What's it take to make a scary game nowadays?

Atmosphere (including excellent sound and goodgra*phicswith a shock factor. Fatal Frame II does the trick for me, although I haven't played it yet much. It reminds me of Japanese horror movies though.

and sound maybe?

Btw, many people don't know a game called Kuon (PS2) which is much scary than Fatal Frame series, have a look!

I don't know, tough thing to say. I think a game like Condemned did a good job of creating suspense and tension of tryingto survive because you had no guns to fight with but depended on melee attacks.

But I think scary isn't what games do, but I see more disturbing than scary.

and sound maybe?

sephiroth_y

Yeah, sound is pretty vital.

Sound

Atmosphere

Difficulty (try playng DOOM3 in the hardest diffculty)

The same elements that go into makeing almost every other game out there today,

High Price, Great Graphics, Lame Story, Old Overused Gameplay, Cliche Characters,5 different dificulty levels, 3 differentalthough uncanily similar endings, Bad level design is a must, If its based off a movie, which in turn isbased off a book (better yet a comic book) its guaranteed to be SCARY.

But if you want your horror game to be Truly scary, You have to add an Online component in which you have to show a valid Credit card number to Play, Exclusive online extras which you have to pay Extra for....like new Maps.....or "Better" weapons.

Atmosphere. It has to be scaring you out of your pants when nothing is happening. It has to have you on edge the whole time, with few breathers. If you're playing and nothing is happening, it makes it even scarier when something does happen.

For example, System Shock 2. I was creeped out just by walking around.