My top 5 horror games

With Halloween fast approaching, I thought it would be a good idea to go through my top 5 horror games. It was a difficult list to narrow down, but I got there in the end. Bear in mind that I have listed the platforms on which I played the games on, and since that time there have been various re-releases of a couple of these titles on different platforms. So make yourself comfortable, grab some dinner, and let me take you on a journey into the hellish world of video game horror!

5. Cursed Mountain (Wii)

I actually stumbled upon this game by accident, but boy am I glad I did. It's set in the Himalayas, and you play as mountaineer Eric Simmons. No one has ever managed to reach the summit of Chomolonzo, and (lucky you) that's the mountain you'll be climbing. Eric's brother was sent to Chomolonzo in search of a mythical object thought to bring immortality. Unfortunately, he didn't return.

The game itself has you travelling up the mountain, reaching village checkpoints, temples and other like-minded environments. Chomolonzo is home to a group of monks who practice some kind of religion closely related to Buddhism. What they don't tell you is that all of the monks are not really alive. The entire environment is pretty much barren and snow-covered, it's filled with jump scares, and reaching all the villages along the way just had me filled with dread for what I might find.

Mastering the Third Eye technique just makes things a hell of a lot creepier for you, as it enables you to ward off the dead spirits from the mountain. It also means that they literally pop out from anywhere. Sometimes you're walking through a village and you'll see something out of the corner of your eye. Was it real? Or did you just imagine that creepy looking spirit? Chances are you probably weren't imagining it.

I'd definitely recommend picking this game up if you see it out and about. Just don't play with the lights out!

4. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Wii)

I'd seen the Silent Hill films, but hadn't ventured into the game territory of Silent Hill. Sounds a bit backwards, I know. In the original Silent Hill, Harry Mason has lost his daughter, he goes off to find her. Of course, this does not end well with the horrors that lurk in the town.

The unique thing about this game is the minimal use of weapons. All you have is your torch. The creatures you encounter are scared of the light, but you also have to worry about how much battery is left on your torch. There are specific points in the game in which you are left running for your life. Some of your enemies look sort of like skinless people with no facial features, and they run straight for you. They come in hordes, and all you can do is run until you get to a safe zone. It's incredibly tense, and being chased by these things is genuinely terrifying!

One of the important features of the game is the different story branches it may take. At some points you are seen in a therapist's office and you are asked certain questions. The outcome of the game depends on your answers. It's a really clever way of bringing you straight into the game.

Silent Hill has always been known for it's weirdly disturbing creature design, and this entry is no different. There's lots of immersion, too. You'll be hearing things through the Wiimote, and it gives you a little rumble when things are about to get sticky, which just leaves you feeling more on edge about where the creatures might crawl from!

3. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (Gamecube)

The list would not be complete without this Gamecube classic. Eternal Darkness had you playing as a variety of characters through different time periods. One of the stranger aspects of the game was the way it interacted with you as the player. You were given the task of having to manage your sanity meter, and if it dipped below a certain level then, it was all downhill from there.

These events were generally triggered when you encountered an enemy, but you could cancel out the sanity effect by performing a finishing move or a restorative spell. What were these sanity effects, you ask? Well, there were quite a few, but the standout ones for me would be the whispering voices, the skewed camera angle, and the belief the game was actually messing with your television settings.

That's right! The game would start messing with the volume and making you think it had malfunctioned, even though it hadn't. But it was incredibly effective in making you think otherwise. The whispering voices would get louder and more incomprehensible, and then the camera angle would go all over the place! I remember I was in complete shock the first time it happened; I didn't know what to do.

Combine the creepy locations and different time periods with third-person viewing with an incredibly effective sanity meter, and you get an intensely nerve-wracked player!

2. ZombiU

It's a fairly close call between this game and my first choice. ZombiU was the first game I played for Wii U when it arrived back in November 2012. To say I underestimated the power of terror Ubisoft could inflict upon me would be an understatement. I was not prepared for ZombiU at all.

The entire game had me on the edge of my seat to the point I couldn't play it alone anymore. One scene in particular stands out for me - it's from the screenshot above and involves you having to investigate a nursery. Words cannot describe how petrified I was. The atmosphere is insane, the enemies are so sneaky, and the game does an incredible job of making you feel very alone. That's not to say the other parts of the game are any different, but a nursery is just damn creepy in the dark!

The gamepad was very well utilized, and you could only rummage through your backpack at "safe points", so to speak. The game wouldn't pause when rummaging around in there, so you'd have to keep an eye on the television screen to make sure there weren't any zombies creeping up behind you. Coded doors were the same deal. They relied on you punching in the correct numbers before being eaten alive.

The entire game is set in London as well, based on real places, which just made the game feel even more authentic. If you died, you were respawned back to your safe house and had to play as a new survivor. It's a very clever game mechanic, and means you probably shouldn't get too attached to one character. It was brutal down to the last second, even giving you the option to kill your previous self so that you could stock up on all the supplies you had lost. It's just had a re-release on PS4 and Steam, so if you haven't played yet, what are you waiting for?!

1 - Resident Evil 4 (Gamecube, Wii)

Ta da! The number one horror game for me has to be Resident Evil 4. It has the whole package, and encompasses a lot of what survival horror should be. You play as Leon Kennedy, who has the exciting task of getting back the President's daughter. After playing the game, had I been given the option, I would have responded with a definite 'hell no'! But alas, the game would not be as it stands today without Leon's perilous mission.

This was also the first Resident Evil game in the series that shook things up a bit. These weren't your typical flesh-eating zombies from previous titles; they could communicate. There was also the change in camera angle. It was over-the-shoulder, which put you closer to the action than ever before. Exploring the villages and various other locations throughout the game was a hideously tense affair, tiptoeing your way around every corner and listening out for the calls from the locals, which alerted them to your presence.

The music fit the action perfectly; it was barely there when you were wandering, but as soon as something was happening, it gave you the fear instantly, building up the panic. Your weapon, ammo and item storage was also limited, and required you to ration what little you had so as not to get caught short further down the road.

And I haven't even mentioned the chainsaw guys and the claw-wielding wolverine-esque maniacs! I'm pretty sure the guys with the sacks on their heads, waving their chainsaws around, are what has given me a fear of them today. I can say this, though: the game may have scared me witless, but I still have two copies of it and have played through both the Gamecube and Wii versions. Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment!

Those are my top five, but what are your top 5 horror games? Do you agree with this list? Let me know in the comments!