By Josh Foote
There’s something magical about Halloween. As a kid it’s a chance to eat excess chocolate and sweets and to scare a few neighbours with cheap plastic spiders and water pistols. For adults, it’s a chance to organise a gathering with friends and make fools of ourselves while dressed as zombies, witches and pop culture characters.
It also means that I get to indulge in a wide range of films, television and video games that all try their best to spook you. There’s something about being scared that truly fascinates me. That feeling of a cold shiver down the spine and the ever increasing pulse of your heart beating as you turn a corner expecting something to come out and kill you, it’s truly breath-taking! Sadly Halloween has come and gone and in my spooky blues I decided to look back at my favourite horror games and analyse why I love them so much. Before I begin this is my own personal favourite list and therefore, is truly subjective. If I have missed out a particular gem then it’s because I either haven’t played it or didn’t like it. So with that little disclaimer out of the way let’s dive right in with!
There’s something magical about Halloween. As a kid it’s a chance to eat excess chocolate and sweets and to scare a few neighbours with cheap plastic spiders and water pistols. For adults, it’s a chance to organise a gathering with friends and make fools of ourselves while dressed as zombies, witches and pop culture characters.
It also means that I get to indulge in a wide range of films, television and video games that all try their best to spook you. There’s something about being scared that truly fascinates me. That feeling of a cold shiver down the spine and the ever increasing pulse of your heart beating as you turn a corner expecting something to come out and kill you, it’s truly breath-taking! Sadly Halloween has come and gone and in my spooky blues I decided to look back at my favourite horror games and analyse why I love them so much. Before I begin this is my own personal favourite list and therefore, is truly subjective. If I have missed out a particular gem then it’s because I either haven’t played it or didn’t like it. So with that little disclaimer out of the way let’s dive right in with!
10. Dead Space
After reading the premise to this game back in 2008 I was hyped beyond belief. You play as Isaac Clarke, an engineer called on to the mining station Ishimura. Production has stopped and a distress beacon is sent out, so Isaac goes with a crew to the Ishimura with the hopes of finding his girlfriend who was also on the mining ship during its operational days. Isaac and his crew investigate the ship noticing that it seems abandoned until they discover that most of the Ishimuras crew have been attacked/ turned into disfigured monsters. What made me really like thisgame before it came out was the idea that the protagonist wasn’t some buff mercenary with training to kill everything that moves, he was just a humble engineer. This made him relatable to the player from the get go and meant that as the player started to get further in to the horrors lurking within the Ishimura the player would grow with Isaac. The true beauty of this game comes
from the lighting and the way the enemies trick you into getting near them. Enemies will attack you in space so that you can’t hear them or will pretend to be corpses and scare the life out of you as you step over their husks to get to the next area. Sadly though the sequels to this game lacked any attempt to scare becoming more linear, more action based (see Resident Evil 4) and including multiplayer.
This is still a great horror game though and had it tried to be cleverer than just jump scares it easily would’ve made it higher up the list!
from the lighting and the way the enemies trick you into getting near them. Enemies will attack you in space so that you can’t hear them or will pretend to be corpses and scare the life out of you as you step over their husks to get to the next area. Sadly though the sequels to this game lacked any attempt to scare becoming more linear, more action based (see Resident Evil 4) and including multiplayer.
This is still a great horror game though and had it tried to be cleverer than just jump scares it easily would’ve made it higher up the list!
9. Condemned
One of the under rated gems of the Xbox 360's launch, Condemned follows the story of Ethan Thomas, an F.B.I agent sent to investigate a series of violent murders. The game has you taking part in investigating crime scenes and trying to solve the mystery of what sent these ordinary people insane with rage. It also had a simple combat system that had the player beating the living bejeebus out of numerous foes. What made this game such a memorable experience for me was the setting and the enemy AI. The game buried you in ambience, making each environment bleaker as the game went on. There was never a part where you felt safe and to add to this the enemy would purposely find the quickest route to flank you. This is f***ing terrifying when you walk into a room of mannequins and one of them is a human trying to stab your ass the second you turn around.
