10 Best Horror Games of 2012
by Menashe
Lone Survivor
Lone Survivor is a is a post-apocalyptic psychological horror game with retro-styled 2D graphics. Players control an isolated, surgical mask-wearing survivor of an infection which has turned the world’s population into aggressive, shambling mutants. He goes off exploring in the hopes he’ll find other survivors but he’s not sure there any at all. It’s thrilling, scary, stylish atmospheric adventure with sounds and music that combine for an experience that feels like a 2D version of Silent Hill. The game provides you with feelings and immersion that commercial survival horrors are after.
The Walking Dead
In Telltale’s emotionally evocative adventure game, corpses are returning to life and survivors will stop at nothing to maintain their own safety. Protecting an orphaned girl named Clementine may be the only thing to preserve your humanity in a world gone to hell. The Walking Dead is among the greatest examples available that video games have something to say, and can be about far more than gunplay, collecting items, or multiplayer. They can rival the film industry and be as internally involving as novels. This is not a story of zombies, but is the tale of one man among a group of people struggling to live…or perhaps waiting to die, in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.
ZombiU
It may not be perfect as a game but it’s the perfect showcase for what the Wii U is all about. ZombiU will send shivers of fear and excitement up and down your spine in equal measure. ZombiU capitalizes on making the player feel vulnerable; the tension of knowing that death is potentially around every corner. The game design hearkens to the early days of survival horror; ammo is hard to find, health is hard to find, and the zombies need a serious beating from your cricket bat before they quiet down. Atmosphere is ZombiU’s greatest achievement.
Resident Evil Revelations
Revelations may be the best game currently on the 3DS. It’s definitely the best Resident Evil game in a long while. At least if what you are looking for is in fact horror, rather than action. The game is a definite return to form for the entire series. Everyone who was disappointed with the direction RE5 and RE6 took will want to check this out: it successfully mixes the memorable claustrophobic environments of the older games with the playability of the action entries and never gets boring for a single moment. The game has the best graphics you’ll be seeing on the 3DS for quite a while, the music is nothing short of excellent, and the story will keep you guessing until the last chapter. Read our full Resident Evil Revelations Review
Slender
Slender has already become something of an internet meme. It was created in a Something Awful forum thread that held a contest for making scary paranormal pictures. It ended up becoming an infamous free indie horror game with no weapons and no fighting. The goal of the game is simple, you must find eight notes about the Slender Man, all unnervingly demented scrawls. At any time the Slender Man may appear in any spot at all. It could be in front of you or behind you. He does not attack you, but looking at him will drive you insane. Look long enough and your sanity meter will drain to nothing, ending the game. Oh and everything is pitch black, illuminated only by a weak torch. It’s a simple premise but one that rapidly becomes incredibly tense and scary, and proves what a scary concept the Slenderman is.
Lucius
What Lucius has at its disposal is a brilliant concept, albeit marred by some flaws in the gameplay. You are a six year old child who is the spawn of Satan. You innocently move around the house and orchestrate horrific accidents to kill all your family members and residents of the house. You are given some supernatural powers to assist you in murdering your kin. It’s a pretty twisted idea.
Paranormal Beta
This game is basically Paranormal Activity: The Game. It’s short and sweet and terribly fear-inducing. You play as a man who suspects that his house is haunted, so he takes it upon himself to wander around at night to record the various weird things that happen. The game will haunt you dynamically so you can never rely on the same things happening the same way in a second playthrough. Paranormal is about recreating the haunted house experience, and it does that exceptionally well.
Downfall
Quiet Haven Hotel was supposed to be just a one night shelter for Joe and Lucy Davis. But things soon start to go wrong. Lucy’s panic attacks get worse and soon she disappears. And in the morning, the hotel changes too. Nothing is what it seems anymore. Joe is left alone, trying to understand what is happening, trapped between reality and this nightmare. Joe soon discovers four manifested “memories” of a demented woman in various stages of her life, each situated in different rooms of the hotel, each asking Joe to kill them in particular ways. If you enjoy morbid experiences chocked full of shocking scenes, Downfall delivers plenty, at times even crossing the line into distasteful, in a title with strikingly original artistic design.
Buy it or download the demo at their website
Deadlight
The world has ended. There is no hope. No new beginning. Only the survivors. Deadlight follows the journey of Randall Wayne, a man searching for his family across Seattle during the aftermath of a 1980s event that has decimated life on earth. This visually stunning Cinematic Survival Platformer will challenge you to run, jump, climb, and struggle for your life as you look for answers and the ones you love.
Project Zero 2
Project Zero 2: Wii Edition is not only the scariest game on the system, but also one of the scariest games I have ever played. The backstory is disturbingly dark; the ghosts are brilliant in the way that they manage to seem equally threatening and tragic, and the constant feeling of vulnerability as you explore the cursed mansions is impressive. It’s true that there is very little reason to come back to the game once you’ve seen the credits roll, but the journey getting there is easily worth the ticket price. If you are in the market for a classic survival horror adventure or want one last fling on the Wii, you owe it to yourself to get this game. Unplug the phone, turn off the lights, put your headphones on, and try to come up with some believable explanation as to why you are screaming in falsetto so late at night, for when your neighbours ask. Read our full Project Zero 2 Review
Only available in Japan or PAL regions
