So I've been playing through the Silent Hill games, slowly making my way up to downpour (near the end of 3 right now I believe) and I find it very hard sometimes to play in long bursts. This is due to the crazy tension and stress it builds with its terrifying sound effects/ soundtrack and ungodly long, poorly lit hallways. I've had the same feeling when I played through Dead Space on my first playthrough and REmake. Sometimes I feel like I need to just go roll around with a bunch of puppies just to get back my sanity and return to the game. In my opinion, for these games thats pretty much a positive because that is the exact vibe they are trying to hit. Has anyone else ever had this amount of distress in a game that you just need to back away for a few minutes or even longer?  

Hell no. You just power through that shit.

System Shock 2. Repeatedly.

Yeah. Took me almost a year to beat Silent Hill 3.

FatalFrame 2. I was scared to death playing that game and couldn't finish it.

Of course, it is the defining feeling for these games. It's funny you should make this thread, because I just found myself wanting to continue Downpour just to switch it off after a few minutes, realizing I just can't go there right now. I haven't had a moment quite like this since SH3, so this is a big compliment to Vatra and Climax.

Don't pay attention to reviews, though. Downpour in particular has been destroyed in the press for its various (and undeniable) technical issues.

For me - and it appears, for most people - these issues are more than forgivable in the face of clever interactive narrative and atmosphere, but you'll see. Homecoming is certainly the weakest entry in the series, but still quite atmospheric and a nice action adventure and survival horror game in it's own right.

Glad you're catching up on the series. Good luck out there!

@BulletproofMonk said:

Yeah. Took me almost a year to beat Silent Hill 3.

Definitely the scariest of the lot imo. Even when I go back now, completely aware of what's to come, certain parts still get to me and leave me hesitant to carry on. One scare that's always stuck with me is the mannequin that'll scream and lose its head when go around the other aisle in the room. Also the Haunted House during the Amusement Park... incredible.

@Meowayne: I absolutely agree. I even created a thread just to praise Downpour for this one particular scare...

I also don't think Homecoming is that bad either. It's not very scary, but the atmosphere is solid, the combat I thought was fun and it has some of the best voice-acting across the series. Plus the concept of being able to sneak past the playboy Nurses when your flashlight's turned off was great, if completely iterative of the movie. Then again, the entire game was basically Silent Hill The Movie - The Game.

But wait, you're not skipping The Room, are you? The game plays terribly, but is worth it for the story and lore.

I'm quitting every half hour in the new HD Collection because ... I don't remember them being that dark. It's not tension, it's eye strain.

Amnesia I quit a couple times because I felt I had dug myself a rut of using too much oil. I actually really prefer regenerating health and games where you can always find more resources if you look, because otherwise I hoard like you would never believe. I finished Downpour with 47 health packs because I can't help but be a crazy person. I was trained by the original Resident Evil that if you don't ruin the game by hoarding, you'll never be able to finish it. I wrote a blog about a while back. How limited resources ruins the story of a game by forcing meta gaming and min-maxing.

I don't know exactly why, but the Silent Hill games get me all tensed up in a way that no other series can manage. Silent Hill 2 in particular really has a way of getting to me, I find the apartment section difficult to manage. Dead Space 1 had a moment where you walk down a corridor and there is a crew member at the other end smashing his head into a wall repeatedly and that was the single part of that game that got to me the most, so I know what you mean about long dark corridors. I am playing Downpour at the moment and so far I love it, best Silent Hill game in years. Homecoming is not as terrible as some say, its just an average game and a very disappointing Silent Hill game. Amnesia the Dark Descent also had a truly powerful atmosphere that really unnerved me at points.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl. Playing that at midnight was a bad idea.

@Meowayne: Are you implying the other games play well? :D

Anyways, I try to think I'm unable to be scared by games, but then I play Fatal Frame 2 and run away screaming. Or in reality, say "this shit is fucked" and keep playing. The game is still really fucking intense.

The first time I played DOOM I stopped about halfway through the third level to just run around the room and freak out. To be fair, it was night, the day before Halloween, I was seven, and I wasn't precisely allowed to play the game exactly.

@Brodehouse: Yeah, I remember ending up with a fair few first-aid kids too. Least before you're emptied when you return to prison. It's more down to the game being a little too forgiving. The combat was clunky and unreliable, but running away from enemies was also far too effective. They always gave up chase pretty quickly like they have the attention span of a goldfish. But I suppose it's better than having to be forced to make use of the combat, like that part with all the machines turning themselves on while you're trying to figure out this keypad code in the prison. Fucking ugh.

@SirOptimusPrime said:

@Meowayne: Are you implying the other games play well? :D

Compared to The Room, a piano with upturned knives for keys plays well. I have always been fine with controls and combat in these games, but The Room killed me.

@BulletproofMonk said:

Yeah. Took me almost a year to beat Silent Hill 3.

Definitely the scariest of the lot imo. Even when I go back now, completely aware of what's to come, certain parts still get to me and leave me hesitant to carry on. One scare that's always stuck with me is the mannequin that'll scream and lose its head when go around the other aisle in the room. Also the Haunted House during the Amusement Park... incredible.

