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NeoGAF's Essential Horror Games - 2016 Edition [Results]

cj_iwakura

Member
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After two weeks of voting, I'm proud to bring you NeoGAF's Essential Horror Games of 2016.

Turn out the lights and close the doors.

Top 10, in Ascending Order:

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Spieler Eins said:
Silent Hill has been the scariest series in its heyday. Arguably, the specific way the original trilogy has built its world might actually be the scariest thing ever created in horror fiction. Even the PS1 original holds up wonderfully. In fact, I didn't even play it myself until a few years ago, yet it was still absolutely terrifying. The low-poly look actually gives the ,,other world" in particular an even more abstract feel and the crucial sound design has hardly aged. While interactivity is another key for its terror, the core game design unfortunately never has been as strong as Resident Evil. Still, it's not much of a hindrance for its undeniable artistic greatness.
Opening Theme

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Magic Mushroom said:
Nails cosmic horror and does it in such a way that lore and mechanics intertwine in almost perfect harmony. One of the greatest games of all time, let alone horror.
Lady Maria

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Cajun said:
Every survival horror game I played before this allowed you to run away with your tail between your legs, but the name of the game this time around is face your fear, and it's looking right back at you. What truly scares me in Fatal Frame are the less threatening encounters with the paranormal which often happen on the periphery.
Crimson Butterfly

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Spieler Eins said:
While the level design isn't quite as intricate as in the REmake, it still is of high calibre in Resident Evil 2. The maps are woven together in a masterful way and hence the game comes with great pacing. The mood is great, not last because of an amazing soundtrack, and the eventual jump scares are in fact quite smart. The world on its own is already very fun to explore, but the game further improves its replayability through 4 somewhat individual campaigns that take place in it.

Save Room

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JigglesBunny said:
A dynamic A.I. system and open level design really made it feel as if the Xenomorph could be lurking around any corner, and often times, it was. Creative Assembly did right by this license, it's world and the tension it brought to so many when we originally discovered it years ago in Alien.
Ripley's Theme

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His Majesty said:
Very oppressive environments, scripted scares and enough breathing room allow for a very enjoyable horror action game.
Welcome About The U.S.G. Ishimura

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gforguava said:
The undisputed king of the Silent Hill series, everything about it is first class. Its imagery is potent, outdoing everything in its forebears, and its command of tone is perfect.
Letter From The Lost Days

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Reedirect said:
The grim reminder of what could have been. The scariest hallway you'll ever walk through. Simple and brilliant game design with a touch of Kojima's weirdness and love for deceiving players. I'm still terrified even after every secret has been found. While I usually maintain the opinion that a game doesn't need great graphics to be scary, the visual excellence helps a lot this time. The hallway is almost photo-realistic, and every apparition you see is all the scarier because of it.
Ambience

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Dusk Golem said:
i think this game is as much of a horror game as the classic RE's. They all have their moments, don't get me wrong, but I think RE4 was a natural evolution of what they were slowly setting up through the franchise, and I actually personally think it's just as scary as RE2/RE3, personally (there were a number of moments that got me the first time I played, ranging from Dr. Salvador, to the first Garrador, to the hedge maze, Regenerators, the invisible insects, 'IT', etc.).
Echo In The Night

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tintin1029 said:
It took all the concepts of the classic REs before it, specifically RE1, and took it all the way up to 11. Amazing game design. Forcing players to think. save resources for later and risk the enemy still being a threat or kill the enemy and risk not having enough ammo for later. These design decisions were used in the RE games before of course, but I think they were used the best way in REmake.
Macabre Hallway

And NeoGAF's Best Horror Game of All time IS..

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Bass260 said:
Masterfully blends narrative with its gameplay to create the most compelling and engrossing horror experience in a video game. Silent Hill 2 touches on topics that were foreign for video games at the time and are still rarely shown today. James Sunderland's search for his "dead" wife Mary and his redemption through suffering is an unforgettable tale.

Cipher Peon said:
To me, Silent Hill 2 is more than just a perfect game. Perfect story, gameplay, atmosphere, music, pacing, structure, content, characters, setting, symbolism, tension, level design, game design, sound effects, enemy encounter design. Generally speaking, if I comment on any aspect of game design, chances are Silent Hill 2 is what I'd say is the best execution of that design principle in action. The minute I put the game down I stared blankly at my screen, incapable of comprehending the sheer brilliance of everything put before my very eyes.

