10. Splatterhouse (Various systems) - I couldn't do a straight-up "creepy games" list without including this classic. If you've never heard of Splatterhouse before, you should look into it...even just check out a YouTube video of gameplay clips or something, and you'll see why it made this list. Back when video games were young, gore was a bit of a taboo and was included sparingly and tastefully. Splatterhouse took that notion, ate it, vomited it up, and took a shit on it all at once by attempting to be the goriest game on the market at the time. It was a damn good way to get attention, and it was actually widely successful.
At heart, Splatterhouse was a straightforward beat 'em up where you take the role of Rick, a psych student who has ventured into some scary-ass mansion (dubbed the Splatterhouse, of course) with his girlfriend. When demons come out of nowhere, knock Rick out and steal his gal, this mask called the Terror Mask floats up to him and attaches to his face. This rejuvenates him and makes him extremely strong...and also makes him look like Jason Voorhees. Cue Rick going on a violent rampage through the mansion and brutally killing every enemy in his way to get Jennifer back. Can't say I blame him, really...I'd be pissed off too!
So, here's a quick list of some of the things you can do in this game: punch the guts out of zombies, be vomited on by zombies, punch worms that have come out of zombies, kick rotting dogs in the head, slide kick a deformed baby while it's crawling on the floor, abort fetuses in bubbles, walk through an organic womb-looking area, smack a giant heart on the wall to death with your bare hands, use a shotgun to blow zombies into tiny pieces, punch floating deformed heads out of the air, destroy a massive disgusting melted face that rises out of the ground, and experience potentially one of the first tributes to The Evil Dead in a video game. Sure, you could do SOME of those things in games such as Contra, Super C, and Resident Evil...but Splatterhouse has it all in one place, and for the sole purpose of being a testament to horror movies. The gore only amps up even more in the sequels, and even though it looks terrible nowadays because the series started in 1988, at the time it was pretty sickening. Check it out sometime...in fact if you have a Wii, I'm reasonably sure you can download the TurboGrafx-16 version of Splatterhouse from the Virtual Console!
Zombie baseball? PUT ME IN, COACH!9. Phantasmagoria (PC) - This is one of those games that really isn't terribly scary anymore. At the time though, it was damn creepy. Phantasmagoria placed you in the role of a woman named Adrienne whose husband appears to slowly be going more and more insane. Turns out that hunch is right, and he's actually been possessed by the spirit of a dude named Carno (no, not Karnov) who murdered 5 of his wives in the past. Add in the fact that they've just moved into a remote haunted mansion and she's pretty much stuck there...doesn't sound too good for Adrienne, does it?
Well it sure ain't. Her husband, taken over completely by the spirit, starts trying to kill her and you have to find some way to revert the process and get your damn husband back. Fairly standard really, but at the time, this was all presented in a really cool way that made it pretty immersive. The backgrounds in the game were all pre-rendered (which looks horrible now...), but the characters themselves were actual actors that were filmed and placed into the game, giving it a sense of realism. Sierra's the company behind this game, and as a result, this animation came together pretty well for a 1995 game, and the gameplay was similar to that of the King's Quest series. You point and click to navigate the mansion, find clues and puzzle items, and figure out what the hell to do.
The scariness of the game doesn't necessarily just come from being chased by your husband, however. There are times where you see glimpses of Carno when he was alive, and observe how he killed all his wives. The most disturbing and questionable one at the time, was his wife Regina. She loved to eat...so Carno killed her by strapping her to a table, sticking a funnel in her mouth, and force-feeding her animal guts until she choked and died. Pretty sick eh? This upset a lot of players back in 1995, as well as a rape scene (which really doesn't look like rape at all anymore, but shitty dry-hump dancing), so Phantasmagoria got a lot of backlash as a result of its content. For a game intended for adult audiences wanting a scare, though, these exact factors hit the nail right on the head. Even though the game hasn't aged too well, I remember it from when I first played it and how freaky it was...at the time, it was very successful at what it wanted to achieve.
