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Wow, Dead Space is by far the scariest video game I've ever played.

Mike Chambers

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Sep 2, 2006
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As much as I love vintage games, none of them really qualify as scary to me. One exception off the top of my head is Alone in the Dark, that gave me nightmares as a kid. Really creepy stuff. Playing that one now though, it's more funny than scary, but still a good game. For me, though, the "scariest" honor definitely goes to Dead Space. Have any of you played it? I decided to play through it again finally, I first played/beat it about a year and a half ago or so and now I remember why I loved it so much, and thought I'd suggest it to anybody here looking for an unforgettable game to get! :p

No matter how many times I play it, it still makes me jump. Whenever it's not flat out frightening, it's extremely unnerving. It's not one of these cookie-cutter FPS games that seem to get released 100 times every year lately. It's third-person instead, and it is incredibly well-done. Since it's not like Doom where you're some bad-ass space marine, you're just an engineer thrown into a nightmare situation, most of your weapons are basically mining tools like plasma cutters, line guns, flamethrowers, etc.

There are some really unique and fresh aspects to the gameplay. As you progress in the game, there are a couple of modules that you come across for your suit. One is a stasis module, which lets you temporarily slow down enemies and machinery to being nearly motionless. The other is a telekinesis module, and they are both used in combat as well as required to get around a few obstacles. Another thing that makes it completely immersive, is that there is no HUD on the screen at all. All indicators (health, etc) are seamlessly built into your suit, ammo is seen whenever you have a weapon in ready-position.

There are also a number of sections in the game where you find yourself in zero-gravity and/or in a complete vacuum. The sound design in the vacuums are so well-done. Very realistic. The games graphics are excellent too.

I could keep blabbing, but a video review would tell you a lot more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgkX0hsV2BU

IMO, this game sets a new standard for survival-horror games. It is incredible all around, but I do have one nitpick with it. You mostly just get sent around to do various errands given to you by the two other crewmates you came to the Ishimura with, but the gameplay itself is so fun that it really didn't take anything away from me enjoying it.

Wow, I am starting to sound like I'm making a sales pitch for it. But in any case, if you want to really try something refreshing that stands out from all the other games that have been getting release lately, I totally recommend this. It came out in 2008, so you can buy the PC version for about $10. Very worth it. :)

I'm also open to suggestions for other good scary games to check out!
 
I'm a big fan of the Silent Hill games, certainly 1-3 anyway, I haven't played 4 yet. They're very unnerving games to play, especially if you do like I did and come to them not knowing anything about them - I'd never heard of Silent Hill until my friend handed me his copy of the first game and just said "play this, its good". The first one is only available for the Playstation, so you'd might have to play it on an emulator. SH2 is the best and scariest of them though, and doesn't really relate to SH1, so you're not spoiling it if you can't play the original first.

I've also just started played Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It's a very scary game, made scarier by the fact that you can't kill any of the monsters, you can only run away and hide.
 
I remember Clive Barker's Undying gave me quite some thrills... maybe Jericho too, if I hadn't been so frustrated I couldn't escape from a hole in the very beginning of the game so I gave up playing.
 
I'm a big fan of the Silent Hill games, certainly 1-3 anyway, I haven't played 4 yet. They're very unnerving games to play, especially if you do like I did and come to them not knowing anything about them - I'd never heard of Silent Hill until my friend handed me his copy of the first game and just said "play this, its good". The first one is only available for the Playstation, so you'd might have to play it on an emulator. SH2 is the best and scariest of them though, and doesn't really relate to SH1, so you're not spoiling it if you can't play the original first.

I've actually heard a lot of good things about the Silent Hill series, I think I am actually going to check it out starting with the first. I've got an original Playstation that I've modchipped, so I can give a try on the real hardware. :)


I've also just started played Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It's a very scary game, made scarier by the fact that you can't kill any of the monsters, you can only run away and hide.

