Scariest PC games of all time?

Hey, I'm looking for a really terrifying horror game that will run well on my 8600m gt notebook. Games like FEAR and Bioshock really werent as scary to me as a lot of other players seemed to find them.

Does anyone know of any horror games with excellent atmosphere, hopefully new-ish graphics, and disturbing enemies/settings?

 

Condemned and Dark Corners of Earth

On more adventury side; Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy) tends to f'up some people.
Not sure it's that scary, has it's moments though. Atmospheric is more of the word.

 

I did say FEAR was the real :atmospheric: scary game, but you don't find it scary. On the other hand, Fahrenheit isn't really a scary game at all, at most it is only comparable to a triller movie in terms of it's "scariness", not even to the level of "horror movies".

 

Condemned was pretty scary, shame it played like ass. =P

DcoTE was damn atmospheric throughout, althoughgh once you get weapons it kind of turns into a sub-par FPS. Nice Lovecraft elements though.

Yeah, I agree about Fahrenheit pretty atmospheric, although it wasn't very scary and the otherwise amazing story turned to crap for the last 25% XD

 

I have always enjoyed DOOM3 & ROE Xpansion. Narrow corridors, stark atmoshphere, relatively good GFX even for todays standards. Resident Evil 4 (pc) is IMO scary as hell. You can download the HI-res Textures & videos and then the game is brutal! The MOD scene has really made RE4 an incredible game (surpassing the Gamecube version). Nice topic as I always look for that good combination of scary & playability in the PC market.

 

Doom 3 really had some damn creepy moments, although I think Resident Evil 4 was much more intense than scary. Although those Regenerators towards the end gave me the willies.

A lot of good recommendations in this thread so far, but I'm a big fan of horror games and it seems I've played most of the mainstream ones. I guess I'm looking for somewhat older, perhaps more obscure ones.

 

Doom 3 by far creepiest ever. Never had I screamed like a little girl due to a video game before. Not that I haven't screamed like a little girl ever, just not because of a game

 

yeah if FEAR didnt do it go with Doom 3 thats my only suggestian

 

I got pretty spooked by some of the places in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow Of Chernobyl. Freaking dark tunnels with fires in them, and some zombie leaping through the air to rip your face off, plus some quite atmospheric effects and sounds.

 

Yeah, I've been wanting to try STALKER for a while. I was under the impression it was much more of an action game though, since most screenshots I've seen showed you fighting human enemies with guns. The fact that it has zombies makes me want to rush out and buy it now. =P

 

You people should try Alien vs predator first or second one doesnt matter much..., but playing the marine of course.
After that you would find NOTHING scary or too shocking of Doom 3 or Far cry trigens...
That is if you have guts to play it at night and alone.

 

Jericho is a pretty scary game. Heh. Hehehehe.

I made myself laugh a little.



But seriously, the first F.E.A.R. was awesomely creepy right at the end. The rest was mostly atmosphere.

 

Condemned was my scariest game, especially at night with nobody home and the lights turned off.... creeeeepy

Bioshock had some "scary: jump out at you moments, but not too scary in the sense of the ring or the grudge type.

 

Condemed Criminal Origins

really ****ing scary.

I thinking i peed on the chair once, no lie.

=P that's just me tho.

 

Well gamespy already made a list of the most scariest games but some of them are so old that the graphics will make you laugh.

http://www.gamespy.com/articles/561/561382p1.html

 

I still have the second one but Ive never played all the way through the marine scenario. I do remember an alien jumping from a wall though out of no where

 

That game is just about schock and paranoia, however it is getting pretty old and resident evil the newer ones is a good candidate for modern scariest game.

 

Some interesting games there I havent heard of. Sanitarium looks pretty interesting, and I had no idea that Silent Hill 3 was available for pc. Thanks!

On another note, I'd love to get the Resident Evil remake for Gamecube running on my PC with a GC emulator, but to my knowledge, the only decent GC emulator requires 64 bit windows.

 

STALKER is also more of an atmospheric game.