The scariest part of Phantasmagoria? Much like in real life, office conversations.8. Haunting Ground (PS2) - I remember playing through this game with one of my best friends...something we always seemed to get together to do was to play through survival horror games. Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Siren, Rule of Rose...I forget exactly what else, but there were quite a few we ran through. Funny thing was, she'd play for about the first 10 minutes and then couldn't take it anymore and just wanted to watch, so I would up taking down most of the rest of the games. Among these games was an interesting one called Haunting Ground.
In Haunting Ground, you play as girl named Fiona who happens to be trapped in this big-ass castle after having been in a car accident and being knocked out. Very early in the game you meet up with a dog named Hewie, who you can give commands to and reward with treats and such when he's efficient enough...or scold him if you want, it's up to you really! Treating the dog correctly though is worth it, as he helps you out against the antagonists of the game: various residents of the castle (I believe 4 in total) are out to hunt you down and get you. These include a giant, hunchback-style man named Debilitas who laughs like a maniac when he sees you and begins to chase, or Daniella, who is sort of a robot-maid that eventually goes haywire and tries to hunt you down. For a survival horror game, environments are pretty bright and it's not overly freaky...so what makes this particular title so tense?
Well, try the fact that you can't fight back in any conventional manner whatsoever. All you can do for the most part when you encounter an enemy is book it like there's no tomorrow and find a place to hide. If they see where you've hidden, they'll drag you out and start pummeling you. Tension is added when Fiona's heartbeat escalates and the controller shakes violently as a stalker gets close to wherever you're hiding. Hewie can help you out, but not too much before getting knocked out...he only really serves as a minor distraction so you can find a place to camp out. These opponents are constantly moving through the game on a hunt for you after you encounter them...so you're never really that safe. Eventually you kill them by leading them into death traps, but another freak will come along and take their place, continuing the hunt. It's a very tense experience that's reminiscent of the Clock Tower series...particularly Clock Tower 3. Check it out if you get a chance...I wouldn't purchase it I don't think, but it's definitely worth at least one runthrough! The ability to train Hewie is a pretty cool addition to the survival horror mix, and it changes things up enough to merit a gander!
Apparently the true face of evil gapes open and drools a lot.7. Super Metroid (SNES) - Getting sick of me talking about this game? Well that's TOO FUCKIN' BAD! At least this time it's not near the top of the list, right?
When I was younger and I first played through this game, it was one of the most tense experiences I'd ever had from playing a sidescroller. Most of the side-scrolling games I played, after all, were iterations of Super Mario Brothers or other such cheery lightheartedness. I didn't really know what I was in for when I got Super Metroid...a gritty, serious, somewhat unnerving masterpiece. This game still contains some of my most treasured memories, whether they be those of glee, happiness, and wonder...or tension, fear, and discomfort.
Nothing quite beats the simple boss lead-up music...when you're just about to encounter a large enemy, a distinct and creepy tune plays to prepare you for it. The music itself is quite tense, and it effectively causes the same effect in you as well, making you wonder just exactly when something's gonna pop out at you and make you work for a new item. Subtle environmental cues can also make you feel uneasy, such as parasites quickly moving from the corpse of another bounty hunter slumped against the wall as you approach it, only to find they died in front of a giant, one-eyed creature. The entire Wrecked Ship area is incredibly creepy and atmospheric, especially at first when it lacks power. Enemies called Coverns, which are the lost souls of the previous occupants of the ship, appear and disappear in an attempt to wrap around Samus and kill her, and the music is eerie and unsettling. Only when you locate and kill the boss, Phantoon, does the ship magically spring to life again, but this effect only seems more creepy rather than comforting.