I swore to myself to never play the game ever again, because even though I thought it was excellent at the time, I felt like my heart could not take it anymore. But I revisited it almost immediately and as time progressed I soon found myself pining over the game more and more. And now it is beyond the gold standard of horror, video games, and artistic expression. Silent Hill 2 is humanity's magnum opus. And we are all better for living in a world where such unfathomable beauty can exist.

tintin1029 said:
No other game has handled such dark subject matter so subtly than this game has. The game's horror revolves morely around implications than just telling you or showing you, which is what true horror is imo.

The Theme of Laura

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11. Amnesia: The Dark Descent
tintin2029 said:
It brought pure horror back on it's feet in a world where all horror we had was either action horror or just bad horror.

12.Haunting Ground & Dead Space 2 (TIE)
Dusk Golem said:
It's my personal favorite of the Clock Tower 'series', so I had to include it. Features actually one of my favorite settings in a horror game ever (Belli Castle is maybe one of the most underrated horror locations ever), some deranged and memorable stalkers, one of the best dogs in gaming, and a wonderfully twisted story that tackles several things horror games don't tackle often (including giallo and exploitation horror), it is a very fun ride through and through.
tav7623 said:
I really enjoyed the first Dead Space and with the sequel the game's developers cranked everything up to eleven from the game's opening moment where you are trying to avoid/outrun Necromorphes while confined to a straight jacket all the way up to the games thrilling conclusion. If you liked the first Dead Space then playing this game is a no brainer.

13. SOMA
More_Badass said:
Easily one of the best sci-fi horror games to grace the medium. An oppressively atmospheric location, slow-burn horror thick with haunting moments and creeping dread. And a fascinating story that adds to the horror with its themes and implications.

14. Outlast & Siren: Blood Curse (TIE)
KDC720 said:
A haunted house ride through and through, but it's a damn good one.
Jucksalbe said:
It finally made the Siren series playable for me. I couldn't never get into the original games, just because of their weirdness, but I could play through this remake. It has some really scare scenes that stick with you for long after you finish it and a really, really weird ending.

15. Fatal Frame
WITHE1982 said:
Something about Japanese horror just scares the hell out of me. PZ perfectly marries psychological horror with some fantastic jump scares.

16.Rule of Rose & The Evil Within (TIE)
gforguava said:
Rule of Rose is a fantastic horror experience, sure its gameplay is pretty lackluster, but since when has that stopped a game(particularly a horror one) from being good? The game is actually not that dissimilar to Silent Hill 2(and is superior to it, in my opinion), being a psychological horror story wrapped in the skin of a supernatural one.

Fancy Clown said:
This is basically a "Mikami's greatest hits" in this darker, creepier, harder, and more methodical successor to Resident Evil 4. Most of what RE4 got right make this game great too, with excellent pacing, encounter variety, level design, and bosses. The art direction and atmosphere rival that of Bloodborne too. It would be been even better if some of the rough edges were more polished, and if it had a more entertaining story, but it's one of the generations finest games and an excellent horror experience, and a criminally underrated game.

17. Forbidden Siren
Taruanto said:
Siren is kind of a weird game. It's hard as hell, to the point it felt like the developers forgot they were making a videogame and it should be fun. Progression is obscure and borderline impossible. Sub-objectives don't get saved, forcing you to restart a level. Ironically, the brutal game difficulty ends up enhancing the experience. The three days of Hanuda village are a nightmarish experience filled with desperation and without hope because how hard everything is.

