Top 10 Scariest Video Games of All Time

The Top Ten
1 Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Amnesia is by far the scariest video game I have ever heard of. I have had trouble sleeping since 2010!

The scary thing about it is that you have no weapons, just a lantern, and that lantern runs out quickly.
If you're in the dark too long, you lose sanity.

When you lose sanity, you hallucinate stuff, hear things that aren't there and your character starts to move around by itself and gets harder to control. That means it's way harder to run away from a Gatherer!
Also, if your sanity goes all the way down, your character passes out and it restores completely, although when your passed out, your vulnerable.
Your lantern, or any kind of light completely attracts gatherers, and if you look at a nearby monster, your sanity harshly drops.
The graphics are really bad, but it's still enough to keep you awake all night.
I'm so happy to see this old 2010 game is still ranking high on 2017 Top Horror Games lists!

My brother rarely gets scared of video games, but he was terrified playing this one, while I haven't played the game myself, it does scare my unlike any other game I have seen. The sense of paranoia fuels the scare factor. And don't even get me started on the wine cellar, that area was TERRIFYING! It was a scary game alright, and scare us it did. While people go "SLENDER MAEN IS the BEAST GAEM ever! "... Really? Slender was nothing but jump scares, this game isn't like that at all. I don't know about anyone else, but when I play a horror game I want something to chase me, Amnesia: The Dark Descent did this perfectly without making it repetitive or stupid. You could play this game several times over and still get scared of it. In my opinion, the best horror game ever released.

2 Dead Space

This one is all about atmosphere. And a sense of hopelessness. That is what makes is scary to me. Lighting, or lack thereof, and creepy/strange sounds all add to a truly absorbing setting, and make 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.

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 crewmember 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.

One of the few modern horrors that focus on atmospere, the creepy dark and flickering lighting, the corpses gore and blood pools, the disturbing enemies, and the hopelessness. These create tense and scary areas, and the enemy placement creates climaxes to keep the game from getting boring while creating jump scares, and intense and frantic firefights. I'm glad the other two sequels stayed true to the original.

3 Slender

I got a 13 year old kid and he's scared of the game. It's annoying cause he keeps yelling. It could scare adults too. I played it once and when I saw slender. I didn't make me scared or anything. I also saw slender in real life and it scared me so hard. Lucky 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 followed be whispering in your ear and random blood all over the walls, you cannot argue that Slender will always scare the crap out of you!

You're walking through a forest at night. You pick up a page that says something like "LEAVE ME ALONE. " Then this ominous thudding music kicks in. The next thing you know Slender man is standing in front of you and it's game over.

4 Silent Hill 2

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 makes you walk away from the game mentally disturbed.

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 with the profound dilemma of whether I should proceed to the next room or simply continue down a pitch-black hallway or not. Yeah, that nerve-wracking, numb-with-fear, stop-dead-in-your-tracks kind of scare.

Oh, and of course, it probably has the best game OST ever in terms of ambiance, which was actually probably the biggest contributing factor as to why it's so scary. But others would definitely be the empty/quiet town, the thick fog, the alarmingly unconcerned people you meet, and the eerily "human-like" creatures with their "thingy" textures and features.

These creatures never really pose any physical threat yet still manage to make you want to take another route if possible. Just to give you an idea of what it felt like; it always bothered me as soon as James made a teeny weeny sound - for instance, those creaks from turning a locked doorknob. Simply because I was desperate to not want to be noticed by whatever was lurking in the shadows.

Especially in those dead-quiet rooms, you finally get rid of the scary sounds but NOW IT'S TOO DAMN QUIET! Dear god what a masterpiece, and I haven't even mentioned the psychologically intense story. I could go on forever...

5 Outlast

A very scary, disturbing and umm... Frontal game (you know what I mean) But I found the ending disappointing. And the second one I haven't seen the ending but I hope it's a lot better. In conclusion: messed up imagery, not knowing much, somewhat gross and creepy characters, all make a scary game.

I watched my boyfriend play this game and it was so scary, we were screaming at every turn. I mean 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.

Got in on the PS4 and played it around 3am with a friend. Even with someone there this game was completely terrifying and has tremendous amounts of mental buildup before a single corpse (let alone enemy) appears. Story isn't anything special but as for flat-out horror, it excels.