Finally, the entire last area of the game always used to freak me out when I was younger. Tourian, the base of operations for Mother Brain, is loaded with Metroids, which chase you down and drain your health if they latch onto you. This was tense enough...but when you reach an area completely devoid of Metroids but rather loaded with the empty husks of enemies you've seen on your journey, you really start to worry about what's ahead. These lifeless statues disintegrate if you so much as nudge them, becoming piles of dust on the floor. A little bit foreboding, to say the least. Even though at this point, I can run through Super Metroid without experiencing any of these feelings, I can't deny that the first time I played through the game, I was on edge and stressed out a lot of the time. You never know what you're really getting into...any room can be dramatically different than the last, and the game does such an extraordinary job of setting the mood that you really feel engaged and, at times, frightened. The first time I managed to finish the game, blasting through the entirety of Tourian for the very first time and encountering the sight I previously mentioned, followed by a grotesque battle with Mother Brain, FURTHER followed by an incredibly intense and close escape sequence, you know what I did? I deleted the damn save file and didn't touch the game for 2 or 3 days! That first time through really showed me what a cool experience a sidescroller can be, and I still have yet to play one that can even somewhat slightly compare to the experience I had with Super Metroid, and the feelings I had when I first made my way through it.
You're gonna need a full complement of Super Missiles to bust THIS ghost!6. Corridor 7 (PC) - Corridor 7 may not be a game that you've played, or even one that you've heard of at all. This was a first-person shooter that came out after Doom, but was primitive to it in that maps were designed around only 90-degree angles and were only single-leveled...there were no vertical differences, and you were always on the same flat surface the entire time. This doesn't mean it didn't have its fair share of scares, however.
Your goal was to clear each level completely of aliens using various weaponry and equipment that you acquired. Once you killed every last enemy, you had to find your way to the floor's elevator in order to progress to the next level. This wasn't really too much of an issue...but for some cruel, terrible reason, the game designers decided to be absolute assholes and pull a dirty trick on everyone who played this creation.
Even if you had destroyed every alien in the level, every so often a red skull with an exposed, purple brain and glowing eyes would just appear in front of your view, approach you with a scream, and vanish just as quickly as it had appeared. I am dead fucking serious...this happened completely at random and you could never predict it, so every damn time it happened it would catch you off guard and make you jump. Completely fucking devious and horrible, but I have to look back and think that if a game was able to make me jump that consistently (and likely still would), I've just gotta include it on this list! When I was a kid, I didn't realize that this was in fact the final boss of the game, something I found out later.
Also for a fast fact, just about every enemy in the game was named after someone on the development team...but reversed. Semaj, Tenaj, and Otrebor are just some examples. It's borderline retarded, but somewhat endearing! I never woulda guessed that that disgusting, scary red skull that moves toward you and is apparently heading the entire invasion is named Solrac...Carlos backwards!
I have seen fear...and its name is WARREN! I mean NERRAW!5. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (Gamecube) - I can't help but feel like I've talked about this game recently...but maybe my mind's playing tricks on me, because that's exactly what Eternal Darkness is all about. One of the flagship titles for not only the Canada-based company Silicon Knights, but also for the Nintendo Gamecube itself, this survival-horror game has held a large place in the hearts of many gamers, and for good reason. Eternal Darkness has you take the role of 12 different characters from different time periods, who have intertwining fates and a collective destined purpose in the universe. The game reeks of H.P. Lovecraft, with enemy designs and descriptions that seem all too familiar, and areas of the game that take strongly from his work. Even the names of various beings have the same sound to them, and the inspiration is very, very clear.
I won't talk much about the story here, because it's very good and I would hate to spoil even just one character's arc. The gameplay is similar to many survival-horror games, where you encounter enemies with limited ammunition or short-range melee weapons and need to budget yourself and be careful to succeed. You also find runes that can be combined to cast magic spells (which have convinced me that if magic actually existed, they would cast and look the same way as in this damn game...it's awesome) which aid you throughout the game. For instance, you can enchant your weapons with certain magic to make them stronger against various enemy types, repair items for use in puzzles, or form a protective shield around your character. So far, this doesn't sound terribly freaky or anything does it? Well, what if I told you that there's a sanity meter?
