Top 10 Most Horrifying Video Games

As the author, of the cult of "weird" fiction, H.P. Lovecraft, once wrote "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear". Even if we don't want to see things that will probably give us the chills, something inside us indicates otherwise. It's the very same thing that causes andrenaline to reach red limits, and it's the same thing that makes hair stand up like nails. Fear, no matter how blood freezing, will always be tempting and intriguing and its adventurerers feel like treading on unknown facets of the most untold terrors.

And of course, that is a thing that video game designers realized quite early, and adapted it in a genre known as Survival Horror. This particular genre has quite a lot of fans for the reasons i already mentioned. Even if its allusive terror like the one we find in Scratches, or raw gory disturbing violence of Condemned, Survival Horror its a genre thats has developed in a way that would satisfy even the most demanding gamers. In 2012 the titlesare so many and the sub-genres even more, so im gonna present to you the 10 most fearsome of them. 

10. Dead Space (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

Created with the latest means of technology, Dead Space is quite a chaotic spectacle, being Isaac Clarke literally alone in the vastness of space trapped inside a rescue ship confronting "Necromorphs". This name (it could so easily be the name of some black metal band!) belongs to an alien virus that hosts as a parasite into livng humans, turning them into clawing blood thursty android abominations. Maybe the plot isnt really innovative, but the way Dead Space is given (and also dressed with brilliant scores) is quite a temptation for all the horror gamers. Though one of the most successful survival horror titles out there, Dead Space wins merely the 10th position only for the reason that its gameplay gets a bit boring along the way. U ll find urself just wondering around in rooms full of computers and narrow corridors having to literally mutilate numerous Necromorphs. It could be addictive, though i was expecting a more tempting gameplay.

9. Doom 3 (PC. Xbox, Mac)

Remakes most of the time leave me thinking if they`re gonna overcome the success of their predecessors but Doom 3 left me no doubt about it. Dated in 2004 with graphics that even today are remarkably impressive Doom 3 is set in a futuristic space station in Mars which is infested with demons and nightmarish grotesque creatures with the sole purpose of scaring the shit out of and of course destroying Earth. Not a very rare to find scenario again but its a masterpiece to the collection of a horror gamer fan.

8. Project Zero 2: Crimson Butterfly (Playstation 2, Xbox)

With Japan being into the horror industry for good we have enjoyed and scared to death many times thanks to their non-stoping imagination and creativity. Project Zero 2 beats what they say that the first of the series is always the better. I think that the 2nd attempt of Ubisoft is even better than the 1st having the gamers to follow 2 little girls chasing around a butterfly, only to find themselves lost in a village were the souls of the dead never rest. And the exciting thing of this tittle is that u dont have any shotguns, axes, steel pipes or any other badass weapon (who would like anything like that when confronting an immaterial spooky threat?) just a camera that u try to annihilate the ghosts by taking pictures of them! It may sound gay but it actually needs  BIG balls to encounter those spiritual threats with such a "weapon". I'd like to see how a movie version of this title would look like, but now that i am thinking about it there is a movie with similar plot called "Shutter".

7. Dark Fall: The Journal (PC)

Further down in our list we have Dark Fall: The Journal which is the right successful of the text adventure games if u ask me! You receive a tape recorder from ur brother telling you in a kinda freaked out way to take a train and meet him. But when u arrive, the station is deserted. Spooky and eerie sounds can be heard from every corner no matter how well lit it is and the chances to get chill blooded are uncountable. Its first person aspect of gameplay gives you the angle of looking through the protagonist's eyes and this fact makes the contact with each terror more immediate. It's a game thats highly recommended especially to the old school gamers and to those who know how to enjoy a good classic ghost story (its a classic pattern : 1.lights turned off 2. volume to its limit 3. play only in the night).

