Crimson Butterface: 5 Scary Games

Everyone loves a good scare. Well, mostly everybody. I know some people that would punch you in the face if you tried to scare them. Regardless, there's nothing like the feeling of a good jump scare. Your heart skips a beat, you take that sharp, short breath and for that split second your brain screams at you that you're in danger. And then, there are scares that stay with you. I remember the first time I read Stephen King's IT. I don't find clowns scary in the slightest, but IT kept me up at night, paranoid that I would hear that raspy, grating voice penetrate the dark silence of my bedroom.

Where will you be diarrhea hits you?

I find that I lean more towards horror games that give a good feeling of paranoia, as jump scares will only take you so far. That's not to say that jump scares are any less effective, but they don't seem to stick with you.

Picture unrelated…OR IS IT?

I've been thinking about this particular post for a while. Horror is my favorite genre and I didn't want to try to narrow down a whole community of games by saying that these are the five best games and there aren't any others out there better than these so I'll just say this: these are five games in the horror genre that I really enjoy. Maybe you've played them, maybe you haven't. If you haven't, I suggest going and picking these up.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Woogity-Boogity!

Starting things off with a doozy, here. Amnesia really rejuvenated the horror genre by stripping it down to the core and bringing back a true feeling of paranoia. You have no weapons, only a lantern that will burn out VERY quickly and some tinderboxes to light candles along the way. Adding to the freakiness, you have a sanity meter that will fill up extremely fast, as in if you're in the dark (which you will be in for 99% of the game), or if you see an enemy you will lose sanity. I have never put so much preparation into a horror game as I have this one.

Silent Hill 2

"I hate it when I misplace my hole…"

A staple for any horror game fan, Silent Hill 2, even with all of the camera problems and shoddy controls is a masterpiece. The series itself has been a go-to for many who love to feel scared well after the game is over and the lights are off. Even now, after almost thirteen years, people have their own theories about the endings of the game and what all of the monsters are supposed to represent. While all of the Silent Hill games have their place in the horror genre, Silent Hill 2 sticks out as the most emotional, hard-hitting and most disturbing of the series.

Outlast

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE'RE OUT OF NUTELLA?!"

Hoo, boy. Outlast is, to say the least, freaking horrifying. I haven't beaten this one yet, simply because I can only play it for a few minutes at a time. Set in an insane asylum, you play as a journalist that has received information from someone known only as "The Whistleblower" about some shady doings going on at Mount Massive Asylum. No weapons (of course), you have only your video camera, which means that you are running and hiding throughout all of the game. Outlast brings a new element to games that I figured we would have seen already and that's the use of night vision. Holy cow, this makes the game ten times more freaky. Having to wade through all the crazy people while running and hiding from the hostile ones, all the while looking through that eerie, green-black screen…yeesh. There's only two words that will describe the atmosphere of the game and if you've played the game you'll understand: "Little Pig."

Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly

"Don't mind me, I'm just hanging out. HA! Get it? Hanging…out…I'll leave you alone now."

I have a love-hate relationship with Asian horror. I love the stories, the cinematography and the direction style both in their movies and their games, but great googly-moogly do some of them scare the crap out of me. That's what first drew me to the Fatal Frame series. For a horror game, Fatal Frame has some beautiful scenery. Aside from a somewhat goofy concept (beat the ghosts with a magic camera!), the second installment Crimson Butterfly offers some real gut-wrenching scares, leaving you reluctant to explore the next room.  If you're a fan of movies like The Ring, The Grudge or Pulse, check this one out. It does not disappoint.

Dead Space

Prom really got out of control this year.

Taking inspirations from movies like Event Horizon and The Abyss, the Dead Space series has brought something to the horror genre that a lot of games have tried to do but just couldn't pull it off: a great weapon system. You're given a plethora of guns in Dead Space, but that is not enough to make you feel confident enough to just blaze your way right through it. With enemies that are extremely quiet, you will be constantly looking behind you just to make sure that nothing is creeping up behind you. A fun little fact about the first game; the first letter of the first word of every level title gives away the ending. I won't spoil it for you, you'll just have to play it yourself to find out.

Honorable Mentions(yeah, yeah I know it's not a ranked list, but come on. Five games? You can't have a list of horror games without these):

Slender: The Eight Pages

"Occupado!"

Based off of a story on the Something Awful forums, Slender is a short, free PC game that has you running through the woods collecting pieces of paper to unlock the secrets of the Slender Man. This one is fun to play with a friend looking over your shoulder, so you can show watch them scream when the Slender Man shows up.

Resident Evil Series

NOPE. NOPENOPENOPE.

Do I really have to go into this? If you haven't played a Resident Evil game…seriously…it would be really hard to consider you a horror game fan if you haven't played these.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

"Do you beeelliieeevvee in life after love?"

A stand out on the GameCube, Eternal Darkness is an innovator for bringing us the sanity meter. No other game has used the meter as fluently or as aggressively as Eternal Darkness. From bugs running all over your screen to making your character explode, Eternal Darkness will make you think that you really are losing your mind.

SCP Containment Breach

"Let me love you." 

I'm only going to say one thing about this free PC game, but I really want you to think about what it means and how it affects the game…you have to make your character blink. You have to make them BLINK. I'll let that sink in.

White Day: A Labyrinth Named School

This is what Glee does to you.

If you have never heard of this game, you are in for a treat! A Korean made horror game, White Day is supposedly so scary that the developers had to make patches for it to tone down the scares because everyone who played it was too scared to finish it. Being a Korean game, you have to have a modified PC to play it or download the English patch version, which is unfortunately filled with a lot of grammatical errors and mistranslations. Regardless, watching videos of gameplay for this one may be enough for me…yeah right. I'm gonna download this and sleep with the lights on for the rest of my life.

So that's it. If you can't tell, I'm very passionate about the horror genre, so this particular entry is pretty long. Now, comes the fun part; I want to hear what you think. What's your favorite horror game? Did it make this list, or do you feel like I missed a good one? Drop me a comment and maybe I'll revise the list. Also, for a huge list of great horror games, take a look at TatsTopVideos on Youtube. Til next time!