Best Scary Games

[Major Britten]

Just been playing through Doom 3 on xbox and have to say it is quite creepy when playing with the light off. What other games have freaked you lot out and should really be played with the lights on? Heres a quick list of mine;

Silent Hill (any of them)

Resident Evil 1

Doom 3

The Suffering

Most terrifying moment for me in a game was walking around the hospital and school in Silent Hill 2, as well as bumping into cunty triangle head for the first time.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

Playing Condemned alone in the dark with the sound up is also a pretty unsettling experience.

[PaB]

Take all of them add them together, and they still won't be as scary as System Shock 2

For sheer atmosphere, perhaps System Shock 1 is even better, but it is let down graphically.

[Vorgot]

Playing Condemned alone in the dark with the sound up is also a pretty unsettling experience.

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Seconded. Very creepy game in the dark. Some really nice touches in the sound department (onjects knocking etc) really make this great

[Rayn]

The original Alone in the Dark really freaked me out. The game had incredible graphics for its time and the eerie music and sound effects just upped the atmosfear.

[cubeadvance]

I nearly befouled my undercrackers when that silhouette pops up in the window in the first couple of minutes of Cold Fear. It's a shame from that point on it's about as scary as Fun House.

[Qazimod]

System Shock 2. I also found Half-Life 1 quite creepy when playing in pitch-black conditions...

[Zathras]

I'd say these games I've found most scary

Resident Evil 1 (ps1)

Silent Hill (ps1)

System Shock 2

Thief (The Cathedral)

[gravity0]

Fatal Frame/Project Zero was very unsettling. Had to stop playing the thing because I just wasn't enjoying it.

It's also bloody scary.

[Alan Stock]

Most jumpy moody scary games -

Doom 3

Alien Ressurection

Best phsycological scary games -

Silent Hill 1

Project Zero

I love but hate scary games, I am still wondering whether to get Siren or not. I always think that I like this kind of game but when I'm sat at night playing it, horrid fear running through my veins, I wonder why the hell I do it!

[christaylor]

No scarier game than the original Alien Vs Predator on PC.

I could never play past the 1st level.

[Corporal Flashback]

Playing Condemned alone in the dark with the sound up is also a pretty unsettling experience.

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Just playing the demo creeped me out.

[Miner Willy]

Take all of them add them together, and they still won't be as scary as System Shock 2

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Agreed. A terrifying game.

[So. Angry.]

No game has ever left me as deeply unsettled and miserable as Silent Hill 2. The first game was good but the way in which two just crawls out the back of your mind preys upon your fears of isolation, loss and madness is genius.

Project Zero however doesn't frighten me at all. Oh noes; Ghosts. Fuck off.

[BossSaru]

Shadowman. Scariest game in history.

When you get into the Asylum for the first time, turn a corner, and see a madman hacking at corpses with hooks instead of hands its pretty bad. When he then sees you and starts running towards you waving them at you, screaming madly, its worse. Then when the out-of-tune nursery rhymes, spliced with children giggling and a dentist's drill, kick in, you feel very unnerved.

An awesome game though.

[Judgement]

project zero 1 and 2, never play them at 2 in the morning even with the light on, nearly fell out of my chair at one part

Resident Evil(remake)

Alone in the Dark(the last one on the PS1)

Silent Hill(all of them)

minner note, Resident Evil 3. The god dam Nemisis nearly gave me a heart attack, after completeing it 11 time, he caught me off guard in the clock tower, standing near a door and takeing a swap at me, my heart almost left my chest

[ICECOLD]

Alone in the Dark 4: The New Nightmare was pretty shocking... shockingly bad, that is.

Seriously, if you're going to make a Resi ripoff, at least make it with likable characters, a plot people will actually care to uncover, and more inspired puzzles than that old tripe had.

Ahem, yes.

Proper answer: Dino Crisis.

When you saw a dead body in an upstairs office with a gleaming key next to him, walked over, and had a T-Rex smash through the window.

Shit me up completely. Sitting on the sofa next to my mate, I almost jumped in fright right onto his lap.

I mean, I like him... but not thatmuch...

[therearerules]

Just been playing through Doom 3 on xbox and have to say it is quite creepy when playing with the light off. What other games have freaked you lot out and should really be played with the lights on? Heres a quick list of mine;

Silent Hill (any of them)

Resident Evil 1

Doom 3

The Suffering

Most terrifying moment for me in a game was walking around the hospital and school in Silent Hill 2, as well as bumping into cunty triangle head for the first time. 

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That would totally shit me up considering there's no school in SH2.

Project Zero/Fatal Frame. The first bit in monochrome is genius. Scariest game I've ever played.

[Major Britten]

That would totally shit me up considering there's no school in SH2.

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I thought there was Must be confusing it with the first game,

[therearerules]

I thought there was  Must be confusing it with the first game,

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Long road->Town->campervan->apartments->small park by the lake->bowling alley->flats with strip bar->hospital->town->small park by the lake->historical society museum->holes->prison->labyrinth->meat freezer->lake->hotel

spoilers!

[Bean Weevil Man]

Another vote for Condemned here.

Surprised no-one's mentioned Eternal Darkness yet either...

[SeanR]

as long as no-one reguritates the recent Edge article on "scary"...

[Mercury]

Another vote for Condemned. Shame the combat is so samey.

[Rudderless]

Eternal Darkness. Just a load of gradual creeping unease, then you examine the bathtub - BAM! One of the most effective jump-shocks in gaming ever. I actually shuddered with fear.

[Space Renegade Ulala]

Silent Hill - as soon as I saw the crucified dog and heard the air raid siren that was enough for me.

Alien vs Predator 2 - Not played the first one but this one was enough. Just as I always told myself I would in such a situation after watching Aliens, as soon as a 'she's been taken into the hive!' mission came up, I said 'Too fucking bad, let's get the fuck out of here'. Hudson would be proud of me.

Enemy Zero - Alien to AvP's Aliens. Crawling around in the ventilation ducts, the bleeping of the motion detector the only indication that death was right around the corner and your character armed with the most useless and ineffective weapon in history...gah.

I hates the scary.

[therearerules]

Eternal Darkness n the house could be considered scary by some. But in the various dungeons? Oh no my characters sinking/really small/exploding/or the place is upside down! Combine this with the God awful voice acting "oh nOooooooooooooooooo!" and the fact that most levels have absolutely no identity, just another stone corridor after stone corridor, something none of us can relate to, means it wasn't nearly as scary as it should have been.

[Rygal - Reader of Threads]

Playing the Ravenholm section in Half-Life 2 through earphones dead late at night.

[hughes]

Eternal Darkness. Just a load of gradual creeping unease, then you examine the bathtub - BAM! One of the most effective jump-shocks in gaming ever. I actually shuddered with fear.

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The bathtub was a really, really cheap scare I thought. In fact it was more of a startle than a scare. If the screen changes that quickly with a loud noise it could have been a picture of a lolipop and you'd still jump.

[Stolly]

Systemshock 2 wins by a country mile.

[mr.miffed]

Silent hill 1 - The town's just horrible in a wonderful wonderful way.

Despite the graphical improvements and more cohesive plotting of the sequels nothing puts the shits up me like the first one.

For some reason I find the later levels of max payne very oppressive and upsetting, I'm not sure why, it all goes away when it gets all nakatomi plaza at the end though.