Topic: Horror Game Thread

Was actually shocked that there wasn't a horror game thread on here, so I thought I make one (hopefully this is not stepping on other forums toes). I would like this to be some where we can share anything and everything horror game related, doesn't matter what platform it's on, how old/new your game in question is, most iconic jump scare you expirenced? least favourite trope used in horror games? I think I speak for most people but horror is truly the most memorable (traumatising) games we have in this medium, anyway looking forward to your responses.

@Yousef-

1. Sanitarium - a point and click adventure game with really heavy themes and no jump scares.
2. Ofc Silent Hill series.
3. I have no Mouth and I must Scream - another amazing point and click adventure!

@Yousef- Well if you want a game from around that time period you can never go wrong with Capcom's haunting grounds truly a under appreciated gem and not too scary (I don't have a poor gauge on what is scary or not though )

@iNightfarer Funny enough I was talking about how I wish the Resident evil trilogy and Silent 1 2 3 4 get the remaster treatment like how Tomb Raider just got with all their legacy games. It literally would be the best way to get new players in jump into how franchise first started, of course I would want it to have the option of skipping door load animation as they can get old really fast, and they ability to switch from og graphics to HD would also help a lot!

I'm a fan of "old school" survival horror.

I have Haunting Ground, Silent Hill 2 & 3 for PS2, and Biohazard: Code Veronica (Japanese version), as well as Dino Crisis 2 for PS1.

I used to have a copy of Resident Evil 2 and Silent Hill but you can bet I'm kicking myself for selling a bunch of my PS1 titles to fund PS2 games back in the day.

I find myself more squeamish playing horror titles these days than when I was younger. I don't know what it is but I'm far less brave. I can watch horror movies alone in the dark all night but a game? Sheesh! I have to have the lights on and a cat on my lap or it's a nope. For example, I've never finished Haunting Ground because you can't kill the enemies. Being constantly pursued is my worst nightmare and I find myself turning it off before getting anywhere 😅.

I've seen how the horror game space has changed a bit over the last couple of decades and I know there's so much out there to try - I kind of fell out of love with modern horror titles after Resident Evil 4 as it was right at the forefront of the "over the shoulder-itis" plague and it's just not my thing at all. That's probably a big part of why I'm not interested in the Silent Hill 2 remake. I tried Dead Space and that got to me as well, however partly it was chickening out and partly it was because OTS makes me want to eat my own eyeballs, which is weird considering I logged quite a few hours in FPS games like Battlefield (several titles) and I really enjoyed Star Wars Battlefront. Those types of games are typically playable in first person mode though so I digress...

I have been playing a little bit of Project Zomboid via Steam recently and man is it punishing! Very tense and you really have to be careful.

There are so many older ones I'd like to get back into like Project Zero/Fatal Frame, Kuon, Forbidden Siren and others which I have tried but never got a chance to own.

As an adult there are just so many things to spend time on and I find I'm easily distracted by so many other games and the responsibility of day-to-day life!

I suppose I don't really have a point. I'm a horror fan who is also a wuss lol.

@DemonStar89 "I find myself more squeamish playing horror titles these days than when I was younger" I think that has come with just how good graphics for games have come over the years. To me when Outlast first came out I thought it was the scariest game ever made, first you couldn't fight (already off to a bad start) secondly you have a camera and have to use the night vision in dark areas, which honestly was a genius game play design choice, it adds so much tension and dread.... I loved it!

There are a lot of extremely well made horror games on Steam but obviously there are also a lot of poorly made one with only cheap jump scares to show for itself, my favourite steam horror devs are
Chilla Art https: https://steamdb.info/developer/Chilla%27s+Art/
or Reflect Studios: https://steamdb.info/developer/Reflect+Studios/

Oh god I haven't heard the name Siren in a very long time and truthfully I cannot remember much about the franchise any more... but that's the problem it's becoming almost impossible to replay these old horror if you didn't keep your hardware.... like me. But I suppose that's why sites like GOG.com where you actually have ownership of the game files you just purchased, that makes them so important for for preservation, my only problem is I don't have a PC and while I appriciate PS+ and it's back catalog it's just not the same.

@Yousef- Love to see Shadow of Memories mentioned! I haven't yet played it myself, but I'm incredibly intrigued ever since I learned of its existence last year. I even have all the emulation, HD textures and settings all set up to dive in whenever. Your mention of it as someone who seems to be a bit more picky with their horror does nothing but excite me more about playing it. I might just have to prioritise it after I finish my current playthrough of Clair Obscur. Can I ask you what you love about the game or keeps it standing out for you all these years later? Like you said, it seems to be a rather under-the-radar gem, so it's not often (or at all) that I see it mentioned. When I do, it's only ever in positive terms. Do you think it'll hold up just fine under a 2026 lens?

