What is your scariest Game ever?

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kenebaker

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I just finished playing Deadspace 2. Surround sound headphones. Dark room.

I must say, the game was pretty scary, but it did not scare me like Deadspace 1 did. Man, that was a game that made me physically uncomfortable to play because I was so scared of the next necromorph jumping out of the pipes.

So my question - what is the scariest game that you have ever played, and why?
 

VirtuousKnight

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Dead Space :D


Those necromorphs and their little tricks. "I'll just play dead and see who comes along..."


Great game! I pre-ordered Dead Space 3. Can't wait :tongue.
 

kenebaker

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Dead Space :D


Those necromorphs and their little tricks. "I'll just play dead and see who comes along..."

Yeah. They were less subtle about playing dead on the second game. The worst was then one popped out in front of you, and you turn to run, only to find a bunch have been stalking you silently. *shivers*
 

Rhoda Nightingale

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Silent Hill 2. Just something about the atmosphere--I dunno. Someone who's played it more than me will have to answer in more detail, but yeah. That game is the most frightening experience I've ever had with a game.
 

MythMonger

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Mine was Bioshock, but I haven't played Silent Hill or Dead Space.

(click) Just ordered Dead Space.
 

RedRam

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Myst. Easily.

I was younger, and therefore more fearful. The whole abandoned world made me twitch with fear that something was going to jump out at me. I remember the first time I found the book with the movie in it I almost died. Oof.
 

Jcomp

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Silent Hill 1 & 2 freaked me out considerably. The first Bioshock had a few moments that got to me as well, and the first real fight with the Big Sister in Bioshock 2 got to me (too bad they didn't go with random encounters with that like I thought they would... damn that would've been amazing). But Deadspace is the first and only game that I ever had to put down for a while because it was frightening me so much. I don't know that anything scares me quite the way silence does, so those scenes where you can't hear anything save for Isaac's breathing in his suit overwhelmed me.
 

J.W. Alden

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Silent Hill 2 was always my default answer, but I imagine nostalgia has colored my memory a little. The scariest game I've played recently would be Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

It's weird though; my patience for horror games has decreased dramatically as I've gotten older. I tend not to finish them, because the creepy adrenaline rush isn't enough to keep me playing anymore. I need compelling gameplay mechanics on top of all the corridor creeping, or I just go, "Meh, why am I just sitting here trying to scare myself?"
 

ArachnePhobia

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Silent Hill 1 and Fatal Frame 1 both put me in "Can't sleep, Mumblers/Broken Neck will eat me!" mode.
 

wampuscat

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I think Silent Hill 2 is the best of that series, but I've enjoyed them all. What I love about those games is the sound effects.

I don't find Resident Evil to be very scary, except for the occasional bad guys jumping at you. Deadspace is ok. Bioshock is pretty good. I haven't played the second one, or the new(ish) Alone in the Dark, or any of the Fatal Frames after the first one.
 

ElJeffe

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The first Resident Evil practically made me wet myself when that goddamn dog jumped through the window.

Silent Hill merely gave me nightmares.

The first Condemned game for the 360, though, was the one that creeped me out the most. The sound design on that game, piped through a good 5.1 system, was brilliant. Noises coming from all around you... crazy hobos yelling at you from behind...

*shudder*
 

BigWords

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Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly had some really creepy elements, but - mostly because of the build-up rather than anything in the level - the Cradle mission in Thief sticks out. I have been really disappointed in how some of the deliberately "scary" games have relied on cheap tricks such as "jump" moments rather than more lingering scares.
 

L. Y.

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I'd have to go with the original Resident Evil. I thought the creepy atmosphere and tension kind of upped the bar on survival horror games at the time.

I also enjoyed Slender.

*goes off to check out Fatal Frame II*
 

Shadow Dragon

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Silent Hill 3, definitely. The atmosphere of that game was just flat out disturbing. Plus, that mannequin room and that mirror room terrified me the first time I went in them.
 

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Anyone here played Zombiu? My husband and I love it. Some of the best parts of the game are when nothing happens and you're running around looting for weapons and food and you see a flashing red dot on your radar and you think crap! zombie! and you inch closer, cricket bat ready, and it's a bloody crow or a rat. And then you turn around and there's one standing right behind yooooouu!! Totally awesome game. The zombies don't show on the radar if they are not moving. So cool. I wasn't sure if I would like this game but I needed to something to fill the void once I am done with Zelda.
 

kenebaker

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Alan Wake was also another good one - it was not entirely terrifying, but you were always on edge, especially when you were walking in the shadows.

Anyone else got scared by that giant spider in Tomb Raider 2? I remember when that thing jumped out at me, I near crapped my pants.
 

sennydreadful

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I just recently played Dead Space 2 as well - so tense! It was the really quiet periods that got to me, because you knew that an attack had to be just round the corner. Also, those bloody fast moving monsters that made weird chicken/monkey noises and hid behind boxes. Christ.

