| Box Art | Title | Genre | Description | System of Choice |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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7Days | Indie Survival Horror | 7Days is an experience rather than a game. It’s divided in seven days, each with its own meaning. You must find out what is going on in the strange house where you just woke up. | PC |
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White Finger | Indie surival horror/slasher |
Free short indie game - escape from a warehouse while being hunted by a murdering psycho fuck. |
PC |
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Shivers 2: Harvest of Souls | Adventure, Survival horror, Puzzle, point and click | Your friends went to Cyclone to shoot a music video for their band. They never returned, so you decided to go looking for them. Ignore the title: this is a sequel in spirit only. There is more of a "survival horror" feel in this game with touches of Alternate Reality Game thrown in via the fact that you will need to play the game CD in a CD player to get many important clues. | PC |
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Uninvited | Point and Click, Adventure | You wake in a car and your only place to go is a haunted house, where your use an interface to interact and escape. Has a scary feel to it and a fun playthrough, retro gamers would enjoy with an emulator, mouse may be used with it. | NES, PC, DOS |
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Shivers | Adventure, Puzzle, Point and Click | Your friends dare you to go to the old museum at night. Everything looks normal until you find the curator is dead and angry spirits (Ixupi) have locked you in with them. Solve puzzles to put the Ixupi back into their containers and try not to let them kill you in the meantime. A good game from the heyday of Sierra. | PC |
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Yume Nikki | Mindfuck, Adventure | Unique game based around traveling in a young girl's dreams. Expect a trade of action for atmosphere as the gameplay revolves around exploring and experimentation. However, the atmosphere is indeed incredible. Has quite a fanbase as well. There are numerous fangames based off Yume Nikki, though the only particularly notable ones are Yume 2kki and .flow. | PC |
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Nanashi no Game | Horror, Retro, Mindfuck | A very creepy DS-only game (although using NO$Zoomer, you can play it perfectly well on a PC). You explore around the world in a first-person perspective as you try to solve the mystery of the cursed game that's killing people within seven days of playing it. Japan only, but very recently has received a fan translation. Has a sequel that was also only released in Japan but no translation as of October, 2011. | DS |
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Irisu Syndrome | Puzzle, Mindfuck, Horror | A freeware puzzle game that plays like an inverse Tetris and tells a story after every play. Unfortunately, nothing can be said about the game or it will ruin the experience. A couple of tips though: Keep your game folder open and check it every time you lose and reach 40k points for a surprise. Download here and translation patch here. |
PC |
|
Amber: Journeys Beyond | Paranormal, Point and Click Adventure, Puzzle | A pretty old supernatural/paranormal adventure where you investigate the house of a colleague who studies ghosts inside this haunted house using various advanced devices such as a device that records sounds and video around the house. It has some spooky moments and weird shit happens occasionally. Has time travel, room warping, and creepy ass objects such as mirrors and toys. here's is part 1 of a whole play through |
PC |
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Neftelia | Mindfuck, Adventure | Has somewhat the same atmosphere as Yume Nikki. | PC |
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Inherent Evil: The Haunted Hotel | Horror, Mindfuck, Point and Click, Psychological Horror | Despite its age, this game still looks great, and works great. Classic point and click, you come to a haunted hotel to find your friend, but uncover a ancient horror. | PC |
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Silent Hill | Survival Horror, Psychological Horror | The first in the famous survival horror series. A game revolving around a town covered in mist. The town was once a resort, but because of its dark, satanic past, it is seemingly abandoned. The only thing left inside is an individual's personal demons turned into monsters and other nightmarish objects. You CANNOT buy this in the PSN store in Europe. | PS1, PSN |
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Silent Hill 2 | Survival Horror, Psychological Horror, Mind Fuck | Considered by some to be the best in the series. Basically refined everything that was in the first game, and threw in some more disturbing atmospheric effects and of course, Pyramid Head. Play as JAAAAAAAAMES SUNDERLAND as he is drawn to Silent Hill after he receives a letter from his dead wife. Ported to the Xbox with some extra content. PC Port also has same content, higher resolution textures, but horrible camera angles. AVOID HD COLLECTION, as it is riddled with graphical glitches. You CAN change to the original voice acting. | PS2, Xbox, PC, PS3, Xbox 360 |
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Silent Hill 3 | Survival Horror, Psychological Horror | Direct sequel to the first game. You play as Heather who one day wakes up after a nap in the shopping centre and suddenly monsters everywhere. One of the most frightening and disturbing titles in the series. PC has hi-res textures and more dizzy camera angles. As state, avoid the HD collection, only you CANNOT change to the original voices in 3. | PS2. PC, PS3, Xbox 360 |
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Silent Hill 4 | Survival Horror, Psychological Horror | Confirmed to ALWAYS have been developed as a Silent Hill game, contrary to rumors. Takes place in a town near Silent Hill and you are trapped in your apartment. It still works out in the end, but there are some changes that are somewhat strange. Items break, etc. Still worth playing. Last Silent Hill game developed by Team Silent. GOD DAMMIT PC WHAT'S WITH THOSE CAMERA ANGLES | PS2, Xbox, PC |
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Silent Hill: Origins | Survival Horror, Psychological Horror | One of the best looking PSP titles out there, Origins is... a prequel. WHO WOULD'VE THOUGHT? Formula seems kind of dry, but atmosphere and Akira's music keeps it alive. Also has a shitty port for the PS2. First title not directly done by Konami. | PSP, PS2 |
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Silent Hill: Homecoming | Survival Horror, Psychological Horror | The black sheep of the Silent Hill family. Definitely has a westernized feel to it (this is because Konami allowed a Western studio to develop it), and borrows aspects from the movie. While it does loses some of its edge here, with its horror being more "A SKELETON POPPED OUT!" than previous titles, it still packs somewhat of a punch. Graphics are the best in the series, however. Note: Do yourself a favor and DO NOT get this on the PC. The PC port has so many problems that it's not funny: keybinding failure, constant crashing, out of sync cutscenes, etc. |
Xbox 360, PS3, PC |
|
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories | Survival Horror, Psychological Horror | Not a remake, but more of a reimagining of the first Silent Hill game. Originally for the Wii, and ported to the PSP and PS2. Wii version is considered to be the greatest, with some great flashlightan puzzles and good controls. Important note, this game scraps combat. There is NO option to fight back, it's all running, which either adds to the fear, or becomes so tedious that it becomes a shitty remake. Hopefully, you think of the former. |
Wii, PSP, PS2 |
