Good horror games?

[Neodanthril]

Scorn is narratively spooky. As far as gameplay it has shoehorned in combat and would honestly be better as a walking simulator with the occasional puzzle dissolve than what was delivered.

 

[msd]

darkwood
detention
barotrauma
Amnesia the bunker
Alone in the dark (the remaster, or the OG your choice, avoid the 2008 release)
Conrad stevensons paranormal PI
Duskers
signal simulator
Condemned


Thats just off the top of my head, but its all about what you like personally, I know fatal frame has some pretty good games. If you can handle weeb shit and their folklore.

 

[skykiii]

Alone in the dark (the remaster, or the OG your choice, avoid the 2008 release)

There's a remaster? I know recently there was a new game just called "Alone in the Dark" but that's more in line with..... I almost said "remake" but honestly its more like a new game pretending to be a remake as outside of some character and place names it has absolutely nothing to do with the 1993 original.

I know fatal frame has some pretty good games. If you can handle weeb shit and their folklore.

I actually mentioned Fatal Frame earlier. I loved the first two on the PS2 but it disappointed me that every game in the series is connected to the same plot conceit of "Everything is happening because someone fucked up a ritual a few decades ago and now you gotta fix it." I would love a game with a similar vibe and a similar "fight ghosts with a camera" mechanic, just.... have a different plot.

A similar thing ruined the Echo Night games for me. There's really no good reason every game in the series has to revolve around a fucking ruby that makes people kill each other out of greed.

Just saying, look at Goosebumps: not every book in the series revolves around haunted dummies or theme parks run by monsters.

 

[Jerri's Kid]

I actually mentioned Fatal Frame earlier. I loved the first two on the PS2 but it disappointed me that every game in the series is connected to the same plot conceit of "Everything is happening because someone fucked up a ritual a few decades ago and now you gotta fix it." I would love a game with a similar vibe and a similar "fight ghosts with a camera" mechanic, just.... have a different plot.

This is what bothered me about Fatal Frame 2. Sure, it played and looked a lot better than the first game but it used the same idea but toned down. I haven't played any other Fatal Frame games since then so if they're still doing that I have less incentive to try them now.

 

[skykiii]

This is what bothered me about Fatal Frame 2. Sure, it played and looked a lot better than the first game but it used the same idea but toned down. I haven't played any other Fatal Frame games since then so if they're still doing that I have less incentive to try them now.

I might at the very least try Fatal Frame 3, but having watched Nitro Rad's reviews the fourth and fifth game make some gameplay changes that don't sound that good to me.

There's also a spinoff on the Nintendo DS called Spirit Camera: the Cursed Memoir. This one seems more like a gimmick than anything though (and yes it still is effectively about a ritual gone wrong.. .although in this case its more like a sort of urban legend. )

Seems like this is a common issue in horror series. Sometimes its justified--it would be kinda lame for a series called "Biohazard" to not actually involve biohazards after all--but Echo Night or Fatal Frame (aka Project Zero) don't have that excuse--the only thing that's actually required to be a Fatal Frame game is "you kill things by taking pictures."

I'm tempted to test out Dreadout, which I've heard is like Fatal Frame but different in a lot of ways.

 

[The Fair Lady]

I might at the very least try Fatal Frame 3, but having watched Nitro Rad's reviews the fourth and fifth game make some gameplay changes that don't sound that good to me.

There's also a spinoff on the Nintendo DS called Spirit Camera: the Cursed Memoir. This one seems more like a gimmick than anything though (and yes it still is effectively about a ritual gone wrong.. .although in this case its more like a sort of urban legend. )

3's story is good but it unfortunately has an extremely annoying gimmick that pops up in the latter half of the game.

I also played Spirit Camera but was never able to finish it because the final "boss" was frankly horribly designed.

 

[skykiii]

So earlier I was looking at GOG and I was wondering if Kiwi's had any opinions on the following games?

Maid of Sker?

either of the Barrow Hill games? (I know the first was made by the same guy who did Dark Fall, which I never got far in but it looked like something I'd like)

The Inheritance of Crimson Manor?

any of the Dread X Collections?

We Are Not Alone? (was annoying to search up because there's apparently a Roblox game with the same title. Again I'm asking about the one that has a GOG listing).

