Games that Actually Scared You

[Techno Squidgy]

Resident Evil 1 used to scare me shitless. Silent Hill 2 is also pretty terrifying. I thought I'd pick it up when I saw it at a car boot sale, because if Yahtzee loved it surely it had to be outstanding in some way. Turns out it's brilliant at making me shit my pants, by not having monsters about... Also that one bit at the very beginning where Pyramid Head is just standing there, watching.

I would thoroughly recommend this game to anyone with constipation.

 

[Purplecoyote]

Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Penumbra(both Overture and Black Plague) and any given Fatal Frame.

 

[WINDOWCLEAN2]

I'm gonna have to go with Fallout 3.

Going through the DC subway with no food, Stimpacks and a crippled arm, head and leg with only a 9mm pistol and a moderate sneak skill is not easy.
Especially on the hardest difficulty in a dark room and no music on.

Those feral ghouls don't half move fast i've gotta tell ya....

 

[BBQSPY01]

The Stanley Parable *_*

 

[Project_Xii]

Really? NO ONE has mentioned the STALKER series? Has anyone on the Escapist even played those games? Cause I'd be sorely dissappointed in this place as a gaming community if they hadn't.

Seriously, next to Condemned, STALKER is the only game that has seriously freaked me out. Namely the part in Shadow of Chernobyll called "The Brain Scorcher". You have to go into a derelict bunker filled with mutants to turn off a device that has been frying peoples brains and turning them into zombies.

First, as you near the bunker, the screen goes sepia and staticy, and you begin to hear Russian radio transmissions whispered around your head. Then ghostly "echoes" of mutated animals start to assault you, but they disspate if you shoot them or when they touch you. Then when you actually get into the base, it's pitch black, filled with deadly anomalies that can kill you in an instant, and there's eerie noises from every direction. "Snorks", degenerated humans wearing gas masks, run on all fours and lunge at you. And worst of all, a creature with telekinectic powers can pick up objects and fling them at you any time, meaning every item is a potential danger.

20 minutes crawling through that situation, and your nerves are shot. Best scary/tense scene I've ever played in a game. I both dread and look forward to it every time I play.

 

[plugav]

Condemned...yeah, pretty much Condemned. Also, Cthulhu, Dark Corners of the Earth.

Those are on my list too.

Dark Corners of the Earth is great at building tension, leading up to that legendary chase sequence.

Condemned gets so many things right. Including making me think: "Holy sh*t, I just clubbed five homeless men to death with a lead pipe. What the f**k is wrong with me?"

Really? NO ONE has mentioned the STALKER series?

I almost forgot that one (Shadow of Chernobyl in my case). The sights and sounds alone make me uneasy... And then the mutants and anomalies come in. I remember my first encounter with the bloodsucker, or trying to sneak past the pack of dogs outside Rostok.

As for less obvious titles, I remember being freaked out (but fascinated) by The Neverhood [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aDh_O3FQWY] when I played it as a kid. It doesn't seem scary now, though.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

The original LUNAR: Silver Star for SEGA CD.

Before the final battle between the heroes and Ghaleon, Ghaleon transforms and that freaked my shit out like no one's business. I was 13 at that time, however.

 

[TehGingaNinja]

Eternal Darkness, hands down. The enemies aren't scary in themselves, just how well the sanity meter works in game, it changes everything. I haven't played much of Amnesia, but from what I did, I didn't think it was as scary as Eternal Darkness.

 

[baconbaby299]

Thief 3. I played 3 first, no one told me it had horror elements and I'd been having mighty fun sneaking around and pinching things. Then it got to the second last level; The Infamous Cradle.

I'd known their were zombies from a previous boat bit but they went down if you stabbed them in the back. So my first zombie I saw went down, so did several others. Now I'm in the level, sneaking around in darkness, approach a dead body andAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

The body jumps up in a single frame and screams into my earphones, it is 11pm, I'm the only one in the house awake and until now the darkness had been a fun place to knock people out in.

Eventually I brought myself to play the rest, the final museum level was the most fun.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Well I don't tend to play scary games in the first place (I'm a fraidy cat) but I did buy Resident Evil 4 which pretty much scared me when you encounter the Regenerator.

 

[saucecode]

Minecraft.
No game has made me scream in fear and shock as much as Minecraft.

 

[Zanderinfal]

Area 51 for PS2, XBox and PC. That game scared me shitless.

 

[orpheuspariah]

Dead Rising 2's best ending. That was totally uncalled for after seeing such a good ending.

 

[RuralGamer]

Stalker: Call of Pripyat; Zaton and Jupitar have their moments, but Pripyat itself is terrifying; so quite and yet so suspicious; I find it hard to explore at night.

 

[Zanderinfal]

Minecraft.
No game has made me scream in fear and shock as much as Minecraft.

Ha ha, amen. Jesus, that game used to scare me specifically for the sounds you hear near a cave or somewhere dark. God...

Capatcha: campasses ffsetic.

 

[Valdsator]

First time I was in the maze on I think e1m3 and ran into my first pinky demon and it killed me, scared the crap out of me!

Haha! I had that exact same experience the first time I played DooM, except I killed the pinky demon, and proceeded to quit the game. I only started playing again years later.

Now what scares me is DooM 3. I know it's just a game full of jump scares, but my heart is rushing the whole time I'm playing, and I have trouble proceeding at times, so it's scary for me! Unfortunately, I haven't beaten the game yet, and have to restart because I lost my save file... can't wait. It's a fun game, though. Good combat.

 

[saucecode]

Minecraft.
No game has made me scream in fear and shock as much as Minecraft.

Ha ha, amen. Jesus, that game used to scare me specifically for the sounds you hear near a cave or somewhere dark. God...

Capatcha: campasses ffsetic.

Ah, i know what you mean. Being in a cave was just the most dreadful thing i could ever experience. Including how that it can be a calm, peaceful sunset, then a second later is hell on earth, filled with fear.

 

[DJDarque]

Metro 2033 and Bioshock both gave me a couple good scares. I want to play Amnesia, but I'm too afraid to.

 

[Zanderinfal]

Minecraft.
No game has made me scream in fear and shock as much as Minecraft.

Ha ha, amen. Jesus, that game used to scare me specifically for the sounds you hear near a cave or somewhere dark. God...

Capatcha: campasses ffsetic.

Ah, i know what you mean. Being in a cave was just the most dreadful thing i could ever experience. Including how that it can be a calm, peaceful sunset, then a second later is hell on earth, filled with fear.

Yeah. This game tries to trick you by saying "Oh hai, this game is really peacefull", and then a few minutes later it's like "I WILL END YOU".

 

[Michael Hirst]

Amnesia thread?

seriously that's the only game that really scared me, some others like Resident Evil remake and silent Hill 2 were just kidna creepy or made me jump a few times.