Even though I've been playing video games for years, some games still scare me. So much so that I can't finish playing them, even with the lights on and a crowd of people watching me play... But I bet every gamer I meet will tell me the same thing... they've got "Balls of Steel" and nothing in games scares them... EVER.

For me it's ultimately Silent Hill. That loud noise in the high school when it gets dark keeps me from progressing. I'm afraid to see what the source of the noise is. I've been told it's harmless, but heck... I don't want to know.

I know the game's just a bunch of polygons, but it's the way the scene that's put together that keeps me from moving forward... T_T

I think a lot of people don't really get into the games atmosphere enough to get scared, they just play for the action. I remember some games have given me the creeps a bit but never enough to make me stop playing.

Blood Siren for PS3. it did scare the shit out of me. i barely could play it after some levels.
i did have to stop that. it got too much for me. Silent hills? bah. it got nothing on Blood siren...

Well how's this for old school. A while back, I used to play this game called Descent. And while Descent wasn't necessarily supposed to be scary, it got me a few times. There were certain enemies that had obnoxious noises, or types that would wreak havoc on you and ended up being right in the middle of where you wanted to go. I always hesitated approaching them.

But since then, I've played a lot of horror games. I'm not saying I'm the most stoic individual in the world, but the so-called horror games released in the past fifteen years or so just don't seem to have that desired horrific effect on me. Until I played Dead Space. Something about being on a massacred spacecraft, lightyears away from the nearest civilization, deranged aliens lifeforms lurking about waiting to destroy you in numerous grim ways, and having just barely enough ammo to keep your enemies at bay...yeah, I got scared playing that game.

I remember finding Maniac Mansion to have a few scary moments. It was such a bizarre isolated location and the Ed family was very mercurial, particularly the nurse wife. Sometimes they'd wander out of their rooms, run into one of your characters and just flip out... either throw you in the dungeon or more rarely, kill you. There was also a vague time limit at one point where you're completely in the dark and have to find some very context sensitive things quickly. Fun game and very quirky otherwise.

Silent Hill 2 (which is when I first came into the series) had a few moments. That psychological content was so new to me at the time in regards to a video game. I don't think I was outright afraid, but there was palatable tension at times.

I guess there's always the dogs jumping through the window in the original RE, but that's more of a cheap Hollywood scare than anything.

It's been a while since a movie, book, videogame etc. actually scared me. I guess I just don't immerse myself in them enough, or as someone mentioned I get more concerned about the gameplay.

Getting the creeps and feeling tension, yes. Suspenseful moments, yes. But never fear to carry on watching/playing. I'm probably just too rational about it. :]

People are going to mention Dead Space... that game really did make me stop and proceed very cautiously, but only until the third chapter or so, when I'd seen most of the monster types and I realized that most of the vents meant a monster was going to jump out (or otherwise able to predict the 'scares'). I suppose the one moment of true dread I had in the game was stepping onto the bridge of the Ishimura, seeing the lovely set piece and just knowing something bad was going to happen there. (Still, that's not really fear.)

I think actually I tend to be MORE able to get 'scared' at games and movies if I'm with others, because it's more fun. :]

I found the opening sequence in the original Unreal, very tense. Bizarrely, nothing actually happened. You woke up on a crashed space ship, it was dark, there was an alarm sounding, red lights flashing, and the sounds of both creaking metal and scuttling creatures ...

As Skoolmunkee said, it was more a feeling of tension rather than fear. I can remember replaying the game and, even though I knew there weren't going to be any monsters leaping out at me, I still felt compelled to creep through at a snail's pace! Atmosphere is everything!

DAJB
I found the opening sequence in the original Unreal, very tense. Bizarrely, nothing actually happened. You woke up on a crashed space ship, it was dark, there was an alarm sounding, red lights flashing, and the sounds of both creaking metal and scuttling creatures ...

Ditto. That first part is creepy. You feel more vulruble though because you're weaponless.
Being defenceless is games always makes you feel very apprehensive, and you jump at every sound... Scuttle and hide.

The cistern levels in the original Tomb Rader made me jump because the sound track is so creepy, with all that dripping and echoing, and the weird harsh breath sounds.

The only game I didn't go on with for sort of this reason with the original Doom- mainly because all that horrible endless pinky-red and grey was so awful and depressing and ugly... Plus, it gave me a migraine. That thing was just a nasty, soul squashing grind.

I'm sure I could get scared enough at a game if it was well done and well set up- if it disoriented you as to your position in the game, made you defenceless and in immanent danger. I don't know.

AVP on the atari jaguar the marine campaign.

ozoneocean
You feel more vulruble though because you're weaponless.
Being defenceless is games always makes you feel very apprehensive, and you jump at every sound... Scuttle and hide.

OK, so you've reminded me of probably the only time I've been afraid to proceed in a video game. In Silent Hill 2 there is a point where you are in this abandoned prison. There were hardly any enemies there so I was always expecting them to show up, plus the lighting was bad, there were strange noises, etc. There was a row of cells where you could hear whispers coming from them, but the camera views prevented you from looking into the cells to see what was making the noise. That hallway was pretty scary. The other part in that game was when you are right near the end (with tough enemies etc.) and the game takes all your stuff away (bullshit elevator weight limit) and you have to go to the basement to get something. They even took your flashlight and radio away (iirc) so you wouldn't be able to hear if monsters were there, or see any if any came. The prospect of that was really scary, I turned the game off and came back later to do it. Of course, there were no monsters in either instance, but it did its job.

