Virtual Fear: 10 Scary Videogames, Part 1

Being a console gamer, I missed the text based pc horror games of the 80s. (I also never found the Alone in the Dark series scary, for all of you who are going to reference that game as the genesis of fear on the videogame console.) Despite the fact that a couple 16 bit titles surfaced in Japan that were of a horror bent, 2D sprites didn’t lend themselves to creating a very creepy atmosphere, and games that were truly horror themed didn’t arise until the 32 bit consoles arrived to take us into the realm of 3D gaming.

I remember playing the original Resident Evil on the Playstation. It was the first game that I purchased for the PS, in fact it was the game that convinced me I needed to make the jump from 16 bit gaming to the next generation.

I was home alone on a weekend day playing, and as the day disappeared and the shadows lengthened on the floor I actually got up and turned on the lights. Then I went to the next room and turned on those lights. Then I walked to the staircase and turned on those lights as well. I then played the game until the small hours of the night.

It was the first game that ever had that effect on me, and I remember thinking that being a console gamer for all those years was finally starting to pay off. As a young adult I sheepishly was somewhat ashamed of my hobby, as it didn’t seem very grown up or very cool. I got over that after a while as I realized that fun was fun, and interacting with your television was at least more worthwhile than passively sitting in front of it while hours of your life disappeared.

After the original Resident Evil, more horror based games started to show up, some dreadfully bad and others extremely effective. Here are some of my picks as memorable moments in the horror game genre, both on game consoles and PC, arranged in a somewhat chronological order (Caution: spoilers may follow):

Resident Evil (PS, Saturn)

As a horror movie, Resident Evil wouldn’t have raised your heartbeat much or made much of an impression. The dialog was supremely cheesy (in a good way). The character models were low polygon count on a pre-rendered background, and control left something to be desired.

It was the fact that for the first time gamers were treated to a game experience that put gamers in an interactive horror experience like nothing that preceded it that made Resident Evil so memorable. This game really resonated with me, a child of the 70s and raised on Romero movies and similar drive-in fare. The Gamecube remake sports vastly improved graphics and is superior in just about every way, but we’ll always remember the first one as a classic, the first game that really scared us.

Favorite moment: the camera switching to the another perspective as the view flies down the hallways you’ve just made your way through to where your character is currently standing, and you are introduced to the Hunter for the first time.

Quake (PC)

Ok, Quake is not a horror game. It is the first great online multiplayer deathmatch experience and blazed the way for every FPS that followed. It’s single player experience was Spartan, with a mere thread of a story.

The reason I include Quake in this list is the same reason it made such an impact as a FPS. It was truly three dimensional, unlike the flat worlds of Doom, and that made the experience more immersive. The game was not so much scary as it contained moments that truly took you by surprise, and my favorite moments are why it’s included in this list.

Favorite moments: on more than one occasion while playing, I knocked the chair I was sitting in over when a fiend leapt out of nowhere at me. I remember frantically trying to dispatch the fiend on such occasions, and successful or not, always ended up pausing the game afterwards and laughing that I had been shocked enough to knock over my chair and thinking how great Quake was.

System Shock 2 (PC)

System Shock 2 is not a horror game either, and I am sure that it and Quake’s inclusion will draw the ire of some readers. This game was very successful at creating a lonely, creepy atmosphere. Lonely to the point where you became comfortable in the fact that you were alone, and then suddenly you weren’t.

I had incredibly high hopes for Bioshock after this game. Unfortunately Bioshock, while a worthwhile game and by no means mediocre, did not live up to the legacy of System Shock 2. The ghosts in System Shock 2 were used to great effect, whereas the random, occasional appearance of a ghost or memory in Bioshock felt like an afterthought and added nothing to the experience.

Favorite moment: the strongest memory I have of this game is being in a lab hallway and hearing one of the crazed cybermonkeys howling it’s awful howl. I stood in that hallway for a loooooonnngg time, trying to localize where that damn monkey was, not having any luck, and not wanting to go find him or have him find me. I was probably low on ammo, and the monkeys, being approximately at knee level, were a bitch to fight, especially if your health was already low. The monkeys sounded really pissed, and it was really unnerving to hear that sound in circumstances where your character was already compromised.

Silent Hill (PS)

I have expressed my feelings for this series in a previous article on this site. I will state now and for the record that Silent Hill is my all time favorite game series. No other game has ever inspired so much fear and dread, and the Silent Hill experience is so effective and so well done that I think it surpasses any form of horror entertainment, because you are completely immersed in the experience instead of watching or reading someone else’s nightmare.

The original Silent Hill sought to capitalize on the popularity of Resident Evil, but in terms of atmosphere and sheer horror it blew it out of the water. Not the commercial success that Resident Evil is, Silent Hill is the horror fan’s horror game.

The original Silent Hill introduced the grainy graphics, the wonderful music the series is known for, characters that were not based on some folk horror image like the zombie but truly nightmarish visions from hell, and the wail of that siren. That siren was the harbinger or dread, and hearing it you soon knew that your vision would darken and things would change, in a bad way. The game was also fairly tough, or at least I remember it being so as I seem to recall spending a lot of time running in fear with almost no ammo or health.

Favorite moments: all of them.

Next week we will finish out the list, so look for Part 2 in one week.

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