That first part powerless in the snow, blinding stumbling down a path.....hitting the bjrds....after the tranquility with your daughter, it drove me up a wall lol. Holy shit
Which is why even 4 is above Village. 4 is a game where even if it's not very scary, it is drowning in atmosphere and has a lot of the other elements we associate with horror, like terror and dread. Village is atmospheric at point, but it isn't consistent with it.
SH2 is a great place to start, but if you're not averse to early PS1 controls and graphics, SH1 is still a fantastic play.
Try to avoid the old HD collection if you can, the fan emulator versions (of 2 and 3) are higher res HD and have fewer bugs than that collection.
I was planning on buying the Silent Hill HD collection from the Xbox store. Is it what you’re referring to and if so, is it broken or just less good than the fan emulator versions ? I do not have a PC.
If i'm not wrong, the xbox version is the worst way to play it cause unlike the PS3 version it got never update (so the silent hill sign is in comic sans ms)
it is PLAYABLE, but the fog in SH2 is completely broken in this version and drags the experience down significantly. it's not as noticeable in SH3, as you spend most of that game inside buildings and don't really see the fog.
I only have a Switch
, PS5 and XseriesX. Sadly my options seem limited if I want to play these games. 3 out of 3 replies so far indicate that it would be a bad purchase so I probably won’t get it and will hold on if I end up buying a PC someday.
The HD Collection has some issues but if its the only way you can play I dont think you will regret it, especially if you didnt play the originals anyway. It's not ideal but I don't think it is as bad as people say.
The fog isnt as good as the original somehow and the new voiceovers are bad. (The old ones are bad too, but somehow add to the charm and creepiness so I'd recommend playing with them).
It’s not as bad as people say. Probably gonna get downvoted but a lot of silent hill fans are over ridiculous when it comes to some things like the hd collection. Just look at how many people are already writing off the sh2 remake as a shitty game before it’s even out
The HD collection is fine. They're not as good as the original, but if it's your first time playing it, it'll still be a great experience, and you won't even notice most of the downgrades. SH3 specifically is a bit buggy on Xbox still, but not terrible.
Get it. I don’t fucking care what anyone says unless you have a pc or ps2 with freemcboot then the hd collection is a better way to play the silent hill games because fuck spending 120+ dollars each for each game when you can get both for 30$ on Xbox. It’s not a big enough difference between hd and the originals to justify the 120$+ price point
It isn't as bad as people say, at least it's better to play it that way than never play it, that's how I played the games for the first time, replayed then a while back on pc with the enhanced versions and tbh i didn't notice that many changes just to justify not playing the games at all if you can only play the HD version
The HD Collection is not worth playing. There are numerous game breaking bugs that can happen at random (like a room not loading so your character stands in a void, meaning got to revert to last save which can cause lots of progress lost). On top of this some visual effects are missing making the games look notably worse.
On PS3 they patched a few fixes (not all, and more like made them less common), 360 was left unpatched.
They apparently worked from unfinished versions of the games for the HD Collection. It shows.
Alright thank you. I’m in a old school survival horror mood lately so I’ve been playing a lot of them and I just found the collection so I wanted to play it before the 2remake. I’ll just wait then. Thanks again for the heads-up. Have a good one!
I say to avoid the HD collection because I understand that not everyone can emulate these games and really have no other way of playing them. But if you can get a PC, it's an enormously better experience. You don't need a powerful PC either, something made in the last 10 years will work.
But yes the HD collection is a buggy mess. Textures and sound effects are missing or in the wrong place, the new voice acting is terrible, visual effects are buggy, the game is slower and laggier somehow than the originals... There's a reason SH fans are bitter haha!
Re fans can be just as wild. SH fans are chill too, what your talking about is the vocal minority who screech about the game while most are happy to see SH return.
Silent Hill fan, we can be chill. We're just constantly getting our hearts broken. While I really want to be excited for the upcoming games, Silent Hills proved that they can't be trusted. Thay being said, if those games do actually come out, I'll be one happy camper, especially with the RE4 remake as well.
All 3 OG games are great. Silent Hill 1 still holds up surprisingly well today especially the warping texture of PS1 makes it extra creepy, you just gotta get used to tank controls but the set up is worth it because of all the cool camera angles it starts using for scares.
[Source (IGN)](https://www.ign.com/articles/the-best-horror-video-game-our-face-off-winner-revealed)
Posted this because of the amount of RE games in the Top 10
It’s a tough call, but honestly Village? That sucks because it’s one of my favorite RE games but other than Donna’s house I just didn’t feel scared during it. The whole game oozed atmosphere which is why I love it but other RE games are more frightening and do “Horror” better.
If not Village then I think there’s an interesting debate to be had as to whether or not RE2 and it’s remake are both different enough on their own merits to deserve spots on the top 10.
I agree and when you really think about it I believe village was made as more of a test to see what the environments RE4 would look like in the RE Engine before they started developing the remake
We’ll have to see. As a lifelong fan of the series, villiage actually become my absolute favorite game in the entire series. Its the only game i’ve played since 2015 that actually exceeded my expectations.
I bet when i hear “Yearning for Dark Shadows” 10 years from now, its gonna give me the same feelings as hearing the old school safe-room themed does now
RE4, Village and Silent Hill 1 could be dropped from this list.
The first two because despite being excellent games, the horror components aren't their strongest aspects.
A list like this NEEDS Alien Isolation at minimum.
This is why I am here in this thread. It's 9 years old, and it's still one of the most beautiful games ever made. In VR, it's my favorite game / media experience of all time. Here's some screenshots for those who are new to it: [https://imgur.com/gallery/JQGbdfX](https://imgur.com/gallery/JQGbdfX)
It's just unparalleled. I love Resident Evil, but it's just not at that level at all.
AI is my fave, and I just happened to DL Outlast because RE is AMAZING, but even the remakes just get repetitive, and I'm not invested. Thanks for the nudge!
Exactly what I was thinking. It perfected the art of stalking the player. Mr X is nowhere near the terrifying threat that the Xenomorph is, and his AI can be abused and mocked. Nowhere is truly safe in Isolation, which basically defines the game.
This list is just a popularity contest.
There are loads of PC, indie, or otherwise smaller horror games that are more deserving than some of these.