It’s a game that doesn’t hold up today gameplay wise but if you can get past the clunky fighting mechanics and let your fear consume you, there is a fantastic gem of a game within Condemned.
It’s a game that doesn’t hold up today gameplay wise but if you can get past the clunky fighting mechanics and let your fear consume you, there is a fantastic gem of a game within Condemned.
8. Slender
An indie game produced with the internet creepypasta story of a man in a suit with enlarged limbs, standing behind you. If you turn around and look at the man he will kill you. It’s an interesting premise that makes for an interesting game. The player has one goal, collect all the drawings scattered around the level before Slenderman kills you. It’s quite difficult as the level is pitch black and the player is armed with nothing but a torch that eventually runs out over time. The sound design and lack of vision is what makes this game truly terrifying as every turn could reveal a little glimpse of Slenderman and the score will kick in putting the player in a state of panic as they try to escape the inevitable.
It’s a neat experience that provides a lot of paranoia and a lot of “Oh god don’t make me go in there” moments that’ll give goose bumps to even the manliest of men. If you haven’t given it a play I’d thoroughly recommend it. You may not play it for long but you’re guaranteed a memorable experience.
It’s a neat experience that provides a lot of paranoia and a lot of “Oh god don’t make me go in there” moments that’ll give goose bumps to even the manliest of men. If you haven’t given it a play I’d thoroughly recommend it. You may not play it for long but you’re guaranteed a memorable experience.
7. Left 4 Dead
My love for this game has no limit. It’s a fantastic example of how valve know exactly what they’re doing. But wait, what’s that I hear? “Josh you lovable scoundrel, this game is action, the very thing you complained about in the end of dead spaces column” Firstly, who the hell uses the word scoundrel *pauses awkwardly* and secondly yes I did complain that Dead Space 2 and 3 became more action orientated but that’s because they did this poorly. Left 4 Dead manages to balance action with atmosphere. Walking through deserted levels with the eerie piano tinkers in the background, the feeling of isolation with your friends and then from nowhere someone sets off an alarm.
Suddenly you’re surrounded by hundreds of zombies, but not those wimpy slow zombies you’re used to, good god no. These are Rage zombies, zombies that want nothing more than to beat the ever loving crap out of you until you die to which you will then become their dinner. They will climb walls, fences, dive off of buildings and do pretty much anything to make your face a delicious meal. Among these regular zombies are special zombies that will explode on you to make the horde attracted to you, try to pick you off with sniper like tongue moves or pounce on you from great distances. My favourite one of these special zombies though was the witch. She will be found slumped on the floor crying to herself in awkward areas such as near doors or goals that the player has to get to. If you shine the torch on her/shoot her/get near her/ generally just piss her off, she will attack you in a relentless frenzy that WILL end with you dead.
So to summarise linear action games like deadspace get the thumbs down from me but if you make that linear action game drenched in atmosphere and make the player fear for their lives as their friends are picked off, then and only then will you get me screaming for dear life!
Suddenly you’re surrounded by hundreds of zombies, but not those wimpy slow zombies you’re used to, good god no. These are Rage zombies, zombies that want nothing more than to beat the ever loving crap out of you until you die to which you will then become their dinner. They will climb walls, fences, dive off of buildings and do pretty much anything to make your face a delicious meal. Among these regular zombies are special zombies that will explode on you to make the horde attracted to you, try to pick you off with sniper like tongue moves or pounce on you from great distances. My favourite one of these special zombies though was the witch. She will be found slumped on the floor crying to herself in awkward areas such as near doors or goals that the player has to get to. If you shine the torch on her/shoot her/get near her/ generally just piss her off, she will attack you in a relentless frenzy that WILL end with you dead.
So to summarise linear action games like deadspace get the thumbs down from me but if you make that linear action game drenched in atmosphere and make the player fear for their lives as their friends are picked off, then and only then will you get me screaming for dear life!