The problem with scary games is that they don't hold up to second playthroughs, so the game has to have something else rewarding to be worthwhile.

skoolmunkee
The problem with scary games is that they don't hold up to second playthroughs, so the game has to have something else rewarding to be worthwhile.

That's true. That "dog hallway" in Resident Evil scared me the very first time I went through it. After that it felt like one of those cheap scare tactics. Maybe if during the second playthrough you met monsters worse than in the first game?

Video games normally don't scare me at all. I was recently playing the original Silent Hill game for the first time and while tons of people have proclaimed that it is such a disturbing game, I could play it without much worry. None the less, the atmosphere was brilliant. I also liked the atmosphere from Silent Hill 2 but again, it didn't exactly scare me. Instead I was just thinking "They're doing a good game setting up a creepy atmosphere."

Comparatively, the resident evil series did nothing for me. The dogs through the window thing didn't startle me at all, cause I saw it coming a mile away. Even when it was my first playthrough. I found it cliché and predictable and not at all scary.

I remember playing through the original Half life game for the first time and thinking that the beginning was absolutely brilliant. You start spending almost 20 minutes getting ready for work, in a relatively epic yet relatively relaxed environment and everything has that "Business as usual" attitude to it. Then you enter the test chamber to conduct the experiment and all hell breaks loose.

You leave the test chamber to find a man being given CPU to. People you speaking to moments ago are dead. The hallways you passed before are riddled with dangers and explosions. People are begging you to go up and seek help. The elevator you were riding before comes crashing down, sending the people inside to their doom. Then the little creatures start appearing and attacking you. Then you get to see what they're doing to the people they manage to successfully attack.

For me, that was probably the biggest "Oh shit, oh shit" moment I've ever experienced during a video game play. Was very surprised when Half Life 2 managed to do a semi decent job recapturing that moment for me.

ozoneocean
The only game I didn't go on with for sort of this reason with the original Doom- mainly because all that horrible endless pinky-red and grey was so awful and depressing and ugly... Plus, it gave me a migraine. That thing was just a nasty, soul squashing grind.

Don't play the sequels then. It's more or less the same thing.

Product Placement
Video games normally don't scare me at all. I was recently playing the original Silent Hill game for the first time and while tons of people have proclaimed that it is such a disturbing game, I could play it without much worry. None the less, the atmosphere was brilliant. I also liked the atmosphere from Silent Hill 2 but again, it didn't exactly scare me. Instead I was just thinking "They're doing a good game setting up a creepy atmosphere."

My friend hides in the closet every time after she plays Silent Hill :nervous:
It's funny because in an empty apartment, that's probably where the killer is.

I've only ever played RE: Code Veronica and RE5. I think RE:CV is kind of scary... you fight zombies and mutated monsters in a creepy island fortress that's a cross between the Bates Motel and Shutter Island.

RE5, however, forgoes all attempts at scariness. In terms of atmosphere, it's basically a mix of the RE movies and Black Hawk Down. I mean... when the "zombies" have machine guns, and you get into a firefight with them where you and them both duck behind cover and pop out occasionally to shoot at each other... sorry that's just not "survival horror" anymore. I think Capcom meant for it as an end to the franchise's story, anyways.

A Nintendo game that had me on edge was Friday The 13th. I think that game is literally unbeatable, and whenever Jason shows up, he will kill you. You can collect all the weapons you can get your hands on during the downtime when he's absent, you can throw everything at him when he appears, with all the videogame skills you can summon... but it won't make a difference...

The game to me, is simply doing your best collecting all the weapons you can before Jason appears, knowing full well that you're dead meat anyways.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

I dare you.

Doodstormer
Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

I dare you.

Lovely. I ruined this one then. Played through its entirety wondering if this was the unbelievably scary horror game that everyone was talking about. Fair warning to anyone that ends up trying it: don't play this one intoxicated! I did and skipped most of the text which probably helped set the tone of the game.

Lonnehart

skoolmunkee
The problem with scary games is that they don't hold up to second playthroughs, so the game has to have something else rewarding to be worthwhile.

That's true. That "dog hallway" in Resident Evil scared me the very first time I went through it. After that it felt like one of those cheap scare tactics. Maybe if during the second playthrough you met monsters worse than in the first game?

I disagree, Eternal Darkness still scares me and I've played through it at least four times. Eternal Darkness was famous for its ways of using sanity effects to screw with the player, and what's remarkable is how the knowledge that you're being screwed with can mess with your expectations. For example on my last playthrough I remember first thinking that a group of monsters were just hallucinations only to find out that they were real.

I remember three things scaring me in games but honestly the first two don't really count since I was really young back then.

