Creepy Games...

Ok, after playing Eternal Darkness for a couple weeks now, I must say its one of the most creepiest games ever - not scary, but creepy in a surreal way that keeps you playing but leaves you feeling uneasy about the experience. Actually there was once jumpy scene involving a bathtub *shudders*, and the fact that it did a fake reset on me once....lol.

The last game that did this to me was the Ravenholm level of HL2....creepy but i couldnt stop playing.

Aside from the usual Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and FEAR, any other really creepy games out there or creepy moments?

The haunted Hotel in Vampire The Masqeurade: Bloodlines.

Got to agree on HL2/Ravenholm. I used to play it with the lights off for extra atmosphere, and I can remember coming away feeling really depressed after too long a stint. It was a relief to get back to the more 'normal' levels.

'Ecstatica' is an oldie but it has a really creepy feel. I can't think of a particular scene but I'm sure you could pick it up cheap or free these days and it would still be worth a game.

Ah yes finished that one. Also Realms of the Haunting remember that? Also Bioforge was pretty creppy, well sorta.

Call of Cthulthu - the first half.

Particularly the hotel escape sequence.

Myst II: Riven and Myst I Those games scare me for some reason but i love them! (except for Myst V)

I think Max Payne was a bit scary sometimes, not so much the "crying baby" dream part but the part in the night club, and also other dark scenes.

Also the crypts in Return to Castle Wolfenstein, actually I stopped playing when I reached those, partly because I thought I liked the "normal" setting better, and partly because it was kind of scary fighting almost unbeatable monsters and skeletons that exploded out of nearby walls.

(At the start of the crypts I would throw dynamite around like mad just to get rid of the monsters quickly and make it less scary but of course I ran out of bombs in no time.)

Actually, I remember as a kid, I saw some older kids playing "Sword of Sodan" for the amiga in a computer store once. The freaky thing about that game was that not only did it have surreal graphics for its time, but it also had tons of bloodshed and dead bodies that actually remained on screen...pretty weak now but at the time I found it troubling...

@Grey-
I wanted to get Bioforge but apparently it doesn't work on XP.

@Foppy-
Wolfenstein Crypts.. I agree on that one. Didn't you know a single 1/4 second burst on the flamethrower was enough to light one of those crypt-zombies up? Tough... but dry.

Another good one is Martian Gothic that a mate picked up new for about 5 quid recently. Really atmospheric, but shame it has so many gameplay flaws.

Manhunt, I found it creepy and it was even worse when I sat playing it in darkness. Rockstar did a good job at making an atmosphere in that game.

I think there was also a game called Blood? It was a demo I played and I hadn't played many games prior to that, I found that creepy.

Penumbra: http://frictionalgames.com/penumbra

"Check out one of the best, if not the best, horror games ever to make
its way to your hard drive." -Joel Durham Jr. GameSpy.

Freeware!

Clive Barker's Undying? Standard FPS action but with some weird stuff that, when played with the lights off etc, did freak me out a bit. There's a new Clive Barker game out this year, looking forward to it.

As mentioned HL2's Ravenholm level, but it was ruined for me by some shockingly bad map design that meant I wandered round and round trying to find the exit, breaking any illusion of fear of the zombies.

Manhunt? hmm I thought of Manhunter, yep a film but also an old game on my Atari ST - now THAT was creepy.. Memory's a bit hazy...

Also Ant Attack on the ZX spectrum has instilled a sense of fear of ants.

And also Space Hulk on the Amiga was a bit scary, well at least until you realised the aliens were spawning everywhere.

System Shock II

Barbie: Horese Adventure... (shudders)

Blood 1 by Monolith games...DOS FPS but really damn creepy

hey H&K, do you have any working link for System Shock II download??

I don't think System Shock II is available as 'abandonware' any more, it was at one point but I think there were legal issues around it. Your best bet is to find a second hand copy on Ebay. Shame it's so hard to get hold of, it's a damn fine game.

Maybe it would work in DOSBOX I played it years ago on a 486DX4 100 or P133 or something.

