Scariest Game You've Ever Played?

BornToHula

I've been replaying Silent Hill 2 and the original Resident Evil and remembering some of the great aspects of these games. That feeling of tension and dread, of the utter isolation we as gamers face when taking on the challenge of traversing the environment.

My question is this: What's the scariest thing you as a gamer has encountered?

I've got Amnesia up on my plate next. I was persuaded after seeing a few great gameplay trailers that depicted the game's setting.

The scariest thing I've encountered as a game is in Silent Hill 2. The opening scenes as you walk down the path with no resistance and there's just the sound of movement matching yours. A very masterful touch to set the scene for a really great experience.

Anywho, get to discussing!

urahonky

The Siren game on the PS3.... I only played the demo.

Darmak

Amnesia is by far the scariest game I've ever played, and I don't scare easy. That shit is intense.

BornToHula

urahonky wrote: »

The Siren game on the PS3.... I only played the demo.

Siren makes me want to buy a PS3. I've heard awesome things about the series, so hopefully I can get around to playing it soon.

Arrath

Stalker: SoC for me. Exploring some dark, shadowy underground tunnels. I'd duked it out with the Army on the way in so I was kinda hurt, but had collected a good bit of ammo for a [strike]shiny[/strike] dirty, rusty new assault rifle.

I rounded a corner and entered a rather cavernous room, the far end lost in darkness, the sounds of water dripping in the distance, metal creaking here and then, my Geiger counter softly ticking occasionally. And..what was that? Was that heavy breathing? I whip around, empty corridor.

Slap slap slap.

Wet, bare feet running across concrete. I turn towards the sound and see..nothing.

Slap slap slap.

Turn again, nothing. I'm starting to get freaked out, what the fuck is going o-slap slap slap. Closer, this time.

I turn and fire blindly. Nothing. As I'm reloading SLAP SLAP SLAP, followed by a primal scream right behind me. Slash marks across my screen, health is low, I'm bleeding and losing more health. I turn, and see nothing but a flicker of movement.

I retreat into a corner to bandage myself up, flashlight probing into the darkness in front of me.

Slap slap slap.

....Save, Quit.

Cantido

Silent Hill 3. More cheap shots than 2 but MAAAAAAAAAAAAN...

ANTVGM64

Seriously the first Resident Evil.

When that dog busts through the window the first time.

it helped I was 12.


I'd also Argue that Bowser from Super Mario 64 was pretty damn frightening depending on your age.

Jars

AHH FRESH MEAT

some fresh shit in my pants too

Gilder

Siren definitely. It's because of the sound direction. Hearing the way they breathe and speak while watching their patrols just gets to you after a while. There's one sound in particular that I don't know if it made it to New Translation. It was a death scream for the shibito in 2 and it was one of like 3 different screams. This one in particular though always gets to me. [vidurl="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRi687W2iAU&feature=related#t=0m44s"]It's this sound.[/vidurl]

Isn't this kind of a poll thread though?

Chen

I agree with Silent Hill. The original scared the shit out of me.

Not the scariest, but Eternal Darkness was definitely crazy with its sanity meter. In addition, its seperation in chapters led you to play as different characters throughout history. Playing as a badass Persian was all fun and games. Pacifist monk and obese aristocrat? Not so much. It didn't help that they went insane faster than other characters. Plus, bathroom scene.

BornToHula

I'll put in a nod before anyone else does for Shalebridge Cradle in Thief 3. More masterful than most full fledged horror games.

The Resident Evil remake is fantastic as well.

Prisca

Amnesia:The Dark Descent (PC)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M627-obxNzg

Resident Evil Remake (GameCube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVZPYn4-lBk

Occulus

I dunno.... games have never really scared me, but there were two moments in Dead Space that stood out:

1) the first time that big tentacle makes an appearance, I think it's after the centrifuge chamber. I was all relieved that I lived through it after getting hit in the face with the centrifuge a couple times (kind of like that moment in Maximum Overdrive when the big rig with the goblin on the front takes out the guy that got gasoline sprayed in his face). That spot made me jump.

