GamesRadar

So, System Shock 2 isn't scary? Neither is Bioshock? Not even Silent hill (1-3) that force you to play as a helpless protagonist? What about Ravenholm in Half-Life 2? Hell, even Oblivion has a lot of scary moments when you walk through dungeons. I agree with most of the points on this list, but they only correspond to bad horror games. The only things that are scary in movies are the moments that make you jump, and Nightmare on Elm Street isn't as much scary as ridicoulusly over-the-top gory. But yes, Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrik have produced some seriously scary movies, but I don't feel that you care more about the persons in a movie than in a game. Overall, games can be just as terrifying as movies. Nuff' said.

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kane300 - 1 year 28 days ago

I disagree I find movies unscary as your only watching something you have no control over and so feel no connection. With games your connected to your character and in certain games you feel that dread. The book is in doubt the best source as everything is pictured in your mind with no limits.

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Cogglesz - 1 year 28 days ago

its true with some games i believe but some still pull it off, bioshock was pretty damn good for jumping out your seat but F.E.A.R got me bad one night at 4 am alone in the house for the weekend, it was at the point when u turn round to go down the ladders and the little girl is standing there when u turn around and then once i got to the bottom of the ladder a ghost came screaming at me, never played it for about 2 weeks alone after that, it all depends on the person i believe, if u watch scary movies all the time and play scary games u usually know when things pop up even if you never played the game, its as natural as knowing a new mario games gonna have a mushroom in it, why do u know that ? because every mario game has had a mushroom in it, every scary game has its scary moments its just all down to whether you know there comming or not

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Kez73 - 1 year 28 days ago

Iâve never been scared by a film. Games however, get to me. I remember having to turn off the original Thief (TDP) because I was afraid to go around the corner and see what was making that noise. Pyramid Head terrified me.

Currently Dead Space is giving me nightmares. I feel my heart beat and panic increase with Isaacâs.

I find playing on your own and in the dark make a real difference to the fear level. Really looking forward to SH5 but live in the UK and no one can make up their mind when it will be released here.

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fionnoh - 1 year 28 days ago

wow, three pages of comments already? i wish i could contribute :(

honestly all my points have been brought up already. great article.

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feeheelee - 1 year 28 days ago

The fundamental thing here is that Scary movies aren't scary either. The most recent movie that gave me the heebie jeebies was The Strangers. Before that The Shining (still does).
I'll admit to being creeped out by games, the Condemned games do a good job of building atmosphere. But the game that really got me was Call of Cthulhu, proper creepy and built atmosphere.

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Jbo87 - 1 year 28 days ago

The first Condemned was terrifying. The second one never seemed quite as scary, it broke the immersion by constantly killing you, but still got to you.

The worst part for me was toward the end of the first game when you were in the mansion following those lines of writing with the UV light. You walked all over the top part of the mansion without bumping into any enemies but always expecting to. Then you had to go into the basement. I found myself genuinely not wanting to go down there and then after plucking up the courage the first little scuttling guy made me sh*t my pants.
That game is truly scary. Probably why they didnt mention it in the article.

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Metallica - 1 year 28 days ago

Games not scary?!
I was afraid to turn on my console when I entered Ravenholm in Half-Life.
Fuck, man...

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Diamondis - 1 year 28 days ago

Games can be startling, shocking, atmospheric, eerie and many other words like that... but not scary.

Resident Evil, when I was six years old, made me jump in surprise thanks to the music and timing of monsters (the zombie in the closet comes to mind. Itchy. Tasty.) You can turn the lights off, turn the sound up and sit there naked covered in whipped cream and wearing a gimp mask while playing a game, but that just makes it more atmospheric, not scary. Plus it's YOU doing that, not the game.

After I finished playing RE, I never feared zombies would come rip me limb from limb, or that Barry Burton would assault me mercilessly with bad dialogue. After watching 'Nightmare on Elm Street', however, I was afraid to sleep for fear of a burnt dennis the mennis type man with large knives coming to give me a rather messy colonic irrigation in my dreams... now THAT's fear.