18. Condemned & Resident Evil 3 & Corpse Party & Bioshock (TIE)
Cajun said:
An incredibly unique psychological horror for gaming. I'd say it has the best set piece scares in the entire medium, on top of a brilliant combat system. Melee combat in first person is no easy creation, let alone nailing it like Condemned did. Most games which feature it are borderline unplayable as far as I'm concerned, but it's inclusion in condemned heightens tension in moment to moment gameplay in-between both psychological and jumpscare set-pieces. I simply had to set the controller down in Bart's Department Store, and once again before entering the farmhouse basement. Up there with the scariest games I've ever played.
Stallion Dan said:
Criminally underrated. By far the best entry in the RE series. It took RE2 and fixed all it's flaws, RE2 while good gave too much ammo vs the enemies in the game, RE3 fixed it by adding more enemies so you never got moments rest and resources had to actually be used against them, the Tyrant for all it's good was slow and could be avoided easy, and leaving the room ended his threat, so RE3 gave us Nemesis who was fast, ran at you, would use a Rocket launcher on you and most of all, would stalk you through entire areas, leaving the room was no lnger safe.
cj_iwakura said:
Few games accomplish so much with so little. With just sprites, amazing binaural audio, and one of the most terrifying settings imaginable, they don't come more disturbing than this game.
tav7623 said:
This game is a terrifyingly amazing first person shooter set in the creepy as f*** setting of Rapture, if you love horror & first person shooters then this game is right up your alley so would you kindly go check it out.

19. .S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl & Dino Crisis &
Five Nights at Freddy's & Eternal Darkness (TIE)

Berto said:
The atmosphere is king, and the underground labs are stuff of nightmares.
Spieler Eins said:
All the enemies are really strong, actually making your standard pistol a complete redundancy. They will stalk you through several rooms and the areas don't stay cleared. Plus, because this game still has an open map structure, puzzle solving and exploring becomes much more stressful (in a good way) than linear corridors like The Evil Within.
Ricitor said:
Yes, it is a game based on Jump Scares but that does not mean they are not effective. There is a tension every time you turn on that light to the right or left. The moment you realise the Animatronics are not there and you go into a panic to find them. The game does its job despite being simple. Hate on the success all you want, but it does something right.
Cajunj said:
While gimmicky, the sanity system was groundbreaking and completely fit the themes the game was working with. I was disappointed with myself when I wasn't representing Lovecraft in my list, so here.

20. Clock Tower & Resident Evil (Original) [TIE]
gforguava said:
The original Clock Tower sits comfortably at the top for its purity as a horror experience, it is a horror game and only a horror game. No concessions are made to give the player more power, or to make the game more 'fun', or to do anything that isn't in service of it being a horror game.

Cipher Peon said:
Of course, horror isn't purely about scares or psychological tension, at least to me anyway. There's an innate magic over the non frightening attempting to scare you in kitschy fashion, which is why Halloween is still magical even though I'm no longer a child. There's still something heartwarming and lovable about paper ghosts and jack o lanterns with smiley faces on them, and to me this adorable "fun" that horror provides is masterfully captured by Resident Evil. Resident Evil isn't scary. At all. It's less scary than Luigi's Mansion, of all things. But it's some of the most fun you can possibly have in a game, exploring one of my favorite settings of all time, and solving fun puzzles and enjoying dumb dialogue from characters that are better seen as planks of wood than humans. It's dumb and lovable, and the game's attempts at scaring are so adorable that it makes the game ooze with charm and instantly recommendable to anyone.


The Rest
Code:
I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream	5
Until Dawn	5
ZombiU	5
White Day	4
Silent Hill 4	4
Fatal Frame 3	4
Parasite Eve	4
Scratches	4
F.E.A.R.	4
Siren 2	4
Alan Wake	4
Killer7	3
System Shock 2	3
Hellnight / Dark Messiah	3
Phenomeno	3
Pathologic	3
Inside	3
Stasis	3
F.E.A.R. 2	3
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth	3
Resident Evil: Code Veronica	3
Doom 3	3
Oxenfree	3
DayZ	3
Fatal Frame 4	3
Eternal Darkness	3
The Witch House	3
Chaos;Head	2
Martian Gothic: Unification	2
Anatomy (Kitty Horrorshow)	2
Limbo	2
Alien VS Predator 1999	2
Fragile Dreams	2
Demon's Souls	2
The Thing	2
Manhunt	2
LSD	2
Snatcher	2
Resident Evil 6	2
Ib	2
Slender: The Eight Pages	2
Yume Nikki	2
Five Nights at Freddy's 4	2
The Last of Us	2
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver	2
A Chair in A Room	2
Silent Hill Homecoming	1
Song of Saya	1
Luigi's Mansion	1
Penumbra: Overture	1
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories	1
Darkness Within 2	1
Penumbra: Black Plague	1
Imscared	1
Evil Dead: Regeneration	1
Onimusha Warlords	1
Clock Tower 3	1
Parasite Eve 2	1
Echo Night	1
Penumbra: Overture	1
Fatal Frame V	1
Sunless Sea	1
Maniac Mansion	1
The House of the Dead	1
Castlevania	1
RE Revelations 2	1
Lone Survivor	1
Doom	1
Resident Evil 5	1
Metro 2033	1
Five Nights at Freddy's 3	1
Misao	1
Mad Father	1
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter	1
Cursed Mountain	1

Thanks for voting!

