Recommended Horror Games


Asatiir

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Starting the genre thread list threads, I thought I'd include among the genres I was most interested in, horror games.

Waxworks (1992, DOS, Amiga):

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I saw pics of this on an Amiga magazine as a kid, a system I never owned back then. I was thrilled when I saw it on gog.com as I completely forgot about it. Waxworks is special because it's a mix of a few different genres in one game, it's a dungeon crawling RPG with point click adventure style puzzles. You inherit your uncle's haunted wax museum to uncover the story of a curse casted upon your family. the game is divided into different levels where you travel through different time periods and different fictional worlds including ancient Egypt, Jack the Ripper Victorian England among a few others.

The game requires keeping track of the map using pen and grid paper since there's no in-game ways of tracking yourself on the map.

Corpse Party series (Varied years, multiple platforms):

corpse_party_run.jpg


Now here's a series I saw come out of nowhere, its most modern renditions have been released on the PSP as digital download only games with a PC and a Vita game in the works. The original was built for a competition on a very early build of RPG Maker on the PC-98 in Japan and eventually gained popularity as an anime, manga and game franchise. the first PSP game's story is as follows, a bunch of school kids perform a paper charm ritual that ends up transporting them to a haunted elementary school located on a different plane of existence and getting lost there. The kids try to escape but a series of unfortunate events and vengeful spirits get in their way. The game may not look like it, but this is among the most morbid and gruesome games I've played in a while, figuring out what happened to all the dead children that got trapped in that school prior the events of the game and make it back in one piece. You will be given choices during the game that will unlock different consequences and only one "right" ending the will lead you to the next chapter.

The second vita game is a visual novel based on "what if" scenarios that continue the "wrong" endings in the previous game.

The original game was rebuilt by fans on RPG maker to work on Windows machines and is available for free here, the more modern games include a lot of changes but the original is nice to look at from a "where they came from" point of reference.

Uninvited (1986 Mac. 1987 DOS, 1989 Famicom, 1991 NES, 1993 Windows):

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A part of the popular Macventure series that includes Shadowgate and the Deja Vu games, from the four games, Uninvited was the only one that is remotely horror themed. The game probably hasn't aged that well, but I found it quite entertaining. Your sibling (sister in the console versions and a brother in the computer versions) is missing in an abandoned house and you're to find them solving puzzles and casting magic throughout the game. Like Waxworks and Corpse Party, it's interesting to see the many possible ways for you to die in this game, and among the mentioned three does have some pretty funny bits here and there.

Post your recommendations!  :)
 
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I'm not a big fan of Horror, be it in games, movies or even books. 

Yet, I've found Pathologic to be... some kind of masterpiece.

Pathologic is a kind of FPS/Adventure/Survival hybrid. You play a character in a city where a strange disease starts making a lot of victims. You investigate it, with the help of some of the city officials, even if they are mostly using you to serve their selfish purposes and keep lying to you. You need to keep you safe from the disease, while going in the places where it's the most violent in order to investigate, having to cure people to get their support, while keeping enough medication (and food and water and hours of sleep) to yourself in order to stay alive. (Managing resources is one of the core concepts of the game, and one of the reasons why it's so difficult).

It's badly translated from Russian, it often feels clumsy and it's very hard and unforgiving. In many aspects, it's flawed.

But the atmosphere is great. It knows how to play with your mind and you expectations, how to unravel the story. Even when it does one jump scare, it does it correctly (and I normally absolutely hate these).

It's not for everyone and I don't think I'd like to ever replay it, but I have to recommend it anyway.
 
I'm not a big fan of Horror, be it in games, movies or even books. 

Yet, I've found Pathologic to be... some kind of masterpiece.

Pathologic is a kind of FPS/Adventure/Survival hybrid. You play a character in a city where a strange disease starts making a lot of victims. You investigate it, with the help of some of the city officials, even if they are mostly using you to serve their selfish purposes and keep lying to you. You need to keep you safe from the disease, while going in the places where it's the most violent in order to investigate, having to cure people to get their support, while keeping enough medication (and food and water and hours of sleep) to yourself in order to stay alive. (Managing resources is one of the core concepts of the game, and one of the reasons why it's so difficult).

It's badly translated from Russian, it often feels clumsy and it's very hard and unforgiving. In many aspects, it's flawed.

