Favorite Horror Games [Work In Progress]

It being October, the month where the US (and most of the world after I Google'd) celebrates witchcraft, devil magic and other hoopla, I thought it'd be a great time to check out some of our favorite horror games, as well as some awesome upcoming ones.

First let's go over series' in general:

5. Fatal Frame

Now, I've only played ONE of the FF games, an atrocity I know, but it was a lot of fun and I've been wanting to play the others and been hoping for a next gen (last gen) game.

The first, and only FF game I played was Crimson Butterfly, I don't know about the other games, but playing as a little Japanese girl who is looking for her possessed twin in a burnt down old town is pretty damn scary. Not to mention the ghosts, who all are incredibly disturbing and pop up at the most terrible of times.

Nope....

Many of the ghosts have great individual personalities, by that I mean that they are not all copy/paste attack you until one of you is dead, type ghosts. There are many that are harmless (and those are the scariest), like the infamous 'Peeking Child', a child who died playing hide-and-seek, he just POPS OUT OF NOWHERE, scary little bastard....

Another bit I forgot about:

At one point on the second floor of the Tachibana house, there is a secret room/storeroom Mio can go into. Entering will trigger the sound of a girl saying "Help me" over and over again. When you peer through the camera, the otherwise blank walls have the same characters in Japanese written everywhere. Attempting to leave results in the door being locked. About two minutes inside leads to the voice fading and the door opening again. Nothing attacks you, and there is nothing in there. It's simply a room to freak you out.

There's one scene at the beginning of the game where Mio (twin #1) is standing in front of Mayu (twin #2), and you can only see Mio in the shot. Someone puts their hand on Mio's shoulder, and while not initially scary, you just see Mayu walk past her and the hand is still there!!!!

That's not her twins hand....

You can find a figure wrapped up in blankets sitting upright. Mio will wonder if it's a doll, but after you inspect it and walk away, you'll hear a distorted voice say "Stay with me..."

The game is also terrible at atmospheric sounds, and by terrible I mean amazing, just in a bad way. There's several parts that haunt my dreams still, the crawl space ghost, yeah, I've never been able to get into a small place thanks to that crap. Oh, how about the small closet (see a pattern?) where when you go in, you hear a neck snap (probably not so scary now, but when you're 9, that is terrifying)? Thanks, but....

If you haven't played this game, you can get it on the PS Store and the original Xbox version works on Xbox 360 (get the game for your region, US Fatal Frame for US Xbox 360, JP Fatal Frame for JP Xbox 360, etc).

4. Resident Evil

I've played most of the Resident Evil games, minus a few spin-offs and a GB game that will remain nameless and have, overall, enjoyed the games. While they aren't inherently scary any longer (due to several factors), when they first released, they were nightmare inducing games.

The very first zombie gamers see in the RE series, and the remake of the same zombie

Zombies are funny, you think a human would be able to easily outwit and outmaneuver a creatures whose basis for 'living' is to eat and can be brought down with a blunt object to the skull, yet somehow, they kill thousands of people,

The game probably wouldn't have been as scary had the camera been friendly. You could be staring down a hall but you wouldn't know if zombies were down there or not, unless you had aim assist on, then it was simple, the controls were terrible as well, thanks to the camera (see: Tank Controls).

Besides horrendous controls and camera (which at one point I did manage to master, I have since lost that mastery and cannot play older RE games effectively), there WERE enemies that would cause a grown man to cry and retreat to the fetal position.


The Tyrant

He's not initially scary, just a big black looking guy in a coat, nothing to be afraid of at all.

Tyrant in his jacket

However, once the jacket is destroyed or removed, he gains his full power (the jacket acting as a limiter) and he turns in to something far more threatening.

Tyrant without his jacket

The Tyrant is capable of killing the player in just a few attacks, as he has massive, sharp claws and lots of speed. He is the end boss for Resident Evil 1 and can only be killed with a Rocket Launcher. TO THE FACE (okay, not true, but highly advised).


Hunters

No one, and I mean no one, who has played a RE game will be unfamiliar with these guys. Hunter have many variations, generally having an amphibious look to them, and can range in scariness. They all, however, can easily kill the player if they aren't prepared, as they have plenty of health, a high attack and great speed.

Hunter Y

Hunter R

Hunter Alpha

Sweeper

All Hunters had a special 'kill move', most of them would leap and decapitate the player, the more frog like ones would wrap the player in their tongue and swallow them whole when the players health dropped low enough, because of this, they were highly dangerous.


Cerberus

click, click, click. An all to familiar sound filled the air, nails on tile, slow and steady, a low, wet growl, then repeated clicks, and there it was....

C-Dog

RE Fan Appreciation Fan Art

While they aren't very powerful alone, there is almost always more than one, this as well as their speed, make them in to a dangerous enemy. Cerberus can attack swiftly and retreat while the player recoils, so a quick trigger finger is needed to fend them off, luckily, they announce themselves well before attacking. So polite.


Lickers

This is the second enemy encountered in RE2 by Leon, Lickers are disturbingly pink, the muscle exposed due to the skin being torn and their brain IS EXPOSED (gross, yeah?). They posses extremely sharp claws, on par with the Hunter Alpha and can scale walls due to their small, light frame.

Licker, no special traits yet

The Licker could use its claws to kill you, but no, they prefer to reamin at a distance and use their freakishly mutated barbed tongue. They whip at the player and can decapitate them by wrapping the tongue around their preys neck and pulling. They remain nearly silent, with the occasional hiss sound they make when the detect prey.