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Silent Hill: Downpour | Survival Horror, Psychological Horror | The eighth game in the series. You play as Murphy Pendleton, a prisoner who winds up in Silent Hill after his bus transport crashes. The game's story is interesting, if a bit unoriginal, the atmosphere is great and there's a big focus on exploration. However, it's not as scary as past titles, and Akira Yamaoka didn't work on this games's soundtrack. While flawed, it's one of the better western made Silent Hill games. | PS3, Xbox 360 |
|
Fatal Frame / Project Zero REI~zero~ |
Survival Horror | You enter an abandoned mansion in search of your brother. Inside, you obtain a camera that can fight the ghosts that haunt the mansion. Tough as nails, but absolutely fear-inducing. | PS2, Xbox |
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Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly | Survival Horror | Considered by some the best in the series. You play as the younger sibling of twins, who ends up in a haunted village when following your older sister. Inside the village, you find a camera with the ability to fight off ghosts that aids you in surviving long enough to find your sister and escape the village. | PS2, Xbox |
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Fatal Frame III: The Tormented | Survival Horror | The third of the series, has the same concept: Killing vengeful ghosts with a camera. You play as a photographer who one day has a dream about following her deceased lover into a mansion. From then on, every night you dream about this mansion, and the ghosts that inhabit it. After every dream, you wake up with a tattoo that spreads a little bit every time. The game has tie ins from the first and second, giving you the ability to play as the girl from the first game and the uncle of the twins from the second. | PS2 |
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Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen | Survival Horror | The fourth in the Fatal Frame/Project Zero. Unless they announce otherwise later on, it is not going to be released outside of Japan because it's really buggy. The fanmade english translation is available here |
Wii |
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Alan Wake | Action/Adventure | A famous writer Alan Wake comes to a small town of Bright Falls in a hope to find an inspiration to finish his new book, but instead some incident happens and he finds himself with no memory of the last few days and a missing wife. Isn't really that scary but contains a big dose of creepiness and a lot of eerie moments. Your most important weapon is a flashlight. Short game but the story is very good. PROTIP: The PC version includes both released DLCs (The Signal & The Writer) and has improved visuals. |
Xbox 360, PC |
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Clive Barker's Undying | Horror, FPS | This is from Clive Barker so you know it's good (and by good I mean fucked up beyond belief). You are Patrick Galloway, a badass with occult powers who wants to help his old friend Jeremiah with his family problems, just to discover that his family became batshit crazy after playing with some ancient standing stones... Great novel-like story, great enemies, creepy FUCK-YOU-I-AM-NOT-GOING-IN-THERE ambience to explore, blood, gore and scares all in one game. Not to mention one of the best fighting systems ever seen in an FPS (just think Bioshock, only that you can shoot plasmids WHILE shooting with your main gun). Unfortunately, there seem to be some compatibility issues with Vista/7. |
PC |
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Clive Barker's Jericho | Horror, FPS | Probably one of the biggest let downs in history of gaming, especially for those who played Undying before it, expecting anything similar to it. You control a group of special forces with occult powers who need to fight the Antichrist. You can switch between fighters, each one with peculiar weapons and psychic powers. This adds up a lot of variety, but unfortunately the awfully retarded AI makes this game almost unplayable. Very repetitive and monotonous level design. Even the first enemies you'll meet are tanks for some reasons and need approximately 200,000 bullets each to be shot down. Not scary at all, mostly nerve racking, since most intense battles can be very long and difficult. The enemies design is great though, very disturbing and stomach wrenching with bones and organs out in the air, in pure Barker's style. |
PC, PS3, XBOX360 |
|
Condemned: Criminal Origins | Survival Horror | You take the role of detective Ethan Thomas, a police officer who investigates violent crimes in a city which seems to be deteriorating into nothing except that. Soon, however, you are charged with a murder you did not commit and hours of beating hobos with boards and wrenches ensues. | PC/360 |
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Condemned 2: Bloodshot | Survival Horror | Takes place some time after the events of the first one. Story starts amazing, ends awfully (in the end you can kill people by screaming like tarzan, I mean, what the fuck man). Some very creepy levels (imagine getting stuck in an house with a grizzly), great gory melee combat, but the end ultimately falls flat. | PS3, 360 |
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Clock Tower | Survival Horror, Point and Click | Pretty scary point'n'click adventure where you play as a girl trying to escape from a mansion inhabited by a crazy disfigured kid with a giant pair of scissors. You run, hide, and get scared a lot. Pretty short, but has a ton of endings. Japan only, but there's a patch available. The PSX version is called "Clock Tower: The First Fear". | SNES, PSX, Wonderswan, PC |
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Clock Tower Second | Survival Horror, Point and Click | The real sequel to Clock Tower, with 2 being more of a spin-off. Confusing, I know. Following the SNES game plot, this game is more of the same, only this time in 3D graphics. | PS1 |
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Clock Tower 2 | Survival Horror, Pint and Click | The so-called "sequel," still good but Clock Tower Second is so much better. Called "Clocktower: Ghost Head" in Japan. | PS1 |
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Clock Tower 3 |
Survival Horror |
You play as a schoolgirl being pursued by some serial killers. Prepare to RUN. Has some pretty brutal scenes. Removes the point and click system in favor of a third person standard control. |
PS2 |
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Eternal Darkness | Psychological Horror | You play as several people throughout history, piecing together a story about a battle between eldritch gods. Uses the sanity meter, which lowers every time you encounter an enemy. The effects can sometimes be very comedic, such as tricking you into thinking your data card is corrupt, or that your TV randomly turned off. | GCN |
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Theresia: Dear Emile | Survival Horror | You wake up in an abandoned area with no memory. Very stereotypical at first, but quickly unravels into an unpredictable, almost depressing story. Most puzzles are simple, but expect traps to be EVERYWHERE and constant traveling from room to room. | NDS |
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System Shock 2 | Survival Horror, FPS | Fuckwin FPS with RPG tones where you play as a hacker trapped inside a ship controlled by SHODAN, a powerful A.I. with a Goddess complex. Great atmosphere, and one of the greatest villains of all time. | PC |
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Siren (Forbidden Siren in Europe) | Survival Horror, Stealth | Very much like Silent Hill with a sprinkle of Eternal Darkness. You play as a cast of different characters in different places and situations in a haunted village. There is some very light combat and you can look through the eyes of the "infected?" villagers help you avoid confrontations. If you played the SH series beyond all hope for enjoyment this is a title to check out. However, be wary that it is a very difficult game. Has an interesting sequel and a "American re-imagining" called Siren: Blood Curse which surprisingly enough actually isn't bad at all. | PS2, PS3 (Remake) |
