What are the scariest horror games in existence and why?

[Kyrian007]

I'll throw Subnautica in there as my #1.

I can play Amnesia (although I don't think I can call it "fun").
Silent Hill? Spooky sure.
Resident Evil? No problem.
2018's Call of Cthulhu was not even slightly scary.

I know some people don't find Subnautica scary at all, something about the idea of Sea Monsters though.....

I don't know if its my #1, but Subnautica is easily the scariest thing I've played for a while. For me its just that its unfamiliar territory. I've played all sorts of survival games in all sorts of biomes. None really got to me much. But I live in a very landlocked area, I've never in my life seen a body of water you can't see the other side of. Climbing out of Subnautica's escape pod and seeing NO land? Its terrifying. You need land to have something to stand on, to build on, to LIVE. There really has been no game that has felt more alien to me.

And those are the best "scary games." The ones that get you subtly. That's why Silent Hill worked on me, it wasn't the monsters or pyramid head... mostly it was the npc humans. There was just something wrong with them. Or maybe something wrong with James. That plus the atmosphere... it works. But its different for everybody, one of my favorite game stories. Watching my roommate play Resident Evil 4. He wasn't far into it, and was walking through a long cave or tunnel. This is a brilliant section, coming off of having a couple of big zombie fights and already having been through one of the instakill QTE's my roommate was INCHING his way through this cave. Spinning around at every other step... convinced that the hordes were just seconds away from rushing him. Getting more and more tense for every second that nothing happened until...

"Got some good things on sale strang(ahhhhhhBAMBAMBAMBAMBAM)"

Yup, he emptied a magazine into the merchant vendor. A big long empty corridor with nothing in it except a creepy surprise good guy at the end of it. I couldn't stop laughing. He put the controller down and hasn't ever played a resident evil game since. I think it was the intense fear followed by chagrin and embarrasment... and how funny I found the whole situation.

But really, as someone who was a kid back in the 80's cold war era... Once you "get" and understand the message and the history of it... Missile Command is pretty genuinely terrifying.

 

[BrawlMan]

That's why some of Lovecraft is scary, because of outer void cosmic gods that can end time in a blink of an eye.

Lovecraftian monsters aren't really scary. They're like natural disaster, they don't care about you. In the moment, they might be scary but they have no lasting becuase they aren't after you. Stay out of its way and your fine. End time? Won't matter becuase you don't exist

I've been mixed on most Lovecraft stories, because most I don't find scary, and the racism. But from what I remember, Lovecraft was a self-hating racist as well, because...gasp, he found out on his mom's was Welsh or something.

That's why some of Lovecraft is scary, because of outer void cosmic gods that can end time in a blink of an eye. Other times its just a bunch of cannibals or rats, usually being led by a Jew or black man.

You forgot the one where a dude finds out he had a black ancestor

Dun dun duuuun

And that explains that plot twist.


Most Lovecraft inspired stories in different media are better than all of his own works. Anything from Stephen King, to John Carpenter, or horror games like Silent Hill or Eternal Darkness.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

That's why some of Lovecraft is scary, because of outer void cosmic gods that can end time in a blink of an eye. Other times its just a bunch of cannibals or rats, usually being led by a Jew or black man.

You forgot the one where a dude finds out he had a black ancestor

Dun dun duuuun

 

[stroopwafel]

I have never found monsters or the supernatural to be even remotely scary so that pretty much rules out any deliberate horror game. I'd say Manhunt is, well maybe not scary, but definitely the most eerie game I've played. The execution kills and the way Starkweather fetishises the violence is a level of grim no other game have ever come close to. Carcer City also felt like a frighteningly authentic depiction of societal breakdown and managed to unsettle in a way, say, the dream like Silent Hill never did.

The only other videogame city that would come close is Dishonered's Dunwall, which also felt like a place that could exist under the tyranny of collectivist propaganda where authority of a quasi-religious elite was maintained through torture and subjugation. In both Dishonered 1 & 2 you get confronted by the results of this without being handholded. There is another game with a definitely eerie horror moment and that is Hitman Absolution. If you played the stripclub level and visit one of the hidden rooms ehmmm..you'll know what I mean. There was no trip to Hawai.

