(2) Dead Space has been hailed by some as the scariest game they've ever played. Which game got you spooked, and how does it compare to the scariest movie you've even seen?
While Eternal Darkness is scary I don't think they are as scary as a movie because of the lack of control in a movie. For me, horror is about building and maintaining tension and you can't push a pause button to take a breather in a movie theatre. Games can certainly be more of an immersive experience but they've got a quick out for ninnies like me.
To me, that I am in control makes it scarier. I have a vested interest in this virtualization of me not being hacked to bits by some deranged clown or infected with some nasty virus from a 24-tentacled spiky beast monster serpent griffin ... thing. If it's a movie, I can eject myself from the moment by looking the other way or pulling out my cell phone to check email. In the game, I don't have that luxury.
The scariest game I played has to be Resident Evil 2. I think the reason why it seemed so scary to me was because I played a good majority of that game while I had mono. I was pretty much hallucinating from having such a high fever, and that made the experience that much more frightening.
There was a conference room in Dino Crisis used as a connection from one area to another. This room was designed to be a nice calm environment that the player would know would be a safe haven from the horrors outside. Until one particular time through the room a T-Rex crashes through the window on one side of the room and attempts to swallow the player whole. I vividly remember screaming words that are ordinarily reserved for sailors. Cheap movie thrills don't do it for me — my mind is all about interactive scares.
Condemned. Damn that game was scary. Even the first level when the lights go out in the office block and your flashlight is running out, it's so unbelievably scary. It doesn't help playing it in the dark either. And it was probably scarier than the scariest movie because in a scary movie, you're watching how someone else reacts to an event. In the game, you're controlling how the character reacts and as such are sort of experiencing it for yourself.
The most unnerving games I've played are Silent Hill 2, Manhunt and BioShock. Dead Space may well join them. The scariest movie I've seen is probably the French horror flick "High Tension," but I don't think that most games compare because they generally don't give you the same sense of being stalked, pursued or hunted that movies do. Heavy Rain might change this, however...
As I said above, it's not that scary. It's not even that freaky, which in my opinion, is more "scary." Ironically the scariest movie I've ever seen was Final Destination, because the premise of it was that you are not in control of your life. That scared the hell out of me.
Parts of this year's Siren: Blood Curse on PS3 were scary, as was much of Silent Hill 2. But none of that was as scary as the movie The Shining. Video games can do jump-out-from-the-closet scares really well. But they still don't do great acting well, scary or otherwise. (Yes, my favorite scary movie has great acting. Others' may not!)
I think the scariest game I've ever played is Fatal Frame II. I think the Fatal Frame series is great for scares of a different breed. Silent Hill is more about things popping out, while Fatal Frame has more of an atmosphere about it. As for movies, I can't think of any that have actually scared me. Putting myself into the role of a game character draws plays on my nerves much more than watching a scary film.
F.E.A.R. and Doom 3 scared the sh*t outta me (btw, I scare easily). It's worse than a horror movie b/c you're physically involved in the action.
I've been watching horror movies since what seems like birth, so it's kind of hard to "scare" me. I can objectively look at scares in games, though; titles like Fatal Frame and Silent Hill, filled with their unknown and uncomfortable situations, tend to do it for me the most. I think games have the potential to be as frightening, if not more so, than films, simply due to their level of interactivity (a controller rumble, for example). Although, I suppose one could argue that not being in control is even more frightening.
Reader Comments (3)
Regarding malacengineer, no offense man but only the sissy horror games give you a lot of ammo or a "plasma rifle" for example. The good ones give you a steady stream of bare bones weapons and ammo. The fact that a zombie could pop out and you have nothing to defend yourself with (several choice moments in the Resident Evil series along with Dead Rising) makes a game all the more terrifying.
Games and movies are equally frightening to me - The Ring 2 really scared the **** outta me more-so than grudge and the rest of the lot. As far as games go, if I have a plasma rifle and can dust enemies as fast as they come to me, the scare factor is lowered considerably - Quake 4 had a really good scary story and you can see some of that in dead space - Losing your soul is the scariest thing of all.
i have to say the scariest part of any video game ive ever played was in call of duty 2...when the guy gets killed by a mortar round and his guts and limbs go everywhere... ugh.