As for your question, I'm a relative newbie to horror gaming, but I'd recommend you to check out Cronos: The New Dawn if you haven't already. Its storytelling is definitely more on the psychological, intellectual side than consistently trying to gross you out or anything. I don't believe it had all that many jumpscares, but I'm completely desensitised to them and might just not remember exactly. I think you'll be fine though, but your tolerance might vary!

@Tjuz I have already played and got platinum for Cronos the first week it came out, and it was my second favourite horror game of last year (with SIlent Hill f being my number 1). But yeah I thought the was amazing, combat was solid, the OST was really unique, also thought the voice acting was great (which doesn't seem to get brought up enough), I suppose my only gripe would be it was trying too much like dead space (but is that really such a bad thing?). All in all with this being Bloober's second ever game to have actual combat in it, they should be really proud of themselves and I really can't for their remake on SIlent Hill 1!

the only horror videogames im playing this year are Resident Evil Remake, Code Veronica, and Resident Evil 4 original for my Gamecube

along with playing Resident Evil 2 and 3 Remakese for my Playstation 4

then playing Resident Evil Revelations 2 digitally for my Switch Lite.

@seinfeldfanatic I mean, Resident Evil Remake maybe if not one of the best survival horror games ever made (imo of course) it's funny how many people didn't know it was a Gamecube exclusive until 2015.

Love the horror genre! It took me a long time though before I got into it. I've played so many horror games now that I absolutely love it. My favourite games are Silent Hill 2 Remake, Dead Space Remake, Resident Evil 2 Remake and Resident Evil 7.

I just love how different and creative the games can be. Because most are linear and they have supernatural elements, each game can offer a different kind of experience. If I play an open world game or an action/adventure game, I can pretty much expect a similar experience to other games. But horror is different in that regard. I mean, I just played Silent Hill 2 Remake and that game differs from Dead Space and Resident Evil, even though all three are fundamentally third-person shooters.

Then we have games like Little Nightmares, which is a 2D platformer; Fatal Frame, which is about taking pictures; Paranormasight, which is a visual novel; Outlast, which is a first-person hide-and-seek game; Layers of Fear, which is a walking sim, and so on and so forth. There are just so many different kinds of horror games and I love that. It's a genre that is able to mix with other genres and that's great!

As I'm writing this, I'm actually starting to crave a horror game and I'm contemplating what to play next. I could start up the next entry in The Dark Pictures anthology, which is House of Ashes for me. Or maybe even something like Yomawari Night Alone on the Vita. I'll have to see what I'm in the mood for!

@LtSarge You summed up the genre pretty nicely right there, I'm trying to think which era has been the best for it was the PS1/N64 era or modern times? Honestly they go hand in hand for me personally like you couldn't one without the other.

Like I said above there are a lot of really good indie horror games Steam, Welcome to the game 2 maybe one of the most unique horror games ever, if you have access to Steam I would highly recommend giving it a go!

It actually warms my heart that both Resident Evil and Silent Hill are finally back in the fore front of gaming discussion, with the success RE7 - 9 and Bloobers incredible SH2R and Neobard's SHf, I like the look of Townfall but need to see more of it first, but I do like they are trying something different with the first person approach.

Looking I'm going to be real here, the Dark Pictures games are my guilty pleasure... yes the earlier ones were kinda cringy, like Man of Medan or Little hope, but I LOVED house of ashes a lot and The Devil in me was also pretty cool. Still think Until Dawn is yet to be beaten in this sub genre (The Quarry came pretty close though) and I don't think Directive 8020 will either but I will still play it and enjoy it anyway!

Speaking of future titles, I am very intrigued with how Hellraiser is shaping up, the devs clearly knew the assignment they were put and the look/vibes are on point. The other one I'm skeptical on which is called ill, while from everything they have shown looks incredible in the back of my mind I keep thinking "Is this really what the final product will look like?" only time will tell.

@Oram77 I like both retro and modern horror. I'm in the minority who prefers original RE1 over the remake, purely because it was a simpler game to get into. Remake is too complicated and has a steep learning curve. As long as you are open to learning tank controls, the original RE trilogy on PS1 is honestly the best place to start with the series if you ask me (despite being a person who grew up with modern games in general).

Appreciate the recommendation! Unfortunately, I don't have a PC but if that game ever comes to consoles, I'll definitely check it out.

