25 People On The Horror Game That Gave Them Nightmares

1. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem

“It played horrible evil tricks on you like making you think you just played through a room full of enemies and picked up all sorts of cool loot, only to find out it was just a hallucination and you’re up against an army of mummies with nothing but a blow dart. Or the screen would suddenly come up with an “unexpected error” and the console shut down, giving you a freaking heart attack, only to turn back on again right where you left off. Or there was one time where you’d be in the middle of a fight and the game said your controller was disconnected and nothing you did worked and you could only stand there and watch while you were being torn to pieces.” — NinjaShira

2. Silent Hill

“The first Silent Hill game on Playstation 2 scared the hell out of my wife late one night. We were up late playing and the character goes into an old school gym locker room. There’s a faint knocking and then ‘boom’ a locker opens with a body falling towards the character from the character POV. With it being late, the lights down low and the vibration of the shock controller, she screamed and backed up quickly across the floor, throwing the controller away from her.” — NormanRB

3. Allen Wake

“It’s where you play as a horror writer who goes on vacation with his wife in a sleepy little town in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Northern California) during which he intends to work on his latest novel and hopefully break his writer’s block that has plagued him.

The vacation comes to an abrupt halt when your wife is kidnapped by what appears to be a supernatural force which comes from under the water of the lake which your rented cabin sits on.

From there you go on a quest to find your wife, figure out what’s going on in this strange little town, and defeat the evil which is slowly swallowing the town whole.

The gameplay is unique and always keeps you on the edge of your seat, but the story has plenty of quit moments where you get to speak to people in the town and figure out what’s going on. The narrative moments are similar to an episode of The Twilight Zone or Twin Peaks which a Stephen King style protagonist.” — KicksButtson

4. Fatal Frame

“I’ve bought it for my PS3 as a PS2 classic in PSN. It’s still sitting there. Last time I’ve played was I think two years ago. What made it so scary? Well you’re in a haunted mansion and ghosts will spook the hell out of your ass. What make things more terrifying is that the only weapon you have is the obscura, the camera that has the anti exorcism power against the evil ghosts. Yeah, you have to capture the picture of ghosts. And there are random areas that will give you jump scares. I’m still afraid to play it even in daylight.”

5. Fatal Frame 2

“Narrow corridors and ghosts appearing in any direction is fucking terrifying. The combat is like Resident Evil 4 shooting so it’s flipping clunky and the occasional jump scares get me all the time whether it’s behind a door or around the corner.” — ItszBrian

6. Condemned: Criminal Origins

“That game is fucking terrifying. The mannequins scene where you turn around and they are now closed in… I shat.” — AdClemson

7. Alien: Isolation

“Just can’t get myself to finish the game, because the alien keeps showing up every three seconds.”  — NSAseesU

8. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

“The atmosphere is very scary and there is a lack of ammunition and the hero goes mad if you watch disturbing scenes long enough. It’s like you’re really got inside Lovecraft story.” — eduard93

9. Thief

“The insane asylum in Thief, particularly the dummies on the stage in the basement. I fucking knew they were gonna be moved when I turned around and still jumped a mile high!” — Dalisword

10. Resident Evil 4

“It was scary, and the tension the game created was just.. TENSE. Trying to save that bitch, ammo, herbs, AIMING, hoping that chainsaw fuck bag face mothrfker didn’t show up in your face… The game was just so good. It always made you feel like there’s something you don’t know…” — poopellar

11. Dark Souls

“It’s not just the bosses, it’s the whole damn game. I’ve never found myself creeping around corners and jumping at slight noises like I did when I played Dark Souls for the first time. Nothing has ever created more panic for me than an unexpected enemy joining a fight.

The moments before you fight Ceaseless Discharge? Horrifying. Any second I was sure I was going to accidentally set this thing off.

Creeping around Sen’s Fortress the first time? You could cut the tension with a knife.

