There is nothing like a genuine jump scare from time to time to feel alive. While horror movies can send a chill down our spines, great horror games can enable us to immerse in a truly frightful situation. Let’s look at the top 10 scary moments that we enjoyed in classic and modern titles.
Warning, spoilers below!
Alien: Isolation – the xenomorph appears
The Alien film directed in 1979 by Ridley Scott remains a true classic among all horror fans. While there were many games trying to imitate the title’s unique, tense atmosphere, none of them succeeded like Alien: Isolation. Released in 2014, this sci-fi horror manages to pull many “jump scares” on you, one of them remains particularly memorable.
During the first act our main heroine, Amanda Ripley, explores a decommissioned space station Sevastopol. The place is full of ominous sounds professing a danger lurking nearby, that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Yet nothing beats the moment when the titular Alien finally appears, accompanied by the game’s great OST. Heart attack guaranteed!
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth – escaping the horror hotel
Developed by Headfirst Productions, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is a survival horror title that was first released in October 2005. Based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft, the game has you playing as Jack Walters, a detective that has been hired to investigate the creepy town of Innsmouth.
While there are many scary moments in the game, the most memorable definitely happens as you are exploring, and escaping, the Gilman Hotel. At this moment, you must escape the hotel and the entire time you are going room to room, blocking the doors and looking for a way out. Your aggressors are close behind, banging on walls, shooting at you, all while ghastly screams surround you. If you want to get your heart racing, this game and moment will definitely do that for you!
Batman: Arkham Knight – the Man-Bat attacks
Not only horror games can pull a scare on you. Although the Batman: Arkham series’ atmosphere is generally far from “sunshine and rainbows”, one spine-chilling moment particularly stands out. It contains a monster that appears from nowhere and literally breaths into your face.
While traversing the Gotham City in Batman: Arkham Knight our hero is in for a surprise. A horribly deformed Man-Bat will appear randomly as the Caped Crusader climbs one of the rooftops. Nothing can prepare you for this scene – even knowing that it will take place makes you nervous from anticipation.
Outlast – a man in a wheelchair
If you are looking for a truly horrifying first-person game to play, look no further than Outlast. In it, you play as a journalist investigating Mount Massive Asylum, located in remote mountains in Colorado. Armed with a camera, you’ll quickly realize things aren’t exactly what they seem. Outlast combines jump scares with slow-burning atmospheric terror, but there is one moment that shines above the rest for us.
Relatively early in the game, you’ll come across a long corridor. Near the middle sits a body in a wheelchair facing away from you. This is creepy enough, but once you muster up the courage, you can pass by it without issue and enter the room with the objective. After completing your tasks in those rooms, you leave and must pass back by the body in the wheelchair. This time, however, the body is much more lively and will spring at you the moment you get too close!
Dead Space – tentacles appearing out of nowhere
A good horror game knows how to toy with the gamer’s expectations. One of the scary moments in Dead Space gives us a perfect example of such a trick. In this TPP survival horror from Visceral Games, you take the role of Isaac Clarke, a simple space engineer. He is no warrior, yet must quickly learn how to fight against zombie-alien hybrids with his tools.
Here’s the catch – in this game you simply never put your guard down. While traveling through the corridors of spacecraft USG Ishimura you’ll find a hole in the wall that simply invites trouble. Als, you pass this wall one, two, even ten times and nothing happens. That is until this ONE unlucky moment comes and you’re attacked by a huge tentacle!
Sanitarium – meeting the “Mother”
It’s a point-and-click adventure game but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have some scary moments! The game was released in 1998 and sets you in a role of a person that has woken up in a sanitarium. A car crash leaves you injured and without any memory of who you are. As you explore and learn more about yourself, you’ll encounter chilling locations and NPCs that will leave you extremely creeped out.
Sanitarium is all about the psychological horror aspect, keeping you on edge the entire time you play. When you are first in the asylum, you hear inmates talking about children and “Mother” but it is easy to dismiss the ramblings of the patients – until you are transported to the town where you meet the children and “Mother.” While this scary moment is a slow burn it definitely makes you realize you are in for a wild ride.
Bioshock – a visit to the dentist
The other way to scare gamers is to use their deeply rooted phobias. The creators of the Bioshock series know exactly how to do just that. Visiting the ruined city of Rapture is generally not a very pleasant experience. The hopes of its founder to create a perfect metropolis didn’t work out, and the city’s dental services are not an exception.
On your journey in the first Bioshock game, we’ll encounter a place called Rapture’s Painless Dental. Don’t get fooled, the experience you’re about to take part in is far from painless. It involves a gas, a corpse, and a dangerous dentist splicer. So, kids – clean your teeth every morning. 😉
Phantasmagoria – a very… caloric meal
This one is a true classic and the only FMV (full-motion video) game to make the list. Phantasmagoria is a point-and-click adventure game released in 1995 by Sierra On-Line on seven (!) discs. It tells the story of a writer, Adrienne, who has recently moved into a creepy old mansion that the audience quickly finds out is haunted by supernatural spirits. There are many creepy and scary moments, but there is one that stands out among the rest.
It happens when Adrienne finds a portal in a mirror and witnesses one of the most gruesome scenes to ever be featured in the FMV horror games. In the scene, you withness the crazy magician, Zoltan, as he is putting an end to his wife. With the wife strapped to a table, you watch in horror as the man inserts a feeding funnel into her mouth and shoves offal (animal guts basically) into her mouth through the funnel.
F.E.A.R. – the horror girl appears
Our next pick on the list features more gunplay than any other game on the list but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its fair share of scares. Released in 2005, F.E.A.R. lets you play a member of a special forces team sent to investigate a strange phenomenon involving a little girl in a red dress.
One of the first truly scary moments in the game is still one of the most haunting to this day. It happens as you are exploring some dark corridors with nothing but your flashlight to guide you. As you get to the end of one of these hallways the silhouette of a girl on the red screen dashes across the hall. The scene is accompanied by possibly the creepiest kid giggle of all time and dramatic, horror-movie sound effects. Sheesh!
Evil Within – meeting Laura
In terms of making us want to change our trousers, Shinji Mikami has no equals in the video game world. The survival horror legend pulled a huge jump scare on us again in Evil Within, one of his finest works. In the game, you join detective Sebastian Castellanos on his terrifying journey to hell and back.
While many grotesquely deformed monsters will cross your path in this game, one of them clearly stands out. Once Laura jumps at you with her spider limbs, all you can do is run for your life. Of course, that won’t help much. The sounds of Laura’s breath will follow you everywhere and not even a sturdy metal gate will stop this monstrosity for long.
So, these were the top 10 scariest moments in horror games, both classic and modern, to make you tremble in fear. Check the games mentioned above not only because of their shock value, but also, because they’re great, engaging titles altogether.
Do you like the horror genre in video games? Check out the article about Alan Wake on our blog.
