Video Gamers Podcast - [Bonus Round] Top 5 Best Scary Games - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: October 28, 2024

Gaming hosts Josh and Ryan are embracing the spooky season and diving into the best of the best when it comes to scary video games! We’re breaking down our top 5 personal favorites, discussing what made these video games great, and why they freaked us out so much. This is one gaming packed episode you don’t want to miss! Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Ol’ Jake and Disratory Thanks to Legendary Supporter: UnhingedFury Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Discord: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU12YOMnAQwqFZEdfXv9c3Q   Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paramount! Behold! My name is Maximus Intertanius, and I come to you with big stars in big dramas, like Gladiator 2, Dexter, Original Sin, and 1923. spooky episode of the Video Gamers Podcast. On this horrifying episode, we're going to be discussing our favorite horror games, what makes them great, and why they're at the top of our lists. My voice can't hold out much longer like this, so some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh, and joining me, well, there's really no nice way to say this, so honesty is the best policy. He's a big baby who screams like a little girl.

It's Ryan. Ah! What's that? I'm screaming at your spooky voice. what's that i'm screaming at your spooky voice that's what i'm screaming at that might be our dumbest intro ever but you know what ryan this could be a fun episode man we are breaking down our favorite scary games our favorite horror games our favorite spooky games whatever you want to call it we are going going to basically do a top five list, I guess, of our favorite horror games since it is spooky season for everybody. How do you feel about this genre? I am not too... I haven't played a ton of it. I'm not one to go

towards horror or scary stuff mainly because, like you said, I'm a big old scaredy baby. But I have had some bangers, and I have some of my favorite games of all time that are in that scary, spooky kind of genre. So I'm in. I'm happy. I'm kind of the same way. If I'm perusing games, it's rare that I will ever be like,

Oh, let me try this scary game. Yeah. But it was funny because coming up with my list, these games also tend to be very memorable. So like, it wasn't hard to be like, Oh man,

this game scared the tar out of me, you know? And so that's, it was, it was kind of funny how easy it was to come up with a list of like my favorite scary games as well. Well, we are going to get into that list. Lists?

Yeah. We're going to get into our top five each here in just a second. But we do have to thank somebody, Ryan. I think we do. Because we had another supporter sign up to support the show by the name of space lab games they signed up for rare status they've been a member of our discord for a while now very active too yeah which i love to see and then i got curious and i went space lab games hmm sounds interesting let's see so a little google search, and guess what I found out, Ryan?

What is it? Why don't we tell the people? Space Lab Games is an indie dev that made a rather cool looking game called Shadow of the Orient that is available on Steam right now and actually looks pretty darn good, dude. Oh, that is amazing. Yeah. So we have to give them a little bit of a shout out to just say number one thank you for supporting the show number two what a gamer you

know to like to be a gamer to listen to this podcast to be an awesome part of our community and then go the extra mile and be like i'm just gonna make fun games for people to play too yeah mad respect there so thank you space lab games for all that you do for the gaming world. And then we do have a quick review that we're going to read. We've had a lot of reviews roll in lately, Ryan. They're stacking up, brother. I know it's one of our favorite things in the world to see people leave us reviews, to leave comments on Spotify.

So that's a really cool feature with Spotify is you can comment on an episode and then we get that and we read all of those as well. But if you write us a review, which you can do on Apple Podcasts, there's a good chance we'll read it on the show. Like this one that comes in from our good friend and ninja from Great Britain. And it's titled This Pod is So Good. And it says, I'm a 13-year-old gamer, and I struggle to find good games, but these guys help me find new games, and they also make my day a lot better.

Ryan and Josh are great people and are very funny and make honest reviews that you can trust. This is the best gaming pod ever. I would recommend this to everyone, and I love your content. Thank you so much for making my days so much better. Love it. Absolutely. And Ninja, thank much for making my days so much better. Love it. Absolutely. And Ninja,

thank you for making our day better by leaving that awesome review for us. Those truly do. When we read those, I sit with my wife and we'll read the Spotify comments and we're still in awe every time we read these things that people listen to us and love the show and stuff. So thank you, everyone. Thank you for the reviews. We love it. Yeah, we never take it for granted, man. It's crazy. It's humbling to see people talk about our stupid shenanigans like that. So I know we do love it. All right, Ryan, let's do this, man. I'm pretty excited. I do want to preface this by saying that we are in the midst of playing the Outlast Trials right now, which that episode will release on Halloween. Oh, what timing? What timing? I mean, it's kind of crazy. We didn't plan it that way, but it legitimately will release on Halloween.

