WARNING! This thread will most likely contain spoilers.
In the gaming industry one of my favourite categories of gaming is horror games. Forget your Sims, Super Mario(Although Luigi's mansion was pretty terrifying.), Donkey Kong, Legend of Zelda, Call of Duty’s and Halo’s. Horror games are exciting, heart stopping, scream inducing games and most of them don't have you usually just do the same thing over and over again(E.g Just about every FPS with the words "Call of Duty","Halo" or "Battlefield".). Horror games can also blend into other genres of gaming also and seem to mesh with all of them very well(Except romance.); you've got survival-horror, action horror, horror with puzzle elements. Please note that to make it to your list the games themselves don't necessarily need to be horror but may have a DLC or certain level that introduces horror elements. Here are my top 5 horror games and their moments that got them a spot on this list:
Disclaimer: I have not played any of the Penumbra games or Amnesia: The Dark Descent so they won't be on this list due to having never played them. Amnesia doesn't seem like anything original either as it looks like an amalgamation of other games stories and styles.
5. Heavy Rain DLC "The Taxidermist": I loved the game Heavy Rain and when I heard there was a DLC being released I was sceptical that it would just be adding another level that just gives a little more of an explanation to the main story rather than anything interesting. Instead of this it gave us a source Madison looked into about the Origami Killer before she met Ethan or any of the other main characters in the main game. In this add-on Madison looks into a Taxidermist that could be the Origami killer.
What moment earned this game a slot: The sheer horror you witness when Madison finds dead women stuffed in mannequin-esque poses and one corpse that is yet to be stuffed. What makes witnessing this moment even worse is the fact that the Taxidermist has come home and will notice if you have broken anything belonging to him or put something out of place leaving you upstairs trying to escape.
4. Bioshock: The horror elements of Bioshock are often overlooked by the mindfuckery that is the storyline of it. It had a lot going for it from fans of the horror genre as it was referred to during its pending release as the "spiritual successor" to the horror series System Shock. The atmosphere of the game is dark and suits it well and the morality choices are sound features. The dystopian set story is my favourite part.
What moment earned this game a slot: While a lot of the game is scary, the scariest part for me is a tie of two points; the introduction of the Big Daddy's and the dentist. The Big Daddy's coming was a shock to me as I hadn't seen or watched any trailers and assumed the guy on the cover was a boss and not just an average everyday enemy. The dentist, though a very small point in the game and not hard by any means just terrified the living shit out of me. I pick up the item, fumes come out of the canisters, I turn around and see this creepy as hell dentist and scream "OMGWTF ARE YOU DIE!" & I threw the controller away and ranout of the room and began to watch something optimistic so I could sleep that night. Below is a video of the Dentist:
3.The Darkness: This game displays a lot of emotion and is vastly underrated in my opinion. With the player playing as Jackie, a mobster who on his 21st birthday has seemed to have inherited some dark ability when his uncle tried to murder him because he felt he was getting too good. The ability which hides from the dark and allows you to summon dark beings and use abilities is a fun tool. All of this fun is aided by Jackie and in between major points of the game the "Darkness" as it is referred to as speaks to Jackie with a bone chilling voice coercing him with phrases such as "You are my vessel" and Jackie’s soliloquies telling us the players of the characters and his emotions towards what is happening. With the more abuse Jackie suffers from people like his uncle when he kills the one pure thing in his life, his girlfriend Jenny the Darkness knows it is gaining dominance over Jackie.
What moment earned this game a slot: The end of the game where Jackie has pretty much let the Darkness engulf him and savagely murders each of Paulies men as Jackie blacks out he awakens minutes later and sees the men he faces ripped to pieces by Jackie and his powers. The world of The Darkness is also quite terrifying as it shows a world that has been scorned by the Darkness which has taken the form of skeleton-like soldiers in a war.
