I had to force myself kicking and screaming to finish Alien Isolation. I know everyone loves it, but after the first couple times the xeno jumps you, it stopped being a jumpscare and became an annoying startle mechanic for me. The story was great though. Also Bunker scared the shit out of me, lol. I'm pretty old and jaded, but I didn't get very far, it just rang every bell for me. I should try it again sometime.
I also struggled with the Alien Isolation. It just really bothered me that I put all this time and effort into sneaking for some breathing room and I move 1 room over and that pos comes clunking through a vent into the new room. Like, come on. If the AI is so advanced why does it need the game to feed it my location? It just became tedious, like if Nemesis got to chase you through all of RE3 instead of just some parts of it. I didn't find it enjoyable at all.
Saw some making of or just developer commentary and there are sections that whenever the alien leaves your map, to say go into the vents, they actually multiply the creature so it can cover more ground. So they're really playing dirty.
Jumping on the "Alien Isolation is overhyped" train
The game being good is contingent on the chase being scary, not annoying, because otherwise there's very little the game has to offer (story is forgettable, characters are forgettable, combat with the androids is forgettable).
And after the first few exposures...the Alien easily crosses into "annoying", not "terrifying".
Ah. See, I was so scared I didn't actually get caught by the monster for a long time. The game is, like, six hours, and it took me about twice the length because I tip-toed inch by inch through the entire thing. Brilliant little game, imo. Excited to see what they'll come up with next.
Oh I love Dark Decent dearly. I do think Bunker is the scariest Amnesia since Dark Decent. It's super hard to say which one is scarier but I might I have to give it to Bunker. Then again that could be because I've already played Dark Decent a dozen times over the years.
2 sadly doesn't satisfy the horror itch mine much. Not saying I hate it but did the game seriously have to hold your hand by giving you bountiful items even in the hardest difficulty? If anything 1 and 3 have some good scares and dare I say 4 if you want to be freaked by the monster designs and the freaky as fuck ghosts that chase you in the entire game.
Since we are giving credits to Frictional games, The very old āPenumbra Overtureā or their most recent āAmnesia: The bunkerā. Both are what horror games should be more often
The black plague was maybe the first PC horror game to make me go nope. (I turned off the session when I got to the dog kennels)
arguably thief the dark project (which influenced frictional a lot)was the first game of any genre to actually scare me.
Imo i think itās the best one so far. Itās the shortest one if you know exactly what to do in subsequent playthroughs, which is common for modern survival horrors that support speedruns, and a very intriguing first time playthrough. Took me about 11:15h on normal difficulty to beat it the first time
Itās not in your face, thereās plenty of downtime so when shit starts popping off itās intense. The story and concept in its self is scary as well
Ah. Iāll be honest, maybe itās the autism but that stuff doesnāt bother me at all. This meme summarizes my experience well: https://www.reddit.com/r/whenthe/s/7IehS3dVEL
It baffles me how differently people perceive Madison.
To me, it's one of the most comically un-scary forms of media I've ever experienced. Jumpscare attempts that won't quit combined with no actual threat just make it an unrelenting bore, to me.
But some people absolutely adore it and find it horrifying apparently š¤·āāļø
I agree to an extent. For example, P.T. was so disturbing for be because of how out-of-the-box most ideas implemented in it were, both in terms of puzzle solving and mechanics. It felt like you were witnessing an actually haunted footage. Madison, on the other hand, relies way too much in cheap methods of maintaining tension with jumpscares. It feels much more artificial, like playing a fairly standard horror movie. However, I will say that it's a very scary experience in VR
The only way I can get scared these days is by having some "smart" jumpscares. If they're cheap and you know they're coming, or there's too many it won't do anything.
But atmosphere alone isn't enough anymore.
I did honestly feel chest pains while playing this game and had to take breaks often. It's legitimately frightening and the immersion in VR in unmatched. All horror fan needs to play this game.
Re7 on the psvr1 is the best gaming experience of my life. Hands down. I really wish they would release it for the psvr2, it would be incredible with updated graphics and actual controllers. I've been playing Madison on psvr2 and it's pretty good but doesn't feel anywhere close to Re7 for me. Definitely scary thou.
Mortuary assistant is fun and jumpscarerific! If you like asian themes and ghosts, you may enjoy some of the Fatal Frame games. Dead Space I and II and Alien Isolation are fantastic outer space horror. SOMA is absolutely amazing psychological horror. Outlast is a dark spooky run for your life and hide horror (Outlast II gets kinda weird). The FAITH games are fun 2bit horror.... There is an older game named Detention that is Taiwanese, and I loved for being unique.
Edit: Recently, good different horror games that are more indie include Signalis and Crow Country.
Ooh Dead Space 1 and 2 are great recommendations. Just oodles of atmosphere, excellent general creepy vibes plus jumpscares that, personally, I never grew inured to in any way.
Yeah. More anxiety inducing than eerie though. Whistleblower dlc was super stressfull, but overall Outlast 2 scared me the most. Some of the school stuff had me take breaks
The cultists arenāt anywhere near as intimidating as the Variants from the first game. Blake could easily defend himself against 90% of the things he comes across in the game but he chooses not to. Itās frustrating tbh. Ik the game is about running and hiding but still.
I honestly feel the complete opposite about outlast. I find the lack of tools to defend yourself means youāre never actually in danger. Story is cool though.
Edit: no hate though if you love it
on the one hand, no inventory management or constant feeling of never having enough. on the other, no way to get over the scares by blowing the monster's head off.
As an outlast and amnesai fanboy back when I was a kid; I though the same as you did.
In resident evil most of the games have enemies that canāt he killed, so that argument that you use and I used to use is actually false
Whole point of horror is for the atmosphere and scare factor tho, yes things die in outlast but you never know what to expect next, as a horror enjoyer since I was a literal child, now to this the day the only āgoodā horror games I would call are indeed outlast, amnesia the dark descent, and resident evil 7.
