What was the scariest video game you ever played?

Nightmare Creatures on the PS1. Although... I think it was just the music that was creepy... Lol.

One of the scariest games I've played is Penumbra (the series - Overture, Black Plague & Requiem). It's made by a small Swedish company, and as such doesn't have the production value as the bigger ones like Resident Evil; but the company likes being creative with different ways to set the mood, and they've been working for me. Where a lot of horror games are based more or less on action, Penumbra is more about creating a certain feeling - there is action as well, but it's carefully distributed. If you don't pay too much attention to model and animation quality and like to get in a certain mood, you'll be easily lost in a game with a great soundtrack, solid story, a lot of fun with physics puzzles, and hair-raising events - in my case . Certainly didn't feel like it was made by a small company.

Since I fear my appreciation for non-conventional quality might be deviant. perhaps it's best to try the demo before taking my word for it .. I'd post a link if not for fear of breaking the T&C (website sells the game as well), but it shouldn't be hard to find. Have fun, I hope!

I would have to say that back in 96 BLOOD was one scary game to play. It had gore graphics and and a scary soundtrack. Ad to this some Fear Factory music, this was a great combo !

Escape from Rungistan is an interactive fiction computer game by Sirius Software's Bob Blauschild and released in 1982 for the Apple II.
Rungistan combines graphical elements with text-based commands. The game begins with the player sitting in a jail cell and one is asked to enter a command.
Rungistan was the first text adventure game to introduce the element of time; in certain situations, the player was required to perform a certain action before the time ran out, such as defusing a bomb. Also, it was the first text adventure to feature arcade-like sequences, such as skiing down a hill and avoiding trees.
This dang game was im-possible, sorta. scary getting thrown back in the cell with the bunk and the guard. Pushing your envelope is scary!

Resident Evil 1 and Silent Hill were the 2 that first popped into my head. RE1 was very well done and gave me nightmares for a few nights after playing it non stop. SH was simply creepy.

The MOST scary game I ever played is actually an online free game. It's the most interactive game I've ever seen as it actually brings the player into the game. With your webcam and microphone, you actually see your own image and voice in certain scenes in the game so you think you're one of the victims (they don't tell you that is why you use a webcam while playing so your image appearing in the game is a surprise when you come across it).

Then, while registering for the game, you enter your phone number. Once while playing the game, your phone rings and you talk to a psychopath that tells you what to do next. Then when you're done with the game, another assylum inmate calls your home again to tell you he is coming for you.

I was really freaked out, especially since my husband was out of town and the game is programmed to only let you play after dark and before dawn.

The sequel was so horrid and terrifying that I couldn't even play it. You're in first person in an asylum about to go through a lobotomy (with the video angle of the game it is set up to feel like your actually on the table).

Very well done but too scary for me.

reply to post by AshleyD


OK, just reading that freaked me out.

Personally I think that game is getting a little too real as getting a phone call like that, even though it's part of the game would freak out anyone.

Sounds much scarier than Pong for sure...

reply to post by AshleyD


Do you remember the name of that one?
I remember a game that did something simmilar but it was done over email instead of the phone

The first Resident Evil was creepy, but I hated the gameplay controls, so quickly ditched it... Of course, Doom, for it's time, was definitely freaky and scary, mostly as it was the first 3d world I ever played in, and of course, it's subject matter...

Doom 3, with the dark shadows and lighting certainly recaptures it, and creates a very spooky atmosphere.

It has to be Resident Evil 1...but shadowman was quite a freaky game too....

Shadowman

Originally posted by booda
It has to be Resident Evil 1...but shadowman was quite a freaky game too....

Shadowman

I loved Shadowman, the music, the characters and the whole concept were all great, I would love to see a next gen remake.

I got all but one of those soul jar things and could not find the last one, so I couldn't beat the end of the game, I would have loved to finish it.

If I remember rightly, it was the first game to introduce a double weapon system, were you had a button for each hand and what ever item was in that hand.
Also the first game I played that had major swear words in it.


[edit on 5-7-2010 by Chukkles]

There was a bit in the first 'Condemned' that was set in a department store full of mannequins; lunatics hide among them and they move around when you're not looking. Stuff of nightmares, like video game equivalent of the weeping angels.

But the scariest level I ever played was in 'Thief: Deadly Shadows'. 'The Cradle' it was called. An old orphanage that was turned into an asylum, then abandoned. You sneak in to find some muguffin, but find yourself hiding from approaching footsteps in empty corridors, jumping at shadows and wondering at the noises coming from upstairs. Unsung gaming brilliance.

FEAR 2. I got this game just after I got a HDTV for my xbox360 and was the first game I played on it. It had some jumpy moments for me as there were times I was looking for people to shoot when some ghost flew by haha, also thought Saw was pretty jumpy, when walking through the trip wire without noticing it

Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem

Enough said.

Eternal Darkness plays tricks on your mind from two fronts. First, the setting captures and enthralls you from the outset. The mansion where a lot of the game takes place uses wonderful lighting schemes to present the gamer with a sense of time and urgency. As you progress through the game, you’ll see the light change as time passes. Not to mention that there are so many set pieces, as it’s a game that encapsulates so many different periods of time.

Where the ED really hits home is through its sanity effects. There have been very few games that can truly play tricks on the mind, but Eternal Darkness is one of them. As you progress through ED, there’s a bar on the screen that measures the intensity of the images you see. As the meter fills, you’ll start to lose sanity. When that happens, all sorts of things start to happen.

Like for example when it makes you think the power in your tv went off or the power in your game.

reply to post by Jedite


I have heard good things about that game. It is an odd one in the gamming world, it gets very high ratings but did not really sell at all. I would like to check it out but im not sure if it is cool enough to purchase a gamecube over it.

I would have to say the Resident evil 1 gamecube remake. RE1 was spooky enough. The graphics got better and so did the spookiness. Great effects in that one, amazing lighting. Same game, way better.

reply to post by DaMod


Did they keep the really bad voice actors?

reply to post by zaiger


No, they redid the voice acting, the graphics, added some freaking amazing lighting effects. Same dialog (for the most part) different voices. If you haven't played the GC version you really need to. It breaths a breath of fresh air into RE.

The graphics are actually pretty stunning. It really adds a ton to the feel of the game. This game was the best graphics for the GC hands down.

[edit on 21-7-2010 by DaMod]

Okay, I've been playing video games for ages, but was never really scared by any of it... Until several years ago when I played the first Diablo.

I know, I know — What the hell's so scary about Diablo??

Well, it's like this... Any time I get a new game, I play it straight through to the end with no intermission. So, I picked up Diablo one day, loaded it and started playing on my big cinematic screen, with stereo headphones. I played all afternoon, into the evening, and finally beat Diablo at around 3:00 AM.

I was exhausted.

So, here I'm sitting in a dark room, no light except my cinema screen, and Diablo plays its epilogue movie — I'm telling you, I was not expecting that wide-eyed, screaming Rogue right at the end. I almost fell backwards in my chair.



Not that it was so damned scary, but it totally caught me off guard and startled the hell out of me.

— Doc Velocity

Oh, and I laughed my ass off at this one. A classic from long ago...



— Doc Velocity

Well for me the creepiest game had to be Fatal Frame for ps1. I remember the first time playing, it was dark, and after about 5 minutes in I had to turn it off. It became a sought after game and found it years later, and it still gives me the creeps.

Peace to you...