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Forbidden Siren 2 | Survival Horror, Stealth | Same creepy stuff as first one. Controls and gameplay had been improved. If Siren was too hard for you it is good entry point in the series. Only released in Japan and Europe. | PS2 |
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Penumbra: Overture | Survival Horror | The first part of somewhat under appreciated horror-adventure game series. The story starts from the main characters receiving a mysterious letter from his deceased father. This sets him on a trip to investigate his bizarre past and events, taking him to dark, abandoned tunnel-mine-bunker complexes of underground Greenland. The game is very dark and does not focus on battle like most survival horrors, the main point is always hiding and escaping, or using the environment to your advance.Main selling point of these games are their control style: Instead of classic "quick-keys" to operate things, everything is used, opened and examined with real mouse movements, giving a very unique atmosphere to the games. | Linux, Mac OSX, PC |
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Amnesia: The Dark Descent | Survival Horror/Lovecraftian Horror | By the same developers as Penumbra. You play as Daniel, an amnesiac who must investigate the mysterious Castle Brennenburg, with only two goals in mind: Find your memories, and kill the castle's owner, the mysterious Alexander of Brennenburg. VERY loosely based on Lovecraft's "The Outsider" (So loosely based that you will only understand the similarities after you beat the game). It uses the same physics system as Penumbra, but with an influence on pants shitting instead of hard puzzles (Though the stupid should beware, there are puzzles that could baffle you for a while, but nothing hard enough to require a walkthrough). TL:DR; Decently hard puzzles. No weapons. Loads of NOPENOPENOPE |
Linux, Mac OSX, PC |
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Penumbra: Black Plague | Survival Horror | Sequel to the Overture. See the above. Considered by many to be the best one in the series for even reduced action and more focus on survival and puzzle solving. | Linux, Mac OSX, PC |
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Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth | Survival horror, First-person adventure, Lovecraftian Horror | Based on the H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Shadow over Innsmouth", you are a private detective investigating the mysterious town of Innsmouth and it's people. Great atmosphere and some awesome running away sequences (you don't get a gun until half-way through the game). Note that the game is not incredibly polished and has a well-known graphical bug that for some people makes one segment near impossible to pass, as well as a very unrealistically tough ending sequence. Save games and an unofficial game editor respectively are floating around the dark corners of the internet to remedy these if needed. |
Xbox, PC |
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Pathologic | Mindfuck, Survival Horror, Mystery | You arrive in a small, backwards village just in time for a mysterious, deadly plague to come down on it. Your goal, survive for 12 days, and discover the mystery behind the disease and the village infected by it. Not even called a game by the developers, but "An exercise in decision-making", Pathologic suffers from several problems; very slow pacing, rudimentary combat, a poor translation of a already ornately written story, and sub-par graphics for its time. However, a complex plot rarely seen in video games, coupled with an extremely disturbing atmosphere, and a very fitting soundtrack makes this game more than worth it if you have the time and patience. Not for everyone, if you have the patience you'll love it, if not you'll hate it. |
PC |
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The White Chamber | Psychological Horror | Wake up on a ship in space, encounter some very horrifying scenes (despite the cartoonish art direction), slowly piece together what the hell was going on (it wasn't pretty). This is also a free title and one you can finish in a couple of hours. | PC |
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Dead Space | 3rd Person Action Horror | The space station USS Ishimura ceased all communications and it's up to you (an engineer) and your team to find out what has happened inside there. Maybe the flesh-eating creatures that try to dismember you when you get there have something to do with it. Make sure you're either using a surround system or a good set of headphones, the atmosphere in this game is phenomenal. |
PC, 360, PS3 |
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Dead Space 2 | 3rd Person Action Horror | Sequel to Dead Space. Same premise, but the game instead takes place on a space station. Levels are less claustrophobic, visuals rock, and gameplay is vastly improved. | PC, 360, PS3 |
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Haunting Ground (Demento) | Survival Horror | Considered to be a spiritual successor to Clock Tower. You play as a big breasted, useless chick who wakes up after a car crash inside a castle. Quickly, you befriend a dog who basically saves your ass, which is very useful considering 75% of the game is running away from people who want to kill you. A fun game with cool enemies (especially the maid) and a metric fuckton of symbols representing "girly" fears, kind of like a less gritty Silent Hill 3. Don't misunderstand, though, it's nothing at all like Silent Hill. Not very frightening, either. Fiona is a pretty nice piece of ass, though. | PS2 |
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In Pursuit of Loath Nolder | Lovecraftian Horror, Point-and-Click Adventure | Standard point and click adventure, containing pretty much all of the standard Lovecraft themes. If you've read Lovecraft you'll find that the games basically rips off some novels as you play through. Convoluted puzzles which can be annoying but great atmosphere and an interesting plot. | PC |
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Dark Fall: The Journal | Psychological Horror, Point-and-Click Adventure | The first game of a rather unknown series (unfortunately) of great ghost stories from Jonatan Boakes. It's the classical haunted station story where you are the dude who needs to discover the shit that happened there. Very creepy atmosphere and lots of cheap scares, with things moving at you in the dark and noises. Some annoying puzzles. If you even remotely like ghost stories all the games from Boakes are a must. | PC |
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Dark Fall 2: Lights Out | Psychological Horror, Point-and-Click Adventure | This one is similar to the first one as atmosphere and scares, only it is set in a town. Get the director's cut edition since it improves a lot the game over the precedent version. | PC |
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Dark Fall 3: Lost Souls | Psychological Horror, Point-and-Click Adventure | The creepiest and scariest of the series. The best in the series so far. It will literally rack the nerves off your skin. Do not play if you have a scissor phobia. Some stupid puzzles and veeerrryyy sllloooowww movements tend to be a little bit annoying but in the complex is a solid horror game. | PC |
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The Lost Crown | Psychological Horror, Point-and-Click Adventure |
Another game from Johnathan Bakes, the creator of the Dark Fall series. Arguably one of the best ghost stories ever told from a video game. Very haunting atmosphere with some occasionally disturbing scenes (poor kittens!). If you like ghost hunting you must play it since you have a lot of paranormal stuff you need to use all the time. The visuals are amazing. |
PC |
