Your vote for the scariest video game franchise.

[Exhuminator]

In light of the current holiday, I figured this poll could be fun.

What horror game series (or specific horror game) do you find most frightening to play? Has a game ever scared you? Has a game ever made you turn on the lights? Tell us your deepest darkest pixelated fears.

If you need a refresher on horror games out there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_h ... ideo_games

[Xeogred]

I have a really high tolerance for horror games, I tend to love this genre simply because of the seriousness (generally) and "cool factor", like I just love atmospheric stuff and they are cool worlds to be in, not exactly keeping me up at night or anything. Sometimes I'll go for no lights and the headphones effect too and I'm that asshole that over the years has gotten a lot of pleasure in watching some of my other friends fail to play scary games at times and make fun of them for it. I really like the creativity of the horror department (both games/movies). Whether it be an excuse to come up with some awesome monster designs and cool things to fight in action titles, or see what cool props and effects people design, weird pseudo sci-fi stories (RE), or going deep and exploring dark psychological territories, the horror genre almost always has some really interesting and unique ideas to play with.

For the jumpy spooks, only one thing really comes to mind and a little more recently, but Alien Isolation. I don't want to say much, but let's just say there's a certain nest at some point that was quite possibly the most unnerving environment I've ever found myself in within a game. I wanted to get out ASAP and wasted no time. The game has the classic 1979 aesthetics to perfection and was such an amazing experience.

I have a lot of fond memories of the Fatal Frame series, namely 1-2 since I played that with a group of friends back in middle school. Two friends would watch, I played, another guy read, it was a cool group effort because the games have a lot of puzzles and weird things to figure out. Well one year we had a birthday party at my place, playing in the basement which had a screen door behind us... my dad took this opportunity to put on some clown mask and afro thing, banged on the back door behind us and scared us all while we were playing. Funny stuff.

I actually do remember Fatal Frame keeping me up a bit, the game goes into detail about some torture rituals and the deaths of certain victims throughout the story. So it was the details and context that freaked me out. MY EYEEEES! But I remember, once we beat the game and kind of got a happy ending out of it, that washed all the dread away. We never beat 2 though, so that was a mystery until I revisited it years later on my own...

Nowadays, I care less about ghosts and supernatural stuff. I replayed Fatal Frame 1-2 a few years ago and had a great time, 1 was kind of cumbersome, but I think 2 holds up and is rightfully one of the best games in the genre. But yeah, maybe it's a combination of age or becoming more immune to stuff like this, but nothing about them really spooked me going back to them a decade some later. But if you have a weakness for Japanese occult ghost stories, it still might get you. And again, that's not to detract from the actual quality of these games! Check them out.

Now going back to middle school, I actually did play Silent Hill 2 in the basement where my room was... that did creep me out. It was namely the music and sound design. (Ex might laugh now that I admit this), but the game actually didn't click with me at all back then, so I stopped playing and didn't give the series another shot until ~2013-2014. I can honestly admit I was way too much of an RE fanboy as well, I was too good for SH haha. I was missing out big time since Silent Hill is top tier in my book now too and the RE comparisons are merely only because of the similar release dates. Gameplay wise they are incredibly different. Better late than never to rectify that.

Nowadays I've already replayed 2-3 a few times over. I do think Silent Hill 2 is one of the heaviest narratives I've ever experienced in games. You will drown in its density. Which makes it one of those moody games I have to be prepared for. But yeah, this whole series has incredible atmosphere and they are totally fucked up, but it's really just that "cool factor" thing for me personally. The weirder and more surreal they get, the more I'm loving it. 2 is the most thought provoking, 1/3 are the most hellish, and 4 is just completely insane in a cool way, there is nothing out there nearly remotely as creative as it from what I've seen.

I want to suggest Jacob's Ladder to any Silent Hill fans, that is the best Silent Hill movie by far. Was probably a huge obvious influence.

Other than that, SOMA comes to mind for being probably the next most thought provoking horror game I've played next to Silent Hill 2. I'm pretty fascinated in existential terror and horror, and SOMA's scenario and story was mind blowing stuff. It took a little to power through, since it's less game than Frictional Games' previous stuff and more of a pure adventure walking simulator, a long one for that genre... but it was absolutely worth it. I'm just at a loss of words when I think about this game and its message. I wish I could get into their older games, but the visual effects and gameplay mechanics just annoy me so I'm not a fan. I look forward to what they do next from here on though.

I have no idea what to vote for with all that said.

Resident Evil and Dead Space are some of my top favorite series but are not scary at all to me, but I love the tension and they have some of the best gameplay out there. Almost feels like Shinji Mikami's spirit possessed the Dead Space series and it's a lost unofficial Capcom product. Silent Hill is up there now too as a whole, but if I want pure fun factor and to kill things in cool settings, RE and Dead Space are the better choices.

[Segata]

I'm weird..and before you say no duh. I mean when it comes to horror films/games I'm weird. When I was still in training pants I liked watching horror films from the classics to the gory 80s flicks. Then I idolized Rick Baker & Stan Winston and got my own makeup kit and would experiment on myself, friends and parents with gory stuff and even at a really young age made haunted houses and at 13 worked in one. I went to pro ones every year to study them and bought props with saved up money at costume shops for my own. Where I am getting at is games and films don't scare me so when I play them and like them. They don't phase me at all, I just like to see the creature designs. Not even a little jolt in a jump scare. Resident Evil I enjoyed the most in gameplay but hardly scary(7 seems to do the best job at it). I do have a preference on what kind of horror I think is best. I feel anything surreal and a great sense of dread and hopelessness. Making the viewer/player feel uneasy or hopeless. The closest to that would be the Silent Hill series but only 1-3 and Clock Tower 1 on SNES.

Games like Dead Space are not horror to me. You are fully equipped to make the threats, not a threat. Same goes for RE 4-6 and the spinoffs.

[noiseredux]

Alien: Isolation is what came to my mind. Not one of the choices though.

[Exhuminator]

Alien: Isolation is what came to my mind. Not one of the choices though.

The poll is for voting on franchises, at this time Alien: Isolation is a singular release. But the last option on the poll is for voting for a non-listed game(s) and then post what it is.

[Kuruwin]

Fatal Frame easily. The reason why these games make you uneasy is because the developers know that it's more scary when thing's arent constantly jumping to your face and instead you are nervously left waiting for the next encounter. Some of the ghosts can also be pretty creepy and the environments support everything well (the rope hallway was always the worst to go through)

[ElkinFencer10]

This is REALLY tough for me. I was really torn between Resident Evil and Fatal Frame, but I ended up going with the "other" option at the bottom; Outlast is the one game that scared me more than any other. The Whistleblower DLC was about as scary as the base game, too. Outlast 2 wasn't nearly as scary, but man, that first one...I screamed a LOT when I played through that back when it first came out on PSN.

[Tanooki]

The only game that ever made me nervous due to spook value was the original Dead Space. That one just handled the dark atmosphere, the ever more morphing stage, and the horribly creatures within it so well it really put you on edge. I still laugh when people say stuff like Resident Evil or Silent Hill are scary in the least bit as they're more just dumb pop scares if anything. Dead Space was truly warped right down to those insanity flashes and that bat shat nuts crazy cult stuff around all the necromorphs.

[Kuruwin]

What? I understand not thinking Silent Hill game as scary but making them sound is cheap is so wrong.

[ElkinFencer10]

What? I understand not thinking Silent Hill game as scary but making them sound is cheap is so wrong.

The first Silent Hill scared the SHIT out of me, and I thought 2, 3, 4, and Shattered Memories were right creepy. Book of Memories, Homecoming, and Downpour were hella disappointing though.