2. Silent Hill: Homecoming: Probably going to get a lot of shit for this one considering that so many Silent Hill fans thought this game was a disappointment. The game plays with what you would normally expect from a Silent Hill game with the quarantine sound sending one world into a much more fucked up one even though this game isn't set in Silent Hill but rather a town near it. The characters are more intriguing in this one (At least in my opinion.) than any other Silent Hill game. The mystery is actually quite puzzling even though it's not too original. The puzzles are irritating but the enemies are top notch and we see the return of Pyramid Head!
What moment earned this game a slot: A lot of things in Homecoming just didn't seem right and scared me. Alex's catatonic mother, some of the enemies and more than anything the bosses. Usually they are the children of Shepherds’ Glen who were brutally murdered by their parents in a sacrifice to some false(Assuming) Order and their new forms(Which are manifested from their parent's horrible guilt.) seem to resemble their method of death which is often related to one of their interests. This is what every horror boss should be like: Scarier and nightmare enducing creatures that you pray you will not see EVER again. Below are some images of these bosses(Warning quite scary.):
Scarlet - Reincarnation of Scarlett Fitch, A Young girl who loved dolls and was dismembered by her farther. Her form is based off of her love of dolls, which fill her room. When she first arrives, she cradles her father before killing him quickly, suggesting that she may still have some compassion for him. Her doll form shows this with the disjointed form of her joints.
Sepulcher - Joey Bartlett reincarnated as a mix between a tree and a human. He is the manifestation of the mayor's son, who was sacrificed by being buried alive underground. The gag in his mouth seems to symbolise him being gagged when buried alive. As a child he had a love of the outdoors hence his reincarnation.
1. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth: Have to give my props to probably the most influential author in terms of making horror games and that is H.P Lovecraft. The game based on the author who has influenced a lot of horror games such as Alone in the Dark, Doom and even certain levels and missions of non-horror games like Fallout 3 and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The game begins very normally with you looking for someone who has gone missing but you soon begin to deal with Cults and mythical creatures while randomly you see visions of yourself in an asylum as you were institutionalised in the beginning of the game for seeing something blurry. The game deals with so many elements that make the game stand out. One of these is the fact that the protagonist(Jack Walters)happens to be afraid of just about everything from heights to being paranoid as we hear him whisper to himself phrases like "I'm being followed" and "I can't handle this.". Just about anyone in the game that can be deemed trustworthy is murdered. The fears and everything surrounding it are so well done that sometimes you will sometimes turn around yourself. Lets face it since Nintendo patent the idea of Gamer Insanity(Which they have never fucking used since Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem!) this is the closest thing we can get. While the game does incorporate a lot of gunplay in its latter part of the game, stealth is also very key.
What moment earned this game a slot: A lot of this game is quite terrifying(More so in its first half.) but for me the most heart racing part is when the people of Innsmouth are trying to murder you. Picture this: You are asleep in a hotel room and you have a vision that the fish like people of this quaint little town are trying to murder you in your sleep but you wake up right before they break the door down. You now have to pull latches over doors while these people try to break the doors down. You’d think that once you escape the hotel you’re in the clear right? Wrong. There are patrols all over the town and you have to depend on either the rooftops or the sewers to get around the town which doesn’t exactly help when you are being plagued by either your fear of heights that makes the screen blurry or the ghost of Ramona which is another point. Ramona is the daughter of an “Outsider” of Innsmouth(Basically someone who isn’t half fish.) who you meet when looking for her farther. She says that her farther will be home soon and that her mother has been locked in the basement for “Being bad”. Upon investigation of this woman who may be a victim of abuse you open her door and she appears to have been grotesquely mutated(By the townspeople's cult worship supposedly.) and has ripped her daughter to pieces. For the remainder of the game you are haunted with the ghost of Ramona following you and taunting you, reminding you that you were the reason that a little girl was killed. Pretty hard stuff to watch and plays a role in the ending of the game.
Now my questions to you:
Your top 5 horror games that you've ever played and what did they do that scared you?
