Top 10 Scariest Leading Video Games 2011
1 "Silent Hill 2"
If I found the first "Silent Hill" to be scary, that's nothing compared to the psycho-sexual disturbia of "Silent Hill 2". You play James, who is so repressed and disturbed, the landscape begins to reflect his troubled mind. How can you play a game with an unreliable protagonist? You don't even know if what you're seeing is real!
If you need more convincing, this is the game that introduced Pyramid Head to the world. The scene where James watches it rape and murder one of the creatures made of legs is . . . horrific.
I think I need to go play some Mario to get that image out of my head.
This is, by far, one of the most disturbing games I've ever played. This time, you're trapped in a village with a direct line into an ancient evil that is about to rise up. Once again, your best line of defense is the old camera. Because that is SO fair of the game. Hey, primeval malevolence attacking? Instamatic to the rescue.
Seriously, though, this game gave me nightmares. It will just get under your skin like very few games I have ever played.
3 "Fear Effect”
When I first started writing about "Fear Effect", I mistakenly referred to it as a movie. I realized then that I was half right, as "Fear Effect" is like being immersed in an interactive film. You play a despicable character who has to learn, think, and act quickly. The Chinese mythology makes this game both mysterious and almost alien. Basically, you're in way over your head and have to spend the game dealing with horrors that come straight from your darkest nightmares. It is definitely one of the most underrated games on this list.
4 Silent Hill
The game that launched a massive franchise and changed the face of survival horror. This psychological nightmare set the standard for its later games (number two is even better, in my opinion), gave us a whole host of nightmarish creatures, and one of the most haunting soundtracks for game or film ever. It's also worth mentioning that the "death" of Lisa Garland is one of the most heartbreaking and eerie sequences I have ever seen in a game.
5 Fatal Frame
This game annoyed me to no end the first time I finished it, if only because (SPOILERS) Manfuyu stays behind with Kirie. I mean, why did I even come to the mansion to rescue you if you were just going to stay behind, you doofus? However, the ending has since grown on me and, really, this game is seriously messed up. Your only weapon is the Camera Obscura, so, yes, you fight evil with the power of Polaroid.
6 "The Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth"
While I'm not a huge fan of the combat system of this game, the atmosphere and potential for exploration is incredible. I knew I was playing a great game when I read the doctor's journal. Here, he described the procedure in which he removed a person's entire skeletal system, noting how long the body continued to twitch until it finally died. As with everything good and Lovecraft, too much exposure to the horror will result in loss of sanity. That journal entry had my character messed up for a really, really long time.
7 Doom 3
I played through the first two "Doom" games and, while I enjoyed them, I figured "Doom 3" would be just as enjoyable, if not somewhat forgettable. Needless to say, I was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Instead of paying just minor lip-service to the science fiction/horror genre, the game developers ratchet up the horror aspects.
Demons from Hell? Check.
Zombies wiping out an entire military base? Check.
Horrific Cherubs that were smarter than you?
. . .
Check. And check.
8 The Lurking Horror
What makes "The Lurking Horror" so effective is that it doesn't take place in some abandoned military base or haunted house. You're stuck on your college campus in the middle of a snow storm. And it is QUIET. Needless to say, your character's original quest to finish his term paper gets overshadowed by trying to prevent Earth from turning into another hell. It's a nightmarish game with a strong sense of gallows humor.
9 The 7th Guest
For those of us who started gaming on our PCs, this was the original horror game and I remember being completely blown away by it. You find yourself in a mysterious mansion once owned by a German doll maker. Your job?
One: figure out what happened to the seven guests that disappeared with the doll maker.
Two, navigate the doll maker's creepy puzzles and games.
Three, figure out what the heck you have to do with all of this.
It's unnerving, spooky, and a heckuva good time.
It isn't that the game itself is all that scary (although walking around at night all the time can get a little unnerving). What I'm talking about are the two most unnerving missions in the game: the haunted mansion and the snuff film. In the first one, you have to explore a mansion where some guy went all redrum on his family. You might turn a corner and see a little girl run screaming into a bedroom. Or have a vase fly down the hall at your head. Almost as bad as the haunting, though, is the unnerving silence the house assumes when you finish the quest. The snuff film, though, is less subtle and more nightmarish. Some hellish creatures are filmed attacking random women in an abandoned house and these people, well, film it. Guess what you get to go investigate
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