While long running horror movie franchise like Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween (pictured) can the scare the bejabbers out of anybody watching, gaming is a fantastic relaxation. Even with online slots at National Casino, you can rest after a long day. But what if you need something more terrifying like the aforementioned movies? Then pick these games.
SOMA
SOMA is an intelligent horror with a strong sci-fi plot and strong existential twists. However, it has one small problem – it’s more of a walking simulator than a horror that would keep the player in suspense like Amnesia. Monsters here are rare, easy to get around, and after a few deaths you’ll stop being afraid of them altogether.
But SOMA can really scare you. For example, it can convey the painful fear of deep places. More than any other game, it conveys the sense of the vast abyss and what can lurk beneath the dark water column. And this feeling intensifies with each passing chapter, as the player plunges deeper and deeper as they pass. If you’re scared of giant underwater monsters and huge submerged objects, then SOMA will definitely scare you.
Perhaps the creepiest moments are the hiding from the monster in the overturned shipwreck, the run-ins with the dead diver Jin Yoshida, and the escape from the giant mutant octopus near the end of the game. Maximum disturbing and uncomfortable moments that will stick in your memory for a long time.
Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly
It’s hard to surprise anyone today with Japanese horror games in the traditional style. Little dead girls, ancient curses, yokai monsters, well girls and other Japanese evil spirits aren’t scary the way they were in the 90’s and 0’s. That’s why the first part of Fatal Frame is now able to frighten only very impressionable players. Of course, the game is creepy and atmospheric, but it’s hard to call it very scary.
But in the sequel, the developers of Tecmo “twisted” the horror so much that after the gaming session you want to sleep with the light on. It would seem a simple plot: the sisters Mio and Mayu are brought into the cursed Japanese village, which is completely extinct because of the failed ancient ritual. The village and the souls of its dead inhabitants are trapped in this purgatory, so they are doomed to “live” the last day of the ritual for centuries.
It seems simple, but it’s still creepy and uncomfortable to play. At first sight Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly is a usual survival horror in the spirit of classic Resident Evil, only instead of guns and zombies there are ghosts and old cameras with a narrow view, and instead of brave operatives there are fragile girls.
Many skirmishes go something like this: someone starts howling, a crushing ambient plays, the player nervously tries to find the ghost with the camera, and greatly panics if the ghost does not appear for a long time or attacks from behind. Enemies here attack not only in strictly designated areas but also completely random, which makes the game keep you in constant tension. And sometimes the ghosts appear so abruptly in the frame that it’s a good idea to scream. Plus there are peaceful ghosts in the game that do not touch the player, but with their sudden appearance can also grate on the nerves. There’s enough variety to go around – from women with broken necks to creepy cultists.
Devotion
The Taiwanese Devotion had a tough fate: making fun of Xi Jinping, which the authors carelessly forgot to remove from the game, caused its ratings to drop, and then the authors had to remove the game from Steam. But let’s leave the political scandals aside, because Devotion is one of the best first-person horror games of recent times.
At first glance, there’s nothing flashy about the game – you wander around the apartment, you get scared – but the further you delve into the life of the family in question, the more refined the horror devices become. The protagonist returns to his apartment time after time, but at a different time each time. The environment, of course, changes. In this interesting way, the authors tell a story that intrigues until the very end.
And, most interestingly, without any monsters, a simple game of light and shadows, sounds, and various objects moving outside the player’s field of vision, the authors build up terrific fear. In Devotion, everything is calculated, and the pacing is perfect. Everything is staged to keep you awake at night.