Ah yes System Shock 2, great game!

yes, system shock 2 used to scare the bejesus out of me, I'd refuse to play it in the dark cause I'd be leaving awful smells and stains on my chair

F.E.A.R's another one

System Shock 2 gets my vote
As does the "Return to the Haunted Cathedral" level on the original Thief. I heard one of the later levels on "Deadly Shadows" was even better but the rest of the game was so boring I didn't play it far enough.

Another vote for System Shock 2 here.

Worms :)

Thanks Grey I'll give DOSBOX a try.

Indigo Prophecy or Fareinheit as it's called in the UK.. I jumped a couple of times, and leaves me on the edge of my chair a lot.

System shock 2 huh? I gotta see if I can find that somewhere....

/agree

That game was just plain spooky.

No mention of Thief 2 in here? Eric Brosius' audio engineering work on that game is still to this day the best
audio I've heard in a game. Period. And I've actively looked for better. Mr Brosius is the Audio King.

In Thief 2, the ambient sound of the environments alone can give you the creeps. Add to that the constant gameplay
focus on shadows and always remaining hidden - and it makes for some pretty intense moments when a scary foe eventually
finds you!

Naturally, Thief 2 is my #1 pick for creepiness. I have no opinion on Thief 3, though.

Undying,
Out of all the games I have, that one still creeps me out the most.
Others have made me jump in parts, but that one certainly seems to have a sustained level of unease which meant I couldn't put a long session in on it.. (kinda defeats the object in some way, a game you don't want to sit and keep playing).

Did anyone ever think Dragon's Lair in the arcade was kinda creepy when it first came out? I remember when I was 3 or 4, I saw a scene when someone in the game turned in a skeleton....kinda scared me at the time...

Shalebridge cradle in Thief 3 has to be the creepiest experience to date for me. Maybe its because I have played and completed System Shock 2 loads of times :)

The first game i remember which felt weird was Infernal Runner with all those different pixel death scenes. As for more current titles i would say System Shock2 and Doom3.

I remember reading the first reviews of Gabriel Knight:Sins of the Father when it first came out, and how that was supposedly really scary. I've played it right through a couple of times and I can't say I ever found it particularly scary. It has a great atmosphere and there's certainly a sense of foreboding and mistrust. You're not really sure which characters are good guys and which ones are going to be evil voodoo murderers. But I'm a hard sell on things being scary or creepy, so perhaps I'm not the best judge.

By the way as thinking of Gabriel. I don't know if these radio plays also do exist in english but they are pretty good: http://www.gabriel-burns.de/

Shadowgate for the NES was rather unsettling. Of course, I was like 7 or 8 at the time, so I'm not sure if it actually is considerably creepy or if I was just scared because I was so young.

@Naughty Alien.

No sorry, I just have the original, and two patches that Pc format(Or one of the others), gave out for better textures and XP compatibility.
(Actualy I have a copy as well, cos the original doesnt work anymore, but a friend just copied that for me)
If you are looking for this sort of thing, then "homeoftheUnderdogs", is generaly were to look. Or Ebay, I suppose.

'Nother vote, SpaceHulk on the Amega. And the original Aliens vrs Preditor on PC when you are the Marine.

My old favorite was the legacy (early 90s? PC), had good atmosphere, story and was based on HP lovecraft
I liked the combination of EOB style chunk movement on 3d pre-rendered graphics with the smoothly animated monsters that scaled smoothly instead of jumping.

Wheneverer the character met a new one he/she stood there s**ting themselves and screaming profusely until a constitution roll overcame the fear level (or some such diceplay).

good stuff.

What about Transylvanian Tower, on the speccy?!

:p

Swat 3 made me jump up and hit stuff more than any game ever did. Every enemy was randomly generated and there was hardly any sound until they would shoot you, so you could walk into any room and instantly be shot as loud gunshots rung out.

Silent Hill 3 was scary as hell. An old game called The Dark Eye is just plain creepy too.

System Shock II, especially as you can get high poly models and hires textures mods.


Join the many...O.o

I'm not sure that I've ever played a truly creepy game. For sure, I've played games full of jump scares, but a creepy game? No, not really. I think that creepiness is a product of ideas, and it is best expressed through narrative and character - areas in which games are usually quite lacking.

Then you obviously havent played Eternal Darkness :)