I was gonna put this on the Five Nights at Freddy's thread, but it's open enough to be it's own topic so...

5NaF is somewhat scary, but relies quite heavily on jump scares. It's not the kind of game that will haunt you for a long time after you turn it off. If you want *actually* scary, have you seen the demo for the up-coming Silent Hill game called P.T.?
I found it on this facecam LP... Holy Jesus.
This could be pretty epic guys. It's being made by Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro! Now that's a tag team I'm all over. There's also a fairly pungent reek of David Lynch going on in there too.

As fair as I'm concerned, this raises a very real issue of 'what happens if horror games get TOO scary?' No really, think about it. The occulus rift is taking off in a big way and with hits like the Amnesia series, the genre seems to be locked in a contest of one-upmanship to see who can be more terrifying. After a certain threshold of immersion and psychological fineness, will people just start having heart attacks after playng for just a little too long?

The only horror game I have ever played is Eternal Darkness: Sanity's requiem it's an awesome game one of the hidden jewels of the Gamecube it deserves a WiiU HD version

I played Deadspace 3, does that count?

Halite said:
I played Deadspace 3, does that count?

Dead Space 3!? Pffffttt! Tetris is where's it at!

I liked FNAF because it knew how to pace the game. Some of the jumpscares were tasteless, but most were well-timed. I loved the way it played, though.

Halite said:
I played Deadspace 3, does that count?

I feel like the Deadspace series relies so much on shooter conventions, that they're not really true horror games. It's just kind of a creepy FPS.

P.T. Looks great. The last Silent Hill was "meh", but this one looks fantastic.

elad said:
As fair as I'm concerned, this raises a very real issue of 'what happens if horror games get TOO scary?' No really, think about it. The occulus rift is taking off in a big way and with hits like the Amnesia series, the genre seems to be locked in a contest of one-upmanship to see who can be more terrifying. After a certain threshold of immersion and psychological fineness, will people just start having heart attacks after playng for just a little too long?

When people first saw a film of a train pulling into a station, they ran to the back of the theater screaming.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'Arriv%C3%A9e_d'un_train_en_gare_de_La_Ciotat New technology will always make things more real, but we'll always be able to handle it.

EDIT: DText sucks sometimes.

It's not necessarily a horror game, but in Fable 2, behind one of the demon doors, there was an area called "Terry Cotter's Army" where you come across a nice little cottage. Inside, you find diaries written by Terry Cotter, which describe his mother passing away and how, after staying in bed for weeks with grief, he eventually got up and read one of the books from the bookshelf that she had always told him to keep away from. The book has to do with an army of knights animated by a necromancer and how the knights drove people insane.

The diaries continue by saying that Terry found a cave out behind his house that was full of suits of armor. Thinking he's found the army described in the book, he descends into madness, believing that they would watch over him now that his mother was gone.

The entire area has no background music or any other kind of sound, other than the sound that your own character makes. You find Terry's final diary on the bedside table in his bedroom. Where his skeleton is curled up in the fetal position on the bed, with a faint strobe light effect hovering over him. He is surrounded by at least a half dozen suits of armor, all facing his bed. The final diary just has "The Knights watch over me" repeated over and over again.

After picking up the final diary, the back door opens up and you can go into the cave that he found, where there are a ton of those suits of armor lined up in formation. If you walk between the ranks and go around behind them, you'll find a chest with a legendary weapon in it as the demon door's reward. It was easily the most creepy thing I've ever played through in any game, especially considering the shift in tone it had with most of the rest of the game. I was expecting the armor to come to life and attack at any moment (especially once I saw the cave, I thought opening the chest would trigger them for sure) but they never did.

And then there's this other demon door that just has a lame jump scare behind it.

SirAntagonist said:
When people first saw a film of a train pulling into a station, they ran to the back of the theater screaming.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'Arriv%C3%A9e_d'un_train_en_gare_de_La_Ciotat New technology will always make things more real, but we'll always be able to handle it.

