Scariest Amiga gaming moment

[Sharingan]

Ever got the crap scared out of you by an Amiga game? So much that you were afraid of picking it up again? If you can't remember scary moments from Amiga games, feel free to include games from other platforms.

I had two almost piss-pant moments.

In Uninvited, when the first person you encountered in the mansion turned around revealing its hideous face ... and then proceeded to rip the innards out of you. That moment had such an impact on me that I never dared playing the game again, even though the atmosphere was pretty darn epic.

Then, there's Space Hulk. I'm not sure why, but every time those Genestealers came out of nowhere (and everywhere) to tear my team apart, I wanted to turn the game off.



Silent Hill on the PSX was pretty sick too. The naked, knife-wielding babies made me nauseous. Funny, I had no trouble battering the minions in SH2 to bloody paste, but the babies ... god, those bloody babies.

[Harrison]

There were a couple on the Amiga that did this but I cannot remember which ones they were at the moment.

The first on a system newer than the Amiga was the original Playstation version of Resident Evil. That bit just after you have killed the huge man eating vine in the conservatory and are traveling back to the house, you open the door to the main house and the game suddenly cuts to a distorted and hard to make out view of a creature moving fast outside towards you. That scene really got my heart racing.

I also thought that Silent Hill on the PSX was the first game to create a true sense of unease. The visuals mixed with the surround sound really worked well. The sequels do a pretty good job too.

The Fatal Frame series on the PS2 is another that in some respects takes it even further that Silent HIll, especially some of the glimpses of ghosts as you pass by rooms. But even more so is the Siren series, again on the PS2. That is really bad when you get trapped in a room or area with ghosts attacking you. You don't have time to think and react correctly and have to just quickly try to find somewhere to hide. That is another that gets your heart racing. especially if played late at night.

[Ghost]

I haven't played many scary games, the Resident Evil games had their shock moments but often it was more how sick the designers made the stuff than really scary.

One game that sometimes really scared the bejeesus out of me was System Shock 2, a game would a couple of nasty surprises here and there.

Another game that scared me when I was younger was Ecco the Dolphin to be precise.
How can that game scare you, you might ask?
Well I always had a fear for drowning so the idea of playing a creature that depends on air can become very involving when you know the feeling of the urge for air.
Plus the Vortex aliens were also incredible creepy, they were designed in the style of Giger's Alien

Not really scary bit very unsettling were the Dark Seed games.

[Demon Cleaner]

The Fatal Frame games are indeed very scary, the kind of japan horror which I like a lot. When you walk through the corridore with your camera, and don't see anything, then look through your camera and a ghost suddenly appears, makes you jump sometimes.

Also a game which I found to be very scary, and also in the "make me jump" style was the Alien FPS on the PC, don't know how it's called again? Was that Alien vs Predator, or something with Hunter. Very dark atmosphere.

[Sharingan]

I really ought to try the Fatal Frame games some day. Heard only good things about them, but if half of what I hear is to be believed, I'll chicken out before an hour of gametime has passed.

I have some very fond scary memories of Silent Hill 2: Director's Cut too. The faceless nurses in the Dark version of the hospital were of course cringe-inducing, but the scenes at the disused prison complex made for some truely unsettling moments. Particularly the part where James had to take a leap of faith through a hole in the floor - even though huge amounts of blood could be seen leading to the hole. I believe that the hole was used to dump dead prisoners through in times long past.

That was a delightfully sick scene.

[Demon Cleaner]

Obscure is also very scary, and a sequel will be released soon.

[Sharingan]

Anyone played Clock Tower 3?

That game was made scary because, basically, there is no 'safe point' where you could park your character to catch a breath. Once the serial killer got on your tail, you can't shake him off unless you found one of the designated hiding spots. Also, because the central character doesn't have any armament, all you can really do is run. Because the main char is so vulnerable, and because the villain is so relentless, there's a real sense of urgency to the game that I didn't often feel in, for example, the Resident Evil games.

[Demon Cleaner]

I have that game, it's indeed very scary. You have to hide in lockers or under the table, and you are also very slow when running, so you need some time to shake off your follower. Also very sinister atmosphere.

[Harrison]

I've played Clock Tower 3 through partly but have yet to complete it. It was definitely interesting and, as you say, because the central character is defenceless (until you enter a battle with one of the subordinates) you have to just try to run from situations and the character's state of panic really works well to make you panic as well.

I also liked the switch of game design when compared to the previous two psx clock tower games that were point and click driven and more 3D graphic adventure in design. Those were never as scary or fast paced as the third. Also their graphics look quite dire by today's standards and have not aged at all well.