..... Also, let's expand the topic a bit: Horror Lets Players. I said before I'd like to find one that isn't a wuss. I usually watch either Markiplier or Krinx TV, but sometimes Mark's attempts at humor are grating. Krinx TV sometimes falls into "OMG that was so scary!" territory and I reflexively remember that one Retsupurae video that made fun of that kind of thing. Ironically she's good in other ways--like how she'll make fun of how so many horror games are blatant asset flips--though that just makes it more likely she's playing up the scares.

 

[Wesker]

I might at the very least try Fatal Frame 3

That was my favorite of the series. But that whole trilogy is fantastic.

 

[Meat Target]

I'm getting back into Fear and Hunger 1. A real treat if you're a fan of Berserk or Silent Hill.

 

[strumpets exeunt]

I'm getting back into Fear and Hunger 1. A real treat if you're a fan of Berserk or Silent Hill.

I love everything about Fear & Hunger except the actually having to play it part.

 

[Lurkerish Kandor]

Someone else said Parasite Eve, I second that suggestion - I've mentioned how much I like PE2 several times on the Farms and that I'm considering going deep on PE2 as a halloween video this year, but PE1 is much more the game that leans into traditional horror: Several FMVs showing mutation sequences, the Protagonist not knowing what's going on yet, and some of the enemy designs are bizarre. PE1 feels way more like a JRPG in terms of mechanics, enemies, and writing - but I largely recommend both games, even if I prefer 2. PE2 doesn't have a reanimated triceratops skeleton exhibit shooting lasers at you, after all.

I also highly recommend the GZDOOM mod ALIEN: ERADICATION. It's a class-based but single player game, with the classes changing playstyle, level geometry, objectives, story, scripting, level triggers, and some other things. It's a nifty way to reuse content but still keep it fresh, and it can be genuinely nerve-wracking to play: especially when the string instruments crank up because a huge wave is coming.

The first Hellblade game, Senua's Sacrifice, is pretty okay. The combat is very simple and not very difficult, so the recommend is all about the atmosphere, the fourth-wall breaks, and the mental illness. It's more sad than scary, but I think that makes it fit into the I Have No Mouth kind of horror.

Northern Journey, the famous happy-sad game, is now a halloween classic for me. It's got a lot of action and some non-freaky bits, but MUCH of the game is spent underground in claustrophobic spaces and even non-hostile entities are discomfortingly uncanny. It's one of the only two games I've stopped playing from being too freaked out, because being trapped underwater in the veins of the earth with undead spiders and running out of ammo was too many phobias coming together at once.

I also second Darkwood as a suggestion. I know OP doesn't want random gen, but the world's randomness is the thing that made it the only OTHER game than Northern Journey to freak me out. The biggest reason I don't find games or movies scary is because they're so predictable and inorganic, but Darkwood's randomized elements mean the entire game is not a foregone conclusion, so I can actually be taken by surprise by surface-patrolling monsters, I don't know for sure what I'll deal with on a given night, and I can actually feel tension trying to find locations before my supplies or daylight run out.

I also have one other heavy recommendation that comes with a caveat:
ADACA is a very interesting mashup of Half Life 2 and STALKER. The "free-roam" mode is, no bullshit, one of the most interesting horror experiences I've ever played. The A-Life encounters and Anomalies are bizarre and intriguing, and very often unlike anything I've dealt with in other horror games. It really properly gave me feelings of dealing with unknown, unpredictable supernatural shit. I spent a huge amount of the first two playthroughs of that mode just confused and tense because I wasn't sure what kinda of phenomenae I was interacting with and what would happen. I am legit really fucking angry my media drive died a few months ago and I lost all the footage I had for an ADACA machinima I was making, because some of the random events that happen in that game are surreal and fantastic, and I can never guarantee I'll get to see some of those events again.
So what's the caveat?
The game is made by a scalie Twitter weirdo called Siris Pendrake (whose profile pic has some gender flag background, probably NB), and the player character in single player is explicitly Non-Binary. The game only brings it up once, and only in the main story, but it's there.
I am curious about the upcoming sequel, because it sounds like it's going to basically be more of ADACA's god-tier free roam sandbox mode, but I'm waiting to see how pozzed it is before I get too hype or recommend it to people.

