After just recently beating Penumbra (unholy shit-yourself-fest:
) I decided to pursue some of the "scarier" games out there. I add quotation marks simply because there are some out there who believe that games can't be scary, to which I say THHPPPPPTTTT fuck you - you clearly haven't played Dead Space in the middle of the night in a dark room, alone, wearing headphones.
Anyway, I've been thinking about scary games for a while. It was a lot different when I was a kid; the scariest games at the time were the Resident Evil series (or, at least, the first two; they became more action-y after Nemesis) and the Silent Hill games, the first of which was probably my first true taste of fear in a video-game.
So I decided to re-ignite my fear gene and get some decent horror-based games. The consoles don't really have what I need, but the horror genre is still largely available on the PC platform, especially older titles - which, as luck would have it, run rather well on my average-ass laptop.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Nope
Forget the subpar-as-Hell sequel, the original does the job rather admirably. It's a first-person adventure game set in 1839 Prussia. You're a Londoner called Daniel who has no idea who he is or how he got there. You have a sanity meter; the longer you stay in the dark, the crazier you get. It's a sketchy as fuck game and a toaster could run it, the system requirements are so low, so there's no excuse if you're a horror fan.
Condemned: Criminal Origins
"You called for a plumber?"
Hardly "horror" by the standard definition, but a very chilling smash-'em-up all the same. Very Se7en-esque in aesthetics and tone, you basically move through the areas smashing lunatic's heads in with various blunt instruments. I'm not really doing the game justice with that description, but to be fair I am being accurate. There are also a lot of puzzles to solve in order to progress, so it's a thinking man's gore-em-up. Honest.
F.E.A.R.
It's never advisable to bungee jump when someone's shooting at you.
F.E.A.R. isn't really scary at all, but it does have it's moments. As a member of the First Encounter Assault Recon (geddit?) you're tasked with... you know what? I can't remember exactly. All I recall is that there's some Japanese-wannabe ghost chick floating around causing mayhem, and there's these commando dudes who I ALWAYS batter with that needle gun thingy. Yeah, I put a lot of thought into this one. I'll re-install it tonight and update this entry after I've played it for a while.
Silent Hill 3
Nice...
I haven't played this one yet. It's sitting on my table but I haven't installed it. I'll also update this after I've battered away at it for a while.
Feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments. I'm always up for a good fright...
-style.
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