Another game that never got every good press, but that I quite liked, was Ring on the Dreamcast. This was based on the Japanese Ring films and I thought it was very well created in capturing the ideas of the films.

BTW, going back to Clock Tower 3, did you know that the second boss, named Corroder, was actually based on a real British murderer called John Haigh, who was also known as the Acid Bath Murderer?

[Demon Cleaner]

Acid Bath murderer? Sounds disgusting.

[Harrison]

At least it didn't take much to get rid of the evidence. Just pull out the plug! :huh:

I wonder if he got caught when the neighbours discovered the drains were blocked and called out the plumber. :o

[Submeg]

Hmm...not cool. so, he just went to the local hardware store...can I have 60 L of acid thanks...:unsure:

[Sharingan]

An acid bath would surely solve all skin problems :)


When it comes to horror games, I find there's basically two kinds of scary: cheap, surprise scares (zombies bursting through the window unexpectedly), or creeping, psychological terror (used broadely in the Silent Hill series). Personally, I find the latter to be much more terrifying and effective. Silent Hill 2 didn't have many cheap scare moments. What it did so well, was creating a thorough sense of dread through suggestive imagery, disturbing, filthy scenery and a constricting atmosphere. By merely hinting at the gruesome events that might have happened in the past to other, less fortunate victims, it sets the player to imagining terrible things.

I had so many 'WTF' moments in SH2 - just when I thought it couldn't get any more obscene, it managed to throw something even more grotesque in my face.

[Harrison]

Totally with you there. Psychological horror is much greater than simple shock based horror. Much more depth and intelligence involved and the sense of unease and disturbing feelings it generates really draws you into the film.

[Sharingan]

Hence why I'm looking forward to the next Silent Hill. The extra graphical horsepower of the next-gen consoles should elevate the game to GRAND NEW LEVELS OF SICK. Oh yes.

[Submeg]

Lol, you guys find strange things fun :unsure:

[Harrison]

Have you played Silent Hill Submeg? If not you should, it's great.

[Submeg]

Yea, I played Silent Hill 4....I think it sucked. I spent most of the time running around looking for something to do...couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do :p

[Teho]

Bad luck then, Silent Hill 4 is easily the worst in the series. It wasn't even supposed to be a Silent Hill game, Konami forced the developer to put that name on it so it would sell better. The first three games are different, and much better.

[Submeg]

Really? So how do the others outrank them? Better storyline, gameplay?

[Harrison]

The best way to experience them is to play them in sequence from the original PSX game, and then on to the PS2 games, but if you only want to play games with PS2 quality graphics then give Silent Hill 2 a try.

I personally still like the original Playstation game the most as it contained a great balance of combat, horror and puzzle solving. It was all quite logical and not easy to get lost of stuck. It also had some interesting alternative endings. I think one issue with the later games was that it was sometimes easy to find yourself at a point in the game not knowing what to do or which direction to travel and having to just experiment and try everything until you discovered something that moved the story on. This never happened (for me) in the original first game.

Trust us, you tried the worst of the series with the 4th game and it doesn't convey the quality of the others. I personally thought The Room was a good game, but it didn't stick to the same structure or ideas of the previous games.

One of the greatest features of the Silent Hill games is the shift of reality. You are never prepared or pre-warned that it is about to happen. One moment you could be walking down a perfectly normal deserted city street with a eerie sense that something is not right, feeling uncomfortable with your radio gently hissing in the background and strange sounds in the distance, then suddenly without warning the radio static would increase and the street would shift into the hell dimension where everything is the same but different, replaced with rusting structures and dismembered bodies hanging on metal fences, the sounds of things shifting around and crawling towards you, disfigured forms that once resembled people, hospital equipment discarded and covered in blood and other dried bodily fluids. Very gross! And the sound of industrial machines and boilers working away.

If you want to experience some of the best horror depicted in a game to date you definitely have to give SH2 a try, or even SH1 if you don't mind the Playstation one graphics.

Another aspect of the earlier games that were actually set in Silent Hill itself is the fog. This adds a great sense of apprehension because you cannot see far ahead of your current location when walking in the city. Not knowing what is just out of sight really added to the tension. And when you were injured and the controller was recreating your increased heart rate that also really added to the anxiety of the environments. It's also a requirement to play this game late at night with all of the lights out and a good surround sound system connected and turned up. :nogood:

The music in this series is also really good.

[Sharingan]

The music in this series is also really good.

Akira Yamaoka FTW :)

That's a good description of SH2. It's one of the rare games that manages to be frightening, even if nothing much is actually happening.