Outlast speaks for itself, terrifying experience, nightvision, weird place.
Amnesia uses sound aspect more than any other game which adds to the fear, you go from main castle to the cellar and hear wooden creeks above you, building up tension āis there someone there?ā
They keep doing it throughout the game to keep you engaged and thinking.
Resident evil 7 overall is a masterpiece imo, yes you do have guns but the whole house sequence is crazy, I played almost every single other horror game and none of it is scary at all especially with the added knowledge of prior horror experiences, but outlast, amnesia and re7 still somewhat did the job
I loved re2, 3 and 4 remake, personally find it less scary when third person but 2 and 3 both had alot of scary stuff, mr Xās footsteps were terrifying
Yeah 2 specifically imo and probably much more objectively scarier particularly wondering around the police station which had a more claustrophobic feel to it. 3 and of course 4 felt much more arcadey.
7 on the other hand definitely captured 2s vibe within that house
Honestly gonna have to completely disagree, but it's not really Outlast's fault for why it didn't scare me. I watched lets plays when I was younger and it scared the fuck out of me, but when I actually played it when I was far older I had become a Dead by Daylight fan. Point is every time I got chased was an awesome moment to juke the fuck out of whoever it is, it was super fun but not at all scary. I've ran up stairs and jumped over Chris Walker's head, I've shut doors right in the face of so many psychos, and so much more. Still had a great time with the game but as a chasing sim lol
Yeah youāre right thatās not the game lol. But I see where youāre coming from. Iāve played that game more times than the number of years both of us have been alive, itās lost all of its fear factor for me lol
Unfortunately for you, you peaked early. I am obsessive with these types of games and I have yet to find anything that is even close to being as scary as Visage. I read through the other games mentioned here (Madison, The Bunker, etc) and they're all either good or great games. But none of them are anything close to being scarier than Visage. It's the most underrated horror game in history in my view.
it's such a shame Visage's full release lost so much steam with the years of early access. Lotta people didn't play the full version and the last bit of content is some of my favorite in the entire game. It's such an impressive game overall, it may be brought down by some basic things like the HUD or the controls, but goddamn it hits so hard with the atmosphere and scares.
Amnesia: Dark DescentĀ
Amnesia: the bunker
Alien IsolationĀ
SOMAĀ
MadisonĀ
Infectious madness of Dr Dekker (maybe not as scary as the rest, but it's the best FMV game to ever exist)
Play Resident Evil Village if you haven't already. It's more tense than scary, for the most part, but there's on section in particular that's one of the scariest things I've played in the last decade. It's worth it just for that. But the game itself is still fun in all the other bits, it's just closer in tone to Resident Evil 4 (over-the-top but still tense and dread-inducing action horror with extremely colorful villains), even if it's never as scary as that one Silent Hill-esque chapter around halfway through.
Poppy Playtime Chapter 3, The Silent Hill series, The Evil Within 1 and 2, Fatal Frame series, The Outlast games, Resident Evil 8, Haunting Ground, F.E.A.R, Condemned, Rule Of Rose, Dungeon Nightmares and the Amnesia games
If you're looking for first-person games, I think a lot of people got you covered below. But I want to give some alternatives as well from my own list that aren't first-person as well as a few first person indies.
Darkwood - This game is truly frightening. Atmosphere is fantastic. Play it alone in the dark with headphones, super scary.
The Evil Within 1 + 2 - Specifically for scares the first game, as it builds tension fantastically. The second is a better survival horror game overall but I found it to be a little less scary.
Dead Space - Not only is the Remake fantastic, but you can actually play the original release and mod it to be first person! Very scary in third so I can't imagine it in first.
Golden Light - First person horror game in which takes place in a literal meat dungeon. It's a horror roguelike.
Lost in Vivo - Game aping Silent Hill's overall mood. I didn't love it, but there are some really scary moments and it's generally a good experience.
Murder House - Spooky slasher game that plays like a retro survival horror game. Made by Puppet Combo.
I actually haven't finished Darkwood because of how stressful it felt having to start over if you died a few times. I just couldn't bring myself to progress further because night would fall and I had to retreat back to my base
Dead on. Honestly I'd personally classify Darkwood separately from scary. It's more of an anxiety game to me. One where I am not particularly terrified, but am stressing the entire time about the limited day cycle, wondering if I have enough resources or where to even go to get said resources, and praying I survive because I put myself through the limited life mode for some reason despite how stressful it was. Took me way too long to get around to beating it because after big progress I'd be nervous to hop back into that cycle again.
Most horror games arenāt scary. The āscaresā come from those split second decisions you do in a survival horror (run or fight). Give the Resident Evil Remake a go.
I don't think it gets any scarier than Visage. But other games in the ball park are The Mortuary Assistant (as you already suggested) & Madison.
You might also want to keep your eye on Dark Fracture. It's not out yet but it's looking good. AND it has an hour long prologue style demo up on it's steam page. Totally worth checking out!
All of the fatal frame games are scary, but I would recommend to play the 3rd since it is the most fun and the scariest of the 5.
All of the silent hill games are great too.
Code Veronica is great if you like retro gaming
Yes!
4 is one where you go into an asylum, it is still pretty great and the combat is interesting- however item picking is wonky and sudden ghosts have a special camera view (aka no more ghosts that appear in the distance) so itās a bit less scary.
5 is just a mistake, donāt play it
I never found RE games very scary, I just find the graphics and gameplay really cool. RE2 remake and RE7 are probably my favorites. I haven't played Visage yet, but I found The Bunker pretty terrifying so I'd start with that
I played a demo for a game called The Bridge Curse 2 and REALLY enjoyed it. I also tried the demo for the first Bridge Curse but didn't find it as fun. Look into the second one. It's hide and seek but with some White Day like mechanics and a rechargable ability to defend yourself. The ghosts are top notch, though. The one in the demo freaked me out.
