Hahahahahahaha… oh hello, I didn’t see you come in. Gather ’round the fire my little beasties, because this week’s discussion is all about that most frightful time of the year – Halloween!
And what better way to celebrate the day when the spirits come out to play than with a good old-fashioned scare? Ahahahahaha… *cough*cough*… s’cuse me.
Ahem. Where was I? Oh yeah – with Halloween right around the corner, we thought it might be high time here at Digitally Downloaded to take a look back into all of our collective unconscious to see what really scares us. More specifically, what games really scare us (we are a gaming site after all)?
Gaming has a rich history of gory beasts and slavering hordes of hellions out to grab you by the throat, and chances are one or two of ’em have spooked you before. Maybe they got in your head. Maybe they got in your head so badly that you had to turn off your console and hide under the covers for a while. Yes?
Well light the jack-o’-lantern dear readers and do tell: what’s your favourite horror title? What’s that one game that used to keep you up at night (maybe it still does)? You know the one – the game that you can’t even bring yourself to play all the way through.
Yes, that’s the game we want to know about on this Hallow’s Eve.
I would probably go with Eternal Darkness, though I haven't played a WHOLE lot of horror type games over the years. Eternal Darkness though did a lot of stuff right I thought, and hopefully gets either an HD update, or a totally new game for the franchise altogether.
I love a good horror game (even though I'm not that into horror movies), and the Resident Evil games are favorites of mine.
The first few titles in the line had some absolutely chilling moments. I remember being spooked by the zombie that you first run across. Sure it looks lousy now, but when that rotter slowly turned his head and looked up from his victim… yeesh.
Dead Space comes to mind as well (I've only played the first though), (even though it's more gross out) Splatterhouse too (the old ones on the Turbo), and the original FEAR actually made me pretty twitchy now that I think about it.
Oh that's a good one! ED had that Lovecraftian vibe with the whole madness meter and all. Great game, definitely needs a sequel/remake.
Dead Space is the pinnacle of horror/action games in my opinion. I absolutely love the series, which includes Extraction.
But, Costume Quest is now a ritual to play through each holiday season for me too. At Christmas, there's A Christmas Story ("you're going to shoot your eye out" Haha) and at Hallow's Eve, it's time to adorn my blue robot costume and kick some goblin butt with a candy bag in hand.
Horror games are like horror films for me.
I absolutely love them, but afterwards I hate myself for making myself watch/play them.
At the moment I have two that I'm working through. Alan Wake (although it isn't that scary) and Dead Space (which is horrifying).
All the lights off, music pumping. It's a great immersion that really makes me sweat.
I will probably try to get as far as I can in Dead Space on the 31st, especially seeing as how the worst exam will be done for me the day before!
Have you played the iOS game? Not bad at all, not on par with the console games, but pretty great for what it is and it's just further proof that a 'traditional' action game can work great on a touch screen.
I'm grabbing it when I get my Mini next Friday. My 3GS doesn't like the overly graphical games too well and I rarely get to use the iPad, as my wife it literally glued to it at all times, so yeah, I'll be playing it very shortly. Haha
The music of Eternal Darknessn is still one of my favourite music soundtracks ever! So moody.
The greatest horror game of all time IMO is Project Zero/ Fatal Frame 2. It's dark and intensive, but like all good Japanese horror, it's also a sad story. By relying on more than jump scares, project Zero 2 is a far more relatable game.
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