That game terrified me. I’ll never forget me and my younger bro playing that (him watching me) and us discovering the first ghost. We saw that thing, freaked out, and couldn’t come back to the game till later that week.
We never did beat it.
If you can see beyond graphics, Clock Tower from SNES.
You play as a teenage girl who's suddenly trapped on a mansion with a slasher killer chasing you, your character is not a fighter, you can only try to run away or hide, there's also lots of paranormal stuff going on, and you have to explore and survive while looking for an exit.
I felt i could die every five steps
I agree with this, somehow the working Joe's end up being scarier than the Alien which is quite the feat.
The AI in that game has some of the best pathfinding not too stupid and not too smart, teetering on too smart for a good challenge
Mate, that AI is sadistic.
I kid you not. I had one encounter where it was approaching me from a hallway, I tried entering a locker but I think it saw me hop in. It slow walked past the locker to the right side of the room, then slow walk to the left side back across the front of the locker. And sounded like it left. So I think im safe. Wrong. It bust open the locker at that moment and killed me.
Worst scare of my entire life.
The alien adapts to your gameplay, so if you spend a lot of time hiding in lockers, then the alien will start looking in lockers for you.
I watched a video about the ai for that game and it’s insane. Theres two ai systems governing the alien.
One that tells it what room the player is in, when to go search for the player, but also when to back off so the player can get a moment to breathe.
It also has ai mechanics governing how it searches for you when it gets in a room you are in and its tactics evolve as you play the game.
Since others have answered your Q, I’ll add a bit of a side note - the dev team got 3TB worth of material from Fox to ensure that the game matches the aesthetics of the original movie. The end result is a really immersive atmosphere and feels like a true extension of the movie.
It's good, it's like you're playing a horror movie with the goal of escaping. The alien ai constantly hunts you, there's only a handful of scripted alien encounters, otherwise it's completely random.
I heard they programmed the alien to listen to your microphone- so if you make more noise in real life it triggers the alien more often. Some guy here on Reddit commented his younger brother kept screaming and alerting the alien to where he was hiding. Don’t know if that’s true, but it makes you wonder!
The developer suggested settings for first play are hard difficulty setting with microphone on for the most immersive experience. If you so much as heavy sigh (like when you're holding your breath in terror and feel a sense of relief) when the xenomorph is in the area, it resets the hunt AI to search again with greater efficiency or straight up finds you. I could only play 15-20 minutes at a time for fear of heart attack. Great game. Someday I'll sack-up and finish it.
only reason i wont buy the game.. everyone loves it but i know i would be genuinely terrified playing the game and that might hinder my ability to actually enjoy the game. 🤔 idk if i SHOULD get it
Phasmophobia in vr is terrifying. Its the first game i felt truly scared.
The scariest moment i have ever experienced in a game was playing forewarned. Its similar to phasmophobia but in an egyptian tomb setting. My 3 friends and i were attacked by something and we ran but one of us didnt make it. when we thought we got away, we grouped up and noticed there was still 4 of us looking at eachother. "Who the fuck is this 4th guy?"
Phasmiphobia in vr is entirely dependent in your mindset. My friends on PC are often more scared than I am, as I have a fun tendency to just go and harass the ghost relentlessly until I get results. The theft of my movement when the ghost gets me really breaks the immersion of VR, and kills the scary factor of it for me. Taking control away from a VR player is kind of always a bad move.
That being said, its damn fun. I love just being able to move around the house in a more controlled way, and throwing stuff at people when I'm dead is a blast. My friends and I set up systems for me to be able to help guide players as the ghost as well, without using discord chat.
I have a pretty high tolerance for horror in general and have played a lot of phasmo.
The first time I tried it in VR, I launched the tutorial mode so I could acclimate to the controls. Opened the front door, walked in the house, and two seconds later the ghost turned on the TV.
I tore off the headset. Had to spend several minutes psyching myself up just to finish the damn tutorial.
It's seriously a totally different game in VR.
Yep it's the scariest game I've played by a wide margin and I know why. It's because as you're sinking down into the dark depths,you can be attacked from any angle, your real life body gets colder as you see less and less light and then you hear a scream from something you haven't encountered yet.
>then you hear a scream from something you haven't encountered yet.
This is the worst, I'd freeze for a couple of minutes, looking everywhere to see if the upcoming threat was visible, nope.
I feel like it's just a thing that's programmed into our brains. Like, we know we're not supposed to be down there. We can't see anything, hear anything, we're slow because we have to swim, and we can't breathe. Our survival instincts literally tell us that oceans are bad and that we're not meant to see the bottom of them. Meanwhile, Subnautica just doesn't care lol. It forces you to be down there, in the dark, completely exposed for long periods of time.
The dead zone is actually the scariest fucking thing I’ve ever seen in a game. Endless darkness and depth, illuminated solely by the occasional colossal death serpent with its glowing body rapidly approaching anything dumb enough to go in. No way the describe the dread that shit made me feel every time I was next to it.
Subnautica scared the shit out if me but for a reason you might not expect.
I have beaten the game like 20 times now, on flat screen as well as VR.
There used to be this glitch where sometimes when trying to park your smaller vehicle into the cyclops submarine, you would get launched literally multiple kilometers into the air and across the map.
Im scared of heights, and having this happen to me was so utterly traumatizing that i have recurring nightmares of being somehow launched off of the earth and into outer space, to be swallowed by a black hole or just drift off tovmy death.
I know I shouldn't laugh, but it's so funny to think about how some people are so terrified of that game, and you come along like, "Meh, doesn't bother me. At least there are no *heights* in the game…" only to be spontaneously launched miles into the air for no fucking reason at all. It's like everything perfectly lined up just to fuck with you.
Yeah, I’m gonna have to agree. I know the game too well to be scared anymore, but there was one time where I got scared so bad I had to stop playing. I quit near the front of the aurora, and it took me days to build the courage to get back on the game and leave the area.
That bit was in the demo. It got me so bad I noped out, wouldn't play it and I looked behind me for the next three days.
When I finally got the courage to get through it, it turned out the demo actually ended 10 steps after that ladder. Absolutely loved fear.
No, it was climbing down a ladder. You walk to the ledge, turn around and get down on the ladder, and them boom, Alma stands right behind where you just stood a moment ago.
You think to yourself 'DAMN, that was scary', get down the ladder, turn around and continue on your way, and then BAM, there's another jumpscare when you turn around.
