What your favorite Survival Horror Video Game.

[Hobbit]

I never owned a PS, so I never did get in on the Silent Hill or Resident Evil games.  However, there have been several games that creeped me out more than a little.

Doom 3 is worth mentioning, but not really that bad.  It's really creepy, sure, but with the kind of butt you can kick in that game, it removes a little from the scariness.  Still, there's blood everywhere and you're fighting DEMONS in a sci-fi setting.  It can get pretty intense.

F.E.A.R. is a really creepy game.  Once you put aside the childish meaning of the acronym (First Encounter Action Recon), it's a very creepy game involving cannibalism, creepy ghost stuff, psychic projections, and even a psuedo Japanese horrer girl, scraggly hair and all, who likes to giggle while she liquifies screaming Delta Force teams, leaving nothing but several gallons of blood and liquid gore pooled around bare skeletons.  Even though there's only one part of the game where she can actually hurt you, anybody who gets into the ambiance of the game will start hiding under the computer desk whenever she appears.

Another top spot goes to Eternal Darkness.  The creepy plot isn't 100% original, but it borrows a bit from Lovecraft, so it's OK.  The thing that really creeped me out about this game, though, is the sanity system, which causes all kinds of on-screen hallucinations when your sanity drops.  It has a couple of standard game ones, such as hallucinated monster fights, wierd traps, etc.  It also has a couple of wierd ones, like limbs randomly falling off, then reappearing, constant water dripping, and whispering voices.  However, the truly creepy ones are the ones that get to you, the player.  Sometimes, during a fight, a box will pop up claiming that your controller is unplugged, but the game doesn't pause and you can still control your character.  Sometimes, the screen will go black and 'VIDEO1' will be displayed in the corner, making it look like the GameCube is unplugged.  One of the wierdest ones, though, is that your screen slowly tilts to the side as you go insane.  Slowly enough, in fact that you will often catch yourself unconciously tilting your head.  It really creeps me out.

The creepiest, however, was System Shock 2.  You KNOW Shodan is watching EVERYTHING you do, and she often appears to let you know how inferior you are.  Since she controls the whole station, you get the distinct impression that she's toying with you, and that whatever fun you are to her is the only reason you're still alive.  Then there are the multiple times she pops up on every screen in the room to taunt you mercilessly or tell you why what you just did was really stupid.  It was that feeling of being watched that really got to me, and it's also why I'm looking forward to BioShock, System Shock's 'spiritual' successor.

[Swish]

As a Designer I'm really uncomfortable using the term "Survival" so vaguely. Since Capcom coined the term for Resident Evil, I always think of Survival Horror as being about resource management - being put in a sticky situation with only enough stuff to survive rather than dominate. So personally I wouldn't term most of the stuff listed here as that. I'd rather simply call them all Horror games. But that's just me.

Just talking about Horror games I'd say my favourites are:

• Resident Evil 1, 2, Remake, Zero & 4 (3 and Code Veronica never did it for me)
• Silent Hill 1 & 2 (the others are alright, but they don't reach the artistic heights of the first two)
• Fatal Frame series (especially Crimson Butterfly)
• Dead Rising
• Haunting Ground
• Siren (although the English dub goes a long way towards ruining it)

I like Horror with a bit of depth.

You know, I never liked F.E.A.R. Aside from it having one of the worst titles ever concieved, it didn't do atmosphere nearly as well as Monolith's own Alien vs Predator 2. I think it's because all the horror bits really quickly become tired and repetetive ("Ooh, do you think he's going to dissolve into- yep, he dissolved into ash. Scary."), and you quickly come to realise that the times when the game is trying to scare you are the only times when your well-being isn't remotely threatened. They're just Half-Life cutscenes. That and all the trashy narative stuff in it doesn't mean a thing.

[Nunyerbiz]

I had forgot about System Shock 2. That was a truly revolutionary FPS when it first came out.

Another good one from the PC side that is probably long forgotten was "Undying". I think it had Clive Barker's name attached to it in some capacity... and it was another one like Resident Evil when you really were freaked out as you advanced to each new room. It's probably been close to five years since I've played it, and I recall that things kind of fell apart towards the end... But the first half of the game was just perfect "haunted mansion" atmosphere.

[Hobbit]

You know, I never liked F.E.A.R. Aside from it having one of the worst titles ever concieved, it didn't do atmosphere nearly as well as Monolith's own Alien vs Predator 2. I think it's because all the horror bits really quickly become tired and repetetive ("Ooh, do you think he's going to dissolve into- yep, he dissolved into ash. Scary."), and you quickly come to realise that the times when the game is trying to scare you are the only times when your well-being isn't remotely threatened. They're just Half-Life cutscenes. That and all the trashy narative stuff in it doesn't mean a thing.

Did you play the whole game?  Just as I was starting to 'realize' that the little girl and the hallucinations couldn't hurt you, they did, and they hurt bad.

