Scares & Tension in Games

[Moonface]

So Halloween isn't far away, and I was thinking of scary games or just games that create good horror atmosphere/tension, and since this thread already exists I figure I'll just revive this rather than make a new one.

Originally the thread was mostly around what outright scares you, but I've updated it to reflect just general tension and atmosphere in games that could be considered scary or unsettling too. For example, Dead Space scared me so badly when I first played it that I stopped right after the first room (you know it if you've played it) and didn't touch the game for nearly a year. I only played it again because I got up a guide so I knew where every enemy would jump out and even then it was still tough. Dead Space 2 I did without a guide though, as by the time I got it I had played Dead Space so much that I wasn't so petrified of going in blind and actually wanted to see how it was playing one of those games without being spoiled from a guide beforehand. Both games don't scare me with the enemies and such anymore, but the atmosphere those games produce is absolutely fantastic, especially in DS2. I'd love it if a mod could be made for those games that randomizes the spawns of enemies so I never know what vents are safe to walk by, because then it would always keep me on my toes.

I also don't think I'd played it at the time this thread originally got made, but another game that got me really good with a scare is Prey. The game itself isn't scary, but this one moment is:

Prey Scare

There's a central elevator that lets you quickly travel between the different key areas of the game, and so it becomes common to use it once it becomes available to you when you need to return to a particular floor rather than walking the entire trip. However, on one trip the lights in the elevator will go out, and then an enemy will spawn right in front of you inside the elevator and actually try to attack you. If you're quick you can kill it, otherwise the lights go out again as it goes to attack you and it disappears. That moment absolutely scared the life out of me because at no other point does the game really do any jump scares or tension building like that, so it really gets you off guard. Especially when in most games an elevator is usually a guaranteed safe space.

Also seeing things from The Last of Us that were scary or tense that I talked about with @Nightingale in this thread reminded me of the hospital from TLoU2 with Abby. That moment more than any really sticks out as a great tension builder, and builds to a perfect crescendo with the boss fight that happens. I remember being so nervous when I reached this point:

[Nightingale]

That was the ONE part on Part II that made me jump.

But, on the whole, I found the original to be a lot scarier (literally screamed the first time I got ambushed by a Clicker).

[Moonface]

That was the ONE part on Part II that made me jump.

But, on the whole, I found the original to be a lot scarier (literally screamed the first time I got ambushed by a Clicker).

I think the trouble with Part 2 is that the majority of the infected have already been seen and the player and character knows how to deal with them, so they can't even be presented in a scary way like how the Clicker bursts through the door the first time you encounter one in Part 1. Besides the Rat King the only other time that has tension with the infected in Part 2 is the sequence with the Stalkers in the office.
I will say though that the first time a Stalker burst off the wall in Part 2 really got me good. I just assumed it was a corpse and suddenly it lunged at me.

[ShiraNoMai]

There's also the horse stepping on the landmine scene in part 2 that gets triggered apropos of basically nothing One of those jump scares that are well done cuz it's not expected to happen at all, and with such a loud sound too.

I find most jump scare-centric games to be pretty lame, if not for the aforementioned reason of it being predictable and obvious. Horror, to me, is created with tension, and jump scares are earned by being rare and unexpected. I feel this way about movies, too, to be fair, but as someone in control of their actions, taking away a player's agency and putting them in a vulnerable spot is a great way to implement that. Of course, there's balance to be had. Take too much agency away and it gets frustrating/cheap when you have to repeat scenes/sections because of mechanics that are all-or-nothing or unclear.

[Maniakkid25]

I remember first playing RE6 (you know, the one that did so bad it basically revived the franchise as a proper survival horror), and playing Leon's campaign, and that opening is just... *chef's kiss* so perfect. It's wonderfully tense, as you're just waiting for the moment that the action starts. It's basically the prime example of Hitchcock's definition of Suspense; you KNOW something bad is going to happen, and it's just REFUSING to give it to you, and every single step, you're left waiting. For as unfocused as the game is, that first segment was an inspired flash of old school Resident Evil.

[Moonface]

I remember first playing RE6 (you know, the one that did so bad it basically revived the franchise as a proper survival horror), and playing Leon's campaign, and that opening is just... *chef's kiss* so perfect. It's wonderfully tense, as you're just waiting for the moment that the action starts. It's basically the prime example of Hitchcock's definition of Suspense; you KNOW something bad is going to happen, and it's just REFUSING to give it to you, and every single step, you're left waiting. For as unfocused as the game is, that first segment was an inspired flash of old school Resident Evil.

For how action packed RE6 was, it's crazy to me that the game actually managed to spend a good 15 minutes of absolutely zero combat or enemies at the start of Leon's campaign, especially when the games opener before the title screen is some Michael Bay shit with an entire highway of cars exploding in a run-towards-the-camera sequence and a helicopter set piece.
I also find it hilarious how the survivors on the CCTV just stand there waving signs as a horde of zombies close in and they barely give them any attention and just carry on waving at the camera. Also, today I learned that Leon upgraded from suplexing zombies to just delivering RKO's.


I've been replaying The Evil Within 2 recently, and I forgot how well done the Anima sequences are in that game. Despite knowing it was coming this time around, the first encounter with her still really unsettled me and is one of those rare moments where a game can actually uphold a sense of tension and fear in a sequence even though I've played the sequence before. This sequence is really good on PS4 because the game uses the speaker on the controller to play her melody and the volume varies based on how far you are from her, so it gets incredibly immersive. It's a shame that the non-scripted sequences where she can spontaneously appear on the map don't manage to work very well because the player just has to do a 180 and run away in the opposite direction until they get far enough to despawn her; I've yet to have her appear in an area where I would actually be trapped and need to plan my escape, unlike what happens in the scripted sequences like the one in the video I shared.

Her song also reminds me of the Huntress's lullaby in Dead by Daylight and I'm trying to figure out if they use the same song but varied differently.

[WR91]

The game that instantly came to mind for me when seeing this question was Outlast. And I believe that's what makes the game so good. It's like I didn't want to play the game because I was on edge and scared but I kept playing because I wanted to see what was going to happen next.