Medal of Honor, invasion of Normandy... not scary, but freaky real w/ tons of explosions going off next to you, very cool.

Silent Hill 2 really freaked me out. The whole fog and pitch black city thing, freaky!

I haven't seen a truly scary game on the PS2 (the only console I've got) but from years of being a PC gamer there were 3 games that were great at building suspense and had a few points that made you jump:

Phantasmagoria: One of the first Sierra Full Motion games. Short, but sucked you right in as you played the heroine. Nice use of music and visuals.

Gabriel Knight II: Again, another Sierra game that used Full Motion video. Lots of suspenseful moments.

Shivers: Dang, another Sierra game?!?! Not full motion, a Myst-like engine, but had a great use of music/sound to build suspense.

Some of the scenes in Max Payne were kind of creepy...

A lot of people mentioned System Shock 2, but they never game what made it so scary. I'm not familiar with the game but really want to find out what it is that's freaking everyone out.

I almost forgot about Maniac Mansion

Here’s a real oldie: Silent Debuggers for the TurboGrafx-16. It was a great mix of FPS survival horror and Alien-style space monster hunting. Set aboard a creepy space station, it was the first game of its ilk to take advantage of the sound of the approaching monsters (pre-5.1, of course) and their sudden appearances for shocks.

The series of Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Alone in the Dark (effective H.P. Lovecraft rip-offs), Phantasmagoria and Shivers games all have some good entries. Fatal Frame takes the cake for style and atmosphere. I just rented it yesterday--hence my resurrection of this old thread (from the living dead).

I haven’t solved the following PC games or don’t remember the specifics well enough to comment with great authority, but I did find them appealing: Realms of the Haunting, John Saul’s Blackstone Chronicles: An Adventure in Terror, Inherent Evil: The Haunted Hotel, Necronomicon: The Gateway to Beyond (a true Lovecraftian game) and Clive Barker’s Undying.

For those really old-schoolers, here’re a couple of creepy classic text-based PC games that I immensely enjoyed: Stephen King’s The Mist and The Lurking Horror (another Lovecraft-inspired tale).

System Shock 2 definately. Currently playing through this again at the moment and several things really sell the "creepy" factor.

1. The sound - the voices of the main antagonists are superb and the voice acting of all the audio message logs are top-notch, especially when you can hear the changes several voices go through as they are consumed by "the many". Also, every enemy has a very distinct sound and you start to dread them especially since ammo is in very short supply.

2. The visions - turn a corner and you'll be treated to visions of the last seconds of several victims onboard the ship.

3. The atmosphere - the feeling of being very alone on a spaceship overrun by zombies, etc is well done.

...plus the game is just plain fun. It was released in 1999 during a time where I was used to the Quake / Quake 2 style FPS where ammo was everywhere and you could blast your way through everything. With System Shock 2 you had to think a bit more since you could customize your character in a myriad of ways and you could only carry a limited amount in your inventory.

A great game, and hopefully we'll see a successor sometime in the future.

I guess I don't scare easily, as most of the games listed don't do a thing for me (Silent Hill 2 was a complete snooze fest). Can't remember the last time I was scared by a movie either, and I make it a point to watch all the ones people say are 'really scary'.

However, I have to say that playing as a marine in Aliens vs. Predator is probably hands down the scariest thing to do on a computer. Especially if you have a large monitor and 5.1 surround. You've got plenty of firepower, but an Alien can shred you in seconds. The atmosphere is creepy and dark, and there's plenty of hidden nooks and crannies for aliens to pop out of. One second of inattention and you're fragged. Very intense.

My vote goes to Fatal Frame. It's just plain scary. Resident Evil has those moments that startle you, but Fatal Frame just scares you. I guess I've become so used to zombie type monsters in games, that ghosts seem more "real" and scarier. But I also go with everyone else that the Resident Evil and Silent Hill games are among the scariest.

Anybody remember Nocturne?

I just thought of something else. The game itself isn't scary, but the cut scenes are pretty disturbing: Twisted Metal Black.

Fatal Frame
System Shock 2
Clive Barker's Undying
The Thing
Resident Evil
Half-Life
Doom
Quake
Aliens vs. Predator
Silent Hill 1 and 2
Phantasmagoria 1 and 2

Great thread. If I had read these posts before ever playing any games I'd be confused how anyone could be that scared playing a game (I never get scared watching horror flicks).

I've only played a handful of PC Games... I know that Alice isn't supposed to be as scary as some of the games you guys have mentioned, but the ghouls that scream at her really started to wear on me over time... in a creepy way. I had nightmares while playing that game and now I know to avoid stuff like Undying even though it looks great. I just know it will bust my chops. And that's really cool.

This one creeped me out on Sega CD "Dracula Unleashed". I played it at a friend's house when it was raining. Stayed up all night trying to beat it...

Dammit, Mr.Gore, you beat me to it. As I was reading the replies, one game popped in my head and I never in a million years would have expected someone else to know it. Silent Debuggers really creeped me out as a kid, going down those hallways, with that beeping getting louder and louder then....ARGHHH!! I still have the game and cardboard box on my "prized" collection shelf and play it every now and then, quite underrated. Of course, the dogs sequence from RE is always a favorite. I'm playing through The Thing for XBOX right now and it's giving me some good jumps, although I always wait for my wife to go to bed and then turn out all the lights which always helps.