10 Horror Games That Made You Crap Your Pants6

By Chris Littler, Jan 26, 2011 in Pop Culture

10 Horror Games That Made You Crap Your Pants

High school is a scary place. Not just because it’s where the unwashed, hormonal byproducts of one-night stands and ill-advised marriages collect and pretend to learn stuff, but because it’s governed by a set of rules that don’t exist beyond the chain link fences and golf cart-driving rent-a-cops. Even scarier is when you get in trouble and you’re forced to drag yourself out of bed for Saturday School, only to discover that your fellow miscreants are being picked off one by one by an unseen predator (probably a janitor), like the poor young rebels in the series Throwing Stones.

Alright, maybe that last part doesn’t happen very often, but even if you take the psychotic sociopath out of the mix, high school is as terrifying a place as any. Which is why so many young people today pack up their backpacks after the sixth-hour bell, take the lonely path down the canal on their single-gear bikes on the way home, grab a can of soda when they walk through the kitchen, and plop themselves down in front of the television to play horrific video games.

In the frustrating world of high school-dom, battling genetically engineered monsters, werewolves and creepy demonic girls can be cathartic… almost downright therapeutic. The world in a series like Silent Hill – full of impossible monsters lurking within a thick sheet of fog – is a welcome distraction from the real-life terror of everyday life (impossible teenagers lurking within a thick sheet of hair gel). As you explode a werewolf’s head with a well-placed silver bullet, how can you help but think, “This sure is scary, but not nearly as scary as sitting next to Amanda Wilworth in Mr. Heck’s 3rd period Shakespeare class.” Somehow, in some twisted way, the macabre of horror video games comforts the nervous young soul.

That’s just one scenario, however. It doesn’t matter why you play horror video games, only that you probably do. Unfortunately, the horror video game market is oversaturated with cheap thrills and Resident Evil wannabes. Lucky for you, we scared up a list of the ten best, so you don’t have to deal with the pulse-pounding awkwardness of dealing with the guy who works at Gamestop.

Throwing Stones – Don’t You Forget About Me

1. Left 4 Dead 2

You’re going to see a lot of sequels on this list. For some reason, the second effort always packs in more thrills, chills, and jump-out-of-your-seat scares than its predecessor. That’s certainly true of Left 4 Dead 2, a multiplayer survival horror game from Valve, the geniuses behind Half Life, Portal, and Team Fortress. The premise of the first game is simple: four survivors of the zombie apocalypse must work together to get from point A to point B, under the pretence that point B will be packed full of happy, healthy humans who will reward the group with cold bubbly and hot showers. The sequel transplants the idea to the swamps of Louisiana, which would have been amazing by itself but is made even better with a grip-load more play options (get the gas can!), weapons, zombie types, and game customization.

2. Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly

Wandering around the streets of a zombie-ridden apocalypse is pretty scary, but it’d be a hell of a lot scarier if instead of having a gun, you had a camera. That’s loosely the premise behind Fatal Frame 2, which pits a young girl named Mio Amakura and her twin sister against a town filled with angry spirits with only the Camera Obscura at her disposal. Of course, the Camera Obscura is no ordinary camera. With the well-timed click of a button, Amakura can damage or capture whatever spirits she likes. She’s going to need all the help she can get, seeing as how she’s gotten involved with a bunch of ghosts who are forever forced to relive the failed ancient ritual that killed them. To make matters even worse, the ritual’s success depends on whether or not a twin can strangle another to death. It’s deep, troubling stuff that will linger with you long after you turn it off. Kind of like a faded Polaroid.

3. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem

When one thinks of Nintendo, one probably doesn’t think of terror. Sure, Mario can be a little creepy if you really think about him, and Birdo looks like something fresh off The Island of Dr. Moreau, but they usually keep their fare pretty lighthearted. Not so in Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, the first game published by the company to earn an M (for Mature) rating. It earns it. The game is a trippy, mind-bending ride through the ages, focusing mostly on a mansion in Rhode Island (eep!) as protagonist Alexandra Roivas tries to decode the meaning of a book called The Tome of Eternal Darkness. Why anyone would even touch a book with a name like that is beyond us, but we suppose we’re glad Alexandra was curious. Unlike other games, where our lives are in danger and enemies strive to eat us, our sanity is at stake in Eternal Darkness. Every new horror we encounter brings us closer and closer to madness.

4. Silent Hill 2

Generally considered the greatest horror video game of all time, Silent Hill 2 packs a serious whallop in nearly every category. It’s a beautiful game to look at (considering it was released nearly a decade ago), controls like a dream, and, lest we forget why we’re doing this, it’ll haunt your nightmares for at least a month. The story concerns a Mr. James Sunderland, who has come to the eponymous town in search of his deceased wife, who may have sent him a letter, depending on if James is losing his mind or not. All signs point to yes, as Silent Hill 2 ups the ante with a strong subtext as to why these creatures (and this town) look the way they do. The sexy disfigured nurses? They’re James’s guilt over fantasizing about other women while his wife died of cancer. The Pyramid Heads? They’re there to punish James for suppressing his crime. The disfigured image of his wife shackled to a rusty black hospital bed, chasing him around the hospital rooftop? Well, we’ll let you crack that nut, Dr. Freud.

