The Silent Hill series will forever remain the gold standard for the survival horror genre. For me, at least. It’s got atmosphere, disturbing themes, totally bizarre monsters, (not just the usual zombies), and good stories. This is the first time I’m hearing of Silent Hill 4, and I might just shell out for a PS2 to play it. (I bought SH3 for the PC)
I have a few questions about SH2. In the cell blocks in Toluca Prison, there is something that you can’t see walking/dragging in the upper level of cells. Is stops occasionally and says something in this hellfiend voice. You can shoot it and kill(?) it, but if you do, the surprise you get by knocking on the stall door in the women’s bathroom won’t happen.
So what is that thing, anyway? And what is it saying?
Also, who is Laura supposed to be? She said she met Mary in the hospital when she was sick, but apparently Mary never mentioned her to James. And how could she have met Mary last year when she died three years ago? I know James asks this question as well, but it was never answered. Is she just another demon conjured by the town to torture him? If so, in the “Laura” ending, that means he left town with a demon. Some happy ending.
I realize I’m probably obsessing too much with this game, and that these questions probably don’t have answers. However, any input would be appreciated.
Perhaps I’m alone on this, but playing a deathmatch one-on-one against a dark sim is scary as hell. They move like lightning, and actually displayed fairly advanced AI routines. For example, if you hang out in one room, the Dark Sim will stop coming after you, forcing you to go after it. Since I always played with the radar off, you never knew when he was going to pop out and wreck your shit. I jumped numerous times.
This is actually whats considered the original version of re1… but they took out the movie of references and the like ,., I’m told The original writer of the book and movie sweet home still gets royalties from capcom
Wasnt phantasmagoria one of thereasons given that sierra had to be sold since they never remade the fortune they spent on it ? I know it was considered a major bomb and some say the start of the decline of sierra ,
The original Alone in the Dark will always hold a fond place in my memory. At the time, it was simply ground-breaking. Floorboards creaking as you moved through the house, omnipresent sense of dread, the feeling of relief as you finally got to the main foyer and triumphantly opened the main doors and met that game-ending thing outside.
Granted, once you knew where everything was and had the combat timing down, you could slap Deep Ones silly and steamroller through the entire game in thirty minutes, but still.
Fatal Frame gets high marks for general creepy moments. And from oft-mentioned Resident Evil 2, that goddamn “licker” in the police station’s interrogation room is probably the closest a videogame’s come to giving me a heart attack.
In the women’s restroom of the visitor’s section of Toluca Prison, there is a closed stall. If you knock on the stall door and walk away, there will (usually) be a loud screaming/thudding against the door sound when you reach the restroom door. It may take several tries of knocking on the stall door and walking to the restroom door to trigger it. But most of the time, it happens. That is, if you don’t kill the Cell Block Phantom.
Alien vs. Predator for the Atari Jaguar. Especially the Marine game, where your character was not super-fast or super-agile. You’re just carefully wandering the deserted halls of the space station, trying to figure out what happened and what dangers are around the corner…
…and then you get that hissssssssssssss as a xenomorph sneaks up behind you and tries to bite your head off. GAAAAH!
One of the first computer games I ever played was Uninvited on my old Mac Plus. You play as someone whose car has broken down in front of a haunted house, and you have to go inside and find your little brother (who’s already run in). Not a particularly original story, and the game itself didn’t have super-high production values even for then, although it did have digitized sound in places. But at the time it was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen, and I still remember it 12 years later. There’s a scene near the beginning where you walk down a hallway and see the back of a woman wearing an antebellum dress and a parasol at the end of the hall – what happens next had me literally jumping out of me seat.
And I’ll second Fatal Frame. The Resident Evil and Silent Hill series have never impressed me that much, and I’ve never found either particularly scary (although the radio static from Silent Hill was a genuinely inspired idea). But Fatal Frame gave me the creeps like no other game ever has.
My god, Marathon…I thought I was the only one here who’d ever played that game. I’m not alone.
It was also about the last FPS for the Mac that had map, weapon, monster, etc/ editor programs…and the only one with in-depth editors released by the game company itself. Rest easy, Marathon, wherever you are in video game heaven.
Oh, and I’ll suggest…Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Mosly when you’re making your way through the heavily haunted catacombs of the castle. And, later in the game…
[spoiler]…as you’re trying to make your way back into the castle, if you go to examine an inanimate corpse laying in an open sarcophagus, the game music synchs up with a scripted game action, so that the corpse jolts to life as soon as the music hits it’s crescendo.:eek:
I tell ya, that’s one zombie who got a bullet to the brainpan real quick.
Rescue On Fractalus… Atari was in its death throes, and this state-of-the-art game was leaked and heavily pirated. So no instructions. So no warning of disguised aliens popping up, smashing your windshield and killing you.
Both of the “Aliens vs Predator” games have some moments of sheer terror. The second one is definitely better for having a cohesive plot, story and characters, but both definitely capture the atmosphere and fear of the movies.
“Fatal Frame 2” is one I’m playing now, and it’s one of the most genuinely creepy games I’ve played in a long time. It has it’s share of shock moments, but the overall sensation of darkness and doom make going around every corner filled with tension.
come on people…this is hands down the scariest game out. unlike other games, where the protagonist has some kind of ability to fight, or engage the opposing forces, in FATAL FRAMES II, all you have is a camera. oh, and your psychic sister, who gets you into most of the trouble anyway. ghosts that come out of walls at the last second, creepy sounds and music, cut scenes that make you hold your breath…this game wins the scary game award with me.
Gamecube Resident Evil. Playing at night. All the lights turned out. The first time a dog jumped through a hallway window I screamed my head off.
Also in System Shock 2, I thought I was safely hiding when I turned around and there was a possessed crew memeber about to club me to death…another scream inducing moment.
System Shock really creeps me out mostly for the fact that the monsters attacking you aren’t yelling “Kill!” or “Brains!” Instead they are trying to warn you. “Run!!!” “Kill me!!!” When the monster is begging for its own death, that sends chills up my spine.
I’ll also nominate Undying as probably the out-and-out scariest game I’ve ever played.
The memory of it that sticks most for me is when I was playing at night (of course), walking down a narrow passage in the mansion. The lights snuff out, and the screen is completely dark. Then I hear a tapping sound, approching fast. A low growl, right in front of me. I fire my shotgun blind, and in the half-second illumination of muzzle flash I see one of the four-legged doglike beasts rearing up for a strike at me, hit and shoved back by the shotgun blast.
Some good shit, that. Had me jumpy for the rest of the night.
The first Thief game was one that manged to keep your nerves right on the edge pretty much the whole time, because success in it relied so heavily on keeping all your senses tuned to it.
And yeah… because of this, I pretty much had the same experience with that first zombie. I didn’t know zombies were going to be there until I practically stepped on the one who grabbed me. Scared the crap out of me.
Undying was fricking creepy and even Thief was creepy in it’s own way, but nothing beats Sanitarium in the creepy category. Raises the hair on the back off my neck. That game has just about every scary concept in one.