I don't want to tease anything, but I don't know. Maybe that game would be in this list. I guess people are going to have to listen to that episode to find out i will say outlast trials is bananas bananas and josh may be the best video game arm wrestle champion in the world oh or i'm that or i'm just the worst you know one of the two we're gonna save that for that episode ryan because i we're gonna have a whole like 10 minute section on how bad i beat you in the arm yeah yeah yeah because we're going to have a whole 10-minute section on how bad I beat you in the armor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're saving it. Yeah, yes. All right. So let's get into our top five horror games. Why don't you lead us off, Ryan? I'll be honest. Other than Outlast Trials,

I don't know that I've ever played a horror game with you. I don't even heard you talk about a horror game. So like, I have no idea what to expect out of this. So, so for me, for this one, obviously I think, um,

I, we're both in the same boat where we haven't played a ton of horror genre type games. It's not like what we gravitate towards. I don't sit and wait. Hey, when's the next good horror game? Equally. So with movies,

it's just not my thing. Um, not to say that I don't like it and I don't sit and wait, hey, when's the next good horror game? Equally so with movies. It's just not my thing. Not to say that I don't like it and I don't appreciate it, but it's just not what I search out. Having said that, like we were talking about pre-recording, some of our most memorable gaming experiences was in horror games or scary, spooky games that just have those jump scares or those crazy times. So one of them for me is going to be one that we actually did play together. And it may not be considered horror, but it's definitely scary, definitely spooky. And I got to go with Lethal Company. Lethal Company is an honorable mention for me.

I legitimately considered this game for like, was it going to be in my top five? That game freaks me out, dude. It's so, it's so when your flashlight runs out and you hear the noises and you see like the mimic guys coming around and there's just so much that, um,

can happen in a run. And, and, and i love i love the ability of the proximity chat and and how that works you can't ruin the the kind of ambiance in the setting with using discord or something like that gotta use a proximity chat and then somebody just goes silent and you're like josh josh and then you're by yourself yeah and you're it's. And you're stuck, and you're deep in this facility, and you've got all mountain of stuff, and you're trying to get out with all this loot. It's one of those games that it's not deathly scary.

It's not crazy. But just the silence sometimes speaks more than you can even imagine. The worst feeling in the world is not hearing anybody yeah and then being like ryan paul yeah ryan oh no no ryan ryan are you there and then realizing you were lost in the dark was things stalking you and oh man it's terrifying that game it's it's funny because it's like it was such a huge hit. And then I feel like it just kind of hit that wall where everybody went, okay, that was really fun.

I'm sure the devs don't care because they made a ton of money. But yeah, Lethal Company was a game that very quickly came to mind for me and is on my honorable mentions. And I'm with you. That kind of horror really gets me. You'll see in a lot of my picks that the anticipation, the psychological horror is what gets me. Gore doesn't really do a whole lot to me because it's all special effects. And I don't know, my brain just doesn't really care about

that. Yeah, same thing. I'm more suspense driven than just blood and gore and guts. Like, oh, yeah, anyone can just throw that all over the screen but when you have it built up in my brain like just i don't want to move for this corner you know what's around here you know that's what really really sets me off for sure yeah um all right so i think i'm gonna save my number one i'm gonna i'm gonna do the thing where we build up to because i actually do have a very clear number one. This game, everybody should play it. It will terrify you.

But talking about that psychological horror, another game that really messes me up and very much in the same vein of Lethal Company is a game called Phasmophobia. Okay. Now, you've heard us talk about this game. We actually did a deep dive on this one with Paul. And look, I love Paul to death, man. But Paul's about the worst person in

the world to play a psychological horror game with because he just doesn't get scared by that at all. And so Paul was making it worse because he was freaking me out by angering the ghost. But this game, Phasmophobia, is a ghost hunting game that is very suspense-driven. It's a co-op game. It's a blast to play with friends. But you have to kind of be in that vein of you're in a dark, scary house that you know is haunted. Yeah. You have to find this ghost and figure out what kind of ghost it is. That's really the kicker for Phasmophobia is there's this list of like 30 different ghosts and you're trying to figure out what the ghost is. And that's the objective of the game.

You're not fighting the ghost. You're not hunting it. You just figure it out and then you get out and leave. And then I guess you call in the ghost hunters later or something like that. The issue with Phasmophobia is you're in a dark house. You have all these instruments, like an EMF meter or a thermometer, and you have to go around room to room and find these ghosts. And the ghosts will get mad at you and they will jump out and scare you in jump scares, or they will actually start hunting you and chasing you down. And then you have to go and

run and hide in a closet or something like that. It is worst i can't handle it man you can ask anybody i have played phasmophobia with i don't want to be by myself i hate the dark there's sounds in this game that are creepy even if it's not the ghost i'm just i'm the dude that's like what was that oh right right please are you up here right tell me you're on the second floor with me right now. And then the lights will flash. Your flashlight will kind of flicker and dim when the ghost is hunting you. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And dude, it is terrifying. It sucks every single time.

