Favorite horror game (and why)?

Andrew Giarrusso

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Mar 6, 2012
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Mine would have to be Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Creepy atmosphere, lovecraftian horror, and well crafted story? Sounds good to me.
 

Keoul

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Apr 4, 2010
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"Don't shit your pants"
Thrilling stuff. A truly innovative text-based horror game with many twists and turns that take all of your clever know-how to survive!
 

The Madman

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Dec 7, 2007
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System Shock 2

It's challenging, has a great story, well written dialogue, and while the voice acting doesn't always nail it, when it does it's spectacular. It also does an amazing job of creating an oppressive atmosphere, which is something I find most modern horror games lack. Horror isn't about jump scares, being startled isn't the same as being afraid, horror is about creating a sense of unease and challenging the audience's feeling of safety either through effective atmosphere or through a chilling narrative. Then just to top it all off System Shock 2 also got two of the best villains in the entire gaming genre, SHODAN and The Many.

There have been entire articles written about how damned well done SHODAN is, that's how good she is. Heck, I'll link my favourite: The Girl Who Wanted To Be God by Kieron Gillen, who retired from game journalism and now works as a writer for Marvel.
 

Mr Cwtchy

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Jan 13, 2009
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Gotta agree with the OP. Especially loved the

Torture sections. Not because I'm a gore enthusiast, quite the opposite. I just appreciated it for being so up front and yet not 'in your face' about the subject. Like it's not shoving the imagery of it at you but at the same time makes you very uncomfortably aware that this shit actually happened, and still happens.

Helps being shit scary too of course.
 

Juste Goose

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Aug 1, 2013
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Amnesia. At least, the 45 minutes of it I got to play at a friend's house.

Alas, my gaming rig is my school laptop, and the game doesn't support intel graphics cards. I just have it sitting there in my Steam library, staring at me with those 'come hither' eyes.

Some day, my love. Some day you can make me soil myself.
 

BloatedGuppy

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Feb 3, 2010
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Thief 3: Dark Shadows, the Shalebridge Cradle level. Master class in horror. Also one of the best all around level designs in gaming, in terms of atmosphere and storytelling.
 

ShinyCharizard

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Oct 24, 2012
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Probably Silent Hill 2. Of the few horror games I've played it was the only one that did horror properly well.
 

Imperioratorex Caprae

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May 15, 2010
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Stalking that cute blonde who lives a few doors down from me.... er... you meant video game? Sorry. Resident Evil 2. It doesn't hold up today but back when it was a new game on PSX I played it at home which amounted to a cabin in the woods, complete with creaky weird sounds at night. With benefit of a top-of-the-line surround system, even though PSX only supported stereo, I remember clearly playing through the beginning and there was one part of the police station where you pass a window and go down a hallway. I didn't notice the creature that walked across the window so when I returned to the hallway after completing the task and made my way back toward that window, the infamous LICKER leaped through the window and proceeded to give me a reason to pause and change my shorts... Scared the piss out of me literally.
I'm not jumpy usually but that just caught me off guard. I'm the kind of person who laughs at "scary" movies and "horror" games because they're just unrealistic to me (except Event Horizon which effectively killed off my drive to become a space explorer).
Anyway, thats my story.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Feb 9, 2012
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Silent Hill 2. Love the story, the atmosphere, the monster design and all the little things that essentially founded the Silent Hill series in ways the first game never did. It's also heart-wrenching. I don't usually get involved on such a close proximity with game characters, but this one nailed it.
 

Fox12

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Jun 6, 2013
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Silent Hill 2, because it transcended its genre and became art. One of the most brilliantly crafted and well presented video game stories ever conceived, every single aspect of the game meant something.

The only thing I don't understand is how the same people that made that could make Silent Hill 3. It's like making Lord of the Rings, only to turn around and make Disaster Movie.
 

Werewolfkid

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Nov 1, 2012
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I am going to get murdered for saying this given all the negativity surrounding one of these game especially on these forums in particular, but I loved both Amnesia The Dark Descent and Amnesia A Machine For Pigs equally and I loved them both for completely different reasons. I loved Amnesia The Dark Descent for its ability to make me like one wrong move will result in me dying a horrible, painful death from a horrible unknowable evil and I loved Amnesia A Machine For Pigs for is bizarre, symbolic, and monstrously disturbing story built on the creepy aspects of steampunk and the atrocities of real world events.

Amnesia The Dark Descent had a good story, but it felt too safe and predicable by the end. Amnesia A Machine For Pigs did not feel scary as it's predecessor mainly because of the game's over eagerness to tell its wonderful story gave the player way too much comfort to really feel terrified. If they make another Amnesia game I want the dread and fear that Amnesia The Dark Descent gameplay had to offer combined with a deeply disturbed and thought provoking tale like Amnesia A Machine For Pig story had to offer. One can hope, but for now it is back to playing custom stories for me.
 

The_Echo

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Mar 18, 2009
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When it comes to actually being scary, Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Really, the only actually-scary horror game I know of.

In terms of just being a great game, the Team Silent Silent Hill games. That whole world was just so great.
Fox12 said:
The only thing I don't understand is how the same people that made that could make Silent Hill 3. It's like making Lord of the Rings, only to turn around and make Disaster Movie.
What's wrong with SH3?
 

Mrkillhappy

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Sep 18, 2012
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For me it has to be Silent Hill 2 or 3. I enjoyed Silent Hill 2 because of the creepy atmosphere and well written story, and I enjoyed the much more tense start up of Silent Hill 3 as in the beginning the enemies are much harder to combat then in Silent Hill 2 where little to nothing posed a threat to me on normal.
The_Echo said:
What's wrong with SH3?
I was questioning that to the game felt good to me.
 

