There are thousands of games out there that can give you the odd cheap jump, or have a vaguely eerie atmosphere spoiled by weaker elements of gameplay.

The following are some of the creme de la creme, more of an ordeal than a game in a couple of cases.
Six is the magic number when dealing with such items, these games can make you pause for relief from the encroaching darkness:

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6:Dead Space

Some will complain about the amount cheap “BOO” scares in this entry but the game doesn’t at all rely on them as a crutch (looking at you Doom3).

It was tempting to add DS2 as it has more content but everything was totally new and freshly shocking in DS1, it was also hard not to include RE4, as Dead Space is basically a logical evolution of that game; but I think pound for pound scariness is heavier in DS1, with RE4 having a more creepy vibe but with a heavier action focus.

Realizing for the first time that blasting the head off that necromorph just made it more dangerous, was both a fascination gameplay mechanic and a startling revelation that your typical shooter tactics would need to be rethought – fast.

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5:Silent Hill 3

Many will probably cite SH1 or 2 as their favorites in the series but I’ll always have special memories of the eerie silence in the closing mall at the games beginning; the safety of noisy crowds just barely out of reach behind a few locked shutters.

The now infamous mirror-room scene; you wander into a room with a large mirror on one wall that shows a scene from about a minute into the future where the room (and your body) is consumed by red corruption and your reflection no longer moves with you.

As the scene begins to play out on your side of the mirror you try to leave but find the door locked. While you can die in this room, it turns out easy to escape and the room itself has no point whatsoever in the story other than to creep you the hell out – which in my opinion is awesome.

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4:Doom

Laugh all you like, Doom 1 was scary to my 12 year old self when it came out.

There was an area with only the occasional flickering light, full of Demons (now known by the stupid name of “Pinkies”) and their invisible counterparts “Specters” that springs to mind but I can’t seem to spot it on the Doom Wiki, I thought it was in the Shores of Hell episode.

Anyway, this game may very well have introduced me to the idea that being scared could be a very good thing.

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3:Fatal Frame 2:

You’re trapped in a house full of Japanese ghosts, the only weapon you have is your camera, which weirdly has the ability to damage said ghosts. That’s basically it, more or less.

I did some searching, and it turns out that Fatal Frame 2 seems to be regarded by many as the least scary of the currently available titles which makes me feel like a bit of a wuss , in fairness though, I played the game in Japanese with little actual clue as to what was happening most of the time other than I needed to take those pics, luckily it wasn’t the hardest game ever.

That signature Japanese horror atmosphere and some excellent enemy design is why I still fear this game.

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2:Amnesia:The Dark Descent

The Penumbra games are widely regarded as some of the scariest survival horrors. Rightly so, but developer Frictional Games have one-upped themselves here in what may objectively be the scariest game on this list.

Psychological horror is the name of the game here, monsters are only defeated by out-running them, safe zones are usually within the weak light provided by a candle and can be very temporary. Stay in the dark too long and madness itself becomes a gameplay factor as the visuals distort and an ambient soundtrack of odd noises slowly rises and you begin to hallucinate.

This may sound only aesthetic, but monsters notice you more easily the further you go down this path of madness, not to mention that it alters your own behavior as a player.

This is one game that is difficult to play with the lights off in the dead of night, which is of course the only way it should be played.

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1:System Shock 2

System Shock 2 was one of the first games where fear was a major factor in what choices I made. The combination of RPG and survival-horror elements meant that each move seemed to carry weight beyond just killing everything between you and the exit, actual thought was needed to proceed.

Random audio logs for giving a rich backstory, different ammo types, combining spell casting with first person shooting –there is a reason Irrational Games and Ken Levine actually changed very few gameplay elements when it came to making spiritual successor Bioshock.

System Shock 2 featured gameplay features that may seem common place now, but were mostly unheard of at the time.

Add to this an excellent cast of enemies including zombified humans with enough remaining consciousness to scream at you to run or kill them even as they charged helplessly.

Of course the star of the show is SHODAN, the malevolent supercomputer behind the whole nightmare. Clearly inspired by the HAL9000, HAL has since become an oft imitated sci-fi cliché, but never captured as well as in SHODAN. The only thing comparable since was Portal’s GLaDOS, and that is good company indeed.

Despite the time gap between then and now, System Shock 2 remains an immersive, playable and totally terrifying experience to this day. I believe mods have been released with texture packs, updated enemy models and custom resolution support so if you like sci-fi or horror gaming you and you haven’t played this ….you owe it to yourself to experience it.

Lights off. Headphones on. Sound way up.

Honorable mentions:
-Clock Tower
-Call of Cthulhu: Dark corners of the earth
-S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
-Resident Evil
-F.E.A.R
-AvP 2 (marine campaign – scared the crap out of me)

“Hey!!, zomg you left out Undying/Condemned/whatever… fail n00b”

Disagree with something here???
Let us know!!

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Top 6 Scariest Games, 6.7 out of 10 based on 3 ratings

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