The first was the Red Falcon in Contra III: The Alien Wars for the SNES. I was watching the intro one day at my cousin's house and the intro just freaked me out. The entire city was ruined and then there was this super scary alien face in the clouds. It gave me a nightmare that night and I woke my cousin up. .. She didn't let me play for a while. ._.;

The second was the Phoenix summon from Final Fantasy VI. When you first acquire the summon they give you some big story on it and then a huge red Phoenix appears on screen. I was playing it in a dark room and the Phoenix just illuminated my room in red. It didn't exactly scare me but it shook me up a bit. I have no idea why.

The third though was the first time I was kinda shook in a video game. It's the Sea Horror from Final Fantasy XI. Now in case you don't know, FFXI is an MMO played online and online only. It was notorious for being hella grindy and punishing. I was one of the early players so there was no benefit of a players guide or a FAQs, just do or die. Now I wanted to take a boat to another area and the boat took about 10 minutes to show up. After a long wait, the boat finally shows up. Now the boat takes another 15 minutes to get to it's destination. But here's the thing.. lots of bad things can happen during that ride.

Pirates can attack, monsters can appear and the worse of those monsters was the Sea Horror. Now I don't like spiders. Who actually does? Well the Sea Horror was a kraken and had very spider like features. It was more or less a flying spider. I was on a boat with about 12 people and it spawned. We were all systematically killed by this giant thing. A few of the higher level guys tried to fight it and were all wiped out. We all ran around the boat in vain trying to get away and we were all wiped out. It was pure terror. All we could do was lay there dead until a wandering Paladin or White Mage showed up when we were dumped off at the next town.

Ever since then I got really shook when I had to go on that boat ride. I decided to skip the tension and just hid below deck for the entire boat ride. I can hear (see) the guys above deck talking via the log and sure enough, the Sea Horror spawns. I run to the farthest corner I could find and just cower. I hear my peers and what not die above me and thank my foresight for not going above deck. And then it happens. IT GOES THROUGH THE BOAT. IT AGGROED ME FROM ABOVE DECK AND TRAVELED THROUGH THE BOAT TO THE BOTTOM TO ATTACK ME. It freaked me out so much, seeing those slimy orange and black tentacles appear from no where that I just got up and ran out the room. Once again, all we could do was just lay down dead until a nice Paladin or White Mage showed up.

And that is the only time a game ever scared me.

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/bestiary.html?fmob=623

^ A visual.

Dead Space wasn't...Scary for me. In the slightest.
It's really a matter of immersion, and I don't find yelling "OI, ME, GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY VIEW" very immersive. People say it's to make you feel claustrophobic, but it was the number 1 reason that game didn't scare me.

Also you had a fucking gun. That's like a game where your enemy are toddlers, and you have a bat.

Half Life 2, Episode...1? I think? That had a part in it that was unnerving as FUCK. When you can't kill that antlion guard for a reason that is spoilers. Basically you have small tunnels to hide in that are hard to get in on the first try, cuz the floor is slippy, and as SOON as you exit any tunnels, you hear that guard pounding its feet, coming to get you. And these things aren't pushovers. UNNERVING.

I'm about to play Penumbra actually! LET'S SEE HOW THAT GOES.
EDIT: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH NEVER AGAIN.

crocty
Dead Space wasn't...Scary for me. In the slightest.
It's really a matter of immersion, and I don't find yelling "OI, ME, GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY VIEW" very immersive. People say it's to make you feel claustrophobic, but it was the number 1 reason that game didn't scare me.

Yeah, DS seems to rely a little too much on sudden scare tactics (stuff jumping out at you). I'll admit I jumped in my chair a few times in the beginning, but eventually you just grow numb to it.

However, they do a good job with the pacing in ammo/health. Half the time I'd be down to 1-2 bars of health and very low ammo, hoping to gawd there would be some in the next room. And when I encountered a monster instead, I had to make sure every shot counted. Definitely increased the heart rate a little during those moments.

Doodstormer
Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

I dare you.

Dare taken.

Felt it was relatively cleverly designed and such and I spent a good time examining how they set up the atmosphere but the game failed to scare me. My character was doing all the boohooing for me.

Edit: I know that sounds like one of those "Hush push. I'm too manly to be scared" kind of crap but I'm not saying that the game wasn't good. Far from it. I liked the story and the game was engaging and there were moments where I got momentarily startled by an enemy that managed to sneak up behind me (although it was more like scripted events that caused the enemy to magically materialize behind me). I did find few flaws in the game, like how it sometimes failed to reset the enemy, if you got killed (happened for example when I was running away from the water monster).

I just recently finished playing through Alan Wake. While the control scheme for the whole game is kind of clumsy, being the horror nerd that I am, I actually found several instances where I was panicking, trying to find a safe haven when I have only six bullets left and a single flare to buy some breathing room for about 2 seconds. No sooner do you run for your life and just barely dodge enough enemy attacks to keep from dying when you reach the street light and think you're safe, only to have the light suddenly burn out right as they enemies start to swarm on your position.

Oh, and when I was a kid, the original Quake definitely scared the crap out of me. Nothing like walking down a hall, hearing a weird noise come from behind, turning around and looking up...and up...and up at a 10-foot tall shambler that's just inches away from you and mere moments from ripping you to shreds.