I'm here for you, James...


See? I'm real.
 

CHC

Member
Fitting header image and great choice for the number 1 spot. Glad I got a chance to participate - this became a really great list.

Thanks for taking the time to put it all together!
 

Eolz

Member
Good work for the thread! Some pretty interesting results in the end, despite some obvious choices
 
Every day I'm unable to play Silent Hill 2 on my ps4 I die a little bit inside. Never played it but everything I've seen and read about it makes it sound amazing. Maybe I should just find my ps2 and track down a copy for it on that lol.
 

BTA

Member
On one hand, it's a little unfortunate to see things ended up so predictably; I was wondering if people would end up pushing for lesser known games that get overlooked.

On the other, I didn't end up participating myself so I can't really judge!
 

cj_iwakura

Member
On one hand, it's a little unfortunate to see things ended up so predictably; I was wondering if people would end up pushing for lesser known games that get overlooked.

On the other, I didn't end up participating myself so I can't really judge!

Haunting Ground did really well, all things considered.

Lot of people turned up for RE2 near the end, too.
 

TokiDoki

Member
Am glad neither of those survival gimmick such as Amnesia or Outlast are not in the top 10 . They might be scary , but non are actually fun to play .
 

tav7623

Member
Every day I'm unable to play Silent Hill 2 on my ps4 I die a little bit inside. Never played it but everything I've seen and read about it makes it sound amazing. Maybe I should just find my ps2 and track down a copy for it on that lol.

Given the current state of Konami I'm (sadly) gonna have to say that you're probably better off doing that cause I seriously doubt they are gonna allow the PS2 version to come to PS4 and if they do allow SH 2 to come to PS4 it'll probably be the shitty (it's super buggy and makes the bug fest that was the PC version of SH 2 look tame by comparison) version of the game that was included in the Silent Hill "HD Collection". Also word of advice, if you do decide to track down a PS2 copy of SH 2 I highly recommend the Greatest Hits version as it is essentially the best version of the game as it had some improved graphics over the original PS2 release, an extra ending, and an extra mode where you play as Maria.
 

Zukuu

Banned
SH2 deserved winner - no question. Imo is that not even up to debate. Simply a masterpiece; not just compared to other horror games.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
That's a horrible list. The first SH game in 10th... lol.

Agreed. The comment about its design being inferior to Res Evil... oh dear... Its an absolute masterpiece.

SH's only real weakness is that its wildly ambitious for a PS1 game, and suffers a bit technically for it.

Much as I love SH2, there are a bunch of areas where the original is the superior game. That said, SH's numerous custom-camera setups and wonderfully disorientating location/perpective shifts are in my opinion unmatched to this day.
 

BTA

Member
Haunting Ground did really well, all things considered.

Lot of people turned up for RE2 near the end, too.

I was talking more about indie games (and/or things released more recently; though there were a few of those, they're fairly popular). Even the lesser known things in the top 20 are still considered cult classics, aren't they? Rather- it's interesting to see most of the list be PS2-era or older. I know these are "essentials", but it still feels weird to me in a way (sorry if I'm not explaining this well).
 
Not a single mention of Clive Barker's Undying

All is right with the world. I have never, ever, ever found that game to be scary in the slightest, and I grit my teeth whenever I see it come up in typical "TEH SCARIEST GAMES EVAR" lists
 

Bass260

Member
Gaf...you made me happy.

Glad my quote was chosen for SH2. I actually played it for the first time in 2016 and it still outdoes a lot of modern games in terms of narrative & structure. It's deep psychological analysis is unmatched in the video game sphere.

Such a damn shame what happened to Team Silent and Konami as a whole. It pains me that newer generations won't be able to play the definitive SH2 or the game at all.
 

