Friday, 24 October 2014

Top 5 Scary Games For The Halloween Season

In the spirit of Halloween, I thought I might do my first top five. Now these are the top five games that scare, frighten, or creep ME out. If these games are not scary to you, the reader, are not scared, frightened, or creeped out by these games, then feel free to tell me. Now onto the list!

5) Five Nights At Freddy's


Overview:

Five Nights At Freddy's is an independent game where you play the night guard of Chucky Cheese's creepy cousin, Freddy Fazbear Pizza. You work every night to basically stay alive and keep the local animatronics from ripping your flesh off and replacing it with fur. You have to work security cameras and the doors to keep the creepy animatronic fuzzballs out and survive the night without running out of power.

Why It's Scary:

In terms of creepiness and messing with your brain, Five Nights as Freddy's, isn't true horror. The game scares you through admittedly cheap jump scares and the classic horror movie tropes like "The camera went out" or "scary noises" It also uses the classic scare tactic that Slender or Weeping Angels use, which is the monster moving only when you're not looking. It also uses the feeling of vulnerability and lack of safety through the power management system (doors require power to close for the sole purpose of the animatronics actually posing a threat to you) All in all not a truly horrifying game, but Five Nights at Freddy's is still very scary and stressful to play.

4) Amnesia: The Dark Descent


Overview:

An old game, but still scary (and maybe the tiniest bit overplayed) Amnesia puts you in the role of an amnesiac stuck in an old mansion, and you have to get out. Of course there are monsters and a whole dump truck full of psychological problems that ensue.

Why It's Scary:

This game pioneered the horror games of today, so of course it uses several methods of scaring you. The most notable one (and the one that is still used in games today) is the fact that you have no weapons. You cannot fight the monsters chasing you like a normal person, just run away. This instills a fear of everything into the player. because you cannot fight or react in anyway but running and hiding, the game can feel free to tip a jar over and watch you freak out and run for your life. The other main theme is your sanity. The game actually gives you a sanity level that decreases every time you see one of the many monsters out for your head, or after being in darkness for a long time. This means that even seeing these monsters might kill you. This creates an environment that does truly horrify. Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a pinnacle of the horror games industry.

3) Dead Space

Overview:

Dead Space, instead of the enemy being supernatural, takes the more H.R Giger route with the scary-as-balls alien, the Necromorph. You play as the mentally unstable Isaac Clark, an engineer upon a spacecraft that stumbles upon the most powerful evil the world will ever know. That's like a normal Monday for horror games though. And yeah, you have to escape.

Why It's Scary:

The game uses a lot of shock horror and mental horror to really terrify the player. This is the only game on this list that lets you fight the enemies, but that in no way makes the enemies any less terrifying. They can still gruesomely murder you at any given point. There is also the psychological horror aspect of Dead Space, which is the plot that Isaac, over the course of the game, goes completely insane. This presents a huge challenge to you and makes you untrustworthy of the story's plot. Even though the later games have slowly evolved into action horror, Dead Space original is still very scary and very good.

2) Year Walk

Overview:

You play as a man taking a Year Walk, a tradition where you take a year long trip into the woods (WHICH ARE HAAAAAUUUNTED... SPOOOOKY!!) And you encounter a whole bunch of messed up creatures.

Why It's Scary:

This game goes with the horror puzzle route. As in, solve a puzzle and your reward is SPOOKS! But in all seriousness, this game really does mess with you. You solve puzzles that slowly reveal themselves as horrible demonic figures. You also slowly reveal sinister plots and absolutely creepy monsters. The game has a really creepy atmosphere and although it lacks in jump scares, it does not need them to terrify you.

1) P.T (Silent Hills)

Overview:

From the horribly insidious mind of Hideo Kojima, this game places you in a seemingly infinitely rerunning hallway with a demonic... demon called Lisa, who chases you. This game is actually very cool in that no one knew that it was actually a promotion for the new Silent Hill game, Silent Hills. It was made under the fake guise of the company 7780 Studios. It is also the most messed up puzzle in recent gaming.

Why It's Scary:

The game itself is actually extremely complicated, even though only appearing as a simple walking simulator. The game uses the psychological horror aspects of the rerunning hallway with slight, terrifying variations to absolutely mess with you. The ghost demon Lisa, who will randomly kill you when you look backwards or open a door also adds to the effect. You also have eerie music and changing lights try to scare you. The best (and scariest) part of this game, is actually how in depth it is to simply activate the trailer for Silent Hills (which is the purpose of the game) To give you an example, to actually activate the trailer you have to: 

1. Collect picture shards hidden throughout the hallway
2. Wait for the in game clock to strike midnight
3. Wait for a "haunting" to happen
4. Say "Jarith" into your headset to make a baby laugh
5. Walk ten paces for another laugh
6. Find Lisa
7. Press R3 (right stick) on the radio
8. Press R3 on the phone

And only after all this will you here someone say "You have been chosen" and you can see the Silent Hills trailer. I can't even fathom this. But even if you don't watch the Silent Hills trailer, this is the scariest game I have ever played.

So I hope you enjoyed my first ever list, and please tell me what your favorite horror game is.

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