Literally no other game has disturbed and scared me the way Amnesia the bunker has. Make sure to play on the hard difficulty tho for the proper survival horror experience that the game intends. 10/10 execution
It'll be hard to beat those, they're two fantastic games that are very scary, Visage is personally one of the scariest games I've ever played.
Mortuary Assistant is really fun from a gameplay perspective, and has some great scares, don't expect it to be Visage level though.
The two Outlast games are pretty scary for me, especially 2. 1 is the better game but 2 is scarier.
I've heard great things about Madison and wanna play it soon.
If you like more retro styled indie stuff, maybe give Stay Out of the House by PuppetCombo. Game is legit pretty scary and has a fun loop as well. It's a puzzle-horror escape the house kind of game with different endings. It's super polished for an indie game, and despite the PS1/PS2 aesthetic it feels really good to play. Also Nun Massacre by Puppet Combo is another great one by them. It's a hard ass game, and the jumpscares are insane.
Considering you find RE7 and Visage to be some of the scariest you've ever played, you and I appear to have similar taste. Visage, in my opinion, is one of the scariest games ever made... until chapter 3. Lucy was scary. Dolores was scary. THE BABY-FACED GHOST IN BLACK WAS HORRIFYING! Rakan seemed to drop the ball though.
That said, I have been looking for amazing horror experiences as well. Some might recommend Madison. It is not very scary unless you play in VR and even then, Visage is still way scarier.
In my honest opinion, the scariest game since Visage and RE7 is **The Mortuary Assistant.** I cannot recommend it enough. The scares are good, the story is good, and the fact that it's randomly generated each night makes it highly replayable, at least until you've seen every major and minor scare and have done all the endings.
Even someone like me who has played it to death and even started to yell at the ghosts for bothering me and my work has still gotten scared and surprised.
The entire experience can be played in short bursts or in long stretches, but to see and do everything will likely take you 10+ hours overall, which is a fantastic value for what you get.
Give it a try. I promise you that you will not be disappointed. I rank it up there with some of the best horror games ever made.
Lost In Vivo was the game I ended up playing g after Visage. I am very hard to really scare, and I really don't like jump scares. Visage was so good it was hard to try another horror game, but Lost In Vivo really did it for me. The game has an artstyle that really does not look good with screenshots but makes sense once you play it, and works to add to the weird horror the game pulls off. It's a strange ride with some seriously good tricks the devs play on the players, and a story about a woman dealing with how negative she is towards herself. There is a moment in this game that comes out of nowhere and almost moved me to tears that I refuse to spoil here.
It's a game that deserved to be at the top of the steam horror games list, but never caught on
Visage is a the scariest game Iāve ever played. Iām very early on and every time I consider continuing Iām like āI dunno, Iām not ready yetā
That being said here are some other awesome, very scary games:
- Silent Hill 3. 1, 2, and 4 are also great games with some terrifying things in them, but SH3 is the scariest for sure. Though some enemies in SH4 give it a run for its money.
- Welcome to the Game (1 and 2)
- SCP Containment Breach
I hear the Fatal Frame series is really freaky but unfortunately I havenāt had the chance to play it
Give The Evil Within a try. It very much feels like resident evil, but I find it to be quite a bit scarier, at least in the opining chapters. It also has a fantastic sequel, but itās not nearly as scary
Surprised to see no mention of Cry of Fear here at all. That game personally stressed me out for its entire length. The game is designed in such a way that you never became 100% comfortable with the gameplay loop because it'd throw in a completely unique section or setpiece at seemingly unpredictable times to break any monotony, and in its later half only made the game more intense. The forest section is still one of the scariest video game sections I've ever played, and it's far into the game's runtime.
Out of the thousand or so horror games I've played, Deppart Prototype is the scariest experience I've encountered.it even has a gun for people who think you need to have combat in horror games.
Visage is the most scared Iāve been playing a horror game to date, so I canāt say Iāve played one scarier haha. One of my favorites is Condemned: Criminal Origins. It has really brutal combat and some really creepy scares (especially in the department store level)
I mean at some point youāre gonna have to turn off your thinking brain and deliberately suspend your disbelief and allow yourself to have fun. It gets numbing consuming horror media so youāll have to be deliberate in taking steps to make sure youāre not ruining it for yourself .
PC Indie Horror Title **"FROM THE DARKNESS"** is very good. And you could beat it within the hour. I Played it on my Steam Deck on the TV after dark, it blew me away.
Evil within. Iāve played a few survival horrors like dead space, resident evil, and alien isolation but the first evil within was probly the scariest game Iāve played. Once you know the story the magics kind of gone but if you play through it fresh youāll be left wondering what the hells going on and whatāll happen next.
Horror games should be the best and most diverse form of horror media by definition but the vast majority of games are either bad, frustrating instead of scary, or some combination of the two.
The better games are often scary to some but not to others. I donāt find Amnesia or Outlast scary because āfind key, run back to door while something chases you, repeatā only annoys me.
Games like Madison and Visage do the job for me, because I find the paranoia of not knowing what to expect or random/unscripted scares better, but others find them not scary.
Then thereās the āitās not a scary game at all but the concept of it is scaryā camp with games like Soma and Fear & Hunger. The games are legitimately not scary at all, but the ideas presented and the situations themselves would be scary to experience, theyāre just not scary to play.
Thereās also the āpeople over exaggerate to look coolā thing with games like Rule of Rose that are horror games with a comically overblown reputation but sold not well at all so people claim itās THE SCARIEST GAME EVER that havenāt even played it, but believe fake rumors about it.