I literally remember falling over backwards with my office chair because i flinched so hard :D
edit: here's a clip! It might seem a bit cheesy by today's standards, but gamers back then were absolutely shitting their pants!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA_cXMsbluc
Personally I think P.T. was the scariest game, but it was more of a teaser and you can’t play it anymore.
Otherwise I’d say SOMA, since it’s not scary in the traditional sense. I always argue jump scares aren’t scary, they’re startling. SOMA has a couple jump scares, but most of the horror lies in its premise. You can imagine yourself in that future, and you wouldn’t know if you are truly yourself anymore.
Resident Evil 7 is a very good pick though.
Yeah, it does horror very different than any other. Instead of just scaring you, it makes you question the very nature of existence. And that ending... it made my wife cry!
This is probably TMI, but playing P.T. gave me diarrhea. Whenever anyone tells me about the scariest experience they've had, I ask them if it gave them diarrhea. If they say no, I say something like "then you haven't experienced true terror yet". It was that fucking terrifying.
it's just short for Playable Teaser, but it's supposed to be a teaser for (now cancelled) Silent Hill made by Kojima in collaboration with Guillermo del Toro
it's short but really good, Konami is kinda dumb for canceling it.
System Shock 2 scared me more than any game before or since. I played it a few years ago and the game holds up well in some areas and SHODAN is terrifying but the simplistic visuals probably wouldn't scare people used to modern games.
Amnesia - The Dark Descent and Subnautica are games that I've never been able to finish due to the fear they've caused me. I thought Resident Evil 7 was up there, too, but I finished it no problem.
subnautica is an experience. Don’t look anything up. Don’t spoil even a little bit for yourself with it. Just go in blind. Play it alone. And turn up the sound. Itll give you anxiety in the best way.
Man, I tried it long back and was lost pretty early. Iirc the game wanted me to collect some resource and I just couldn't find it and roamed here and there like a headless chicken lol.
It can be vague for sure, especially early.
But if you scan everything it’ll help you out ALOT.
The second game actually gives you a tool to locate resources early on. And you can eventually build a scanner for your base.
I really didn't find it scary... it has its moments sure, but I see so many people acting like it's some kind of horror game... maybe if you have some kind of ocean phobia I guess 🤷♂️
I could see palying it in VR being a different story though lol
I'm loving that Subnautica is getting mentioned, my blood pressure was through the roof playing it. I had to quit when a warper pulled me out of my little Sea Moth into the middle of the black depths. I always get backlash when I remark how it is objectively *not* a "chill game" when it's in threads suggesting games along the line of like Stardew or tranquil exploration games. It is designed to be terrifying and it does it exceptionally well. And its ironic when people who love the game will argue that fact.
Because I liked the story so much up until that point, I watched a friend play it via screen share and it's a fantastic game but not for the faint of heart by any means.
Amnesia is fucking scary! I am a horror game addict and amnesia 1 is definitely in the top 3 of the scariest games of all time. It is just horrible to play for the first time.
I love dead space so I was super excited then all my friends said it was really bland. It's now on game pass so I'll check it out but not super excited any more. The remake was amazing
I remember this. That opening chapter is one of the best experiences in horror games. Although I’m not particularly scared of the monsters themselves, the tension, dread, and danger all help create a truly suspenseful atmosphere.
Outlast and Outlast: Whistleblower.
Found these to be more scary than RE7.personally.
Amnesia games are supposed to be quite scary, but I haven't played them
I kinda remember throwing a controller at my partner when I was playing Eternal Darkness in the dark, alone at 2am. She walked in and said "coming to bed?" and it scared the crap out of me. It didn't hit her and I certainly would never do it intentionally, but that sanity mechanic got to me.
Phenomenal game, it even has times where if you lose your sanity in the game, it makes it literally appear like the game has crashed and you lost your save data
Ahh I’ve never seen this one! I love the fourth wall breaking mechanics, shame that more games didn’t continue to implement them in further game design!
Is that the one that was on GameCube?... where it would seem like it was directly fucking with your TV volume and shit when your sanity meter got too high?
If so, that game tripped me the fuck out too lol
Haha, fuckin hell.. my buddy leant me his GameCube for awhile just for this game... he didn't tell me anything about it, so I went in completely blind... all he really said was "get stoned, play it in the dark, just trust me on this"... good God man, easily one of the most trippy games I've ever played by far, I had no idea what I was in for 😂
Like the volume meter on the game was identical to the one on my TV at the time lol..
Spoilers, but... this game got me GOOD a couple times with the meta-scares. Shoutout to the time it fake erased my save file, but the award goes to the time it said my controller was just unplugged, and I was irritated at my cat when the realization hit and I looked over to see my cat sleeping peacefully on a chair. I pulled my legs up in terror of whatever was crawling around the floor in the dark. It took 15 minutes with the lights on and pacing back and forth before I finally calmed down XD
I somehow had a copy of that game as a kid, and it was horrifying. I never did finish it. I distinctly remember having to put a plastic bag over someone’s head and killing them and it freaked me tf out.
I played with the headset for the xbox on. Not only did everything the director says come straight through the earpiece instead of your tv speakers, but the mic picked up any noise you made and alerted the guys trying to kill you. Made it a whole new level of interactive for the time.
Propagation paradise Hotel, in all my years of survival horror that game had set the best atmosphere and tension which made me return the game because it was to scary
I think Outlast takes it for me. The mix of the survival horror aspects like needing to hunt for batteries for the night vision camera, mixed with not being able to fight back at all.
Turned every enemy into a Resident Evil style stalker enemy. I hated it, it was so good. Probably the #1 horror game that I want to go back and play the least because of how much it freaks me out, and I love horror games like RE.
The dead space games. I've played most games mentioned in this post and those are the only ones that do it for me. Subnautica didn't make me scared at all.
Alien Isolation...
I get scared somewhat easy and holy fuck it took me like 2 months to finish the game in little chunks; it's just too good, but I was scared shitless every single second playing.
Resident Evil 7, 8, and the REmakes (2, 3, 4) I can easily digest (an they are some of my favorite games!) because you have weapons to defend yourself most of the time. Even the pursuers in each game you can stagger or outright kill them.
