The Top 9 Creepiest PC Games Ever
If you truly want to scare the crap out of yourself on Halloween, what do you do? We’re all so jaded nowadays that nothing scares us anymore.
You could go to a “haunted house” at your local community center and shriek like a pansy when rubber-masked dorks pop out in front of you - total bollocks. Or find a cemetery, sit on a grave with friends and tell ghost stories - bah. Those things are for sissies.
Aside from being pursued by an actual serial killer, what’s the closest you can get to sheer terror? Scary movies. That’s all ya got. You go to a movie theatre, hunker down in your seat and hope that the latest horror movie tripe will startle you with a loud noise or two. Or huddle in front of the TV and plod through all the “Saw” sequels until you pass out. (Please, don’t do that - save a shred of dignity for yourself.) What a freakin’ bore.
Why settle for a night of passive scares and spooks? If you can’t be chased by a real murderer the next best thing is a murder simulator! Jump into the thick of it, put yourself in some tangible peril.
We’ve rounded up a collection of the 9 (10 is so cliche) absolute creepiest games ever to grace a PC - some old, some new - and it just so happens that we have downloadable demos for each one of them! So go ahead and switch off all the lights in the house, crank up the sound, and scare yourself sh*tless.
Okay, American McGee’s Alice probably won’t scare you, but it nevertheless ranks high on the creepiness scale. Think of Disney’s version of Alice in Wonderland, how whimsical and fun it is. Now, imagine a version in which Alice’s parents die in a fire, Alice attempts suicide and she is imprisoned in a mental institution. The only escape for the poor, psychotic waif is to journey back to Wonderland - an evil, dreadful Wonderland that exists only in Alice’s catatonic mind. You get to control Bizarro Alice as she wields a sharp, bloody knife to fend off crazy walking cards and other disgusting foes. If you’ve a mind for the twisted and you’ll take creepy over scary, Alice is for you. (By the way, a movie adaptation is due in 2009.) Lose your mind in the demo.
8. Pathologic
You know how in a dream everything can seem a little off-kilter and it’s hard to see your surroundings clearly? That’s exactly the feeling I get from Pathologic - and it seriously creeps me out. Pathologic is one of those weird-but-cool games that get released with zero promotion and go under the radar immediately. Like Alice, it’s more creepy than scary, but there are some definite frights to be had here. This is a survival horror game in the vein of Silent Hill - but not quite. There’s a disturbing undercurrent of malevolence to this game, like something ominous and horrible is happening behind the scenes. Russian developers Ice-Pick Lodge create a dreary, depressing environment laced with black rain, stoic denizens wandering aimlessly in a town of stark, iron-barred houses and a defunct railroad. It’s more story than shooter, giving you the opportunity to flex your wit. Make the wrong choice and - well, you should find out for yourself. Start the nightmare, play the demo.
7. F.E.A.R.
This hugely popular shooter almost didn’t make the list because its creepy little girl character is a blatant ripoff of the film “The Ring” (which, by the way, is a good choice if you absolutely must do the movie thing). But I have to admit, for a ripoff it’s a pretty good. F.E.A.R.’s maniac munchkin is terrifying in her own right - people tend to explode in a mist of blood when she’s anywhere near. (So whenever, wherever you see her, don’t think, just GTFO!!) F.E.A.R. is your basic squad-based shooter but with an extra dose of frights - mostly of the shock-and-scream variety, thanks to some fantastic enemy AI that will have them hunting you down and catching you off guard. The levels are claustrophobic and the sound design instills the perfect sense of dread. Face your FEAR in the demo.
6. The Suffering: Ties That Bind
You’re in a dark, foreboding prison. Maniacs are jailed on all sides of you. Suddenly the place is falling apart and the inmates are rioting. You slip out of the cell block only to encounter insane, blade-fisted mutants scurrying up the walls and across the ceiling, bent on killing you. (I’m sorry, but anything that crawls on the ceiling and drops down in front of you is freakin’ scary.) You find a gun but ammo is scarce, doors are locked and those creepies are around every corner. The Suffering: Ties That Bind might not be the most original game, and its graphics aren’t anything to scream about, but play this thing alone in a dark room with the sound cranked up, and then tell me you didn’t almost soil yourself a few times. Make some skid marks, here’s the demo.
5. Doom 3
The creatures in Doom 3 are grotesque to the point of insanity. Get a good, close look at any one of them, I dare you. Sadly, the only time you’ll be close enough to get a gander will be right before you’re ripped from limb to limb. Sure, hardened vets who’ve beat the game twenty times will insist that Doom 3 isn’t scary at all. But for those of you who haven’t tried it, trust me, it will scare you. Creatures burst out unexpectedly time and time again. And just when you think you’ve found a friendly soldier he’ll whip around and charge at you all zombie-like, shotgun blazing. Did I mention it’s really dark in this Mars military complex? Sometimes what you can’t see is what terrifies you the most. Demo some doom.