I cannot get used to this because my brain just goes to that area where it's like, I don't want to be here. Please don't kill me. This is freaking me out, man. And it's funny because I've played, I probably have 30 hours in Phasmophobia, to be honest with you. And even to this day, like I'm starting just now to become a little bit more numb to the, okay, this is a video game. You know, it's not, it's not really real. I don't have to get freaked out. And then it still freaks me out. Yeah, never fails.

Yeah. And the cool thing is the ghosts are all different. So the model for the ghosts is always like almost something new and freaky, which they did a really good job with too. Because it's like you're getting different kinds of ghosts that are coming after you and stuff too. So Phasmophobia, great game. Pretty cheap and affordable. And I think you play it with up to four friends as well so

definitely recommend that one oh wow okay so i'm gonna go with one this one is uh gonna be pretty old school uh that paul and i actually played quite a bit together probably was uh way too young to play this when i did um definitely i still i just don't understand like the the people who made this game is just it it's it's so wild but i'm going with manhunt i have never played manhunt so it is it is gnarly dude you you are you are trying to create these kind of cinematic sequences for this guy that's making, uh, movies or whatever.

And, and I'm trying to remember back most, mostly to it, but you just got to do all these crazy, crazy things throughout. But, but the thing that really sticks in my head of just utter fear and almost, I'm going to pee my pants was you're,

you're battling this pigsy guy that's like a giant man pig running through this attic. I've seen that dude in Dead by Daylight, and I didn't know who that was. I was like, what the heck is this guy, man? Yeah, so you're running through, and he's sprinting around, and it's just this oinking pig man running through, and it's dark in a, in a misty, dark attic.

And it was, it was one of the scariest, craziest things. And like you said, with the way Paul is, he's just, he's just chuckling at me laughing because he's so logical and he doesn't care. And I, I'm, you know, shaking in my boots right there. Just, just trying to get through this section. I was also probably pretty young, but, um, um yeah it was one of those that even back then they did such a good job of making a game that wasn't uh just hey we're just gonna throw a bunch of blood and guts and gore they they made it spooky and scary in the setting so tense there was just so much suspense that that you couldn't help but just have fear you know

shaking inside you dude i've heard of manhunt i have heard it's messed up it's gnarly like legitimately i that's what i have heard but i've never played it and i don't know that i've ever seen footage of it either dude you get that game's like 20 years old oh yeah no yeah it's it's way old and you will get uh bonus points and like better scores for the brutality of your murders and stuff like that and so the whole game is actually going around just murdering people you're going through these like old abandoned like uh or not abandoned but like uh construction sites and other things and and and like i said the the more brutal and and crazy the murders are the more points you get and yeah it's it's a gnarly game man oh man that sounds

that sounds crazy to me i'd like to play it again but i'm not gonna play it again yeah um yeah especially as like a younger like as a kid oh yeah are you against the pig man or is he hunting you oh he's hunting you so you're murdering people but at the same time, a murderer is hunting you at the same time. Yeah, this crazy pig man guy is coming after you. This sounds terrible. And you get somehow stuck up in an attic. And I remember having nightmares of it, you know, like maybe like, you know, a few days ago. Like, who knows, you know?

Oh, my goodness. All right. So this game, people have heard me mention this on the show, but this is the perfect episode to really highlight this game because this game is, number one, a fantastic game just in and of itself. The atmosphere in this game is second to none. The gameplay is really good and enjoyable, and the story slash horror part of this game has a phenomenal payoff as well and that is a game called soma so s-o-m-a imagine if bioshock was made to be an actual horror game like it it takes place under the ocean just like bioshock but whereasioshock went with the like, hey, let's explore this world, this utopia and find out what happened. SOMA is... There's nobody. They're all gone. There's no big daddies. There's no little sisters. There is just freakiness around every corner.

And I don't know what it is about being at the bottom of the ocean, dude, but it makes things way worse in that you know and and it's what's really neat with soma is not all of it is indoors so there are there are decent parts of the game where you are out like walking around the floor of the ocean and trying to go from one facility to the other and it is a psychological horror game there are a lot of like weird flashes of your memory while you're trying to figure things out. There are some really gnarly scenes and things like that.

