In your opinion best "scary games"-franchise
 

I'm almost through the Resident Evil games now and I'm going to go through Silent Hill next. Are there any other horror franchises that I should look into?

I'm doing a poll with the franchises/games I know about just for fun. ;)

I've only played System Shock 2, Resident Evil 0, 1, 2, Code Veronica and 4, Silent Hill 2 and Call of Chtulhu.

Is it supposed to be truly scary, or just within the horror genre?

The most fun horror franchises for me: the original Alone in the Dark trilogy, System Shock, Darkseed, Infograme's Call of Cthulhu games

Also the Thief franchise. While not pure horror, the games have a lot of horror elements in them, especially parts 1 & 3. Thief 1 can be truly frightening.

It doesn't need to be " truly scary", just fun to play.

If you're looking for the scariest game series, then probably Aliens vs Predator, but System Shock is my favourite series from this group. Then again, I'm not a huge fan of being scared.

Always wanted to try Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem but ;( .. no gamecube.

I've only played the first Siren game and its a nice game, nothing special. Great ideias and concepts but almost abysmally executed (a waste of pontential if you ask me).

Clock Tower is fun (cant remember now which one i've played) but not "scary".

Is that game "scary" at all? Its better to play the first then the second or doesnt matter (in your opinion)?

EDIT:
YES! :P dude avp was awesome. Shooting everywhere when the screen starts flashing red :D good times.

Both games contain plenty of morbid events and H. R. Giger's graphics have their own disturbing power, but somehow I'd rather describe them as eerie than scary. The sequel has also too many 'B' movie qualities to be particulary scary. The plot in it is a continuation, but understandable as a standalone. However, if you play the original Darkseed first, there are a lot neat, subtle references in part two that add to playing enjoyment. I think especially the initial build up of tension in Darkseed II is fun, if one has an idea what to expect from "The Dark World" before being able to enter it. Be prepered that Darkseed I is a short, but unforgiving game. One has to start it over probably several times to avoid making mistakes with far-reaching consequences.

I LOVE the Silent Hill series!!! Nice and disturbing! ;) I can't wait for V!!!

people should play more Eternal Darkness, and I should play more of those other games.

Just bought the game on Ebay. Looking forward to trying it out. :)

^gimme gimme! (and a Wii too) :\

Why are FEAR and Penumbra not in this poll? Other than those, I'd have to go with Condemned.

No reason really, they didn't pop up when I was brainstorming. I'll assume you find them good? I've only played the FEAR demo, but wasn't captivated enough by it to warrant a buy.

By the way, I'm 5h into Eternal Darkness now. Nice one. That insanity feature is really good. Too bad Nintendo patented it (!?).

Yeah I really liked FEAR. Maybe wasn't the scariest game I ever played but it was fun and made me jump a few times ;) Can't wait for the sequel.

I voted Fatal Frame. Fatal Frame 2 is hands-down the scariest games I've ever played. I can't play it at night because I screamed too much, and well, living in an apartment like I do the neighbors didn't appreciate it. :)

All of the games listed have their fair share of scares. I would also add that Haunting Ground for PS2 is a scary game. Deeply disturbing and not to be played around the young ones.

I do not have a ‘best’ or ‘favorite’ franchise. I loved "Silent Hill 2," the best in the Series so far and I am looking forward to SH5 (don’t know if it will be able to reach the same level of greatness as Silent Hill 2 but we will see)

From the ones you have listed I would go with “Eternal Darkness” and, even though you haven’t listed that one yet but “BioShock” was also very ‘disturbingly scary’ as well.

As for Fatal Frame (aka Project Zero): I was quite scared when I played “Fatal Frame”…but that was just at the beginning…
Then the whole thing just got frustrating and stupid rather quickly, plus the girl really started to get on my nerves. Needless to say, I didn’t bother picking up any of the other Fatal Frame games.

I love most of the Silent Hill games. 1, 2 and 4 are all fantastic and at the very top of the horror game list for me, but I'm getting a bit worried for the series. SH3 and Origins felt stale and formulaic, and although SH4 took the series in a new direction, number 5 seems to be falling straight back into old ways, albeit with better graphics. I love the series, and I'll keep playing the games, but I wish the developers would realize that the Silent Hill games don't have to follow such a rigid structure. It's not really just about this town anymore, Silent Hill is now more of a brand name like The Twilight Zone, you should be able to tell all kinds of different stories in this universe.

^Personally, I did not like that “new” direction.
Everything sounded so promising; having a first-person view, and of course the graphics looks great. However, Story, Character and Game-play wise, SH4 fell short for me. SH4 is actually my least favorite of the series. (I have not played SH Origins)

Did you know that, SH4 didn’t start out as being a Silent Hill title? Konami was actually planning to create a totally new title/franchise.

It was only about half-way through the Development Progress where the Team decided to just make it a Silent Hill title and thus, Silent Hill 4: The Room was created.

