If there’s one thing we all have in common, it’s that we’re scared of something. If you’re saying right now, “I ain’t scared of anything,” well, come on, you know there’s that something that makes your spine shiver. For me, it’s death and suffocating spaces. Oh, and Michael Myers, too. Fortunately, there aren’t any games based on Halloween out there for me to play (although the famed slasher is a playable killer in the excellent asymmetrical multiplayer horror, Dead by Daylight).
However, there’s plenty of games where you die. You can die in most games, though, but the ones that really emphasize those deaths are the ones that leave me shaking in my boots. Add a touch of claustrophobia to the formula and you’ve created my nightmare. My all-time favorite horror game is something some might not necessarily consider a game in that genre, but it spooks me nonetheless: BioShock.
For starters, I’m claustrophobic and Rapture is perhaps the most claustrophobic in-game city ever made (you know, the whole completely underwater thing is quite suffocating). Then there’s the submechanophobia, which is the fear of mechanical objects underwater. I blame Disney World for this one – something about an animatronic moving underwater just freaks me out. Oh, and the Splicers are terrifying, too, of course. BioShock doesn’t scare me too much these days as I’ve played it probably near a dozen times, but if you haven’t yet played it, go in blind and enjoy.
There are others that really get under my skin, too. The recent Resident Evil 2 Remake does the trick. Stuck in a terrifyingly hostile place? Check. Zombies that want to eat you? Check. Jump scares galore? Check. Extremely graphic deaths? Check. Large menace that stalks you constantly? Check. There’s this year’s Resident Evil Village, as well. I won’t spoil it here, but the House Beneviento segment in it is downright disturbing. Then there’s Outlast 2, which is perhaps the most disturbing and terrifying game I’ve ever played. I don’t go to church, but I felt like I needed to after finishing it.
Some other horror highlights in my history include P.T., Resident Evil 7, Little Nightmares, Friday the 13th, the hospital in The Last of Us Part 2, and Condemned: Criminal Origins (a game I played way too young).
What about you? What’s your favorite horror game? Are there any games you’re too scared to play? What are your favorite horror moments in otherwise non-horror games? Let us know in the comments below!