6. Resident Evil (remake)
So as a kid I watched a close family member put this classic into his Gamecube and I was entranced by what I was watching. It was my first time seeing a horror game and my god what a game to be introduced to. The game is a remaking of the classic Resident Evil, a game renowned as one of the forefathers of the horror genre and notorious for its cheesy dialogue. The game takes place in Racoon city where a bunch of soldiers of the S.T.A.R.S team have gone quiet while investigating a group of strange murders within the area. The player takes control of either Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield who quickly learn upon landing in the area that things are not what they seem. Zombies have taken over the area (Both zombie dogs and zombie people) and the two split up to solve the mystery of what happened to cause this outbreak of zombies. The graphics for this game were stunning when the game came out and the pre rendered backgrounds made exploring the mansion a gorgeous experience. Because of this it made it one of the most realistic looking games of my childhood which helped rope me in to what is quite a ridiculously corny story.
Cheesiness aside, this game did a fantastic job in making you feel secluded and that anything could attack you from anywhere. Bosses were terrifyingly huge and hard to defeat, enemies would change their patterns to make you think twice when you back tracked a previous area and the score was magnificently chilling. There will always be a place in my heart for this game but like Dead Space it eventually went down the action route after the success of Resident Evil 4.
Cheesiness aside, this game did a fantastic job in making you feel secluded and that anything could attack you from anywhere. Bosses were terrifyingly huge and hard to defeat, enemies would change their patterns to make you think twice when you back tracked a previous area and the score was magnificently chilling. There will always be a place in my heart for this game but like Dead Space it eventually went down the action route after the success of Resident Evil 4.
5. Bioshock
Just writing the title of this immediately fills my mind with good memories and countless hours roaming the wonderful city of Rapture. It’s one of my favourite games of all time and one I still to this day throw in just to raise my mood. The game takes place in the 60’s in an underwater city, an environment that I felt was so well made that it hasn’t been topped in terms of setting within a video game as of yet. The player takes control of Jack an unknown protagonist that the player learns about throughout the game. Jack’s plane crashes mysteriously into the ocean, where he quickly swims to shore to find a lighthouse that is a secret entrance to the underwater world of rapture. The city is literally controlled by Andrew Ryan, the creator of the city who seems to have gone power hungry and uses the mechanical marvels and inhabitants of the city as his weapon. These inhabitants are known as splicers, citizens who have overindulged in drugs known as plasmids rendering their minds to be easily manipulated by primal instincts and lust for more plasmids. They are also fucking creepy and roam around spurting sentences that reflect their previous lives. This makes the world rich in pure terror as every corner will be filled with these.
The games bosses are interesting and at the same time send chills down the spine. My personal favourite is the first boss Dr Steinman, a plastic surgeon that has been consumed by the idea of improving what beauty is now that moralities are a thing of the past. The man goes into deep details about how his obsession with Picasso and shapes has inspired him to reshape the look of beauty within the city. He eventually goes insane and ends up murdering or disfiguring clients and the player is treated to a relentless scene where he hacks away at a corpse as if it were putty ready to be moulded. It’s an interesting concept with truly horrific results as you roam through an area full of surgically deformed splicers and “examples” of his work splattered across the walls. This is but one of the numerous examples of how to create a horror setting that leaves the player with memories of fright, failure and unforgettable experiences. If you haven’t played this game do yourself a favour and pop this game in. You’re in for scares, adventure and a gripping story that will make you beg for more… just avoid the sequel!
The games bosses are interesting and at the same time send chills down the spine. My personal favourite is the first boss Dr Steinman, a plastic surgeon that has been consumed by the idea of improving what beauty is now that moralities are a thing of the past. The man goes into deep details about how his obsession with Picasso and shapes has inspired him to reshape the look of beauty within the city. He eventually goes insane and ends up murdering or disfiguring clients and the player is treated to a relentless scene where he hacks away at a corpse as if it were putty ready to be moulded. It’s an interesting concept with truly horrific results as you roam through an area full of surgically deformed splicers and “examples” of his work splattered across the walls. This is but one of the numerous examples of how to create a horror setting that leaves the player with memories of fright, failure and unforgettable experiences. If you haven’t played this game do yourself a favour and pop this game in. You’re in for scares, adventure and a gripping story that will make you beg for more… just avoid the sequel!
4. Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Oh yes, Amnesia, need I say more? As I assume most of you have played this popular fright fest I sense a lot of your ass cheeks just clenched remembering the terror that this game unleashed. For those who haven’t played this game out of fear of having a cardiac arrest, Amnesia is a game that leads the player through a mansion into the darkest dampest corners of the world solving puzzles all the while being chased by grotesque beings. There is a rich narrative and story for those that want it but honestly if it wasn’t for a quick Wikipedia search I wouldn’t have remembered a thing about this games plot. What I do remember is how well this game set an atmosphere within such a short period. Instead of going for the traditional jumpy boogey-woogey scares that most horror games go for, Amnesia looks at a more subtle approach. Y’see, true horror isn’t what you see, it’s what you think you see and letting the imagination make the horror up for you.
The games mechanics also make for a pants-fillingly terrifying experience. The player must avoid monsters by hiding in the dark, but the player can’t stay in the dark for too long as his sanity will deplete. When it runs out the monsters will notice the player due to panic noises so the player has to balance being in lit areas and hiding in the dark. The player will also lose sanity looking at the monsters meaning that the monsters keep an air of mystery with the player not being able to get close up looks at them without consequences. The player is armed with a lantern that will run out so is forced to look around the surrounding areas for fuel to keep the lantern burning. All in all this game packs a lot of punch and with a combination of these features and the games subtlety with its frights the player is guaranteed to feel the fear slowly building within them. Give this game a go, if you think you’re brave enough.
The games mechanics also make for a pants-fillingly terrifying experience. The player must avoid monsters by hiding in the dark, but the player can’t stay in the dark for too long as his sanity will deplete. When it runs out the monsters will notice the player due to panic noises so the player has to balance being in lit areas and hiding in the dark. The player will also lose sanity looking at the monsters meaning that the monsters keep an air of mystery with the player not being able to get close up looks at them without consequences. The player is armed with a lantern that will run out so is forced to look around the surrounding areas for fuel to keep the lantern burning. All in all this game packs a lot of punch and with a combination of these features and the games subtlety with its frights the player is guaranteed to feel the fear slowly building within them. Give this game a go, if you think you’re brave enough.
3. SCP: Containment Breach
This logo makes my heart race just seeing it. It’s an indie game I only recently got into in the last few months and one I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. The player wakes up in a prison cell, bearing an eerie resemblance to the test chambers found in Aperture Science. Two guards open the door and demand you to walk through to the SCP chamber where a motionless Doll is seen lurking in the corner. The player and two other disposable NPC’s walk in to the chamber and proceed to heed instructions from the intercom. The guards insist that one of the members must keep eye contact with the Doll AKA SCP at all times. Suddenly there’s a power outage and the player sees a brief flash of the SCP murdering everyone else in the room before staring at the player and leaving.
Ok, so what just happened? Well, the trick behind this game is that the SCP can only kill you when you don’t look at it. It moves by quickly moving when nobody is staring at the creature and this is a perfect time to explain the games main mechanic: your blink metre. The player has to blink and if the player happens to do this while SCP is in the room, then eye contact is broken and (you guessed it!) you will be killed in a swift and horrific fashion. Also, remember that power outage? That was the entire facility malfunctioning releasing SCPs all over the building. SCPs, as in the plural.
This is one of the most intense horror games I’ve ever played, it’s simple, it’s frantic and it will make you cry tears of fear and frustration. The enemies later on decide to curve ball you by adding new methods to kill you, chase you and ultimately force you to change your tactics.
The game is Free to download from http://www.scpcbgame.com/ so there is no excuse for you not to try out this amazing little game, well, other than being a wimp that is!
Ok, so what just happened? Well, the trick behind this game is that the SCP can only kill you when you don’t look at it. It moves by quickly moving when nobody is staring at the creature and this is a perfect time to explain the games main mechanic: your blink metre. The player has to blink and if the player happens to do this while SCP is in the room, then eye contact is broken and (you guessed it!) you will be killed in a swift and horrific fashion. Also, remember that power outage? That was the entire facility malfunctioning releasing SCPs all over the building. SCPs, as in the plural.
This is one of the most intense horror games I’ve ever played, it’s simple, it’s frantic and it will make you cry tears of fear and frustration. The enemies later on decide to curve ball you by adding new methods to kill you, chase you and ultimately force you to change your tactics.
