Horror Games

So, the other day, I've played Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

It's scary. Quite scary, even. Yes, I would go as far as to describe it as genuinely terrifying. The athmosphere it has created in that first hour I played was amazing. There's no wonder its so easy to find reaction-videos of people screaming in fear for this game (though don't watch them so you don't spoiler it).
So if you like that kind of experience, by all means, go and buy it and support those developers! Not sure? Have a Review then!

I've also played Project Zero/Fatal Frame, which was also very scary (though it's far, far less so than Amnesia), and before that, Resident Evil 4 (which isn't very scary to be honest).

What other games of that kind does this community enjoy and recommend?

I especially loved their previous game penumbra and even more its first extension.
Less scarry, but also with a great atmosphere and awesome gameplay.

I can only recommend Dead Space 2. Maybe it´s not that scary, but the Athmosphere is awesome!!

If you like Amnesia, then I HIGHLY recommend Silent Hill 2. But don't go and try Dead Space, I've only played the first part and it really disappointed me. It's not scary at all, rather slightly startling at best. Kinda like Doom 3, only prettier and with slightly better atmosphere.
As far as I can tell, "Call of Cthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth" looks quite promising, but I never actually had the opportunity to play it. Somebody also told me that Condemned is quite scary. But then again, that person also likes Resident Evil....

BUT if you want to check out some other awesome and quite frightening indie horror game, go and give Cryostasis a try, you won't regret it. Provided you like quite slow pacing and movement. Personally, I really enjoyed it.

Ctulhu wasnt very good, unfortunately.
RE5 sucks donkey balls, but RE4 is hands down the best in the series.
Ofcourse 1,2,3 are great, but nowadays only fans can really digest that type of slow gameplay anymore (me :D).

And yes, Condemned (not the 2nd part) is really scary!

enjoy

I had seen the demos and reviews of Amnesia, so I knew it was great. But I just bought a copy yesterday, and it really is something else. It's a casual game, but it's got style... Unlike other casual games, like UNO for XBLA.

I'd agree with you that it's terrifying, too. This is the first time I've felt that way about a game. The whole experience is like watching Alien for the first time.

I always split horror games into 2 categories:
1) "Scary" as sudden things appear, scream, scare you (you jump)
2) The atmosphere gives you a constant uncomfortable and spooky feeling but you don't get just instantly scared (people jump infront of you saying BOO!).

I don't like the first ones. I don't like it to jump and get scared. It's kinda a lame way to scare people, its way too easy.
But creating an atmosphere where you feel terrified all the time even, or especially, if nothing happens at all, is just awesome.

So yeah i watched a lets play of Amnesia and it was really scary already, even though i didnt play it, but they did a really good job with that game.

Games like the new RE games or dead space 1/2 sucks. Dead Space 2 really pisses me off when i watch people playing it. Feels like 80% of your time you stump on dead body parts to get items, and its just gross and annoying And i never felt scared in any situation, except for those "instant appear and make BOO" scare moments, which sucks.

One of the scariest games i've played is Clock Tower 1... that scared the shit out of me when i was younger, especially when i once got so scared i pulled out the Playstation controller and couldn't run away, i freaked out and pulled the plug

i found the first system shock extremely scary as a teenager. especially when playing in the middle of the night in a dark room.

...but i don't like such games at all anymore. why should i make myself feel miserable? there are better things to do.

You feel my pain, then. Imagine spending an entire afternoon doing just that.

I loved Cthulhu! It's the best horror (and detective) game I've ever played!
I liked Silent Hill (best for me is 2 and 4, rest are suck). RE4 is just awesome!
But truly speaking, I've never played (or even watched horror movie) witch really scared me and made me shit my pants!

@ 3run: you REALLY consider Silent Hill 4 to be good? Wow, never thought I'd hear that joke again... But anyway, if you want to shit bricks because of a game, try Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

Yeah, I think Silent Hill 4 is good (at least for me, it was interesting to play), and that wasn't a joke BTW, but I'm happy that it made u laugh
I'll try Amnesia soon and I'm really sure that there will be nothing that will make me shit bricks (good combination of words ).