Penumbra: Black Plague is definitely a lights-off experience. It’s a first-person survival-horror adventure, but guess what? You have no weapons. None. You’re stuck in an underground facility of some kind where something unseemly is going on. There are corpses around and a fearsome monster holed up somewhere, and you have to utilize the game’s amazing 3D physics in a realistic manner to make your way through the place. (Think Half-Life 2 physics puzzles.) It’s the overall ambiance that makes this game so creepy. It’s dark, you’re unarmed and vulnerable, and those weird little sounds … are they coming closer? Go ahead, open that door … It’s a ravenous demo!
3. BioShock
Irrational Games took the System Shock license in a different direction with Bioshock, but they managed to keep the same techno-spooky spirit. Set in a fantastical underwater city - abandoned, of course - Bioshock dumps you into an unsettling, zombie-infested (but gorgeous) environment where scary little girls (”Little Sisters”) roam around jamming syringes into corpses, and bloated diving-suit robots (”Big Daddies”) thunder after you if you disturb the little needle-toting creeps. What makes matters worse is that Bioshock has those abominable ceiling-crawlies, too! And if the overall setting isn’t scary enough, just wait till that first Big Daddy chases you. Trust me. Find out who’s your daddy in the demo.
2. Condemned: Criminal Origins
So, I’m playing Condemned: Criminal Origins on Xbox 360 for the first time. I take my own advice and set myself up in a pitch dark room with the volume cranked. Not expecting much, I fire up the game and smugly play the tutorial level. A little later, I’m stepping over piles of garbage in an abandoned building. Out of the corner of my eye something whizzes by, and I hear a piece of metal clank to the floor. I venture a little further forward to get a better look, and CRACK! WRAARRR! A rabid junkie is pummeling me with a two-by-four! Man, let me tell you, I jumped in my seat, my heart had never raced so quickly. (Out of fear, at least.) Need I say more? The demo will bash your head in.
1. Clive Barker’s Undying
Clive Barker is a sick, sick man. Master of the grotesque, deviser of the darkest, most twisted creations known to man. If you ever dreamed of stepping into the pages of a Clive Barker novel, here’s your chance. The 2001-era graphics won’t knock your socks off, but this game’s not about flash. It’s about drawing you into the world of a man haunted by his dead siblings who’ve been reanimated into evil monsters (damn those pesky occult rituals!). You have a roster of spells at your disposal - plus your trusty shotgun to take out some truly spooky-ass ghoulies. To understand why Undying deserves the number one spot, you simply have to experience it … An old, gothic house creaks and moans. A violent thunderstorm roars outside. Unearthly cackling peppers the air. A choir of discordant women’s voices rises and falls. A scream, a howling of pain wafts in from the next room. A specter hangs in mid-air. Gusts of wind rush through the hallways. You see, with Undying, it’s all about the experience. You don’t play to win, you play to get totally creeped out. Barker does it every time. Creep the light fantastic in the demo.
Editor’s amendment, 2/11/09: Since I wrote this post I played a game that scared the living crap out of me like none other. The soundtrack is designed to sneak up on you and pounce at the most unexpected moments (Doom 3, you’re dust). Aside from being so terrifying, the gameplay, though quite linear, is the slickest since System Shock 2 (which it resembles in more ways than one). Therefore, this game must share the number 1 spot with Undying. Of course, I’m talking about:
1. Dead Space
I beseech you, notice the semi-human arm sticking out of this thing’s waistline.
October 31st, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Thank you for putting Undying up on the list, let alone as #1! Barker gets overlooked so many times due to his-well, grotesque-nature, and is seriously undercredited. Jericho wasn’t a knock-out, but Undying was the top of the top back in the day. Thank you again!
October 31st, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Absolutely. Barker is brilliant. I’m not sure I want to know where he gets his twisted ideas! Candyman still scares the shite out of me.
(I need to edit the article now - Dead Space is now #1 without doubt! -Editor, 12/17)
November 20th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Totally agree. I have never been so scared and captivated while a video game *_*
Clive Barker is truly genius and he is my favorite writer.
Just think about the Damnation Game O_o
Undying deserves the #1 spot.
The story and the plot is outstanding ^^
December 3rd, 2008 at 7:30 am
Where are the Silents? o___O
Pathologic is good, but in general very strange compilation
February 22nd, 2009 at 10:19 am
I would like to add “The Thing” to this list. I love creepy games and “The Thing” kept me glued to my monitor for days.
June 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Where’s Aliens vs Predator 2 on that list? Try playing the marine campaign?
October 19th, 2009 at 4:21 am
Enormous kudos for mentioning Pathologic, even though it isn’t scary. Penumbra is utterly terrifying though. Good choice there. Undying is a polished shooter but no more than that, in my opinion, and pretty cliched. The obvious absence is System Shock 2!!
October 19th, 2009 at 9:35 am
You’re right, Ed. System Shock 2 is glaringly absent - a shame, really, since it is one of my all-time favorite games, and it is intensely creepy. I wanted to list games that would be appropriate for Halloween, which is probably why I forgot to include SS2. There are plenty of other games that absolutely should have made the list! I think I’ll have to write an update. Thanks!