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Barrow Hill | Psychological Horror, Point-and-Click Adventure |
Barrow Hill has a wonderful creepy feel to it. Are you being stalked? |
PC |
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Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches | Psychological Horror, Point-and-Click Adventure |
The game is set on the Celtic fringes of Britain; a place where myth and magic spill into reality, threatening the sanity of a teenage girl named Rhiannon Sullivan. |
PC |
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Resident Evil |
Survival Horror |
Very famous and popular zombie apocalypse game with perhaps even more influence on the survival horror genre than Silent Hill. The older games are more of a third person horror survival, while the more recent games have a more FPS feeling to them. Either way, most of them are very good for thrills if not chills. |
PS1, PC, Saturn, GameCube, DS, PSN, Wii |
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Resident Evil 2 |
Survival Horror |
Considered to be the pinnacle of the series and one of the games that made the genre famous. Aged a little bit, especially with the 3D models on static background effect, but definitely worth playing. There is indeed a PC port of this game, but it is very difficult to get working properly. Although it has double the resolution of the first game, it's better to just run it through ePSXe with a clean plugin. | Playstation, N64, PC, Dreamcast |
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Resident Evil 3 |
Survival Horror |
STAAAAAAAAAAAAARS | PS1, PC, Gamecube, Dreamcast |
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Resident Evil 4 |
Survival Horror |
This is where the Resident Evil series got sidetracked and started going for the third person-shooter-action style instead. Arguably the best of the Resident Evil games. Whether or not it's considered a "Horror game" or a "true resident evil game" is a sensitive subject that leads to many (stupid) debates. | Gamecube, PS2, Wii, PC |
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Alone In The Dark |
Survival Horror |
The original Survival horror game. Definitely worth playing, even though its age severely hinders its fear factor and even at times playability, but it's always fun to bitch slap some rats. |
PC, Mac, 3DO, RISC OS |
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Phantasmagoria |
Psychological horror, Adventure, Interactive movie |
Played on like 7 fucking CDs, the FMV RAEP scene made people and the medias and stuff to freak the fuck out. |
PC, Mac, Sega Saturn |
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Phantasmagoria 2: A Puzzle of Flesh |
I HEARD THAT, CURTIS. |
PC | |
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Dark Seed |
Adventure, Horror, Point and Click Adventure |
Classic point-n-click adventures, make sure you run these through SCUMM. The designs for all the horror material came from H.R. Giger, the designer of the famous Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise. If you ever wondered what an entire world designed by him would be like, this is it. Known for their absolutely ludicrous difficulty, while the visuals do a decent job of building a suitably creepy atmosphere, the rest of the game is undone by extremely haphazard design. It is practically guaranteed that you'll get stuck in some kind of unwinnable situation at some point, as the many scenarios that require you to have thought of a solution in advance are poorly telegraphed to the point that you would need to be able to see the future to prepare accordingly and often said preparation make absolutely no sense in the context of whatever situation you currently find yourself in. |
PC |
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Dark Seed II | Adventure, Horror, Point and Click Adventure | Dark Seed II makes such tremendous improvements over its predecessor that it practically feels like a whole new game. Gone are the time limits and dead-end events, in favor of a more straightforward mystery. There are actual characters this time around, with plenty of background and dialogue, and the story is much more intricate than simply going into the Dark World and stopping the aliens, even though the basic goals are the same. While it does take away some of the ambiguity (some would say "loose ends") of the first game, the narrative depth definitely makes for a more involving experience. | PC |
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LSD |
Mindfuck, action-adventure |
Wander about in bizarre dream-scapes for 5 minutes or so and then repeat. Not really a game, per se, it's more about exploring and seeing what shit you can find. Sometimes it's fucked up, sometimes it isn't. Japanese only, but there's very little text. |
PS1 |
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The 7th Guest |
Horror, Puzzle, Adventure |
The quintessential classic horror-themed adventure game. Not particularly scary, but has a creepy vibe to it. |
PC |
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The 11th Hour | Horror, Puzzle | We return to the house in the original and further puzzle-based gameplay ensues. Also not particularly scary. | PC |
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Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason |
Survival Horror, FPS |
Also known as: «The Worst Optimization Ever: The Game». An FPS where you play as an investigator trying to find out what happened to a Russian ice breaker ship. The game is set during the 80s and lets you play through a huge map based of the intimate details of a huge freighter. Has possibly one of the best endings in a video game. |
PC |
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Exmortis |
Psychological Horror, Point-and-click adventure |
Very atmospheric point-and-click flash games with fantastic art and two of the only flash games to be scary without relying entirely on screamers. You wake up deep in the woods in front of an abandoned, run-down house and no memories - surprise! The house is full of pissed off dead people. Exmortis 2 takes place a few years after Exmortis 1 and is even moodier, given the setting. Both can be found on Newgrounds Exmortis 3 was released in 2009 but came with a ten dollar price tag, so naturally nobody's ever played the fucking thing. |
Flash |
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Exmortis 2 |
Psychological Horror, Point-and-click adventure |
Flash | |
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Purgatorium |
Psychological Horror, Point-and-click adventure |
More haunted amnesiac hijinx from the creator of Exmortis. Much shorter than his other games, and also on Newgrounds. |
Flash |
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The House |
Horror, Point-and-click adventure |
It may look like a shitty horror flash game, but that's because it is. Graphics and sounds are fine, but the gameplay is just "click on the only thing you can click on X times and then another thing to click on appear and you have to click on it a few times then click on the first thing again then click on the other one again a few times then SCREAMER." This is literally the first part of the game, and the clicking order makes no sense. Good for a few jump, but nothing more. |
Flash |
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Bad Mojo / Bad Mojo Redux |
Mindfuck, Adventure |
Bro unwittingly puts on a cursed ring while chilling in his messy apartment. Bro gets turned into roach. Roach Bro has to navigate all the nasty shit in his apartment and find a way back to the ring and crawl through it to undo the curse. |
PC |
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Sanitarium |
Psychological Horror, Point-and-click adventure |
An adventure game where you play as an amnesic man who wakes up in a mental hospital and tries to uncover his past. Pretty fucked-up. |
PC |
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S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl |
Survival Horror, FPS, RPG |
BLOW OUT SOON FELLOW STALKER.