5. Resident Evil

There are currently several editions of the original Resident Evil for sale. The original Playstation version, the Director’s Cut, and a fully redone version for the Gamecube and Wii. Though we suggest you play the Wii version, just because it might be easier on your eyes, it really doesn’t matter which of these classic games you pick up. The premise of the game is the strong suit. You’re trapped in a mansion filled with zombies. To escape, you have to kill as many zombies, zombie dogs, and zombie plants as you can. Also, because this mansion is just a giant front for an evil corporation that has facilities beneath, you’re going to have to solve a puzzle or twelve to make any progress. To mix things up a bit, you can play as either Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine, who, for some God-awful reason, decide to split up. The two eventually destroy the Tyrant T-002 – a big grey abomination created by prolonged exposure to the virus that caused the zombies – and take off in a helicopter. And they lived happily ever… what? They didn’t? Well, how many sequels are there?

6. System Shock 2

Now that we’ve spent some time at home, let’s blast off into the cold reaches of space. In System Shock 2, the player controls a lone soldier who wakes up to find that his ship has been overrun by a genetic infection called The Many. Along the way, he has to team up with SHODAN, a sociopathic artificial intelligence who claims responsibility for creating The Many. After the events of the first game, she was out of commission for a while and was unable to keep tabs on her children. She orders the player-character to clean up her little mistake. The ship is full of the zombie-like Many, who telepathically communicate with the player with the hopes of recruiting him to their side, only making the experience that much creepier. Eventually, the player succeeds in destroying the ship and overwhelming SHODAN, who reveals her plans to merge cyberspace and reality (wait, that hasn’t happened yet?) at the last minute. Of course, SHODAN is a tricky little virus. Depending on how you read the game’s coda, we get the sense it’s going to take a lot more than Norton Antivirus to get rid of her.

7. Doom 3

System Shock takes elements of survival horror and transplants them to space, but it certainly wasn’t the first to do it. Doom was the original shoot-em-up in space. And while the original Doom and its sequel have a place in our still-racing hearts, it’s Doom 3 that really pays out on the promise of its concept. In this franchise reboot, the player controls an unnamed space marine trapped in a research facility on Mars as a gateway to Hell opens up. Unlike System Shock, this marine doesn’t have any interest in leveling up his lock pick skills or talking shop with potential allies. He’s got a BFG (big f*cking gun), so if it moves, he’s going to shoot it. Which is probably for the best, seeing as how there were apparently a lot of demons in Hell who have been gazing upon Mars with jealous eye-holes, and now that they’re here, Earth is the obvious next stop.

8. The Suffering

Abbott State Penitentiary is built to withstand nearly every natural disaster you can throw at it (so that you can sleep safe at night in your warm, comfy bed, knowing that the evil men who reside within have no chance of escape). Unfortunately, the prison’s architect didn’t factor in an earthquake so massive that it summons an army of monsters that systematically take apart the prison, kill the murderers inside it, and unleash a flurry of helpful (and not so helpful) spirits. In The Suffering, a naturally horrifying location gets even more horrifying. You control Torque, a man who’s been convicted of murdering his wife and two children (though he claims not to have done it). The coolest thing about The Suffering is that it offers you moments to make morality choices. These choices change the outcome of the game and the revelations that accompany it. The second coolest thing is that Torque can turn into a horrific demon (once his insanity meter maxes out) that gets more powerful the more demons he kills. Maybe we got those two switched around.

9. Dead Space

In the gaming world, Dead Space is the thinking man’s System Shock or the anti-Doom. It has all the elements of those games, with a few twists that make it a refreshing newcomer to the survival horror genre. The player controls Arthur Clarke, an engineer working out in deep space who must survive an attack on his ship by a deadly infection. It’s a disease worse than Ebola and Whooping Cough combined, one that causes his co-workers to become horrible-looking creatures known as Necromorphs. These Necromorphs, beyond moving in the most disturbing way possible, are extremely resilient little buggers. Lucky for Clarke, he’s an engineer. And he’s extremely handy with a plasma cutter, which, when used correctly, is just the thing need to keep a dead Necromorph down. To mix things up, Dead Space has segments in which Clarke must navigate zero gravity environments, battle a giant worm-thingie, and caps it all off with one of the most surprising scares in video game history.

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10. Clock Tower

Dodging zombies and running from armies of hellspawn is exciting, but nothing gets our heart pumping like Scissorman. Beautifully crafted in late-nineties polygons, Scissorman is a serial killer with a penchant for walking slowly down hallways, providing the snip-snip-snip soundtrack of our impending doom, before finally busting down the cover of our (we thought) really smart hiding place and cutting us in half. Since Clock Tower is a point and click adventure, you have no weapons – and very little recourse against the hunched over monster who wants nothing more than to make a paper snowflake out of you. When that music starts playing, you know you have to do something quick. It’s a feeling of helplessness that’s rarely seen in video games these days, and hasn’t been done much better since. Clock Tower is a truly amazing game. It’s pretty much the only reason why we occasionally take the old Playstation out for a spin at three AM. You just can’t improve on perfect horror.

Throwing Stones – Can You Hear Me Now

Throwing Stones – Broken Window Theory

Watch more episodes of the high school horror series Throwing Stones

Chris Littler lives in Hollywood. He has a degree in Dramatic Writing from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, one of the most prestigious writing programs in America, which he totally plans to hang on the wall when he has a Study. Chris currently covers video games at UGO.com when he’s not performing improv at iO, and is currently writing a one-hour TV pilot with his friend Wes. Like everyone else you know, he has an album available to purchase on iTunes and has lots of things to say on his blog: chrislittler[dot]com.