13
votes
What's the best horror game you've played?
I'm not necessarily asking for the scariest one you've played but for your personal favorite/best, based on whatever criteria you choose. Games that are more horror-lite/spooky still count as well, so feel free to consider and include those.
With regards to your pick: what made it so good? In what ways did its use of horror add to your experience?
Given that a lot of horror relies on surprise, subverting expectations, or the unknown, please give spoiler warnings if you plan to discuss important aspects/plot points that might ruin the game for others.
SOMA.
It put into your hands all the fun hypothetical, philosophical questions you may have about what it means to be alive, and then some-- but instead of being able to walk away from the questions as you would anytime else, this game forces you to make choices, and live with the repercussions.
If you really immerse yourself in the experience and ask yourself what you would do in the situations the protagonist is in, it hits you over the head like a sledgehammer. I have never felt so much existential dread, fear, and horror as I did when I played that game, and I loved every moment of it. I especially loved the ending. It was just magnificent.
And the best part? There's very few enemies/you can turn them off and just enjoy the story. The story and premise are good enough to do the horror work alone. And I don't think it's a story that could've been as effectively told through any other medium.
...second place is PT 'cause fuck that game.
Even though I anticipated the ending I loved it. They really committed to it.
WHAT! You can turn off enemies?!? I reeeeeally wanted to enjoy this game but I'm such a Scarry cat, I couldn't get through it! I'm so happy to learn this!
same here!! I couldn't finish it because I was stuck in a ship underwater(??) and a scary guy kept coming after me!
Glad to help!
Some of the best horror games I've played lately have a very limited death mechanic/you can maybe only die 1-3 times in the game if at all. If you're looking for more, try: Dead Secret, Painscreek Killings, Layers of Fear.
Thank you, I really appreciate the suggestions! I love horror novels, enjoy many movies and tv, but video games always get me haha.
Second this.
No other horror game made me, throughout most of the story, quiver with adrenalin like this one.
And as CALICO says, the Alien drone from the original is very well captured, with a great movement behaviour.
I've got two to share, and they are both made by the same person.
My favorite horror game overall is D2. It's got a deeply personal story with a character who has my same tragic backstory. Its the last major game Kenji Eno made before retiring from video games, which is appropriate because it seems like there is so much of his personality in it.
If we were going by how actually terrifying it is, that is Enemy Zero, without contest. It's freaking scary when you have so many systems running against you. You can't see the monster. You have to locate them through an aural form of radar. Your gun needs quite a bit of time to charge, and if you charge it too long it will short out. You can't run backwards. If you get the timing of the shot wrong you have to hope you can backstep fast enough for a new charge or that you can turn around fast enough to run.
Special mention goes to the two ObsCure games. They may have started with a fairly derivitave plot, but they do things that no other horror game does and they have killer soundtracks by Olivier Derivier.
Have you played the first D game? I'm curious how D2 compares to it. I played through D recently and found it to be dated and kitschy. I could tell there were some interesting ideas, and it was undoubtedly landmark for its time, but it doesn't really hold up to modern audiences. Is D2 similar?
They are completely different games and except for the "actress" have nothing material in common. While D2 does have a handful of FMVs, most cutscenes are rendered in real-time. It was considered to have cutting edge graphics at the time.
The closest thing the gameplay has in common with D are mostly stylistic. When indoors, you explore in a way very similar to the FMV transitions from D and Enemy Zero, and discovering things there involves brief cutscenes.
Outdoors, Laura is moved with tank controls. You can hunt for meat with a scoped hunting rifle, and you have random encounters with monsters which you will have to kill by shooting. These scenes nail you in place and give you a 360 degree range of freedom, which is useful as you can be surrounded.
It's been a while, but I still have a great feeling about Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The sheer hopelessness of encountering anything is something that I really enjoyed.
I haven't finished it, but I did enjoy the creepiness of "Layers of Fear".
An older game, but one that sticks with me to this day, System Shock 2.
While what remains for me are mere memories of exploring that ship on late summer nights. The stories of the crew playing out as you progressed. The burst of adrenaline that each encounter sent through me. Others can give a better run down of what the game actually was and why it was so great, what will remain for me is a memory of summer nights spent in-front of a glowing monitor while actively not trying to shit myself.
SS2 also gets my vote. I really want to replay it, but I've held off for years because my original playthrough is such a special gaming memory, and I don't really want to tamper with it.
At the time, I had never played anything like it. It had a unique setting and game systems, as well as an incredible atmosphere and chilling antagonist. It was also downright terrifying, mixing different types of horror (atmospheric, body, techno, space, etc.) together into one sublime experience. Its voice-acting was also noteworthy, especially because it came out amidst so many hokey 90s FMV titles. Playing it felt like playing the future, albeit a dark and unsettling one.
I played it alone, in the dark, with headphones on, and there were many times where I nearly jumped out of my chair or simply had to exit the game to take a break because the tension was unbearable. Truly a classic.
I know this may sound a bit weird, but I honestly think that the first game was much better. SS2 is a tad too "modern" for its own good and feels too much like an FPS. And honestly, I never finished it for the same reason why I don't finish most FPS games; it just got kind of boring. I didn't get that with the first game - though to be fair it was probably mostly because I was constantly wrestling with the awful controls.
My favorite gaming experience in general was playing PT with a friend. All the lights were off and I jumped out of my seat multiple times. Keep in mind that I love horror movies and I’m not one to fall for a jump scare easily.
I also absolutely loved Until Dawn. It’s basically an interactive horror movie. It’s like $20 for the Greatest Hits version. I would love it if they did a VR remake of the game. It seems like it would be the perfect game to play that way.
I'm sure there are scarier games but to the first Outlast game was an incredibly scary experience for me. I know many games have done the "guy with a camera goes exploring dark building" shtick but something about the atmosphere in this one really stuck with me. I also played it with all of my friends when it first came out and it really heightened the scary factor for me.
I haven't played the newer ones but if anyone's played them and liked them I'd love to hear about it
Hard to say which was best, but no game ever scared me as much as the first Alone in The Dark, played on my mom’s 486 computer.