Go grab the LURK mod here
|
PC |
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S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky | Survival Horror, FPS, RPG | PC | |
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S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat | Survival Horror, FPS, RPG | PC | |
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Rule of Rose |
Survival Horror |
You play a little girl trapped on a 1930's airship with other girls and adults who seem like they're out to get you. Banned in several countries for themes of lesbianism, bullying, suggested pedophilia, and alluding to cannibalism. While graphics and music are good (great even) the combat feels clunky and it's not that scary. It is, however, quite atmospheric and the story's pretty damn unsettling. The monsters themselves can be pretty fucked up, but they're overshadowed in the creepy factor by the supporting cast. |
PS2 |
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The Void/TENSION/Typrop (RUS) |
Mindfuck, Survival-Adventure, Horror |
Another weird game by the creators of Pathologic. You end up in some sort of limbo land, where you're not being told shit and better start wrapping your head around the place as you are quickly dying, time stripping away color from your body. Enigmatic naked Sisters are your only guides in this very bleak and desolate place... At least if you can reach them before starving, or being confronted by their much less friendly counterparts. It's grim, even in the later parts of the game when crazy shit keeps happening, relying more on eeriness than full-on horror (which is technically inexistent here). Most players starve out of color in their first attempt, but the further you are in the game, the harder it is to become really stuck, while paradoxically your prospects for survival become always dimmer and dimmer, hence the titular "tension". Little-known yet awesome game. Note: It's quite tough: Survival and resource management are a essential part of the core-gameplay and despite the great atmosphere, things might get rage-inducing at times. If you're having trouble, this guide has some tips that might help without spoiling too much. |
PC |
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NOCTURNE |
Survival Horror, Action |
Old action-horror game that certainly hasn't aged well. Laughable dialogue with the main character named "Stranger". Ya, rly. Still very imaginative and fun to play, looked good for the time. You get to fight werewolves on a moving train while wearing sunglasses and a trenchcoat. 'Nuff said. |
PC |
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Mondo Agency |
Mindfuck, FPS |
As an agent it is your mission to kill laser Indians and save the president!
Turn off your lights and turn up your speakers for maximum enjoyment! |
PC |
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Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi |
Survival Horror, FPS |
A game where you're searching for your family in a vampire-infested, randomly generated castle. Creepy as fuck. |
PC |
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Shadow of Destiny/Memories |
Mindfuck, Adventure |
Adventure game where you're trying to prevent your own death by time traveling. Good voice acting and multiple endings. Time Hollow is it's spiritual sequel, also by Konami. |
PC, PS2, XBOX |
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Scratches: Director's Cut |
Mindfuck, Mystery, Adventure |
If you are looking for atmosphere this is the game for you. You arrive at your new house, an old Victorian mansion to write the end of your book. As you explore through the house clues reveal more and more about the past of the house and what was going on. Not that many retarded puzzles. |
PC |
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The Path |
Psychological Horror |
You choose one out of a large array of sisters, aging from girls not even 10 to young adults. Your job is to follow the path to grandma's house and deliver her the items your mother gave you, and no matter what, do not stray from the path. You can, obviously, follow the path to an open to interpretation ending, or you can stray off the path into the forest. What you may find's effect may vary on what sister you are playing as, and each girl may interact with it differently. Very symbolic, and there's no real story. Your main job is to just wander and find objects, some more dangerous and depressing as others. If you dislike wandering, this is not the game for you. |
PC |
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Hell Night (EU)
Dark Messiah (JP) |
Survival Horror, |
The description says it best. Very much like an old first person adventure game. You walk down several corridors and pick up obvious key items. Not a bad way to waste a couple hours. Also don't expect anything in the way of combat.
Better yet, just read this |
PS1 |
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Kuon |
Survival Horror |
Two girls fighting weirdass shinto spirits. Very Japanese horror. |
PS2 |
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I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream |
Horror, Point and Click Adventure |
In the future, AM, a mad supercomputer, kills almost the entire earth population, saving only five people. After torturing them and keeping them alive for more than a hundred years he sets them on a final "game" . You control each of this five people in their separate quests. Lots of moral dilemmas and ethical issues and an AI of such awesomeness that he easily matches SHODAN of System Shock.
Based on a short story by the same name. |
PC |
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The Suffering | Psychological Horror, FPS | One of the few Third Person Shooters able to achieve the sense of dread and fear, the suffering has you playing as a convicted murderer sentenced to death row. But the prison you are in is home to crazed experiments performed by the government during the 1950s and is a hotbed for the most grotesque and horrifying abominations that run rampant inside the prison and cause mass chaos. | PC, PS2, Xbox |
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The Suffering: Ties That Bind | Psychological Horror, FPS | Suffering: Ties That Bind is a revolutionary action-horror game that emphasizes the disturbing terror of its predecessor, with all-new twisted creatures and a
few familiar faces. Set in the slums and prisons of Baltimore, the player once again controls Torque as he seeks revenge against the mysterious grand manipulator Caleb Blackmore, a man somehow tied to the death of Torque's family. Players will explore the tough and unforgiving inner-city streets, with poverty and urban injustices trapping people just as effective as a physical prison. The unique morality system returns, as players delve into the perverse world of Torque's sanity to discover his past and struggle to control his future. |
PC, PS2, Xbox |
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American McGee's Alice | Horror, Action adventure | Remember Alice in Wonderland? Well, take that, and run it through the mind of psychotic killer on a bad acid trip while high on steroids, and you've got American McGee's "Alice".Lots of dark, weird, twisted imagery and gameplay, with surprisingly enjoyable twists on all your favourite characters from the classic story.