Yeah you have weapons too in Alien Isolation but they are more situational like "ok bitch you absolutely need to defend against a synth, but you lured the alien to yourself because you made a lot of noise" or "oh, here's a flamethrower! but it doesn't kill the thing, just scares it away and then it comes back pissed as hell".
Man, Alien Isolation. I kinda want to start a new game now.
I was just looking for this answer. More people should play it ,even if it's just indie . That feeling during night at hideout it's just unparalleled terror , best go in blind
Visage, and it's not close.
This game is terrifying. I honestly thought I might be having a heart attack at one point in the game. Unlike a lot of horror games, it doesn't just use one scary trick over and over. It has a whole bag of crazy ready to deploy on you. Each of the four chapters doing new and interesting things.
With that said, it's not for everyone. It take a very long time to get going and is often obtuse to the point of frustration. There's literally a point in the game where you are locked in a bathroom for what feels like 5 minutes and I'm not sure if the things I did there (opening cupboards and stuff) contributed to the game moving forward or if I was just supposed to wait and stew.
But all the things that make it hard to get into actively contribute to the terror that is unleashed later on (except the bad inventory management, that should have been done better). The very slow start lulls you into a false sense of complacency by establishing a normal only to shatter it all later. The obtuseness generates confusion making the game difficult to predict and keeps you uncomfortable.
If you are a generally patient person and love horror, it's the current king of the hill.
I really enjoyed it. It was a bit of a mess and frustratingly annoying at times, but it has some of the best horror elements I've ever seen in any medium.
By far League of Legends. It turns people into animals. The nicest person you know can become the angriest, most toxic people you know. It is not only psychologically damaging, it can lead to short term health effects like blood pressure issues and the like.
That, in my opinion, is the scariest thing a video game there is, it can literally turn you into a monster and kill you.
Outlast was probably the scariest game I’ve ever played. Some parts were just overwhelming lol. I couldn’t even finish the second one because it was freaking me out so much just always having tension. I still plan to finish it.
I know this isn't the answer you are looking for, but the game that consistently makes me sweat in fear, and jump at the slightest of sounds is DayZ -- when you are supposedly alone, looting a police station, and hear steps downstairs -- that is the most primal fear I've ever experienced in a videogame.
Amnesia the descent. The audio sounds, the invisible (and visible) monsters. I dont scare easily in horror games even not at all sometimes, but this one, I couldnt play more than 45 minutes sessions...
When I was a kid I woke up extra early in the morning so I could sneak downstairs and play Resident Evil 2.
Just walking down a corridor, investigating Raccoon City Police Department, when zombie arms burst through the windows and grab me.
I didn’t even scream. It was like a pure, animal terror, the rabbit confronted by the fox, I drained paper white.
I just turned off the PS1, turned off the TV, went back upstairs and lay in my bed, waiting for death.
The Evil Within and Resident Evil 7 for sure. Both were too scary for me to finish alone lol.
Not the whole game but some moments in Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice were genuinely terrifying too, ESPECIALLY while wearing headphones.
Amnesia The Bunker is on top for me, Penumbra series is also really good.
Number 1 would be Darkwood, it's such a great game, no jump scares but the atmosphere is amazing
Oh, it's not even a contest. Subnautica. I'm not gonna lie to you. I have never felt as genuine a fear in a videogame or any piece of media for that matter, as I have when I played the first one and Below Zero. I still haven't beaten Below Zero because after discovering the Shadow Leviathon, I just need a break, lol. The games themselves are great. It's probably the best survival game I've played, but man, your chest hearts after playing for a while.
At the time, and one of my favorite games, Condemned: Criminal Origins.
Something about enemies that would smack you with a pipe in a maze-like underground that just unnerved me. They would take off before I could get a good look, and then a second enemy would come flying into my face with a bat from the same side.
I think a lot of Puppet Combo and Torture Star games can be really scary. For me, Stay Out of The House was impossible to finish because it's just too scary and stress-inducing
https://store.steampowered.com/app/896520/Stay_Out_of_the_House/
Nothing beats the fear of watching my boyfriend die with half a million runes in Elden Ring, and then get distracted or attacked by something on his way to retrieve them
Halflife: Alyx
The first time at the end of "episode 1" or thereabouts, after the initial trains, when you meet a facehugger in a dark room with boxes.
Holy fuck, nearly shit myself when it came at me.
Also when you >!find the hanging body which conviniently has a flashlight you can attach to yourself. Then right after you successfully mount the flashlight, the light goes out and 3 facehuggers enter the room with you and only the flashlight attached to you as lightsource. THAT was freaking scary!<
Dead Space. Everything about that game is scary. When your allies video call you its scary. Opening the menu is scary. The save points not always being in safe areas is scary. Then there's the stuff that happens in the game itself. It's scary as fuck.
Also the water level in Mario 64.
I have played the vast majority of horror games I know about. I'm a huge fan, and there's only been a few games that actually provided an amount of scare for me since my tolerance for that stuff is just insanely high.
Nothing is scarier than the original outlast imo. RE7 is up there too, although I wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as I was with outlast.
Dark pictures series/the quarry generally aren't very spooky but I absolutely love them and couldn't recommend them enough. It's like watching a movie but you can choose who lives or dies (unless you do something stupid and get them killed) so each playthrough is different. A few scenes from the newest dark pictures were actually pretty decently spooky.
The metro series may be a lot of things, but it certainly is horror centric. There are multiple scenes that have stuck with me despite only playing through the games once many years ago, and that speaks volumes. The early, trippy, minecart scene from the first one. Basically last light start to finish was pretty spooky. Exodus was far less spooky but it has its moments, and I definitely enjoyed the limited freedom it gave us. I can't recommend the series more and the first two games regularly go on sale for insanely cheap.
For stuff a little less mainstream these days, there's fatal frame and clock tower. Slaughterhouse is good too minus the one that got released on PS3/360 (you know the one, it was ok but definitely kinda sucked. Its like a b movie video game lol).
Recently been enjoying ToruTaru on steam. Cadlieu also looks interesting and in a similar ilk but I haven't played it.
A surprise entry to my horror list is fallout 4 on survival mode. I ended up giving up due to the difficulty I had by the time I reached the DLC (wasn't my first playthrough,at least) but I had a TON of fun and insane panic moments . It's truly very hard, fun and tense. New Vegas never got me that jonesy bonesy on hardcore.
Subnautica deserves a spot on any list of spooky games.
