Happy Halloween, SW. Now what's the best horror game of all time?

My vote is between P.T. and Bloodborne. P.T. is definitely more on the scary side, but Bloodborne has such a great atmosphere that that alone makes it horrific. As far as scare the crap out of you situations go, I also think Alien Isolation is also a great candidate. And then there's campy type horror, which belongs to Resident Evil lol. I also want to give a special shout out to the Dead Space games, particularly 1 & 2.

How about you, SW? What's the best horror game of all time?

For me... Resident Evil Remake. Glad it finally released on Playstation this gen as Nintendo had it exclusive for 12-14 years.

Happy Halloween SW.

Not doing shit on Halloween this year, I'll be staying at home and play games. Best horror game? It's still Dead Space to me but Resident Evil 7 takes the cake for me.

Best horror game for me is a toss up between Resident Evil Remake, Resident Evil 2 Remake, and Resident Evil 4.

Honourable mentions to The Evil Within 1 and 2.

I used to think horror games were horror... Until I got a VR setup, nope trust me everything you post here unless its a VR game is pure garbage in the horror department to even a average scoring horror VR game.

Sure they may be better games but for pure horror... VR, you will literally be too scared to turn around.

Alien Isolation

The OG RE

Gonna steal some candy from my kids tonight!

F.E.A.R.

Dead Space for me.

You do know that PSVR started it all with Resident Evil 7 VR? Formerly called Kitchen.😉

Fear was great the atmosphere was unlike any shooter I've played. Dead Space 2 also deserves a mention.

P.T.

BTW Bloodborne is a great candidate too! Its not neccessarily a horror game but the cosmic horrors of Bloodborne is just so damn good. Also playing BB during Halloween week been a tradition for me lol.

The first Amnesia and its predecessor Penumbra Black Plague scared me more than any other games when they came out.

The best horror game that has great gameplay is Dead Space

Horror you say? Of all time i would go with PT. This year the award goes to Halo Infinite 😭

As a pure horror game of modern times i'd say Walking Dead: Saints And Sinners.

The gameplay itself isn't perfect, it's quite unbalanced, bias towards certain weapons.

The way the game operates, where each level is on timer before a bell-tolls, with over the period of daus less resources and more enemies adds a senses of urgency and superintending doom generally just don't get in games. It's genuinely unnerving when the bell goes off and panic sets in.

Combat is very much like System Shock were deliberately (not the VR) clunky combat to remove power from the player rather than having them be some Dead Space asshole turning into a powerhouse rapidly, removing any sense of tangible threat. Encounters are engaging rather than passive.

But as I say, still a flawed game. Especially when Alyx came along and showed how gun combat was done.

Thought the condemned series on 360 deserves a shout surprised nobody has mentioned.

Resident Evil 7 is probably the best overall horror game of all time.

The most scared ive ever been playing a game is the original Slender Man - the 8 pages. No game gets my heart pacing like that.. as cheesy as it is.

silent hill

nostalgia and all that jazz

REmake and Silent Hill 2.

Condemned, criminal origins and it's not particularly close.

Penumbra or Amnesia. Penumbra was a terrifying experience that kept me on the edge of my seat the entire game.

Either Fatal Frame II or Eternal Darkness.

REmake is also great.

I am spending the day playing Alien Isolation. It is decent on the games side (most horror games typically aren't so that's a plus). Visually it looks really good, and the devs have made maybe the best use of the Alien(s) license to date. It stands out to me as I am a big fan of the license and Creative Assembly did great fan service. More impressive is they are a studio that to my knowledge really only does RTS games, so this just seemed so far outside their comfort zone, and they still did a better job than most other studios could have done.

I might throw in some more Dead Space 3 later. Sure it definitely doesn't live up to other two but I still have fun with it. Plus I played other two games not too long back so I am due to give this one a replay.

Also, I have had Dead Rising trilogy in my collection for while and still need to break ground. Thought about firing up the first.

For recent horror games, it would be Resident Evil 2 Remake and Resident Evil 7.