Mention should also be given to its great soundtrack,the music of which was written and performed by Chris Vrenna (of Nine Inch Nails) and Marilyn Manson was originally involved scoring the music for the game. All this contributes to creating a hauntingly brilliant tone for the game.
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PC |
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Echo Night Series | Horror, Mindfuck, First-person adventure | Echo Night is a first person adventure game series where your goal is to uncover the dark past of yourself or those close to you. It is horror themed, although the horror is more of a mindfuck type. Overall, a VERY interesting series, though the last one, Echo Night: Beyond is probably the only one worth your time. It's presentation is GLORIOUS. | PS, PS2 |
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Chzo Mythos | Horror, adventure | Before he became "Internet Famous" for his witty video game reviews, Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw actually made some games himself. A number of them turned out to be quite good, the best of which is the series of adventure/horror games known as the Chzo Mythos. They're free to download off of his site. Prepare for pixelated, but disturbing, scenes of slaughter. |
PC |
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Saya No Uta | Visual Novel, Eroge, suspense | A Lovecraftian visual novel about madness and a love without borders. Loosely inspired by the Resurrection chapter of Osamu Tezuka's life-long epic Phoenix. | PC |
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The Dark Eye | Horror, First-person Adventure | Creepy point 'n click based on Edgar Allan Poe's works. Interesting note, the characters are all made in stop motion/claymation. | PC |
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Shadow Man | Horror, Platform, Action Adventure | Mario 64-like game with some brick shitting moments. The N64 version is passable if you have the expansion pack, but the PC and Dreamcast versions are superior (just stay the hell away from the PS1 version) | PC, DC, PSX, N64 |
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Demonophobia | Horror, Adventure, Guro, H game | A prime example of why little girls should never experiment with strange rituals. Those crazy nips did it again. Expect lots of blood and gory/creepy deaths. Assuming you live long enough. All sorts of sick fappable shit in here to enjoy. | PC |
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Hanakanmuri | Adventure, Guro | Vore and guro fest. | PC |
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Overblood | Survival horror, adventure | An early 3D horror game. Features assorted gameplay styles rolled into one game. Made by Riverhillsoft, who also worked on J.B. Harold Murder Club series and Doctor Hauzer. Also had a sequel that was only released in Japan and Europe and has pretty much nothing to do with this game. | PSX |
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Prisoner of Ice | Point and Click Adventure | Adventure game based on the Cthulhu mythos, and a sequel to Shadow of the Comet. A British submarine rescues a spy who fled from a Nazi base with two "Top Secret" crates. Of course, nothing good can come from inside of them. | PC, PSX |
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Eversion |
Horror, platformer |
Super bright and happy indie platformer. Until the world gradually 'everts'... |
PC |
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Shadow of the Comet |
Adventure, Lovecraftian Horror |
Adventure game based on the Cthulhu mythos. The controls are weird for a game of this genre (everything is done with the keyboard) but it's got a great story. |
PC |
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Doom 3 | Horror, FPS, Being A Badass | While not faithfully true to the original, this game took to series from being an awesome, badass FPS to an awesome, badass FPS that also has some SCARY BADASS SHIT to boot. Great Atmosphere, combined with surround sound or headphones. | PC, Xbox |
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WhiteDay: A Labyrinth Named School |
Survival Horror |
A Korean horror game made in 2001 by Sonnori, a company that no longer exists. You're a high school boy who plans to give his crush 'So Young' some candy for WhiteDay. You end up being locked inside the school. While trapped inside, you are constantly being followed by a possessed security guard and the ghosts that inhabit the scool that want you dead.
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PC |
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Sweet Home |
Survival Horror, RPG |
Has RPG elements to it. Each character has a special ability. You team up (you can only have a certain amount of people team up I believe, which leaves one or two people to go alone). You can control each individual character (you will still be teamed together when you switch, which is prrty kewl). Basically an 8-bit precursor to the Resident Evil series (and even has cutscenes when you open doors). What makes this RPG unique is that once you die, you die forever. Also, there is not unlimited healing (there's only 23 or so potions scattered throughout the mansion), so you must use good strategy as you play. Although an NES game, there's parts which are a huge mindfuck. |
NES |
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Dementium: The Ward |
Survival Horror, FPS |
A DS First-person horror game with a great framerate and a lot of effort put in. It looks great. Just don't get too close to anything. Best played together with the sequel, Dementium II. |
NDS |
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Fear Effect |
Survival Horror, Action-Adventure |
One of the most popular PSX horrors. You play as a bunch of mercenaries who are trying to complete their task of finding and escorting some mafia offspring back home; however, as you have probably already guessed, things get complicated somewhere along the way. It plays much like Resident Evil, though you can shoot while running.