@Meowayne: I absolutely agree. I even created a thread just to praise Downpour for this one particular scare...

I also don't think Homecoming is that bad either. It's not very scary, but the atmosphere is solid, the combat I thought was fun and it has some of the best voice-acting across the series. Plus the concept of being able to sneak past the playboy Nurses when your flashlight's turned off was great, if completely iterative of the movie. Then again, the entire game was basically Silent Hill The Movie - The Game.

I'm quitting every half hour in the new HD Collection because ... I don't remember them being that dark. It's not tension, it's eye strain. Amnesia I quit a couple times because I felt I had dug myself a rut of using too much oil. I actually really prefer regenerating health and games where you can always find more resources if you look, because otherwise I hoard like you would never believe. I finished Downpour with 47 health packs because I can't help but be a crazy person. I was trained by the original Resident Evil that if you don't ruin the game by hoarding, you'll never be able to finish it. I wrote a blog about a while back. How limited resources ruins the story of a game by forcing meta gaming and min-maxing.

@Meowayne said:

But wait, you're not skipping The Room, are you? The game plays terribly, but is worth it for the story and lore.

Agree. Four has some clunky gameplay (like the whole series), but it's actually my favorite next to 2. Really cool sense of claustrophobia and general SH weirdness. Definitely don't skip it.

No, not exactly. You have to stick with a scary game to either have the game be effective, or it can also diminish it, either way, it makes the games true nature shine. The most I've ever felt this way was Amnesia's demo, but that was the demo. I played the actual game for a while on OnLive and the actual scary elements were a little bit corny, but that's probably only because it was the beginning. I don't know who would agree, but I would argue that video games are capable of doing the best horror; not saying that they have, and not saying that they will, but I think they could.

The thing about games though is that games are scary as you play them, they don't really have any lasting effect. Horror films in the past when I was younger would haunt me all day and night. With books, I know for many that can be a good way to get scared because of using the imagination, but for me, it's really all about hands on and visuals. I can imagine stuff, but when I actually see it, it's scarier. Well, I don't really want to argue if books or games are scarier 'cause I don't read too many books, horror books especially, I'm just not that interested in them.

If anything, I think tension in games encourages me to keep on playing. I think it's good when a game can do that to you. It usually means you're being immersed with the game.

Amnesia. I simply couldn't bring myself to move forward, and I thought I was going to die from the tension, so I gave up!

That game is fucking terrifying.

Also SH1 when I was a kid. Freaked me the fuck out. When I go back to it now, I don't know what the big deal was.

The Dead Space games I'd usually go an hour at a time then take a break. The first one especially. You just didn't know what was around that next corner...and sure after awhile you could predict the jump scares, but the tension was still there.

Not usually, but after imbibing some particularly potent 'erbs and deciding to start a new file on SH2, I got as far as running down the path to the Graveyard and I began to have what I can only describe as an incredibly intense panic attack. I ran over to turn the game off and spent the next half hour pacing my living room trying to calm down. It was fantastic!

That's the only time anything like that's ever happened though, shame! I would love for all horror games to be that scary, for that would truly show their potency.

@BulletproofMonk said:

Yeah. Took me almost a year to beat Silent Hill 3.

Definitely the scariest of the lot imo. Even when I go back now, completely aware of what's to come, certain parts still get to me and leave me hesitant to carry on. One scare that's always stuck with me is the mannequin that'll scream and lose its head when go around the other aisle in the room. Also the Haunted House during the Amusement Park... incredible.

Project Zero II. I'm generally very tolerant of horror in games (for instance, Silent Hill, Amnesia and old-school Resident Evil never manage to be more than mildly unsettling and mostly just bore me) but holy fucking shit is Crimson Butterfly scary. That and its sequel are the only two games that have ever truly scared me without tapping into my entomophobia.

It took me a while to beat Silent Hill 3, and I still have trouble going back to Homecoming to get all the achievements.

The Suffering wasn't necessarily 'scary', as it was just plain 'uncomfortable'. There are loads of creepy moment in it sure, but when I ventured down into a dark basement and the voice of the protagonist's dead son (which HE murdered) starts a muffled wailing through a locked door "Please Daddy I wont do it again, I'll be a good boy, Please Daddy Let me out". I had to set the controller down and take a moment.

@jonnyboy: Oh wow, The Suffering... yeah, it had a certain creepiness about it definitely. The Gas ghost psychopath and the doctor who only shown up via projections made for some unnerving villains too.

EDIT: Oh, and I loved how The Suffering had an actual 20-30 minute documentary discussing the possibility of haunted prisons too. Such a perfect addition; wish more games could include cool bonuses like that.

I do that all the time with games. Some games just wear you out, and you need to take a break every couple hours. At least, that's how I got about it.

For Sure. Mostly the dead space games. I remember stopping during a playthrough of REmake and when i came back thinking, oh god which zombies had become crimsin heads. That made it more stressful.