It does kind of go around the failed humanity and you have to make some really hard decisions. It's hard to get into. I don't want to spoil it for people, but humans have been corrupted and mutated and stuff and so you come across those and you're like oh my gosh like i'm so sorry what happened to you and then the guy's like kill me and then you're like i can't i'm sorry oh no and it's just one of those where you just feel kind of gross the whole time you're playing it. But it is so enthralling.

And the story in that game is so good that I legitimately... I'm going to say if there's two games out of my list that I think people should play, regardless of all the other ones, Soma is one of those. And my number one is the other one. Those two games are the ones where it's like, dude, if you like this genre at all and you have not tried it, you need to play these.

Soma holds up to this day as well. The graphics in it are really good. The, the psychological aspect is crazy. It has one of the coolest twist endings for a video game. If you like that kind of thing as well. And it's not super long. I want to say it's probably 15 maybe 20 hours but dude if you think being at the bottom of the ocean where it's dark and scary and there's all kinds of crazy mishaps going on

with twisted up humans and you're trying to figure out what's going on and things chasing you and things flashing in your vision while you're playing the game and all that, dude. Soma is an absolute must, in my opinion. There's something to be said for just the depth of the ocean where you feel alone. You feel there's nothing around. You have a million feet up to the top, and it's the same as space. You're just in emptiness. You're in isolation so there's nothing around you so you can't you know there's no there's no instant no

help no instant recovery there's nowhere to just kind of dip off into you're there and you're stuck you know and so you better be able to get out of it so yeah that that just seems that seems like it'd be wild isolation is the best phrase for that, legitimately. You do feel isolated. You've got nothing. You've got nobody. You are on your own, and you just better hope things don't go south, man. All right, Ryan, I can't wait to hear your next one, but we're going to take a quick break, and then we will come back with your third.

Yes. All right, we'll be right back. This is an ad from BetterHelp Online Therapy. We always hear about the red flags to avoid in relationships, but it's just as important to focus on the green flags. If you're not quite sure what they look like, therapy can help you identify those qualities so you can embody the green flag energy and find it in others. BetterHelp offers therapy 100% online and sign up only takes a few minutes visit betterhelp.com today to get 10 off your first month that's better help help.com all right ryan what is up next for you so i'm gonna go with one that was recently remade.

One of my favorite spooky games of all time from an amazing series. And it's going to be Resident Evil 4. That is also an honorable mention for me. That game, famously, I'd never played Resident Evil 4. So before the remake? Yeah, before the remake. So when the remake came out, I kind of went like, I don't remember before the remake? Yeah, before the remake. So when the remake came out, I kind of went like,

I don't remember playing this. And so we played the remake. Number one, what a great video game. Just in general, dude. Overall, I was blown away. Honestly, I was really caught off guard by how good the remake for Resident Evil 4 was. But also, dude, that game is messed up yeah the the beginning sequence with like the village of people where you're just running around they're all hunting you down

you were like what the heck is going on and then the church bell ring i was gonna say the bells i was gonna say resident evil's been out for a while so we're not spoiling anything there's been like five more yeah you know and then it's like and then they all just turn and start going in and you're like where's everybody going you're like that game that game is great dude and then it just gets weird yeah like with with all the mutations and the big like all of a sudden the people are like stuff shooting out of their necks and waving around and yeah it's it's one of those that there's um a lot of depth to it with your interactions throughout the environment. There's a lot of different characters and the way they fight you and what you run into. And it was just one of those.

I mean, there's a reason they remade it, remastered it, if you will. So it was definitely one. I played a ton with Paul. I think we played it on GameCube is what it came out on, which is crazy. But yeah, we played a mountain of that when it came out on which is crazy but uh yeah we played a mountain of that when it came out and then played the remaster it was such a good quality game that not only had just great gameplay and story but also did set that kind of tense environment where you just never knew what you were going to run into, never knew what interaction was going to kind of have.

So yeah, that's definitely one of my big ones for sure. It's just a good video game. Yeah, just a solid game. Legitimately, I think Resident Evil 4 might be the perfect mix of I don't really like horror, but I really like video games. Yes. And so somebody that's like, I'm not sure I've never played a horror game before. That is, I think, honestly, like the perfect game for somebody to dive into. You get a taste of it.

It gets freaky. It's not over the top, necessarily. Correct. The gameplay still shines. The story still shines. But yeah, that Resident Evil 4 is so good, dude. So good. And I was way impressed with the remake on that.