[Variety of Cells]

It probably doesn't need saying, but the reason some survival horror games freak me out is that there is a real threat of death.  You can actually be hurt, your existence can be stopped.  So when things come at you, you have reason to be scared.  A movie can't kill you.

That being said, I'm more of a fan of the psychological survival horror.  Namely Silent Hill 2.  I love it so much, but I hate to play it.  It answers just enough questions to force you to create a lot of your own answers, and the result is creepy as hell.

I have to admit that there are times when i do get freck out by survival horror games. Mainly from thing pop out of no where, which happens alot and i usually a dredging feeling when i play something like Silent Hill. But i can stand them better then Horror movies. I mean ive played almost all the Resident Evil & Silent Hill and while there very disturbing. I can handle them better then Hardcore Horror movies. I think for me it has to do with realism. I mean while the graphics on most system are very good. They just dont look all that real. I mean its one thing to see a cgi character have something pop out there stomach. Its another to see a flesh and blood person have something pop out there stomach or maybe its because its not a real person that it doesn't seem real to me. Its pretty much the same thing for me with comics too. But i can understand why some people might be more freck out by a servival horror game enough not to want to play it.

Here is another place where we are the exact opposite.  When I see a stake protruding from a man's chest in a live action film, I immediately wonder how they got it to look the way it did.  I know it's fake, because it's a movie, so I think of all the possible ways they are using to trick me.

But when something is all in cgi, and some one's arm gets ripped off, there are no tricks.  I can suspended my disbelief because they aren't mixing real with fake, it's all fake, which I am telling my mind is real.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

anyone here actually play the fatal frame games?  I know ive mentioned them a few times so far, but really they do a great job of being too creepy. 

[Swish]

Did you play the whole game?

Yeah but I never felt like the spooky stuff was ever remotely as dangerous as the soldiers.

[Tarantulas]

I remember RE1 creeping me out when it was new... the formula sort of got diluted after the 1st few games as the formula got predictable.

I remember a buddy of mind talking about being scared out of his mind playing Clocktower.

I think that games that prey on peoples fears are far scarier than say zombies.

As an example, the water serpent Colossus in the game Shadow of the Colossus... dark deep water... lurker terror below... good old fashioned nightmare fuel.

[Variety of Cells]

Sounds like the scary survival horror games topic has kinda petered out, so I'll veer off topic a bit.

There's a game that's not supposed to be scary in the least that would give me a headache I was so scared.  Mind you, I was a little kid, but I remember it like it was yesterday.  Anyone remember Chex Quest?  It was a pc game that came with a box of chex (just about the coolest prize ever).  They basically took the doom engine and changed the sprites so that you were a chex person and you fought green slime creatures.  But the sound that the slime would make was creepy, cause you could hear it from realllly far away.  I guess they hadn't figured out how to change the volume as you got closer yet.  You'd be in a room that you just cleared of all visible enemies, but there'd still be that horrible squishing, sucking sound.  You'd move slowly, wondering where the hell they could be.  And just as you give up and try and move to the next room they jump out from behind a wall and kick your ass.  God that scared me. 

[Tyrant]

 
  Ah, I nearly forgot about all the Doom look-a-likes. Never saw Chex Quest, but I did play a weird Christmas themed Doom game where there was a nifty red bow on your rifle and your grenade launcher fired explosive tree ornaments. I also recall most of the monsters being turned into Santas and angels, which was pretty messed up when you think abou it because you were shooting them bloody.

  I suppose it was kind of a creepy game. In a weird sort of way.

  I'll say the worst horror game I ever played was Carrier on the Dreamcast. It had its moments, but the wretched voice-acting destroyed the game for me. 

[Steve-O]

  I'll say the worst horror game I ever played was Carrier on the Dreamcast. It had its moments, but the wretched voice-acting destroyed the game for me. 

Really?  I never got around to playing Carrier, but if an avowed Resident Evil fan claims that voice acting ruined a game for her, it must have been utterly execrable.

Aaaaaaaand... Big Montana!

[Tyrant]

  I'll say the worst horror game I ever played was Carrier on the Dreamcast. It had its moments, but the wretched voice-acting destroyed the game for me. 

Really?  I never got around to playing Carrier, but if an avowed Resident Evil fan claims that voice acting ruined a game for her, it must have been utterly execrable.

Aaaaaaaand... Big Montana!

   It was. It was. Trust me.

  And it's pretty sad because it would have been a halfway decent horror title otherwise. It had other, overlook-able problems to be sure, but the V-Acting sort of brought it down enough notches to ruin it overall.

   And I'm glad someone mentioned the Fatal Frame series on here. That series tends to get overlooked a lot. I've got the first game and consider it extremely well done.

[J-Proof]

If you like survival horrors check this out:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/2ynXBMgLEbM" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/2ynXBMgLEbM</a>

I love Shaun of the Dead.

That is the FUNNIEST thing I've seen in a long time.... holy cow.....