Digital Dread: Top 10 Video Games for Halloween

These days, the cinema isn’t the only place you can turn to for a spooky Halloween experience; thanks to games consoles you can feel the fear a little more… first hand. So here, in the third of my Halloween ton ten series, I’m going to count down the ten scariest videogames. Hold on to your controllers!

Clive Barker’s Jericho

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Okay so the game-play verges on the impossible and sometimes it’s just as impossible to find out what exactly you’re supposed to be doing thanks to some highly illogical logic, but the atmosphere is suitably unnerving and the monsters are terrifically terrifying. Mr Barker’s unmistakable style may be better suited to books and films than interactive media, but, damn, I wouldn’t want to meet those staple-faced critters in real life!

The Clock Tower

Here’s one for the vaults, which I admit I haven’t actually played, though I have watched someone else play it, way back in the 90s, and boy did it give me nightmares. The forerunner of the survival horror genre and inspired by an equally disturbing Dario Argento movie, its creepy settings and intricate plot has inspired countless games since. Watch out for those scissors!

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

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It’s good to see that H P Lovecraft’s eldritch creations still have the power to give people the galloping heebie jeebies, especially if those uncomfortable associations of misogyny and racism can be removed. Call of Cthulhu does just that, turning the vague gelatinous monstrosities of Lovecraft’s imagination into vague gelatinous pixel monstrosities. It might not be the greatest game in the world, but the monsters certainly conjure that particular sense of dread forever associated with the Cthulhu Mythos, and the neat madness mechanic, in which you have to keep just the right level of insanity to be able to see the monsters without taking a one-way ticket to the funny farm, ensures a nice novel touch.

The Darkness

Skipping effortlessly between absurd and gritty, since you yourself are the monster (or at least possessed by it) most of the time the Darkness is a fun-filled shoot-em-up, but once protagonist Jackie Estecardo, dies and is transported to a personal hell, one that looks almost exactly like the First World War trenches, then things get interesting. With weird Clive Barker-style versions of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and zombie Germans (yes, zombie Germans), along with creepy sound effects and disorientating lightning flashes, it’s nicely unsettling. Oh and then there’s the torture scene with a power drill. Ouch.

Dead Space

Imagine taking the atmosphere and setting of “Alien” but instead of one, half-seen monster you have dozens, and they’re all spooky alien zombies. Let me condense that: “Alien” with zombies. The monsters are suitably horrible and there’s plenty of gore, there’s even quite a good story, but it’s the atmosphere that really makes it work, making this enjoyable, edge-of-seat fare.

Left 4 Dead

I admit I’m not normally one for multiplayer games, partly because it’s very rare to find a game where it’s totally necessary to play through in multiplayer and still get to enjoy some semblance of storyline, but Left 4 Dead needs four people thundering at their joysticks like Gordon Freeman needs a crowbar. Nothing creates the “trapped in a building with the slathering zombie horde” experience like this. So, if the zombie apocalypse scenario is your pet favourite doom, this game will allow you to get some practice in before the ghouls start spreading.

Silent Hill 3

Neatly following on from the storyline of the first in the franchise, Silent Hill 3 is one of the most effective in the series. Added to that trademark creepy atmosphere, full of fog, pitch blackness and eerie noises (don’t you just hate that radio static?) is some really fabulous graphics, way ahead of their time, and some nifty plot twists. Who can forget the Other World theme park, complete with impaled-horse carousel? Plus, we have that rare thing in a videogame, a genuinely likeable and believable heroine. Lara Croft eat your implants out!

Condemned

Its graphics may look a little clunky now, but its gameplay, atmosphere and storytelling is still top notch. A combination of a strangely plausible, but never entirely explained, premise, terrifying settings and unpredictable, almost intelligent enemies which act as horrifyingly as they look, ensures you’ll play the entire game on the edge of your seat, quivering with fear. Oh and then there’s the spooky mannequins, but the least said about me and mannequins, the better! It’s a shame the sequel didn’t have that same subtlety of execution.

Bioshock

Art deco scenery and gallons of sea water may not be the most obvious recipe for pure terror, but Bioshock combined the two into an exquisite experience. Stumbling across gory tableaux almost every area, and with self-mutilated and self-mutated crazies leaping out at you in every other area, there’s plenty to keep the player on edge, and even once you’re used to a setting, there’s lots of creepy noises, atmospherics and even the occasional ghost to ensure you never get too comfortable. Continually at the mercy of the more rational loons and walking into decidedly unnerving traps, even the most beautifully designed setting will soon create a magnificent sense of dread. Eek!

Silent Hill 2

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Yes, I’ve already had a Silent Hill game on this list but this masterful second instalment is certainly one of the creepiest games of all. Taking the bold step of all but ignoring the previous game, it allows the haunted town itself to take centre stage, toying with our hapless, and desperately neurotic, hero. Because, let’s face it, you’d have to be pretty loopy already to run around a ghost town in search for a dead woman! Daft though the concept may sound, it’s expertly put together: a gripping and intricate story that keeps you ploughing through those ghastly monsters to follow it to its conclusion. There’s a fabulous psychosexual reasoning behind those monsters which really elevates the game beyond the usual slasherama, and being trapped in a room with them is something quite unforgettable, from the vicious-sexy nurses to the great hulk of Pyramid Head. Okay so the gameplay’s still nigh-on impossible but James is an average Joe and should be as hopeless as you or I. But let’s just forget about that stupid rowing bit, hey?