KDC720

Member
This is a great list. Would have preferred Dead Space 2 over 1 on the top 10. But I can get behind the reasoning.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
I was talking more about indie games (and/or things released more recently; though there were a few of those, they're fairly popular). Even the lesser known things in the top 20 are still considered cult classics, aren't they? Rather- it's interesting to see most of the list be PS2-era or older. I know these are "essentials", but it still feels weird to me in a way (sorry if I'm not explaining this well).

In some ways this is based off of what most people have played since people pick from what they played, so some hidden gems didn't get through. It was also tough to vote since if you played more obscure titles and loved them, you were limited to 10 votes.

For what it's worth, I did send two of my bigger votes for White Day: A Labyrinth Named School and Hellnight, which I recommend for those who want to try more obscure horror games. White Day gets a remake on PC and PS4 later this year/next year, so might be worth waiting for (the remake is very faithful but with prettier graphics and some new content, spirits, etc.). Hellnight is an obscure PSX gem that will probably never land outside of the platform, made by Atlus and published by Konami which features a single stalking monster in a first-person maze who slowly evolves over the course of the game, and a story that gets pretty interesting in the last third of the game.

(also I liked Evil Within, but I understand it's a big love it/hate it game. I was tempted to vote for it, but didn't).
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
Not gonna really agree that BB or RE4 belong on the list, as enjoyable as they are, but whatever. Until Dawn probably deserved a spot.

That and Star Ocean 4...Nappy Time still frightens me just thinking about it.
 
Unfortunately I didn't see the voting thread, but I'm glad to see quite a few of my favorite horror games in the top 10.
And of course, SH2 taking the spot it deserves.
 

Grimalkin

Member
I always find it so interesting what people find scary, which to me is a key piece of what makes a good horror game. Dead Space, Bloodborne, and Bioshock where not scary at all for me as they give you too much agency; thus it would never occur to me to place those games in the horror category. I consider all of those games to be action games with a horror inspired visual style. Same with the Doom franchise, with perhaps the exception of Doom 3 which most people don't like as it's not "doom-y" enough.

I'm happy some people voted for Scratches. It may be a point and click adventure game but it filled me with absolute dread at some points. I didn't want to click, as silly as that sounds. The ability to draw out emotion is the hallmark of a well designed horror game, in my humble opinion.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
I always find it so interesting what people find scary, which to me is a key piece of what makes a good horror game. Dead Space, Bloodborne, and Bioshock where not scary at all for me as they give you too much agency; thus it would never occur to me to place those games in the horror category. I consider all of those games to be action games with a horror inspired visual style. Same with the Doom franchise, with perhaps the exception of Doom 3 which most people don't like as it's not "doom-y" enough.

I'm happy some people voted for Scratches. It may be a point and click adventure game but it filled me with absolute dread at some points. I didn't want to click, as silly as that sounds. The ability to draw out emotion is the hallmark of a well designed horror game, in my humble opinion.

I think good horror =/= scary as often as some people think. any of my favorite horror works don't scare me as it were, we actually had a debate about this in the main topic. I'll quote what I said there:

My definition of horror is broader than some folks. I think horror is often more a tonal thing than a design intent, it often gets combined with thrillers and such for some similar themes. Some horror movies are made to be more funny or campy than anything, almost more like comedies (or horror-comedies), but with a focus on the hammy. I think that horror takes on a lot over time due to the genre being expanded a lot. For example, Bloodborne undoubtedly pulls a lot from horror works, the most famous being Lovecraft, and it does work to evoke atmosphere and have interesting monsters, which monster movies were combined to horror in the drive-in theater era... It's a rabbit hole, but I appreciate the variety of horror, and horror-toned worked, but I keep a broader definition than some, partially since I think that helps speak volumes for how varied and non-specific horror is, and it's almost fitting that blurry definition and uncertainty exist for something like horror, which is often about that and an incredibly subjective thing already, as it were.

I hear some people say Home Invasion movies aren't horror, or they don't consider slashers horror, or if it doesn't scare them it's not horror... Basically, I find so many people try to be so restrictive on the genre to fit their personal taste, when I'm more interested in the broadness and variety under the umbrella of horror, what it inspires, its communities, and the variety of tastes and experiences one can have. But I am an enthusiast with pretty broad taste.
 

depths20XX

Member
Why is a teaser or demo listed on here? Sure it was scary but it's hardly a full game.

RE4 is also great, but horror, nah.

I agree with a lot of the other choices though.
 

Z..