I've seen vids of this one, actually. Another one I need to try, for sure. Hmm, can't kill the monsters. Can only run away and hide. Sounds a lot like Chambers family reunions to me.


I remember Clive Barker's Undying gave me quite some thrills... maybe Jericho too, if I hadn't been so frustrated I couldn't escape from a hole in the very beginning of the game so I gave up playing.

I've never heard of this one, thanks for the tip!
 
I thought Doom 4 sorta was supposed to have that feel although certainly not quite as extreme as I've heard Dead Space had. Contrary to the earlier releases where you're a badass walking around shooting monsters, these games you're a lot more hunted by them which is the element of surprise. There are those other classics like Phantasmagoria (never played it myself) or Ecstatica which I did play and was pretty damn weird.

Resident Evil was the second game to make me jump, not that I play that many horror genre games personally but that was just from the surround sound and loud noises.

Now for fun I would challenge people to play Sleuth (dos). It's a "Clue" type of who done it detective game. That ironically was the first game I remember that made me jump. :-D Actually, what I really want is to have my wife play it lol.

There was another game that I'm having trouble remembering the name of that certainly if I had it as a kid would have scared me. It's a maze game in first person on an old game console. There are several monsters that I guess are hunting you and as they get closer you can start to hear their unique little song that plays while they walk. It gets louder the closer they are to you. Old game and I swear a friend was playing it not that long ago so not sure if it was remade or if he was running an emulator. I thought it was Wizardry for a second but looking at the screen shots that's too advanced, this was more Intellivision/Atari type graphics.
 
I bought this game for my PS3 and two years later I still have not grown the balls to even start the game.
Amnesia is equally as horrible.
 
dead space was a JOKE. Having monsters jump out at you isnt fear so much as surprise. doom 4 was also a cavalcade of mediocrity. I've heard good things about amnesia, but haven't gotten around to playing it. Silent hill #2 is the only silent hill worth playing. Also, QUAKE 4. I played Q4 and that really made me feel fear. I still have nightmares and I haven't touched it in 5 years....
 
I'll second Phantasmagoria (and Phantasmagoria II for that matter). Both were standard far adventure games (with FMV segments, unfortunately - they're both products of their times), but both have their share of moments that had me sitting on needles despite myself.

Sadly, since then, I've not played any other horror games, or much of any game that isn't a platformer, puzzler, or shooter - I keep trying, and then keep going weeks with no real time to sit down and play, only to get back to the game and have forgotten where I'm at and have to start over. Do that a time or two, and I just gave up.
 
dead space was a JOKE. Having monsters jump out at you isnt fear so much as surprise. doom 4 was also a cavalcade of mediocrity. I've heard good things about amnesia, but haven't gotten around to playing it. Silent hill #2 is the only silent hill worth playing. Also, QUAKE 4. I played Q4 and that really made me feel fear. I still have nightmares and I haven't touched it in 5 years....

Really? Well I thought it actually was pretty scary at times, and it's not just because monsters jump out of you from nowhere. It's that combined with the general unnerving feeling that the game has just while you're walking around. The great sound design is what really contributes to that feeling. While you're just walking around the Ishimura, it always has me looking for where I think a necromorph is going to pop out from next.. and then when one doesn't, I get a bit complacent but then one actually does pop out from somewhere I didn't expect it to.

Those things are freaky to see running at you with those roars they make, and 20 inch blades coming out of the arms. At the same time you also have to make sure you're aiming for the limbs, or it'll do very little damage. Plus, knowing that they are parasites inhabiting human corpses is a disturbing thought.

I love Quake 4, too. It has one of my favorite single player compaigns ever, but I never thought most of it was actually scary. The part of Q4 that freaks me out the most is the waste processing facility, with the zombies. It probably doesn't smell too good down there, either.
 
DOOM 3 was interesting because of the nice graphics (for its time) and dark areas where you held a flashlight and had to switch it for a gun to shoot.