You really don't want to go forward in some "dungeons" 'cause it's so ****ing dark and those damn invisible things come out to rip your face off.
Also few of those closet scares á la Doom 3.

 

Skifree.



Damn that yeti! Always eatin up my poor downhill skier

 

God damn. I first played that game when I was around...12 years old, and I was terrified utterly of the Colonial Marines missions (I couldn't get past the first one) - how could I forget? It's freaking terrifying :s

I recently tried it again. I'm no less scared now, either. Must track down a copy of both games to play through some time, just to scare myself to death :cry:

 

i though STALKER was a pretty freaky game in its sense

 

Im planing to do that with fear or doom 3 dunno why but sometimes you just like to get shivered

 

The scariest moment I had gaming was with the first Quake game. Was gaming alone with the lights out, totally hooked in the single player campaign. getting out of a dungeon or castle, don't remember now, one big black monster with BIG fangs in each limb jumps right in front of me, and slashs at me with the fangs. I went "GAAAH" and tried to evade it, hitting the wall behind me with my head so strong I saw lights dancing in front of me

 

I'll never forget pong.. Damn that game scared the @#$% out of me..

 

Those who have played System Shock 2 say it's a very scary game if you can find it anymore. Have you tried any of the Silent Hill games? Those are very scary from what I hear.

 

1. Penumbra: Overture (I think this is actually free.) This game freaked me out that I couldn't keep playing it. I didn't even get to an enemy yet.
2. Condemned: Criminal Origins. I really liked the melee gameplay... a LOT. Freaky as hell (especially the house at the end I had to get my friend to play it for me).
3. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl made me jump 3 feet high one time. There's a few freaky moments that'll do that. It's not a flat-out horror game, though...
4. Doom 3 is the typical answer. Eh, it's quite good at what it does but it keeps you on the edge of your seat more than really freak you out.

:edit: Nope, #1 is no longer free, but it's still #1 for contemporary horror games.

 

Actually, I'm pretty sure that #1 is still free as I just finished installing it as I read your post. Funny, that.

Apparently Overture is just an expanded version of the original, which is still free.

 

Wolfraider , tip my hat to y`all. Alien Versus Predator, 1, 2 and Gold were the scariest games I`ve ever played. The sound of aliens and the radar in the dark got me jumping all over. For intense moments it`s recommended to play with headsets at night time, with no light. Will scare the feathers out of ya.
FEAR would also be on the list, but got old really fast. AVP on the other hand was scary playing as a marine, fast-pased and brutal as an alien, and godlike when predator.
On the scary games list I would also place the Thing, if any of you played it...
EDIT : I almost forgot about Sanitarium ...gave me the creeps while figuring all about the nightmare issues and child mutilations..played it over a douzen times , I think I`ll play it again as soon as I find the cd...

 

The Thing was pretty creepy, although it had terrible control and it was way too easy to kill important squadmates.

Alien vs. Predator has caught my interest. I remember playing it over LAN or something with some friends when I was a kid, and I didn't think much of it, but the single player does sound pretty intense from what you guys have said about it.

 

Two excellent suggestions there. The "Silent Hill" series is probably the scariest video game franchise on the face of the earth. System Shock 2 (the prequel to Bioshock) is also extremely frightening and atmospheric.

Problem: The graphics on these two games are SO dated that you will not have any fun playing them. Seriously, I tried playing Silent Hill again a while ago, and the lack of definition or even a widescreen mode totally destroyed any hope of immersion.

It's tragic really, especially for those who never had a chance to play them.


To the OP, horror is very subjective depending on the individual. Do you prefer "shock" horror, or "psychological" horror? Personally, I was never really scared of gore and blood (altho I did love the Evil Dead 1&2 movies). I'm all about the psychological aspect.

In a perfect world, horror would be a combination of both aspects ("The Thing" for example). But you will only usually find one.

 

I love blood and gore, but I think a lot of developers think that putting some startling moments and buckets of blood and gore are what games a game scary. I definitely prefer the more subtle, psychological stuff in films like Jacob's Ladder and games like Silent Hill.

Compliments on the name, btw.

