Very curious, especially after my mild disappointment with Devotion and Fatal Frame 2, as to which are your favourite horror games, and why.
My favourites:
Resident Evil Remake: piece of art, tight gameplay (even if a bit old fashioned), almost all locations are unforgettable, doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Nanashi No Game 1 & 2: starts as a variation on the Ring style, but has great personality, great narration, very creepy and creates a very original blend of gameplay… all this while being a Nintendo DS game with supposedly low budget. Both episodes are great. Japan only, translation exists.
The above are really special.
Mad Father and Resident Evil 2 (the original) are also worth mentioning.
Notable games I have not played: Silent Hill games, other Resident Evil (including 2-remake), Alien Isolation… is Pathologic a horror game? Still, have not played it yet.
all my fav scary games came out before all horror game language was based on resident evil. i hate every resident evil but killer 7
being stalked through hallways while VERY FAST PURPLE MONSTERS zoom in and out of view gives me anxiety attacks
ahh the monsters! eek! i only played this cus it was on the wii but i still really like it
space griffon vf9 on ps1
your whole mech squad dies over radio and the draw distance is like two inches. its terrifying
It isn’t the most fun or even the most interactive horror game, but I really love Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. I love the narrative, it’s so disorienting and told in a very intense way. Great voice acting and sound design. And it makes the 20th century seem like some sort of apocalypse bringing Eldritch being.
I love Faith, it’s so goofy, but that scene towards the end that appears to have been rotoscoped is pretty creepy. Definitely up there for me.
OG RE3 is pretty tense because of Nemesis riding your ass around. I haven’t played the remakes of 2 or 3 much yet. RE1make is also pretty tense thanks to the Crimson Heads (but they should be able to chase you through doors and shit!) and the really good use of lighting. There’s this horror game about VHS tapes that cause people to mutate, and a chunk of the game is just driving in your car and stopping at gas stations, which i really liked (more road trip horror games).
paratopic is really good yea. also I’d be curious to know why you were disappointed by fatal frame 2 tony because it’s legit the scariest game I’ve ever played lol, the camera obscura is such a good fucking core mechanic
I think fatal frame 2 is very beautiful from an artistic point of view, but I don’t find it scary. It’s not creepy, and the ghosts are not very believable either, considering they are “cloned” (as in, reused assets, which destroys realism). I am at the 7 chapter (out of 8). Dunno, also it’s so “gamey” in a sense… Scoring big damage feels, to me, more like a rhytm game… Or a sport game where you have to score a goal. The ghosts, and the stories, don’t get under my skin enough. They are just obstacles to take down.
Also, i was hoping that the different camera films had some different properties: it’s an undercooked idea which could have much more potential. In the they just look like the equivalent of pistol / shotgun and such…
I think another thing that is missing, is the tension of being chased and some adrenaline. I am playing on normal difficulty, and it’s easy.
It’s a bit-more-than-interactive walking simulator, in a sense.
I like it because it’s nice to be there, again because of the folklore and the architecture of this japanese village.
For me a lot of the tension results from having to let the spooky ghosts get really close to you to hit that sick FATAL FRAME on them. I think your read of the game is totally fair, but those things are why I like it haha. the village is really beautiful and desolate and imo it’s way better at creating a sinister atmosphere & sense of isolation than the haunted house from the first one
Haunting Ground came out after RE4 when everyone was sick of old-school RE but it’s really good. Beautiful environments and some blood-pumping moments. The pacing is similar to the early parts (best parts) of RE7.
Would the first few Tecmo Deceptions be considered horror? They seem to have that vibe.
Until Dawn is wicked, it’s about as close to a horror movie experience that a video game has gotten so far. I also love going into Twitch channels and convincing people to like Emily. If I can convince people to save Emily [and Sam], or at the very least, feel bad when they die, then I’m good.
My opinion on a lot of horror games are I love the idea or the story but I find them miserable to play. Siren I think has a really cool story and ending, but playing it wasn’t fun. Clock Tower for the SNES and then the two for the PSX are pretty cool Argento games, but the point-and-click interface can be really frustrating.
If we’re talking games that actually scared me, then Final Fantasy VII’s scene with JENOVA in the tube creeped me out when I was like, 12. The plucking spanish guitars paired with the sepia-toned images in the Silent Hill intro were too creepy for me to handle so I refused to watch the intro when I first rented the game. It’s a really good song, though, so I’m not sure what I was so bothered by. Memory of Alessa in SH3 I think is really creepy-looking, sort of Exorcist-y.
Yeah, I agree that Clock Tower has a good premise but i find very repetitive to play.
There is a horror movie based on Siren! Apparently, also very faithful to the game. I wonder if anybody has seen it, it could be an alternative to playing the game… Perhaps… Or is this blasphemy!?
Instead of playing RE4, watch Dagon. Instead of playing Siren, watch Noroi: The Curse. Instead of playing Fatal Frame watch Shutter. Instead of playing Rule of Rose watch Sick Nurses and/or Suspiria. Instead of playing Haunting Ground watch Castle Freak. Instead of playing RE1 watch The Dead Next Door. Instead of playing RE2 watch Dawn of the Dead and Terminator. Instead of playing SMT1 watch Evilspeak and a Boy and his Dog. Instead of playing Onechanbara watch Onechanbara.