Personally if they could remake DOOM 2 with the original soundtrack and all those rooms full of gore and monsters into a real 3D game it would be cool (except for the processor and video card requirements).
 
I found dead space to be mediocre, uninspired, and near imposslbe to control... in fact, it is possibly the second hardest to even try to control game right behind that steaming pile of manure Assassin's Creed. How the **** are you supposed to play a game where your character is taking up two thirds the blasted display, so you can't even see what the blazes you are aiming at? Also, Dark and Gore is NOT horror to me either; See why I also found doom 3 to be a mediocre FPS and to lack anything even resembling "horror".

Though admittedly, I'm a PC gamer... who hates console games and console controllers. As a rule I find those tiny useless cramped controllers so pointless, I cannot fathom how anyone can actually play games with them... as such piss poor ports of console games usually don't impress me.

See F.E.A.R. -- first off, you want a good spooky game, look no further. The original release, "perseus mandate" and "FEAR 2" are all great games... Skip over the dung heap known as "Extraction point" and don't even bother with F.E.A.R. 3, since it's really apparent not only were they made by different people, the latter failed to grasp the point. 3 not only completely missed the point, it's also a crappy console port. See what flushed GTA 4 on PC down the toilet.

Though you want some really good fright, I suggest installing Thief 2, a program called "darkloader" to load fan missions, and then give "Saturnine's Rose Cottage" and the "A Night In Rocksburg" series a try... Fan done levels so well done, they put many modern commercial games to SHAME... They are also graphically impressive given they are running on a 14 year old game engine -- you add a replacement DLL called "ddfix" and you can even run them aspect correct at most any resolution in 32 bit color depth (funny since Theif/T2 were designed for 8/16 bit only).

But to keep it in perspective some gory space zombie really doesn't frighten me.... you want REALLY scary?

http://www.deathshadow.com/images/creepy.jpg

Absolutely terrifying.
 
doom 4? hasn't been released yet. me thinks doom 4 references are for doom 3, there is a part in doom 3, when you enter hell specifically, just before you fight the mancubus for the first time, where all the screams and crying are. STILL gives me some chills..
 
As much as I love vintage games, none of them really qualify as scary to me. One exception off the top of my head is Alone in the Dark, that gave me nightmares as a kid. Really creepy stuff. Playing that one now though, it's more funny than scary, but still a good game. For me, though, the "scariest" honor definitely goes to Dead Space. Have any of you played it? I decided to play through it again finally, I first played/beat it about a year and a half ago or so and now I remember why I loved it so much, and thought I'd suggest it to anybody here looking for an unforgettable game to get! :p

No matter how many times I play it, it still makes me jump. Whenever it's not flat out frightening, it's extremely unnerving.

I too really like this game. Played it twice at normal level and tried at "Hard" level but got stuck in the zero-gravity room with the big sphincter that shoots stuff out at you. Yeah, it's scary, but just a great game to play. Not too difficult and has some great weapons. Story line is good also.

If you liked this game have you seen the prequel available on Netflix as DVD or streaming? Dead Space: Downfall is scary too.

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Dead_Space_Downfall/70099719?trkid=2361637

There's also Dead Space: Aftermath which takes place after Dead Space 1 and before Dead Space 2:

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Dead_Space_Aftermath/70157531?trkid=2361637

I'm going to watch it this afternoon.

I found dead space to be mediocre, uninspired, and near imposslbe to control... in fact, it is possibly the second hardest to even try to control game right behind that steaming pile of manure Assassin's Creed. How the **** are you supposed to play a game where your character is taking up two thirds the blasted display, so you can't even see what the blazes you are aiming at? Also, Dark and Gore is NOT horror to me either; See why I also found doom 3 to be a mediocre FPS and to lack anything even resembling "horror".