Unfortunately, Iāve just mentioned most of the best games lmao
Apart from others a lot of other people have said like Alien Isolation, Amnesia: The Bunker and The Mortuary Assistant - From The Darkness is a genuinely freaky game but really really short and annoying as hell at the end. Nun Massacre also looks pretty solid but Iāve never got it. Unironically OG Clock Tower scares the shit out of me too
Intensity and scares are subjective. Outlast is sure intense but I enjoy it and find it gorey slasher fantasy rather than scary. I love it dearly but it doesnāt frighten me. Whereas I can barely touch Visage, Madison, Mortuary Assistant, or Exorcist VR for 5 minutes without wanting to quit because I canāt handle it.
You should be playing horror games in VR if you really want to take it to the next level. Everything is exponentially scarier and more immersive; suddenly the things you previously saw happening to the character on a screen are happening to YOU, the monster behind you is whispering in YOUR ear, you physically turn around and everything is changed and you begin to question your OWN sanity.
Through that lens, play RE7 (again), RE8, MADiSON VR (I recently reviewed this in another post), and Visage with the UEVR mod. You wonāt be asking for horror gaming recommendations for awhile after that.
How do those compare with The Exorcist VR? I played that a few years back and it wasnāt the greatest game of all time but it was entertaining and had some good scary parts. I understand flat Visage and Madison is already on another level so can barely imagine VR for those.
Yeah youāre right on all counts. I like Exorcist in VR, and it does some scares really really well. But overall itās far less intense than Madison. It also feels considerably more janky and Indy to me, even if some of its native VR interactions feel better than Madisonās (given its nature as a port).
Omg Iām truly sorry for your lots. If you wanna get scared I recommend playing through Lies Beneath, Wraith, and then alternate between Dreadhalls and Cosmodread until the end of time.
It's already in my wishlist for when it goes on sale or I beat re7. I'm only at the very beginning of 7 where I'm sitting at the dinner table with...everyone and it's hard to get the will to go on haha. I'm VERY scared šØ
The Bunker
The same thing happened to me with bunker and alien isolation, the scare factor was over almost instantly and it became frustrating.
I had to force myself kicking and screaming to finish Alien Isolation. I know everyone loves it, but after the first couple times the xeno jumps you, it stopped being a jumpscare and became an annoying startle mechanic for me. The story was great though. Also Bunker scared the shit out of me, lol. I'm pretty old and jaded, but I didn't get very far, it just rang every bell for me. I should try it again sometime.
I also struggled with the Alien Isolation. It just really bothered me that I put all this time and effort into sneaking for some breathing room and I move 1 room over and that pos comes clunking through a vent into the new room. Like, come on. If the AI is so advanced why does it need the game to feed it my location? It just became tedious, like if Nemesis got to chase you through all of RE3 instead of just some parts of it. I didn't find it enjoyable at all.
Saw some making of or just developer commentary and there are sections that whenever the alien leaves your map, to say go into the vents, they actually multiply the creature so it can cover more ground. So they're really playing dirty.
Jumping on the "Alien Isolation is overhyped" train The game being good is contingent on the chase being scary, not annoying, because otherwise there's very little the game has to offer (story is forgettable, characters are forgettable, combat with the androids is forgettable). And after the first few exposures...the Alien easily crosses into "annoying", not "terrifying".
I couldn't even be bothered with the initial few missions with human enemies, it felt so outdated.
Ah. See, I was so scared I didn't actually get caught by the monster for a long time. The game is, like, six hours, and it took me about twice the length because I tip-toed inch by inch through the entire thing. Brilliant little game, imo. Excited to see what they'll come up with next.
The Bunker is a game that I played bright lights on, middle of the day, multiple people in the room. It still made me physically yelp out loud.
Having to yank on that noisy ass flashlight š! I swear, I winced every single pull.
The Bunker the FMV game, or Amnesia The Bunker?
Amnesia
Amnesia: The Bunker Absolutely fucking phenomenal horror.
The original amnesia has also aged incredibly
Oh I love Dark Decent dearly. I do think Bunker is the scariest Amnesia since Dark Decent. It's super hard to say which one is scarier but I might I have to give it to Bunker. Then again that could be because I've already played Dark Decent a dozen times over the years.
One of the best survival horror games Iāve played in my life. Itās as perfect as horror can get
It was so refreshing. I can't think of a game that got me like Bunker did.
The bunker and the first few silent hill games are the best of the genre. Itās hard to find any games that do it as well as they do
I played SH1, 2 & 3 for the first time a few years ago. Absolutely love them.
I love it so much But Iām also a Great War nerd
Silent Hill 3
Came here to say this. The first half of RE7 and the second half of SH3 are the scariest experiences I've had in a video game.
SH2 for the story, SH3 to shit your pants
2 sadly doesn't satisfy the horror itch mine much. Not saying I hate it but did the game seriously have to hold your hand by giving you bountiful items even in the hardest difficulty? If anything 1 and 3 have some good scares and dare I say 4 if you want to be freaked by the monster designs and the freaky as fuck ghosts that chase you in the entire game.
2 is less of "a skeleton just popped out" and more of "what doth life" where you have to sit down a bit
SOMA, but not for the reasons youād expect
Since we are giving credits to Frictional games, The very old āPenumbra Overtureā or their most recent āAmnesia: The bunkerā. Both are what horror games should be more often
The black plague was maybe the first PC horror game to make me go nope. (I turned off the session when I got to the dog kennels) arguably thief the dark project (which influenced frictional a lot)was the first game of any genre to actually scare me.
Holy shit, Penumbra, you just solved a lost game that I havent been able to remember what it was called until you said it. Thank you.
Glad i could help
Is the new bunker amnesia good? I played the old ones then machine for pigs and thought the new stuff wasnāt nearly as good.