6 Five Nights at Freddy's

It's sad that few have never, or even heard of this game. I think it should at least be in the top 100. When you first start the game, you will probably be confused about what to do. However, at the same time, you get this strange feeling that something is about to pop out and kill you. I never played the game, but this is what I saw when my friend was playing it at his house, and I came in once in a while to watch him: You seem to be a security guard watching security cameras. As time goes on, the teddy bears start doing strange and scary things. Then a bear appears in your room, and the lights go out. Then the bear jumps out at you from the shadows, and the screen gets all statically, and the screen then changes to words: Game Over.

I absolutely adore this name. It's challenging, incredibly so, and Scott uses jumpscares differently. He doesn't just flash it in your face and wait until the suspense builds again. He tells you it's coming, gives you cams to figure out when, and the paranoia of knowing those facts make them all the more effective. Plus, even after the original terror has worn off, you can spend hours and hours pacing a room or searching the internet and developing your own theory for what happened in this twisted restaurant. Deep, disturbing, and so scary you may think twice about going back to Chuck E. Cheese's for your birthday this year.

7 Resident Evil 4

I haven't played many of the titles on this list, so my opinion may be invalid. The amount of time that I spent wiping sweat off my controller during the first survival sequence in the village square added up to more time than I spent on the game itself.

Nothing makes you wet your pants more than a regenerator reviving itself after you have waisted all of your ammo shooting at its head only to see it completely healed just moments later.

Lots of ammo. Tons of enemies everywhere and a strong tough protaganist. This is a great game but I feel it is more action than horror. Its got elements of horror but I can't call this that scary.

8 F.E.A.R.

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 are never going to 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

9 Manhunt

Cursed me with insomniac and nightmares for weeks and weeks, and whenever the name "dead guy" is mentioned, my sins have time to go to jupiter.

My dad has this game and even the cover looks scary!

Manhunt 2 is very, very dark and actually spooks me.

10 Silent Hill

What you may also wish to consider is that, bar its own sequel, no game in the top 10 here are anywhere near as old as the original Silent Hill. In this era detail wasn't what it is now, and the PSOne (or anything Gen 5 systeem) could never take 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 2 Resident Evil games that already existed at the time of it's release.

This game touched me deep inside, Besides the horror that scared the fritz out of me when I first played it at night and the down right sic monsters, the story showed so much! I stand to my answer, Silent hill is pure perfection!

Should be in the first places, even the poor quality of the graphics or animation, the atmosphere in the game and every scenery is enough to scare anyone.

The Contenders
11 Dead Space 2

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 until then. Truly the perfect blend of science fiction and survival horror.

Most beautiful graphics to see the blood & deads. Nice storyline to give you the adrenaline.
It's the future of horror.

This should be in the top three easy. Kids these days don't know good horror.

12 Doom 3

I played this when I was around ten years old. It was so scary that I didn't even get past 3 missions. I never even finished the game. Your flashlight will come very much in 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 chatting. I played this since I was like 4 or 5 years old when the lights when out I got so scared also my therapist said that to me he got scared too when the lights when out I played this so many times. This came back in 2004 for the PC and 2005 for the Xbox So this is more better than Resident Evil 4.

Nope not so scary but when I was 10 years old in 2011 my therapist said he played Doom 3 he liked it I was in 4th grade when he told me When hebllayed that mission where the lights when off he got really scared! So I played this as a childhood when I was 4 or 5 years old until I was 10. Ugh... I even couldn't sleep I had nightmares I was scared my parents were with me had jumpscares too!

13 P.T.

For real I've never been scared of a game before but this was crazy, not surprised it got cancelled its seriously terrifying! Quite F'd up as well with a dead fetus in the sink, the storyline being of a horrible nature, all the twists and turns, not many jump scares BUT NONE ARE NEEDED it's freaky enough without them but it certainly adds to the whole atmosphere. Everything changes as you go round and round but yet it's all the same, you will see it and think wow it's repetitive, but, trust me if you have a ps4 or somebody you know has one download Silent Hills P.T (playable teaser) I guarantee you, it will leave you bones feeling icy cold...

This game was so scary, it's understandable why it was cancelled. I couldn't just imagine how terrifying Silent Hills would be if it wasn't cancelled and Kojima wasn't kicked out of Konami. Just the demo of the game is enough to nearly make me pass out. Sure, other horror games made me scared and run out of my room, but none are enough to make me pass out like PT. I would also think that if Silent Hills was released, it would be very controversial.