Troof!
It's pretty neat to be on the edge of the next technological leap tho :3c

I'm just gonna leave this here

Uh, does The Last of Us count? My friend lent me his copy and I'm so fucking tempted to play it. I'm just a bit apprehensive since, y'know, I'm not very good at stealth games. Also, there's a new Silent Hill game coming out. The demo is available on PS4. It's called Silent Hills. It's a collaboration between Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro. Norman Reedus is lending his likeness and voice to the game. Also, there is a sequel to Five Nights at Freddy's in development.

JoeX said:
Uh, does The Last of Us count? My friend lent me his copy and I'm so fucking tempted to play it. I'm just a bit apprehensive since, y'know, I'm not very good at stealth games. Also, there's a new Silent Hill game coming out. The demo is available on PS4. It's called Silent Hills. It's a collaboration between Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro. Norman Reedus is lending his likeness and voice to the game. Also, there is a sequel to Five Nights at Freddy's in development.

Last of Us is more a character action game than a straight up horror, but it definitely has a horror/drama theme, lots of tension and fantastic character development.

Also, I feel like you didn't read the first post :V

elad said:
Last of Us is more a character action game than a straight up horror, but it definitely has a horror/drama theme, lots of tension and fantastic character development.

Also, I feel like you didn't read the first post :V

Oops. :C Also, there's a quality let's play of TLOU Remastered by one of my favorite YouTubers. His name is Vash12349. His let's play of Outlast is very entertaining as well. By the way, P.T. stands for "playable teaser." Is that what they're calling demos now? Holy shit, can you imagine Outlast or FnaF on the Oculus Rift? Heart attack country right there.

For upcoming games, The Evil Within (October) looked like it had quality horror material. Its director is Shinji Mikami, director of the first Resident Evil and Dino Crisis and producer of several other well-received games. The Forest looked like it might also be interesting as an open world survival horror game, if not now as an alpha, then later on.

...but I'm not about this life. The only horror game I've deliberately played was Amnesia, and I didn't like how I probably could have rushed through the entire first area after the tutorial without being in any real danger. And then I just didn't care enough to load it again. For that matter, I think it's just patently silly for certain games to basically require an abnormal out-of-game atmosphere (e.g., dark room, "after midnight", no possible distractions, headphones, and excessive volume) to achieve their full effect. I'd just be using gimmicks to induce heightened reactions from myself.

I did experience a horror moment when I played Dragon Age, though, except it was more of a horrible moment. That is to say it wasn't suspenseful horror that makes you morbidly curious to turn the page, but rather horrible horror that makes you more reluctant to keep reading the further you progress. There was one particular quest that appeared quite benign from the quest information available before embarking on the quest's path, and the several hours' worth of content that I cleared before that quest only vaguely hinted at a problem of small scale. In fact, everything was so routine (but fun) up until that point that I didn't even realize I was doing a main story mission until I was at least an hour in with no end in sight. The mission got tougher and grimmer, and then it descended into madness, if you will.

I was in disbelief that such a game would include such a dark plot line, and I kept thinking (read: hoping) that surely if I keep playing everything will be righted, right? Wrong. Everything was as it seemed or worse. Moreover, I played at a snail's pace, so every little revelation was that much more potent. I had my horrible realization during this sequence, which provides enough context but not the full picture. Here's the full chant that the Let's Play-ers seem content to just skip past and put behind them, but more information is fed to the player from her disembodied voice as you explore, which you can't turn off. And so it goes. Naturally, the mission couldn't end without one final reminder of how fucked up it was (i.e., the boss), and then there's those parting words, wrenching the knife already already lodged in my mind's eye.

Corpse Party...

abadbird said:
Amnesia: Dark Descent and Dragon Age 1

I completely ignored the advice about playing in the dark with headphones on. Mostly because whenever I did I kept on getting pulled out of the game, thinking to myself 'This isn't bad but I sure wish I could take these headphones off and turn on the damn lights.' In my opinion, it was way better when I did.
The safe beginning of the game is very deliberate. The idea is to get you thinking that all the horror is really just atmosphere and there's actually very little that will actually hurt you. It plays you like a fucking card :V
My favourite moment by far is when you open a cupboard and a bunch of skulls fall out. They don't jump out, they just fall to the floor completely naturally. They pose no threat and nothing that preceded them indicated they might be dangers. With nothing but the lighting engine and a little orchestration, they make you jump out of your seat at *fucking nothing*. THAT is skill in game design.