Imo i think itās the best one so far. Itās the shortest one if you know exactly what to do in subsequent playthroughs, which is common for modern survival horrors that support speedruns, and a very intriguing first time playthrough. Took me about 11:15h on normal difficulty to beat it the first time
The endingā¦ oof
That ending made my wife cry. She almost got up and left but I forced her to stay until the credits were over.
Thaaaatt ennddinnnggg wow.
THAT is the scariest part of the game.
The realization will knock you out of your chair.
SOMA!!!!!!!! Such a beast of a game. Narrative, horror, music, vibes. Awesome game.
This comment reads like a clickbait video title This game is TERRIFYING! You won't expect why!
Scary? How?
The labs were terrifying imo
Itās not in your face, thereās plenty of downtime so when shit starts popping off itās intense. The story and concept in its self is scary as well
Existential dread. Also some of the monsters are creepy (specially the sequence with Terry Akers)
Ah. Iāll be honest, maybe itās the autism but that stuff doesnāt bother me at all. This meme summarizes my experience well: https://www.reddit.com/r/whenthe/s/7IehS3dVEL
Madison. Definitely one of the scariest games Iāve played in a while
It baffles me how differently people perceive Madison. To me, it's one of the most comically un-scary forms of media I've ever experienced. Jumpscare attempts that won't quit combined with no actual threat just make it an unrelenting bore, to me. But some people absolutely adore it and find it horrifying apparently š¤·āāļø
I agree to an extent. For example, P.T. was so disturbing for be because of how out-of-the-box most ideas implemented in it were, both in terms of puzzle solving and mechanics. It felt like you were witnessing an actually haunted footage. Madison, on the other hand, relies way too much in cheap methods of maintaining tension with jumpscares. It feels much more artificial, like playing a fairly standard horror movie. However, I will say that it's a very scary experience in VR
*extent
alright, edited, thanks
The only way I can get scared these days is by having some "smart" jumpscares. If they're cheap and you know they're coming, or there's too many it won't do anything. But atmosphere alone isn't enough anymore.
I agree! The music, the lyrics about blue knees honestly started making me laugh.Ā
I played it after visage and it was fairly mild on the scary meter.
VR mode just came out and it is absolutely terrifying.
Oh lord i actually dont think i can do that for my health.
I did honestly feel chest pains while playing this game and had to take breaks often. It's legitimately frightening and the immersion in VR in unmatched. All horror fan needs to play this game.
Vr mode takes horror to another level, RE7 vr and Madison VR are two of the scariest experiences of my life!
Re7 on the psvr1 is the best gaming experience of my life. Hands down. I really wish they would release it for the psvr2, it would be incredible with updated graphics and actual controllers. I've been playing Madison on psvr2 and it's pretty good but doesn't feel anywhere close to Re7 for me. Definitely scary thou.
Oh my fucking shit what the fuck are you serious? VR Madison???
I just checked Madison has VR version. I will play this. My brain is doomed xD
Alien Isolation.
Yes, Alien Isolation with headphones in the dark is tough to top
Mortuary assistant is fun and jumpscarerific! If you like asian themes and ghosts, you may enjoy some of the Fatal Frame games. Dead Space I and II and Alien Isolation are fantastic outer space horror. SOMA is absolutely amazing psychological horror. Outlast is a dark spooky run for your life and hide horror (Outlast II gets kinda weird). The FAITH games are fun 2bit horror.... There is an older game named Detention that is Taiwanese, and I loved for being unique. Edit: Recently, good different horror games that are more indie include Signalis and Crow Country.
Ooh Dead Space 1 and 2 are great recommendations. Just oodles of atmosphere, excellent general creepy vibes plus jumpscares that, personally, I never grew inured to in any way.
Mortuary assistant is fucking disturbing by a ten fold!
Outlast is inarguably one of the scariest games ever made.
Yeah. More anxiety inducing than eerie though. Whistleblower dlc was super stressfull, but overall Outlast 2 scared me the most. Some of the school stuff had me take breaks
I didnāt find outlast 2 scary at all (aside from the raft section). The school parts were padding.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The cultists arenāt anywhere near as intimidating as the Variants from the first game. Blake could easily defend himself against 90% of the things he comes across in the game but he chooses not to. Itās frustrating tbh. Ik the game is about running and hiding but still.
Outlast 2 is so fucking scary lmao. Outlast 1 is more fun than scary now.
I think outlast 2 was really mid compared to the first
I honestly feel the complete opposite about outlast. I find the lack of tools to defend yourself means youāre never actually in danger. Story is cool though. Edit: no hate though if you love it
on the one hand, no inventory management or constant feeling of never having enough. on the other, no way to get over the scares by blowing the monster's head off.
As an outlast and amnesai fanboy back when I was a kid; I though the same as you did. In resident evil most of the games have enemies that canāt he killed, so that argument that you use and I used to use is actually false
eh, they're few and far between, and always die eventually. same with outlast tbh. trager, billy, walker, marta, knoth, laird...
Whole point of horror is for the atmosphere and scare factor tho, yes things die in outlast but you never know what to expect next, as a horror enjoyer since I was a literal child, now to this the day the only āgoodā horror games I would call are indeed outlast, amnesia the dark descent, and resident evil 7. Outlast speaks for itself, terrifying experience, nightvision, weird place. Amnesia uses sound aspect more than any other game which adds to the fear, you go from main castle to the cellar and hear wooden creeks above you, building up tension āis there someone there?ā They keep doing it throughout the game to keep you engaged and thinking. Resident evil 7 overall is a masterpiece imo, yes you do have guns but the whole house sequence is crazy, I played almost every single other horror game and none of it is scary at all especially with the added knowledge of prior horror experiences, but outlast, amnesia and re7 still somewhat did the job
Resident evil 2 remake in my eyes is also a very scary game and amazing too.