What the hell does that mean, exactly? Well, whenever your character sees an enemy, they lose a bit of sanity. As this depletes, the game starts to mess with YOUR brain...not your character's. The heads of statues will follow you to look at you as you run by, you'll enter a room and be on the ceiling, or your character's head might fall off completely randomly, prompting you to pick it up again...only to find your character reciting lines from Hamlet's Yorick. These are all just tricks and aren't permanent...you can restore sanity with spells or by finishing off enemies, but why the hell would you want to? The effects are awesomely done, and the only downside to being insane is that if your sanity meter is completely leveled, you'll start losing health upon seeing an enemy instead. If you manage to keep your sanity at a sweet spot, though, you'll have a really fun and uneasy time with this game. It has its share of jump-scares too, one in particular that has probably permanently etched itself into the brains of all that have seen it...but you can discover that for yourself!
My fondest memory of Eternal Darkness involves one of these sanity effects. It was late at night...maybe 2 or so in the morning, and my character's sanity was maybe at about half. All of a sudden I saw this shadow of an insect on the screen. In the dark, and from a distance, this totally looked like a damn fly crawling on my television, so I got up and tried to squash it...only to feel my finger hit the screen, causing me to realize what an idiot I was! A mere second after this, the entire screen was swarmed with fake insects until it turned almost black, and then the sanity effect wore off. Very neat little trick, and I've always been amazed that it managed to get me like that, even after seeing so many tricks already from playing the game through multiple times!
If a game starts with a Poe quote, you already know it'll freak you out.4. Resident Evil 2 (PS2/N64) - Let me just get this out of damn way: this is the best fucking Resident Evil game. I don't care what you all say about Resident Evil 4, because RE2 is still better.
Resident Evil first started in 1996, beginning the new-age survival-horror craze. But where RE1 had terrible dialogue (Jill Sandwich, anyone?) and only the beginnings of a concept, Resident Evil 2 had...slightly better dialogue and experience from what worked and what didn't work in the original game. In Resident Evil 2, you had the choice of playing the game as either rookie cop Leon Scott Kennedy, or Claire Redfield, the sister of Chris Redfield from the original game. A massive zombie outbreak has occurred in Raccoon city, and damned if you're not just gonna leave the town and let someone else deal with it!
Continuing the trend of Resident Evil 1, this game straps you for ammunition every chance it gets unless you're really careful...and the same goes for save points. Typewriters let you record your progress, but only if you have an Ink Ribbon to use, so you have to save carefully. You move throughout the Raccoon City Police Station and various other surrounding locales while trying to keep out of the grasp of zombies and other terrifying incarnations of fear, such as the classic Licker...sort of a skinned human with a giant brain and no eyes, which can kill you with its tongue. It's a tense game, and the atmosphere is very well-established with pre-rendered backgrounds and clever camera angles that never quite show you everything in a room.
So this game used to scare the bejeezus out of me...it lacked the extreme corniness of its predecessor, and also had a wealth of good scares to keep you on your toes. At one point you may see a Licker scurry across a window...but it's before you even know what a Licker is to begin with which makes the situation all that more freaky. Zombies may reach through a window and grab you, trying to pull you through and eat you. The most freaky thing though is the Tyrant, who's basically a giant, modified zombie with a blank, lifeless face and dressed in a black trenchcoat. At times, this asshole will pursue you without hesitation and cannot ever be truly dropped for good (at least until a certain point in the game). My most memorable experience involves this guy...there's one point where you're playing as Leon in his Scenario B game, and I believe you go into a room and pick up a lighter, or at least ignite a candle or something. All of a sudden, this thing breaks through the wall out of nowhere and tries to kill you. Scary enough as it is, but you fire some rounds into him and he hits the floor. You think you're safe for a while, because in the previous cases you had been, and he'd kind of leave you alone for a while. Upon exiting the room, he BUSTS THROUGH THE WALL AGAIN, and all this tense music plays while you try to shoot him down one more time. It catches you off guard, because the developers obviously realized that you would think you were safe for a while...and decided to take this moment to mess with you. From here on, you never trust anything anymore and are always on the lookout for Tyrant, even if you've encountered him a mere 10 seconds ago.