Happy Halloween all! Hmm, well there's already been some good suggestions. I love Alien Isolation and Eternal Darkness. If you're looking for something a little more light hearted then Luigi's Mansion trilogy is great too. :D

Resident Evil 7 and Alien Isolation in VR. I think it's the first time I have ever been truly scared to walk around corners and need to build up courage just to progress. Horror games are also one of my favourite genre so I'm not easily scared either. Played all the classics from amnesia, dead space, silent hills ,fatal frames etc but VR is true horror with the right games. I can't imagine how terrifying horror games will be in the future for VR as the fidelity gets even better. Roll on Resi 8 VR and fingers crossed for a new Silent Hill VR.

Agreed saints and sinners had some incredible atmosphere, I would actually say it's the best take on the zombie survival genre that we've had. The feeling of pulling a screwdriver out of a zombies head with 1:1 controls is great, it actually tricks your brain into thinking there is resistance there.

For me its Penumbra Black Plague, reason I bought a PC back in around 2013 ish was seeing games like Amenisa, Oulast, and Penumbra games. At the time couldn't get horror experience on consoles like that.

I know many will disagree, but Doom 3 scared the crap out of me.

Alien: Isolation was pretty scary, too.

SOMA as well.

SH1. Nothing beats nostalgia.

Everyone knows it's Friday the 13th on the NES. Purple Jason for the win.

Happy Halloween and all that as well. It's been a long day for me.

dead space 1 & 2 for me

@mrbojangles25: I started SOMA yesterday for the first time.

Action horror - Resident Evil 4

Survival horror - Resident Evil 2

Psychological horror - Silent Hill

The enemy designs and hell sections are well done.

i've been making my way through the dead space trilogy in the run up to halloween. always held the first in high regard and the second as being respectable and solid after playing them on launch, but second time round i'm not so sure about dead space 2.

the first is a real slow burner, teasing and tormenting as it builds the tension and atmosphere through the gradual but well timed introduction of new environments, enemies, weaponry and plot developments, like all good horror games should do. i still think it's a great game.

but ds2 in comparison almost has the inverse pacing of ds1. it's just relentless from the start. non-stop necromorphs, access to all weapons from the off, big alien boss fight early on. the intensity never really drops, which quickly results in a fatigue / over tolerance to jump scare after jump scare and wave after wave of enemy attacks.

whereas ds1 felt like a horror game with action sequences, ds2 is very much just an action game set against a backdrop of horror. it's still playable but peaks at about a 6.5 for me whereas previously i'd have said 7.5-8.

anyway, back to the question at hand.

obviously it's all just opinions but this is the correct answer

I don't play horror games, really. So.. here's a small list of not very horrific horror games.

Dead Space
Resident Evil 4
Alien Isolation
Eternal Darkness
Doom 3

I played Spirit Hunter: NG (Experience/Aksys Games, 2018) last year and it was very scary as expected of Japanese horror.

@Macutchi: It's a good action/horror game but I kinda think the horror aspect of Dead Space falls flat, mainly through repetition and the game balance where, regardless of difficulty the player becomes a powerhouse by the end, that enemies themselves become perfunctory.

i'd agree with that totally re: ds2, apart from you're a pretty much a powerhouse from the get-go. but ds1 i thought struck a much better balance in that regard and was more a slow burning horror game than action until the final third or so

For me it's a two way tie between Silent Hill 3 and Cry of Fear. Both games do a lot of specific things that really get under my skin, and I can't get enough of their atmospheres.

That being said, I also understand the love for SH2. It's a masterpiece no doubt, and was and still is revolutionary in many ways. Horror games are still taking inspiration from it. From an objective standpoint as well as storytelling standpoint, 2 is superior to 3, but 3 is more inherently terrifying while 2's tone is more melancholy and sad.

Resident Evil 7!

• FEAR
• Doom 3
• Resident Evil 7
• Alan Wake
• STALKER
• System shock 2

Bloodborne is a great pick that I would not have considered had it not been mentioned already.

I really love Resident Evil 4, Dead Space, The Evil Within and Amnesia.

I'm gonna give an honorable mention to the Luigi's Mansion games, because while they're not intended to be scary games they fit the ambiance of slapstick/comedy horror and great to play around this season.

Either Bloodborne or Silent Hill 2 for entire different reasons.

Bloodborne's atmosphere and world building is top notch, the lore is phenomenal and the enemies are truly some of the most terrifying ever on a video game.

Silent Hill 2 is different because it's more about psychological horror and how personal demons can be as scary as any of the Silent Hill monsters.