Halloween. Its a night that our pals across the pond in the U.S love. We here in Blighty have tried our best to embrace it, but usually it consists of scally kids who make the minimum of effort costume wise and expect cash when knocking on a stranger’s door.
For all my slight negativity of the night, I do like Halloween. If you let your imagination conjure up the notion of it being different to any other night, it is a spooky evening. Its also a good reason to dig out some old games that spook the crap out of you. Here’s a brief rundown of some to try…
Project Zero (PS2/XBOX) – Criminally overlooked in Europe, the game known as Fatal Frame in Japan, is survival horror with ghosts. The idea here is to scare away the ghostly attackers by taking a photograph of them. But for the best results, the nearer the ghost is the better. A test of nerves and genuinely creepy.
Resident Evil (Gamecube) – An obvious choice, but choice of format is important here. The remake of the original Resi even now looks amazing, and takes an already classic game and makes it that bit more unsettling.
Eternal Darkness (Gamecube) – Another Cube game, Eternal Darkness is one weird game. On the face of it, its a third person action game, but playing it and experiencing those insanity moments has to be done, especially on Halloween night.
Doom 3 (XBOX/PC) – Sci-fi horror leaves me a little cold, but it was a close call between this and Dead Space to fill that genre in this list. Doom 3′s insistence on having to lower your weapon to use your flashlight to see what horror lies ahead, pips Isaac Clarke’s nightmare for me.
Dr Franken (Gameboy) – At the time it was released, this was one of the most detailed games graphically, anyone had squeezed out of the GB’s monochrome screen. Legging it around Frankens castle looking for your girlfriends body parts is creepy, but adding in a Gameboy version of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata to score the game, is genius and creates a unique atmosphere rarely seen on the GB.
Silent Hill 2 (PS2) – Silent Hill 2 is what Christopher Lee would be in game form. Mostly quiet, unassuming and almost charming, until that bloody alarm goes off and everything changes. Taking most things that make normal human beings cringe or cower, Silent Hill 2 improved on the PSOne original and doubled everything. Hell, it even made for a half decent movie.
What games give you the chills on Halloween?
(Bonus points for those who know where the above title quote is from too…)
