We all have our reasons for playing video games. For some it is simply for escapism, and for others it can be for pure fun and enjoyment. It can be a social retreat or even a pure test of will and determination. Rarely do games instill genuine emotion in us, but every now and again something will come a long that will bring many a gamer to tears, or take them to nirvana… and sometimes absolute hell.

That’s where the survival horror genre steps in, screaming at you with the demonic eyes of Satan himself. 

1. Amnesia – The Dark Descent

You could say that Amnesia is the new kid on the block, but Frictional Games have been making frightful survival horror games for a while now. Their first was Penumbra, a first person puzzle solving adventure through a deserted and insanely creepy scientific research facility in Antartica. It’s rich with zombie dogs, dead people who have mutated into alien-like forms, and lots and lots of darkness.

Amnesia presents more of the same gameplay, but an entirely different setting with a delicious graphical update and of course a major upgrade as far as creepiness and scare factor is concerned. In Amnesia you play as a man who has amnesia, as the title suggests. You’re on a survival horror journey through what could be the most fear inducing castle known to man. It’s deeply atmospheric, immersive and should only be played on dark stormy nights with the curtains closed and the lights off.

You’ll explore the castle, solving puzzles and trying your best not to get killed by the monsters that lurk within, monsters so grotesque in form that fellow newbreview writer Mr Kieran Roycroft can’t even bare to look at them. Plus you’re unarmed, there are no weapons in this game, if the monsters see you you’ll have only one option, RUN AWAY AND HIDE IN A CLOSET LIKE A LITTLE GIRL. The game’s physics engine can be utilised to barricade doors with other items of furniture or boxes you can find strewn about the place, but eventually THEY WILL GET YOU. The only thing you’ll have is a lantern and a torch, the sweet embrace of it’s light is your saviour.

The game is all about keeping your sanity and many players have lost theirs in trying to do so, some being reduced to tears, many losing control of their bowels and the odd few have even DIED! Well… not really, but Amnesia regularly brings you pretty close to the point of having a heart attack. In fact if you’re interested in any way what a heart attack might actually feel like I suggest you run out and buy it.

2. F.E.A.R- If you want to make a game to scare people what better title than F.E.A.R (as in First Encounter Assault Recon) a game that Monolith Productions designed from the ground up to be a seat stainer. During production they went as far as asking the community to divulge their worst fears so that they may be included in the game.

Released in 2005 the game has done surprisingly well for itself, being one of the highest ranked FPS games money can buy. You play as the point man of a F.E.A.R squad, a government funded paranormal investigations team with some of the coolest firepower available. Normally it would seem wrong to give a bunch of testosterone-fueled soldiers guns to simply go ghost hunting, but this isn’t exactly your typical episode of Britain’s Most haunted: something has gone terribly wrong at an underground research facility and a lot of people are dead because of a menacing phenomenon in the form of a little girl. As Japanese film making has proved there’s nothing more scary that a little girl.

Throughout the game you’ll venture through a number of interesting but sometimes bland environments, blowing everything up and shooting anything that moves because you’re always on edge with this game. Floors will turn into rivers of blood, dead bodies dropping from the ceiling, and evil spirits play havok with your senses. The game is crammed full of references to great horror  films and other stuff that will completely mess with your head. I believe this game falls under the category of total mind f*ck.

It’s an enjoyable game, the super powers the protagonist has, including the ability to slow down time, make sure of that.

3. Dead Space- Dead Space has quickly  become one of the most popular games of this generation of consoles. It has won multiple awards for its fear inducing sound design and atmosphere that has left many copies of the game collecting dust on shelves because gamers can’t bring themselves to even turn the game back on so they can finish it. Yes, it’s that scary. And if there was ever a better setting it’s in space, where nobody can hear you scream as you get ripped into shreds by former shipmates who have mutated into grotesque monsters with blades for limbs and a taste for flesh.

You can’t rely on a trusty firearm either, this is a spaceship, the USG Ishimura to be precise, or rather it was a spaceship before it got near enough destroyed thanks to Necropmorphs. Despite playing the role of an engineer there’s no way your fixing the ship, so grabs your laser cutters, your nuclear powered chainsaws, your futuristic chainsaws and your sonic screwdrivers and man the hell up cuz there be monsters to kill. Don’t forget to aim for the limbs!

4. Silent Hill 2- When talking about scary games its only fair to mention the Silent Hill series. It takes the creepiness level to an entirely different dimension, dragging the player to a town where it snows ash, walls are made from barbed wire, and blood and guts decorate the hallways like a cannibal Christmas party. Not all of the Silent Hill games were a major success (at least not over here in Europe) but Silent Hill 2 is widely considered to be the best in the series. Evil spirits,witchcraft, necrophilia, torture, murder and a butt load of mind games are all present in this maddening adventure, accompanied by a superbly eerie soundtrack.

The game’s atmosphere has just as tight of a hold around your neck as the story, with the constant threat of Pyramid Head lurking in the shadows, waiting to pull your skin off and devour your soul.

You play as James Sunderland, a man who receives a letter from his wife letting him know that she is stuck in Silent Hill. The only problem is that she has been dead for years! You set off to the titular town in order to find out what is going on, and find yourself going on a terrifying journey through your own psyche, full of psychotic perverts, and deformed monstrosities. Perfect night time entertainment.

5. Left 4 Dead- These days it seems Valve can do no wrong and there’s no better formula for success than zombies + shotguns x gore = win. Everyone loves a zombie, especially the killing part. Left 4 Dead was (and still is) an incredibly popular team based survival game, and it’s certainly right at the top of the kangaroo scale when it comes to making you jump in a frenzied panic. The game is LOUD!

