Console Horror Games!

[Croyles]

Silent Hill 1 and 2 of course. I was actually a lot more freaked out in Silent Hill 1, but thats cause I was a lot younger when I played it. By all accounts Silent Hill 2 is a much better game.

Actually, I would argue that SH was scarier than SH2 regardless of the age you play it at. SH2 was a great game with great characters and story and some genuinely disturbing moments, but it felt like they pulled their punches a bit when they made it. Although there are some terrifying moments, it wasn't as effective at making me want to save and shut off the game because I couldn't take it anymore as the first game was.

But while we're on the topic of which SH is scarier, SH3 is scarier than both combined. If SH2 was where they pulled their punches a bit, then SH3 is where they pulled out all the stops. Plus it has an amusement park haunted house. I mean really, an honest to god haunted house in a SH game. I swear when I came across it I had to take a minute or two just to work up the nerve to walk in.

Yeah maybe, its been too long since I played them. I can definitely agree on Silent Hill 3 really freaking me out though! Those pulsating walls! ughh...

[Levian]

Ah, my area of expertise

I simply love Clock Tower, especially the first for playstation and Clock Tower 3. I feel they're the most user friendly of the bunch Although Clock Tower 1 PSX also has its share of screwing the player over in unpredictable ways. It's all part of the charm though. I'll be the first in line whenever Clock Tower 4 is released

Haunting Ground. This game has some seriously creepy parts. There's a closet where you can hide from the creepy woman with the glass shard as a weapon, and almost every time the closet will be able to hide in, but every once in a while, she will already be inside the closet. I would just die if that happened to me, and not in the game mind you. This game was very nice, but not quite Clock Tower.

Resident Evil is great fun, but it hasn't really been horror since Resident Evil 3. RE4 and RE5 are too action orientated and linear. They're great in their own way and I really enjoy them, but they're not really what the series started out to be. I'd love to see a game more like Code Veronica X or the gamecube games, REmake and zero. I'd also love to see an Outbreak game that actually functioned and didn't have unbearable loading times.

Silent Hill is awesome like many people have mentioned before me, the only thing I have to add is that SH4 and SH5 are getting too much pepper, they were both very nice games imho, even if they were a bit different from the first three. I think especially SH5 had a very nice story and one of the moments that have creeped me out the most in the series. SH5 ending spoilerWhen we see the mayor digging around in the cemetary. I figured he was digging something up and didn't think it was relevant exactly what, and it didn't seem the main character cared very much either. When we later find out he was burying his own son alive it sent shivers down my spine especially because we were able to walk freely nearby him while he did just that. Also, the fighting in SH4 and 5 were really nice. I know fighting never was an important part of the series, but have you tried playing the first three lately? I played them all before the summer and I found myself mostly running away from everything. It's nearly impossible to hit the birds in SH1 and in SH3 it's impossible to kill almost anything. I suppose that adds to the feeling of paranoia somehow, though. They're all great games really.

Obscure is flawed in many ways. The action part can be way too hard sometimes, and you die too easily, which is annoying because the game doesn't stop if you die, it just continues without that person. It is however 2 player, which is extremely rare in survival horror. It's an awesome thing to experience this genre with someone else. Obscure 2 I haven't tried much, I played the prologue with my sister but we just died and got lost all the time so we gave up and never tried it again. I do want to pick it up again though.

Fatal Frame/Project Zero. Ugh, this just never did the trick for me. It's dark and I got lost all the time because every hallway looked the same. I might pick it up eventually, but it's going to take a lot of effort xD

Forbidden Siren. I've only tried the first one, and while the beginning was very thrilling, especially the notebook parts, it was just a bit too hard for me. Not sure how old I was when I played it, but I should've been old enough to be able to deal with hard games. It's annoying when you get shot just once and you die from it. Sure, it's realistic, but it's annoying. Especially when you don't even know who shot you. Stupid sniper zombies!

Alone in the Dark. They did too release one for console! new nightmare. This is the only AitD game I've finished! it might possibly be the longest game too, so that's weird. Very fun game and challenging too, not too hard and not too easy. I also enjoyed the dark areas being dangerous and the light areas being safe. It made me quite scared to run through dark corridors with my flashlight broken.

Rule of Rose. I want to play this game! Apparently it's very disturbing and never even got released in Norway and many other countries. I found it on french amazon, so I might buy it there eventually.

Condemned is a game I was quite surprised with. Sure, it got repetitive and sometimes there was just hallway after hallway, but the AI of the enemies really made this game. Enemies that snuck around, ran away from you, hid in places until you were close enough to get. I'm not used to smart enemies! they caught me off guard. The Saw game was not nearly as bad as I thought too. Some of the puzzles are really clever and definitely made me feel good when I solved them. However that was all ruined by how horribly repetitive this game is with inferior obnoxious puzzles, such as fixing fuse boxes, making gears fit and putting pipes together. It got annoying to have to do one or the other every 10th minute or so, especially because these types of puzzles are puzzles we've all seen and done in games hundreds of times already. It just seemed like a cheap way to lengthen the game.