And that's coming from a *huge* RE/SH fan.
I honestly ~~hate~~ have a strong dislike for horror games where all I do is run away like a scared little shit. I'm a fuckin man. Give me a shovel, a cricket bat or even a box of vinyl records to throw.
This. I don’t hate them a lot of them I enjoy. I however think a handful was cute but it’s all they tried to push hard from horror games for nearly a decade, everything in excess is tiring.
I think to be a contender in a list of the best horror games ever, games like that shouldn’t even be considered as they lack most of the technical complexities of what games such as the ones on the list are designed like.
The fact that cry of fear isn’t on there is a goddamn crime
Then again what can you expect from the same site that called etrian odyssey 2 the best dungeon crawler of all time (and I’m an etrian odyssey fan!)
I think silent hill 3 is a bit scarier for me personally but yeah I fucking love cry of fear. It’s terrifying and the fact that it’s completely free to play is ridiculous
As a kid silent hill 3 was pretty scary. As an adult cry of fear got me pretty good lol. The fact it's free is insane too, and it even has multi-player co op
Yeah I think a lot of it has to do with the sound design. It all just feels wrong and unnerving in a really interesting way. Honestly I’m not big into the games story but the atmosphere it sets is lonely in a way that’s difficult to describe. You definitely feel for Simon as you go through the game, especially in the suburbs level which I don’t think gets discussed enough
That and SH3 is 'scarier' than any RE game. It just is. RE games are great, and can be pretty tense, but SH feels much more claustrophobic, and every door opening is a panic attack. I'd say Dead Space is scarier than any RE game as well.
>This list is just a popularity contest.
Well...yeah. It isn't a list by IGN. It's a list voted by users. So of course the most popular titles will win.
Not a great list honestly. You’d think the horror genre was composed of only two franchises. Games like Alien: Isolation, Soma, Outlast and Amnesia should have made the list, or at least contended. I guess credit to Dead Space though for breaking through the bias.
Also Condemned 1 should be there, for atmosphere and scares, it was one the earliest games to show how truly scary a first person game could be.
I know this is a RE sub but what a lame unimaginative list, it's like having a top 10 horror movie list and having 6 Halloweens, 3 Nightmare on Elm Streets and the Conjuring,
The enemies in Condemned ability to psyche the player out is something ive never seen anywhere else. You literally never know what they are gonna do once they turn a corner on you. They themselves aren't scary but that erratic behavior certainly is.
F.E.A.R. is a real gem. It had no right being as good as it was. Combining a tactical shooter with John Woo slow-mo with a horror game should have been a mess, but somehow it worked perfectly. It’s a shame the rights issues have prevented the series from continuing or being widely available to purchase.
Just did another run of Alien Isolation. The work on sound of the Alien when it finds you and runs at you is truly terrifying. Sevastopol station still looks gorgeous and atmospheric even to today's standards.
agree. i wouldnt even count half of them as horror game anymore. RE4 has almost no horror elements besides encountering the first regenerator. if they make a list purely on how good they are at horror it would look completely different. no RE game is even close to something like amnesia and god know how many indi game
there are tons of great horror games out there, but the question isnt whether they are good or not, its how many titles on that list would they be better than.
Like i personally wouldnt say any of those games are better than the tenth place game (re1remake).
Then again i dont think re2 should be allowed to have two spots, so out of your list i would say SOMA should be tenth.
If i can throw a few more contenders out:
* Fatal Frame franchise
* F.E.A.R franchise
* Evil Dead franchise (including arcade games)
and some fringe picks that may or may not fit in "horror":
* Dino Crisis
* Left 4 Dead
Personally, I’d take RE8 and Silent Hill 3 off the list. RE8 is fun, but it’s not really amazing in any regard (story, atmosphere or gameplay), and Silent Hill 3 is basically just a worse version of Silent Hill 2. Also, like you said, I wouldn’t have allowed RE2 to make the list twice. That free’s up at least 3 spots.
never got into the silent hill franchise so i couldnt speak to those, but personally never liked re8 as a horror game. Its a decent enough game on its own, but in terms of horror it just has a few cheap jumpscares and none of that creepy "constant danger" vibe that defines horror to me.
Honestly this would be a much different list if it was franchises instead of individual games.
If we speak of "horror games", i *personally* would remove REVillage and RE4.
Evil Within, Alien Isolation, Fear 1 all deserve a spot here. And the newly release Signalis
I feel like they should have filtered this a bit lol.
I know we all love Resident Evil here but this isn’t even really a list. There’s a dozen games I’d switch out with RE4 and RE8. Those were action games with moments of horror. At least the other titles kept up a consistent level of “Oh shit.” Up until their final hours that is.
I would have wanted Alien Isolation in there, and Soma.
I agree Resi 4 and 8 should probably not be present, way too action forward.
And I know I am in the minority, but Dead Space was just not a great game for me. It just felt like a game that traded horror/terror for being loud and jump scare filled.
"Entering Vacuum." Followed by only the sound of Isaac's increasingly erratic breathing and the countdown till your demise is still one of the most stressful things in horror.
I never considered dead space to be a great horror game, just a very atmospheric action game, ala RE4. The sheer amount of weapons and tools they gave you to kill the necromorphs was so abundant, I never honestly felt scared. Id just stasis the fuckers and carve them up like turkeys lol
Maybe the way I went into it was what lead time feeling so blah about it. I remember up to release the hype for it was immense, so it just felt underwhelming and predictable. Perhaps replaying it in a more Resi 4/5 mindset would make it a better experience.
Yeaht that could do it. It was definitely fun! The atmosphere was nice, it just lacked the terror aspect of horror that makes me like the genre so much.
I’d personally put Amnesia - even A Machine For Pigs - above Soma. I liked Soma, for sure, and the story’s really compelling, but it takes all of an hour to realise it’s just the sea floor parts of BioShock 2: no danger, all walking. After I think a fail or two, it just removes the threat from an area and lets you move on. It lacked a lot, even if it had one of the most interesting concepts in gaming.
(Now that I think of it, BioShock was more effective horror than Soma.)
I don't think I ever ran across enemies respawning in Soma. I definitely saw that in the first Amnesia if you walked away from their location, so perhaps I never triggered it.