2) In the Hydroponics Lab, I was looking around for anything that may have wanted to rape my face, and couldn't see any necros around. Then I heard, from behind me, a pat-pat-pat such as bare feet make when someone runs on wet concrete, and then something tore Isaac in half from behind. To this day I still don't know what it was that killed him off.... I never saw it.

BornToHula

Dead Space is next up on my backlog. I cleared out everything I knew I wasn't going to play to do nothing but horror games for Halloween.

Chen

Ruiner999 wrote: »

The Resident Evil remake is fantastic as well.

Fuck Crimson Heads. Fuck them so hard.

ChopperDave

The problem with Eternal Darkness is that they made it too easy to replenish your health and sanity with magic.

That game only gets scary when you actively restrain yourself from using magic, healing only when you absolutely must to avoid dying.

Henroid

Silent Hill wins this poll (thread) for me. The bad voice work aside (not necessarily the actors themselves; the pacing of the dialog line to line), it was just a total what the fuck. The game opening with a "Hey you're gonna die now sorry" moment after seeing that... whatever it was strapped to the chain-link fence, that was WRONG. The lack of explanation on Dark Silent Hill left me wanting to know what the hell was going on, which wasn't necessarily scary in itself but it builds up over time. The radio being your one cue for danger in the area was a nice touch, as was the lack of lighting in general.

It's all about atmosphere and that game was rocking it.

Aumni

Silent Hill 1 or Silent Hill 2

2 was definitely the more unsettling of the two, but the fucking school in 1...

Peff

Eternal Darkness

fuck you tub scene

Amnesia, Dark Descent (have stopped many times due to being scared)
Fatal Frame(s) mainly due to Woman in Box.
Minecraft...if you play it, you know why.

rabblerouser

condemned had its ooga booga moments
but I'm a total wuss

Ah_Pook

Fatal frame 2 is the only game that has ever legit scared me beyond a gotcha jump scare. After a marathon session of tha= game I was so tweeked out I drove my car off the road...

BornToHula

I love Call of Cthulhu as well for depicting the madness quite well. I think it does a fantastic job, much like Eternal Darkness.

Restart

Chen wrote: »

Plus, bathroom scene.

This. And leaving the game paused only to come back to a skeleton face.

Some NES games can be kind of freaky when they freeze/glitch up.

SammyF

Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines. Specifically the haunted hotel level. A lot of other games that people have mentioned will seriously freak me out, but that particular level of Bloodlines stands out in particular because it's not actually dangerous -- there is only one part where your character can be killed. Nevertheless, it will still make you jump.

Undead Scottsman

Condemned: Criminal Origins

Those fucking mannequins

Henroid

I saw a video for a game once where you have to run through a building trying to get away from a bear. The guy playing was screaming his fucking lungs out whenever he fucked up or got trapped between a wall and the bear and stuff. What game was that?

And someone post the video if they've got it on hand because holy shit.

delphinus

That's a clip from 4-player Podast playing Condemned 2.

Condemned 2

MrVyngaard

Ruiner999 wrote: »

I love Call of Cthulhu as well for depicting the madness quite well. I think it does a fantastic job, much like Eternal Darkness.

I second this, and actually being familiar with the CoC RPG module the PC game was seemingly based off of...

Knowing what lies before you in its full horror before you even see it does not mean you are prepared for what you see. For he says it rightly:

Howard Phillips Lovecraft wrote:

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

The house with the hybrid child and her mother locked in the attic - to know what it meant while looking at the girl's drawing book - to have read of it but then to SEE it, by God Eliot it was like a photograph from life.

BornToHula

I was sort of saddened by the lukewarm sales the game itself received. You would think with this many Lovecraft fans out there, a market would be fully in place for such a great title.

The last half of the game was sort of ruined when it became a first person shooter. I understand mainstream expectations, but goddamn relying solely on your wits and agility was more terrifying than just having a shotgun at the ready.