The game is Free to download from http://www.scpcbgame.com/ so there is no excuse for you not to try out this amazing little game, well, other than being a wimp that is!
2. Silent Hill 2
What is there to say about Silent Hill 2 that hasn’t been said before? Well I guess we should start with the basics. For those of you who haven’t played this masterpiece, immediately stop reading this and go locate a copy. Done? Now play it. Oh don’t worry I’ll wait.
Finished? What do you mean you just pretended to and sat there reading? COWARDS, ALL OF YOU! Well for those who STILL haven’t played it, Silent Hill 2 revolves around the protagonist James Sunderland’s trip to Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his wife. Why is this a starting point? Because his wife has been dead for quite some time and the letter is in her writing and tells him to meet at their “Special place”. The game delves into the mind of James with the enemies forming his thoughts and symbolise his terrible past. Its scares were some of the first of its kind, opting for subtlety over jump scares. Enemy design was unique and relevant to the mentality of James. These include deformed over sexualised nurses, pyramid headed bosses and *sigh* mannequins...
The ways in which these enemies behave have the player changing their tactics in new areas. The mannequins will freeze and attack when you get close for quick scares, the lying corpses will hide under cars waiting for James to walk by. The combat barely functions how it was probably intended but this ends up working to the games advantage. Because the combat is so unreliable it forces the player to pick their fights carefully, nothing makes me groan at a horror game when you run into a place guns blazing, armed to the teeth like friggin’ Rambo. The guns have barely any ammo meaning you have to time your shots carefully and the melee leaves you open to attacks from all angles. With a combination of a tricky fighting system and subtle scares that make you think you saw something in the corner of your eye, this game is a must play for any horror nut! The icing on the cake is the narrative, the story is clever, well thought out and leaves the player questioning the actions of all those around him. Nothing ever seems right with the people you meet in Silent Hill
and you’re never sure whether you should be trusting these people or pointing a double barrelled shotgun at their feet. So put on your army jackets, grab yourself a radio and prepare to enter yourself into a town that always feel off, you won’t regret giving this game a look see.
Finished? What do you mean you just pretended to and sat there reading? COWARDS, ALL OF YOU! Well for those who STILL haven’t played it, Silent Hill 2 revolves around the protagonist James Sunderland’s trip to Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his wife. Why is this a starting point? Because his wife has been dead for quite some time and the letter is in her writing and tells him to meet at their “Special place”. The game delves into the mind of James with the enemies forming his thoughts and symbolise his terrible past. Its scares were some of the first of its kind, opting for subtlety over jump scares. Enemy design was unique and relevant to the mentality of James. These include deformed over sexualised nurses, pyramid headed bosses and *sigh* mannequins...
The ways in which these enemies behave have the player changing their tactics in new areas. The mannequins will freeze and attack when you get close for quick scares, the lying corpses will hide under cars waiting for James to walk by. The combat barely functions how it was probably intended but this ends up working to the games advantage. Because the combat is so unreliable it forces the player to pick their fights carefully, nothing makes me groan at a horror game when you run into a place guns blazing, armed to the teeth like friggin’ Rambo. The guns have barely any ammo meaning you have to time your shots carefully and the melee leaves you open to attacks from all angles. With a combination of a tricky fighting system and subtle scares that make you think you saw something in the corner of your eye, this game is a must play for any horror nut! The icing on the cake is the narrative, the story is clever, well thought out and leaves the player questioning the actions of all those around him. Nothing ever seems right with the people you meet in Silent Hill
and you’re never sure whether you should be trusting these people or pointing a double barrelled shotgun at their feet. So put on your army jackets, grab yourself a radio and prepare to enter yourself into a town that always feel off, you won’t regret giving this game a look see.
1. Eternal Darkness
We’ve come a long way in this countdown, from zombies to failed research projects, from the insane to the surreal, from sharks to *sigh* bloody mannequins. But this, my friends, is the epitome of fear. A game where the true enemy, is your own sanity. The game takes place on Rhode Island where Alex Roivas has been called to her father’s mansion to identify whether the body the police have found is that of her father’s. Why do they not just identify him by his face or dental records? Well he kinda, sorta, died hard. Like, super hard.