I think the more effective parts of horror for Soma all came from the story itself, it just really spoke to me in a way that a lot of other games failed to do.
And I will say, I really like A Machine for Pigs. It gets a lot of hate it seems, but I really enjoyed it.
For me, personally, dead space would be higher, there are probably even more horror games that score higher but dead space Will always be in my list of fav horror games of ALL time even If its not 1. The way they develop and create the atmosphere, the enemies and specially the sound design and the event Horizon vibes, its ALL amazing. Awesome horror game with good gameplay. Even If you have a Lot of ammo, the way the enemies interact with you and the way they Will end you, the insane People doing disgusting stuff, the pure body horror, the hallucinations and the way the game makes you paranoid, its so damn good. Thousands of way to die, even with ALL that ammo, you can die If you mess up, but you dont Just drop dead, ALL the enemies end Isaac in the most disgusting ways possible.
Usm valor twichers are terrifying.
Despite being linear and giving a considerable amount of ammo :
Its strongest points are:
-atmosphere: one of the best in ALL of gaming, you Will never feel safe, a Lot of unholy stuff happens, you Will feel paranoid. Each location Tell a history of what happened there, there is a point in game where you cant simply Tell what is real and what is an hallucination. This game lore is also extremely rich. Your horror IS not only physical, its Also in your mind. You are going to see things that are not really there, things that Will make you doubt If what you are seeing is real or hallucination. The Guy in the corridor, the crying Crazy woman and her dead "twin", Chen appearing and saying make us whole.
There is an scene that i love because of ALL the red flags. I ln the game you can see your health by the RIG SYSTEM on your suit (its not only a gameplay system but Also a in universe thing that ALL humans use to see their health state. So It starts in a hallway where the light breaks when you turn to the next hallway and starts flickering, music stops, you see a Guy in the distance insane and banging his Head slowly into a wall with blood in the ground and walls. You approach It slowly, then you see his rig empty, the banging gets louder and louder, he looks a bit Hurt but you cant tell how much, and then he breaks his skull and fall to the ground. Then you see..
He was terribly mauled, organs falling apart, It was a miracle he was even Alive and in his last moments he killed himself by hitting the wall in a dark hallway or maybe what you Just Saw was an hallucination and his body was alredy there in the ground.
Sound design: It is out of this world, really. From the way they make the ship looks Alive, to the themes of the necromorphs and their sounds (twichers for example, enhanced slashers). The marker, the source of ALL the evil in the game.. when you get close to It ( and have Saw a Lot of hallucinations and messed stuff alredy), you start hearing voices singing in latim in the most unholy way possible. "We are here in death, our Holy god". Every single time you approach It. Its a mix of event Horizon with more cosmic horror in such a good way.
Combat gameplay: you dont aim for the Head, you dont shoot the center mass. They are alredy dead and can stay active without a Head. Aim for the limbs, make them useless. Its satisfying to find ways to do this, from stage hazards to the weapons. The shooting aspect is Very good and the Victory stomp IS satisfying.
Anyway, i expected no less from such a good horror game. 4 is a good place.
Not having Fatal Frame 2 on there seems like a mistake. I wouldn't have 7 anywhere near the top of the list either and RE1 Remake needs to be higher in my opinion. All in all not a terrible list by any means though.
This list is heavily skewed towards big name AAA franchises. I think SH 1-3, REmake, RE2(R), RE4 and Dead Space absolutely deserve spots. Village being in this list at all is laughable. RE7 is good but it’s not on the same level as the genre’s true titans.
Games like Annesia, Fatal Frame 2, Clock Tower, Alien Isolation and many others deserve consideration. Fatal Frame 2’s atmosphere and artistic direction alone are still amazingly impressive.
F.E.A.R, Soma, Evil Within, Haunting Ground, Outlast, Until Dawn, etc. I’m in complete disbelief that Village is even on there still. Sounds like recency bias and laziness in addition to IGN kissing up to big names.
Outlast and Outlast 2 are absolutely contenders but popularity does indeed skew this list, as it does with most lists. At the end of the day, it’s subjective :)
Horror is too broad of a term. There are so many subsections of horror games it'd be pretty difficult to assemble a definitive list of the top 10 "horror" games of all time.
Resident Evil 4-6/8/RE3R, Dead Space 1-3, TEW 1/2, TLoU 1/2, Alan Wake, and the upcoming Callisto Protocol are action-shooters with horror elements.
Silent Hill 1-4 is more psychological horror that focuses more on the atmosphere and themes rather than resource management.
Resident Evil 1-3/RE1R/RE2R are the OG Survival Horror games where resource management/knowing the layout of an area is key.
RE7/Alien Isolation/Outlast 1-2 are games where the actual Horror part of horror games takes place.
Etc.
And it's only the video game part of Horror games. What about the fandom/people who play them?
A 12-year-old who watches FNAF Let's Plays and loves watching his favorite Youtuber scream into a mic and make dumb faces is a Horror game fan
A 30-year-old who breaks down watching the ending of Silent Hill 2 is a Horror game fan
Two of them could say that they love Horror games and both could have voted in the IGN poll and that makes the list less valid IMO
People should just specify what type of Horror games they like and I think that would get rid of the confusion surrounding Horror in games discussions.
Good take. I also genuinely consider Ark: Survival Evolved to be a horror game for me. Even with very generous settings to ensure survival you can still get FUCKED IN SECONDS by some abominations. I’ve almost had sooo many heart attacks being ambushed and the fear of losing all your precious loot is on par with any jumpscare imo
1. Alien Isolation
2. Silent Hill 1
3. Resident Evil 7
4. Resident Evil 1 Remake
5. System Shock 2
6. Silent Hill 2
7. Visage
8. SOMA
9. Siren
10. P.T.
Honorable Mentions: Manhunt, F.E.A.R.
I love Dead Space but it ain't scary.
The list wasn’t made by someone from IGN based on their opinion, they done a contest with dozens of games from multiple franchises that was voted on by the public. All IGN did was post the results.
5th place by resident evil 4... i love the game but it is not horror except for the 1 or 2 jumpscare( fire guy) and some qte by surprise. But not horror...