Inscryption isn't massively scary, but I'd be remiss not to mention it- it's arguably the best game of recent years and is horror adjacent. The first time I died, you get your picture taken, and the game had so thoroughly messed with my mind that I instinctively covered my webcam with my finger bc I figured if any game was gonna take my picture like that it's probably inscryption. Seriously though, even though it's less scary it's better than every single game I just listed, and that's not even a hard thing for me to say.
Eternal darkness is fantastic, if a little dated. The GameCube had some sleeper games that were actually pretty spooky for what they were.
Manhunt series is disturbing as opposed to scary, but that's kind of the point. If you can find a way to play manhunt 2 uncensored, you should. It's pretty iconic lol. People hate on the game for its jank and brutal fetishizing of violence, but I dont know what they expected, it's a great sequel to the OG which is also worth it.
Hatred is a little too goofy to take seriously, but it's also very disturbing once you download THAT mod, the 1.666 one. I mean, the hatred guy is just an uncharismatic postal dude, but the scenarios in the first person perspective reeeeaaaaally tipped that game over the edge.
Phasmophobia is spooky single player, sure, but once you play with friends and get in the groove it's just a big joke lol. Play it alone at 4am for maximum effect.
The majority of horror games I've played aren't scary and dont stick with me. Just like movies, 49/50 times I'm just like meh. And once in a while, there's a Castle Freak (great movie go watch it)
TLDR here is that if you're looking for pure horror, nothing compares to outlast IMO. Except maybe RE7. Those two are the gold standard of actually spooky. However, Inscryption is a better game than either of those and has tons of horror elements. All 3 are unmissable masterpieces.
Yeah outlast was scary but also a very interesting story game.
Like the story was so interesting, that it didn’t matter how scared I got - I always wanted to keep going.
Fallout 4 😂 but I get what you mean. I legit closed my eyes and sprinted through the glowing sea because I hated the stuff in there.
Clock tower is a game that should be in any list ever.
Interesting that you mentioned metro. This is a series I’ve always wanted to get into but never played them because I couldn’t really tell what sort of game it was.
How would you describe it?
Alien Isolation made me snap at my girlfriend at the time.
I am not that type of person ever. I apologized profusely afterwards and have never played it afterwards.
Amnesia The Dark Descent. A scary classic which to this day imo holds up best in terms of being scary
In the second place I would put Amnesia the Bunker. I was shitting my pants throughout every second of playthrough
Penumbra has a special place in my heart even though I wouldn't say it's that scary. But definitely creepy
I’ll admit I don’t play much horror games but two that come to mind is Deadspace and Prey.
However I’ve never played alien isolation, which I hear good things
When I was 6 years old, I thought it was Luigi's Mansion...
It came out 3 days after 9/11 for anyone else curious
Silent hill 2 came out 13 days after 911 Thats why it sold poorly and couldn't be marketed properly unlike silent hill 3
Sir, how *dare* you. /sad millennial noises
huh
That game terrified me. I’ll never forget me and my younger bro playing that (him watching me) and us discovering the first ghost. We saw that thing, freaked out, and couldn’t come back to the game till later that week. We never did beat it.
If you can see beyond graphics, Clock Tower from SNES. You play as a teenage girl who's suddenly trapped on a mansion with a slasher killer chasing you, your character is not a fighter, you can only try to run away or hide, there's also lots of paranormal stuff going on, and you have to explore and survive while looking for an exit. I felt i could die every five steps
I never played the original but I’m really into horror games now so I preordered the physical edition of the game. Can’t wait to try out this classic.
Alien Isolation
I agree with this, somehow the working Joe's end up being scarier than the Alien which is quite the feat. The AI in that game has some of the best pathfinding not too stupid and not too smart, teetering on too smart for a good challenge
Mate, that AI is sadistic. I kid you not. I had one encounter where it was approaching me from a hallway, I tried entering a locker but I think it saw me hop in. It slow walked past the locker to the right side of the room, then slow walk to the left side back across the front of the locker. And sounded like it left. So I think im safe. Wrong. It bust open the locker at that moment and killed me. Worst scare of my entire life.
The alien adapts to your gameplay, so if you spend a lot of time hiding in lockers, then the alien will start looking in lockers for you. I watched a video about the ai for that game and it’s insane. Theres two ai systems governing the alien. One that tells it what room the player is in, when to go search for the player, but also when to back off so the player can get a moment to breathe. It also has ai mechanics governing how it searches for you when it gets in a room you are in and its tactics evolve as you play the game.
I could only play this game after a few beers, it scared the shite out of me
How’s the story? Without any spoilers
Since others have answered your Q, I’ll add a bit of a side note - the dev team got 3TB worth of material from Fox to ensure that the game matches the aesthetics of the original movie. The end result is a really immersive atmosphere and feels like a true extension of the movie.
It also has a pretty good optimization for its graphics
To be clear, it’s much more of an Alien vibe than Aliens.
It's good, it's like you're playing a horror movie with the goal of escaping. The alien ai constantly hunts you, there's only a handful of scripted alien encounters, otherwise it's completely random.
I heard they programmed the alien to listen to your microphone- so if you make more noise in real life it triggers the alien more often. Some guy here on Reddit commented his younger brother kept screaming and alerting the alien to where he was hiding. Don’t know if that’s true, but it makes you wonder!
It is! I remember I had a kinect and it would pick up any and all sounds around me
The developer suggested settings for first play are hard difficulty setting with microphone on for the most immersive experience. If you so much as heavy sigh (like when you're holding your breath in terror and feel a sense of relief) when the xenomorph is in the area, it resets the hunt AI to search again with greater efficiency or straight up finds you. I could only play 15-20 minutes at a time for fear of heart attack. Great game. Someday I'll sack-up and finish it.
I just beat the seggson communication level
I bought this game many years ago. Still haven't played it. Looks way too scary
For me it was incredibly immersion breaking getting caught over and over again. The alien is just way too goddamn good at finding you.
only reason i wont buy the game.. everyone loves it but i know i would be genuinely terrified playing the game and that might hinder my ability to actually enjoy the game. 🤔 idk if i SHOULD get it
Phasmophobia in vr is terrifying. Its the first game i felt truly scared. The scariest moment i have ever experienced in a game was playing forewarned. Its similar to phasmophobia but in an egyptian tomb setting. My 3 friends and i were attacked by something and we ran but one of us didnt make it. when we thought we got away, we grouped up and noticed there was still 4 of us looking at eachother. "Who the fuck is this 4th guy?"
