Top 10 Scariest Video Games

In honor of Halloween, the scariest day of the year, Don't Blame the Controller brings you the top ten spookiest video games of all time. In an industry increasingly dominated by fast-paced action titles and shooters starring overpowered commandos, horror games represent a breath of fresh air. The odds are stacked overwhelmingly against the hero or heroine, weapons and health are in short supply, and the enemies (real or imaginary) are truly deadly. It's that feeling of intense vulnerability, of helplessness that makes horror games so compelling. All of the games on this list, from top to bottom, embrace these standards. Whether action-adventure, shooter, or survival-horror, each is capable of terrifying its players, either through drop-the-controller scares or, in the case of games like Silent Hill, a pervasive sense of dread. 

These games are best enjoyed in the dark, late at night, all alone...

#10

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

Set in an abandoned, spooky mansion in Rhode Island, Eternal Darkness oozes a foreboding, sinister, mysterious mood. It follows several characters backward and forward through time, all of whom are pursued by dark and deadly creatures. What sets Eternal Darkness apart from the pack, however, is its "sanity meter" which depletes when characters are spotted by an enemy. As the meter empties, players are subjected to some disturbing happenings: skewed camera angles; whispers, cries, and creepy noises; walls and ceilings bleeding, etc. 

#9

Condemned: Criminal Origins

Clearly inspired by the movie Seven, Condemned follows Ethan, a crime scene investigator for the FBI's Serial Crime Unit. Framed for a murder he didn't commit, Ethan must hide from the authorities while simultaneously tracking a serial killer who leaves behind elaborately staged crime scenes. One of the more challenging and scary features of Condemned is its combat system. Firearms are rare in the game, so Ethan must relay on melee weapons like lead pipes and wooden planks. Thus the combat in the game is brutal, visceral, and personal. It doesn't help that the citizens of Ethan's city have been driven to psychotic madness by some unknown force.

#8

Resident Evil 4

Capcom's greatest achievement and the finest title in the Resident Evil series, Resident Evil 4 is a true masterpiece. It's also scary as hell. Players control Leon S. Kennedy as he searches for the missing daughter of the US President in a remote European town. The enemies and creatures in the game, including a masked man wielding a chainsaw, are disturbing, violent, and unpredictable. The settings, deserted and dilapidated, only add to the tension and horror of the game. Resident Evil 4 might be more action-oriented than earlier games in the series, but it still delivers the shocks and scares to which fans have become accustomed.

#7

Doom 3

The Doom series has always been gory, bloody, and threatening, but it was only in 2004, with the release of Doom 3, that the series became seriously terrifying. Although the hero of the game is a well-trained and well-armed space marine, he quickly becomes outnumbered and overpowered when hell literally breaks loose in a research facility on Mars. What makes Doom 3 so scary is the fact that the hero of the game can use either a firearm or a flashlight, never both. This makes navigating dark passages and room filled with nasty creatures extremely difficult and nerve-racking.

#6

F.E.A.R.

Mechanically, F.E.A.R. is an excellent first-person shooter. The firefights are thrilling, the enemies are smart and strategic, and the levels are well designed. But that's not why F.E.A.R. earned this spot on the list. It won that honor because of its horror theme, which relies heavily on the tropes and aesthetic of Japanese horror movies. Although F.E.A.R. has a few "jump out" moments, it mostly relies on a dreadful atmosphere that allows each player to be his or her own worst enemy. The developers at Monolith Productions were smart enough to know that a player's imagination can dream up the scariest nightmares.

#5

Resident Evil 2

Set shortly after the events of the first Resident Evil, RE2 follows rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy and civilian Claire Redfield, both of whom become trapped in a city overrun by the living dead. Enemies are plentiful and ammo scarce in Resident Evil 2, so players beware. Adding to the tension are fixed camera angles that hide enemies and "tank" controls that require players to manually turn the main character. Sound, music, level design, character design, and cinematic cut-scenes all come together in Resident Evil 2 to make one of the best survival-horror games ever made.

#4

Penumbra: Overture

Penumbra: Overture is the story of Philip, a thirty-year-old scientist who travels to a remote part of Greenland after discovering his deceased father's notes. To escape from freezing temperatures, Philip descends into an abandoned mine. There he uncovers clues related to the dark history of the mine, hides from the creatures that inhabit it, and solves puzzles that bring him closer and closer to the truth. Like all good survival-horror games, Overture ensures that Philip and, by extension, the player, is underequipped and underpowered. Armed with only a flashlight, a glowstick, and whatever he can find discarded in the mine, Philip must use stealth to avoid enemies.

#3

Resident Evil (2002)

The Nintendo Gamecube may have sold poorly compared to PS2, but as a beacon for Resident Evil fans, it couldn't be beat. Apart from supporting Resident Evil Zero, the best version of Resident Evil 4, and ports of Nemesis and Code: Veronica, Gamecube hosted a brilliant remake of the original Resident Evil. It's a huge improvement over the premiere game, with a new script, new voice acting, and improved character models, shadows, and particle effects. Best of all, it's scarier than the original, with new monsters and back stories that tell the gruesome tale of a biological experiment gone horribly wrong.

#2

Dead Space

Set on a derelict deep-space mining ship infested with terrifying, twisted creatures, Dead Space is the stuff of nightmares. Players control Isaac Clarke, a ship systems engineer who must survive the horrible creatures and environmental hazards on the starship Ishimura. The developers at EA Redwood, who designed the game, took inspiration from several horror movies, and it shows. Part Alien, part The Thing, Dead Space is suspenseful, scary, and disturbingly gruesome. It manages to keeps its players in a state of constant anticipation and apprehension, from the opening credits to the haunting final frames.

#1

Silent Hill

Konami's response to Resident Evil, Silent Hill embraces all of the elements of survival-horror games: a shortage of weapons, ammunition, and health packs; disturbing monsters; puzzle-solving; and plenty of blood and gore. Unlike Resident Evil, however, Silent Hill provides its scares not through visceral action and shocking moments, but through a steady, unbearably suspensful atmosphere of dread. The music and sound effects in Silent Hill only add to this pervasive feeling on the part of the player that something terrible is about to happen. Of all the titles on this list, Silent Hill is by far the scariest, most emotionally exhausting game.