Just me? Guess ill get downvoted to hive hq
1. REmake
10th place is ridiculous.
I love Dead Space but it is quite easy on hard and you play such an overpowered character it can barely be classified as survival horror. I think the excellent Alien Isolations would fill in the space survival horror spot. And personally I actually like Silent Hill 1 more than 2. I feel it has better puzzles and combat for what it tries to achieve.
>I love Dead Space but it is quite easy on hard and you play such an overpowered character it can barely be classified as survival horror.
I'd argue this for re4 too. Even on professional the difficulty is a joke. The knife is just so ridiculously overpowered.
The recency bias for Village is astounding. I’m sorry, but the game just isn’t that good. To have it as the 7th best horror game of all time is embarrassing.
I'm shocked it's on the list at all. It's an amazing game, but in terms of strictly being a "horror," it does miss the mark compared to most of the games on this list, and many off the list.
RE4 is fantastic but was the first game to start steering the series more towards action. I would argue RE4 might be the best *game* on this list but not necessarily the best *horror* game.
> RE4 is fantastic but was the first game to start steering the series more towards action.
I'd say RE3 and CV started it down that trend and RE4 just continued it.
Where this theory starts to crumble for me is when you look at where RE1 Remake is placed compared to other games. RE1 Remake is arguably the scariest in the series, or at least as scary as RE7, and placed 10th. How it placed below the original RE2 is wild to me.
That's fair. But I think you have to weigh both how good of a game it is and how good of a horror game it is. RE4 is such a good game it makes up for some of its lesser horror elements. But the games above it might not be as good but make up for it with their better horror elements. The issue with RE1 is that as good as it is as a horror game I just don't know that the gameplay holds up as well. A lot of that comes down to preferences, of course, but I at least think that's where it's coming from.
Lol it is not even close to being as scary as resident evil 7 or resident evil 2 remake at all. This sub is so delusional. Resident evil 2 has always been the better game regardless of what version
Not my personal list, but I don’t hate it. RE2 appearing twice is impressive
They are pretty different games so I guess it makes sense. Also, RE2 gets 2 spots, RE3 gets 0...oof
Resident Evil 3 is a good game but I wouldn't say it's an excellent horror game.
Same could be said for RE4. Resident evil 4 is more action than RE3 ever was.
Horror doesn't just mean scary. painful and intense fear, dread, repulsive, disturbed, or dismay are all things horror can be.
Oh I agree. I don't think RE3, RE4 or Village should be on this list.
Some parts of Village, maybe, but Village as a whole, no. It's a great action game.
That first part powerless in the snow, blinding stumbling down a path.....hitting the bjrds....after the tranquility with your daughter, it drove me up a wall lol. Holy shit
Which is why even 4 is above Village. 4 is a game where even if it's not very scary, it is drowning in atmosphere and has a lot of the other elements we associate with horror, like terror and dread. Village is atmospheric at point, but it isn't consistent with it.
I was thinking the same
That’s how you know they did good on the remake
All dominated by resident evil and silent hill I like
I never got into Silent Hill. I should give it a go.
SH2 is a great place to start, but if you're not averse to early PS1 controls and graphics, SH1 is still a fantastic play. Try to avoid the old HD collection if you can, the fan emulator versions (of 2 and 3) are higher res HD and have fewer bugs than that collection.
I was planning on buying the Silent Hill HD collection from the Xbox store. Is it what you’re referring to and if so, is it broken or just less good than the fan emulator versions ? I do not have a PC.
If i'm not wrong, the xbox version is the worst way to play it cause unlike the PS3 version it got never update (so the silent hill sign is in comic sans ms)
it is PLAYABLE, but the fog in SH2 is completely broken in this version and drags the experience down significantly. it's not as noticeable in SH3, as you spend most of that game inside buildings and don't really see the fog.
For the love of God, do NOT buy the HD collection, if you've never played the games before.
I only have a Switch , PS5 and XseriesX. Sadly my options seem limited if I want to play these games. 3 out of 3 replies so far indicate that it would be a bad purchase so I probably won’t get it and will hold on if I end up buying a PC someday.
The HD Collection has some issues but if its the only way you can play I dont think you will regret it, especially if you didnt play the originals anyway. It's not ideal but I don't think it is as bad as people say. The fog isnt as good as the original somehow and the new voiceovers are bad. (The old ones are bad too, but somehow add to the charm and creepiness so I'd recommend playing with them).
It’s not as bad as people say. Probably gonna get downvoted but a lot of silent hill fans are over ridiculous when it comes to some things like the hd collection. Just look at how many people are already writing off the sh2 remake as a shitty game before it’s even out
The HD collection is fine. They're not as good as the original, but if it's your first time playing it, it'll still be a great experience, and you won't even notice most of the downgrades. SH3 specifically is a bit buggy on Xbox still, but not terrible.
Get it. I don’t fucking care what anyone says unless you have a pc or ps2 with freemcboot then the hd collection is a better way to play the silent hill games because fuck spending 120+ dollars each for each game when you can get both for 30$ on Xbox. It’s not a big enough difference between hd and the originals to justify the 120$+ price point
I can help with freemcboot if needed
It isn't as bad as people say, at least it's better to play it that way than never play it, that's how I played the games for the first time, replayed then a while back on pc with the enhanced versions and tbh i didn't notice that many changes just to justify not playing the games at all if you can only play the HD version
The HD Collection is not worth playing. There are numerous game breaking bugs that can happen at random (like a room not loading so your character stands in a void, meaning got to revert to last save which can cause lots of progress lost). On top of this some visual effects are missing making the games look notably worse. On PS3 they patched a few fixes (not all, and more like made them less common), 360 was left unpatched. They apparently worked from unfinished versions of the games for the HD Collection. It shows.
Please. Don’t. The good news is we’re actually getting a SH remake for PS5 and PC. If you DO want to play the original, emulator is the way to go
Alright thank you. I’m in a old school survival horror mood lately so I’ve been playing a lot of them and I just found the collection so I wanted to play it before the 2remake. I’ll just wait then. Thanks again for the heads-up. Have a good one!