I have a lot of fondness for Silent Hill though - I remember playing it many moons ago with my ex-boyfriend, and there was a real sense of "what the actual christ is going on here?!" Also, small child-like things that swarm and stab you to death. Nice.
 

kenebaker

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Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly had some really creepy elements, but - mostly because of the build-up rather than anything in the level - the Cradle mission in Thief sticks out.

Which mission was the Cradle one? I remember being terrified in the burnt part of the city - with the zombies and other undead. That terrifying sensation when you are trying to pick the lock before the undead shuffles around the corner - what a brilliant game.
"Is someone therrrre??"
 

J.W. Alden

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Alan Wake was also another good one - it was not entirely terrifying, but you were always on edge, especially when you were walking in the shadows.

I was never really scared by Alan Wake, but the first monster in the game accusing me of being a lousy writer while it chased me definitely gave it extra creepy points.
 

BigWords

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Which mission was the Cradle one?

"The Shalebridge Cradle. It used to be an insane asylum, and before that, it was an orphanage." The wiki does a good job of capturing my thoughts on that level, but it also prompted another thought...

How scary a game, or a level of an otherwise non-frightening game, is depends entirely on the competence of the gamer - I have seen people jump and scream playing the third Doom game, but I never found it as scary as the hype pushed it as being. Maybe I have spent too long watching freaky old films, but a game really needs to push the atmosphere over the cheap scares if it wants to get under my skin.
 

Rhoda Nightingale

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Silent Hill 3, definitely. The atmosphere of that game was just flat out disturbing. Plus, that mannequin room and that mirror room terrified me the first time I went in them.

The mirror room is downright legendary at this point--also that great moment when Vincent says, "They look like monsters to you?" HOLY CRAP! I still can't decide whether he was just messing with her or not.

3 is my fave of the series, but I still find the second one scarier. Specifically the labyrinth/prison level.
 

wampuscat

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Specifically the labyrinth/prison level.

Loved this level. Also the mirror scene from 3. I was disappointed that 4 didn't take more time in the amusement park. That seemed like a wasted opportunity for scariness.

Anyone played the Clock Tower games? I've heard good things but not played them.
 

kenebaker

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How scary a game, or a level of an otherwise non-frightening game, is depends entirely on the competence of the gamer - I have seen people jump and scream playing the third Doom game, but I never found it as scary as the hype pushed it as being. .

Do you think it's the competence of the gamer i.e. newbie vs veteran or more to the fact that a veteran has played a lot of games and most of the shock-tactics are old hat? For me, it's the latter - many games go for the cheap scare. Deadspace 1 went beyond that for me - the opening scene was one of the scariest, most panic filled moments I have enjoyed in gaming...
 

DeleyanLee

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The only game I've gotten the willies playing (and still can, even though I've replayed it a few zillion times) is Assassin's Creed II. The reason is simple--I'm petrified of heights and all the times you're up on scaffolds in those churchs, getting up into the heights points and the game grabs hold of the camera and makes me look DOWN--*shudder*

Games like Bioshock that are just creepy feeling and things jumping out at me just piss me off. I don't like that kind of scare, so I don't play them often.

I'm weird, I know. ;)
 

BigWords

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Do you think it's the competence of the gamer i.e. newbie vs veteran or more to the fact that a veteran has played a lot of games and most of the shock-tactics are old hat?

Hmm. A little of each - I can think of a few people who have been playing games for years and still get confused about the controls, so the aspect of running away in the right direction (rather than twirling on the spot) is part of it. I would get slapped silly if I revealed some of the more embarrassing moments though. :D

Having played lots of scary games and seeing the same things crop up again and again is a major part of it for me, so that is definitely a concern when picking up games. There are still moments where I find myself having to pause the game and sit back, but it isn't for the monsters (which, lets be fair, aren't in and of themselves scary), nor the moments where something jumps out of a shadow. The truly scary elements of gaming comes mostly from the psychological elements, or the Fridge Horror of dialogue.

One of the most powerful moments in modern gaming, for me, was the bench scene at the end of The Darkness. Nothing scary, nothing moving around which shouldn't be, but the emotions involved in that scene had something in there which pushed it into lingering uneasiness. Earlier in the game there were (obviously dead) people getting up from the ground and fighting on, but the simple, calm scene carried a much more powerful and profound weight to it.

Actually, one of the creepiest things was the blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment in a cutscene from Hostile Waters, which had people stuck on poles like something out of Cannibal Holocaust - though I have a feeling that the shivers I got from that were linked to knowing where the imagery had been taken from, and the graphics were *just* clunky enough to require replaying the scene to get the full effect.
 
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