Horror games as good as Amnesia?

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Naah, I don't have onboard graphics. The game just hates me

I know about the Yithian gun, but well I just thought the game could have done without you battling the polyps. Those things looked pretty disturbing indeed, so why kill the horror they create by making them easy to defeat with a huge lightning gun?
I'm not generally against the use of firearms in that game but I think they should have been reserved to being effective against human enemies only. It would have made all the non-human enemies much scarier because it would have really stressed the point of how otherworldly and powerful they are.

And like I added, there are parts I found disturbing, namely those insanity flashbacks in the asylum hallways. A bit more of that and a bit less shooting and it would have been perfect

Actually while playing I thought quite often that this game probably served as inspiration for Amnesia because they used some aspects of it (insanity increasing by looking at enemies for example and a focus on puzzles) and improved parts that didn't work so well. (chase scenes in Amnesia are hard to fail at but still tense, weapons are entirely removed)

[Bridge]

Naah, I don't have onboard graphics. The game just hates me

I know about the Yithian gun, but well I just thought the game could have done without you battling the polyps. Those things looked pretty disturbing indeed, so why kill the horror they create by making them easy to defeat with a huge lightning gun?
I'm not generally against the use of firearms in that game but I think they should have been reserved to being effective against human enemies only. It would have made all the non-human enemies much scarier because it would have really stressed the point of how otherworldly and powerful they are.

And like I added, there are parts I found disturbing, namely those insanity flashbacks in the asylum hallways. A bit more of that and a bit less shooting and it would have been perfect

Actually while playing I thought quite often that this game probably served as inspiration for Amnesia because they used some aspects of it (insanity increasing by looking at enemies for example and a focus on puzzles) and improved parts that didn't work so well. (chase scenes in Amnesia are hard to fail at but still tense, weapons are entirely removed)

Yeah, a chase scene involving the polyps like in Shadow Out of Time would have been great, but I still think that part is among the most frightening in the game. They are not that easy to kill and they can kill you quite easily. I think that the idea that just because you can remove the threats that the situation automatically becomes less scary is wrong. Yes, the immediate horror is alleviated but if done right, it can actually add to the tension. Manhunt is a good example. You can kill everything in that game and it is still very scary, because if you are discovered you will most likely die, and the ways in which you kill the enemies are extremely disturbing which really makes you nervous.

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Well all i know is it becomes less scary for me. But that kind of stuff is always very subjective, I mean there are even people out there who thought Amnesia wasn't the least bit scary but who were scared as hell by Doom 3. o.O

Good that you mention Manhunt though, it definitely needs to be added to the list of disturbing games. Although I think one could almost call it a reverse horror game because the things your character does to survive are (sometimes) even worse than what your enemies will do to you if they catch you. I remember Yahtzee once said in a review it felt like being in a jason film with the roles reversed - where the only normal dude hunts down lots of deranged killers

Buuuuuut - even Manhunt suffered from turning into a shooter halfway through. And that's the point where I stopped playing and played Manhunt 2 instead.

[Bridge]

Well all i know is it becomes less scary for me. But that kind of stuff is always very subjective, I mean there are even people out there who thought Amnesia wasn't the least bit scary but who were scared as hell by Doom 3. o.O

Good that you mention Manhunt though, it definitely needs to be added to the list of disturbing games. Although I think one could almost call it a reverse horror game because the things your character does to survive are (sometimes) even worse than what your enemies will do to you if they catch you. I remember Yahtzee once said in a review it felt like being in a jason film with the roles reversed - where the only normal dude hunts down lots of deranged killers

Buuuuuut - even Manhunt suffered from turning into a shooter halfway through. And that's the point where I stopped playing and played Manhunt 2 instead.

I'm fairly certain it can be ghosted and I only really remember the prison being shooter-heavy. The mansion grounds level with all the heavily armed soldiers required some very tight timing and sneaking around to do properly. So I disagree with both you and Yahtzee that it "turns into a shooter", because it was really only a short segment and who doesn't like variety? I agree, the stealth is far superior to the shooting and it wasn't really necessary but hey, I found the shooting to be disturbing as well.