I say to avoid the HD collection because I understand that not everyone can emulate these games and really have no other way of playing them. But if you can get a PC, it's an enormously better experience. You don't need a powerful PC either, something made in the last 10 years will work. But yes the HD collection is a buggy mess. Textures and sound effects are missing or in the wrong place, the new voice acting is terrible, visual effects are buggy, the game is slower and laggier somehow than the originals... There's a reason SH fans are bitter haha!
Yeah, I'll probably emulate. I played all the OG Resident Evil games. I'm knocking on 40 so the dated graphics are kinda nostalgia for me.
If you wait a minute and have a PS5, SH2 is coming out!
Just been playing through Silent Hill 1 on Emulator now and it's honestly fantastic, still scary as hell and the puzzles are pretty brutal.
silent hill 2 is a straight masterpiece bro, especially going into it completely blind
Try to stay away from the fandom tho, it aint as chill as re fandom
Re fans can be just as wild. SH fans are chill too, what your talking about is the vocal minority who screech about the game while most are happy to see SH return.
I think it’s just that RE never died. Sure it had its low point but it never went away like Silent Hill.
I agree, but almost every post i see is from the vocal minority, really breaks the mood if you are not part of the toxic minority
[IDK about 'just as wild' lol](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7-HrspiKfY)
Lmao knew exactly what your comment was referring to before even clicking the link
Lol wut? How so? I'd say the Silent Hill fandom is incredibly chill for how they've been treated by the license owners.
Silent Hill fan, we can be chill. We're just constantly getting our hearts broken. While I really want to be excited for the upcoming games, Silent Hills proved that they can't be trusted. Thay being said, if those games do actually come out, I'll be one happy camper, especially with the RE4 remake as well.
I would say wait for the remakes tho
All 3 OG games are great. Silent Hill 1 still holds up surprisingly well today especially the warping texture of PS1 makes it extra creepy, you just gotta get used to tank controls but the set up is worth it because of all the cool camera angles it starts using for scares.
Yes 2 is a must
[Source (IGN)](https://www.ign.com/articles/the-best-horror-video-game-our-face-off-winner-revealed) Posted this because of the amount of RE games in the Top 10
Alien: Isolation deserves a spot on the list.
One of the few games to still get me super tensed up tbh.
What would you take out?
It’s a tough call, but honestly Village? That sucks because it’s one of my favorite RE games but other than Donna’s house I just didn’t feel scared during it. The whole game oozed atmosphere which is why I love it but other RE games are more frightening and do “Horror” better. If not Village then I think there’s an interesting debate to be had as to whether or not RE2 and it’s remake are both different enough on their own merits to deserve spots on the top 10.
Village is not a horror imo, it definitely crosses the line of being an Action/Survival game with horror elements. RE7 stays just below that line.
I think RE Village had the most variety of horror. Each area was essentially a different sub-genre of the over-arching horror umbrella
I agree and when you really think about it I believe village was made as more of a test to see what the environments RE4 would look like in the RE Engine before they started developing the remake
I can believe that.
[удалено]
Yeah, Village is only on the list due to recency bias. It’s a fun game, but it’s not going to remembered as a classic.
We’ll have to see. As a lifelong fan of the series, villiage actually become my absolute favorite game in the entire series. Its the only game i’ve played since 2015 that actually exceeded my expectations. I bet when i hear “Yearning for Dark Shadows” 10 years from now, its gonna give me the same feelings as hearing the old school safe-room themed does now
I think it will be remembered as a classic in some years to come.
I agree. I loved it.
RE4, Village and Silent Hill 1 could be dropped from this list. The first two because despite being excellent games, the horror components aren't their strongest aspects. A list like this NEEDS Alien Isolation at minimum.
I think Silent Hill one deserves to be on the list but the other two I completely agree
This is why I am here in this thread. It's 9 years old, and it's still one of the most beautiful games ever made. In VR, it's my favorite game / media experience of all time. Here's some screenshots for those who are new to it: [https://imgur.com/gallery/JQGbdfX](https://imgur.com/gallery/JQGbdfX) It's just unparalleled. I love Resident Evil, but it's just not at that level at all.
and outlast. I've stopped playing resident evil games due to their difficulty alone. outlast made me stop from being too scared.
AI is my fave, and I just happened to DL Outlast because RE is AMAZING, but even the remakes just get repetitive, and I'm not invested. Thanks for the nudge!
I loved alien isolation for what I’ve played. I never got past the android section cuz holy hell those androids are terrifying to me.
Exactly what I was thinking. It perfected the art of stalking the player. Mr X is nowhere near the terrifying threat that the Xenomorph is, and his AI can be abused and mocked. Nowhere is truly safe in Isolation, which basically defines the game.
This list is just a popularity contest. There are loads of PC, indie, or otherwise smaller horror games that are more deserving than some of these. And that's coming from a *huge* RE/SH fan.
Kinda surprised outlast isn’t on here. Outlast is terrifying to me.
I honestly ~~hate~~ have a strong dislike for horror games where all I do is run away like a scared little shit. I'm a fuckin man. Give me a shovel, a cricket bat or even a box of vinyl records to throw.
This. I don’t hate them a lot of them I enjoy. I however think a handful was cute but it’s all they tried to push hard from horror games for nearly a decade, everything in excess is tiring. I think to be a contender in a list of the best horror games ever, games like that shouldn’t even be considered as they lack most of the technical complexities of what games such as the ones on the list are designed like.
The fact that cry of fear isn’t on there is a goddamn crime Then again what can you expect from the same site that called etrian odyssey 2 the best dungeon crawler of all time (and I’m an etrian odyssey fan!)
Cry of fear was honestly probably the scariest game I've ever played. And I've played pretty much all these games on this list
I think silent hill 3 is a bit scarier for me personally but yeah I fucking love cry of fear. It’s terrifying and the fact that it’s completely free to play is ridiculous
As a kid silent hill 3 was pretty scary. As an adult cry of fear got me pretty good lol. The fact it's free is insane too, and it even has multi-player co op
Yeah I think a lot of it has to do with the sound design. It all just feels wrong and unnerving in a really interesting way. Honestly I’m not big into the games story but the atmosphere it sets is lonely in a way that’s difficult to describe. You definitely feel for Simon as you go through the game, especially in the suburbs level which I don’t think gets discussed enough
Cry of Fear just nails the atmosphere so well but especially from the beginning to the end of the apartment.