Member
Alot of great choices, but as usual it comes to popularity and not quality. RE4 and Bloodborne have no place here. Amnesia shits all over everything horror-wise, shit is near unplayable it's so scary...
SH2 and REmake are king, though. Nailed it.
 

depths20XX

Member
Alot of great choices, but as usual it comes to popularity and not quality. RE4 and Bloodborne have no place here. Amnesia shits all over everything horror-wise, shit is near unplayable it's so scary...
SH2 and REmake are king, though. Nailed it.

I have to agree. While I love RE4 and Bloodborne, they certainly don't fit the genre. They are action games at their core. The horror element in them comes second. You could have Super Metroid in this category according to these standards.
 
People should watch Super Bunnyhop's video on why Bloodborne is pure Lovecraft and Lovecraft basically invented cosmic horror, wbether you find his books scary or not.

What is scary is subjective anyway. Horror is about themes and mood more tban it is about scares.
 
Silent Hill 2 is right where it should be :) Great choices all around, though I don't really consider Bloodborne horror, but I can see why some might.
 

Markitron

Is currently staging a hunger strike outside Gearbox HQ while trying to hate them to death
Can't say I disagree with that list, I'd have Eternal Darkness on there instead of PT myself but otherwise that's a solid list. PT was absolutely terrifying but I don't consider it to be a game - I mean there were no actual gameplay mechanics.

RE4 is also great, but horror, nah.
.

I think RE4 has enough horror elements to justify it's place on the list, the Regenerator and Verdugo encounters can go toe to toe with any scene from any game on the list. But then it's RE4, the greatest game of all time. It could show up on a list of top 10 space-sims and I wouldn't bat an eyelid.
 
The top 10 has 11 games :|

SInce BB and Fatal Frame are tied for 9th, Silent Hill should've been 11th. Sorry, pet peeve of mine.
 

Jucksalbe

Banned
Thanks for putting this together, cj_iwakura!

Why is Resident Evil 2 ranked so low, though? Based on the number of votes you mention it should be a few places higher.

Not surprised Silent Hill 2 won, of course. Pretty big lead, too.
 

Ruddles72

Member
Thanks for doing this! I enjoyed reading the vote thread (and participating), and even if the results are a little predictable, it's still fun.
 
As much as i love bloodborne i really wouldn't consider it as a horror game

It really is though.
Would you say Lovecraft is horror? Of course you would, he's the author who coined cosmic horror after all. Bloodborne, even though it starts and was smartly marketed as a Van Helsing-esque monster slayer, is pure cosmic horror. Not just in its setting, but in its mechanics (Insight) and lore as well. This is where it seperates itself from games that just have a horror setting and horror as window dressing.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-04-10-how-bloodborne-honours-the-legacy-of-h-p-lovecraft

"Video games tend to have a rocky relationship with Lovecraft," Super Bunnyhop noted. "They love the imagery and style of his horror, but the underlying tones that set it apart are a bit hard to convey with traditional mechanics."

After all, defeating unknowable god-like creatures as a mere mortal is completely at odds with the fatalism Lovecraft was so known for. But Bloodborne handles this differently. Yes, you can slay giant monsters and unholy beasts, but ultimately mankind remains intrinsically screwed by its amoeba-like lot at the bottom of the cosmic food chain.

"Bloodborne manages to keep it subtle in a way even the official games do not," Super Bunnyhop stated. "Although mechanically you can still overcome the odds and defeat the villains in Bloodborne, the narrative endings reinforce that Lovecraftian sense of smallness, with each one revealing your character being played by the hands of greater powers."

"By having different names and rules than the official Cthulhu mythos, it can still work mysteries," Super Bunnyhop explained. "That descent from Bram Stoker to Lovecraft had me so excited because it seemed in an instant that the game's universe suddenly got larger and more complicated than before. And isn't that the point? Cosmic horror is all about realising how much more there is to the universe than can ever be experienced by all of mankind's accomplishments."

"The 'Souls' game's formula, with its brutal difficulty and its vague but concrete lore, does an excellent job at prodding the player's morbid curiosity. And so does Lovecraftian horror. In both cases, you're going to end up confused and terrified by what secrets you uncover."