Though admittedly, I'm a PC gamer... who hates console games and console controllers. As a rule I find those tiny useless cramped controllers so pointless, I cannot fathom how anyone can actually play games with them... as such piss poor ports of console games usually don't impress me.


Though you want some really good fright, I suggest installing Thief 2, a program called "darkloader" to load fan missions, and then give "Saturnine's Rose Cottage" and the "A Night In Rocksburg" series a try... Fan done levels so well done, they put many modern commercial games to SHAME... They are also graphically impressive given they are running on a 14 year old game engine -- you add a replacement DLL called "ddfix" and you can even run them aspect correct at most any resolution in 32 bit color depth (funny since Theif/T2 were designed for 8/16 bit only).

But to keep it in perspective some gory space zombie really doesn't frighten me.... you want REALLY scary?

http://www.deathshadow.com/images/creepy.jpg

Absolutely terrifying.

I agree with your opinion about game consoles. I had a PS/3 until it crapped out at the first of the year. I tried playing Dead Space 2 on it and found the controller total $hit. I came close to smashing it into a million pieces. Got the PC version and no problems Played fine. The only games I played on it that I really liked were Resistance 1 and 2.

I downloaded Rose Cottage and will give it a try(It's free).
 
I downloaded Rose Cottage and will give it a try(It's free).
You got DDFIX up and working on T2? REALLY makes a difference... Kinda shocking to be able to run a 12 year old game aspect correct at 1920x1200 in 32 bit color depth -- I just wish DDFix supported higher resolutons, would be killer to see it at the 2560x1440 of my new IPS.
 
deathshadow, you're showing your age, bud ;) - I consider myself a PC gamer as well, but ultimately, I am an 80's child, and I am of the Nintendo generation. If you've never tried it, the X-Box 360 pad design is absolute perfection... it fits my hands well, it's easy to control, extremely quick to learn, ergonomic (long sessions don't cause cramps), and every button is easily accessible at all times (unlike Sony's played-out and tired design on the PS controller - yes, I also have a PS3)

I prefer playing PC games on PCs and console games on consoles, but there are exceptions, with Batman Arkham Asylum/City being two of them.

And, even for me, a guy who gets lost in 3D games, I found Assassin's Creed relatively easy to control (on my 360) - which was surprising to me. I can't control Mario in his 3D games for anything, and that goes for everything since Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64 up to his current Wii incarnations.

I'll have to check out the mods for Thief 2. I haven't played that in years, and the idea of being able to do so at high resolutions... very cool.
 
I found dead space to be mediocre, uninspired, and near imposslbe to control... in fact, it is possibly the second hardest to even try to control game right behind that steaming pile of manure Assassin's Creed. How the **** are you supposed to play a game where your character is taking up two thirds the blasted display, so you can't even see what the blazes you are aiming at? Also, Dark and Gore is NOT horror to me either; See why I also found doom 3 to be a mediocre FPS and to lack anything even resembling "horror".

Though admittedly, I'm a PC gamer... who hates console games and console controllers. As a rule I find those tiny useless cramped controllers so pointless, I cannot fathom how anyone can actually play games with them... as such piss poor ports of console games usually don't impress me.

See F.E.A.R. -- first off, you want a good spooky game, look no further. The original release, "perseus mandate" and "FEAR 2" are all great games... Skip over the dung heap known as "Extraction point" and don't even bother with F.E.A.R. 3, since it's really apparent not only were they made by different people, the latter failed to grasp the point. 3 not only completely missed the point, it's also a crappy console port. See what flushed GTA 4 on PC down the toilet.

Though you want some really good fright, I suggest installing Thief 2, a program called "darkloader" to load fan missions, and then give "Saturnine's Rose Cottage" and the "A Night In Rocksburg" series a try... Fan done levels so well done, they put many modern commercial games to SHAME... They are also graphically impressive given they are running on a 14 year old game engine -- you add a replacement DLL called "ddfix" and you can even run them aspect correct at most any resolution in 32 bit color depth (funny since Theif/T2 were designed for 8/16 bit only).