6. Penubra: Overture (PC)

Having H.P. Lovecraft to infect, almost any kind of art known these days, games couldn't be immune, especially Penubra: Overure. The Lovecraftian atmosphere is spread throughout the game. The player assumes the role of Phillip who receives a letter from his supposedly  dead father along with a crypted book. The investigation leads him to a bank account that holds a map for Greenland pointing to some old mines. The game is survival horror emphasizing on solving riddles rather killing enemies with brute force. The game uses cutting edge 3D graphics technology and it also has an advanced physic system which allows such an environment interaction like never seen before! Well all those i think are quite enough for Penubra: Overture to be in this list.

5. Call of Cthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth (PC, Playstation 2, Xbox)

Well its needless to say where this title originates from. It comes directly from the haunted pages of Lovecraft's stories along with the Old Ones, Cthulu, and the upcoming, unavoidable madness!  You take the role of detective Jack Walters, six years after the disturbing events in the Massachussets manor that apparently drove you insane. You take up a case of investigating a missing person in a slimy, xenophobic, foggy, town called Innsmouth. There is something... "fishy" about the Innsmouth residents and ur gonna find it out, not with the most tender way! Enough said about that masterpiece, the rest is all up to you to discover...  if u have the guts of course!

4. Scratches (PC)

Approaching even more the number one in the Top 10 Most Horrifying Video Games, 4th comes a not so well-known atmospheric, first person, point n' click, adventure game called Scratches. The famed horror writer Michael Arthate arrives at Blackwood Manor a Victorian style residence located in the ouskirts of a small english market town. Soon enough he finds himself isolated by a destroyed road. With a telephone being the only means of communication with the outer world, he has to overcome his fears but the strange sounds echoing through all the house's walls will make the dusty atmosphere even frightening. Solving several puzzles as he makes his way through the lonely rooms of the manor and some more areas around the house as well such as a mystical chapel, a greenhouse, and a spooky crypt he will find himself wishing..he was alone!

3. Amnesia: The Dark Descent (PC)

Pacing in the steps of Penubra in aspects of gameplay Amnesia: The Dark Descent, is another first person, survival horror, point n click, atmospheric adventure. In the beggining u take control of Daniel after getting conscious being at a loss suffering from amnesia. U just have to make ur way through the hostile chambers, corridors, and rooms of this vast castle trying to find out more about ur identity. The horrors that u are going to come up against are beyond any imagination. The real good thing about this one is that the game feels quite natural as u play using quite an adnvaced physics and interactive system. It gives u the ability to interact with almost anything in every way u can imagine. One more plus of this title is though it doesn't have immediate action, brutal killing or abomination like monsters, u feel constantly terrorized by the spookiness of the castle's corridors and the pitch black darkness, that u wish u had enemies to slaughter in order to wreak the tension. Being one of the most fluently made games of that genre ever i happily freaked out every moment i spent with it!


2. Resident Evil (Playstation, PC, Saturn)

I believe i dont have to say almost anything about Resident Evil being the game that defined the genre like no one else. In the first of the series S.T.A.R.S. Team is running, in panic, towards a mansion in order to find shelter from what it seems a vicious dog. Then, in the Mansion they will get separated n eventually lost and Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield (2 options) will have to find their partners and to solve the infested-with-zombies-mansion mystery. They soon will discover that they have to deal with a deadly virus that their own company manufactured conducting experiments.


1. Silent Hill 2 (Playstation 2, PC)

I ll never forget the insanity and the unimaginably terrifying atmosphere that was lurking within the streets of the first Silent Hill of the series, but some flaws that were corrected in the sequel made me write about the 2nd one. But lets face it, it's really difficult to tell which one is better, because even though the first one has that prototype kind of fear, the second one is almost flawless!!! Well no matter how many horror games i have played or gonna play i ll never find such a disturbing title. Konami once again gave gaming legacy a masterpiece that is going to be discussed for many generations! James Sunderland receives a letter from his dead wife that tells him to meet her in Silent Hill. The foggy scenery is largely depressing, the plot is twisted in an authentic Japanese way, the creatures are designed in a manner that can only be described as mentally ill and malicious and the sounds blend in so well that this thing alone can cause a heart attack. I dont think there is any fan of the genre out there who hasnt played Silent Hill 2, and if there is do urself a favor and try it now!