The story and visuals are very good (delicious cell shading) |
PS1 |
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Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix | Survival Horror, Action-Adventure |
It has lesbians. |
PS1 |
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Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines |
Horror, RPG, FPS (Optional Third Person camera) |
Great RPG in which you play as a fledgling vampire who has just been embraced, and forced into working for the political agendas of characters to make your way in the secret underworld of vampire society. There's many alliances, choices and enemies to be made. Focused on the warring and rivalry of the vampire clans. Great graphics and combat for a 2004 game, featuring attributes, multiple vampire races, a range of melee and ranged weapons, and unique vampiric powers. Incredibly atmospheric and story driven, with brilliant dialogue. The game has a few creepy parts, but the Ocean House Hotel fucking takes the cake. Make absolutely sure to get the latest unofficial patch for this, since the vanilla game is riddled with bugs that can be fixed by doing so. Highly recommended to Deus Ex and Fallout fans due to this title's similar approach to character building and problem solving. |
PC |
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Dear Esther (Half Life 2 Mod) |
Mindfuck, Narrative |
Experimental mod for HL2 in which you basically explore a desolate island while the main character narrates. Excellent writing and haunting atmosphere. The remake is out now on steam. |
PC |
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Paranoia (Half Life Mod) |
Survival Horror, FPS |
Visually very advanced HL mod, focusing on the Russian Spechnaz-team, which soon notices that what seems like a "normal terrorist-hostage situation" isn't quite so normal. |
PC |
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They Hunger (Half Life Mod) |
Survival Horror, FPS |
A decent Half-Life mod involving a bunch of people, in particular the local police force, being overtaken by a zombie virus that makes them evil. The player's task is stopping them. |
PC |
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Afraid of Monsters Director's Cut (Half Life Mod) |
Survival Horror, FPS |
One of the spookiest mods available for the original HL. AoM plays like the HL, but just everything else is self-made, creating a very dark and twisted survival horror experience with multiple endings. |
PC |
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Parasite Eve |
RPG |
Awesome games. The rat morphing in the first game is just plain awesome. Second Game is not as good, ditching most of the RPG elements. |
PS1 |
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Parasite Eve 2 | Survival Horror | A lot more detailed than the first and much more engaging. Ditches the active time bar in favor of real time combat with tank controls, which, on harder difficulties, is sure to pucker your asshole. Features only several locales compared to Parasite Eve's dozen, but each area is larger and Aya gives more descriptive analyses of objects. Very short, but a worthwhile entry if you want more pseudo-scientific horror. | PS1 |
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F.E.A.R. |
Horror, FPS |
Really solid FPS from Monolith studios. The game succeeds and giving you that sense of paranoia throughout the entire game with strange anomalies, electric shocks in the air and psychotic little girls running around. It also merges correctly with a great shoot-out system, with excellent bullet time. Killing enemies has never been so satisfying. Get this for PC if you can. The sequel, even if it's not at the same level as the predecessor, is still worth it, though F.E.A.R.'s first expansion pack, Extraction Point, is pretty much better than the canon sequel in almost every way. |
PC, PS3, 360 |
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Extermination |
Survival Horror |
A completly underrated and forgotten game. Basically The Thing meets Tomb Raider. You play as a Special Forces guy (named Dennis of all things) and have to infiltrate an Alaskan base where bad shit went down involving evil water. The whole thing has a nifty exploration and weapon mechanic, and for a survival horror game it can actually make you feel pretty nimble and powerful. The end boss will make you rage repeatedly. |
PS2 |
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Killer7 | Action-adventure, Rail-shooter, Role-playing, Mindfuck | Play as one of seven personalities of a handicapped assassin, and kill Heaven Smiles to save the world. Maybe. The supplemental materials clear up a lot of the plot, but still fall short of explaining everything. This is a Suda51 game. | PS2, GCN |
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D | Survival Horror, Graphic adventure, Puzzle | An interesting title, one of the first FULLY FMV games. This game and the two below it are notable for having a 'digital actress' - you play as a completely different character in each game, but they all look identical. Has a pretty haunting atmosphere along with some ghoulish (and pixelated) visuals. Protip: FINISH IT IN 2 HOURS OR LESS!!! (sequence breaking is recommended!) | Sega Saturn, PSX, PC |
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Enemy Zero | Survival Horror | Second part in the "D trilogy" and heavily influenced by "Alien". You are Laura Lewis who awakened out of cryogenic sleep by an emergency on the space station AKI. You must find other passengers, solve puzzles and discover what happened. Enemies are invisible, you can only hear them. Your gun has limited range and timing is crucial to use it. There is no health bar so any contact with enemies ends with instant kill. | Sega Saturn, PC |
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D2 | Survival Horror | An amazing, rare and underrated game for the Dreamcast. Its 4 disks long and has great graphics for its time. It has a bunch of different gameplay styles including First Person Exploring, RPG-like fight scenes, and Oregon Trail shooting segments where you hunt animals for food. But what really makes this a great game is the story. It starts out feeling like it might be another "The Thing", but the story gets more and more complicated and strange as it goes along. The ending will completely floor you. Fun fact: the lead developer for this game was undergoing a nervous breakdown as this game was being created. | Dreamcast |
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Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni | Survival Horror, Graphic adventure, Puzzle | Started off as a visual novel, became a video game, an anime, etc. Inside a village named Hinamizawa, things become hectic fast. Problems occur and trust is misplaced, leading to brutal murders and mindfucks. Appears to be several alternative stories using the same characters and different events, BUUUUT it's more like, several stories about the same event with varying details and different focus each time. That's a huge spoiler. PS2 port has enhanced graphics, voice acting and additional arcs. NDS port also has improved graphics, its own set of new arcs and is splitted into four games. Overall remakes are better experience visual wise and extends the story, but only PC version is available in English. There's a graphic patch made out of PS2 port though. |
PC, DS, PS2 |
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Umineko No Naku Koro Ni | Visual Novel, Mindfuck, Puzzle | From the same people that did Higurashi. Umineko follows the same formula of multiple scenarios tying themselves to unfold a story. A family of several rich fucks gets stuck on an island and soon someone claiming their self to be a witch starts a murder spree. Not really scary, but some scenes, especially at the beginning are creepy as hell. After the first arc though a giant mindfuck occurs and things continue to get crazier and crazier afterwards. The series is also known for its godly soundtrack. English patch available. A remake of the first part of the game was released on PS3 featuring full voice acting, pretty graphics and glorious full HD. |
PC, PS3 |
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Carrier | Survival Horror | A RE clone that takes place on an aircraft carrier. Not the best, but has it's moments. Main character's name sounds like a porn star's. | DC |
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ObsCure | Survival Horror | Imagine playing "the Faculty" from 1998. You're stuck in your school at night, and there's monsters about. Rather unique party system where you have a second character with you, out of a selection of 4 or 5, which grants bonuses in certain situations. Oh, and if they die, they die, like, forever. | PC, PS2, Xbox |