Try playing the game in the dark, with your surround sound system turned up to max. Guaranteed to give you the shivers. The sound effects in the SH-series are really amazing.

I never got into Silent Hill 4, to be honest. Had so many unfinished games floating about, I didn't get around to continue playing it beyond the first part. The unkillable ghouls were pretty annoying, that's the part I do remember.

[Teho]

Yep, that's pretty much what happened with me too. I thought the game itself was decent enough but those ghost-things were just so annoying, and not the least bit scary. So after one evening of play, I never picked it back up. This happens with a lot of games, sadly. It's just so many that after the first couple of goes I don't find good enough to keep playing to the end these days.

One Amiga game that hasn't been mentioned here yet is Elvira Mistress of the Dark. It wasn't just the gore, I remember I found the general atmosphere in that one pretty chilling as well back in the day. Always afraid that one of those guards is going to come around the corner and hack your head off, or when getting to a new section of the castle you were always worrying about what kind of gruesome death you were going to meet next. Because you always did, and had to figure out afterwards how to avoid it. It was the first horror game I ever played that really did give you a sense of dread. Did for me, anyway.

[Harrison]

That is always sad when games are really good but contain one section that just frustrates the player into eventually giving up because it is too tedious and hard to pass. I know I've given up on quite a few games over the years due to this.

[toomanymikes]

For me it has to be It came from the Desert - theres a knock at the front door, nothing unusual as your neighbours regularly come round to visit, but when you open the door theres a freaking huge ant face accompanied with really loud horror movie music. I was about 12 when i first saw it and it made me turn the amiga off at the PSU. What a wuss!

[Tiago]

In PC "Fantasmagoria - a puzzle of flesh" was very very scary.

[Tomski]

I used to be sh1t scared of the mud monsters in MOONSTONE.

Every time they appeared out of the ground There would be a horror movie style, piercing sound effect! Anyone remember??

I could never complete that game though, it always used to crash:mad:

[Puni/Void]

Tomski wrote:


I used to be sh1t scared of the mud monsters in MOONSTONE.

Every time they appeared out of the ground There would be a horror movie style, piercing sound effect! Anyone remember??

I could never complete that game though, it always used to crash

This really brings back memories from those long sessions of Moonstone back in the days. :D I remember those scary monsters as it were yesterday. We even had a special name for them: "Orgelfysjer" (Norwegian). This means something like Orgeldudes in English. This was because of the sound they made when they suddenly popped up from the mud. :D We were kids at that time and did of course find it a bit scary. ;)

I've never managed to complete it either, due to it crashing when entering the Valley of the Gods. I seem to recall that the game also crashed if a moonstone appeared in the inventory, but I might be wrong about that one.

[Tomski]

The dragon that used to patrol aswell!!!
Was it even possible to beat it?
......BECAUSE I NEVER DID!

[Sharingan]

I used to be sh1t scared of the mud monsters in MOONSTONE.

Every time they appeared out of the ground There would be a horror movie style, piercing sound effect! Anyone remember??

I could never complete that game though, it always used to crash:mad:


Now that you mention the mud monsters, yeah, those were pretty damn scary too. As were the rat men - vicious little buggers. Of all the enemies in Moonstone, I probably liked killing rat men the most ... nothing like having a bloody screen full of gutted rat men! Ahem.

I couldn't complete the game either, due to random crashes. A real shame.

As for the dragon, I THINK I've managed to beat it ... it's been a while though, so maybe I'm just imagining things.

[Puni/Void]

The dragon was not that hard to beat in my opinion, you just had to figure out a special technique. I remember finding this out, and after that, I had no big problems fighting the dragon. Got a lot of valuable loot that way. :D

[Harrison]

I also never completed it due to crashing. The developers of the game were interviewed in Edge recently and mentioned that the crashing near the end was a known bug that was annoying, and two versions of the game were released. One you could complete, and one you couldn't. I will see if I can find the interview and will scan and add it to the Moonstone game page.

[toomanymikes]

Man I loved Moonstone - the mud monsters were scary but they were easy if you knew how to kill them. I remember the sort of lunging move with the sword saw them off quite quickly, this worked for the dragon too. What a game!

[Vangar]

Ski Free, that bastard Yeti always freaked me out as a kid.

And lately, the PC game FEAR scares the hell out of me on the later levels where the tiles fly around and the enemies can go invisible and hit you in the back.

[Submeg]

Oh yea Ski Free! I remember once I was on a jump and jumped past him...but then later he was further down the mountain and ate me...