Happy Halloween. Now, grab your gun.
We love video games here at The Controller Online, but we really love video games that can scare us. Since Halloween is almost upon us, we decided to get a list of our favorite scary games together. This list isn’t necessarily the scariest games ever (Slender is still in beta, so relax), nor is it in any particular order, but it’s a list of our ten favorite scary games. Let us know your favorite scary game in the comments below. Now, on to the list:
F.E.A.R
Designed in the style of Japanese horror movies, F.E.A.R is a first person shooter that trades action and “jump scares” for psychological terror. I mean, just look at Alma, the young girl the game focuses on. If she doesn’t creep you out, I don’t know what will.
Dead Space
Whether it’s the messages, scrawled on the walls in blood, saying things like “Cut off their limbs!”, or the fact that sharp tentacle-like arms can dar out of the wall or floor at any time, Dead Space scared the engineering pants off of us.
Silent Hill 2
This is the game that introduced “Pyramid Head” to the series and, man, that guy knew just when to show up. This isn’t even to mention the superbly creepy Mannequin monsters. Don’t worry, it gets worse; sometimes they show up in scenes together. Often the camera angle will shift and you’ll suddenly realize you’re right next to a monster made out of four mannequin legs.
Lone Survivor
So you’re alone, at the end of the world, stuck in an apartment full of monsters? If that scenario alone doesn’t scare you, the way you have to hide from the monsters in Jasper Byrne’s pixelated masterpiece will have you sucking in your gut, and holding your breath in real life. Survival is the goal, and the fact that it isn’t easy to do only adds to the terror.
Resident Evil 2
While the Resident Evil series is a survival horror series, it isn’t known for being particularly scary. Resident Evil 2, however, had a number of legitimate “jump scare” moments which, some people think are cheap but, I love in video games.
Doom 3
Doom 3 is still scary, after all these years, and is still one of the best examples of using lighting effects to make itself even more scary. Demons would occasionally appear behind you, but only frequently enough to make sure you can never relax.
Metro 2033
I’ve always wondered if the Moscow subway system is as creepy in real life as it is in Metro 2033. It isn’t just the darkness, or the hostile factions, or the strange creatures you’ll meet up with underground, it’s the things you see from time to time that really freak you out. What seems like a straightforward story of survival, soon turns out to be much more frightening than you thought it would be.
Silent Hill Downpour
Downpour wasn’t the most polished game in the Silent Hill series, but if you ask us it was the scariest one next to Silent Hill 2. Downpour will frequently leave you wondering whether the dark forces of Silent Hill are messing with you, or your own brain is messing with you.
Bioshock
A lot of people don’t think of the Bioshock series as being a horror series, but if you ask us, the city of Rapture is most certainly haunted. It isn’t haunted by ghosts, however, but by the mad, drugged out remnants of its citizenry. Then there’s moments like the one in the video below.
Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
Not many people we ask have actually played this one but, if you can get your hands on a Nintendo Gamecube, you need to play Eternal Darkness. This game isn’t out to scare your character, it’s out to scare you, you personally, until you go insane. Eternal Darkness presents a story that is plenty scary for the characters in it, but really messes with the player’s head too.