Agreed! Speaking of Bloober, have you played Cronos: The New Dawn? I'm contemplating buying some cheap second-hand games and saw that a used copy of that game is €30 right now, so I was wondering if the game is worth getting at that price.

It's cool to hear that you like The Dark Pictures games! I didn't like Man of Medan as it took too long to get going and it just abruptly ends if you make some wrong choices. Like you miss out on a lot of content and I didn't like that at all. Little Hope was better in that regard, but it had really obscure criteria for the different endings (Man of Medan maybe also had this, I don't remember). I've heard great things about House of Ashes, so I might go for that next!

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’ve only recently become any sort of horror fan. I mostly avoided the genre until about 6-8 years ago. I believe Resident Evil 1 Remake on PS4 was where I really stayed to see the allure. The other flashpoint spark into horror for me was definitely Bloodborne. I’ve not seen it mentioned as a horror game when we’re talking about the genre because we all think of it as a Souls type of game first, but as @LtSarge mentioned, horror doesn’t always just have to be survival horror series like Resident Evil and Silent Hill that we always think of. As a character action game of the souls variety, Bloodborne is probably still my favorite, but it is actually my favorite horror game also. It doesn’t have jump scares in the traditional sense, but it has one of the most foreboding atmospheres in gaming and is creepy as all get-out! The combination of brutal difficulty, scary enemies, dark macabre atmosphere, and chilling soundscape… well, it freaked me right out. I’ll never forget my anxiety during the first few hours walking the streets of Yharnam. But I grew to love that game.

Some others that I would mention as favorites that I would class in the horror or maybe a horror-adjacent category would be Death Stranding, Hellblade, and the early Walking Dead games (mainly the first one). Also, it’s a small stretch but The Last of Us 1&2 have some horror vibes and although not scary per se, I mean… they have zombie-like enemies and my heart definitely was racing while trying to hide from those creepy clickers. 😅

A couple others I’m reminded of are Limbo and Inside, both really disturbing and almost horror-like in some parts. Both excellent platformers.

@LtSarge See comment #13 for my thoughts on Cronos, but yes I highly recommend it picking it up at some point! Also look forward to hearing your thoughts on House of Ashes whenever you get around to it,

@Yousef- @Th3solution It's funny that both of you bring up games that clearly have horror elements in them but are never thought/classified as horror games, which is probably why horror is a special genre as it can be easily be blended in with other genre and yet it still works. My example of this just like you @Th3solution is another Kojima game, The Phaontom Pain, there are some truly horrific/scary scenes in that game and ever since then I have always thought Kojima would be an amazing horror director (PT obviously proved this too) and lo and behold he is making O.D which I'm sure will be bloody brillian,t confusing as f*** and goat'd OST.

@Yousef- Bloodborne was my first real Souls game. (Well… actually I spent a few hours with Dark Souls 1 on PS3, but never got past the early game). So having no context for what a FromSoft game was, I found it really scary, a foreboding feeling of isolation and vulnerability. Now after playing DeS, DS1, and DS2, I now know some of that loneliness and fear is just part of the FromSoft experience. Even the NPCs are usually kind of creepy.

But definitely Bloodborne is the closest to horror of the lot. From the first sounds in the street of moaning, screeching, and scratching of iron on stone, to the last boss. The setting, enemies, and themes are all a combination of pretty classic gothic and cosmic horror in the style of HP Lovecraft. Werewolves, giant spiders, witches, a creepy doll that comes to life that you have to deal your blood echoes to. Heck, the title is Blood borne and there’s more references to blood than a hemophiliac’s medical records. It’s like a full representation of a 50 hour nightmare.

It captures Lovcraftian horror to a T.
…No one is playing golf in Yharnam so there are no tees. And definitely there’s no stopping for afternoon tea and crumpets while exploring Yharnam. 😜

@Oram77 I really think Kojima has a love for horror and really likes to mix in horror elements to his games. The potential of P.T. will hopefully be fully realized with O.D.

@Th3solution I bought Dark Souls after hearing vague rumours of how good it was. I spent weeks playing the first area around Firelink Shrine and dropped it. Picked the game up again 18 months later and had another go and realised how much more game there was!
It took serious retraining of my gaming habits to adjust to its combat system. You cannot mash attack and dodge like the other fantasy RPG/combat games (I'd come from games like Genji and Tenchu) so I think those habits were really hard to break.

@Th3solution Bloodborne Golf announced at the next State of Play.

@JohnnyShoulder You joke but... https://store.steampowered.com/app/2930160/Nightmare_Kart/