I guess what sets these games/moments apart is that none of the 'scary' moments are in any way scripted and are easy to miss. I love horror games but if the focus is too much on trying to be scary the effect is lost imo. I have the same with movies. Horror as a concept can unsettle but as a genre it mostly tries too hard. You take away that element of unpredictability and you take away the horror element as well it seems. Not that it doesn't often make for really fun movies and videogames though. But scary? No.

 

[jademunky]

That's why some of Lovecraft is scary, because of outer void cosmic gods that can end time in a blink of an eye. Other times its just a bunch of cannibals or rats, usually being led by a Jew or black man.

Or a hillbilly with a monster in his barn, or a degenerate band of New England fishermen who have become...fishmen.

Or those God awful stories that begin "for the record, I never encountered anything scary, I never heard or smelled anything scary, no one I know or have heard of has had anything scary happen to them, and nothing scary is going on in the countryside or the nation. Now please read the next 60 pages of borderline awkward coincidences that made it seem like a monster was around at the time, but as I've already spoiled, didn't amount to anything"

More than a few of those in Lovecraftian lore...

I actually liked the Whisperer in Darkness. And it totally did have a talking brain in a jar that taunted that one guy.

 

[the December King]

That's why some of Lovecraft is scary, because of outer void cosmic gods that can end time in a blink of an eye.

Lovecraftian monsters aren't really scary. They're like natural disaster, they don't care about you. In the moment, they might be scary but they have no lasting becuase they aren't after you. Stay out of its way and your fine. End time? Won't matter becuase you don't exist

I've been mixed on most Lovecraft stories, because most I don't find scary, and the racism. But from what I remember, Lovecraft was a self-hating racist as well, because...gasp, he found out on his mom's was Welsh or something.

That's why some of Lovecraft is scary, because of outer void cosmic gods that can end time in a blink of an eye. Other times its just a bunch of cannibals or rats, usually being led by a Jew or black man.

You forgot the one where a dude finds out he had a black ancestor

Dun dun duuuun

And that explains that plot twist.


Most Lovecraft inspired stories in different media are better than all of his own works. Anything from Stephen King, to John Carpenter, or horror games like Silent Hill or Eternal Darkness.

Well, that's your opinion, for sure.

I mean, I get it, he was racist. You don't have to like him. I doubt I would have liked him if I had met him. But his stories shaped modern horror stories. He won when a word was made of his name to define a class of horror.

 

[CaitSeith]

That's why some of Lovecraft is scary, because of outer void cosmic gods that can end time in a blink of an eye.

Lovecraftian monsters aren't really scary. They're like natural disaster, they don't care about you. In the moment, they might be scary but they have no lasting becuase they aren't after you. Stay out of its way and your fine. End time? Won't matter becuase you don't exist

I've been mixed on most Lovecraft stories, because most I don't find scary, and the racism. But from what I remember, Lovecraft was a self-hating racist as well, because...gasp, he found out on his mom's was Welsh or something.

That's why some of Lovecraft is scary, because of outer void cosmic gods that can end time in a blink of an eye. Other times its just a bunch of cannibals or rats, usually being led by a Jew or black man.

You forgot the one where a dude finds out he had a black ancestor

Dun dun duuuun

And that explains that plot twist.


Most Lovecraft inspired stories in different media are better than all of his own works. Anything from Stephen King, to John Carpenter, or horror games like Silent Hill or Eternal Darkness.

Well, that's your opinion, for sure.

I mean, I get it, he was racist. You don't have to like him. I doubt I would have liked him if I had met him. But his stories shaped modern horror stories. He won when a word was made of his name to define a class of horror.

Hey! It's not their fault that the story tries to make the realization that your grand-grand-grand-grand granma was literally an African ape (a white one, but still an ape) as something that should horrify you so much that you'd murder your family and burn yourself to death.

 

[CaitSeith]

I haven't played the remake yet, but in the original RE2 there is a jump-scare in the interrogation room at the police station that still scares the crap out of me. Maybe it's because you are on the mirrored side and you only see your reflection until a monster jumps out of it.

