CavemanWhat are your favorite horror/spooky games?
Signalis.
It’s probably a combo of it being an eyesight issue and games sucking at making it clear, but I always had depth of perception issues in video games. In OG Resident Evil games (1-3) in particular, I always had a problem gauging the distance between my character and zombies, which made it difficult to enjoy knife play.
Signalis completely fixed this for me by switching to a kind of top down perspective. It also has a really good story and I don’t even care or look for stories in video games, but I replayed this one to see the multiple endings.
cloudlessParasite Eve (PS1). Great atmosphere, music and a hybrid turn-based gameplay that I enjoyed.
Resident Evil 4 (PS2/Gamecube/Wii). It is not very scary but my favourite because of the fun gameplay.
AusterDreaming Sarah pulls in the bizarre and the uncanny. Parasite Eve is survival horror if limited resources while facing off things with horror themes is your thing. Mary Skelter trilogy may have a few clashing genres, but on the horror side, well, exploring uncanny mazes while being chased by pretty much immortal guards strikes your fancy?
Can't remember many else rn
Oh, right, though not directly horror-oriented, metroidvanias often borrow from horror elements, like the grotesque from Blasphemous, the gothic horror style from Castlevania/Bloodstained, the melancholic decay/abandonment of Hollow Knight, the physical corruption of Minoria, etc.
So maybe worth checking, or strats too far from the desired?
Agent KaryoI don’t really find typical horror games all that spooky/scary. They can have good atmosphere and mystical motifs, but at the end of the day a lot of the jump scares or mechanics like hiding in lockers can feel too abstract (and fundamentally gamey).
That being said there are some games that still manage to create a sense of unease and discomfort.
Soma - The underwater setting and the overall story arc with existentialist themes does strike a nerve. It’s not the monsters in the game that are the scary part.
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream - A point and click take on a rather uncomfortable horror/sci-fi short story. The point and and click element bring the story too. It helps that the author was involved in the game version.
Iron Lung - A pretty simple game that’s not all that scary. But the surreal apocalyptic setting (even with the rather minimal lore) is rather sinister.
Mouthwashing - A fun spaceship stuck in space horror/sci-fi setting with some psychedelic elements. I wish a bigger emphasis was put on inter-character dynamics and tensions that we saw early in the story of the game.