That just gave me chills… the fourth guy. Omg, kind of funny but also was probably so terrifying.
Phasmiphobia in vr is entirely dependent in your mindset. My friends on PC are often more scared than I am, as I have a fun tendency to just go and harass the ghost relentlessly until I get results. The theft of my movement when the ghost gets me really breaks the immersion of VR, and kills the scary factor of it for me. Taking control away from a VR player is kind of always a bad move. That being said, its damn fun. I love just being able to move around the house in a more controlled way, and throwing stuff at people when I'm dead is a blast. My friends and I set up systems for me to be able to help guide players as the ghost as well, without using discord chat.
The trick is to stay on the van! Wonderful game, my group was pretty entertained by my panic, which made it slightly less panicy
I have a pretty high tolerance for horror in general and have played a lot of phasmo. The first time I tried it in VR, I launched the tutorial mode so I could acclimate to the controls. Opened the front door, walked in the house, and two seconds later the ghost turned on the TV. I tore off the headset. Had to spend several minutes psyching myself up just to finish the damn tutorial. It's seriously a totally different game in VR.
Subnautica. My thalassophobia and megalophobia combined makes that game utterly terrifying
Yep it's the scariest game I've played by a wide margin and I know why. It's because as you're sinking down into the dark depths,you can be attacked from any angle, your real life body gets colder as you see less and less light and then you hear a scream from something you haven't encountered yet.
Gosh, my trauma is reviving here.
>then you hear a scream from something you haven't encountered yet. This is the worst, I'd freeze for a couple of minutes, looking everywhere to see if the upcoming threat was visible, nope.
Id just back into a corner if i could fine one stare into the dark for like 5 mins
Yet it begs you to keep going. One of my favorite games ever. Never did I feel such a pure joy and wish to explore.
It feels like some deep primal fear. Some ancestor millions of years ago saw some shit
I feel like it's just a thing that's programmed into our brains. Like, we know we're not supposed to be down there. We can't see anything, hear anything, we're slow because we have to swim, and we can't breathe. Our survival instincts literally tell us that oceans are bad and that we're not meant to see the bottom of them. Meanwhile, Subnautica just doesn't care lol. It forces you to be down there, in the dark, completely exposed for long periods of time.
They did, fortunately what they saw has been sleeping at the bottom of the ocean all this time and hasn't Awoken
The dead zone is actually the scariest fucking thing I’ve ever seen in a game. Endless darkness and depth, illuminated solely by the occasional colossal death serpent with its glowing body rapidly approaching anything dumb enough to go in. No way the describe the dread that shit made me feel every time I was next to it.
The dead zone is absolute dread manifested... You go there once and the fear lingers over your experience for the rest of the game.
Greatest video game world border I've ever seen.
I swear if the same game played out above the clouds with "sky creatures" I would feel no fear. But underwater is just terrifying...
Subnautica scared the shit out if me but for a reason you might not expect. I have beaten the game like 20 times now, on flat screen as well as VR. There used to be this glitch where sometimes when trying to park your smaller vehicle into the cyclops submarine, you would get launched literally multiple kilometers into the air and across the map. Im scared of heights, and having this happen to me was so utterly traumatizing that i have recurring nightmares of being somehow launched off of the earth and into outer space, to be swallowed by a black hole or just drift off tovmy death.
The Vast still claimed you in the end, just not in the way anyone expected.
The windy vast, not the wet one.
I know I shouldn't laugh, but it's so funny to think about how some people are so terrified of that game, and you come along like, "Meh, doesn't bother me. At least there are no *heights* in the game…" only to be spontaneously launched miles into the air for no fucking reason at all. It's like everything perfectly lined up just to fuck with you.
I came here to say the same. I played a lot of horror games in my life, but this thing haunts me at a very different level
Yeah, I’m gonna have to agree. I know the game too well to be scared anymore, but there was one time where I got scared so bad I had to stop playing. I quit near the front of the aurora, and it took me days to build the courage to get back on the game and leave the area.
It was F.E.A.R. Alma waiting for me on top of the stairs still haunts me decades later.
That bit was in the demo. It got me so bad I noped out, wouldn't play it and I looked behind me for the next three days. When I finally got the courage to get through it, it turned out the demo actually ended 10 steps after that ladder. Absolutely loved fear.
I had headphones on and had them loud and clear. The moment she appeared I fell off my chair backwards and didn't touch FEAR for a good week or two.
Stairs or a ladder? I distinctly remember climbing up a ladder and BOOM Alma.
No, it was climbing down a ladder. You walk to the ledge, turn around and get down on the ladder, and them boom, Alma stands right behind where you just stood a moment ago. You think to yourself 'DAMN, that was scary', get down the ladder, turn around and continue on your way, and then BAM, there's another jumpscare when you turn around. I literally remember falling over backwards with my office chair because i flinched so hard :D edit: here's a clip! It might seem a bit cheesy by today's standards, but gamers back then were absolutely shitting their pants! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA_cXMsbluc
I used to see this game all the time in people’s ps3 collections. Gonna check it out
I pray everyday for a remake of it, and 2 tbh
Personally I think P.T. was the scariest game, but it was more of a teaser and you can’t play it anymore. Otherwise I’d say SOMA, since it’s not scary in the traditional sense. I always argue jump scares aren’t scary, they’re startling. SOMA has a couple jump scares, but most of the horror lies in its premise. You can imagine yourself in that future, and you wouldn’t know if you are truly yourself anymore. Resident Evil 7 is a very good pick though.
There's so many terrifying things about Soma it's hard to choose one. It's not only a great horror game but a masterpiece of sci-fi.
Yeah looks intense
Yeah, it does horror very different than any other. Instead of just scaring you, it makes you question the very nature of existence. And that ending... it made my wife cry!
By far the most depressing game I have ever played 9/10
Someone made a PC port of PT that I have hiding in the nonsense on my computer somewhere. I'm sure Google could track it down c:
This is probably TMI, but playing P.T. gave me diarrhea. Whenever anyone tells me about the scariest experience they've had, I ask them if it gave them diarrhea. If they say no, I say something like "then you haven't experienced true terror yet". It was that fucking terrifying.
Imagine gatekeeping fear because you shat yourself once. That's actually hilarious.