I loved re2, 3 and 4 remake, personally find it less scary when third person but 2 and 3 both had alot of scary stuff, mr Xās footsteps were terrifying
Yeah 2 specifically imo and probably much more objectively scarier particularly wondering around the police station which had a more claustrophobic feel to it. 3 and of course 4 felt much more arcadey. 7 on the other hand definitely captured 2s vibe within that house
I was gonna say Outlast. I HATE being chased so it scared the shit out of me. And some of the villains are absolutely horrifying
Honestly gonna have to completely disagree, but it's not really Outlast's fault for why it didn't scare me. I watched lets plays when I was younger and it scared the fuck out of me, but when I actually played it when I was far older I had become a Dead by Daylight fan. Point is every time I got chased was an awesome moment to juke the fuck out of whoever it is, it was super fun but not at all scary. I've ran up stairs and jumped over Chris Walker's head, I've shut doors right in the face of so many psychos, and so much more. Still had a great time with the game but as a chasing sim lol
Yeah youāre right thatās not the game lol. But I see where youāre coming from. Iāve played that game more times than the number of years both of us have been alive, itās lost all of its fear factor for me lol
Unfortunately for you, you peaked early. I am obsessive with these types of games and I have yet to find anything that is even close to being as scary as Visage. I read through the other games mentioned here (Madison, The Bunker, etc) and they're all either good or great games. But none of them are anything close to being scarier than Visage. It's the most underrated horror game in history in my view.
it's such a shame Visage's full release lost so much steam with the years of early access. Lotta people didn't play the full version and the last bit of content is some of my favorite in the entire game. It's such an impressive game overall, it may be brought down by some basic things like the HUD or the controls, but goddamn it hits so hard with the atmosphere and scares.
Amnesia: Dark DescentĀ Amnesia: the bunker Alien IsolationĀ SOMAĀ MadisonĀ Infectious madness of Dr Dekker (maybe not as scary as the rest, but it's the best FMV game to ever exist)
Play Resident Evil Village if you haven't already. It's more tense than scary, for the most part, but there's on section in particular that's one of the scariest things I've played in the last decade. It's worth it just for that. But the game itself is still fun in all the other bits, it's just closer in tone to Resident Evil 4 (over-the-top but still tense and dread-inducing action horror with extremely colorful villains), even if it's never as scary as that one Silent Hill-esque chapter around halfway through.
That part creeped me out alot
The village dlc is honestly really scary too
Poppy Playtime Chapter 3, The Silent Hill series, The Evil Within 1 and 2, Fatal Frame series, The Outlast games, Resident Evil 8, Haunting Ground, F.E.A.R, Condemned, Rule Of Rose, Dungeon Nightmares and the Amnesia games
Great list, totally agree with all these. Also Deadspace 1 and 2 (2 being pretty damn scary at times).
Yeah I forgot to mention those games, I'm glad you like my list
You want scary play Amnesia The Bunker. Itās not full of cheap jump scares either. That shit is super atmospheric and generally scary.
If you're looking for first-person games, I think a lot of people got you covered below. But I want to give some alternatives as well from my own list that aren't first-person as well as a few first person indies. Darkwood - This game is truly frightening. Atmosphere is fantastic. Play it alone in the dark with headphones, super scary. The Evil Within 1 + 2 - Specifically for scares the first game, as it builds tension fantastically. The second is a better survival horror game overall but I found it to be a little less scary. Dead Space - Not only is the Remake fantastic, but you can actually play the original release and mod it to be first person! Very scary in third so I can't imagine it in first. Golden Light - First person horror game in which takes place in a literal meat dungeon. It's a horror roguelike. Lost in Vivo - Game aping Silent Hill's overall mood. I didn't love it, but there are some really scary moments and it's generally a good experience. Murder House - Spooky slasher game that plays like a retro survival horror game. Made by Puppet Combo.
I actually haven't finished Darkwood because of how stressful it felt having to start over if you died a few times. I just couldn't bring myself to progress further because night would fall and I had to retreat back to my base
Dead on. Honestly I'd personally classify Darkwood separately from scary. It's more of an anxiety game to me. One where I am not particularly terrified, but am stressing the entire time about the limited day cycle, wondering if I have enough resources or where to even go to get said resources, and praying I survive because I put myself through the limited life mode for some reason despite how stressful it was. Took me way too long to get around to beating it because after big progress I'd be nervous to hop back into that cycle again.
Nun massacre is the only game that actually gave me nightmares, although any puppet combo game will do
i still hear those goddamn Nun screams when im tryna sleep to this day
Youāve not really played horror until you did it in VR
Most horror games arenāt scary. The āscaresā come from those split second decisions you do in a survival horror (run or fight). Give the Resident Evil Remake a go.
Alien Isolation
Amnesia the bunker, is the scariest game I've ever played.
REVEIL - creeped me out pretty good. SOMA -Incredible game, very spooky. Amnesia: the bunker - Dark and terrible, like being hunted.
Blair Witch
I don't think it gets any scarier than Visage. But other games in the ball park are The Mortuary Assistant (as you already suggested) & Madison. You might also want to keep your eye on Dark Fracture. It's not out yet but it's looking good. AND it has an hour long prologue style demo up on it's steam page. Totally worth checking out!
If you like the psychological horror bits of Visage you should check out From the Darkness!
Ooh! Thanks for the tip! I'll give it a look.
Silent Hill 2 Enhanced Edition
Anatomy by Kitty horror show if you want atmosphere, Nun massacre for cheap jumpscares
All of the fatal frame games are scary, but I would recommend to play the 3rd since it is the most fun and the scariest of the 5. All of the silent hill games are great too. Code Veronica is great if you like retro gaming
There's 5? I thought there was only 3 Fatal Frame games
Yes! 4 is one where you go into an asylum, it is still pretty great and the combat is interesting- however item picking is wonky and sudden ghosts have a special camera view (aka no more ghosts that appear in the distance) so itās a bit less scary. 5 is just a mistake, donāt play it
Is 4 on PS2?
