.. open new tab, en.wikipedia.org.. '96! Which makes me.. young, when I first played it. I remember the first cut scene that introduces the first zombie making me drop an S-bomb in my pants fairly rapidly. The huge tarantulas put the ****s up me aswell. The main thing that made it so scary was the atmosphere I suppose, the fixed camera angles helped alot in building tension.

Silent Hills now I cannot blame being young for, as i've played them fairly recently but this really is a more mature kind of horror. The second game IMO was better because it had Pyramid Head, what a ****ing unreal horror character. So strange, almost ridiculous looking, but yet so ****ing scary! The main thing Silent Hill can thank for it being so unsettling and scary is the sound effects. The music when you are landed in a gun fight with mutated freaks is an insane loud orchestra straight from hell and it does a great job keeping you scared, and it really needs this.. because the combat is less than exciting and without the music and sound effects, the game wouldn't have been half as creepy. But I guess you can say this about every game.

Aliens Vs Predator, I can thank the experience had watching the first two movies for boosting the fear I experienced playing the game. What a job they did making the marine section of this, just like the second film, i was amazed! I had a fear of Face-huggers from the films, and in the game they were very small and hard to see in the dark and caused you instant death. I remember soiling my pants and the general seating area I was in a number of times.

meh

Naikon

For a half life 1 mod, Afraid of monsters: Directors cut is very atmospheric.
Play it on hard and you will see how crazy this mod is in terms of difficulty
and just plain weirdness.

This is one of the best half life mods I have come across.
I am not kidding when I say this is much "scarier" than the likes of F.E.A.R.
The graphics look a bit dated, but the atmosphere and enemies make up for this shortcoming.

F.E.A.R is simply a pure action game in comparison to this.
This, and the cradle level of thief are only games that ever really freaked me out somewhat.
I seriously recommend this for a great scare:D


http://mods.moddb.com/7579/afraid-of-monsters-dc/

NunianVonFuch

Some really good games called out already; Vampire, FEAR, Resi, Silent Hill, AvP.

First game ever to really scare me was Aliens on the Commodore. More because of my age than anything else but it was a FPS where you could look around the room but only move from room to room. There was a scuttling noise when the facehuggers were there and like in AvP it was instant death if they got to you!

Actual good scary games - how about the first half-life? Probably due to mental scarring from Aliens those facehuggers in the dark vents scared the crap out of me! Half-Life 2 would be up there as well. Ravenholm level.
Resi 4. The panic the game makes you feel as these vicious villagers overwhelm you is unsurpassed.

Condemned didn't really scare me until the last level as up til then it was always a bum hidden behind the wall who leaps out and hits you in the face. Last level was quite scary especially the boss.

Clive Barker's Undying was horror gold. Atmosphere, jump shocks, terrifying creatures, brilliant game.

Never played through all of it but System Shock 2 was pretty freaky as well.

Didn't finish Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem on the gamecube but the insanity system in that was genius, really had me freaking out especially when some of the stuff happened at the same time - like hearing the voices of the kids laughing whilst my characters head got lopped off. Freaky frightening stuff, that game was hard to play through.

Maximilian

Steez wrote: »

First with the Thief 3 at the Cradle Level!

Beat me to it!

/Endorsed

magick

Clive Barkers Undying

DemocAnarchis

I'd second System Shock 2, freaked me out playing in a dark room with the sound up in an empty house. Was shaking so bad I had to just turn off the computer several times! Havent played anything else that comes close.

Krieg

Maximilian wrote: »

Beat me to it!

/Endorsed

And me

That cradle level is the only time I actually thought a game was scary
So relieved when the level was complete

Jack Sheehan

In condemmned, the locker......

muppetkiller

Playing Clive Barkers Jericho at the moment and while it's very linear and scripted ,the enemy characters have to be seen to be believed...they seriously sick lol very Hellraiser like in design..

AntiVirus

Doom 3 for me

super_furry

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth on the Xbox. It's probably the most criminally overlocked game of the last generation but is thankfully backwards compatable with the 360. It's makes a real effort to do something different with the FPS genre and is genuinely creepy.

grimm2005

magick wrote: »

Clive Barkers Undying

i second that. that weird green stone thing you had and when it glows and you use it something in the scene changes was very disturbing. like you're in a perfectly normal room and then you use it and suddenly there are splatters of blood on the bed/wall and u can hear a baby crying in the background

MOH

NunianVonFuch wrote: »

Half-Life 2 would be up there as well. Ravenholm level.

Agree with Ravenholm alright. And there was a zombie mod (They Hunger I think) for the orignal half life which was pretty good.

One bit of Max Payne freaked me out, the dream bits where you're walking those narrow pathways, with the baby screaming.

System Shock 2, the bits where you know something's going to happen but it doesn't. And then it does. A couple of bits of Bioshock are the same - first time I met a spider splicer.

Sarky

Good to see the CoC Dark Corners endorsement. Stonking great bucketloads of atmosphere and tension, the insanity mechanic did its job really well. Shame the actual shooty sections were so pants, although any game that has you get to the 33% mark without even a crowbar has the right idea about horror. And yay Undying, very VERY cool. Even today it gets under my skin at some points.

Gingervitis

Speaking of scary games, I'm sure this might get its own thread, but check this out: a 19 minute trailer of...
http://www.gamespot.com/video/932145/6182124/project-origin-official-movie-1
Project Origin, the unofficial sequel to F.E.A.R. !! It doesn't have the same name because of publishing rights, but it's the same developer, so pack a second pair of shorts!

Genghiz Cohen

I played Resi evil when I was like 9/10, got as far as the first dogs, havn't played a RE game since.
F.E.A.R. was very good, loved it, Extraction Point was much scarier though, lets hope the keep it up through F.E.A.R. 2!

L31mr0d

Gingervitis wrote: »

Project Origin, the unofficial sequel to F.E.A.R. !! It doesn't have the same name because of publishing rights, but it's the same developer, so pack a second pair of shorts!

can't wait for this... and the new expansion pack... 2 developers making 2 versions of the same game means twice the scares lol that video reminded me of when I was playing and i'd hear a box fall over and unload a clip into the darkness.