Seriously, Resident Evil 2 is a game that should not be missed. The layout of the game is incredible, and you can experience it in multiple ways. If you start the game with Leon, for example, after you finish it with him you can start a Claire game...but it takes into account everything you've already done with Leon and the game is changed around. Conversely, if you start one up with Claire, you can do the extra scenario afterwards with Leon and they're both different, too. It's very well thought-out, scary, and engaging, and in my opinion it really is the embodiment of the ultimate Resident Evil experience. The remake of Resident Evil 1 for the Gamecube is really good as well, with amazing graphical and atmospheric effects...but Resident Evil 2 is the one classic-style RE entry that really grasped me and had me playing it over and over again.
Frozen in fear, our heroes cannot manage to avert their gaze from Goatse.The original Doom games, such as Doom and Doom II: Hell on Earth, were revolutionary at the time. Doom reinforced the importance of the first-person shooter genre after Wolfenstein 3D created it. It was immersive because you, the user, were in the shoes of the Doom marine and experiencing everything through his eyes. This, plus the then-state-of-the-art graphical capabilites, made Doom one of the most impressive games at the time. Add super smooth gameplay to that, and you have one hell of a package. Doom wasn't all about just high-octane shooting though...there were freaky parts to it as well that could really put you on edge. Lighting effects were atmospheric and could place you in a claustrophobic, pitch black environment lit only sparingly by flickering lights and the muzzle flash of your guns. Fighting demons in such conditions was tense and frightening. There are still occasions where I've left a demon in an area that I thought was completely cleared out, and it's caused me to jump when I get attacked from behind in a poorly-lit area!
Later versions of the game, such as Doom for the PlayStation and Doom 64 for the Nintendo 64 (obviously) would go on to increase the scariness with a downright disturbing soundtrack that had you guessing if the sounds being made around you were those of the demons, or just parts of the fucked up but brilliantly fitting music. Doom 3 would pump up the graphics to a ridiculous level, change the gameplay around to be more slow-paced, and introduce dynamic lighting that casts real-time shadows from every object in the environment, making you look twice at even the slightest shadow cast by a swinging lamp or moving piece of machinery. Darkness shrouded most of the game, but your flashlight could light the way...providing you were willing to trade your ability to fire at enemies for improved visibility. The Doom series has always been able to create fear and tension, and escalate the pulse of those that play them, and if Doom was not included in someone's Hallowe'en video game list then they should likely be lobotomized! Like, right now. *grabs a scalpel*
OM NOM NOM NOM!2. Dead Space (Xbox 360/PS3/PC) - Almost everybody knows how much I love this game, and if you've been reading this blog then you oughtta know by now as well from my Dead Space vs. Alien entry. I cannot give this game enough praise, really...Dead Space nails a lot of things correctly that have been done so incorrectly in recent video games of the same general style. Survival horror is a genre that has long since deviated from what it used to be and spawned some sub-genres that just don't quite cut it. Resident Evil 4, for example, revolutionized the control and brought in the now-popular over-the-shoulder viewpoint for the series, but was it scary? Only if you're a sissy...only those damn Regenerators were even somewhat freaky, but even they're not too bad once you know what you're doing and know where to expect them. Resident Evil 4 was called a survival horror game...but emphasized neither of those facets. Survival wasn't terribly difficult since you usually had an abundance of ammunition, something that was previously very rare in the series...and horror was lacking severely.
Luckily, Dead Space came along and blew RE4 out the airlock and into the Sun. As much as I do love RE4 (I play through it at least once a year), now that I've played Dead Space, I notice what had been done so wrong with it. Dead Space is an amazing game that generates fear and tension like almost no other game I've run through. The atmosphere is unbelievable, the creatures that you encounter are deadly and tough to kill if you don't have patience, and the game straps you for ammo and forces you to use it wisely. Taking place on a derelict spacecraft, the USG Ishimura Planet Cracker, an alien infestation has taken over the ship and begun to spread. You assume the role of Isaac Clarke, an engineer who has accompanied a small craft to see what exactly happened to the Ishimura, since it had since dropped out of contact with Earth. Upon arrival, everything goes batshit wrong, and people start hallucinating and/or being killed by...well, other people, technically. The main antagonists of the game are called Necromorphs, and they are basically humans that have been dramatically and disgustingly transformed into other garish creatures by the alien virus. This alone makes them incredibly disturbing...when you see an enemy the first time, you'll be so freaked out that you'll destroy it as fast as you can. It's not until later that you'll find yourself looking at the enemies more closely and seeing just what human parts are visible on your opposition, and that realization makes the Necromorphs all the more creepy.