Yeah, games like Doom 3 and AVP would do that to me. Short 20-30 minutes sessions, no more.

@beeftothetaco: STALKER is great at tension. That and Silent Hill 2 really sticks with me as scary games, because they crawl under your skin.

Dead Space 1 and 2 just throws loud sounds at you.

No, but I've stopped out of sheer boredom from segments that were trying way too hard to build tension and unease. Amnesia, I'm looking at you.
 
edit: Wait, I change that. Platformers where you have to walk tight lines or jump to very specific places over bottomless pits of death can get way too intense for me and I'll have to take a break. Super Meat Boy is not one of these because of how quickly and easily you can restart the levels. The 3D Super Mario platformers are far more intense and frightening than Amnesia or the like.

Cryostasis, multiple times.

Cryostasis, multiple times.

@Sackmanjones: I thought it was great, but I also thought Far Cry 2 was great; I seem to be someone who enjoys games other people hate.

I'd definitely recommend it, but it's not to everyone's taste. It's slow, methodical and weird as fuck.

Resident Evil 2, walking down a hallway and through a wall comes The Tyrant. I walked over to my PS1 and turned it off, I continued the next day but that moment scared the bejesus out of me. I love the Silent Hill games and always have I do agree that they can be extremely creepy. Fantastic, but creepy.

STALKER: SOC, sort of-ish. I didn't stop playing but I did pause several times to take a break from the thick overpowering tense atmosphere. I had literally no idea at all that anything in that game was supposed to be at all frightening. Then I went in my first underground lab at 3 in the morning, and shit... those places are tense. That's the only game I've played that made me kind of freaked out to play.

When I was a kid, I was terrified of the atmosphere presented in Silent Hill 1 and Resident Evil 2. I couldn't make myself (or Harry rather) to take one step in that elementary school section. As for RE2, I think it was the empty and silent police department that got to me. I remember staying in the save rooms for a long ass time. Mmmmm... That sweet save room music.

Now, not so much. I was hoping that Amnesia would bring back that petrifying tension I got as a kid. It was scary, but I never felt that I needed to shut off the game. Then again, I've haven't played the Fatal Frame games yet...

Edit: I just remembered that underwater areas in games would scare me too. Especially that one section of Tomb Raider 2 where you are exploring this sunken cruise ship. EFF THAT GIANT EEL!

Amnesia is the only game that has ever made me actually stop playing because I was getting stressed out.

Every horror game I've ever played. I've only been able to trudge about 30 minutes deep into the first Dead Space.

I've tried playing SH3, but it unnerved me to an unforgivable degree within the initial fifteen minutes, and I doubt that I'll have the willpower or constitution to withstand that game in any future playthroughs. Usually I would have a fellow traveller with me (a friend), and that would help establish a sense of amicable propinquity, which in turn would--though not negate by any means--mollify the impact and dread of the games, somewhat. But, with the great distance between us now, I don't think that we'll be having many more SH game nights.

So, if I opted to watch a Let's Play, I wouldn't be doing the game a great disservice, would I? Also, any recommendations for SH3 let's plays?

Kinda. Some games are crappy or broken and playing them is stressful. I drop those games.

The scariest that I've ever found any game to be was when I was 4 or 5 and got to the tower-like stage in Mario 2 where that smiling ghost face chases you whenever you pick up the key. That creeped me out but even then I just paused for like 30 seconds before grabbing it then continued on slowly. I'm pretty old now. I can't really see myself bitching up at any game and not playing it because it had great atmosphere and was intense. Isn't that the whole point of playing/buying games like Silent Hill?

It happened to me in Dead Space. I couldn't phisically play for more than one hour each time, as I would become overly stressed and anxious.

I always play my scary games at night with the lights off and surround sound up and it makes for a pretty intense experience. With some of the games in the Fatal Frame, Silent Hill, and Dead Space series I would have to periodically stop about every hour and take a break. It's a pretty interesting thing needing to take a break from tension since you wouldn't think it would be so tiring.

I can't play Mass Effect 3 multiplayer too long or else I stress out for some reason. Such is the life of an Engineer spamming everything.

I handle horror poorly...not the jump scares, not gore, but legitimately disturbing imagery and the mounting sense of dread.

Dead Space utterly broke me after about two hours, and that was playing it with my fiancée. She seemed to handle it better, although she hasn't been in a hurry to play again either haha

I'm playing the silent hill HD collection just now and it's not troubling me too much. On the other hand I played Resident Evil 3 when it came out (I was maybe 10?) and nemesis scared the absolute bollocks out of my silky smooth pre-pubescent sack. I had to turn it off a few times while fighting him. He was so threatening, you felt like he could appear at any time and pursue you.

Suffice to say I never got very far in that game at all, but I did see significant chunks through the older brother effect. STARS!

Horror games. Their objective is to make you stop playing it. What the fuck.

I tried playing Anmesia last year and had to stop after a few hours of playing. I never went back. I remember Condemned freaking me out really bad too, but I finished that game.