I gotta say, I would not expect dragon age on this list at all. I heard it was good and gave it a shot but the WoW style combat *really* rubbed me the wrong way. The characters were a little interesting but the art and combat were enough to put me off indefinitely after about 8 hours (you can't say I didn't give it a fair shot!).
Maybe I should just check out a full LP so I don't have to do all that griding myself.

well did you considered the indies horror games?
you know amnesia IS a horrific game

Horror games freak me out, but Outlast doesn't for some reason. I tend to try and speedrun that game a lot.

Scary games? Hatoful Boyfriend.

It starts out as a silly game about dating pigeons, but veers into survival horror in the finale. Which begins with the previous protagonist getting bloodily dismembered, and only gets worse from there. It certainly doesn't help that by that point, you've gotten to know and like the characters from their individual routes.

I'm not particularly a hero when it comes to these games, so I usually don't get around to playing them even if they entice me. Probably says enough that I was feeling chuffed with myself when I managed to finish Alan Wake, that's not even full-blown survival horror (though I think it leans towards it, probably would be if the game wasn't as generous with ammo and checkpoints, and had a few more jump moments). But I did play it in teh d4rk, so I'm hardcore.

I've no reason to play games like Five Nights at Freddy's however, that game is like Slender (except you actually have to pay some cash for it) in that it's very much horror but way too reliant on one pretty barebones gameplay mechanic (or is it gimmick?) to be any fun. And I still gotta have some fun with it if I'm going to deal with tension and annoying jumpscares. The presentation could be a bit better / more varied too considering it isn't free.

Really looking forward to the new Fatal Frame, that seems like the sort of game I'd like while still getting scared shitless at times. Hope it gets a western release. And that playable Silent Hill teaser looks brilliant, makes me wish I already had a PS4.

elad said:
playing in the dark with headphones on.

I hate playing in the dark, because I'm usually eating when I play games. I always think I'm being super neat about it, and then I get bread crumbs everywhere.

A good game shouldn't require the player to do anything IRL. The game creates the atmosphere, not you.

Zedee said:
What about the System Shock games (which afaik were the "inspiration" for Deadspace)? Both of them have a very creepy and claustrophobic atmosphere, especially the sequel, though even the first one is a bit unsettling, despite the limitations of its time.

I never played the System Shock games. I hear that they were extremely well done, though.

System shock is considered one of those 'all time must-play' kinda games, but honestly it's never really appealed to me.
I may get violently stabbed for this - but I feel like the horror genre is one of the few in games where graphics actually do matter, because fear doesn't work without immersion. And so I never really wanted to play system shock, partly because of the really gross-looking RPG elements, but also because fighting dudes who look like they're made of origami is just borderline embarrassing.

Also I think I've been spoiled on the 'homicidal AI' front, to the point where I think the one in system shock would seem predictable and tacky.

Halite said:
I played Deadspace 3, does that count?

You have earned my respect. I am a Dead Space veteran. Beat them all on the hardest difficulty. Though they stop being scary and become more douche baggy (goddamnit stupid necromorph) after awhile.

I am really impressed with what people can do with the Amnesia content creator. Look up a custom story called Amnesia Premonition. It's amazing.

Let me just say that my response to EVERY horror game is the same.

"... NOPE! NOPENOPENOPE!" *uninstall*

I've started watching a let's play of Silent Hill Downpour. I know this is a stupid thing to get upset over, and I'm sorry, but why does the Silent Hill Police Department use 1974 Dodge Monacos? Did they not get the memo that everyone else uses new cars? Also, holy fuck, the mannequins are fucking creepy.

JoeX said:
I've started watching a let's play of Silent Hill Downpour. I know this is a stupid thing to get upset over, and I'm sorry, but why does the Silent Hill Police Department use 1974 Dodge Monacos? Did they not get the memo that everyone else uses new cars? Also, holy fuck, the mannequins are fucking creepy.