EDIT: just watched trailer, have to say that gameplay looks awesome, but still no bricks

3run, play the Amnesia-demo, and record yourself doing that (audio only is okay), then upload that.


Actually, the truth is, I meet with a few friends and we play through those games. Those are really, really great with the right kind of people to play through.

Once, there might have been a scream. Not from me. I'm more the "gets-paralyzed"-type.

OK, I'll record my voice while playing through it I'll be fair, I'll record from the first minute I'll start a game.
I have to say, that I never got scared in my life, may be that sounds strange... but even if I've seen a lot of scary things, I was never scared.

Guys, I just tried it out. Sorry, I wasn't able to record it ATM (but I'll), have to say that there is nothing special, no bricks yet
It looks really great - graphics, sounds etc. For me its some kind of Call of Cthulhu clone. But with better graphics and sounds.

Did you pass the water room where you need to stand on boxes?
Everythig before that is kinda "quiet" and more like an introduction.

EDIT: I saw you played the demo, never did so not sure what they show in there.

Exactly that scene is in the demo, Kiyaku!

No, I just bought the game, so I just started playing from the beginning.
I was playing like for 20 minutes, and I got only to the Wine Cellar.

That water stuff is where I am stuck since the first day it was released -.-
I mean I throw those body parts into the water, run to the next room and close the door. And what happens? that thingy, whatever it is starts destroying the door behind me and finally breaks through while I am still trying to open the next door...
Well, I think I only tried one or two times actually and should probably give it another one hoping that it doesn´t keep scaring me to death .

I remember running, eventually getting beaten to death, and then never starting the demo again.

It's good at what it does.

Jibb

The zombies' usual lumbering is kind of deceiving. They are actually very, very fast.

Imagine my surprise when I decided that, instead of waiting in a room for a zombie to come get me, I decided that I would make a break for it out of the room and simply run around him. Hehe, bad decision. The zombie quickly charged at me and tore my helpless body to pieces.

Needless to say I've never overestimated my ability to outsmart or outrun monsters in that game ever again.

I enjoyed call of cthulhu a lot. It was only programmed by 1 guy so it has some issues. It is a good conversion of the pen and paper campaign escape from innsmouth.
I played the first hours of condemned but wasnt too happy with it because it is more a simple ego shooter than horror.

I can highly recommend to those who liked amnesia to play penumbra 1&2 (requiem [part 3] is more a series of puzzles than a game). Penumbra is btw the predecessor of amnesia.

Now I've loosed my mind... didn't know that Call of Cthulhu was made by one guy Game is so great!

Only one guy? That can't be true. Are we talking about dark corners of the earth here? Because in that case, Bethesda was involved, and I'm pretty sure that they had more than just one programmer back then already... It would also help to look up the credits btw.

Speaking of which....

yeah, definatly not a single guy. I know my old colleague Malcolm Grant worked on that one...

Horror games lol. I never cared much for the genre because it seems like most of them get you scared by having things jump out at you. That's actually fine by me, but not when it's contrived. Hell Shadowgrounds made me leap out of my seat multiple times and I loved it, but it sure wasn't scary. I do like Dead Space actually, but for the awesome atmosphere.

A game doesn't have to be a horror game to be scary, in fact the scariest games I ever played were not horrors at all. What games need to do is create good characters, put them in peril.

Scariest moment in any game I ever played was the encounter with Sniper Wolf in the original Metal Gear Solid. I was like, "Holy shit is she dead?"
Followed by that was the notorious "Breakup" scene in The Darkness. I swear I nearly broke my thumbsticks trying to move. I honestly can't think of scene that made me more emotional. I couldn't believe it had happened, it was really that shocking. Amazingly the game manages to carry the momentum all the way to the end.