Fear and the Top 5 Games that Induce It

Scary games.  You know you have at least played one, and they are hella fun.  Nothing’s like hearing your radio scream in Silent Hill, being jumped by a zombie in Resident Evil, or flipping up your camera to find a ghost right there in Fatal Frame.  Games like this make the long, sleepless nights spent after playing them totally worth it.

5. Bioshock

 There’s nothing quite like heading on your merry way, then hearing the cackling of a splicer as he taunts you.  This in addition to the eerie Great-American-Songbook-esque setting and music creates the illusion of normality covered with insanity.  The splicers are never quite in the same spot two times through, so each and every playthrough will yield a new, different, and scary experience.

 

4. Resident Evil 4

 Resident Evil 4 isn’t scary for the first four hours or so.  For about four to five hours, it’s just another third person shooter combined with an escort quest.  However, as you get through the village area and enter the castle and military base areas, the utter claustrophobia and knowledge that an enemy could pop out from behind any corner really begin to combine to create a tension that never really lifts.  Even the boss battles create an atmosphere that includes pervasive fear.

 

3. Silent Hill 3

 Silent Hill 3 is the combination of everything Konami had learned to that point about what scares people.  Crackling radio?  Check.  Blood-stained, grungy, dark environments?  Double check.  Disgusting, elusive, scary enemies?  Check, check, check.  The fear behind Silent Hill three comes not only from the claustrophobia that the previous pair of Silent Hill games perfected, it also includes something that the previous two Silent Hills attempted, but ultimately failed at: personality.  The characters from the first two games were about as interesting as a cereal box.  Silent Hill 3’s characters all have interesting personalities, and the environments really feel like dilapidated, down-trodden real world environments with a perverse twist.

 

2. Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly

 The Fatal Frame series has always penned itself on its environmental fears stemming from the fact that you can only damage the enemies using the special Camera Obscura.  Ghosts are plentiful, and film can be a little on the short side.  Enough simply cannot be said for the creepy environments, fear induced by sometimes-invisible enemies who can sneak up on you at any moment, and the sheer vulnerability felt by being almost entirely defenseless against an onslaught of less-than amicable ghosts.

 

1. Silent Hill 2

 While there is something to be said for Silent Hill 3’s relatability, Silent Hill 2 is simply more disturbing on every level of human fear.  The characters, while less interesting, are a dozen-fold more disturbing than any cast of any other game on the market.  The environments, while less believable, are more gruesome, dark and literally emanate fear and hopelessness.  The coup de grace, however is the section where you are literally followed around a maze by Pyramid Head, the game’s giant butcher knife wielding fear machines.  There’s nothing like running along, only to hear the scratching of that ever-ominous knife along the ground, then running into a wall and realizing you are at a dead end.

 

So there you have it.  The games that define interactive fear.  Some may be controversial, others industry standard.  Tell me what you think, what games should have made the list and what games on the list you played through in the dark with the sound up without batting an eyelash; heck, even give your own list.