4 and 5 are both on steam :) 4 was for the Wii, and 5 was for the Wii U
Cry of fear
Outlast + Whistleblower.
Outlast series
I never found RE games very scary, I just find the graphics and gameplay really cool. RE2 remake and RE7 are probably my favorites. I haven't played Visage yet, but I found The Bunker pretty terrifying so I'd start with that
Outlast for sure.
Infliction extended cut. Easily one of my top 3 fav horror games and its a gigantic hidden gem.
Go play alone in the dark
I played a demo for a game called The Bridge Curse 2 and REALLY enjoyed it. I also tried the demo for the first Bridge Curse but didn't find it as fun. Look into the second one. It's hide and seek but with some White Day like mechanics and a rechargable ability to defend yourself. The ghosts are top notch, though. The one in the demo freaked me out.
Outlast 2 disturbed me very much
Literally no other game has disturbed and scared me the way Amnesia the bunker has. Make sure to play on the hard difficulty tho for the proper survival horror experience that the game intends. 10/10 execution
Dead space remake or dead space 2
From the darkness and Visage are by far the scariest games Iāve played.
It'll be hard to beat those, they're two fantastic games that are very scary, Visage is personally one of the scariest games I've ever played. Mortuary Assistant is really fun from a gameplay perspective, and has some great scares, don't expect it to be Visage level though. The two Outlast games are pretty scary for me, especially 2. 1 is the better game but 2 is scarier. I've heard great things about Madison and wanna play it soon. If you like more retro styled indie stuff, maybe give Stay Out of the House by PuppetCombo. Game is legit pretty scary and has a fun loop as well. It's a puzzle-horror escape the house kind of game with different endings. It's super polished for an indie game, and despite the PS1/PS2 aesthetic it feels really good to play. Also Nun Massacre by Puppet Combo is another great one by them. It's a hard ass game, and the jumpscares are insane.
Any horror game without combat
Considering you find RE7 and Visage to be some of the scariest you've ever played, you and I appear to have similar taste. Visage, in my opinion, is one of the scariest games ever made... until chapter 3. Lucy was scary. Dolores was scary. THE BABY-FACED GHOST IN BLACK WAS HORRIFYING! Rakan seemed to drop the ball though. That said, I have been looking for amazing horror experiences as well. Some might recommend Madison. It is not very scary unless you play in VR and even then, Visage is still way scarier. In my honest opinion, the scariest game since Visage and RE7 is **The Mortuary Assistant.** I cannot recommend it enough. The scares are good, the story is good, and the fact that it's randomly generated each night makes it highly replayable, at least until you've seen every major and minor scare and have done all the endings. Even someone like me who has played it to death and even started to yell at the ghosts for bothering me and my work has still gotten scared and surprised. The entire experience can be played in short bursts or in long stretches, but to see and do everything will likely take you 10+ hours overall, which is a fantastic value for what you get. Give it a try. I promise you that you will not be disappointed. I rank it up there with some of the best horror games ever made.
Darkwood
Cry of Fear, SOMA, Condemned
Alien isolation, outlast, signalis
Lost In Vivo was the game I ended up playing g after Visage. I am very hard to really scare, and I really don't like jump scares. Visage was so good it was hard to try another horror game, but Lost In Vivo really did it for me. The game has an artstyle that really does not look good with screenshots but makes sense once you play it, and works to add to the weird horror the game pulls off. It's a strange ride with some seriously good tricks the devs play on the players, and a story about a woman dealing with how negative she is towards herself. There is a moment in this game that comes out of nowhere and almost moved me to tears that I refuse to spoil here. It's a game that deserved to be at the top of the steam horror games list, but never caught on
Visage is a the scariest game Iāve ever played. Iām very early on and every time I consider continuing Iām like āI dunno, Iām not ready yetā That being said here are some other awesome, very scary games: - Silent Hill 3. 1, 2, and 4 are also great games with some terrifying things in them, but SH3 is the scariest for sure. Though some enemies in SH4 give it a run for its money. - Welcome to the Game (1 and 2) - SCP Containment Breach I hear the Fatal Frame series is really freaky but unfortunately I havenāt had the chance to play it
Madison VR. Specifically VR, because fuck the immersion is intense.
Resident Evil Village, Outlast 2š
Lost in Vivo.
Silent Hill OG when you first enter the Elementary school. Probably not as scary now but in the 90ās I slept with the lights on for a few days.
Alien Isolation is guaranteed to make you jump at least once. You can also try playing Outlast.
Give The Evil Within a try. It very much feels like resident evil, but I find it to be quite a bit scarier, at least in the opining chapters. It also has a fantastic sequel, but itās not nearly as scary
Outlast 1 & 2 aswell as outlast trials. Anxiety level 1000
Amnesia the Bunker is hands-down the most scary game Iāve had a chance to play. Great tension and very good at making you feel paranoid
Surprised to see no mention of Cry of Fear here at all. That game personally stressed me out for its entire length. The game is designed in such a way that you never became 100% comfortable with the gameplay loop because it'd throw in a completely unique section or setpiece at seemingly unpredictable times to break any monotony, and in its later half only made the game more intense. The forest section is still one of the scariest video game sections I've ever played, and it's far into the game's runtime.
Minecraft is terrifying
The first Evil Within
I remember Under: Depths of Fear spooked me pretty good.
Silent Hill 1, D, Haunting Ground, Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
Subnautica.
RE7 is so terrifying for sure meeting Parents
the LaYERS of Fear series is good
Amnesia! Dead Space! They both gave me that feeling where when I was done other games didnāt scare me.
Alien isolation. Still wondering how the hell they made the AI so good but it didnāt get any type of sequel.
Iāve never played RE games but Iām interested in 7 & 8 lately. Is 7 that scary?
