Scariest Game Ever Made

[snowman6251]

What do you think is the scariest game ever made?

My vote goes to Demon's Souls. On my first playthrough in particular this game was horrifying. Knowing that something is trying to get me around every corner and knowing the huge price that comes with letting it get me quickly created an environment of extreme paranoia and caution within my bedroom. I tiptoed one step forward, two steps back, with my shield up, through the whole game. Levels that can be done in 15 minutes took me upwards of two hours because of my overly cautious approach.

In the end it was effective because I died on only a handful of occasions (mostly thanks to Flamelurker and Old King Allant) but my first trip through Demon's Souls legendarily hostile world was a terrifying one. Also The Tower of Latria still scares the crap out of me despite the fact that I know the layout by heart now.

Anyway what do you think is the scariest game ever made?

 

[Thaius]

Let me be the first to say the Fatal Frame series. Besides having a great atmosphere and just good design all around, the psychological terror induced by needing to go from third to first person in order to fight your already horrifying enemy is absolute brilliance.

 

[Cherry Cola]

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, while not the scariest, was really fucking horrifying.

What stands out in my mind is when you piece by piece discover the fate of a newly moved in cheerleader on the team who got drugged, raped by the entire football team, then left out in the snow, dead.

 

[The Austin]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.
Dead Space.

To me, it was a perfect combination of action and horror.

[sub] Okay, maybe a little heavy on the horror. [/sub]

 

[mrfusspot]

For me, its been Penumbra: Overture.
I've only gotten the tiniest bit in it so far, but the setting and all the sounds have me terrified.
More so than any other scary game I've played.

 

[Limzz]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.
Dead Space.

To me, it was a perfect combination of action and horror.

[sub] Okay, maybe a little heavy on the horror. [/sub]

I didn't find dead space to really be horror. Sure, it startled you occasionally but that's not scary. I was startled when a june bug was in my shoe. Not quite horror.

I'm gonna go with System Shock 2 on this one.

 

[Composer]

Superman 64

the thread has been won
its over

 

[ZombieGenesis]

There are probably more action packed games, but nothing is scarier than Fatal Frame. Hell, no movie is even scarier than FF because in the movie you don't freeze up before investigating a noise, stiffened by hesitation and mind conjuring worse and worse expectations. Of course if you just want things to jump up and yell at you, try any 'horror' FPS over the last five years....pansy.

 

[Scott Smith]

Superman 64

There was no need for that now, was there

 

[Lamppenkeyboard]

The scariest game i have ever played would be Dark Corners of the Earth.

Or: That One Time Double Barreled Shotgun Wielding Inbred New England Fishmen Broke Into My Hotel Room

 

[Gralian]

The more psychological games. Eternal Darkness seriously spooked me up like hell, almost as much so, if not more than Silent Hill 2 when the sanity meter reached zero and the game started messing with you, like putting the volume down or making cockroaches crawl over the screen all of a sudden. I never found gory horror games scary at all. Dead Space is fun, but there's nothing scary about it. It's to do with the "If it bleeds, it can die." and "I've never faced an enemy i couldn't engage in combat" concepts though. We fear what we can't face in open and fair combat. An omnipotent and unexplained force like a supernatural entity is always much more frightening than a gruesome alien, for example, because you know you can beat the alien. You can't always beat the unexplained. Shadow Man also gave me a lot of scares when i was a kid on the old N64, especially in the Asylum level!

 

[ArmorArmadillo]

Silent Hill 2...mainly because the monsters were probably the least scary thing in the game, it's that it forces you to confront really horrifying environments in order to move forward, getting slowly needled in the brain by sounds and sights that make you feel like you danger is ABOUT to occur...not to mention that the incredibly human struggles of James, Eddie, and Angela are infinitely more real than any monster.

 

[Rauten]

Let me be the first to say the Fatal Frame series. Besides having a great atmosphere and just good design all around, the psychological terror induced by needing to go from third to first person in order to fight your already horrifying enemy is absolute brilliance.

Damn you, ninja'd.

 

[lacktheknack]

Scariest Game: Tie between Silent Hill 3, Penumbra Black Plague, and Fatal Frame (any).

Scariest Level: Tie between Psychonauts' Asylum level and SH3's Church.

Scariest Moment: Tie between Psychonauts' "Milla's Nightmares" room and SH3's abortion/baby-eating/birth sequence.

Actually, SH3 wins.

 

[Gralian]

Silent Hill 2...mainly because the monsters were probably the least scary thing in the game, it's that it forces you to confront really horrifying environments in order to move forward, getting slowly needled in the brain by sounds and sights that make you feel like you danger is ABOUT to occur...not to mention that the incredibly human struggles of James, Eddie, and Angela are infinitely more real than any monster.

That, and the monsters themselves were supposedly corporeal manifestations of their 'issues', like the nurses and mannequin-leg-things being a representation of James's repressed sexual desires - or something along those lines?

 

[The Austin]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.
Dead Space.

To me, it was a perfect combination of action and horror.

[sub] Okay, maybe a little heavy on the horror. [/sub]

I didn't find dead space to really be horror. Sure, it startled you occasionally but that's not scary. I was startled when a june bug was in my shoe. Not quite horror.

I'm gonna go with System Shock 2 on this one.

Yea, I guess your right, I just guess I'll just-

[HEADING=1] OMG! NECROMORPH! [/HEADING]

See? Pretty damn scary, huh?