In the gaming industry one of my favourite categories of gaming is horror games. Forget your Sims, Super Mario(Although Luigi's mansion was pretty terrifying.), Donkey Kong, Legend of Zelda, Call of Duty’s and Halo’s. Horror games are exciting, heart stopping, scream inducing games and most of them don't have you usually just do the same thing over and over again(E.g Just about every FPS with the words "Call of Duty","Halo" or "Battlefield".). Horror games can also blend into other genres of gaming also and seem to mesh with all of them very well(Except romance.); you've got survival-horror, action horror, horror with puzzle elements. Please note that to make it to your list the games themselves don't necessarily need to be horror but may have a DLC or certain level that introduces horror elements. Here are my top 5 horror games and their moments that got them a spot on this list:
Disclaimer: I have not played any of the Penumbra games or Amnesia: The Dark Descent so they won't be on this list due to having never played them. Amnesia doesn't seem like anything original either as it looks like an amalgamation of other games stories and styles.
5. Heavy Rain DLC "The Taxidermist": I loved the game Heavy Rain and when I heard there was a DLC being released I was sceptical that it would just be adding another level that just gives a little more of an explanation to the main story rather than anything interesting. Instead of this it gave us a source Madison looked into about the Origami Killer before she met Ethan or any of the other main characters in the main game. In this add-on Madison looks into a Taxidermist that could be the Origami killer.
What moment earned this game a slot: The sheer horror you witness when Madison finds dead women stuffed in mannequin-esque poses and one corpse that is yet to be stuffed. What makes witnessing this moment even worse is the fact that the Taxidermist has come home and will notice if you have broken anything belonging to him or put something out of place leaving you upstairs trying to escape.
4. Bioshock: The horror elements of Bioshock are often overlooked by the mindfuckery that is the storyline of it. It had a lot going for it from fans of the horror genre as it was referred to during its pending release as the "spiritual successor" to the horror series System Shock. The atmosphere of the game is dark and suits it well and the morality choices are sound features. The dystopian set story is my favourite part.
What moment earned this game a slot: While a lot of the game is scary, the scariest part for me is a tie of two points; the introduction of the Big Daddy's and the dentist. The Big Daddy's coming was a shock to me as I hadn't seen or watched any trailers and assumed the guy on the cover was a boss and not just an average everyday enemy. The dentist, though a very small point in the game and not hard by any means just terrified the living shit out of me. I pick up the item, fumes come out of the canisters, I turn around and see this creepy as hell dentist and scream "OMGWTF ARE YOU DIE!" & I threw the controller away and ranout of the room and began to watch something optimistic so I could sleep that night. Below is a video of the Dentist:
[YOUTUBE]hzGjR6_oFy4[/YOUTUBE]
3.The Darkness: This game displays a lot of emotion and is vastly underrated in my opinion. With the player playing as Jackie, a mobster who on his 21st birthday has seemed to have inherited some dark ability when his uncle tried to murder him because he felt he was getting too good. The ability which hides from the dark and allows you to summon dark beings and use abilities is a fun tool. All of this fun is aided by Jackie and in between major points of the game the "Darkness" as it is referred to as speaks to Jackie with a bone chilling voice coercing him with phrases such as "You are my vessel" and Jackie’s soliloquies telling us the players of the characters and his emotions towards what is happening. With the more abuse Jackie suffers from people like his uncle when he kills the one pure thing in his life, his girlfriend Jenny the Darkness knows it is gaining dominance over Jackie.
What moment earned this game a slot: The end of the game where Jackie has pretty much let the Darkness engulf him and savagely murders each of Paulies men as Jackie blacks out he awakens minutes later and sees the men he faces ripped to pieces by Jackie and his powers. The world of The Darkness is also quite terrifying as it shows a world that has been scorned by the Darkness which has taken the form of skeleton-like soldiers in a war.