Bloodborne deals with some seriously horrific and fucked up stuff. It's not just people being infected with contanimated blood and turning into beasts, as it also has - among other things - children being abducted and experimented upon, a village torched to the ground with everyone in it, beast or not, vampirism, people gouging out there own eyes to 'see' with their brains, people dying in Yharnam but with their consciousness trapped in an alternate dimension, infanticide and cosmic beings impregnating humans because they can't reproduce.

Now some people argue Bloodborne isn't horror because it isn't scary or because you have agency.

Now what is scary is subjective. I felt more unease and dread in Upper Cathedral Ward than in many other games in this list, with the Brainsuckers scuffling in the dark where you can hear them but not see them, a massive werewolf crashing through the window (its own Resident Evil dog moment), a chandelier falling down in the dark, you killing the abducted children that were turned into little cosmic beings by being experimented upon, and it all culminating in a fight against a Lovecraftian creature mourning the death of another Great One.

Seccondly, you have agency in most games on this list (you can fight back in Dead Space and Resident Evil as well, heck, the latter ends with you blowing up a monster with a rocket launcher for crying out loud). Just because ammo is more scarce, and it is actually pretty scarce in Bloodborne as well, doesn't make it more of a horror game.
And agency is kind of an illusion in Bloodborne anyway. You can't win the game. I'll get back to this in a second.

Would people argue that Romero's Dawn of the Dead is a horror movie? Of course it is, it's a zombie movie classic. But few, if any, would say it's scary (even though - as stated before - what is scary is entirely subjectie). I can't think of any jump scares or any scary moments really. It has nothing on the level of say Enemy, which many wouldn't even say is a horror movie though it has one of the scariest endings in movie history (I'd say it IS a horror movie, just an existential one).
And the characters have a lot of agency. Those slow moving zombies are killed en masse, they're not really a threat by themselves. They certainly put up less of a fight than the creatures in Bloodborne do. Yet, it is still horror and no matter what these survivors do, the world seems beyond saving.

Spoiler warning in case you haven't played the game!





Bloodborne is no different. You can't win the game, as I said before. Whatever you do, Yharnam is fucked. You can save NPCs, but in the end they'll suffer. They'll turn crazy, turn into a beast, die or birth a monstrosity. You can do the quests for Alfred or Gascoine's daughter, but the first will turn crazy and hack a vampire queen to bits who can't be killed anyway and the latter - will end up in the stomach of a massive pig (or turned into a cosmic being if you sent her to the clinic) and if you tell her sister what happend, the little girl will commit suicide.

Then there are the endings. In one ending you wake up, severed from the dream. This is what I call the 'ignorance is bliss' ending. Nothing is really saved after all. In the second ending you become a Great One's puppet, replacing Gehrman as host of the dream (and as we know from playing the game, that isn't exactly a fun existence) and in the third ending you become an infant Great One yourself.

This is why I feel BB is a horror game through and through and deserving of its place on any horror game list. I also think there is something to be said for the Souls games being survival horror, but that's a topic for another time.
 
Fantastic list. Nailed it.

I've said enough of what I had to say about these games.

Never played Siren though, I probably should.
 

Neff

Member
SH2 deserved winner - no question. Imo is that not even up to debate. Simply a masterpiece; not just compared to other horror games.

I would certainly debate it. I played it for the first time last year with big expectations, and I was stunned by how bland it was. It looks and sounds good, but I think it's extremely mediocre as a game, horror or otherwise. The first game (and a couple of other games in the SH series for that matter) I found much more enjoyable.

RE4 shouldn't be on the list. It was an action game through and through.

Horror can indulge action and vice versa. They're far from mutually exclusive.
 

depths20XX

Member
Eh, saying Bloodborne is horror is weird to me. I kinda get what Magic Mushroom is saying up there but you can't really compare horror games with movies. The simple term of "horror" in video games is too loose and doesn't fit. You have to break it down more. By the standards of this list you could fit Ninja Gaiden Black in there or something.
 

Carcetti

Member
Guess my horror tastes aren't too mainstream. I'd agree with maybe 3 or top 10 being there, rest of mine comes a lot later on GAF list. Most of the top games in here don't have enough actual horror for my tastes. Or somehow don't find them scary. Personal tastes in fear, I guess.