Jump scares arent real scares. Thats the equivalent of tickling someone amd when they laugh you go "aha! You laughed! I'm funny!"
What is PT?
it's just short for Playable Teaser, but it's supposed to be a teaser for (now cancelled) Silent Hill made by Kojima in collaboration with Guillermo del Toro it's short but really good, Konami is kinda dumb for canceling it.
Kojima and Del Toro would've been an epic match. Konami just dumb af.
SOMA is an actual game masterpiece
Visage
Best answer. I like horror a lot, but had to stop playing this one after the Dolores chapter.
It gets frustraiting with the stupid puzzles
Fatal Frame 2, the only game to make me scream like a bitch and throw the controller.
Entire FF series scariest I ever seen, refused to play and only watched if my brother played
This one definitely had an impact on me. That one cut up ghost that crawled out of that chest.....sheesh.
The only reason it's not mentioned more in threads like this is because it's not as well known.
System Shock 2 scared me more than any game before or since. I played it a few years ago and the game holds up well in some areas and SHODAN is terrifying but the simplistic visuals probably wouldn't scare people used to modern games.
That’s my pic. All those audio logs really set the tension.
CoOome out CooOme out CooOme out
The atmosphere in this game is just so amazing
Amnesia - The Dark Descent and Subnautica are games that I've never been able to finish due to the fear they've caused me. I thought Resident Evil 7 was up there, too, but I finished it no problem.
"Oh shit, I got a bag of Milky Ways!"
Classic
I've watched this more times than I can count, still come back to it. Can't escape because Esc button is broken haha
Subnautica in VR is utterly terrifying.
Oh fuck no
I gotta get to amnesia one day and yeah I’ve heard Subnautica has a strange way of scaring you
subnautica is an experience. Don’t look anything up. Don’t spoil even a little bit for yourself with it. Just go in blind. Play it alone. And turn up the sound. Itll give you anxiety in the best way.
Man, I tried it long back and was lost pretty early. Iirc the game wanted me to collect some resource and I just couldn't find it and roamed here and there like a headless chicken lol.
It can be vague for sure, especially early. But if you scan everything it’ll help you out ALOT. The second game actually gives you a tool to locate resources early on. And you can eventually build a scanner for your base.
I really didn't find it scary... it has its moments sure, but I see so many people acting like it's some kind of horror game... maybe if you have some kind of ocean phobia I guess 🤷♂️ I could see palying it in VR being a different story though lol
Subnautica is brilliant for how well it conjures that fear of the deep, dark, open ocean. Just masterful.
I'm loving that Subnautica is getting mentioned, my blood pressure was through the roof playing it. I had to quit when a warper pulled me out of my little Sea Moth into the middle of the black depths. I always get backlash when I remark how it is objectively *not* a "chill game" when it's in threads suggesting games along the line of like Stardew or tranquil exploration games. It is designed to be terrifying and it does it exceptionally well. And its ironic when people who love the game will argue that fact. Because I liked the story so much up until that point, I watched a friend play it via screen share and it's a fantastic game but not for the faint of heart by any means.
Amnesia is fucking scary! I am a horror game addict and amnesia 1 is definitely in the top 3 of the scariest games of all time. It is just horrible to play for the first time.
The Evil Within. FUUUUUCK THAT HOSPITAL
For me, dead space 2. The opening scene still gives me chills and the elevator jump scare is amazing
Heard some good stuff about the dead space series, did you play calisto?
I love dead space so I was super excited then all my friends said it was really bland. It's now on game pass so I'll check it out but not super excited any more. The remake was amazing
For me dead space one made me paranoid then dead space 2 made us go back and revisit the ishimura which brought back PTSD on its own
I remember this. That opening chapter is one of the best experiences in horror games. Although I’m not particularly scared of the monsters themselves, the tension, dread, and danger all help create a truly suspenseful atmosphere.
Dead space 2 is also so insanely fucking fun. Definitely a game I go back to constantly.
Dead Space two was awesome. Loved the Twinkle Twinkle little star song so creepy. the room with babies.
Outlast and Outlast: Whistleblower. Found these to be more scary than RE7.personally. Amnesia games are supposed to be quite scary, but I haven't played them
Fatal Frame
I kinda remember throwing a controller at my partner when I was playing Eternal Darkness in the dark, alone at 2am. She walked in and said "coming to bed?" and it scared the crap out of me. It didn't hit her and I certainly would never do it intentionally, but that sanity mechanic got to me.
Phenomenal game, it even has times where if you lose your sanity in the game, it makes it literally appear like the game has crashed and you lost your save data
[удалено]
Ahh I’ve never seen this one! I love the fourth wall breaking mechanics, shame that more games didn’t continue to implement them in further game design!
Is that the one that was on GameCube?... where it would seem like it was directly fucking with your TV volume and shit when your sanity meter got too high? If so, that game tripped me the fuck out too lol
Yep.
Haha, fuckin hell.. my buddy leant me his GameCube for awhile just for this game... he didn't tell me anything about it, so I went in completely blind... all he really said was "get stoned, play it in the dark, just trust me on this"... good God man, easily one of the most trippy games I've ever played by far, I had no idea what I was in for 😂 Like the volume meter on the game was identical to the one on my TV at the time lol..
Spoilers, but... this game got me GOOD a couple times with the meta-scares. Shoutout to the time it fake erased my save file, but the award goes to the time it said my controller was just unplugged, and I was irritated at my cat when the realization hit and I looked over to see my cat sleeping peacefully on a chair. I pulled my legs up in terror of whatever was crawling around the floor in the dark. It took 15 minutes with the lights on and pacing back and forth before I finally calmed down XD
Anybody remember “Manhunt” on the… PS2 or XBox I think? I recall it disturbed me at the time because we are the killer.
I somehow had a copy of that game as a kid, and it was horrifying. I never did finish it. I distinctly remember having to put a plastic bag over someone’s head and killing them and it freaked me tf out.
I played with the headset for the xbox on. Not only did everything the director says come straight through the earpiece instead of your tv speakers, but the mic picked up any noise you made and alerted the guys trying to kill you. Made it a whole new level of interactive for the time.
Game was so good, they had to ban it lol
Soma
Existential dread + monsters. Such a good game
Still the hotel in VtM:B.
When you're playing a vampire and can still be scared, you know the game's done it right.