Everything in and leading up to Tomb of the Giants.” — LotusFlare

12. Amnesia

“Amnesia was the first game that made me slam my laptop shut while screaming because I got scared.” — WickedRaccoon

13. The Suffering

“This was a game for PS2 which unfortunately didn’t get a lot of fame at the time of its release, but it certainly deserved it.

You play as a convict on an island prison similar to Alcatraz. (except much larger) You’ve been imprisoned for the murder of your wife and kids, but you can’t really remember doing it. Your character has a definite violent streak in which you freak out and hurt people, but in your mind you literally become a monster when this happens. No one else can see the monster, just you. It’s symbolic of your violent behavior and your black outs.

Something happens which allows you out of your cell. Someone or something is killing off the guards and other inmates. Turns out the island has been the site of many horrible events, and for some reason those events have begun to manifest themselves as horrible monsters and the gates of hell are opening up all around you. Each monster has a backstory related to some historical event on the island which you keep in a journal.

You have to fight your way off the island, saving or dooming anyone you find along the way. During your journey you’ll unlock memories of your past and what actually happened the day your family died, the event you couldn’t recall which led to your incarceration.

This is one of my top twenty favorite games of all time, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes the survival horror genre.”  — KicksButtson

14. Heart of Darkness

“Heart of Darkness on my Playstation 1. I was probably 8 years old and its art style and atmosphere creeped me the fuck out, I literally almost shat myself when I played it all alone for the first time.” — ItsPapaLuigi

15. Fear

“I remember there being a part where you go to get on a ladder. As you turn around to start going down the little girl is right there in your face. I died.” — Whiskey_Frisky

16. Clock Tower

“Surprised nobody has mentioned it, but Clock Tower.

Fuck those giant scissors. Such a creepy game.” — newmind01

17. System Shock 2

“It’s one of the first games where the audio was designed to really freak out the player. There’s nothing like running from infected crew members who beg your forgiveness as the parasite that controls them tries to murder you. Damn scary, yo.” — Cartoonlad

18. Dead Space 3

“Dead Space 3. I can’t get myself to finish the damn thing.” — yellananner

19. STALKER: Call of Pripyat

“STALKER: Call of Pripyat. Just, the atmosphere of it all. Going into those pitch-black abandoned buildings not knowing what’s around the next corner.

And then my stupid ass started playing with the UI completely disabled (I call it ‘realism mode’). The game is still about 90% playable like that, there’s just no near-death indicators and it disables the Geiger counter/anomaly warning for some reason.” — Xidus933

20. Bioshock

“I’m not very into horror games (I’m a tremendous pussy) but I found myself most scared in Bioshock, when you can hear the raving lunatics running around you but have no clue where they are.” — Kibby45

21. Outlast.

“It made amnesia look like a child’s game.” — Zombiehacker595

22. Skyrim

“There’s one cave in Skyrim with some little dwarf chest sitting in the middle of the room… I expected it to be a trap, but when I opened it the bloody walls busted open and some falmer came shambling out. The silent way they just bounded toward me combined with the lighting and being trapped in a cave, was just incredibly unnerving. They were also much more powerful than me.

I was totally immersed at that moment too, the first time I can remember getting a noticeable adrenaline spike from a game.” — CypherZer0

23. Half-Life 2

“It gets so much worse when the fast zombies show up. That fucking part where you have to wait for the elevator…” — Wes___Mantooth

24. Bloodborne

“I’m not so sure if it’s the most terrifying but I found bloodborne fairly creepy and eerie in its atmosphere. I find they really pushed, and succeeded, with the horror element and there were times where I was genuinely scared of what was coming next.” — Broseph_of_Bol

25. Dead Space

“At one point I forced myself to continue no matter what happened. Eventually I reached a point where you’d be locked in a room with one of those creatures. I blasted it to bits firing every single round I had, I was filled with joy when it was finally dead…

Then it started resurrecting…

I never played again.” — racoon1969