Hell with it, my list for comparison:
1. Silent Hill 3 2. Alien: Isolation 3. Soma 4. Fatal Frame 2 5. Amnesia 6. Outlast 7. Until Dawn 8. Siren Blood Curse 9. F.E.A.R. 10. Dead Space
]

I would argue that the actual horror golden age is now and the old school of game horror is being pushed out. I think in a few years the 'classic' titles will feature in my list even less and the recent ones will move higher and higher, while more indie titles will be moving in.
 

SomTervo

Member
Wish I got my act together and added my honorable mentions... I wrote them but couldn't upload due to bad internet on my machine. Mobile thumbnail list had to suffice.

A Chair in A Room: Greenwater 100% deserves a mention as the first full-length Virtual Reality horror game. It's absolutely phenomenal. Like a playable Jacob's Ladder, where you play a man with PTSD in a mental hospital, re-living moments from his past from his own perspective. Part one-room puzzler, part psychological horror. It's absolutely brilliant.

And, as we all expected, first-person horror in VR is absolutely unbearable. I literally had moments where I crouched in a corner and covered my face, in-game, grunting in terror. My girlfriend and I have been playing it together and she can never bear it for more than 5 minutes at a time, so I have to take a brunt. Even watching the non-headset feed on my computer monitor creeps her out.

Agreed. The comment about its design being inferior to Res Evil... oh dear... Its an absolute masterpiece.

SH's only real weakness is that its wildly ambitious for a PS1 game, and suffers a bit technically for it.

Much as I love SH2, there are a bunch of areas where the original is the superior game. That said, SH's numerous custom-camera setups and wonderfully disorientating location/perpective shifts are in my opinion unmatched to this day.

This is very true. IMO not a single Resident Evil is scary and none should be on the list.

While Silent Hill 2 is overall a far more masterful piece of game design, and it scared me in deeper, more soulful ways than Silent Hill 1, but you're right, Silent Hill 1 does have it beat in a couple of ways, and deserves so much kudos.

I forgot to vote for the original Alone in the Dark Dx far more deserving of being on the list than Resident Evil 1.

Guess my horror tastes aren't too mainstream. I'd agree with maybe 3 or top 10 being there, rest of mine comes a lot later on GAF list. Most of the top games in here don't have enough actual horror for my tastes. Or somehow don't find them scary. Personal tastes in fear, I guess.

Hell with it, my list for comparison:
1. Silent Hill 3 2. Alien: Isolation 3. Soma 4. Fatal Frame 2 5. Amnesia 6. Outlast 7. Until Dawn 8. Siren Blood Curse 9. F.E.A.R. 10. Dead Space
]

I would argue that the actual horror golden age is now and the old school of game horror is being pushed out. I think in a few years the 'classic' titles will feature in my list even less and the recent ones will move higher and higher, while more indie titles will be moving in.

All of those are fantastic games too. Although I would never consider FEAR or Until Dawn scary. Phenomenal games but not the scariest. FEAR is pretty much a great action game dripping with atmosphere rather than a great horror game. A couple of jump scares do not a horror game make.

What makes you place Silent Hill 3 above 1 or 2? I love SH3 as well, it's deffo a 9/10, but it also deffo feels like a step down from 1/2, mainly in terms of themes, symbolism and pacing. Still powerful stuff, but not quite as profound as the earlier games.

SOMA is absolutely brilliant, deserves to be higher on the list. Besides the 'monster' segments, it's some of the truest horror I've ever experienced, in terms of making us confront the true nature of humanity and human perception / the human experience. Fills you with dread more than once.

Silent Hill on place 10 is so horribly wrong.

Perhaps others felt the same as me - I didn't want to populate my list entirely with Silent Hill games, so I only voted for one, and I picked the one which was the most elegant and powerful of them all - Silent Hill 2.

This might have contributed to Silent Hill 1 getting a bum deal - when it is definitely up there with the GOAT horror games.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
I'm gonna assume most simply didn't play SH1. While I think it's easily the scariest, I think SH3 is far more refined, so it easily remains my favorite.

As for Bloodborne, I haven't played it, but if it's anything like Demon's Souls... I'm sure it can get very unsettling.

Thanks for putting this together, cj_iwakura!

Why is Resident Evil 2 ranked so low, though? Based on the number of votes you mention it should be a few places higher.

Not surprised Silent Hill 2 won, of course. Pretty big lead, too.

It's either a typo or I messed up(either is possible), I'll double check it later.
 
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