Also the first time you find a Lost Soul in Doom 3 there is a cutscene where a women begs you for help, just for her head to detach itself from her body (with the bloody spine still dangling below it). It still creeps the heck out of me.

 

[the December King]

Hey! It's not their fault that the story tries to make the realization that your grand-grand-grand-grand granma was literally an African ape (a white one, but still an ape) as something that should horrify you so much that you'd murder your family and burn yourself to death.

Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family? I mean, yeah, seems a stretch to kill all of your family and/or burn yourself alive if you find out you are 1/16th ape (or whatever). And can easily be seen as a racist tale (though 'degeneracy' in his own family, as he perceived it, as both of his parents succumbed in mental institutions, is also a conclusion that can be drawn), sure.

I didn't say all of his work was great.

Still... lovecraftian is a thing.

 

[CaitSeith]

Hey! It's not their fault that the story tries to make the realization that your grand-grand-grand-grand granma was literally an African ape (a white one, but still an ape) as something that should horrify you so much that you'd murder your family and burn yourself to death.

Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family? I mean, yeah, seems a stretch to kill all of your family and/or burn yourself alive if you find out you are 1/16th ape (or whatever). And can easily be seen as a racist tale (though 'degeneracy' in his own family, as he perceived it, as both of his parents succumbed in mental institutions, is also a conclusion that can be drawn), sure.

I didn't say all of his work was great.

Still... lovecraftian is a thing.

Yes. And no amount of criticism will make it stop being a thing. So, chill out.

 

[the December King]

Yes. And no amount of criticism will make it stop being a thing. So, chill out.

I like his work, and some don't. But when I see his work getting bashed, I like to jump in and defend it.

EDIT: ... alright, yeah. I'll chill.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

That's why some of Lovecraft is scary, because of outer void cosmic gods that can end time in a blink of an eye.

Lovecraftian monsters aren't really scary. They're like natural disaster, they don't care about you. In the moment, they might be scary but they have no lasting becuase they aren't after you. Stay out of its way and your fine. End time? Won't matter becuase you don't exist

I think the thing that scares me is how utterly powerless you or I would be if faced with one. Like you said they're more like natural disasters, but that shit is scary! A tornado coming towards you is a pants-shitting event. and those you can technically outrun or avoid or survive.
Lovecraftian tentacle tornadoes the size of the darkness between the stars? Not so much...

 

[BrawlMan]

Hey! It's not their fault that the story tries to make the realization that your grand-grand-grand-grand granma was literally an African ape (a white one, but still an ape) as something that should horrify you so much that you'd murder your family and burn yourself to death.

Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family? I mean, yeah, seems a stretch to kill all of your family and/or burn yourself alive if you find out you are 1/16th ape (or whatever). And can easily be seen as a racist tale (though 'degeneracy' in his own family, as he perceived it, as both of his parents succumbed in mental institutions, is also a conclusion that can be drawn), sure.

I didn't say all of his work was great.

Still... lovecraftian is a thing.

Yes. And no amount of criticism will make it stop being a thing. So, chill out.

Thank you CaitSeith.

Yes. And no amount of criticism will make it stop being a thing. So, chill out.

I like his work, and some don't. But when I see his work getting bashed, I like to jump in and defend it.

EDIT: ... alright, yeah. I'll chill.

Since this happened, I'll shorten my response. It's hard to like or appreciate most of Lovecraft's stories when he considers the people of my race (and other races) evil or inferior, because their skin color (I'm black) ain't white. I make no apologies when I say I cannot enjoy most of his stories for this reason.

The only story of his I enjoyed was the Color of Outer Space. If you want to enjoy his works, more power to you, but their are others that don't for similar reasons.

Back on topic, the games I found the scariest are REmake 1 & 2, the Fatal Frame series, Dark Escape 4D, System Shock 2, and Silent Hill 1-3.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Yes. And no amount of criticism will make it stop being a thing. So, chill out.

I like his work, and some don't. But when I see his work getting bashed, I like to jump in and defend it.

Which one's your favorite? Also a fan of the guy, or at least his work.

 

[Trunkage]

That's why some of Lovecraft is scary, because of outer void cosmic gods that can end time in a blink of an eye.

