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 you're passed out, you're 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!

2 Dead Space

This one is all about atmosphere. And a sense of hopelessness. That is what makes it 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.

3 Slender

I got 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 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 by whispering in your ear and random blood all over the walls, you cannot argue that Slender will always scare the crap out of you!

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, um, 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.

6 Five Nights at Freddy's

It's sad that few have never 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 static, and the screen then changes to words: Game Over.

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 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.

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 insomnia and nightmares for weeks and weeks, and whenever the name "Dead Guy" is mentioned, my skin has 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, 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 2 Resident Evil games that already existed at the time of its 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 downright sick monsters, the story showed so much! I stand to my answer, Silent Hill is pure perfection!

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

Most beautiful graphics to see the blood and deaths. Nice storyline to give you the adrenaline. It's the future of 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. I played this since I was like 4 or 5 years old. When the lights went out, I got so scared. Also, my therapist said that he got scared too when the lights went out. I played this so many times. This came back in 2004 for the PC and 2005 for the Xbox. So, this is better than Resident Evil 4.

13 P.T.

I've never been scared by a game before, but P.T. was an exception - truly terrifying, and I'm not surprised it got cancelled. 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.

14 Alien: Isolation

Alien: Isolation is a game that fills you with stress, anxiety, total fear, and dread - the hallmarks of a horror game. It hits all the marks 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.

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 the steamed room jumpscare that everyone says is the scariest moment in gaming, I got a 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 heck out of me, okay. And yes, the puppy audio file is very disturbing.

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.

One of the scariest games for PS2. Fatal Frame 1 is even more scary.

17 Silent Hill: Homecoming

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

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

Very scary! You should play it if you love horror games. Very unique game, very fun.

18 Slender Rising

This game is scarier than any game I've 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 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. 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.

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.

21 Resident Evil

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, 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 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 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!

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-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.

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.

25 Twisted Metal
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