Top 10 Scariest Video Games of All Time
Some video games are fun, some are challenging, and then there are the ones that make your heart race, your palms sweat, and your brain question why you're still playing when every instinct is telling you to stop. Horror games have a way of pulling you in, keeping you on edge, and making you second-guess every shadow, every noise, and every movement on the screen. The best ones don't just rely on cheap jump scares. They build tension, create an atmosphere of pure dread, and make you feel completely powerless in the face of whatever nightmare is hunting you down.
Amnesia is by far the scariest video game I have ever heard of. I have had trouble sleeping since 2010!
The game's main horror factor is that you have no weapons, only a lantern, which runs out quickly. Staying in the dark too long causes you to lose sanity. When you lose sanity, you hallucinate, hear nonexistent sounds, and find your character starts to move on its own, making it harder to control. This makes it significantly more challenging to escape a Gatherer. Additionally, if your sanity depletes entirely, your character passes out and becomes vulnerable, though sanity is restored completely.
Even though the graphics are quite poor, the game is still frightening enough to keep you awake all night. I'm so pleased to see this old 2010 game still ranking high on 2017 top horror games lists!
To be more specific, the game is set on a giant mining ship that has sent out a distress signal, and you're part of the rescue team that's been ordered to investigate. You soon discover that every crew member has mutated into a violent monster. When most of your team is killed, it's up to you to rescue the dark and claustrophobic ship while aliens jump out at you from every corner. It's tense, bleak, and immersive, thanks to a superbly designed setting and some truly creepy audio.
This one is all about atmosphere and a sense of hopelessness, which makes it scary to me. Lighting, or lack thereof, and creepy/strange sounds all add to a truly absorbing setting. It makes you feel as if you could be attacked from anywhere, at any time, by pretty much anything. Also, you can feel the sheer terror of the supporting characters, which only adds to your own. Fantastic game.
I have a 13-year-old kid, and he's scared of the game. It's annoying because he keeps yelling. It could scare adults too. I played it once, and when I saw Slender, it didn't make me scared or anything. I also saw Slender in real life, and it scared me so much. Luckily, he's gone. I almost died when that happened. But I survived.
Slender is a game where, no matter how old or young you are, you will always be scared by Slender. Creepy music, whispering in your ear, and random blood all over the walls confirm that Slender will always scare the crap out of you.
As opposed to bland jump scares, Silent Hill 2 is disturbing as it is iconic. Games like Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space just shove something scary in your face, but SH2 leaves you mentally disturbed after you walk away from the game.
Silent Hill 2 is probably my favorite game of all time. I don't know about now, but it scared me back in the day. I constantly found myself pacing back and forth, or just standing still, grappling with whether to proceed to the next room or continue down a pitch-black hallway.
The game's OST is possibly the best ever in terms of ambiance, which significantly contributes to the scare factor. Other terrifying elements include the empty and quiet town, the thick fog, the alarmingly unconcerned people you meet, and the eerily human-like creatures with their distinct textures and features.
These creatures never really pose any physical threat, yet they still manage to make you want to take another route if possible. Just to give you an idea, it always bothered me whenever James made a small sound, such as the creaks from turning a locked doorknob. This was simply because I was desperate not to be noticed by whatever was lurking in the shadows.
Especially in the dead-quiet rooms, you finally get rid of the scary sounds, but then it becomes too quiet. This game is a masterpiece, especially when you consider its psychologically intense story. I could go on forever...
A very scary, disturbing, and, um, frontal game. But I found the ending disappointing. I haven't seen the ending of the second one, but I hope it's a lot better. In conclusion, messed up imagery, not knowing much, and somewhat gross and creepy characters all make for a scary game.
I watched my boyfriend play this game, and it was so scary. We were screaming at every turn. You can't go wrong with an abandoned asylum with crazy people running around. Plus, you are unarmed. You run or hide, and it makes it that much scarier and heart-wrenching.
It's sad that a few people have never heard of this game. I think it should at least be in the top 100. When you first start playing, you will likely be confused about what to do. At the same time, you get the uneasy feeling that something is about to pop out and scare you. I never played the game myself, but I observed this while my friend played it at his house.
You appear to be a security guard monitoring security cameras. As time progresses, the teddy bears start behaving oddly and scarily. Then, a bear appears in your room, the lights go out, and the bear jumps out at you from the shadows. The screen then fills with static and changes to the words: Game Over.