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maven_zer09 - 1 year 27 days ago

well, there's one game that really made me scared, Clive Barker's Undying. The mansion was really creepy, all those sounds, voices, whispers... and those images... though i was 12 at that time, but to be honest, i don't remember any other media that has scared me: no book, no movie, no other game... but take me to any highrise floor with a number greater than 10, and I'll faint out just by being there... crophobia

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noobeater - 1 year 27 days ago

i aint really afraid of scary movies but theyre 100000x scarier than games. period games are not scary simply because of weapons you use if there guns its easy and if its stuff you find laying around then its fun to beat stuff.
however only once did a game have me kinda scared and that was when i was in the cave bit on RE4 and i heard the chainsaw revving i refused to go any further for a couple of minutes till i was sure i HAD to go to it.

great article

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maven_zer09 - 1 year 27 days ago

and one more thing, the above user's avatar reminded me of death note... after watching an episode, i didn't get afraid, but my heart beat was increased by 50%, and i felt somehow... haunted for the rest of the day. the cruelty of the events and doomed fate of the characters, which I couldnt change, left me with despair and depression... maybe this is the true fear...

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bron1417 - 1 year 27 days ago

you know what....i never thought of it like that before my eyes are now open good article.

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Jigglesbig - 1 year 27 days ago

The two games in recent times that have made me almost shit a brick from being scared would be Bioshock and RE4:

Bioshock, the room misted up, turned around and a doctor was about to inject me with a syringe. I almost shat a brick at that. I think I set the corpse on fire several times in rage and fear.

RE4: I was up to a pretty scary bit, when the lightbulb in my room fell out of the socket and almost hit me in the back of the head. Okay, yeah, so it was something that happened in real life that made me scared, but it stopped me playing the game out of fear.

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MacGyver1138 - 1 year 27 days ago

I think it's just different types of scares for the different types of media. Movies can do psychological scares better than games (except for maybe Eternal Darkness and it's Sanity Meter), but I think both games and movies can give you the more startled scares. I don't know why people keep saying that that isn't a game scaring you. Just because it is only a quick shock of fear, doesn't mean you aren't scared. I agree with one previous poster that books seem to have the best scares. If you really get in to a book, it can leave you very unsettled for quite some time, and I don't feel like movies or games do that as well.

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GamesRadarJoeMcNeilly - 1 year 27 days ago

If you liked Nosferatu, definitely check out Shadow of the Vampire. Its a brilliant (fictional) account of the making of Nosferatu starring John Malkovitch and Willem Dafoe, among others.

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rebel748 - 1 year 27 days ago

Bioshock is NOT scary.Only a chicken could be scared by genetically enhanced richies and people wearing oversized helmets.Great game though.

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Samuel71 - 1 year 27 days ago

I completely disagree. I have watched many, many horror movies, and none of them have scared me. Most video games don't, either. However, try some horror-themed, first-person point-and-click adventure games, such as Ben Leffler's Exmortis games. Those can be much more frightening than any horror movie.

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Diamondis - 1 year 27 days ago

I've seen Shadow of the Vampire, good film. The reason it's so hard to scare everyone is because in our lifetimes we each develop our own fears and phobias. Fears can be created by trauma, anxieties or anything that has a negative impact on you.

Personally, spiders freak me the hell out. When I was young I saw the movie Arachnophobia and ever since I've been creeped out by spiders, thinking they could kill me... even the small ones. Also I was on holiday and got dehydrated, and hillucinated a giant spider crawling up my window.

If a horror movie was made about spiders I'd be scared by it. Then again, if a movie was made about a psycho killer it wouldn't bother me too much. Everyone's different.

To the poster a few above, my avatar is a variation of the L from Deathnote. Big fan of L lol.

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dustLOOP - 1 year 27 days ago

All the points are great and like a few have said, stole mine! haha!

Anyway, some games are scary, but it is literally a case of the progress you have done just grows into anger for most people repeating the same bit.

I'm stunned NO ONE has mentioned the only game I have known in history that where you can make saved games, but also if you die, your save game gets deleted. For people who don't know, you ready?

STEEL BATTALLION!

This game was amazingly pricey with THE BIGGEST controller I have ever seen in my life and also had massive steel peddles. Playing this game with the sound up in front of a big TV is amazing! It was out of this world for what it was.

While it was short lived, the xbox live on it was great as well because you knew someone may be forgetting to press the fire extinuisher button while blasting away in a firefight.

But yeah, I have lost count with how many times I have reached the last mission and died, then having to start again. Now you might think you can just turn off the xbox as you die, but you still lose your save game because as soon as you die, it auto saves/deletes. The only way to save yourself is to press the eject button, but even then you only have 2, mabye 3 seconds to press it! Now that is true fear haha!

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