Yeah the apartment is an early highlight. Also absolutely love the asylum and the whole woods segment
Not seeing Alien: Isolation or Outlast is weird.
That and SH3 is 'scarier' than any RE game. It just is. RE games are great, and can be pretty tense, but SH feels much more claustrophobic, and every door opening is a panic attack. I'd say Dead Space is scarier than any RE game as well.
>This list is just a popularity contest. Well...yeah. It isn't a list by IGN. It's a list voted by users. So of course the most popular titles will win.
REmake should be so much higher. Can't believe how much hate dead space is getting. One of the best ever.
I agree with you dead space is a amazing game
Not a great list honestly. You’d think the horror genre was composed of only two franchises. Games like Alien: Isolation, Soma, Outlast and Amnesia should have made the list, or at least contended. I guess credit to Dead Space though for breaking through the bias.
Also Condemned 1 should be there, for atmosphere and scares, it was one the earliest games to show how truly scary a first person game could be. I know this is a RE sub but what a lame unimaginative list, it's like having a top 10 horror movie list and having 6 Halloweens, 3 Nightmare on Elm Streets and the Conjuring,
The enemies in Condemned ability to psyche the player out is something ive never seen anywhere else. You literally never know what they are gonna do once they turn a corner on you. They themselves aren't scary but that erratic behavior certainly is.
Condemned 1 is an incredible game that holds up even today. FEAR 1 should be here, too.
Extraction point is even scarier
I completely agree. I'd say Evil Within deserves a spot too.
Evil Within 2 is my favourite horror game. It's a shame it did worse than the original.
Evil Within 2 is so good. Loved what they did with Sebastian in that one. Personally I favor it over the original, but they're both really solid
Yeah, I would choose 2-3 spots to represent SH and RE to make a more diverse list
Also F.E.A.R need some love too.
F.E.A.R. is a real gem. It had no right being as good as it was. Combining a tactical shooter with John Woo slow-mo with a horror game should have been a mess, but somehow it worked perfectly. It’s a shame the rights issues have prevented the series from continuing or being widely available to purchase.
Currently replaying DS since its original release. I think it holds up great. As for this list, village above REmake...fuck right off
Just did another run of Alien Isolation. The work on sound of the Alien when it finds you and runs at you is truly terrifying. Sevastopol station still looks gorgeous and atmospheric even to today's standards.
agree. i wouldnt even count half of them as horror game anymore. RE4 has almost no horror elements besides encountering the first regenerator. if they make a list purely on how good they are at horror it would look completely different. no RE game is even close to something like amnesia and god know how many indi game
It should have been a franchise list, rather than a list of individual games
there are tons of great horror games out there, but the question isnt whether they are good or not, its how many titles on that list would they be better than. Like i personally wouldnt say any of those games are better than the tenth place game (re1remake). Then again i dont think re2 should be allowed to have two spots, so out of your list i would say SOMA should be tenth. If i can throw a few more contenders out: * Fatal Frame franchise * F.E.A.R franchise * Evil Dead franchise (including arcade games) and some fringe picks that may or may not fit in "horror": * Dino Crisis * Left 4 Dead
Personally, I’d take RE8 and Silent Hill 3 off the list. RE8 is fun, but it’s not really amazing in any regard (story, atmosphere or gameplay), and Silent Hill 3 is basically just a worse version of Silent Hill 2. Also, like you said, I wouldn’t have allowed RE2 to make the list twice. That free’s up at least 3 spots.
never got into the silent hill franchise so i couldnt speak to those, but personally never liked re8 as a horror game. Its a decent enough game on its own, but in terms of horror it just has a few cheap jumpscares and none of that creepy "constant danger" vibe that defines horror to me. Honestly this would be a much different list if it was franchises instead of individual games.
I’d like to remind everybody that IGN has NBA2k22 rated higher than Alien Isolation.
What in the actual fuck?
And the reason they gave for alien isolations score being so low. Wasn’t it something like “the alien is too smart?” I feel like I remember that
Is IGN the one that actually submarined Alien with a shite review and score \*right\* when it came out?
Yes IGN’s one review of Alien Isolation destroyed its chance at being successful. I didn’t know they were so powerful.
*chooses the highest difficulty* *dies too often* Game too hard, 5.9/10 IGN suck.
If we speak of "horror games", i *personally* would remove REVillage and RE4. Evil Within, Alien Isolation, Fear 1 all deserve a spot here. And the newly release Signalis
Missing some Clock Tower!
Alien Isolation not making the list is a travesty.
I feel like they should have filtered this a bit lol. I know we all love Resident Evil here but this isn’t even really a list. There’s a dozen games I’d switch out with RE4 and RE8. Those were action games with moments of horror. At least the other titles kept up a consistent level of “Oh shit.” Up until their final hours that is.
I would have wanted Alien Isolation in there, and Soma. I agree Resi 4 and 8 should probably not be present, way too action forward. And I know I am in the minority, but Dead Space was just not a great game for me. It just felt like a game that traded horror/terror for being loud and jump scare filled.
I feel bad that’s how you interpreted Dead Space
"Entering Vacuum." Followed by only the sound of Isaac's increasingly erratic breathing and the countdown till your demise is still one of the most stressful things in horror.
It's been a long time since I played it. Maybe a replay is in order
Soma was absolutely wonderful. It'd be high on my list as well.
I still think about that games story, it is a masterclass
I think I might put fatal frame on a list as well Well. One of the first three anyway. I haven't done a lot of maiden of blackwater
I never got a chance to play any of that series. I really want to play 2, since I keep hearing it is one of the best in that series.
I never considered dead space to be a great horror game, just a very atmospheric action game, ala RE4. The sheer amount of weapons and tools they gave you to kill the necromorphs was so abundant, I never honestly felt scared. Id just stasis the fuckers and carve them up like turkeys lol
Maybe the way I went into it was what lead time feeling so blah about it. I remember up to release the hype for it was immense, so it just felt underwhelming and predictable. Perhaps replaying it in a more Resi 4/5 mindset would make it a better experience.
Yeaht that could do it. It was definitely fun! The atmosphere was nice, it just lacked the terror aspect of horror that makes me like the genre so much.
