What was the formative horror game of your childhood?

For me it was Dead Space 2 when I was 12-ish. For reference, at this point the most gruesome/gorey/violent media I was exposed to was the Halo 3 Flood levels and the original 2 Alien movies.

I had way too much fun playing it to be traumatized by it at the time, although when i was old enough to understand the horror of the whole “your memories and experience becoming food for a god-like being that has absolutely zero respect for your existance”, that did inform my perspective of other media such as Evangelion or Childhood’s end when I watched them for the 1st time.

What was your equivalent to this? I’ve heard the Resident Evil games are quite common for this but I want to hear your perspective.

SteelObelisk,

Master of Darkness on the Sega Master System. The soundtrack was haunting.

LoamImprovement,

Shivers - that game absolutely nailed the atmosphere, and for the players that don’t know the ixupi hotspots and the game’s tricks, it’s genuinely terrifying. I’d say give it a look, on GoG you could do worse for six bucks.

shahar2k,

Thief, the dark project + my brand new EAX 4 speaker surround system… hoooly shit

edo,

Animal Crossing and the crushing weight of mortgages

LoamImprovement,

You’re kidding, right? I wish a bank would be so lenient with me as to let me pay off my interest-free loan with terms of ‘whenever you feel like it, off the money you make as a freelance forager.’

Prinny,

Parasite Eve and Silent Hill 1. I became a big Silent Hill fan and then eventually came to play and enjoy some of the Resident Evil series.

GrindingGears,

These games came out in very late teenage-hood for me, but the amount of nights piled around the TV with the bros, pounding beers and bongers, and scaring ourselves…oh man the memories. Those games were absolute rippers, Parasite Eve 2 especially (except for that end boss)

Faydaikin,
@Faydaikin@beehaw.org avatar

Growing up with the NES, horror games weren’t really a thing.

Some were spooky themed, but I doubt they qualify as horror by any standard. Like Castlevania, Ghost & Goblins and such.

The first real horror game I remember playing was Phantasmagoria. But I was a teen at that point, so it’s not really from my childhood.

Edit: Remembered my actual first horror game.

BigBananaDealer,

friday the 13th on nes is kinda spooky, especially the music

Crankpork,

Resident Evil 1 and 2 were the games that I always went over to a friend’s place to play, and when Resident Evil 3 came out I got my own copy, and it felt much more like “my game”.

Those, plus the original Silent Hill games (1 and 2) really helped define my taste in games, and they’ve got something I feel even the more recent throwback Survival Horror games don’t have, in that they, and the original Alone in the Dark, shared some DNA with the old Point and Click adventure games, like Monkey Island, and Myst. Puzzles based on collecting things, and combining or using things on or with other things, often in mind-bending, nonsensical ways.

The Spencer Mansion, RPD Station, Raccoon City, and Silent Hill were all big explorable areas that opened up as you progressed, and you really got to know them. Games these days feel like they’re scared of being accused of “backtracking”, so you never spend long enough in any one area to really get to know it.

Bookwyrm,

Resident Evil 1. I saw bits and pieces of my older brother playing it on the PS1, but was too scared to watch very long. I remember the iconic opening up to the zombie looking over its shoulder and then standing up right in front of you.

I rented it years later for the Gamecube and tried to play it while my little brother watched. I was playing super slowly and wasting all my ammo on every zombie because I was so scared. I remember one part vividly, I was in the long hallway where you pick up the arrowhead and theres a zombie just around the corner. I could hear the zombie so I baited him down the hallway so I could shoot him from a distance. I started shooting when he was off-camera and coming towards me, and when he appeared at the bottom of the screen and his head rotting head being very large in the perpective, I said “woah look at his head” at the exact moment before I got a headshot and the zombies head exploded. Me and my brother were really shocked, so I just paused and quit out. That was enough resident evil for me.

More years later I got resident evil for the DS for cheap at EB games and it became the first game I ever beat repeatedly for different endings and faster times, eventually leading me to now say that horror is my favorite genre.

Also, I never got into Silent Hill as a kid but since playing them in recent years I think they perfectly encapsulate my love for that age of gaming and survival horror in general.

And The Evil Within 1 is the best survival-horror action game ever made. In all its extreme jankiness and difficulty. I did a challenge run of no keys, no upgrades, no cheese in the cheese spots, single segment, no dlcs items, AKUMU difficulty and got 5 deaths. Shit is hard.

flintcedar,

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly

The old Japanese village scene with the super dark graveyard area. Somehow the image still stuck hard in my head.

uninvitedguest,
@uninvitedguest@lemmy.ca avatar

Hugo’s House of Horrors.

The dog and the butler (chef?) terrified me.

GrindingGears,

One of them would shank you, wouldn’t they? The butler? I’m struggling to remember the exact specifics, I just remember someone would kill you.

uninvitedguest,
@uninvitedguest@lemmy.ca avatar

Yeah, if you walked in to the dining room the butler would cut your head off. If you walked out to the backyard the dog would tear you up.

loboaureo,

Uff, hard to say, a lot of the ones comented before applied to me.

As old pc gamer still missing one of the most influent scariest games. Alone in the dark… when you have to deal with the monsters added to frustration of bad controls…

Also dark seed, with all those HR Gigger stuff…

Stillhart,

This is the one that immediately popped into my mind. “Alone in the Dark” is the game that made me realize I don’t ever want to play another horror game again! :-D

LoamImprovement,

Honestly I think that game has possibly one of the best ‘first rooms’ in horror game history, like even with the low poly graphics, that thing jumping through the window, giving you the impression that shit is happening and you need to move, and then doubles down with the zombie out of the floor, and that if you know what’s coming, you can prevent both. It’s a shame the final section is filled with janky-ass platforming.

bermuda,

Fallout 3 isn’t a horror game but man that atmosphere is crazy. I remember one of the very first missions has you go to galaxy news radio from the first settlement, megaton to talk to the DJ. It’s a really long journey through subway tunnels and ruined DC streets. The wasteland is pretty horrific and lots of enemies are disgusting and almost disturbing to look at.

As much as Bethesda gets shit for that game, they did an amazing job converting the atmosphere from the first two games into a 3D world.

Moonguide,

One of two. Ghosts and Ghouls on snes, I was like 4 but wasn’t scared. And the other one is not a horror game but for 6 year old me it was scary as shit, Halo CE. The Library level and the one before, 343 Guilty Spark, were hell for me. Beating those levels was a goddamn relief.

gaytswiftfan,

F.E.A.R. and Penumbra

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Phantasmagoria.

No, not the more recent VR Game, Phasmaphobia. Phantasmagoria was a DOS PnC adventure game that absolutely scared the shit out of me when I was 9.

Skyhighatrist,

I remember that game. It came on like 7 CDs and was pretty much entirely FMV if I remember correctly.

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Yep. It had a script over 550 pages long; about the same length as an average hollywood film and also had a huge 25 actor cast, many of which were classically trained actors.

And here I am only remembering the basement and the scary sounds that made me stop playing for a week.

LoamImprovement,

Goddamn did that game push some limits. I guarantee something like that remade today would get an AO rating.

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