There’s a perverse pleasure in being scared shitless by a video game. As my mum used to say, there’s nothing like a Chainsaw-wielding zombie to make you feel alive. Here are six favourites sure to get a yelp out of the gamer who thinks they’ve seen it all.
RESIDENT EVIL 7: BIOHAZARD
Available on: PC, PS4, Xbox One
Arguably the scariest Resident Evil game yet, RE7 combines the creepy mansion atmosphere of the OG Resident Evil with a new focus on stealth. You’ll constantly be on the run from the blood-thirsty Baker family, owners of the creepy plantation mansion filled with a freakish new enemy called The Moulded.
Series wise, the big shift in RE7 is a new first-person perspective: every scare and monster feels a little closer to home, especially when you add in the PS4’s VR, which could be a game-changer for the tech being taken seriously.
ETERNAL DARKNESS: SANITY’S REQUIEM
Available on: GameCube
You might need to track down a Nintendo GameCube to play this revered 2003 classic. Despite how much the internet begs, Nintendo’s first and only foray into horror hasn’t been re-released or remade. And what an inventive foray it was, thanks to Ninty’s patented sanity meter which decreases each time your character spots an enemy – and with it, the reality and fourth wall of Eternal Darkness melts away.
Sure, blood oozing out of the walls and your character’s head falling off won’t scare the seasoned gamer. But what about entering a room filled with enemies and having your controller stop working, helplessly button mashing as you die? That’s how you make a gamer scream.
We won’t spoil anything else (though, if you want, you can watch a compilation of all the sanity effects above). Backed with a solid story to boot, Eternal Darkness is begging for a Switch sequel. For now, it’s worth breaking out your dusty Wii (since they play Gamecube games) for this one.
AMNESIA: THE DARK DESCENT
Available on: Steam, Playstation Network
Descending down the line of psychological terror, this 2010 PC game (recently re-released on the Playstation Network) really runs Eternal Darkness’s sanity meter concept to nightmarish ends. With no weapons in the game and a whole lot of angry and invisible monsters, Amnesia sees you play as Daniel, a 19th century British man with (surprise surprise) no memories who has left himself a note and mission: to explore a castle and kill its baron.
You’ll spend most of the game sneaking, running and losing sanity whenever Daniel’s in the darkness, which is often. These invisible monsters seem to smell fear, so the more insane Daniel is, the more you’ll have to flee.
It’s damn difficult too: I played it with my friends in turns, since it was a perfect marriage of terror and controller-throwing frustration. It’s not just me, either – reaction videos across YouTube prove people lose their shit while playing Amnesia:
DEAD SPACE
Available on: Playstation Network, Xbox Marketplace
Warning: while playing Dead Space, people can hear you scream. Consider it a melting pot of Resident Evil and Aliens, with a dash of 2001: A Space Odyssey’s creeping sense of dread.
The game is set on a spaceship where staff and passengers have fallen to a virus that transforms their corpses into Necromorphs, a horde of smart and strong enemies who constantly change tact. Dismemberment is the aim of the game, though the Necromorphs will keep charging ahead sans limbs: each and every enemy is a tension-filled challenge.
OUTLAST
Available on: Playstation Network, Xbox Marketplace
Insane asylums + evil monsters – weapons = Outlast, a PS4, Xbox One and PC game that features cannibals, dark corridors and more jump scares than you can handle. You play as Miles Upshur, an investigative journalist who gets more than a Walkley-winning scoop when he heads to an asylum rumoured to be running inhumane experiments on patients. And whoa, weren’t those those rumours were true.
You’ll spend most of Outlast trying to conserve batteries for your camcorder, since it’s your only source of light in those dark, dark corridors. Turn it on, and you’ll spot some creepy and violent AF patients – and they’ll spot you too. Not for the gore-adverse, this one. The sequel’s worth its weight, too.
SILENT HILL II
Available on: Playstation Network, Xbox Marketplace
Ignore the sub-par Silent Hill movie: this survival horror series is a masterstroke of suspense, psychological horror and fog. So much fog. The second in the series is generally regarded as the best: you play as James, who arrives in Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his long dead wife. Like Peach’s letter in Super Mario 64, it’s a trap – but one manifested by James’s own subconscious.
You’ll meet sad characters and a woman who looks suspiciously like James’s wife, as well as Pyramid Head, a character who terrifies me to this day. As eerie as Twin Peaks’ Black Lodge, Silent Hill haunts long after you finish the game – especially if you land the ending where the whole town is run by dogs in a control room.
PROJECT ZERO II: CRIMSON BUTTERFLY
Available on: PS2, Xbox, Wii
Okay, I’m calling it. Project Zero (also known as Fatal Frame in the US) is the scariest video game series out.
Big in Japan yet never quite cracking mainstream audiences elsewhere, the Fatal Frame series follows a simple formula: Japanese girls explore haunted locations, fighting off ghosts by capturing their souls on camera. It’s like Pokémon Snap, but with suicide forests and vicious ghosts.
There’s seven games in the series, but if you’re just going to play one, make it Crimson Butterfly. Creator Makoto Shibata had found a lot of gamers were too scared to finish the first game, so he wanted to develop a gripping story for the sequel: the result is the dark and twisted journey of twins Mio and Mayu through a fictional haunted Japanese village, and oh my, do bad things happen.
Unfortunately, it’s not readily available – you’ll need to hunt down the PS2/Xbox game or the re-make for Wii.
There you have it. Six games sure to give you a fright. If I excluded your fave, don’t @ me.
Image: Capcom/Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