But the atmosphere is great. It knows how to play with your mind and you expectations, how to unravel the story. Even when it does one jump scare, it does it correctly (and I normally absolutely hate these).

It's not for everyone and I don't think I'd like to ever replay it, but I have to recommend it anyway.
It's on my backlog of games to play, friends at Squadron of Shame recorded an episode about it on their podcast
 
Martian Gothic: Unification [PC & PSX]

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In Martian Gothic, the player is able to assume the roles of three characters sent from Earth to a Martian base called Vita 1 to examine why it has been silent for 10 months, after a base member broadcasts a final message of "Stay alone, stay alive." Upon arrival the player finds that all the residents are apparently dead and must gradually uncover the secrets and nature the last undertaking by Vita 1's crew; the discovery of ancient Martian "Pandora's Box" which, when opened, started a chain of chaotic events that led to the base's downfall, and death of almost all of its inhabitants. However, during the player's progress of uncovering the truth, searching for any possible survivors, and solving Vita 1's many mounting problems, the player finds that the dead crew have become re-animated like zombies who wish to feast upon the team of three's flesh.

The Vita 1 base was constructed in 2009 by the Allenby Corporation, implied to be Earth's most powerful megacorporation, to research potential alien life from microfossils on Mars, after discovering in 1996 that a Martian meteorite found in 1984 contains ancient bacteria which had crashed in Antarctica in 11,000 BC. Vita 1 is situated very close to Olympus Mons which can be partially visited by the player upon access to the underground "Necropolis" zone - the human-excavated ruins of an old Martian city - of Vita 1.

BTW:

You can pick up some of my fav horror games from my old thread:

http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/6697-games-you-think-sliped-under-the-radar-resurrection-thread/
 
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Hey Corpse party. Fun game, nice to see it mentioned here!

If you mention horror games, the first Silent Hill should not be missed as well. I remember being so sick scared in some parts of the game (playing alone at night) that I had to stop playing it several times. 

I really liked Call of Cthulhu as well on Xbox (and PC?) about 10 years ago, it was well made and some parts were very scary. 
 
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Clive Barker's Undying is still worth playing in my opinion.. the Unreal engine is showing it's age a bit now, but there's plenty of atmosphere, the story is pretty good & there's quite a few scares to be had

https://www.youtube.com/embed/aRVNyy_OFpw?feature=oembed

Love to see a mod that brings it up to speed with modern systems & a REAL! sequel (not the crappy 2econd Coming for the PS2)
 
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the white chamber is a sci-fi horror point and click adventure game.
I knew I forgot something.

The White Chamber is a masterpiece (and freeware!).

Very creepy most of the time.

Undying was great too and can be played in widescreen with a simple trick like all the other UT-engine games.

I like the idea of the astral stone and roaming around seeing some ugly "truths" in the paintings

and the both handed weapon style with hardware weapons and upgradable spells. ^^
 
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Thief: The Dark Project - this legendary title is mainly known for it`s groundbreaking stealth mechanics (also unmatched audio, atmosphere, mature plot and so on - and one of the best games ever for this poster) - but what people rarely mention is how utterly terrifying it can be. Play it late, in a dark room with headphones on...and I`ll owe you a beer if you don`t jump in your seat at least once on some levels. Especially that one with the "trees" creeping up on you when your back is turned...

Also:

Anchorhead - excellent text adventure based on some of the best Lovecraft`s stories - it works, and most importantly it`s proper scary, none of this new post-ironic, Cthulhu-as-a-mascot BS ;)

Dark Seed - great DOS point`n click classic with H.R Giger`s art - no introduction`s needed.

Alien - the 8 bit version, not very well known, but quite excellent. It`s more of a strategy/survival game with some very tense moments.

Few obvious ones: System Shock 2, Alone In The Dark, Eternal Darkness

I will also say Resident Evil (Gamecube remake) - though perhaps bit off-topic, because I don`t find it really that scary - more kind of...melancholic, and incredibly beautiful GFX wise. Damn, I want to play it now ;)
 
Call of cthulhu dark corners of the earth


System shock 2


Great atmosphere in both of them
 
I bought that weekly sale just now, and already had three of the games, so they are going free to a good home. Let me know if you'd like one or more of them:

http://sam.nipl.net/free-games.html#horror

- The 7th Guest
- System Shock 2
- I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

There are some other free games there too, remove the "horror" filter to see them.
 
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