I haven't played many of the titles on this list, so my opinion may be invalid. However, the amount of time that I spent wiping sweat off my controller during the first survival sequence in the village square was more than the time I spent playing the game itself.
Nothing makes you wet your pants more than a Regenerator reviving itself after you have wasted all of your ammo shooting at its head, only to see it completely healed just moments later.
I just would like to put it out there that Resident Evil 4 is the greatest game ever, for any reason. I have my wet pants to prove it.
Fear is such a great game, but the remakes are nowhere near as scary as the original. (extraction point and perseus mandate) Fear 2 and 3 are more action than horror and will never be as scary.
I usually enjoy FPS games, but not this one. I quickly quit this game because it is just too scary.
The best thing about this game is it has both ghosts and humans as enemies.
This game cursed me with insomnia and nightmares for weeks. Whenever the name "Dead Guy" is mentioned, my skin crawls.
My dad has this game, and even the cover looks scary!
Manhunt 2 is very, very dark and actually spooks me.
What you may also wish to consider is that, barring its own sequel, no game in the top 10 here is anywhere near as old as the original Silent Hill. In this era, detail wasn't what it is now, and the PSOne (or anything from the Gen 5 system) could never handle anything like a Regenerator. I know it's been said countless times, but this game laid the foundation for horror in gaming, arguably even more so than the two Resident Evil games that already existed at the time of its release.
This game touched me deeply. Besides the horror that scared the fritz out of me when I first played it at night and the downright sick monsters, the story revealed so much. I stand by my answer: Silent Hill is pure perfection.
The Newcomers
This game is really scary. It breaks the 4th wall and makes you feel disturbed.
People who never played it: Awww, it looks so cute, so obviously it's for kids.
The fandom: The warning says it isn't for kids.
Zardy's Maze isn't scary because of the jumpscares or the enemies themselves. It's actually scary because of its high difficulty and unpredictability. It really gets your heart pounding right out of your chest.
Even though I haven't played the Dead Space games, if the eye poke machine mini-game from this installment is anything to go by, you'll be thanking God that you don't live in a reality with that kind of nightmare fuel. Also, seeing the Necromorph transformations on YouTube firsthand will probably have me scarred for a day or two. Truly the perfect blend of science fiction and survival horror.
Most beautiful graphics to see the blood and deaths. Nice storyline to give you adrenaline. It's the future of horror.
I played this when I was around ten years old. It was so scary that I didn't even get past three missions. I never finished the game. Your flashlight will come in very handy, but you can't use your weapon at the same time. The graphics of this game still hold up in 2020. If you love horror, then I definitely recommend checking this game out.
This is the scariest game at level 2, Mars City Underground, when the radio chatter starts. I played this since I was about 4 or 5 years old. When the lights went out, I got so scared. My therapist said that he got scared too when the lights went out. I have played this many times. It came out in 2004 for the PC and 2005 for the Xbox. So, this is better than Resident Evil 4.
I've never been scared by a game before, but P.T. was an exception - truly terrifying, and I'm not surprised it got canceled. It's quite disturbing, featuring a dead fetus in the sink and a storyline of a horrible nature. The game is filled with twists and turns, and while there aren't many jump scares, none are needed. It's freaky enough without them, adding to the overall atmosphere.
As you loop through the game, everything changes, yet it all remains the same. It may seem repetitive at first glance, but trust me, if you have a PS4 or know someone who does, download Silent Hills P.T. (playable teaser). I guarantee it will leave your bones feeling icy cold.
Alien: Isolation is a game that fills you with stress, anxiety, total fear, and dread - the hallmarks of a horror game. It checks all the boxes for being terrifying. You find yourself on a space station, tasked with completing several missions while trying to escape the terrifying Xenomorph, creating the perfect atmosphere. This game instills so much fear that you feel as if you're in Amanda Ripley's shoes. When the Xenomorph finds you and you have to run, your heart races so fast it feels like it will burst, reminiscent of the iconic alien chest burst. Good luck sleeping tonight if you've played this game.
The ambiance is very creepy. Add to that the fact that creatures can appear behind you seemingly out of nowhere, and you might step on a metal tray thinking something is creeping up behind you. The whole game is very creepy.
Although I missed the huge surgeon in the steamed room jump scare that everyone says is the scariest moment in gaming, I got a jump scare that involved seeing a large shadow of "surgery." All lights went off, the guy disappeared, some time was spent searching, and then the surgeon burst out of a closet. It scared the heck out of me. And yes, the puppy audio file is very disturbing.