Lovecraftian monsters aren't really scary. They're like natural disaster, they don't care about you. In the moment, they might be scary but they have no lasting becuase they aren't after you. Stay out of its way and your fine. End time? Won't matter becuase you don't exist

I think the thing that scares me is how utterly powerless you or I would be if faced with one. Like you said they're more like natural disasters, but that shit is scary! A tornado coming towards you is a pants-shitting event. and those you can technically outrun or avoid or survive.
Lovecraftian tentacle tornadoes the size of the darkness between the stars? Not so much...

There are plenty of things I am powerless to stop. Xenomorphs, Predators, TyranidsTyranids, Freddy Kruger, Micheal Myers, etc. But these are more scary for the simple fact that I am targeted. A tornado won't come back to kill me if I'm survive a first attack. A Xenomorph will. I seem to remember of story by HP about fish folk replacing humans gradually over time. That's far more scary than any of his giant monsters

Im also disbelieving of the 'madness' thing that happens in his books. There's is nothing today that we can see that sends us mad. Why would another being, even if it does look weird. It's always taken me out of that sort of horror.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

That's why some of Lovecraft is scary, because of outer void cosmic gods that can end time in a blink of an eye.

Lovecraftian monsters aren't really scary. They're like natural disaster, they don't care about you. In the moment, they might be scary but they have no lasting becuase they aren't after you. Stay out of its way and your fine. End time? Won't matter becuase you don't exist

I think the thing that scares me is how utterly powerless you or I would be if faced with one. Like you said they're more like natural disasters, but that shit is scary! A tornado coming towards you is a pants-shitting event. and those you can technically outrun or avoid or survive.
Lovecraftian tentacle tornadoes the size of the darkness between the stars? Not so much...

There are plenty of things I am powerless to stop. Xenomorphs, Predators, TyranidsTyranids, Freddy Kruger, Micheal Myers, etc. But these are more scary for the simple fact that I am targeted. A tornado won't come back to kill me if I'm survive a first attack. A Xenomorph will. I seem to remember of story by HP about fish folk replacing humans gradually over time. That's far more scary than any of his giant monsters

Im also disbelieving of the 'madness' thing that happens in his books. There's is nothing today that we can see that sends us mad. Why would another being, even if it does look weird. It's always taken me out of that sort of horror.

What I mean by unstoppable is something literally unkillable or supernatrual. Like a Predator or Xenomorph CAN be killed Tyranids likewise. Not sure about Freddy or Myers.
Xenomorphs are sneaky fuckers, but a shotgun still works. I'm talking about the things shotguns don't work on. Things that are immune to physics and the rules of nature. Even Mike Myers, I assume, drop a nuke on him or launch him into the sun he's not coming back.

As far as the madness lovecraftian monsters, I both enjoy it and understand why its annoying. Its a literary device, a reason to not describe something because no human can comprehend it, including Lovecraft. And that's scary, 'cause you and I, like Han Solo, can imagine quiet a bit. So imagine(even though you cant) something unimaginable. Even something so big it stretches across the Universe, all 93billion lightyears of it. That is something we can imagine, so a Lovecraftian monster is even more unimaginable.
Even if you and I have more words and imagination that Lovecraft, those Gods are still beyond human language and thought. The old Infinity+1 trope. They're always 1 higher than the highest we can think of because they're by definition beyond our thought range

 

[Dalisclock]

That's why some of Lovecraft is scary, because of outer void cosmic gods that can end time in a blink of an eye.

Lovecraftian monsters aren't really scary. They're like natural disaster, they don't care about you. In the moment, they might be scary but they have no lasting becuase they aren't after you. Stay out of its way and your fine. End time? Won't matter becuase you don't exist

I think the thing that scares me is how utterly powerless you or I would be if faced with one. Like you said they're more like natural disasters, but that shit is scary! A tornado coming towards you is a pants-shitting event. and those you can technically outrun or avoid or survive.
Lovecraftian tentacle tornadoes the size of the darkness between the stars? Not so much...