 

system shock 2 is pretty scary :O,
you can search for some graphic packs that make the game much prettier tough (remember is from the half life 1 era, but the mods make it look very good, night and day)

condemned is good too
doom3 for me was scary.. like for the first mission, then is was too much repetitive

a friend says clive barker undying is scary.. haven't played it tough

 

People keep bringing up System Shock 2, but System Shock 1 was actually more frightening to me. Maybe it was the trouble of getting it to install...

Plus, Shodan was a little more unknown. Damn that homocidal egomaniac AI was hot.

<3 Shodan.

I swear she was just reborn as a younger, less-evil version and slapped into Halo as Cortanna.

Oh and Darwinia. Those centipede things freaked me out...eating my cute little Darwinians. YAY for Darwinia on Steam for cheap!

Edit: That top 10 list looks cool, I should check some of those games out.

 

the scariest games i've ever played:

1-resident evil 4: yeah those freaky spaniard villagers were pretty scary, but wait untill you meet the regenerators in the freezer level
2-alien vs predator: as many here mentioned, the marine missions were some of the scariest i've ever encountered in a game, still remember not having the courage to complete the first mission back then
3-condemned: criminal origins: even though it was quite repetitve it still managed to make me jump out of my seat untill the very last moment, also the melee combat system and the lack of guns for most of the game made it even more scarier.
4-"we don't to ravenholm" level in HL2: i know it's weird, but seriously, the raveholm level puts many survival horror games to shame. hell, it scared me more than standalone horror survival games like doom 3 and F.E.A.R !!
5-call of the cthulhu: dark corners of earth: not many people've heared of it, so i won't spoil anything here, but anyone who likes horror survival games should defenitely check this game out!

other games i found to be pretty scary: S.T.A.L.K.E.R( the lab sections were freaky but also at night when fighting bloodsuckers and zombies), fehrenheit (the first half of the game) and doom 3( in the beginning).

 

Hello Kitty's Island Castle scared the crap out of me

So... many... kitty's

 

Actually System Shock 2 has some user created mods as in updated textures. I've seen screen shots of the game and it looks quite nice. Take away the updated textures and it looks meh, "outdated".

 

Nice to see another Call of Cthulhu fan. Shame the last 15% or so is so poorly written, eh?

 

System Shock 2
Alien vs Predator

but yeah the graphics may make you laugh

 

1. Original Doom

2. Silent Hill 2 - was probably the scariest game after the origingal Doom that I have played. It was more like emotionally scary, then monster - behind the corner - scary though. It's PS -2 game tho

 

My Recommendations:

1-- Clive Barker's Undying
2-- System Shock 2
3-- Silent Hill I / Call of Cthulhu
5- AvP 2
6-- Fatal Frame
7-- F.E.A.R

 

How about Return to castle wolfenstein I never finished that game because i just got to scared to play any more. Should be able to find that game for cheap and has decent graphics

 

BINGO!
Great game and one of my all time favorites!

 

HAHA can't believe i forgot about that game. it was pretty creepy yeah but only at the begining.

 

Doom 3... Bioshock is also pretty scary from time to time.

 

Ok I go to law school at University of Texas and some of my friends here agree with many of your suggestions of "scariest" games. OK so I "received", tonight many of the GAMESPY scariest ( We have a T3 connection ) and with several tests it is almost magnanimously accepted that above most games in this list that......doom 3 was hands down the scariest of the bunch. In fact most laughed at the other games while doom3 really scared some people. We even played silent hill 3 and its curse had no affect like the doom game ... anyway nice topic and hopefully in the future we may have a game that makes us all forget the quickest way to the bathroom.....

 

playing with friends and joking around will give you quite a different experience than playing alone.

 

Certainly a valid answer. But are we at the point where games have alluded the idea that they are games and we can not enjoy them and be affected by them? Most people that play "survival-games" certainly play them alone but the fact that those games still manifest "excitement or fear" in a group setting doesn't change the fact that they are in fact still rather chilling. Game on.

 

FEAR but the ambiance of HL2 creeped me out too...

 

Alone, night, lights out.

Every horror game demands those.