It is scary. What makes it even scarier is that it was based on a Japanese urban legend about a haunted house, Himuro Mansion. You take pictures of ghosts, and if you take a picture of a hostile ghost, it will pounce at you and grab the camera lens. You have to use a special camera effect to shoo it away.
The most mentally scarring game out there.
One of the scariest games for PS2. Fatal Frame 1 is even more scary.
This game is scarier than any game I've played, but not scarier than Amnesia.
That's a very good horror game with an amazing story. I don't know why it's so underrated. Maybe because some people who never played it judged it.
Definitely a very underrated horror game. I found it scarier than Silent 1, 2, 3, and 4, and the enemies are fantastic and very creepy.
Very scary! You should play it if you love horror games. Very unique game, very fun.
I don't know, I like FNAF as a whole, but honestly, I only played this for its story. This is probably the worst game in the franchise, with Springtrap's jumpscare being the worst out of any of the FNAF games. The gaming mechanics were interesting, and this game added a lot to the story, providing some sense of closure (although there were still some plot holes and the story continued).
I loved the minigames, though, and the atmosphere they created had an uncanny feeling where you didn't know what to expect as you progressed further into the game.
I think the Phone Guy is the killer. Here is some evidence I collected from research:
1. On Villains Wiki, there is an image of the killer holding a phone and wearing a security guard badge.
2. It's kind of hard to accuse Mike Schmidt as the killer because their pupil colors don't match. Thus, it's impossible to accuse Mike as the culprit.
3. All of the animatronics killed the Phone Guy on night four of the first game. So, probably the animatronics seek revenge, or maybe they are helping the police to catch the killer. Check the killer on Villains Wiki. It says that the killer is arrested.
4. The Phone Guy worked as a night guard.
I think "creepy" and "unsettling" are better words. The atmosphere in this game alone creeps me out. The music certainly doesn't help either. This is easily one of my favorite games of all time, and even after finishing it 10+ times, it still scares me. (Gamecube version)
In my opinion, this game was the scariest and the hardest of the Resident Evil series. You have to survive on a limited amount of ammunition against insanely strong zombies.
The scariest in the entire series, in my opinion. Plus, I don't know if this is for REmake, but that game was exceptional at what it set out to do. The additional scares from Lisa and the Crimson Heads enhanced this creepy atmosphere. While 4 is a good game, I really don't find it scary at all!
Even though I've never played this game, I heard that it will make you crap bricks. It's kind of annoying though, because just as soon as you reach the door... BAM! The Exorcist girl's face pops out. It's like, just let me win, dang it! I can imagine that's what goes through the minds of gamers that play this, along with the idea of hiding in a corner and crying because they didn't expect to see something so ugly. I don't know, but I'm not playing the game ever. Sorry.
When my friend made me play this, I hated him and gave him the cold shoulder for weeks. I once saw a video of a guy who played this and punched his computer, breaking it. Hilarious!
Guys, this game should be at least in the top 10 because it's the hardest game for me. I'm so scared that when I close a door, my hands shake too much!
Drug-fueled child's nightmares are a lot scarier than Chuck E. Cheese animatronics. By the way, Bonnie is a man. For goodness' sake, I'm not a fan and I can tell immediately.
Seriously, Five Nights at Freddy's is supposed to be fun! There are three types of scary: fun scary, sad scary, and scary scary. All the other FNAF games are fun scary, with the excitement rushing through your veins as they try to get you. But FNAF 4 is something else entirely. It's sad scary, with it not being fun at all, taking place inside a house, in a little kid's nightmares. Now that's what really makes me sad for Michael Afton.
But I also think that this is the only FNAF game that's scary. It's the scariest out of the FNAF series, and it's the only one that haunts me. Especially with Nightmare Freddy. Once he's just spawned onto the bed behind you by the Freddles, he just stalks and stares at you from behind, getting ready to kill you. Once you look at the bed, you're done for! Then there's Nightmare Fredbear, who's the next scariest animatronic, being the culprit of the Bite of '83, and just stares at you on Night 5 when you flash your flashlight at him, and also having a stomach mouth. Poor, poor, poor kid. I'm not saying anything more about it. By now, you have the idea.
The Hunter zombie is one of the scariest. It crawls and jumps on you and tears out your insides. The Witch is also scary. She appears out of nowhere and scratches you up with her long black fingernails. Sometimes she's just sitting down with her back facing you. If you walk behind her, she will look behind her back and attack you if she sees you.