There are plenty of things I am powerless to stop. Xenomorphs, Predators, TyranidsTyranids, Freddy Kruger, Micheal Myers, etc. But these are more scary for the simple fact that I am targeted. A tornado won't come back to kill me if I'm survive a first attack. A Xenomorph will. I seem to remember of story by HP about fish folk replacing humans gradually over time. That's far more scary than any of his giant monsters

Im also disbelieving of the 'madness' thing that happens in his books. There's is nothing today that we can see that sends us mad. Why would another being, even if it does look weird. It's always taken me out of that sort of horror.

As far as the madness thing goes, I'm inclined to believe it tends to hit one of two different ideas.

The most obvious is that the things Lovecrafts main characters tend to get unnerved at are things which are too alien for them to reasonably deal with, which admittedly is the harder of things for people to get behind nowadays, especially due to an inundation of sci-fi and fantasy to the average person since Lovecraft wrote his fiction. You'd have to get into some rather heavy theoretical or esoteric stuff in a horror angle to quite hit the same note. The closest analogy I could think of for a modern person is the theory that 80% of the universe is presumably made of Dark Matter, a substance we can't define and can't prove exists but is one of the most commonly accepted explanations for how the universe works right now.

The other one is, along similar lines is existential, something that shakes your worldview so much that calls vital concepts you had about reality into questions. For example, for a religious person, it would be somehow seeing proof that your entire religion is false or wrong. God does not exist, God exists but is evil, there's a hell but no heaven, there is no afterlife, etc in a way you couldn't ignore or reasonably deny. A more secular analogy would probably be somehow realizing that all your memories from an unknown point in time, or the known history of the world is fake and you have no idea what's real.

The fact that lovecraft's fiction is teeming with ancient, pre-human civilizations just outside our reach and things we just don't understand seems to reinforce this questioning of our view of reality and the universe the point of his horror, rather then the fishy monsters and tentacles that popular culture makes it out to be.

 

[stroopwafel]

The fact that lovecraft's fiction is teeming with ancient, pre-human civilizations just outside our reach and things we just don't understand seems to reinforce this questioning of our view of reality and the universe the point of his horror, rather then the fishy monsters and tentacles that popular culture makes it out to be.

I never understood how even 'cosmic horror' wouldn't be a relief in a universe in which the absence of life is the norm. Atleast there is something. Now, the presence of life is like throwing a dice 3 billion times without throwing 6 twice. Life is the exception to the rule. And no one will be there to even mourn the eventual passing of the fragile life on this little blue marble. Only the perpetual silence of the universe. For me that is infinitely more existentially dreadful than any Lovecraft pulp.

 

[the December King]

Since this happened, I'll shorten my response. It's hard to like or appreciate most of Lovecraft's stories when he considers the people of my race (and other races) evil or inferior, because their skin color (I'm black) ain't white. I make no apologies when I say I cannot enjoy most of his stories for this reason.

The only story of his I enjoyed was the Color of Outer Space. If you want to enjoy his works, more power to you, but their are others that don't for similar reasons.

Okay. I can respect that. The man had an abhorrent personal point of view, and I'll not make apologies for it. I'd also like to clarify that I certainly will not defend all of the man's works, either. That he and some of his contemporaries like Robert E Howard were such racists does disgust me, and those works that most reflect that are upsetting - especially because when they did write their better material, there would always be this legacy attached to them.

P.S: Thanks for explaining your POV, I appreciate the effort.

Which one's your favorite? Also a fan of the guy, or at least his work.

The big three are my favorites, I think - The Colour Out of Space, The Shadow over Innsmouth, The Call Of Cthulhu. I also appreciate a lot of the later work that August Derleth put in, even though it feels weaker overall, and later authors - my favorite writer in the Lovecraftian tradition is actually T E D Klein... and that would include liking his work over Lovecraft himself, even though he was nowhere near as prolific when it comes to these kind of tales.

EDIT: What was I thinking? At The Mountains of Madness (for it's awesome conjured visuals), and The Dunwich Horror (for the opposite), as well.

 

[CaitSeith]

Yes. And no amount of criticism will make it stop being a thing. So, chill out.

I like his work, and some don't. But when I see his work getting bashed, I like to jump in and defend it.

Which one's your favorite? Also a fan of the guy, or at least his work.

The Outsider, The Dunwich Horror and The Rats in the Walls. I have yet to read At the Mountains of Madness.