Takes all of the tension out of games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Unless you're doing it like Alien Vs. Predator 2000, then you have something special on hand. Same goes for The Hidden. I have never jumped during an online game like I did in The Hidden.

VeritasVR

Ruiner999 wrote: »

I'll put in a nod before anyone else does for Shalebridge Cradle in Thief 3. More masterful than most full fledged horror games.

For me, it was the undead levels in Thief 1.

Especially the Return To The Cathedral.

Fucking hell. I played that mission at 2 AM alone with the windows drawn, door shut, lights off, and sound on 100%. I couldn't sleep for days after that.

BornToHula

I wish I could figure out a way to get Thief 1 running on Windows 7.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned X-Com so far, same with other titles like Sanitarium. Seems like PC's golden era did a really damn good job of making you want to buy brown pants for gaming.

InexactQuotient

For me, nothing even approaches System Shock 2. No game has ever nailed a sense of isolation better. You're on this spaceship however many light years from Earth, and yeah it's a prototype so no help is coming. You wake up from hypersleep and the ship is falling apart and there are mutant zombies everywhere. And that's before it gets crazy.

zom_b

Darmak wrote: »

Amnesia is by far the scariest game I've ever played, and I don't scare easy. That shit is intense.

This guy speaks the truth.

Dac

Probably Fatal Frame.

I'm not sure if it's because I have an overactive imagination, get too engrossed in games, or whatever, but that game terrified me when I picked it up a few years ago - to the point where I only played like an hour before putting it back on the shelf, ne'er to see the light of day again.

edit: There's just something about enemies you can't see, but know are there, that scare the crap out of me. The invisible monsters in Eternal Darkness had the same effect on me until I got the sight spell.

HardKase

Call of Cthulu was an eerie game. Really captured the sense of forboding fear well.

Alan Wake made me jump a few times. I refused to play it with the lights off.

Synthesis

System Shock 2 is probably the most frightening game I've played.

But I played it shortly after it came out, and I was 14, and more easily scared.

Drake

InexactQuotient wrote: »

For me, nothing even approaches System Shock 2. No game has ever nailed a sense of isolation better. You're on this spaceship however many light years from Earth, and yeah it's a prototype so no help is coming. You wake up from hypersleep and the ship is falling apart and there are mutant zombies everywhere. And that's before it gets crazy.

Yep. System Shock 2 is scary as hell. Those damn droids. "Can I help you?" I was going to make sure it got mentioned in here but you beat'd me.

I'll also have to say Silent Hill 2 wasn't only scary. It was fucking disturbing too. No other game got its hooks into me like that one.

And while it's not exactly scary, I've been playing Blood lately and I think it's the best horror themed game I've played yet. The music, the enemies, the weapons, the audio and the killer levels. All of it really hits the nail on the head. Not to mention all of the horror references. So many fun horror references. I may have to play through it every Halloween.

TrippyJing

When you play a good horror game, it's terrifying.

When you watch someone else play one, it's hilarious.

Basil

I don't generally play scary games, but I do remember a couple moments of pants shitting quite well.

A couple modded campaigns for Freespace 2 come to mind. Inferno and Derelict both got me but good on occasion.

'Course I was also playing in the dark of night at the time in the wee hours of the morning.

Gnaaa I still shiver.

Ezekiel

I don't remember which silent hill it was, but extremely early in the game you're in a school, and shadow babies are crawling in and out of the walls. Threw the controller down, never went back. Freaked me the hell out.

Foefaller

Chen wrote: »

Plus, bathroom scene.

I could never get the bathroom scene to trigger

Anyway, other than Eternal Darkness, RE4 and 5, and Dead Space, I don't usually like horror genre... anything. I have enough trouble falling asleep already thank you very much.

Anyway, the one of the scariest -or at least unnerving- things I've experinced recently is in Fallout 3, about a little town called Andale, and it's secret...

Edit: scratch that little town, the Dunwich building...