[Moon Rabbits]

Silent Hill 1 and 2 of course. I was actually a lot more freaked out in Silent Hill 1, but thats cause I was a lot younger when I played it. By all accounts Silent Hill 2 is a much better game.

Actually, I would argue that SH was scarier than SH2 regardless of the age you play it at. SH2 was a great game with great characters and story and some genuinely disturbing moments, but it felt like they pulled their punches a bit when they made it. Although there are some terrifying moments, it wasn't as effective at making me want to save and shut off the game because I couldn't take it anymore as the first game was.

But while we're on the topic of which SH is scarier, SH3 is scarier than both combined. If SH2 was where they pulled their punches a bit, then SH3 is where they pulled out all the stops. Plus it has an amusement park haunted house. I mean really, an honest to god haunted house in a SH game. I swear when I came across it I had to take a minute or two just to work up the nerve to walk in.

Yes, I agree with this. SH2 had the best storyline, I think, but most definitely not the best atmosphere (although the introduction of the Mannequin monster scared the living bat out of me, not to mention the scene following with Pyramid Head and the rapeage).

SH was scurry as hell. Very very early on in the game, like RIGHT after you start playing and you're chasing Cheryl down an alleyway, the camera does this really cool shaky camera thing that afaik only happens there and nowhere else and it's just amazing. Such a good touch. And then you turn around with your matches lit and BAM DEMON CHILDREN. Lisa is one of the coolest characters ever written.

But yeah, SH3 - best atmosphere and all around scaryness for sure. Closers are the best monster ever designed. Heather's character design is amazing, to the point where she is one of my favorite fictional characters. The imperfections on her skin, the defeated look she always wears, the redness around here eyes; just amazing amazing amazing. That, and SH3 has Valtiel.

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo AMAZING. I love the first 3 silent hills.

SH4 had some good stuff going on (the hole in the bathroom wall I always thought was rad). The first victim you find (SPOILER) in the subway and covered in blood but still alive really always irked me. And the baboon-monkey-two-headed demon things. And the twin ghosts. Aaaaah~

SH5 had a pretty decent storyline. I liked it. The gameplay was by far the best and most enjoyable, but the fact that combat became so good and so much less clunky took away some of the claustrophobic terror involved with the old clunky controls. The part where (SPOILER)Alex's mother is crucified was freaky. And the part (SPOILER)where you get kidnapped and have the drill driven into your leg! aaaaaaah~ Oh, and the part Levian mentioned, too, with Mayor Bartlett. *shiverrrrrrr shiver* SH5 sort of ... lost the touch, though.

Ryukishi is spot on about the sound design too. Akira Yamaoka = genius.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Also, the fighting in SH4 and 5 were really nice. I know fighting never was an important part of the series, but have you tried playing the first three lately? I played them all before the summer and I found myself mostly running away from everything. It's nearly impossible to hit the birds in SH1 and in SH3 it's impossible to kill almost anything. I suppose that adds to the feeling of paranoia somehow, though.

I think Silent Hill: Shattered Memories handled it best by abstaining from combat and other "game-y" traditions (such as menu screens, flavor text instead of spoken commentary, etc.) altogether, focusing from the ground up simply on creating a frightening and immersive psychological experience.

[KentaRawr!]

Just to point something out, the first Clock Tower wasn't for the PSX. That was the second Clock Tower. The first Clock Tower wasn't released outside Japan, and was for the Super Famicom.

[Levian]

Discussing the first two Clock Towers is always awkward and confusion is bound to happen, it's kinda like Final Fantasy 2/4 and 3/6. Can't really label the second Clock Tower as Clock Tower 2 either since that title is taken by the horrible Ghost Head PSX sequel. ugh, weird game. Maybe I'll refer to it as Clock Tower 1.5

I think Silent Hill: Shattered Memories handled it best by abstaining from combat and other "game-y" traditions (such as menu screens, flavor text instead of spoken commentary, etc.) altogether, focusing from the ground up simply on creating a frightening and immersive psychological experience.

Nice! I haven't gotten around to buy this game yet, but it's definitely on my To Buy list. I hope no combats won't take away from the suspense when playing or the feeling of fear that there might be an enemy nearby. Combats often just feel like obstacles, so if they can pull it off while still making things scary then that's just awesome.

[black orb]

>>> Some creepy pinball machines used to scare me when I was little..
Console horror games? those are not scary at all..

[Meat Puppet]

>>> Some creepy pinball machines used to scare me when I was little..:luca:
Console horror games? those are not scary at all..

My dad had one of these machines. My brother and I would sneak out into the shed at midnight to play it... creeped the hell out of us
edit: My one was in English, though. FREE THE TITANS!

God that tunnel was a bastard.

[I Took the Red Pill]

Eternal Darkness.