Trilbys Notes.

Scratches has great jumping moments but for me the best spooky/horror adventure game so far is Dark Fall: The Journal.

I played Penumbra: Overture also but I got frustrated by gameplay and never finished it actually - in any case, the game was pretty scary...

Other very good horror adventure games I played (in no particular order):

Sanitarium
Amber: Journeys Beyond
Last Half of Darkness: Beyond the Spirit's Eye
Last Half of Darkness: Tomb of Zojir
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened (not a horror game actually but it had some scary and spooky moments which I enjoyed)

Also Downfall and The White Chamber (free download: FilePlanet) look very promising but I haven't played them yet.

But the scariest moments I ever experienced in a game were in Thief 3, Shalebridge Cradle chapter. I'm comparing every new horror/scary game I want to play to this chapter ever since...

Downfall isnt really scary, just disturbing (and very bloody). I thought it was a very good game with flaws (very quick summary: Pros - Fantastic, sometimes profound story, some clever, non-linear gameplay, disturbing atmosphere, genuine humour at times (not the forced Lucas arts style stuff), spartan but nice soundtrack, fantasticly conceived system of alternative endings. Cons - Terrible sound effects, low resolution, amateur character animations, sometimes tasteless content (which can mar the fore-mentioned profound content), childish, Hollywood stlye overuse of swearwords in the dialogue, no voice acting (and dialogue written in a difficult font), inventory type gameplay is of the bog-standard level)

I would definately reccomend it but it's not what I would call scary.

Conversly, I would say it has one of the sexiest scenes I have encountered in a game. Obviously I won't give spoilers but I guess anyone who has played it will know the bit I mean.

Don't know about "scary", but the best horror game I've ever played is Shadow of the Comet. It's like it was made by Lovecraft himself - spooky, intellegent, with lots of story twists and horror thingies. Along with Alone in the Dark of 1992 it is among my top games.

As for scary, I'd go for Dark Corners of the Earth, Scratches and Amnesia. All of them have plenty of great moments and deserve their place in the industry.

My vote for scariest game is Amnesia (which is on sale at Steam for 50% off this weekend). Tremendous atmosphere and sense of dread. You never feel powerful enough to handle the situation.

Stain

@cbman:
I just started playing Downfall yesterday and yes it's more disturbing (and gore (-: ) than scary...

@Arial Type, @Stain:
I'm planning to buy Amnesia, I've heard so much about this game that I don't want to miss it... (-;

Yeah I agree with a lot of people on this one. The scariest -
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
Scratches
and lots more I'm sure....
Hell.. Cthulhu alone scared the shit out me. awesome!!!

Now that Amnesia is out, that's the definitive answer. I've played a lot of horror games in my life and Amnesia is scarier then them all. There's a section in Silent Hill 2 where you have to wander around a labyrinth that I always thought was the scariest thing in any game. Amnesia is literally that scene stretched over an entire game, it's just consistently terrifying from start to finish.

For me its definitely Black Mirror - this is one of my favorite series (can't wait for the BM III!) - but that game really shocked me in a disturbing way. I won't give a spoiler but anyone who has played probably can guess why!

For me, scariest is definitely a tie between Amnesia and Penumbra: Black Plague.

Amnesia has marginally the more scarier atmosphere of the two, but the story didn't grip me and I still haven't finished it actually. To its credit though, it does know how to get your heart beating fast and a few times i had to stop playing as i felt physically drained due to the adrenaline rushes it gives you.

Where as in Black Plague, the story is interesting and there's constantly something or other that will kill you if you step out of line and a lot of the puzzles are done with a tuurngait walking around, inches from spotting you. The end segment of the game is rubbish but that only accounts for about 15 minutes of the game.

The first Penumbra probably loses out to these two because though the dogs are scary, after you've crawled slowly round the levels a few times you'll get annoyed rather than scared and just choose to beat them all to death so you can wander round safely.

I played both of these games (in the wrong order) recently and they are two of the best adventures i've played in a long time. Not scary at all, but very dark.

I remember playing Anchorhead 7 or 8 years ago - what a fantastic piece of work and definitely the best text adventure I've ever played. Moderately scary in places.

Anchorhead is a great game, it's like reading an interactive book...
Did you know it's version 5 out now and you can play it on-line? => Anchorhead
(just click on "Play On-line" button in the upper-right corner... (-; )

I haven't played many but I did play Scratches and I was scared. I played in the dark and back them I only had a desktop that was positioned so my back was to a wall of windows overlooking woods and I used to get freaked out and keep checking over my shoulder. It was pretty scary and creepy but I loved it!