What's the game that scared you the most?

[Signa]

My scariest game was Thief: The Dark Project. Even against normal guards, the game was ridiculously tense. Then came the zombies that couldn't die and would relentlessly chase you. Then it got worse with the skeleton guards and Hammerite ghost priests in that ghost town. The best/worst thing about it is, the game wasn't even designed to be a zombie killing game, or in the horror genera. It was a stealth game. Ugh, I can hear the zombie moan just thinking about it.

Despite hating the undead, I found myself pissed that they were absent from the second Thief, and the third one failed to have as creepy of a zombie moan.

 

[Mr. Kite]

Condemned 1 and the first half of Condemned 2. It had atmoshphere, sound effects, and very tricky AIs that wouldn't always simply spawn in your path.

 

[The Wooster]

Yeah The super zombies arent creepy but the black headcrabs scare the shit out of me if i paly with all lights off.
More fun like that tho

In playtesting apparently the beta testers would waste all their ammo firing into the floor whenever the poison headcrab noise was played.

 

[scoobyduped]

Playing through Ravenholm scared the shit out of me. I was perpetually running out of ammo on everything (even the pistol), and it was 3 am, so my reflexes sucked (and everything was scarier).

There was this arcade game that I remember seeing (never played it) when I was about 10, called Carnevil, that took place in this evil carnival. Evil clowns with butcher knives. A Teacup Ride type thing, that had dinosaur eggs that hatched live velociraptors. And for some reason, an evil Santa with 10 foot long fingernails (Santa Claws anyone?), who threw crap at you from his bag. I mean, if I played it now, I probably wouldn't think much about it, but I was 10, and it gave nightmares (and I didn't even play it).

One of my friends literally couldn't play through the start of Bioshock for 3 months, because it freaked him out so much. And we're talking about a 16 year old.

 

[TOGSolid]

The marine levels for AVP2. It did a fantastic job of scaring the absolute crap out you by putting you in the exact sort of situation that the characters in the movie faced. Then the aliens coming out of the ceilings/floors/etc. just kept you constantly on edge and jumping at shadows. Amazingly well done and no one has ever come close to matching that level of tension.

FEAR was the biggest joke I've ever seen in my life. It's amazingly predictable and Alma was just pathetically not scary. It's hard to get freaked out and scared when every "scary" section was preceded by your radio crackling. The same sound effects and what not were always used to quite blatantly tell the player 'hey this is the scary section, you should obviously be scared now because it's the scary section.' *yawn* indeed

 

[Thaliur]

Only one mention of the Penumbra series and loads of foreseeable shock moments? Come on people, what happened to your instincts?

I agree with Penumbra being the most frightening game

 

[Lewmo]

The silent hill series. Erm. Resident evil...4. I think. some moments got me.

Chronicles of Riddick game was prety weird. Amd. Loads of tohers I can't remember. >_>'

 

[pilot inspektor]

condemned 2

 

[RetiarySword]

Condemmed; Criminal origins. I played it at about 2AM with the volume all the way up, only light from the TV. First scare was the first bad guy you see. Not knowing I only had like 7 shots and no spare clips, I was shooting around like mad missing everytime. He was just running around the back in the dark. *click click*, no ammo!? I grabbed a 2x4 and moved to a pillar for cover, the guy then swings around that same pillar and scares the s**t out of me! I was like WTFBBQ!? OMGHAX! As he ran left, so I moved to a pillar on the right!? How did he get there!?

Secondly was the subway station, climbing over the rope by the escalators, camera looks around, steps over, turns around and a guy burts out a door 2cm away from me and klouts me in the face!

Ahh that game was epic!

 

[Humanfishboy]

I remember when I was 11, I played some resident evil game, can't remember which one. I remember being terrified before anything even happened, and when the first zombie came along, I just paused the game and left it at that.
My friend laughed at me and called me a wimp, but I recently got my revenge as he totally shat himself in the Dentist Room of Bioshock.

 

[NeedAUserName]

Guitar Hero 3 there some pretty damn tense moments in there and I can only play it when all the lights in my house are on.

 

[Ixus Illwrath]

What's the name of that shit on PS3, loco roco or something? The one where the butterfly leads around semi-intelligent blobs. Chillingly disturbing, I thought I was playing Hapland on bad acid.

 

[Tanthalos]

Metal Gear Solid 4 after finding out how many people bought PS3s just to play it. First fear, then saddness.

 

[anNIALLator]

I remember watching Silent Hill being played when i was young. that scared me.
The lickers in Resident Evil 2 scared me, aswell as the giant hand things that descend on you in Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Seeing their shadow getting larger and larger as they floated down was real creepy.

 

[Jamash]

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth.

Early in the game, the part which is based on The Dunwhich Horror, there's a part where you have to barricade yourself in your hotel room & escape.

Just the sheer terror of having to screw the lock to the door, push shelves in front of the door, make your escape was too much for me & I could only attempt that level a few times in a row before I had to play another game!

It's a very scary scenario from the master of horror, which was actually enhanced by being a level in a video game, since unlike the book, you could die & were entirely responsible for the fate of your character. No other game has conveyed the sense of panic & terror that I got from playing that game.

 

[Shadowtek]

the original Silent Hill. i was about 14 when that came out. It was the first survival horror game i had ever played.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Fucking fast-zombies.

Half Life 2

I'm not kidding

 

[whiteshodan]

Bioshock scared the crap out of me when I played it at like 4 in the morning. Mostly it was the level when the freaken lights kept on going off and you were fighting them off with a pistol and a wrench. Good times, good times.

 

[Wolfwind]

I'm one of those fools who's still not played the Silent Hills or Fatal Frames, so for now I gotta say Condemned and F.E.A.R.

Condemned started out creepy, but you kind of get used to it as the game goes along.

F.E.A.R. on the other hand is a great example of how to do it right. It balanced the balls to the wall moments with it's creepy silent moments, and although you get a warning of when Alma's coming, the fact that you know she's around is pretty creepy. Although there weren't any moments that made me scream or anything, I did jump when Alma (adult) came crawling out from under a desk at me.

Good stuff. Especially when playing at 3am in the dark, there's just no better way to play.