I love horror games, so I could probably give a massive list of all sorts of different games! lol

I thought the entire Project Zero (Fatal Frame) series was incredibly scary, with the first one been one of the scariest I've ever played. Also all Silent Hill's apart from 4, which I was very letdown by really, considering 3 was so good.

FEAR is a great game too, though perhaps not the most terrifying I've ever played. Also Condemned 1 was great, though I wasn't a big fan of recent 2nd game, it started off good, but got very silly and focused too much on comabt about half way into the game.

I'm currently playing Darkness Within for PC as well and I am in love with the game so thats definately a good one to check out.

I never really found Resident Evil that scary, though I do love the series. However I must admit the REmake for Gamecube was very tense, specially the Lisa Trevor part! I'm hoping that RE5 and the all new Alone in the Dark will be worth the wait. And of course Silent HIll 5!;):D

I've played Resident Evil Remake, Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil Code Veronica X, Silent Hill 2, Eternal Darkness, System Shock 2, DOOM 3, Call of Chtulhu - Dark Corners of the Earth to name most. Of these only Resident Evil Remake & Silent Hill 2 were really scary. The others might contain the occasional "BOO" scare and some even strokes of brilliance (Eternal Darkness), but for me only two games so far have been truly scary. I'm looking forward to Silent Hill 3.

I forgot about Silent Hill 2, such a genius work of art imo. I just really hope that SH5 is more like 2 and less like 4, atompshere is better than combat in a horror game any day. From what I've seen so far, it looks very promising.

I vote for Condemned Criminal Origins(PC)
I`m play at night in headphones and for my opinion it was a REALLY SCARY.

I want to play second part also, but now it only for XBOX 360 and PS 3:frown:

Voted for the Silent Hill series. I think, even if they are not the best on the market, they are surely the most disturbing (i.e. Silent Hill 2). The japanese have some sort of tenth sense when it comes to making a horror disturbing. Most of the time you don't even understand what is going on around you in Silent Hill, and at the very end you're left with more questions than answers.
I have to say that NOCTURNE too was a pretty horror game back in the late nineties.
Resident Evil seems, IMHO at least, too find zombie and kill it. Entertaining and lots of fun, but not so scary. Also, Alone in the Dark and Dark Corners of the Earth had vast potential, being inspired by Lovecraft's works; alas, little substance found its way in the final result.
I haven't played Forbidden Siren or Fatal Frame, so I can't say anything bout them.

You aren't missing much in my opininon. Condemned 2 was a big letdown, specially considering the first one was so good. Condemned 2...it starts off well, but about half way through it gets very silly and is not scary at all. I was very disapointed with it.

I am hardcore fan of horror games, and loved condemend, the whole atmosphere of first part was missing in sequel.
I was so dissapointed with sequel that i cant even tell.

The characters modle changed,the story feels dragged, there is disconnect between both games.

Its like they went to commercial appeal for sequel, with multiplayers and dramatic cheesy story , which killed the feeling.


Anyways Fatalframe whole trilogy is my pick, SH is more pscychological horror.
The whole problem with FFseriesn is that whole ghost phenomenon is thng of asia more than west.

If you believe in it and know the CASES occuring in asia only then you ca feel FF, else it woul not creep you out.

In other words FF is best for those who undertasnd japan completely.

I completely agree. I am also a massive fan of horror games, and had been looking forward to Condemned 2 for ages. It seems, as you say, as if they went for a more casual, mainstream approach, with adding multiplayer and concentrating way too much on combat. I don't buy a horror title to pull of combo attacks like something from a fighting game.

I also agree with the ghost phenomena in FF. For me personally, I am a huge fan of the paranormal in general (I've been to a few proffesional investigations into it). So anything to do with Esoteric or paranormal events like in FF is perfect for me. And it does help if you beleive in it in real life too.

Condemned 2 on the other hand, while it did have its moments...it simply didn't hold together.

One thing that is important in any horror is that the lead person should be overwhlemed, by ammoshortage or fighting or by gender.

Some makers put females into games like FF or cult classic D, to make things more suited for horror.

If you have badass character with pull arsenal of moves and weapons and your enemies weaker than it dosnt work.

It happens in condmened sequel, doom3, and silenthill etc.
However suffering another very tight psycho horror had same badass hero but his enemies were more badass than him and dont die in few bullets like doom or SH.


In most Sh i dont even need to fight, its soeasy to run away form enemies , SH brings horror only with sound and imagery not with tension in gameplay.

In condemend 1, the fights were more intense, and slow, the pace was right, weapons were scarce, infact you get pistol few times, in sequel it had fulltime weapons.

The feeling of loneliness and isolation was also better in 1, where 2 has swat memebers and other characters constntly in contact, kills the tension.

Deadspace is also lookign cool, more like suffering in space, the creatue designs is awesome, and they also are making ammo shortage to kick up the tension.