Dead Space has an original concept at its core, as well, where enemies are dispatched more quickly by blasting their limbs off. Decapitating an enemy won't necessarily work...they'll just be blind and attack wildly, or launch themselves at you in anger. Instead, you have to do your best to place your shots in order to chop the arms and legs off of the Necromorphs in order to kill them quicker and save ammo. Unfortunately, it's not as if the Necros just stay still and let you shoot their appendages off...they'll bob and weave and flail, making it difficult to blast them at some cases and creating tension as this disgusting, mutilated human creature slowly makes its way toward you while you keep missing your limited amount of shots. This game is all about generating tension, both in the gameplay and the environment, and it certainly pulls it off extremely well. Lighting will mess with your head, ambient sounds will keep you on edge, and you never know exactly what awaits around the corner. This game is definitely a must-play...Dead Space 2 is good too, but just not AS good with the same kind of tension as the original one.
Don't make me amputate you...1. Silent Hill 2 (PS2) - I had a major issue trying to decide exactly which entry in the Silent Hill series...but my only choices were either this game or the original Silent Hill. After thinking about it, I definitely had to side with the second entry for a number of reasons. Silent Hill really defined how psychological a survival horror game could be, with grotesque enemies, disgusting and unsettling environments, and amazing sound direction that could always make you second guess just how safe you were.
Silent Hill 2, however, amped up every aspect of Silent Hill to near-perfection, save for maybe the horrendously terrible voice acting! Thanks to the PlayStation 2, the graphics were pumped up and far surpassed those of the original...normally I don't tout graphics as a big deal, but the leap from PS1 to PS2 dramatically increased the atmosphere between games, which is a large pat of Silent Hill. Lighting was much improved and the environmental detail was increased, making the game infinitely more disturbing. The town itself, despite being encased in fog, looked absolutely beautiful and disturbing at the same time, as figured appeared out of the mist in the distance that you could barely make out. The main importance, however, was the psychological detail that was placed into...well, just about everything in the game, but particularly the enemies.
When it came to the creatures of Silent Hill, they were nearly all physical manifestations of James, the main character's, memories or mental state. For example, psychotic, freaky nurses were representative of those that cared for his wife while she was in the hospital. Pyramid Head, an executioner who stalks James throughout the entire game, has a 6-foot blade that he drags behind him. He represents not only James' own guilt, but also his repressed sexuality from dealing with his sickly wife in the form of that gigantic knife, supposedly a representation of a penis. Other such manifestations plague the game, and they really help establish the fact that Silent Hill is not just a normal scary town, but one that draws from the thoughts of its victims and manipulates them with their own feelings and pain. Silent Hill games consistently unsettle me and stress me out a lot...which I believe speaks for itself, because nowadays in video games, there's really not that much that gets under my skin. Silent Hill 2 is one of those somewhat older games, however, that still manages to do it.
Don't mind me! Just had to finish raping that mannequin back there!-----------------------------------------
So there you have it! A list of freaky-ass games to check out if you're ever feeling in the mood for a fright. Play these games in the dark and I assure you you'll jump at least once for each of them (except maybe Splatterhouse...it's just a pixelated gore-fest). Keep checking back for more entries, as I've got some more time on my hands and intend to write a bit more very shortly. An Experience Points entry will likely be up by the end of the weekend...and if you happen to like wizards and Arkanoid, then you'll definitely want to keep your eyes peeled!
Nice list, Adam! There are a few games on there that I've been meaning to play; but I particularly liked your number one choice. I disagree with you on the voice acting though. The conversations between characters actually feel like any awkward conversation between two people, and it's just another way to make you feel uncomfortable as a player. that's how I see it anyways.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Where was Banjoe and Kazooie on your list? In all of gaming there is nothing as scary as the shark in Jolly Roger Bay. Man... that guy makes me shit my pants every time.