GodzillaGuy92

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Jul 10, 2012
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All right then, if nobody else is gonna say it first, fine: Resident Evil 4. Yeah, yeah, that's the point where the franchise started shifting away from horror to action and was easily the least horrific Resident Evil until the next two sequels came along, blahdeblahdeblah. Don't care; as one of the unfortunate people who hasn't yet played Silent Hill 2, Resident Evil 4's abounding collection of other strengths remains more than enough to propel it to the top of my list of favorite horror games in the meantime. Plus, it's quite a bit scarier than many people give it credit for - it's certainly got a much better understanding of horror than most of the few modern games that try much harder to be scary (namely the Dead Space series). It's just that 1) it limits the horror to certain sections that alternate with the lengthier action-oriented ones, and 2) Resident Evil 4's scary moments lose most of their horror after you've already played through the game half a dozen times or so. Which you did, because that's just how good the game is.
 

TakerFoxx

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Jan 27, 2011
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For me, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. That hotel freaked me out the first time I played through it, and there were plenty of other levels that were deliciously creepy in their own unique way.
 

Inferus Eques

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Mar 30, 2013
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Werewolfkid said:
I am going to get murdered for saying this given all the negativity surrounding one of these game especially on these forums in particular, but I loved both Amnesia The Dark Descent and Amnesia A Machine For Pigs equally and I loved them both for completely different reasons. I loved Amnesia The Dark Descent for its ability to make me like one wrong move will result in me dying a horrible, painful death from a horrible unknowable evil and I loved Amnesia A Machine For Pigs for is bizarre, symbolic, and monstrously disturbing story built on the creepy aspects of steampunk and the atrocities of real world events.

Amnesia The Dark Descent had a good story, but it felt too safe and predicable by the end. Amnesia A Machine For Pigs did not feel scary as it's predecessor mainly because of the game's over eagerness to tell its wonderful story gave the player way too much comfort to really feel terrified. If they make another Amnesia game I want the dread and fear that Amnesia The Dark Descent gameplay had to offer combined with a deeply disturbed and thought provoking tale like Amnesia A Machine For Pig story had to offer. One can hope, but for now it is back to playing custom stories for me.
I have to defend you if anyone does try to murder you, which they shouldn't. The game isn't good if your expectations are Amnesia The Dark Decent 2.0, but the story itself drives you forward and it has some really interesting social commentary. I'm not going to spoil anything though, see for yourself.

Personally, I agree with RE2 and also I was really scared playing the SCP containment breach mod for half-life. I have a feeling it would get more routine the more you play it but for the first time it is really scary. Depends on your tastes though. SCP-173 is an interesting enemy. Most scared I've been in awhile, and I played Slender, which to me was just really, really, REALLY, annoying.
 

LAGG

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Jun 23, 2011
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Nobody mentions Fatal Frame?
It's the the series you actually remain scared after turning the console off.

REmake is also awesome, every location is super creepy, the gameplay is very strategic in the logistics aspect of using items and clearing routes, and the Crimson Heads make it all even better.

GodzillaGuy92 said:
All right then, if nobody else is gonna say it first, fine: Resident Evil 4. Yeah, yeah, that's the point where the franchise started shifting away from horror to action and was easily the least horrific Resident Evil until the next two sequels came along, blahdeblahdeblah. Don't care; as one of the unfortunate people who hasn't yet played Silent Hill 2, Resident Evil 4's abounding collection of other strengths remains more than enough to propel it to the top of my list of favorite horror games in the meantime. Plus, it's quite a bit scarier than many people give it credit for - it's certainly got a much better understanding of horror than most of the few modern games that try much harder to be scary (namely the Dead Space series). It's just that 1) it limits the horror to certain sections that alternate with the lengthier action-oriented ones, and 2) Resident Evil 4's scary moments lose most of their horror after you've already played through the game half a dozen times or so. Which you did, because that's just how good the game is.
Wanna have fun with RE4 or Dead Space?
Start a new game and set you TV graphic settings to Brightness 30% (RE4) or 40% (DS1&2), Contrast 60%, Color 0%, and play in the dark. Those games really feel like horror titles if you do that.
 

Werewolfkid

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Nov 1, 2012
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Inferus Eques said:
Werewolfkid said:
I am going to get murdered for saying this given all the negativity surrounding one of these game especially on these forums in particular, but I loved both Amnesia The Dark Descent and Amnesia A Machine For Pigs equally and I loved them both for completely different reasons. I loved Amnesia The Dark Descent for its ability to make me like one wrong move will result in me dying a horrible, painful death from a horrible unknowable evil and I loved Amnesia A Machine For Pigs for is bizarre, symbolic, and monstrously disturbing story built on the creepy aspects of steampunk and the atrocities of real world events.

Amnesia The Dark Descent had a good story, but it felt too safe and predicable by the end. Amnesia A Machine For Pigs did not feel scary as it's predecessor mainly because of the game's over eagerness to tell its wonderful story gave the player way too much comfort to really feel terrified. If they make another Amnesia game I want the dread and fear that Amnesia The Dark Descent gameplay had to offer combined with a deeply disturbed and thought provoking tale like Amnesia A Machine For Pig story had to offer. One can hope, but for now it is back to playing custom stories for me.
I have to defend you if anyone does try to murder you, which they shouldn't. The game isn't good if your expectations are Amnesia The Dark Decent 2.0, but the story itself drives you forward and it has some really interesting social commentary. I'm not going to spoil anything though, see for yourself.

Personally, I agree with RE2 and also I was really scared playing the SCP containment breach mod for half-life. I have a feeling it would get more routine the more you play it but for the first time it is really scary. Depends on your tastes though. SCP-173 is an interesting enemy. Most scared I've been in awhile, and I played Slender, which to me was just really, really, REALLY, annoying.
Thank you for not murdering me!