Despite my ungodly fear of playing horror games, I do enjoy watching people play them. I did see a little bit of downpour, and I had a similar thought. I got the feeling it was intentional though.

Have you seen anything from P.T. yet? Visually speaking, it looks AMAZING. And it relies much more on mood and emotions to convey terror than any jump scares. I've only seen one, though I've only watched one play through, and I hear its random. I'm fairly certain it's supposed to be the next silent hill game, and from all signs it looks like it's going to be very good.

Tokaido said:
Despite my ungodly fear of playing horror games, I do enjoy watching people play them. I did see a little bit of downpour, and I had a similar thought. I got the feeling it was intentional though.

Have you seen anything from P.T. yet? Visually speaking, it looks AMAZING. And it relies much more on mood and emotions to convey terror than any jump scares. I've only seen one, though I've only watched one play through, and I hear its random. I'm fairly certain it's supposed to be the next silent hill game, and from all signs it looks like it's going to be very good.

Yes, I've watched two let's plays. The story behind it is pretty epic. Hideo Kojima created it. He put it up as an "indie horror game" when it was actually a teaser for the new Silent Hill game. 7780s Studio doesn't actually exist. It's actually the square kilometers of somewhere in Japan. The graphics were intentionally toned down so it looked like an indie title. Once again, Kojima loves fucking with people. Silent Hills also has Guillermo del Toro working on it and Norman Reedus providing his voice and likeness to the protagonist. Should be awesome.

JoeX said:
I've started watching a let's play of Silent Hill Downpour. I know this is a stupid thing to get upset over, and I'm sorry, but why does the Silent Hill Police Department use 1974 Dodge Monacos? Did they not get the memo that everyone else uses new cars? Also, holy fuck, the mannequins are fucking creepy.

It's just because they're scared of being molested by pyramid head....

EDIT: they already got molested, and distorted, which is why they are creepy

I can't play horror games.
I always end up pausing the game, quitting, and then uninstalling it.
While I have trained myself to withstand some horror themes, it used to be pretty bad.

I remember when I unlocked the chapter in Farcry where the mutants are first running free, killing people in the jungle, as soon as they came after me I uninstalled the game. Took me six months to gain the urge to try playing it again.

For some reason The Suffering and The Suffering: Ties that binds are some of the few horror games I greatly enjoyed, might've been the corny action that went along with the horror theme.

I never quite got why some people straight-up can't deal with horror. I mean, I understand the argument (most frequently 'They're scary and why would I want to feel scared?') but I feel like this is a fairly shallow way of looking at entertainment.
Almost every movie ever has a kind of low-point where things aren't going so great! If you never doubt at any moment the hero could come out on top, that's just bad story telling.
And so it follows that meaningful entertainment -includes- negative emotion. Some put it in heavy focus, say.... Schindler's List. But I'm pretty sure I'm just reading into it too much.

"I don't like being scared." It's a bit of a weird statement to me. Perhaps for me there's a difference between seeing a guy on a screen with a knife coming to kill me, and then the same thing in real life.
I don't have my 'fight or flight' reactions triggered by watching or playing anything.
My advice is to just man up and expose yourself to it a bit more. Why? Because it's a genre with a lot of fineness and ultimately, a lot of entertainment! You feel like a better person knowing you put yourself somewhere you didn't want to be, and came out the other side victorious.

I usually like horror games, but i rather to play the 'creepy story' or 'really damn good ambiented' ones than the HEARTATACKTESTERS games.
Its cool some spooky parts in all games (remember SH1? The loocker in the school? Damn cat!) but sometimes (specially in indie games) they abuse of that tool and that suck.

TLDR gogo Amnesia fuck 5naf

skunkix said:
I usually like horror games, but i rather to play the 'creepy story' or 'really damn good ambiented' ones than the HEARTATACKTESTERS games.
Its cool some spooky parts in all games (remember SH1? The loocker in the school? Damn cat!) but sometimes (specially in indie games) they abuse of that tool and that suck.

TLDR gogo Amnesia fuck 5naf

I see where you are coming from but some people just like to be scared shitless. Why on a halloween a friend and I got the drop on my sister and to this day she still laughs at how good we got her.