Warning: Mature Material
Halloween is one of the best times of the year. Costumes, candy, horror movies and games, how can anyone not love this stuff!? One of my favorite things about Halloween time is that everything seems scarier; especially survival horror games. Here is a list of the best horror games to date that are perfect to play with an audience on Hollows Eve. Creepier than movies because you control the story!
Silent Hill: Released in 1999 for the Sony Playstation by Konami. Harry Mason explores the town Silent Hill in an attempt to find his adopted daughter Cheryl. She has disappeared in the seemly abandoned town. In his journey to find his daughter, Harry learns more about her past and runs into gory, blood hungry creatures. Beating down nurses and pyramid head with a blunt object doesn’t make his search very pleasant either. This game created a new kind of sound for videogames. The game has some of the eeriest music and sound effects I have ever heard in a game. The Silent Hill movie that came out in 2006 is roughly based on this game.
Resident Evil 2: Released in 1998 for the Sony Playstation by Capcom. Resident Evil 2 follows the stories of Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy. Claire is a S.T.A.R.S. member looking for her brother Chris (from the first Resident Evil) and Leon is starting his first day policing Raccoon City. They both find out quickly that something is very wrong. ZOMBIES!!! Walking zombies, crawling zombies, water zombies, and fire zombies all stand in Claire and Leon’s way. They must get out of the city, but not without running into Lickers, learning Umbrella secrets, and the retrieving the occasional specialty key. You can also find this game for Game Cube and PC.
Fatal Frame 3: Released for the Playstation 2 in 2005 by Tecmo. Although its predecessors are good games, Fatal Frame 3 is the most chilling. Rei Kurosawa is a photographer who recently lost her boyfriend in a car accident. Whiling taking photos in an abandoned house, she sees his ghost and takes a picture of him. She soon has strange dreams that bring her into an ancient Japanese mansion where she encounters multiple ghosts that are not happy to see her. She has to take their pictures with a special obsurca camera that has exorcism powers. She gets up close and personal with some transparent ghouls. Keep your eyes open when playing this. Little creepy things happen all the time with random objects in the mansion.
Manhunt: Released for the Playstation 2 in 2003 by RockStar Games. This game gets the player really hands on. Your character is James Earl Cash who has been supposedly killed by lethal injection because he was on death row. Cash wakes up to learn he must play a game in which he is the hunted and to survive he must get to the end of the game by killing the hunters and getting to the “The Director.” With each weapon James picks up, there are 3 options of killing, depending on how close he gets to the person. Manhunt combines stealth and third person action that only leads to uncensored carnage.
The Darkness: Released in 2007 for the XBOX 360 and the Playstation 3 by 2K Games. Based on the comic book by Top Cow Comics, this game has a different chill factor. It involves the mob, evil forces, and what it is like to balance these things out. Jackie Estacado has come into the demonic power of a force called The Darkness at the time of his 21st birthday. It manifests itself into dark tentacles with heads, ‘darkling’ minions, and other summoning creatures. Jackie is on the prowl for his mentor and will kill anyone who stands in his way. The Darkness learns new powers the more souls it devours, thus making Jackie a force to reckon with.
Condemned: Criminal Origins: Released in 2005 for the XBOX 360 by SEGA. Ethan Thomas is a SCU agent that has been framed for a double murder. On top of that, he is trapped in the condemned part of the city named Metro City. Ethan is trying to find a serial killer by using his forensic tools. That isn’t easy when the “influenced” are trying to kill him by jumping out of no where at every other turn. His goal turns into proving his innocence while surviving the violently insane.
Happy Hauntings!!
October 20th, 2008 at 9:26 am
I’d add Dead Space. It’s that good.
October 20th, 2008 at 11:02 am
I was going ot add that game, but I haven’t played it and I wanted there to be cheaper options for this Holiday. But yes, good idea!
October 20th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Very cool article!
Pyramid Head freaks the shit out of me.
Oohh I agree, Dead Space looks interesting.
October 20th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
I would have liked to see F.E.A.R. in there rather than The Darkness… somehow, that one didn’t really get me at all. But F.E.A.R. did with that Alma Wade and her apparitions later in the game scared me quite good.
October 20th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
I mostly did games I have played and F.E.A.R. isn’t one of them and I didn’t hear the best things about the game overall. The Darkness stands out because it is more gory and deals with someone who isn’t a good guy trying to fight evil, he embraces it. That is scary and fun to play.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:25 am
I remember playing RE2 with some friends. The dread of watching the Tyrant get closer and closer to you on video cameras was almost palpable. When he crashed through the wall, we all jumped and yelled. So fun.