Strokes/folks though. My definition of scary is much more liberal than just nightmare-inducing horror, as I find most stealth games to be scary as well (but in a different way). The world would be a pretty boring place if we were all alike huh?

EDIT: I've heard Manhunt 2 is pretty bad; what is your opinion of it? Worth playing for someone who enjoyed 1?

[Googolplex]

Nobody mentioned SHADE: Wrath Of Angels?
It's a survival horror adventure game with many locations, modern, epic and egypt style.
Good thoughtful puzzles, it's a mix of Silent Hill and Indiana Jones.

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Hm...well if it's really just that section I might try it again one day. Thanks for telling me
I did enjoy Manhunt 2 - but it's been a while since I last played it, so maybe I only remember the good parts now. Still worth trying out I'd say. Make sure you get a version with uncensored kill scenes.

I think I see what you mean with stealth games being scary btw - they have this special tension to them that's unique to the genre. And I like how a good stealth game can alternate between making you feel like the hunter and the hunted

I've never heard of SHADE but it looks interesting. It reminds me of Eternal Darkness a bit, not sure why.

[HateSolstice]

Nobody mentioned SHADE: Wrath Of Angels?
It's a survival horror adventure game with many locations, modern, epic and egypt style.
Good thoughtful puzzles, it's a mix of Silent Hill and Indiana Jones.

Never heard of it. What platform is it for? Looks like a Playstation game.

[Googolplex]

Never heard of it. What platform is it for? Looks like a Playstation game.

It's for PC of course!

You can simply look at some 2nd hand shops, this game is multilingual and I paid just 0.69 euros.
http://www.rebuy.de/i,1027/pc-spiele/sha...-der-engel

That's the german cover, but it's multilingual (with voice).
The devs are from czech.

The game is really involving and atmospheric. An excellent horror survival.

[failedALIAS]

Cry of Fear's good, but I wouldn't put it on the same level as Amnesia.

Try SCP-087 though, that's probably on the same level of scary as Amnesia was for me. The other two in that series kind of suck though.

SCP is not even close to Amnesia levels.
You walk down stairs and wait until you hit a monster.
You pretty much walk into scares with knowing it.
No story line, Just stairs and ...
More stairs

...That's not the point of it. Sadly it's been robbed of a lot of fame due to the huge success of the other two SCP games. It works well if you let yourself get immersed in it, and if you do... It works fucking well. Aside from that it actually does use many of the same scare tactics Amnesia does (incredibly limited lighting, ambient noises, more natural scares (as in you're not forced to look at it, but rather just happen to see the scare making it that much more effective)). Going into it with the mentality "wtf how is just walking down stairs for a while scary" is what ruins it for a lot of people. I was literally SHITTING myself the whole way through, just because it makes you so incredibly nervous (that is, if you let yourself get immersed like I said). You don't know what's going to happen when you get to the bottom, you don't know if there even is a bottom, and the whole way through you hear faint screams and other creepy ass noises emanating from below you. The whole point of it is that it eats away at you psychologically, it uses the anticipation of the end to make the rest of it incredibly nerve racking. That whole mindset of monster encounters=scary is what's killing the horror genre in games to be honest.

This is actually why I think the other two fall short, because they don't follow this mindset what so ever. In B there's little to no tension, the first possible monster attack happens about 2-4 minutes in and it's accompanied by ear-shattering loud music and some figure walking up and smacking you. In CB I could barely make it past the first room because I spawned a map with 173 at the start and he's fucking impossible to get by.

All I'm saying is that if after you played it all you could think was "how is walking down stairs scary?" you're missing the point in it.

Fuck everything! I'm playing that game, dammit! After that I'll make one of my mates play it; scare the shit outta him. I might just tell him that it's a stair simulator, made by a designer as practice for a bigger project. (he hates horror) I'll tell him it's really interesting and cool. Since he's an asshole he'll then take it up with his usual stale-faced manner, showing me his apparent boredom. Then BAM!