Have you noticed lately that scary movies are not scary anymore?
Well, in case you haven’t noticed, just check some of the recent remakes of once good (age has not been kind to these) horror films like “Prom Night” and “Halloween.”
With all the bad horror movies these days, what is a person supposed to do on Halloween weekend to become scared enough to need a new pair of pants?
Thankfully, there is another form of media to satisfy our desire for fear.
The video game industry allows us to interact with our environment, and to feel what the character feels, something a film simply cannot give you.
The following list consists of survival-horror games that I’ve had the experience of playing.
These games are guaranteed to make you feel frightened, cause you to hesitate to take that turn around the corner in the game, and possibly leave post-traumatic scars (some of these games surely did their number on me).
So, turn off the lights and sit by yourself as you fight off heart attacks from these frightening games.
5) While the PS1 game has aged somewhat badly, the GameCube version of the first “Resident Evil” helped pushed this title into the number five slot.
The remake changed a lot of what made the first game somewhat bad.
“Resident Evil” was a pioneer in popularizing the survival horror genre on consoles.
The remake made the game look a lot better; the game still looks pleasing to the eye even to today’s standard.
Even without the aesthetic changes, the remake did one thing that helped the original horror element in a lot of ways, especially the writing and voice acting.
In the original, whenever there was any exchange of words, it was hard not to burst out laughing at its cheesiness.
A rewritten script and a new cast of voice actors helped bring people into the story without making the player smirk upon entering the world that is “Resident Evil.”
4) “Dead Space” is the most recent title on this list.
This was Electronic Art’s first attempt in the survival horror genre, and what an awesome job they did with this game.
You start off as a miner named Isaac looking for his girlfriend on the infested ship, “The Ishimura.”
This is one of the few survival horror games with a smooth playing ability.
What really pushes this one to be a fantastic horror game is the sound design.
When a game causes you freak out because you hear a noise right behind you, you get the feeling the developers did their jobs right.
3) Let’s consider that during the late ‘90s, the best thing we had in the way of horror was “Resident Evil” and “Alone in the Dark.”
Looking back at those games, they were scary to an extent, but they provided nothing more than momentary leaps from your seat.
When we thought that the genre might not evolve past that, the gamer community was proven wrong by the release of “Silent Hill.”
Instead of the “cheap scares” the other two games provided, “Silent Hill” presents a new type of psychological horror.
The story begins with Harry Manson searching for his daughter who has disappeared in the corrupt town known as Silent Hill.
I have a confession: when I was exploring the school’s courtyard and turned around to the sight of babies trying to murder me, I yelped in a high-pitched tone.
2) Have you ever been waiting at a stoplight, seen a homeless person hanging out near your car and felt the need to lock your door immediately?
If you haven’t felt that, you will after playing “Condemned: Criminal Origin.”
After playing this game, I have fears that if I encounter a homeless person I may get stabbed and find him “looting” my body.
Unlike the sequel of this game, “Condemned” doesn’t incorporate any supernatural phenomena; everything that occurs in this game happens in a realistic setting.
I literally screamed throughout the game whenever I made a turn and saw a man wearing a clown mask about to mash my face in.
1) This game is one of my favorites on the PlayStation 2 console.
The legendary “Silent Hill 2” takes the cake for being the scariest game I have ever played.
This game, built upon what made the original “Silent Hill” successful, has brought a new meaning to the phrase “psychological terror.”
This game had many scenes that made me drop my jaw and just sit there in contemplation of what was happening on the screen.
The best example I can give is the first appearance of Pyramid Head having a “good time” with a nurse who is unable to say “no” while the main character stares from a closet.
As the game progresses, more sickening things are discovered about the town and the characters and how the town simply brings the worst out of everyone.