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Obscure II | Survival Horror | Direct sequel to the first. Now instead of zombie mutants you have deadly plants or some other derp | PC, PS2, Wii, (Aftermath) PSP |
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Cold Fear | Survival Horror | You play as a coast guard officer investigating a suspected foreign freighter for illegal activity when you discover much more is happening and pits you against a zombie infestation that you must get to the bottom of. | PS2, Xbox, PC |
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Mistake | Survival Horror | Short half life mod where you have to escape from an asylum. | PC (Half-Life 1 mod) |
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Kabus 22 | Survival Horror | Old style Resident Evil like game | PC |
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Illbleed | Survival Horror, Mindfuck | Very strange, but great game. You're at a haunted theme park created by a psychopath and have to find your lost friends. The game play involves avoiding traps by marking them in a variety of scenarios. If you don't successfully avoid a trap then your character risks blood loss and death. The scenarios are campy, funny and fucked up in a disturbing kind of way. | DC |
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Ao Oni | Survival Horror, Puzzle | A freeware horror game done in RPG maker. Similar to Clock Tower but with a more cliched plot. A group of middle schoolers go to investigate a haunted mansion where people supposedly do not return from, because they are devoured by a blue demon. Even though the Ao Oni looks laughable, there are some genuinely scary moments in this short game. |
PC |
| Corpse Party | Survival Horror | A horror game made with RPG Maker, but later released with enhancements for PC and as a PSP port. The plot involves a group of high schoolers performing a ritual inside the school grounds, which causes the school to change into a haunted place inhabited by (mostly hostile) spirits. The game includes many possible endings for each chapter. The sounds are best enjoyed with headphones, and the japanese voice acting is really well done. May not be as scary as some other games in the list, but holy hell, better make some room for a ton of anxiety this game gives to you, especially during some of those bad endings. (Especially when a grade schooler is crying her heart out while a spirit mashes her eyeball with scissors.) Can be bought from PSN with a couple of bucks, highly recommended. | PC, PSP | |
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Worlds.com | 3D Chat client, Mindfuckery | Worlds.com is an ancient 3D chat client from 1994, running on a DOOM like 3D engine. For some reason it's still up and gets somewhat updated, even though almost nobody inhabits this virtual reality. Explore the vast, empty user created worlds and get freaked out by the still remaining players (or apparitions?). It feels like you're doing Internet archeology. Finding some abandoned guild hall with creepy pictures of the members everywhere and links to their godforsaken 90s style websites, jesus christ it's horrifying. It kinda plays kinda like LSD, but it's online. | PC |
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Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon | Action, Adventure, Mind Fuck | You're the last human human in the world(as far as you know) and leave your now dead grandfathers observatory to seek out others. As you explore, you learn more and more about what killed everyone. Every item you find reveals the original owners story of dealing with what was killing off humanity. Its depressing, and there are quite a few "WTF moments". | Wii |
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Calling | Survival Horror | A first person Survival Horror involving ghosts as well as a lot of J-Horror clichés. The game is reminiscent of Echo Night: Beyond (PS2) in many ways such as the look of the ghosts, also you don't have any weapon, your heart-rate is your "health" and you die if it's too high. The storyline is also very good. | Wii |
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Ju-On: The Grudge | Survival Horror | A very underrated Survival Horror for the Wii. This one is very simple and rather short, but if you ask me, it's also one of the scariest games this gen (and it costs very little). It is divided in several chapters in which you must solve simple item-based puzzles to find the exit, while trying not to get killed by ghosts. You don't have any weapon. You use the Wiimote as a flashlight. This game isn't for everybody, most people will probably find it dull (all "pro" critics did). I recommend it for horror fanatics, or if you're looking for a game that will get your girlfriend scared easily, as the game is so simple anybody can play it.Beware if you're looking for a solid storyline, however: Ju-on has a minimalistic plot and most regard its ending as utterly underwhelming. | Wii, PC |
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Harvester | Mindfuck, horror, point and click | Controversial point and click adventure from 1996. You play Steve, a guy that wakes up with amnesia in a very clean cut, Twin Peaks kind of town. Things get more and more fucked up involving strange and disturbing missions and extremely gory FMV sequences. In the same vein as Phantasmagoria... only better. | PC |
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Juggernaut | Mindfuck, horror, point and click | Weird as hell FMV game. In the game your girlfriend is possessed by the devil. A priest transmits your soul into her psyche in order to get rid of the demon. The meat of the story takes place inside a mansion. You need to transmit your soul into the body of a man, a child or go without a body in order to access different rooms. After completing certain tasks you are transported to other worlds where you tackle other quests. These worlds are an island, a factory and a futuristic internet world. Very original and very odd game. | PSX |
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Downfall | Mindfuck, horror, point and click | Extremely bleak and disturbing indie game. The plot is very convoluted, depressing, and also quite mindblowing. It will probably destroy your soul. The backgrounds are hand sketched, which sets a dreamy mood to the whole game. Nice soundtrack, too. The production company, Harvester Games, has taken down their website. But a demo of the game can be found here |
PC |
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Ib | Horror, Adventure, Mindfuck | You play as a young girl named Ib who takes an adventure through a demented art gallery. The game has a grim atmosphere and a heavy focus on psychological horror (with a few jump scares to thrown in). There are multiple endings as well to add interest. The translated version can be downloaded here. | PC |
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Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong-Nou | Adventure, Mindfuck | Made by the same guy who made LSD Dream Emulator. It came out for Windows 3.x and Mac. The game is about searching for your lost soul on an island that takes the shape of a giant green head (see cover), and doesn't make sense at all. | PC |
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SCP - Containment Breach | Survival Horror |
A free indie game based on the stories of the SCP Foundation . You play as one of the workers of an SCP Containment Site, a facility built for containing various paranormal entitites. Soon after starting the game, a massive containment breach occurs and you'll have to make you way out of the building alive.
The building and the events are randomly generated so each playthrough is different. |
PC |
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Ghoul's Forest (series) | Survival Horror, Action |
Series of 3 separate PWADs for Doom 2. There are three WADs in the series; each one takes place in a large, dark forest, with one or more "ghouls" inside. The "ghouls" are fast-moving, usually instantly-killing monsters with a disturbing appearance.
Requires ZDoom, Skulltag or other source port. |
PC |
| Deception/Kagero series | Survival Horror | A 4-game series, all about frail young girls making deals with the devil to obtain paranormal trap-laying power. Your enemies try to brutally murder your girl while she indirectly fights back with traps in equally brutal ways. Always keep the tension high due to the fact that your girls can only run away from the enemies and lure them into traps. Interesting gameplay involving crafting traps, laying, timing and chaining them into combo. Combine that with environmental traps and you get a sadist's wet dream. | PS, PS2 |
Catherine
Recommendation Copypasta