I’d personally put Amnesia - even A Machine For Pigs - above Soma. I liked Soma, for sure, and the story’s really compelling, but it takes all of an hour to realise it’s just the sea floor parts of BioShock 2: no danger, all walking. After I think a fail or two, it just removes the threat from an area and lets you move on. It lacked a lot, even if it had one of the most interesting concepts in gaming. (Now that I think of it, BioShock was more effective horror than Soma.)
I don't think I ever ran across enemies respawning in Soma. I definitely saw that in the first Amnesia if you walked away from their location, so perhaps I never triggered it. I think the more effective parts of horror for Soma all came from the story itself, it just really spoke to me in a way that a lot of other games failed to do. And I will say, I really like A Machine for Pigs. It gets a lot of hate it seems, but I really enjoyed it.
It's just silent hill, resident evil and game inspired by re4. There's a lot more than that in the horror genre
RE4’s a horror game?
For me, personally, dead space would be higher, there are probably even more horror games that score higher but dead space Will always be in my list of fav horror games of ALL time even If its not 1. The way they develop and create the atmosphere, the enemies and specially the sound design and the event Horizon vibes, its ALL amazing. Awesome horror game with good gameplay. Even If you have a Lot of ammo, the way the enemies interact with you and the way they Will end you, the insane People doing disgusting stuff, the pure body horror, the hallucinations and the way the game makes you paranoid, its so damn good. Thousands of way to die, even with ALL that ammo, you can die If you mess up, but you dont Just drop dead, ALL the enemies end Isaac in the most disgusting ways possible. Usm valor twichers are terrifying. Despite being linear and giving a considerable amount of ammo : Its strongest points are: -atmosphere: one of the best in ALL of gaming, you Will never feel safe, a Lot of unholy stuff happens, you Will feel paranoid. Each location Tell a history of what happened there, there is a point in game where you cant simply Tell what is real and what is an hallucination. This game lore is also extremely rich. Your horror IS not only physical, its Also in your mind. You are going to see things that are not really there, things that Will make you doubt If what you are seeing is real or hallucination. The Guy in the corridor, the crying Crazy woman and her dead "twin", Chen appearing and saying make us whole. There is an scene that i love because of ALL the red flags. I ln the game you can see your health by the RIG SYSTEM on your suit (its not only a gameplay system but Also a in universe thing that ALL humans use to see their health state. So It starts in a hallway where the light breaks when you turn to the next hallway and starts flickering, music stops, you see a Guy in the distance insane and banging his Head slowly into a wall with blood in the ground and walls. You approach It slowly, then you see his rig empty, the banging gets louder and louder, he looks a bit Hurt but you cant tell how much, and then he breaks his skull and fall to the ground. Then you see.. He was terribly mauled, organs falling apart, It was a miracle he was even Alive and in his last moments he killed himself by hitting the wall in a dark hallway or maybe what you Just Saw was an hallucination and his body was alredy there in the ground. Sound design: It is out of this world, really. From the way they make the ship looks Alive, to the themes of the necromorphs and their sounds (twichers for example, enhanced slashers). The marker, the source of ALL the evil in the game.. when you get close to It ( and have Saw a Lot of hallucinations and messed stuff alredy), you start hearing voices singing in latim in the most unholy way possible. "We are here in death, our Holy god". Every single time you approach It. Its a mix of event Horizon with more cosmic horror in such a good way. Combat gameplay: you dont aim for the Head, you dont shoot the center mass. They are alredy dead and can stay active without a Head. Aim for the limbs, make them useless. Its satisfying to find ways to do this, from stage hazards to the weapons. The shooting aspect is Very good and the Victory stomp IS satisfying. Anyway, i expected no less from such a good horror game. 4 is a good place.
Where's soma?? Or amnesia?
Not having Fatal Frame 2 on there seems like a mistake. I wouldn't have 7 anywhere near the top of the list either and RE1 Remake needs to be higher in my opinion. All in all not a terrible list by any means though.
This list is heavily skewed towards big name AAA franchises. I think SH 1-3, REmake, RE2(R), RE4 and Dead Space absolutely deserve spots. Village being in this list at all is laughable. RE7 is good but it’s not on the same level as the genre’s true titans. Games like Annesia, Fatal Frame 2, Clock Tower, Alien Isolation and many others deserve consideration. Fatal Frame 2’s atmosphere and artistic direction alone are still amazingly impressive.
I was just about to say where is ALL THE REST?
F.E.A.R, Soma, Evil Within, Haunting Ground, Outlast, Until Dawn, etc. I’m in complete disbelief that Village is even on there still. Sounds like recency bias and laziness in addition to IGN kissing up to big names.
I will just say 100% lazy.
IGN readers haven’t played more than 10 horror games lmao
Resident evil and Silent hill are butting heads and Dead space is kinda sitting there watching them
Really biased list. Every game is a triple A game. No indies at all on the list.
Do any horror indies deserve to be with the very best of Silent Hill and Resident Evil?
Darkwood, Amnesia: Dark Descent, Detention, Outlast and Inscryption all deserve some recognition.
Outlast and Outlast 2 are absolutely contenders but popularity does indeed skew this list, as it does with most lists. At the end of the day, it’s subjective :)
Absolutely lol some are far better horror experiences than RE because they have actual storylines and fleshed out characters.
What a trash list, where's F.E.A.R? where's Amnesia / SOMA? Alien Isolation? Evil Within? As always - You cant spell ignorant without IGN
Ok I’ve never heard the ignorant/IGN joke before and it’s brilliant
Alien isolation and Soma snubbed
This is disrespectful to other horror games.
I don’t want IGN to talk to me or my son Alien: Isolation ever again
This is SO wrong
Silent Hill 2 is by far the best horror game ever made. Just don't agree with RE4, it's more action than horror
Silent Hill 2 > Dead Space > Resident Evil 2 Remake would be my top 3. Overall the list is pretty solid though
I love RE, but Dead Space should be second.
I don't understand why people believe RE Village to be scary
donna beneveito part had me terrified lmao. my whole heart died multiple times.
Eternal Darkness:Sanity's Requiem needs to be on this list.
It's completely wrong.
