Horror video games in general are quite gruesome, deadly, and of course horrifying to play when you're playing in the darkest room possible without having the lights turned on and receiving lot of horrific unexpecting surprises from the game may hunt you for rest of the day which is why it made the genre quite popular in the 90s, starting from terrifying-looking Scissorman from Clock Tower to tall-ass Nemesis from Resident Evil 3, and then decade later you have weird-looking pyramid head from Silent Hill 2 to freakish Necromorphs from Dead Space which is why it made those kinds of horror games quite recognisable for its scare factor design including people getting torned to death, the scenes that shit out your pants, has several of shock values, and some disturbing parts in the game that really gives everyone a huge mindf***ed moments.
In this new spooky blogpost, we are taking look at the 5 chase encounters in any of video games that I finding it quite intense to play because I've been playing several of horror games during the night where I get many of not just full of surprises, but I also get many of encounters from crazy-ass monsters that started to chase me around the room till I found the hiding spot that no one can able to find me.
So turn off your lights, sit, relax, and shhhhhh!!! because this is my top 5 terrifying chases in horror games.
5 - Resident Evil 7 - Jack Baker
What made Resident Evil so great is not only it became Capcom's most successful franchise, but also a influential horror game series that defines the video game genres thanks to horror presentation settings, delivers great storylines and has recognisable cast of characters, and of course puzzle and survival elements of gameplay with tons of discoveries and enemy encounters that changes the video game industries forever.
I grew up playing stuff like the first RE, RE 2, RE:CV, and of course RE 4 which is why I loved the franchise so much back in my childhood days, where as stuff like RE 5 and Revelation are kinda okay but not as good compared with the previous entries, till I got really disappointed with the RE 6 which is the worst entry in the series that kills the franchise's legacy took away the horror elements from the earlier RE games.
Thankfully it was saved by going back to the roots with the RE 7: Biohazard which was hailed as the franchise's return of the survival horror that everyone been wanting for the RE game.
In RE 7: Biohazard, you get to play as Ethan Winters went searching for his lost wife in the abandoned house of Baker's family.
What makes RE 7 so terrifying is the scene where Jack Baker went chasing after you around the rooms, starting from smashing the tables apart to bursting through the cracked walls is just insane to play, so you cannot kill him with every single bullet you took a shot at him, instead you had to find a way of hiding the places or escaping from the room and another to reduce the encounters alert from Jack Baker nearby which is why it made the chase sequences quite intense to play.
If you thought Mr X from RE 2 and Nemesis from RE 3 are just as strong and unstoppable to fight with, then this crazy old bastard like Jack Baker is just as tough as nails that you don't wanna to mess with which is why it makes him one of the best villain in the whole game.
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is an huge improvement over the previous entry makes the return to its roots that made the whole franchise successful, so it's definitely must play for the fans of the series, as well as horror genre fans in general, so it's available on PS4, PS5, XBONE, XSX/S and PC, as well as coming soon to Switch on this December.
4 - Clock Tower: The First Fear - Scissor Man
There's one of the game that really surprises me the most especially being on 16-bit platform like SNES which is a Clock Tower: The First Fear, a point and click horror game which was only released at Japan for SNES in 1995, as well as later for PS1 and PC in 1997, and WonderSwan in 1999.
The game takes place in Romsdalen, Norway which follows an orphan teen-girl Jennifer Simpson (which resemble Jennifer Connelly's character in the 80's film like Phenomena) are adopted by the Barrows family along with other orphaned girls arriving at the mansion known as Clock Tower.
After arriving at the mansion, it went completely chaotic which leaves Jennifer went on investigating to search for missing friends while being encountered by an ugly little shit known as the Scissor Man went on murdering rampage welding a pair of huge-ass scissors goes after her, as she finds the way of escaping throughout the mansion.
So what makes the Clock Tower a different style of horror is that not only the plot and artistic style are influenced by Dario Argento's 80's Italian-horror film most notably Phenomena, but it's one of the game's design heavily focused on hide and seek elements where you cannot use weapons against enemy, so instead you must find the hiding spots throughout the mansion, or use traps placed in the environment which is quite common for later horror game as you know today such as Outlast and Amnesia as an great example of how the modern horror game took the similar elements from the classic horror game like this which involves chase sequences and use of stealth, so the Clock Tower is way it's head at the time that invented the stealth horror style for gaming.
So going back to this, the main highlight of the game is where the Scissor Man made the scariest encounters in the whole game such as breaking through the glass-chandelier or rooftops from the above, surprises you from the bathtub or behind the curtains, jumping out the underwater pool or wooden-crates, and breaking through the locked door or bookshelf which is why I consider the game as quite terrifying experience for SNES, an Nintendo's 16-bit machine that aimed for younger audience are no longer being a family-friendly home system.
Clock Tower is an example of being a great horror title for SNES libraries that I highly recommend you to go check it out. Due to being only released in Japan, there's are an alternative option to play the game is that you can also able to get it from ROMs site where you can download the games and play it on SNES emulator software or even with SNES reproduction copies from some online stores with fully English translated with it makes the text dialogue and navigating stuff a lot easier for western gamers to enjoy a 16-bit point and click horror-adventure.