Nemesis

If you've played RE3 at all, this guy is quite familiar. Nemesis is a type of Tyrant, but is more goal oriented, he seeks to eliminate all S.T.A.R.S. members. He is successful in killing Brad with his Licker like tentacle, He pursues Jill through Raccoon City for the entire game.

Oh, you'll just go to another area, you say? Yeah, he can follow you to another area. Did I mention he can use a friggin' ROCKET LAUNCHER?! No? Well, HE CAN USE A FRIGGIN' ROCKET LAUNCHER!!!!

FRIGGIN. ROCKET. LAUNCHER.

So not only can he follow you, but like other Tyrants, he 'evolves' after a certain point, making him much more deadly.


Crimsons

Probably the most terrifying enemy to me, these guys are reanimated zombies, think about that for a moment.... Okay. Good? They are terrifyingly powerful, fast, and look like an albino who spent far too much time in the sun.

Red skin, glowing eyes

And razor sharp claw-nails

Crimsons 'play dead' until the player gets close, once they do, they spring up and chase the player until one of you is dead. The have a lunge attack as well as vastly increased speed and attack power. Their groans are nightmare inducing and the sound of their footsteps will cause you to freeze in place.

Regenerador

I lied, these guys are equally as scary as the Crimsons, and the ONLY enemy from 'modern' Resident Evil that scares me. Regens are, as the name may imply, able to REGENERATE LOST BODY PARTS, EVEN THE HEAD. You could use a grenade and they would still come back, the only real way to kill them is to either use a Rocket or kill the plagas on their body (which are invisible to the naked eye, mind you).

The 'Iron Maiden'

BASK IN HIS GLORY

When you remove their legs, the tend to hop towards the player, if they get close enough, they latch on with their teeth and tear away at Leon. Truly, a more terrifying creature, I've never seen.

These are just some of the creatures that are scary, there are plenty of moments in the games where you either jump, piss yourself, or both. If you've not played the early entries, I suggest doing so.

If you have a current gen console, or last gen even, you can enjoy RE1 all over again shortly (see: Resident Evil 1 ReReMake)

3. Dead Space

Dead Space was probably my favorite survival horror series last gen, the atmosphere was creepy and dark, the enemies were disturbing and quick, did I mention it was dark? Most of the games are based on s space station full of alien creatures mercilessly killing anything and everything they find.

The series is so well received, it has two animated movies based off of it as well (both of which are amazing and on Netflix, last time I checked). I will say that most of the scares are 'jump scares', but are done infrequently enough that the player isn't always on the edge or expecting them. That's not to say that's all there is to the game, there are plenty of adrenaline filled moments that are scary by themselves.

 Enemies are known as Necromorphs, an alien parasite that kills and transforms the host (usually human) in to a new species, as the name implies, they are of dead corpses. There are several varieties of Necros throughout the series.

Necromorphs

The part of the game that I love the most, is the gut churning death scenes. All enemies have a special way of killing the player, usually resulting in a bloody mess.

WARNING: NSFW

That's just the second game, there are plenty more to see in Dead Space 1 and 3. If gory deaths aren't enough, how about upgradable guns to prevent the gruesome results above? There are many guns to help fend of the Necromorphs.

Crawler, an EXPLODING BABY

Regenerator, able to replace lost limbs

Leaper, fast and can jump.... FAR.

Common Slasher

Dealing with Necromorphs may seem easy enough, shoot them, a lot, until they die. And you can, however it is much more effective to remove their limbs. You can shoot off legs to immobilize them, or their arms to make them less dangerous. Doing this can save you a lot of ammo.

If you haven't played Dead Space, you should. It is a fun, creepy, spine tingling experience, one of the first I had when I got my Xbox 360. And you can get ALL 3 for about $50 on Amazon.

2. Slenderman

If you've not yet heard of Slenderman, you've been under a rock for quite some time, I won't go in to the details of him, you can read about him on Wikipedia or other database sites

There are numerous games focused on this character, most, if not all, require the player to navigate an area and find pages, these are drawings with stuff scribbled on them. Why, I have no idea, I don't know the stories behind these games or the folklore, I honestly don't care about it (although I'm sure it is interesting).

Various pages from the game

The game is always in first person and requires you to move about a dark creepy area to find said pages. Sounds easy, and it is.... until you've collected a few of them, then HE comes after you. He, meaning Slenderman, is a tall, lanky creature with no facial features and, at times, long appendage like tentacles/wings.

Tentacle wings!!!! YAY

"I still don't see what's so scary." You may be asking, well, he randomly appears, the game mechanics make it so you could be looking down a hall, turn to look behind you, return to looking down the hall and BOOM, there he is, right in front of you.

The game also likes to fuck with you, while you are moving about, you may catch a glimpse of him in a forest, behind something or in the corner of your screen. Obviously, you freeze and look, only to see he's not there.

When you do look at him, the screen goes all staticy, snow, as us old folk may know it as, the longer you stare, the more static appears, if too much static is generated, you'll die (or I assume die, you get a game over).

Slenderman: The Arrival

The game isn't as scary as the others as it has only one enemy (some of the others may have more), but it's creep factor is high up there. Games such as Silent Hill always have a disturbing environment and psychological creepiness, this game just has you on the edge wondering WHEN he is gonna pop up.

As you can see, you're given a camcorder (which acts as the HUD and a small light which is attached to it. You must find the pages in order to escape, but if Slender finds you first, and he probably will, you die. Slenderman has a game for consoles as well, you can, and should, download it. Download for Xbox and Playstation on the PS Store.

Good Night

1. ???

We'll be updating this list soon, so stay tuned, and let us know what YOUR favorite scary games/series are. :D