14 Alien: Isolation

A game which fills you with stress, anxiety, total fear and dread for playing the video game, that is what a horror game is. Alien: Isolation hits all the marks for being so terrifying. You are on a space station and have to complete several missions whilst trying to escape that terrifying Xenomorph which makes the atmosphere just perfect. Not only that this game gives you so much fear that you feel like your in Amanda Ripley's shoes. No matter what happens when that Xenomorph finds you and you have to run your heart is going to beat so fast it will burst just like the alien chest burst. Good luck sleeping tonight if you have played this game.

''SPOILERS''

Alien: Isolation is the best survival horror game I've played.

The game has a creepy atmosphere, and you'd better not make much noise because that attracts enemy A.I. And of course the game design. Science fiction style from the 70s makes it complete. The game finally takes place after the events of Alien the movie. The game has great features like the peeking system, the scavenge/craft system and the noice system.

When I played the first mission for the first time I was a bit confused. You just wake up after hyper sleep, and you need to dress up. But later, when you step into the airlock for a spacewalk, that was amazing.

There are also times when you feel safe. But that is ruined when you look out a window and you see the endless void. Then you remember that you are really stuck.

But that's not everything.

I hate these moments that you are stuck because the AI is doing nothing. Just standing or guarding literally nothing. Like a Working Joe. Or that the Alien is lurking around, so you can't make any mission progress.

And the second point is the fact that there are too many fake endings.

And the third point. An example of a working Joe. You are hidden. And from nowhere he let you know that he is looking for you.

But it's still my #1 horror game I have ever played.

15 BioShock

The ambiance is VERY creepy, and then add that creatures can appear behind you seemingly out of nowhere and that you can step on a metal tray and it makes you think something is creeping up behind you, etc. Just the whole game is very creepy.

Although I (sadly) missed the huge surgeon in steamed room jumpscare that everyone says is the scariest moment in gaming, I got s jumpscare that involved seeing a large shadow of "surgery", all lights going off, the guy disappearing, some time spent searching, and then the surgeon bursting out of a closet.
It scared the &@! # out of me, okay.
And yes, the puppy audio file is very disturbing.

If you saw the scenes with Sander Cohen, Dr. Steinman, and Suchong and the Puppy(an audio diary), you would be freaked out. Not to mention big daddy fights. But Sander Cohen having you photograph corpses of his students for his "masterpiece" is just creepy.

16 Fatal Frame 2

It is scary. What makes it even scarier is the fact that it was based on a Japanese urban legend that has to do with 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 and you have to use a special camera effect in order to shoo it away.

The most mentally scarring game out there.

Ugh, it's so good

17 Silent Hill: Homecoming

That's a very good horror game with amazing story. I don't know why it's so underrated. Maybe because of some retards who never played it and then judged it...

Definitely very underrated horror game, I found it scarier than Silent 1,2,3, and 4. And the enemies very fantastic, very creepy.

An amazing game

18 Slender Rising

This game is scarier than any game I played but not scarier than amnesia

19 Five Night's at Freddy's 2

I think the phone guy is the killer. Here are some edvidence I collect from research:
1. On Villains Wiki, There is a image of the killer holding a phone and wearing a security guard badge
2. It's kinda hard to accuse Mike Schmidt as the killer because their pupil colors don't match. So, It's impossible to accuse Mike as the culprit
3. All of the animatronics killed the phone guy on night 4 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 find this game scarier than the first game. When I began this game, it became fun. I knew what to do because my brother played it. Then Toy Freddy came. He's easily the creepiest character in the game ( aside from the Puppet). I closed out of the game because he's sooo creepy. Love it and hate it.

20 Five Nights at Freddy's 3

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 jumpscare 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.

Scariest game ever I played this game and screamed very very loud I did not make It to the end but I did my best.

What happened to the fluffy cute animals?

21 Resident Evil

I think "creepy" and "unsettling" is a better word. 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 most scariest game, and the hardest of the resident evil series. 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 and 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!

22 Scary Maze Game

Even though I've never played this game, I heard that this 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, dangit! 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 like a little girl 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, but I once saw a video of a guy who played this, and he punched his computer and broke it, hilarious!

By the time you're on Level 3, you start to get scared in case you die in the second half of the level, because there is that scary scream.

23 Five Nights at Freddy's 4

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 are shaking too much!

Drug fuelled child's nightmares are a lot scarier than Chuck E. Cheese animatronics.
By the way Bonnie is a man. FFS I'm not a fan and I can tell immediately.

Scariest of the series

24 Left 4 Dead

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.

It's a great game, but it's not that scary.

25 Twisted Metal

Twisted Metal isn't scary.

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