3 - Amnesia: The Dark Descent - Grunt
Speaking of terrifying encounters, one of the game that caught many of horror fans attention which is Amnesia: The Dark Descent, a 2010's survival horror game created by Frictional Games behind their horror titles such as Penumbra and SOMA.
Back in the beginning of year 2010, I wasn't been aware of any of indie horror games being released on PC's platform like Value's Steam because I don't do any of PC gaming as much I payed more attention to the console gaming platform like Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo which is why I didn't discover this till I've watched one of the scariest video compilation on YouTube where you see most of people playing the game are start panicking and shrieking at the same time which got me curious to try out the game to see if anything scary about the game that involves a big-tall brutes with spliced mouth chasing you around the areas for survival, so in around between the year of 2016-19 after the game has finally released on the console platforms such as PS4, XBONE, and Switch, I've managed to get the game on my PS4 under the video game compilation titled as The Amnesia Collection which contains three titles such as The Dark Descent, Justine, and A Machine for Pigs, so for the purpose of this top 5 I am discussing mostly on The Dark Descent which is why I ranked it as number 3 on the list.
The game set on year 1839, you are Daniel awakens in the dark and empty halls of the Brennenburg Castle with no memory about himself or his past due to amnesia, so you'll be exploring in a dark and foreboding castle while trying to maintain his sanity by avoiding monsters and unsettling events.
While the game focuses on finding clues and solving puzzles, it also involves stealth elements where you need to avoid being caught by the monsters nearby, so you will need someplace to hide while not to get closer to them, if so then they can chase you really fast making the player harder to evade the enemy encounter attack. Having the lamp touch on and making running noises can also attract the monsters too in which you will need to be very careful while attempting to escape.
What makes the game even more creepier is that if you ran out the lamp oils for lantern or tinderbox items for candles which makes the whole rooms becoming pitch black effecting your sanity level leading into the fear that makes your character lose confidence, the more monsters takes their full advantages of you feel becoming vulnerable in the game.
While I considered the follow-up title like A Machine for Pigs as the weakest entry of the series, Amnesia: The Dark Descent is one of the better game that are much worth to play as today, as I am hoping to look forward soon with the sequel called Amnesia: Rebirth just to see if anything plays just good as the original game has to offer.
Like I've mentioned Amnesia: The Dark Descent before, Frictional Games has bought the another horror title into the next level which is SOMA, a 2015's survival horror game was originally released for PS4 and PC, and was also released later for XBONE in 2017.
Before this game takes place in an underwater research facility known as PATHOS-II, it's starts off in year 2015 with the person named Simon Jarrett who was suffered with his severe brain injury due to car accident, as he agrees to take brain scan appointment to experimenting his brain until the scan went horribly wrong which causing Simon to black out and regains consciousness in Site Upsilon of PATHOS-II. After Simon learns that he has awoken in the year 2104, his goal is to escape from the underwater facility which is full of mysterious creatures known as WAU.
So very similar to the Frictional Games's previous titles, you will encounter a numerous of creatures in the researching facility, as your aim is to survive and escape by solving problems with several clues around the rooms, as well as evading WAU's nearby without getting caught in action.
What made the game quite horrific is not only WAUs creatures are look terrifying, but it definitely has the scariest encounters such as one of them teleports randomly towards player which increases the chance of jumpscares, and the other one starts chases the player around the room, as it makes the screen static starts scattering and fuzzing, as well as screeching sound effects during the chase sequence makes you feel distressing and frightened to play the game which is why I liked about the game for its scare factor design.
I considered SOMA as one of the Frictional Games better horror title that you definitely should play it on PCs and Consoles platform to satisfy your horror experience.
1 - Outlast - Chris Walker
Ladies and Gentlemen, you're about to see one of the most terrifying chases in horror games that you'll ever see.
Something that you never seen anything but frightening stuff going on in this game where it was well known for its unexpecting jumpscares that really shits your pants out of nowhere and bunch of mentally sick-freaks start chasing you around in the psychiatric hospital may haunt you for rest of the day, so that is Outlast, an 2013's survival horror game created by Red Barrels was released for PC in 2013, and was later released for PS4 and XBONE in 2014 as well as Switch in 2018.
The game set in Mount Massive Asylum, as you are Miles Upshur went on investigation to uncover the deadliest discoveries including deadly patient, religious occult rituals, and dead corpses which spreads everywhere in any room, as your main goal is to investigate the evidence and survive throughout the private psychiatric hospital.
What makes the game even scarier is not just only jumpscares and bunch of guys chasing you around through the corridor, but I got to mention the best part of the game is no other than Chris Walker himself, a big beefy dude is an example of being not just the most terrifying villains that makes the players shit themselves, but an example of giving you an instant ass-kicking by him.
He can make every crazy moves by grabbing, dragging, and slamming you on the ground like a pig makes the chase sequences very intensing which is why I will never forget the part that haunts me to its day.
Outlast is quite terrifying to play, but also being one of the best indie horror title that you should definitely go play it, and I'm hoping to look forward soon with the sequel called Outlast 2 for another terrifying campaign.
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This is Zeeshan Mirza's Blog and I'll see you next time, happy blogging and have a nice spooky halloween everyone, MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!
