I'm a horror-wuss in general and so don't really ever play any horror themed games. I have played all of RE4 and bits of RE5 but those were basically action games. I noped out of Dead Space but could've persevered if I tried.

So far I'm finding RE2 remake to be pretty terrifying, even though it's just occasional jump scares and more just a generally creepy vibe. I'm pretty early on in my first ever play of the game - I'm playing Leon's story first. The main thing for me is the sound design is really chilling - from the creaky floorboards to the shattering of windows. It doesn't help that my only viable option to play the game is at night and with headphones. So I've mostly played so far either with headphones off and my tv volume quite low (which makes it less scary, though who decided to actually use the PS4 controller's speaker!!!) or with one ear not in the headphones.

Anyway, I'll get through it, despite being a huge coward with this stuff, the game is pretty enjoyable.

Just wanted to share someone completely new to RE2's experiences. (I was around and of right age to play is back on Playstation back in the day, but again, horror game wuss. Was it less scary on PS1 graphics? Or that would have been scary by the standards of the time

The Resident Evil 2 remake doesn't fuck around. That's for sure. Hopefully you're still enjoying it. No shame in bumping the difficulty down if that helps hit the sweet spot between tension and playability.

The originals were definitely scary for their time. I think they still hold up, atmospherically. But they have a "cheese" level that's easy to poke fun at. Newer games—particularly 7 and the 2 remake—have tried to drop the cheesy bits of levity for a more self-serious approach.

A slight tangent: The dual shock revision of the PS1 Resident Evil 2 release offered what was called an "Arrange Mode," which basically equated to a super-easy mode. It gave the player access to a submachine gun and rocket launcher, both with infinite ammunition, right out of the gate. It served as a nice way to introduce players to the world and its jumpscares while still giving them a lifeline to defend themselves.

So I barely found this game scary. Tense, yes, and a solid challenge, and parts of it had me on edge, but not scary.

Normally this post would just be some asshole bragging on the internet, but I want to add that I played Subnautica for the first time on a whim last month and found every second spent away from the Safe Shallows pretty unsettling and the outer areas of the world downright terrifying. It took me a hundred hours of play to gather up the balls necessary to stasis-knife a Reaper to death. It became one of my favorite games ever and even now I just want to dive back in for a third playthrough. My point is that terror, like humor, can be very different for different people.

I think a lot of the tension I feel playing it comes from how powerless you are made to feel when you try to fight off a group of zombies

I'm basically the same as you, but seem to have become less of a wuss over the last few years. My friends had RE2 on the PS1 in my early teen years, and that was terrifying to watch them play. RE2 Remake is one of my favorite games ever. Too late now, but I always recommend to people to play Claire first.

I'm enjoying the game quite a bit. I'm also just unsettled and terrified in every new area and then even going back into older areas. It's the tension mixed with the fact that I'm expecting the game to mess with me. Once I'm in an encounter, it's tense but not scary at that point.

As I said, I generally avoid scary game. Honestly, the most scared I've ever been playing a game prior to this was playing PUBG solo (which I did a lot of). Getting shot out of the blue was terrifying every time. Hearing footsteps in a house I was in created such an air of tension.