Scratches is an adventure horror game from Argentinean developer Agustin Cordes, released in 2006. It places you in the first person perspective of Michael Arthate, a mystery author seeking seclusion to work on his next book. But after he’s moved in he discovers that the house contains a secret past, and he can literally hear scratches all around the house. A puzzle game at heart, the atmosphere and tension are pitch perfect as the moments are timed to ratchet up the player’s terror using next to nothing. You’ll be scared of sounds and the cinematic tricks of the trade as you end up committing all the things you yell at characters in movies not to do.

Inspired by the works of the grand daddy of gothic horror himself Edgar Allen Poe, The Dark Eye was more of an experience than a game as you explore the minds of madmen, murderers and terrified victims. Nearly every inanimate and animate object you touch pulls you deeper on a journey into the twisted world that all started with some paint thinner. The characters that populate the world were 3D animated stop-motion done by the legendary Doug Beswick of Aliens fame, and allows for multiple story paths. To illustrate how scary the game was let me put it like this: The game is so scary that it will terrify you with a blank screen. There is a point in the game where the screen will just be black, no threats, no puzzle, no sharp noises and you will piss yourself.

Condemned is a detective story that was overlooked when it first came out early in the 360’s lifespan. With both horror and brawler mechanics, it was the first true “next-gen” horror title. You play Ethan Thomas, an agent tasked with investigating the lowest rung of society while searching for a serial killer, with the rest of the world going mad around you. Hobos and junkies jump out from the shadows to bludgeon you with anything they can get their hands on, and you have to do the same.
The atmosphere is what puts it over the top, as Ethan tracks down the horror the city streets. While the game feels rather “out there”, the crime investigations and crunch of the bones keeps it close enough to reality to be truly unsettling.

Alma. That’s all that really needs to be said about this game. Little girls are scary, especially psychic little girls with long dark hair covering their faces who appear in the middle of empty corridors. As for the game itself, the shooting is great and the AI smart, but it’s the nightmare moments that really shine. The world goes topsy-turvy and your characters sees things that aren’t there out of the corner of his vision. F.E.A.R. provides one thing that other gun filled, fast paced action, super solider horror games don’t, in that the character you are playing is constantly unnerved. The slight sway of his gun and the shallowness of his breathing during and after these nightmare events make you believe they are happening and the character is vulnerable to having his mind fucked.

In the early 90s, full motion video with live actors were all the rage in video games. 7th Guest was a game where its implementation wasn’t campy, but rather unsettling and done so on purpose. You play an amnesiac (surprise, surprise!) who has to figure out what happened to the other six guests invited to an insane toy maker’s mansion. Everything is unnerving, even the puzzles and how they are introduced. The atmosphere is crushing and there is so much strangeness going on that you can’t help but be frightened by what you see.

The first Silent Hell set up a great franchise and then the sequel became one of the greatest games ever made. Silent Hill 2 delves into the psyche of its protagonist, James Sunderland, in ways—and to depths—that other games only wish they could do.
In Silent Hill, nothing is quite right; everything seems artificial and you don’t seem to be looking at the same world as anybody else within it. After a while of playing the game, you will question as to who was James Sunderland’s biggest enemy—the town, the player, or the character himself?