Games that Actually Scared You

[efAston]

DooM³.
I can remember waiting for a revenant to come around a corner towards me, and actually shaking. Everything in the game makes you feel exposed, whether it's having the torch out, knowing that you're not ready to shoot anything that moves the moment you see it, being left a bit more in the open than you like, or a bit more shut-in than you like. I also had a moment where I'd just finished a battle with some cherubs, so I didn't expect any enemies for a bit, but there was an imp directly behind the next door - I yelled and flailed my mouse around so much that it looked like my player was having a panic attack.

Quake.
The first time we hooked up the amp' and speakers to the computer I played it, and the first time a fiend ran towards me I nearly fell backwards out of my chair.

Skyroads.
Try playing that without having the nerves of an alcoholic, chain-smoking policeman from a movie set in New York. Falling down those pits is a screaming frustration you're constantly fearful of, but somehow you want to keep playing.

 

[efAston]

Dead Space was "Supposed" to be scary. (supposed in air brackets)

I felt that way about FEAR. It absolutely rank of "American marketing department hires average director to rip off recently successful Japanese horror films", except it was a game, so it was kind of a rip-off of movies like that.

 

[jakeblues1295]

Probably the only truly scary game I've played was the first FEAR. Then again when I played it I was 10 and was playing it at midnight with no lights and and surround sound.

 

[Total LOLige]

Alan Wake was a little scary.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

Pretty much the only game that's really got my fear induced adrenalin rushing was Far Cry
Damn those mutant apes are scary

 

[Arafiro]

Would probably have to be Half Life 2 and Minecraft.
I can't even play Minecraft single player at night.

 

[FreakSheet]

Half-Life 1 was pretty scary, due to the atmosphere. There was a horrible disaster with the experiment, and now there's bodies everywhere, explosions, aliens warping in from a distant planet, all looking for Gordon Pie, and just when you reach the surface, even the military is out to kill you. Not for what you are, but because of what you know.

Ravenholm was pretty scary too. Hate those fast zombies and poison headcrab zombies.

 

[dickywebster]

Amnesia and silent hill 2 (maybe 1) are the only games that have really creeped me out.
The rest kinda made me jump at times, but thats it really...

 

[Kaltazraza]

I'm a scaredy cat, so I get scared by lots of stuff.

Half-life 2. Ravenholm is a scary place.

Left 4 dead 1 and 2. Suddenly zombies everywhere.

Fallout 3 and NV. Suddenly Deathclaw and other stuff right in front of you.

Bioshock 1 and 2. Same reason as L4D and Fallout.

And other games as well.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Amnesia and Thief 3: Shalebridge Cradle should be far and away the top two entries on any "scariest games" list. It's not as if games like Vampire The Masquerade, Silent Hill, Fallout 3, Half Life 2, System Shock 2, etc, etc, don't have their scary moments or "boo" instances...they do. But in all those games you are a heavily armed juggernaut who can realistically expect to defend yourself from anything that goes awry. In Thief you're a wussy Thief, and in Amnesia you're just a wussy wuss. There is no fighting back. You are truly helpless in the dark. So there's that.

Also, both Amnesia and Shalebridge do a masterful job of using sound and suspense to ratchet up the tension level before unleashing their (fairly rare) threats. There is nothing so scary as the player's own imagination. So you're far better off getting them thinking and worrying...jumping at footsteps, if you will...then unleashing waves of demons at them to gun down. The first zombie monster I saw in a Silent Hill game was terrifying. The 50th was humdrum. Oh, another zombie. I guess...I guess I'll just beat this one to death, too.

I'll give the slightest of nods to Thief 3 and Shalebridge Cradle over Amnesia simply for the fact that you go into Amnesia ready to be scared. There's no questions...you know what you're there for. You know you're in for a wild scary ride, and you're braced for it. In Thief, you're just some Thief doing some thieving, and suddenly you're in a haunted insane asylum shit-bricking your pants.

 

[FirMothoth]

For me it was Diablo. The first one, only because of the Butcher and the fact that the dungeons were randomly generated so you'd never know if you were going to have to face him. If you did, you were only level 3 or so; You would innocently open some random door on the second level of the church basement, and the bassy, breathy voice would greet you with "Aah, fresh meat" from out of a room full of dismembered bodies and you would only vaguely see some figure running at you crazily fast before immediately chopping you up into little bits.

 

[VoidWanderer]

Thief 3 - Shalebridge Cradle. If you've played Thief 3, you will never forget this level.

But the one that got to me was the Hotel Lobby area for Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines.

 

[SidingWithTheEnemy]

The Sims 3 was scary...

To think that this game will be sucessful gave me the creeps.
Even worse the fact that I liked playing it for a bit...

 

[JochemDude]

None, however sometimes a suspiciously well placed jump scare can get some adrenaline going.

 

[Vandenberg1]

Silent Hill 1 or Eternal Darkness were both creepy and kick alot all new games asses. Bioshock one was... kinda creepy, but you kicked their asses to much to be scared if you were a competant player and realized there was no negative side to dying in the game

 

[Ironbat92]

When I was a kid, the legend of Zelda: the Majora's mask scared me because of skull kid.

 

[Ruwrak]

Amnesia.. Chills to the bone. Never got past the 5th turn haha. It's that heavy on the atmosphere. Maybe i should go get my revenge and play it through this time...


And was Fear really that scary? I didn't notice it due to the guns and stuff I had at my disposal.
Same goes for Dead Space. Fun but not scary

 

[Cazza]

Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The whole game had me at the edge of my seat.
Metro 2033 (That ghost level). Parts of the game had me at my seat like the ghost level. The overall atmosphere of the game was scary.
Half Life 2 (Raveholm). That got me the first few times I played it.

I don't see what is scary about Minecraft. Sure I'm on alert in caves for creepers etc. The atmosphere of the game doesn't lend it's self to be scary.

 

[ZeroMachine]

Quite literally, only Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Game just do-not-scare-me. Yet that was literally exhausting for me to play. I've yet to beat it.

 

[ScarBrow07]

When I was younger in 2001 The first appearance of the flood made my 9 year old self lose sleep. After that the Halo series lost the scare appeal completely. At the time it was such an unexpected twist in the game.