EDIT: Also, bonus recommend for DEATHWISH for BLOOD, probably the most famous BLOOD total conversion.
BLOOD is almost the defacto halloween boomer shooter, and Deathwish is fucking amazing even by my jaded boomer shooter modding standards. It's eventually going to get a huge update that reworks almost all the levels and adds an expansion Episode, but I've been waiting for that update to come out for like 5 years now. The update may also remove one of the coolest things about Deathwish, which is that all the secret levels diagetically split off and join back up with the campaign with little transitional levels that add some ludokino.

 

[Achtung Bitter]

Fatal Frame was a very good one, but by the time you beat Ff2 you basically get sick of its gameplay. It’s one of those peculiar titles best left without sequels.

 

[Peppino]

I've been enjoying Look Outside so far. Great enemy and NPC designs, solid music, and a well-paced story that's unsettling from the get-go.

 

[Quijibo69]

Luto is good if you ever wonder "What if The Stanley Parable was just a pure horror game".

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole 2]

I've been enjoying Look Outside so far. Great enemy and NPC designs, solid music, and a well-paced story that's unsettling from the get-go.

I bought that a couple of months ago but I haven't gotten very far. It seems promising.

 

[skykiii]

I only watched a minute or so of this video, then saw the game wasn't that expensive and went ahead and bought it.

Will update with a review once I complete it.

 

[skykiii]

Was going to edit my previous post but the option is not there.

So I said I would review Marrow once I finish it, so consider my current posting more like a first impressions. I'm about 3-5 hours in, or what the above video shows at its 15:32 mark.

So far, my feelings are... very mixed.

And to be honest, a lot of the Steam reviews echo my general thoughts: "its a game I want to like, but..."

Sadly it's also an example of a game that does not have any fan-made mods or patches which could improve things (so much for the old adage that "PC games are better because you can mod them!")

If there's any programmers here, here's a few mods that would make Marrow instantly better:

1. Visibility improvement. Running around in the dark is just not fun. Visibility in general is one of my double-edged swords with this game--you can sort of mitigate it by playing in a dark room, but that causes me to get a headache, especially when I get to one of those parts where you have to play as the frog thing, which causes a special filter to show up on screen.

2. There's these ghost enemies who, all they do is run across the screen, almost too fast to react to. Remove these guys and any area that featured them is instantly better.

3. Remove the floating eyeball things that track you during the parts where you have to play as that frog thing.

4. Add a pause button.

5. Certain kinds of progress should stick once you've gotten them. I'm fine with having to recollect health upgrades (since they also act as one time health refills) but there was one point where I hit a switch, then ran back to save... only to find that actually, that undid a lot of my progress and I had to hit that switch (which, getting to it was an entire process) all over again.

6. While I'm sure the designer thinks there's some good artistic reason for this... making viewing the life meter a thing you can only do a limited amount of times really is just fucking stupid.

Probably could add more.

Marrow is a game where I keep asking myself "do I want to continue or would I be better off just watching a video, like the one I linked to earlier?" I don't want to be a quitter, but at the same time that mentality can be just masochism.

 

[Suburban Bastard]

Both of the original two dead spaces are in my opinion a perfect horror game. Just a perfect blend of action and horror, a morbidly creative type of life form, you aren’t helpless but don’t ever feel invincible either.

The original SCP containment breach back in the day was a really good horror game, assuming you can find a way to play it without it loading like shit. Probably one of the few horror games where learning about the spawn and behavior mechanics made it fucking scarier. You technically are never truly safe.

Both Forest games are great, I advise you learn to man up and keep it on the original darkness settings.

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

I love everything about Fear & Hunger except the actually having to play it part.

Basically how I go about the genres I've yet to touch; horror, racing, fighting, jrpgs. "I'm ready to befriend and broheim a bunch of jrpgs niggas-in-a-line!", and then I play it and it sucks dick.

The 'puzzle shooter' style of dead space and resident evil, needing to aim your shots, is fucking great. I'd love to see it in non-horrors.

 

[skykiii]

Basically how I go about the genres I've yet to touch; horror, racing, fighting, jrpgs. "I'm ready to befriend and broheim a bunch of jrpgs niggas-in-a-line!", and then I play it and it sucks dick.

Wait wait wait..... I understand JRPGs can be a matter of taste but are you also implying racing and fighting games always suck too?