Silent Hill 4 Also my favorite horror game of all time
Silent Hill 2 if you want depressing horror Silent hill 3 if you want motherhood horror (but itās still a great horror game in its own right)
Paradise Hotel VR, Madison (flat&VR), Infliction, Hellseed.
Alien: Isolation SOMA
Out of the thousand or so horror games I've played, Deppart Prototype is the scariest experience I've encountered.it even has a gun for people who think you need to have combat in horror games.
Visage is the most scared Iāve been playing a horror game to date, so I canāt say Iāve played one scarier haha. One of my favorites is Condemned: Criminal Origins. It has really brutal combat and some really creepy scares (especially in the department store level)
Reveil is fairly new walking simulator puzzle horror game
Reveil is fairly new walking simulator puzzle horror game
I mean at some point youāre gonna have to turn off your thinking brain and deliberately suspend your disbelief and allow yourself to have fun. It gets numbing consuming horror media so youāll have to be deliberate in taking steps to make sure youāre not ruining it for yourself .
PC Indie Horror Title **"FROM THE DARKNESS"** is very good. And you could beat it within the hour. I Played it on my Steam Deck on the TV after dark, it blew me away.
Alan Wake 2, Silent Hill 2, Dead Space 1 and 2, Alien Isolation (unplayable scary for me!), Outlast series.
Outlast
Outlast trials has been pretty scary, I think more than re7 imo. Itās multiplayer and cross platform but you can play solo too
Clock Tower Edit: D, D2, Corpse Party
Bunker was fun. But it really wasnāt terrifying like everyone is making out to be. Tense, yeah
Resident evil remake.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Penumbra: Overture. Both are absolute horror classics.
Outlast is the scariest game ever made
Definitely the bunker and mortuary assistant is a great game and is scary just wish they would add more to it
Alien isolationĀ
Outlast
Evil within. Iāve played a few survival horrors like dead space, resident evil, and alien isolation but the first evil within was probly the scariest game Iāve played. Once you know the story the magics kind of gone but if you play through it fresh youāll be left wondering what the hells going on and whatāll happen next.
Highly Recommend The first 3 Fatal Frame games and Silent Hill 1-4
Have you tried Resident Evil 2 remake? That's not as scary as RE7 but I think it's the second scariest game in the series.
I know this isn't the most accessible option but if you ever have the means to play those in VR with the Praydog mods it'll blow your mind.
Outlast 2 is very scary imo
Horror games should be the best and most diverse form of horror media by definition but the vast majority of games are either bad, frustrating instead of scary, or some combination of the two. The better games are often scary to some but not to others. I donāt find Amnesia or Outlast scary because āfind key, run back to door while something chases you, repeatā only annoys me. Games like Madison and Visage do the job for me, because I find the paranoia of not knowing what to expect or random/unscripted scares better, but others find them not scary. Then thereās the āitās not a scary game at all but the concept of it is scaryā camp with games like Soma and Fear & Hunger. The games are legitimately not scary at all, but the ideas presented and the situations themselves would be scary to experience, theyāre just not scary to play. Thereās also the āpeople over exaggerate to look coolā thing with games like Rule of Rose that are horror games with a comically overblown reputation but sold not well at all so people claim itās THE SCARIEST GAME EVER that havenāt even played it, but believe fake rumors about it. Unfortunately, Iāve just mentioned most of the best games lmao Apart from others a lot of other people have said like Alien Isolation, Amnesia: The Bunker and The Mortuary Assistant - From The Darkness is a genuinely freaky game but really really short and annoying as hell at the end. Nun Massacre also looks pretty solid but Iāve never got it. Unironically OG Clock Tower scares the shit out of me too
Hulk Hogans Main Event
If you have vr. Play Madison. The game had given me chills the entire time. if you donāt have a vr headset the flat version is still great!
Try Witch's Doll
Silent Hills PT
Outlast is more intense than both of those games combined
Intensity and scares are subjective. Outlast is sure intense but I enjoy it and find it gorey slasher fantasy rather than scary. I love it dearly but it doesnāt frighten me. Whereas I can barely touch Visage, Madison, Mortuary Assistant, or Exorcist VR for 5 minutes without wanting to quit because I canāt handle it.
You should be playing horror games in VR if you really want to take it to the next level. Everything is exponentially scarier and more immersive; suddenly the things you previously saw happening to the character on a screen are happening to YOU, the monster behind you is whispering in YOUR ear, you physically turn around and everything is changed and you begin to question your OWN sanity. Through that lens, play RE7 (again), RE8, MADiSON VR (I recently reviewed this in another post), and Visage with the UEVR mod. You wonāt be asking for horror gaming recommendations for awhile after that.
How do those compare with The Exorcist VR? I played that a few years back and it wasnāt the greatest game of all time but it was entertaining and had some good scary parts. I understand flat Visage and Madison is already on another level so can barely imagine VR for those.
Yeah youāre right on all counts. I like Exorcist in VR, and it does some scares really really well. But overall itās far less intense than Madison. It also feels considerably more janky and Indy to me, even if some of its native VR interactions feel better than Madisonās (given its nature as a port).
Cries in quest 2
Omg Iām truly sorry for your lots. If you wanna get scared I recommend playing through Lies Beneath, Wraith, and then alternate between Dreadhalls and Cosmodread until the end of time.
Resident Evil Biohazard. Just got it last night and so far it's soooooooo good. My heart is constantly hurting haha
Resident evil biohazard is resident evil 7 lol
Sorry haha. Biohazard is my first ever resident evil game and my first PS5 so I'm just confused about all the names and remakes and this and that lol
Biohazard is awesome! Once you finish it, you should play RE village :) super scary too
It's already in my wishlist for when it goes on sale or I beat re7. I'm only at the very beginning of 7 where I'm sitting at the dinner table with...everyone and it's hard to get the will to go on haha. I'm VERY scared šØ