The zombie menace will come at you thick and fast, screaming at the top of their lungs, and you’ll be flailing whatever weapon you can find wildly, knocking off five or six heads at once. If that wasn’t enough the threat of super powered zombies, such as the insta-kill witch or (heaven forbid) a gigantic muscle-bound tank, lurking around the corner is ever present, leading to some severe brown trouser moments.

There’s just as much tension in-game as there is between your teammates. Each level builds up to a thrilling climax as you fight off wave after wave of zombies as you wait for a means of escaping at the end of each stage… that is, assuming you make it there without your three compadres betraying you for ammo or health kits, or even just for laughs.

6. DOOM 3- The Doom series is one of the grandfathers of FPS gaming and back in 2004 id software decided it was time to reboot the franchise, so they disregarded the storyline from 1&2 then made 3 and holy hell was it scary. Unfortunately scientists have made another boo boo and have accidentally opened a gateway to hell while conducting teleportation experiments in a research facility on Mars… as you do. An army of demons has come through, killing everyone they find, and have completely ruined your vacation because now, as one of the best space marines on Earth, you’ve been called in, along with a rag tag bunch of army buddies, to sort it all out.

Doom 3 has some of the best lighting effects ever: it’s a dark game, a very dark game, and your trusty flash light soon becomes your best friend. You can’t hold a gun and the flashlight at the same time, so you’ll progress slowly and cautiously. If videogames have taught us all anything it is that space is a really dangerous dangerous place and if we’re ever lucky enough to perfect intergalactic flights to other planets we should probably leave it alone. Stay the hell out of space and for god’s sake don’t ever got to Mars because that’s where the devil lives.

7. Resident Evil- If we’re going to talk about scary games it’s only fair to mention Resident Evil, the franchise was one of the driving forces pushing the survival horror genre out of the dark and into the public’s delighted, yet terrified, eyes. Again it’s the scientists who are to blame, bio engineering viruses that bring the dead back to life was never going to end well now was it? And to make matters worse you’re stuck in a huge mansion that was built by a crazy architect who liked to put spikes on the ceiling and secret doors everywhere.

The voice acting is laughably bad by today’s standards (in fact it was pretty by the standards of the time as well) but Resident Evil never lost its charm. It’s one of those games from the golden age of Playstation that almost everyone played. It is a game that is crammed full of so many memorable moments: the first time you see a zombie (oh I had so many nightmares about him) and the first time those zombie dogs come jumping in through the windows… it gets me every time.

8. Dino Crisis- And from one Shinji Mikami game to another:  Dino Crisis was an attempt to spawn a new sub-genre of “panic horror” with more of the same Resident Evil style gameplay, this time we’re swapping out zombies for an even more terrifying menace, those goddamn Dinosaurs. I’m pretty sure everyone is born with a pre-programmed fear of dinosaurs, therefore this game has widespread appeal as a dinosaur killing simulator, just in case an eccentric billionaire actually goes and brings dinosaurs back from extinction.

It’s a thrilling game overflowing with suspense especially when those quick time events kick in. Weapons and ammo are hard to come by, but thankfully when there’s puzzle solving to be done, the dinosaurs will leave you be. If you need another  reason to face your fear of dinosaurs, how about playing as a feisty redhead? While not being as popular, or as influential, as Resident Evil, Dino Crisis is still a genuinely frightening game that has the capacity to fill your underwear with little brown packages.

9. Bioshock- Now I don’t know about you but I’m scared of the water. I’m not a good swimmer, never have been and likely never will be. Eccentric billionaire Andrew Ryan didn’t feel that way, he liked the sea so much he decided to build an entire city underneath it and it was named Rapture.

In Bioshock you play as Jack, a man whose plane crashes in the ocean and leaving him as the only survivor, and sets him off on a course with destiny in this strange and eerie underwater city. Soon it becomes clear that not all is right in the city of Rapture. The entire population has seemingly gone insane, while murderous little girls and mechanical drones stalk the flooded hallways and, of course, the entire city is in a state of disrepair. Worst of all there are the Big Daddies, a foreboding and deadly menace with a drill for an arm and guns big enough to take down a elephant, who are tasked with protecting the aforementioned creepy little girls. They’re pretty scary, especially when you piss them off and what better way to do so than killing a small child so as to extract their very DNA? Why these big daddies have chosen to be full time baby sitters remains a mystery.

10. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem- Although not a commercial success, Eternal Darkness received widespread praise, it’s one of the best games on the late great Gamecube and one of the scariest games of all time. It’s a psychological horror game where you play as Alexandra Roivas, a smart, attractive young girl whose grandfather unfortunately passes away. She spends a dark stormy night in his mansion in Rhode Island, a mansion that contains a terrible secret, one that could unmake all existence as we know it.

Throughout the game you’ll play from the perspective of twelve different characters across multiple time periods, all of whom have crossed paths with an ancient book known as the “The Tome of Eternal Darkness”. Puzzle solving plays a big role in this action adventure and there’s plenty of mind games to boot, thanks to the games most interesting feature, the sanity meter. The sanity meter has some interesting effects, under certain conditions in game the sanity meter is reduced causing walls to bleed, enemies to walk on the ceiling, horrifying screams from women and children to fill the air, skewed camera angles, and heads randomly exploding. When your sanity metre is depleated the game even breaks the forth wall by turning your TVs sound down, popping up with error messages, or tricking you in to thinking that your save file has been corrupted.

Needless to say this game left a lot of gamers confused and doubting their own judgment upon playing it for the first time. I know I asked myself “Is this really happening in game, or am I seeing things?” on numerous occasions. It’s an original and scary game, and we haven’t seen anything like it since, but you never know, a sequel could be on the cards, seeing as the developers have shown interest in expanding the series. Fingers crossed they’ll do so and hopefully it’ll sell twice as much and be twice as freaky.

- Adam Radcliffe