But to keep it in perspective some gory space zombie really doesn't frighten me.... you want REALLY scary?

http://www.deathshadow.com/images/creepy.jpg

Absolutely terrifying.

I wasn't really able to get into F.E.A.R. -- I gave it a try a couple years ago, it was a bit boring to me. I might try it again though, because I keep hearing people say it's great. I probably didn't give it enough of a chance. As far as the controls for Dead Space, I think it works amazingly well with a mouse and keyboard. I also played the game on my dad's PS3, but the gamepad made it much less playable. Another thing I've noticed is that when playing it on a 4:3 screen, your character is not so in the way as a lot of him is off-screen to the left.

In any case, the player character doesn't block the view of anything that isn't extremely close to you, at which point exact aim isn't going to make a difference anyway. If the enemy is that close, you'll just want to use the melee attack or the stasis module to stun it while you back up a few feet and then aim for a limb. I think the third-person perspective accounted for a large portion of the game's feeling, and it worked well for me. Combat in a vacuum get extremely intense as well, since you can't hear anything but your own breathing. All of a sudden you're getting slashed by a necromorph from behind that you never knew was coming, plus your limited oxygen supply in vacuums makes it even more tense.

Anyway, I know what's "scary" to different people is subjective, but for me Dead Space was a very good mix of straight up gory, disturbing-looking alien parasites that pop out of nowhere as well as some decent psychological horror that was well-done through background sounds and other environmental aspects. Isaac's hallucinations of Nicole that get stronger as the game goes on was neat too, I thought.

I also loved the aspect of "the marker," which was a nice touch. A mysterious artifact recovered from that planet and the shadowy religious cult based on it that you find out about slowly, bit-by-bit as the game goes on through text, audio, and video logs left behind by the now-dead crew of the Ishimura. The story is well thought-out and the it's revealed at just the right pace as the game progresses. The game is a lot more than just monsters popping out of air vents.
 
I too really like this game. Played it twice at normal level and tried at "Hard" level but got stuck in the zero-gravity room with the big sphincter that shoots stuff out at you. Yeah, it's scary, but just a great game to play. Not too difficult and has some great weapons. Story line is good also.

If you liked this game have you seen the prequel available on Netflix as DVD or streaming? Dead Space: Downfall is scary too.

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Dead_Space_Downfall/70099719?trkid=2361637

There's also Dead Space: Aftermath which takes place after Dead Space 1 and before Dead Space 2:

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Dead_Space_Aftermath/70157531?trkid=2361637

I'm going to watch it this afternoon.



I agree with your opinion about game consoles. I had a PS/3 until it crapped out at the first of the year. I tried playing Dead Space 2 on it and found the controller total $hit. I came close to smashing it into a million pieces. Got the PC version and no problems Played fine. The only games I played on it that I really liked were Resistance 1 and 2.

I downloaded Rose Cottage and will give it a try(It's free).

I haven't seen those Dead Space videos yet, no. Thanks for the links I'm going to check them out. Also, yes the weapons are awesome! They're very different from most games. I usually just beef up the specs of the plasma cutter and use it most of the time.
 
If you've never tried it, the X-Box 360 pad design is absolute perfection... it fits my hands well, it's easy to control, extremely quick to learn, ergonomic (long sessions don't cause cramps), and every button is easily accessible at all times (unlike Sony's played-out and tired design on the PS controller - yes, I also have a PS3)

Really? I thought the exact opposite. I own a 360, and my dad owns a PS3. I like the PS3 controller a lot more than the 360's. The 360's feels weird in my hand and it starts to cramp the base of my thumbs really badly after an hour or so, to the point that I simply have to stop playing. I can use the PS controller all night long. They're both light years better than the original xbox controller though. That is the crappiest gamepad design in the history of gaming.
 
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