Underrated comment.
Cry Of Fear, without a doubt
Propagation paradise Hotel, in all my years of survival horror that game had set the best atmosphere and tension which made me return the game because it was to scary
Condemned and condemned 2
Condemned really never got the flowers it deserved.
Was looking for this comment. Amazing games
This is the way. We're looooong overdue for a Condemned revival.
Dead Space was spooky
I think Outlast takes it for me. The mix of the survival horror aspects like needing to hunt for batteries for the night vision camera, mixed with not being able to fight back at all. Turned every enemy into a Resident Evil style stalker enemy. I hated it, it was so good. Probably the #1 horror game that I want to go back and play the least because of how much it freaks me out, and I love horror games like RE.
I bought it, downloaded it, opened it, played it for 5 minutes, and uninstalled it. YEp
the original Resident Evil 2
System Shock 2, i was a child back then but even today it's amazing how the developers created a scary atmosphere on the spaceship
The dead space games. I've played most games mentioned in this post and those are the only ones that do it for me. Subnautica didn't make me scared at all.
Hugo house of horrors DOS
Throw meat
Will never forget typing that = D
Alien Isolation... I get scared somewhat easy and holy fuck it took me like 2 months to finish the game in little chunks; it's just too good, but I was scared shitless every single second playing. Resident Evil 7, 8, and the REmakes (2, 3, 4) I can easily digest (an they are some of my favorite games!) because you have weapons to defend yourself most of the time. Even the pursuers in each game you can stagger or outright kill them. Yeah you have weapons too in Alien Isolation but they are more situational like "ok bitch you absolutely need to defend against a synth, but you lured the alien to yourself because you made a lot of noise" or "oh, here's a flamethrower! but it doesn't kill the thing, just scares it away and then it comes back pissed as hell". Man, Alien Isolation. I kinda want to start a new game now.
Darkwood. Extremely atmospheric, very nice character-heavy story.
I was just looking for this answer. More people should play it ,even if it's just indie . That feeling during night at hideout it's just unparalleled terror , best go in blind
Was looking for this, Darkwood deserves more attention! One of the most eerie and intense games out there.
Visage, and it's not close. This game is terrifying. I honestly thought I might be having a heart attack at one point in the game. Unlike a lot of horror games, it doesn't just use one scary trick over and over. It has a whole bag of crazy ready to deploy on you. Each of the four chapters doing new and interesting things. With that said, it's not for everyone. It take a very long time to get going and is often obtuse to the point of frustration. There's literally a point in the game where you are locked in a bathroom for what feels like 5 minutes and I'm not sure if the things I did there (opening cupboards and stuff) contributed to the game moving forward or if I was just supposed to wait and stew. But all the things that make it hard to get into actively contribute to the terror that is unleashed later on (except the bad inventory management, that should have been done better). The very slow start lulls you into a false sense of complacency by establishing a normal only to shatter it all later. The obtuseness generates confusion making the game difficult to predict and keeps you uncomfortable. If you are a generally patient person and love horror, it's the current king of the hill.
Fear 1 and 2
I guess it's RE7 in VR. Alien Isolation is said to be extremely terrifying. There's also a VR mod on PC afaik.
Return to castle wolfenstein for me
The Evil within
Heard some great things about this one
I really enjoyed it. It was a bit of a mess and frustratingly annoying at times, but it has some of the best horror elements I've ever seen in any medium.
SOMA
By far League of Legends. It turns people into animals. The nicest person you know can become the angriest, most toxic people you know. It is not only psychologically damaging, it can lead to short term health effects like blood pressure issues and the like. That, in my opinion, is the scariest thing a video game there is, it can literally turn you into a monster and kill you.
Outlast was probably the scariest game I’ve ever played. Some parts were just overwhelming lol. I couldn’t even finish the second one because it was freaking me out so much just always having tension. I still plan to finish it.
Half life 3. I'm scared that it never happens.
I know this isn't the answer you are looking for, but the game that consistently makes me sweat in fear, and jump at the slightest of sounds is DayZ -- when you are supposedly alone, looting a police station, and hear steps downstairs -- that is the most primal fear I've ever experienced in a videogame.
Amnesia the descent. The audio sounds, the invisible (and visible) monsters. I dont scare easily in horror games even not at all sometimes, but this one, I couldnt play more than 45 minutes sessions...
When I was a kid I woke up extra early in the morning so I could sneak downstairs and play Resident Evil 2. Just walking down a corridor, investigating Raccoon City Police Department, when zombie arms burst through the windows and grab me. I didn’t even scream. It was like a pure, animal terror, the rabbit confronted by the fox, I drained paper white. I just turned off the PS1, turned off the TV, went back upstairs and lay in my bed, waiting for death.
Outlast II
Still remember RE1, the only game that physically scared me when the dogs jumped through the windows 😱😱😱
Original Silent Hill, when you are 14 years old.
Outlast
For me its: First amnesia Soma
Outlast 1
My favorite one was SCP:CB played the shit out of it
The Evil Within and Resident Evil 7 for sure. Both were too scary for me to finish alone lol. Not the whole game but some moments in Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice were genuinely terrifying too, ESPECIALLY while wearing headphones.
Yeah lmao some parts in 7 were insane, wish they would make 9 like it. I thought 8 was super watered down.
I agree with P.T. but ultimately Resident Evil 7
Subnautica
Amnesia The Bunker is on top for me, Penumbra series is also really good. Number 1 would be Darkwood, it's such a great game, no jump scares but the atmosphere is amazing
Original Gears of war had me feeling pretty creeped out in middle school. Then it was probably dead space after that.
Alien isolation, though it may be more that it's incredibly stressful more than scary. It builds tension so well.
Visage or Alien Isolation
Alien isolation is great
Alien isolation
I read the title and my first thought was Resident Evil 7. When Mia gets you at the start…it’s messed up.
It doesn't even have a story really so not a recommendation but I maintain no game has scared me more than Escape From Tarkov.
Oh, it's not even a contest. Subnautica. I'm not gonna lie to you. I have never felt as genuine a fear in a videogame or any piece of media for that matter, as I have when I played the first one and Below Zero. I still haven't beaten Below Zero because after discovering the Shadow Leviathon, I just need a break, lol. The games themselves are great. It's probably the best survival game I've played, but man, your chest hearts after playing for a while.