Vowing to find out what in the name of Earl Grey happened in this house; she stays and says she won’t leave until she gets to the bottom of this. And thus the madness begins. The story takes the form of Alex searching the house for clues, finding pages from the Eternal Darkness, a book made of human flesh and bone and recounting the lives of her ancestors as they battle with and against the dark forces. She learns that an unspeakable evil is the cause for her father’s murder and soon findsherself roped in a battle between the gods of the underworld. This games fighting system consists of locking on to a target and picking a limb to attack, each limb with bonuses. Hacking off the arms makes the enemies unable to hit you, chopping off the head makes the enemies unable to see you and attacking the body will kill the enemy. The game is filled with lovecraftian dialogue with gloriously disgusting descriptions of the surrounding. Never have I heard the descriptions like effluvial grime before but my god does it paint a much more gruesome picture. Now we get to my favourite bit of this game, its Unique Selling Point, the Sanity system. As the player witnesses more and more disturbing figures, their sanity metre begins to drain. Zombies walking round the corner – Boom minus sanity. Small spider beings appear in the room, Boom minus sanity. Skeleton jumps out of a priest? You bet your biffy that’s a minus to your sanity. When this metre gets towards the bottom, the game gets creative. Effects will begin to happen and these can range from small things such as crying babies in the background and the walls starting to bleed and range up to THE F***ING GAME DISCONNECTING YOUR CONTROLLER OR PRETENDING TO DELETE YOUR SAVE FILE.
Because of these effects, you never know what is real and what isn’t real and the game has so many to keep trying to trick you that you’re never sure whether that enemy was supposed to die in the corner or if the game if screwing with you. It pulls out all of the stops to try to make you truly think you’ve gone insane and this is why I rate this game so high. I can’t stress enough how many times I jumped when I walked passed a door to hear it gently knock, or when my character slowly got smaller and I thought the corridor I was in was just really long. It’s truly a marvel, buy this if you ever see it on a shelf or in a car boot sale because what you’ll feel from the first few hours is the stuff of legend.
Vowing to find out what in the name of Earl Grey happened in this house; she stays and says she won’t leave until she gets to the bottom of this. And thus the madness begins. The story takes the form of Alex searching the house for clues, finding pages from the Eternal Darkness, a book made of human flesh and bone and recounting the lives of her ancestors as they battle with and against the dark forces. She learns that an unspeakable evil is the cause for her father’s murder and soon findsherself roped in a battle between the gods of the underworld. This games fighting system consists of locking on to a target and picking a limb to attack, each limb with bonuses. Hacking off the arms makes the enemies unable to hit you, chopping off the head makes the enemies unable to see you and attacking the body will kill the enemy. The game is filled with lovecraftian dialogue with gloriously disgusting descriptions of the surrounding. Never have I heard the descriptions like effluvial grime before but my god does it paint a much more gruesome picture. Now we get to my favourite bit of this game, its Unique Selling Point, the Sanity system. As the player witnesses more and more disturbing figures, their sanity metre begins to drain. Zombies walking round the corner – Boom minus sanity. Small spider beings appear in the room, Boom minus sanity. Skeleton jumps out of a priest? You bet your biffy that’s a minus to your sanity. When this metre gets towards the bottom, the game gets creative. Effects will begin to happen and these can range from small things such as crying babies in the background and the walls starting to bleed and range up to THE F***ING GAME DISCONNECTING YOUR CONTROLLER OR PRETENDING TO DELETE YOUR SAVE FILE.
Because of these effects, you never know what is real and what isn’t real and the game has so many to keep trying to trick you that you’re never sure whether that enemy was supposed to die in the corner or if the game if screwing with you. It pulls out all of the stops to try to make you truly think you’ve gone insane and this is why I rate this game so high. I can’t stress enough how many times I jumped when I walked passed a door to hear it gently knock, or when my character slowly got smaller and I thought the corridor I was in was just really long. It’s truly a marvel, buy this if you ever see it on a shelf or in a car boot sale because what you’ll feel from the first few hours is the stuff of legend.
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