Darkest, most haunting games that you've played

Thread: Darkest, most haunting games that you've played
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I probably should have done this before Halloween. What are some games that just stayed in your psyche after playing them, or maybe unsettled and disturbed you in some way? I'm not just talking about games that made you jump or scared you, or just supernatural games, but games that maybe had a psychological effect on you. Maybe it's just a game where you witnessed something so tragic it emotionally affected you.

Here's some of mine:

SOMA - Existential crisis you've feel after playing this

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The Sexy Brutale - A game where you get to know a variety of characters, then witness them die in absolutely horrible ways while a blood covered lady ghost haunts you.

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Jeanne D'Arc - Because of the rather shocking death of a certain character and how it happens. It casts a dark shadow over the rest of the game

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The Darkness/The Darkness II - There's a lot of great, fun action in these games (particularly the second one), but the tale of Jackie Estacado is not a happy one

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Max Payne 2 - and the same could be said for Max Payne

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Mad Max - The ending is just...depressing

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Valiant Hearts: The Great War - It's a game about war, so you should know what to expect despite its nice, cartoon visuals

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I still get PTSD from the bridge level on Crash Trilogy.

Horror wise Silent Hill 2 Remake is the scariest game I've played ever.

Bioshock Infinite, Uncharted 4 and Last of Us: Part 2 have endings I think about often.
 
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Dead Space Trilogy though 3s ending I think was more Viscerals fuck you to EA then a actual ending. It even worked for a time. Also special mention to when you return to the Ishimura in 2.

Mass Effect 2 (Collector Base and you get to see what happens to anyone unfortunate enough to be captured by them and not have Shepherd and the most skilled crew of people in the Galaxy rushing in to save them.)
 
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Sounds kind of stupid looking back but I distinctly remember playing Resi 3 and Amazing Spider Man (gameboy) around the same time. I was fairly young and had the most horrific nightmares which were some strange mix of the two games. It was so bad I couldn't even look at the box art for either of the games without feeling distressed. Lasted for like 2 weeks and I never revisited either game, I even have the spider man cartridge still but haven't played it since then. I wouldn't have any problems playing them today and played through the Resi 3 remake when that came out but the image of Nemesis struck fear into younger me. Probably some of the worst night terrors I've ever had to this day.

The dystopian nature of HL2 also got to me when I was a teen. I think it was the idea of humanity being completely subjugated by a faceless alien race in mere hours, the intro section showing how humans live under the oppression of the combine, the role of Breen as a turncoat/alien puppet and the parallels to communism throughout. Then Ravenholm really added to it.

Narcissu is another, I got it on a disc full of freeware and went into it completely blind. Terminal illness and death never seem to be portrayed well or realistically in modern media but Narcissu felt shockingly raw and real.
 
The one that grossed me out and made my skin crawl a bit was Corpse Party on the PSP. A combination of the bgm and the descriptions & sound effects, yeah, some of it is messed up.
 
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Resident Evil REmake
Dead Space
Resident Evil: Revelations 2

RE:R2 has one of the craziest looking villains I've ever seen in a video game. Not the greatest story or game but there was one cutscene that was pretty twisted. If I'd seen that abomination irl I'd have probably either been petrified or unloading every shell I had lol
 
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I can't relate to any of these posts. Even Spec Ops: The Line just made me think "That's interesting and well made". I should play Soma and see if it makes a difference.

It's all just interesting settings for me to do stuff, I never take anything away from them and I'm never affected.
 
The Fatal Frame series is super dark. I realize the gameplay isn't for everyone but that series is a total masterclass in J-Horror, and J-Horror in general is super dark. I'm by no means an expert on Japanese culture/folklore but I read a book that analyzed various J-Horror films and it did a great job of explaining the themes and symbolism. Easily one of the best things I ever did for my horror knowledge.

 
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I've been trying to think of a game that unsettled me the most. And, interestingly the thing that keeps coming back to my mind is Sekiro. (Maybe because I'm playing Elden Ring right now)

The second half of Sekiro gets very strange and surreal but in a way that's unusual and hard to describe. It feels off in a way that stuck with me.
 
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There was a game back in my very early PC days (mid 90s) call Lost Eden, it had a section that left me haunted as a kid. Still remember it to this day.

Also 7th Guest and The 11th Hour. Both hit right at the right time for maxium effect on Kid me in the 90s.
 
The first time I saw Nessy in that cave in Super Mario 64 was a legit scare moment for me as a kid. When you are brand new to 3d gaming everything just feels so much more atmospheric and that moment spooked me for some reason even though it wasn't even trying to be scary!

The other game that stands out to me... I can't remember the title. It's a horror game set in an old west type of setting on playstation 1. You can actually beat the game in about 10 or 15 mins if you know all the tricks, it was like a first person mystery/horror/puzzle type of game, the title just escapes me right now.
 
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Zulith said:
...that moment spooked me for some reason even though it wasn't even trying to be scary!
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Something about the N64 was pretty surreal and affecting. Majora's Mask oddly bothered me more as an adult, than as a kid. And as a kid I had a nightmare about Banjo Kazooie of all things.
 
I found Silent Hill 1 very disturbing due to its low resolution and low polygon graphics. Most of the stuff was so lowly detailed that you had to fill in the gaps with your own ideas.

Which brings me to my favorite game of the decade, SIGNALIS. Which is basically East-German Sci-Fi Silent Hill. So good.

When it comes to pure horror I found Outlast really scary. I couldn't even finish it.
 
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Silent Hill 4 was particularly unsettling. The whole premise of having your apartment be a safe healing space and then slowly taking it away from you over the course of the game was very effective. Crawling through holes nobody else can see into other worlds, the unkillable ghosts you have to pin down with magic swords (and knowing there are more ghosts than swords), the water prison, there's a bit of a dreamlike quality to the whole thing most of the other games don't have.
 
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