2. Silent Hill: Homecoming: Probably going to get a lot of shit for this one considering that so many Silent Hill fans thought this game was a disappointment. The game plays with what you would normally expect from a Silent Hill game with the quarantine sound sending one world into a much more fucked up one even though this game isn't set in Silent Hill but rather a town near it. The characters are more intriguing in this one (At least in my opinion.) than any other Silent Hill game. The mystery is actually quite puzzling even though it's not too original. The puzzles are irritating but the enemies are top notch and we see the return of Pyramid Head!
What moment earned this game a slot: A lot of things in Homecoming just didn't seem right and scared me. Alex's catatonic mother, some of the enemies and more than anything the bosses. Usually they are the children of Shepherds’ Glen who were brutally murdered by their parents in a sacrifice to some false(Assuming) Order and their new forms(Which are manifested from their parent's horrible guilt.) seem to resemble their method of death which is often related to one of their interests. This is what every horror boss should be like: Scarier and nightmare enducing creatures that you pray you will not see EVER again. Below are some images of these bosses(Warning quite scary.):
Scarlet - Reincarnation of Scarlett Fitch, A Young girl who loved dolls and was dismembered by her farther. Her form is based off of her love of dolls, which fill her room. When she first arrives, she cradles her father before killing him quickly, suggesting that she may still have some compassion for him. Her doll form shows this with the disjointed form of her joints.
Sepulcher - Joey Bartlett reincarnated as a mix between a tree and a human. He is the manifestation of the mayor's son, who was sacrificed by being buried alive underground. The gag in his mouth seems to symbolise him being gagged when buried alive. As a child he had a love of the outdoors hence his reincarnation.
1. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth: Have to give my props to probably the most influential author in terms of making horror games and that is H.P Lovecraft. The game based on the author who has influenced a lot of horror games such as Alone in the Dark, Doom and even certain levels and missions of non-horror games like Fallout 3 and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The game begins very normally with you looking for someone who has gone missing but you soon begin to deal with Cults and mythical creatures while randomly you see visions of yourself in an asylum as you were institutionalised in the beginning of the game for seeing something blurry. The game deals with so many elements that make the game stand out. One of these is the fact that the protagonist(Jack Walters)happens to be afraid of just about everything from heights to being paranoid as we hear him whisper to himself phrases like "I'm being followed" and "I can't handle this.". Just about anyone in the game that can be deemed trustworthy is murdered. The fears and everything surrounding it are so well done that sometimes you will sometimes turn around yourself. Lets face it since Nintendo patent the idea of Gamer Insanity(Which they have never fucking used since Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem!) this is the closest thing we can get. While the game does incorporate a lot of gunplay in its latter part of the game, stealth is also very key.
What moment earned this game a slot: A lot of this game is quite terrifying(More so in its first half.) but for me the most heart racing part is when the people of Innsmouth are trying to murder you. Picture this: You are asleep in a hotel room and you have a vision that the fish like people of this quaint little town are trying to murder you in your sleep but you wake up right before they break the door down. You now have to pull latches over doors while these people try to break the doors down. You’d think that once you escape the hotel you’re in the clear right? Wrong. There are patrols all over the town and you have to depend on either the rooftops or the sewers to get around the town which doesn’t exactly help when you are being plagued by either your fear of heights that makes the screen blurry or the ghost of Ramona which is another point. Ramona is the daughter of an “Outsider” of Innsmouth(Basically someone who isn’t half fish.) who you meet when looking for her farther. She says that her farther will be home soon and that her mother has been locked in the basement for “Being bad”. Upon investigation of this woman who may be a victim of abuse you open her door and she appears to have been grotesquely mutated(By the townspeople's cult worship supposedly.) and has ripped her daughter to pieces. For the remainder of the game you are haunted with the ghost of Ramona following you and taunting you, reminding you that you were the reason that a little girl was killed. Pretty hard stuff to watch and plays a role in the ending of the game.
Now my questions to you:
Your top 5 horror games that you've ever played and what did they do that scared you?