For me it was Dead Space 2 when I was 12-ish. For reference, at this point the most gruesome/gorey/violent media I was exposed to was the Halo 3 Flood levels and the original 2 Alien movies.
I had way too much fun playing it to be traumatized by it at the time, although when i was old enough to understand the horror of the whole “your memories and experience becoming food for a god-like being that has absolutely zero respect for your existance”, that did inform my perspective of other media such as Evangelion or Childhood’s end when I watched them for the 1st time.
What was your equivalent to this? I’ve heard the Resident Evil games are quite common for this but I want to hear your perspective.
Resident Evil first then a few years later Silent Hill. Those two kept me awake many nights in my teen years.
The exact two that I thought of. I honestly enjoyed Silent Hill more than I expected and even liked it more than Resident Evil.
Silent Hill was the first video game I really played all the way through on my own (and was also on the first console we ever owned). I had played Mario, Sonic, Donkey Kong, Goldeneye, etc. at my friends’ houses, but that was the game that really started it all! I was already into horror stuff at that point, so it was right up my alley, though. I still think of Pyramid Head on foggy days.
Related, but PT was a fun experience when it first came out. Played it once on my own and then once with a group of friends!
I played Silent hill with my friend, whenever one of us got scared we threw the controller to the other one, there were times that we were playing 10 seconds each.
Same here! Silent hill 2 and 3. We usually played F-zero x or Diddy Kong racing to ease the atmosphere before wrapping up for the night. But it was so sparking creepy to go home at 3 in the night still…
I was about 13 so we played after school and before we had to go home for tea, it was super creepy though and I still feel uneasy in the fog.
One I haven’t seen mentioned here yet was Metroid Fusion on GBA. My brother and I would play it at night, then have trouble falling asleep, convinced that every sound of the house settling at night was the SA-X coming to get us
We never beat it then, and only years later did I rediscover it and beat it. They definitely nail the feeling of helplessness, but it’s so rewarding as the tides turn towards the end of the game
I came here to say the original NES Metroid game! Metroids still terrify me. 😆
But yeah, Metroid Fusion was so scary it caused me to take a three year break before I could finish it. 😅
The 7th Guest was the fist one I really cared about. I grew up watching horror movies from the age of 5, but never really played a horror game until I got The 7th Guest in a CD-ROM drive bundle for Christmas of '93. It’s not so much a horror survival game as it is a horror puzzle game, but a great game nonetheless. I’ll never forget the opening: “Old man Stauf built a house and filled it with his toys. Six Guests were invited one night, their screams the only noise…”
Hell yeah, The 7th Guest! I was a little kid when we got this game and the family used to play together trying to solve the puzzles, good times. Gave me nightmares lol.
Btw we have [email protected]
I remember this game too! The live action cut scenes were really creepy as a kid. I distinctly remember the hands trying to press through the painting and the ghost luring you deeper into the maze. My dad and I got stuck at the one Othello style puzzle with the amoebas. We went out and bought a guide to get past it, only to learn that the author of the guide couldn’t solve it either.
Fun fact - that ‘puzzle’ has its difficulty set by your processor’s speed. The game uses a set amount of time to determine the best move for the computer, and plays the best it’s got after that time. On slower processors of the time, it would only be able to calculate so many options before needing to come to a decision, but because it didn’t account for better hardware, the computer can make the best move every single time, causing it to be unwinnable even if the human player also plays perfectly.
I remember the first time I ever saw 7th Guest.
All I could think about, was this was the future!! The graphics (lol), oh man!! It was on a CD! That went in your computer
The game was kind of boring though, IMO anyways. Never really got into those 7th Guest, Myst games that deeply, as they could never hold my attention long enough.
My brother and I used to play a game called Splatterhouse on Turbografx-16. It was humorously horrifying, given the highly pixellated gore on screen.
That game caused a lot of bullshit with those parent groups and whatnot. Definitely one of the better TG-16 games for sure.
Then Carmageddon and Grand Theft Auto came along a few years later lol…
Silent Hill 2 was creepy as hell. We’d all budle up around a TV and start it after the parents went to bed and turn off all the lights.
F.E.A.R. as well.
I also couldn’t finish the Bioshock demo because I was too sacred so I made my brother play it for me.
Thief 3’s Cradle level was formative in the way that I have never ever seen a better horror game. Overall I didn’t like the game as much as the previous two. But the Cradle is unsurpassed.
The demo for Alone in the Dark 1 also lives rent free in my head because it was one of the few games we had back then. Plus the graphics were absolutely astonishing. But I never knew how to finish it. I always died pretty quickly to some dog monster. I never played the full game.
Jup. Thief 3 had the best horror. No jumpscares, just a sneaking game where you spent many levels training to listen for footsteps and now heard footsteps where there was nobody. One of the few games that has ever scared me.
First and second Amnesia game had some of the same type of horror too. After that they got less and less scary. Don’t know why.
Shalebridge Cradle is one of the most terrifying fucking levels I’ve ever played.
Like, you know something bad and creepy is coming up before the level. The dialogue hints, the general unease around the building, random things here and there in the game, etc.
Yet it still hits you like a brick to the face. Nothing prepared me for it.
No surprise the lead designer for that level went on to design one of the more creepy parts of BioShock as well.
System shock 2.
Definitely RE for me. I couldn’t sleep after the first time I saw a crimson head. The sharks were terrifying too
Doom 3 when I was a young teen, although much later it was Amnesia: The Dark Descent that got me more interested in horror games.
I really wanted to enjoy doom 3, but even 20 years later I haven’t finished the main campaign. Too many cheap jumpscares and the switching to the flashlight just to see, really put me off in the end. However, it was a pretty game for the time.
Amnesia is great, I haven’t finished that one either but it’s the good kind of horror, much more creepy and slow-burning.
Wolfenstein! The lighting and colors alone creeped me out. I could only play a few seconds before I had to stop. But I kept starting it.
Carmageddon and syndicate war 2. They were more ‘fun’ than wolfenstein but they also had these dark cities.
Slenderman. The OG. I didn’t like horror of any type and was always so scared. I was in early college years and chaperoning for a church trip and the two kids in my room were high schoolers I was friends with. They wanted to okay it but we’re too scared. Idk what, something about them being too scared to play and making me do it gave me the courage to. Slenderman just looked so goofy in this game. I finally couldn’t take it seriously. These two kids were like cowering behind the hotel bed though lol.
Later it was Amnesia: the Dark Descent. It was tough but I got through it. I played it during 4he middle of the day with the lights on lol. I would pause whenever anything scary happened but I got through it!
Growing up with the NES, horror games weren’t really a thing.
Some were spooky themed, but I doubt they qualify as horror by any standard. Like Castlevania, Ghost & Goblins and such.
The first real horror game I remember playing was Phantasmagoria. But I was a teen at that point, so it’s not really from my childhood.
Edit: Remembered my actual first horror game.
friday the 13th on nes is kinda spooky, especially the music
I loved Resident Evil but it was the third one that really got me, with the havoc in the streets and the scare where you realize Nemesis can literally chase you from room-to-room and/or show up literally anywhere at any time.
Festers Quest for NES. It is an Adams Family game where you shoot alien toads with a plunger. It is a definitely, definitely not horror game, haha.
BUT, to fight bosses you have to walk through these totally empty 3D buildings, not knowing what was around the corner. So uneasy.
And when you finally do find the boss BOOM! Almost like a jump scare, similar to the Friday the 13th NES game. Totally terrifying haha.
I had forgotten all about that game until your description made uneasy memories of those boss battles awaken.