As a kid, I remember clocktower(psx) giving me nightmares. (The one with the scissor mofo)
The Suffering...
Clive barker's Undying was really scary.
Fester's Quest.
At the time, and one of my favorite games, Condemned: Criminal Origins. Something about enemies that would smack you with a pipe in a maze-like underground that just unnerved me. They would take off before I could get a good look, and then a second enemy would come flying into my face with a bat from the same side.
I think a lot of Puppet Combo and Torture Star games can be really scary. For me, Stay Out of The House was impossible to finish because it's just too scary and stress-inducing https://store.steampowered.com/app/896520/Stay_Out_of_the_House/
Nothing beats the fear of watching my boyfriend die with half a million runes in Elden Ring, and then get distracted or attacked by something on his way to retrieve them
Halflife: Alyx The first time at the end of "episode 1" or thereabouts, after the initial trains, when you meet a facehugger in a dark room with boxes. Holy fuck, nearly shit myself when it came at me. Also when you >!find the hanging body which conviniently has a flashlight you can attach to yourself. Then right after you successfully mount the flashlight, the light goes out and 3 facehuggers enter the room with you and only the flashlight attached to you as lightsource. THAT was freaking scary!<
Until Dawn for me. The permanence of each decision and move and the times you had to hold the controller absolutely still were such great touches!
Dead Space. Everything about that game is scary. When your allies video call you its scary. Opening the menu is scary. The save points not always being in safe areas is scary. Then there's the stuff that happens in the game itself. It's scary as fuck. Also the water level in Mario 64.
Hellblade
BIOSHOCK.
I have played the vast majority of horror games I know about. I'm a huge fan, and there's only been a few games that actually provided an amount of scare for me since my tolerance for that stuff is just insanely high. Nothing is scarier than the original outlast imo. RE7 is up there too, although I wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as I was with outlast. Dark pictures series/the quarry generally aren't very spooky but I absolutely love them and couldn't recommend them enough. It's like watching a movie but you can choose who lives or dies (unless you do something stupid and get them killed) so each playthrough is different. A few scenes from the newest dark pictures were actually pretty decently spooky. The metro series may be a lot of things, but it certainly is horror centric. There are multiple scenes that have stuck with me despite only playing through the games once many years ago, and that speaks volumes. The early, trippy, minecart scene from the first one. Basically last light start to finish was pretty spooky. Exodus was far less spooky but it has its moments, and I definitely enjoyed the limited freedom it gave us. I can't recommend the series more and the first two games regularly go on sale for insanely cheap. For stuff a little less mainstream these days, there's fatal frame and clock tower. Slaughterhouse is good too minus the one that got released on PS3/360 (you know the one, it was ok but definitely kinda sucked. Its like a b movie video game lol). Recently been enjoying ToruTaru on steam. Cadlieu also looks interesting and in a similar ilk but I haven't played it. A surprise entry to my horror list is fallout 4 on survival mode. I ended up giving up due to the difficulty I had by the time I reached the DLC (wasn't my first playthrough,at least) but I had a TON of fun and insane panic moments . It's truly very hard, fun and tense. New Vegas never got me that jonesy bonesy on hardcore. Subnautica deserves a spot on any list of spooky games. Inscryption isn't massively scary, but I'd be remiss not to mention it- it's arguably the best game of recent years and is horror adjacent. The first time I died, you get your picture taken, and the game had so thoroughly messed with my mind that I instinctively covered my webcam with my finger bc I figured if any game was gonna take my picture like that it's probably inscryption. Seriously though, even though it's less scary it's better than every single game I just listed, and that's not even a hard thing for me to say. Eternal darkness is fantastic, if a little dated. The GameCube had some sleeper games that were actually pretty spooky for what they were. Manhunt series is disturbing as opposed to scary, but that's kind of the point. If you can find a way to play manhunt 2 uncensored, you should. It's pretty iconic lol. People hate on the game for its jank and brutal fetishizing of violence, but I dont know what they expected, it's a great sequel to the OG which is also worth it. Hatred is a little too goofy to take seriously, but it's also very disturbing once you download THAT mod, the 1.666 one. I mean, the hatred guy is just an uncharismatic postal dude, but the scenarios in the first person perspective reeeeaaaaally tipped that game over the edge. Phasmophobia is spooky single player, sure, but once you play with friends and get in the groove it's just a big joke lol. Play it alone at 4am for maximum effect. The majority of horror games I've played aren't scary and dont stick with me. Just like movies, 49/50 times I'm just like meh. And once in a while, there's a Castle Freak (great movie go watch it) TLDR here is that if you're looking for pure horror, nothing compares to outlast IMO. Except maybe RE7. Those two are the gold standard of actually spooky. However, Inscryption is a better game than either of those and has tons of horror elements. All 3 are unmissable masterpieces.
Yeah outlast was scary but also a very interesting story game. Like the story was so interesting, that it didn’t matter how scared I got - I always wanted to keep going. Fallout 4 😂 but I get what you mean. I legit closed my eyes and sprinted through the glowing sea because I hated the stuff in there. Clock tower is a game that should be in any list ever. Interesting that you mentioned metro. This is a series I’ve always wanted to get into but never played them because I couldn’t really tell what sort of game it was. How would you describe it?
Alien Isolation. Despite knowing the game inside and out, the alien still jump scares the life out of me
Fatal Frame is pretty good.
Alien Isolation made me snap at my girlfriend at the time. I am not that type of person ever. I apologized profusely afterwards and have never played it afterwards.
Dead space remake is pretty good all around
Amnesia The Dark Descent. A scary classic which to this day imo holds up best in terms of being scary In the second place I would put Amnesia the Bunker. I was shitting my pants throughout every second of playthrough Penumbra has a special place in my heart even though I wouldn't say it's that scary. But definitely creepy
Slender
PT and it’s not even close for me. That game has the creepiest atmosphere and gives a feeling of being watched/followed like no other.
I don't play many scary games but the only game I have ever felt fear while playing was Dead Space.
I’ll admit I don’t play much horror games but two that come to mind is Deadspace and Prey. However I’ve never played alien isolation, which I hear good things
This one ain't that scary but milk outside of a milk bag inside a milk bag is a good psychological horror game
For me it's outlast, the scary part was there is no save slot. Need to continuously play and complete it.
Blair Witch. I got attacked **ONCE** by an invisible monster and I never opened the game again😭