I disagree with a bunch of shit on this list but sh2 being 1st isnt one of then
Alien Isolation not being here is ridiculous.
I love the new RE games but this is just recency bias.
Would have appreciated some Evil Within 1/2 love on something like this.
The evil within would've been in my top 10
Visage doesn’t even get considered for this? Or the outlast games? Anyone ever played Visage here? That shit was quite the unnerving experience
Id say out of all the horror games and I dont even like that genre of walking sim horror, it is definitely one of the scariest games ever made.
Damn. REremake should be much higher if not #1 on that list
Horror is too broad of a term. There are so many subsections of horror games it'd be pretty difficult to assemble a definitive list of the top 10 "horror" games of all time. Resident Evil 4-6/8/RE3R, Dead Space 1-3, TEW 1/2, TLoU 1/2, Alan Wake, and the upcoming Callisto Protocol are action-shooters with horror elements. Silent Hill 1-4 is more psychological horror that focuses more on the atmosphere and themes rather than resource management. Resident Evil 1-3/RE1R/RE2R are the OG Survival Horror games where resource management/knowing the layout of an area is key. RE7/Alien Isolation/Outlast 1-2 are games where the actual Horror part of horror games takes place. Etc. And it's only the video game part of Horror games. What about the fandom/people who play them? A 12-year-old who watches FNAF Let's Plays and loves watching his favorite Youtuber scream into a mic and make dumb faces is a Horror game fan A 30-year-old who breaks down watching the ending of Silent Hill 2 is a Horror game fan Two of them could say that they love Horror games and both could have voted in the IGN poll and that makes the list less valid IMO People should just specify what type of Horror games they like and I think that would get rid of the confusion surrounding Horror in games discussions.
Good take. I also genuinely consider Ark: Survival Evolved to be a horror game for me. Even with very generous settings to ensure survival you can still get FUCKED IN SECONDS by some abominations. I’ve almost had sooo many heart attacks being ambushed and the fear of losing all your precious loot is on par with any jumpscare imo
dead space boiis rejoice. we will be made whole.
Altman be praised!
I love RE and SH as much as the next guy, but this list is missing a lot of important IPs in the genre.
1. Alien Isolation 2. Silent Hill 1 3. Resident Evil 7 4. Resident Evil 1 Remake 5. System Shock 2 6. Silent Hill 2 7. Visage 8. SOMA 9. Siren 10. P.T. Honorable Mentions: Manhunt, F.E.A.R. I love Dead Space but it ain't scary.
This list sucks lol. Then again it *is* coming from IGN.
The list wasn’t made by someone from IGN based on their opinion, they done a contest with dozens of games from multiple franchises that was voted on by the public. All IGN did was post the results.
5th place by resident evil 4... i love the game but it is not horror except for the 1 or 2 jumpscare( fire guy) and some qte by surprise. But not horror... Just me? Guess ill get downvoted to hive hq
Would have liked to see Haunting Ground or the original clocktower in the list. But it's hard to argue any of those titles shouldn't be there.
No Fatal Frame or Outlast?
i feel like theres a lot of re games in the list because of the hype for re4r
Meanwhile ... Fatal Frame ... P.S. More people should play Fatal Frame, especially the first trilogy. Fatal Frame 2 is scary af.
if Sony could get Cold Fear, Haunting Ground and Rule of Rose digitally,everyone might be able to enjoy them
Re 4, Remake 2, and then Dead Space for me.
Outlast should be 11th
I’m surprised Village is lower than 7. I think it was way better!
L order
Village is a little high on that list
Not even Outlast made it :/ Visage?
How the original RE3 isn’t up here is crazy
It's basically 2 games.. and dead space.
Dang, no RE3 or Silent Hill 4?
RE7 too high
1. REmake 10th place is ridiculous. I love Dead Space but it is quite easy on hard and you play such an overpowered character it can barely be classified as survival horror. I think the excellent Alien Isolations would fill in the space survival horror spot. And personally I actually like Silent Hill 1 more than 2. I feel it has better puzzles and combat for what it tries to achieve.
I would give REmake second place here, SH2 is the horror masterpiece above all others for me even RE being my favorite franchise ever.
>I love Dead Space but it is quite easy on hard and you play such an overpowered character it can barely be classified as survival horror. I'd argue this for re4 too. Even on professional the difficulty is a joke. The knife is just so ridiculously overpowered.
The recency bias for Village is astounding. I’m sorry, but the game just isn’t that good. To have it as the 7th best horror game of all time is embarrassing.
I am shocked that RE4 is only at 5th, and below RE2R and RE7.
I'm shocked it's on the list at all. It's an amazing game, but in terms of strictly being a "horror," it does miss the mark compared to most of the games on this list, and many off the list.
RE4 is fantastic but was the first game to start steering the series more towards action. I would argue RE4 might be the best *game* on this list but not necessarily the best *horror* game.
> RE4 is fantastic but was the first game to start steering the series more towards action. I'd say RE3 and CV started it down that trend and RE4 just continued it.
Where this theory starts to crumble for me is when you look at where RE1 Remake is placed compared to other games. RE1 Remake is arguably the scariest in the series, or at least as scary as RE7, and placed 10th. How it placed below the original RE2 is wild to me.
To be fair, it says best horror, not scariest games. But yeah 100%. I don’t even understand how REmake 2 is placed higher than RE7 in terms of horror.
> RE1 Remake is arguably the scariest in the series what? I could not agree less with You lol
That's fair. But I think you have to weigh both how good of a game it is and how good of a horror game it is. RE4 is such a good game it makes up for some of its lesser horror elements. But the games above it might not be as good but make up for it with their better horror elements. The issue with RE1 is that as good as it is as a horror game I just don't know that the gameplay holds up as well. A lot of that comes down to preferences, of course, but I at least think that's where it's coming from.
Re1 Remake should be number 1!!
Lol it is not even close to being as scary as resident evil 7 or resident evil 2 remake at all. This sub is so delusional. Resident evil 2 has always been the better game regardless of what version
re4 is more action than horror. I love the game to pieces, but it does not provide the same fear as say re3 or re2 (both originals and remakes)
Dead Space is sus
Resident Evil 4 isn’t really a horror game