We were slandering remakes for a while there because we were just getting so many bad ones. four is so good dude so good and i was way impressed with the remake on that we you know we were slandering remakes for a while there because we were just getting so many bad ones and then resident evil 4 remake comes out and they just knocked it out of the park on that one well i'll tell you what ryan let's keep this uh resident evil love going because i do have a resident evil game on my list i'm gonna come out and say this. Resident Evil 4 is better than my Resident Evil pick, but my Resident Evil pick has quite possibly the scariest sequence in a video game that I have ever encountered in my life, dude.

And that is Resident Evil Village. So Resident Evil Village caught me completely off guard because I hadn't played a Resident Evil game. I played Resident Evil, is it 7? Is that Biohazard? The crazy family people want. Okay. So I played that one. I made about halfway through and then I fizzled out for some reason. Lo and behold, Resident Evil Village comes out. We're doing the podcast. We say, hey, let's play this. We're playing it. It's not not super scary it's definitely got like horror undertones and stuff like that but then you get into the freaking puppet master house place thing you have to go

down to the basement and then what do you hear is you hear a baby crying. Dude, babies crying in the scary game really, really freaks me out. Oh, yeah, always. That kid laughter really messes with me. I don't like that at all. You hear this baby. It's goo-goo-ga-ga-n. And then you are like, what is that?

And then around the corner comes massive blob baby where its head, it looks like Jabba the Hutt. Legitimately, it looks like job of the hut like legitimately it looks like job of the hut but it's like as if a baby had been stretched into job of the hut it is the most horrifying thing i've ever seen this thing starts to chase you around cuckooing and babbling like a baby the whole time and i've never in my life been so scared as I was in that moment. So for that moment alone, I am putting Resident Evil Village in my top five games. Dude, if you haven't experienced that, you need to experience that firsthand. I cannot think of another moment in a game that compares to that one in that regard.

The game itself is fantastic. And there's some other areas where it's like, it's definitely scary and spooky, but dude, that takes the cake for me. Getting chased by a giant monstrous baby that you can't escape. You're in a basement. So it's like, there's only one way out. And the one way out is the elevator that you have to like fix before you can use it. And it's just the whole time you're getting chased. It's baby cooing at you. Oh, I don't like it. Yeah, no. Anytime they put kind of eerie, creepy baby noises or stuff in a game that's spooky, even if it's not spooky, it scares you. There's always something to it.

There's something just kind of weird and off to it where you know it's not a good sequence it's not going to turn out well you're like i need to get out of this area immediately yeah and you can't that was the biggest problem is you can't so you just have to sit there and run from this sluggy baby thing that's chasing you down and yeah i i'm almost getting like shivers right now thinking about it because dude oh my goodness. All right, what you got next? So I'm going to go with one of my favorite games of all time. There's two games in this series.

Second one, not as good as the first, in my opinion. And I think in a lot of people's opinion. But I would say as far as spooky spooky games go scary games go this is probably one of the best to ever do it um as far as an overall just top to bottom game gameplay uh graphics scenery settings story and i'm going with last of us one and two um i think that there's probably not much in the world that scares me more than the sound of the clickers and i know we covered this recently in iconic game sounds that we did on whatever yeah that that um it's just you hear that and you just you tense up with fear and and and you you you have to escape that area you have to get out you have to be careful

but you have to do it slowly so they don't come running after you and um which goes against panic yeah exactly panic and then you can't panic because it's like if you panic and make a bunch of sound they're gonna hear you yep there's something about the clicker sound too that our brains just naturally know is unnatural exactly dude and it's like if i if you and i were at walmart shopping around for something oh my god why did you just say that now i'm gonna think about that i'm just saying we would instantly know like regardless of the game right like i mean somebody that's never played the game if they heard that sound they would be like this is not good yeah i don't know what's going on but but this is not good right now. Oh, yeah.

Dude, if I was to hear that, I'd just be sprinting. I'd pick up my kid and throw him over my shoulder and just sprint out the door and just deal with whatever happens after. Even if I have items in my hand, I'm like, I'll pay for it later. Yeah. Oh, man.

Famously, I played about six hours of Last of Us and then I fizzled out on that game. That's a game I need to go back to at some point. Yeah, I played about six hours of Last of Us, and then I fizzled out on that game. That's a game I need to go back to at some point. Yeah, I don't understand how. I've watched the series. I know all about the game at this point. But it's like, I really need to finish that game because I think it was one... That's like a mistake that I stopped playing that game. Well, two, I could understand.

I would still say, finish it, play through. It's a good game still not as good as the first one i think the first just set the bar so high but but the first one you have to finish it it is such a good game the ending is so amazing it's just one of those kind of all-timer like legendary games that you always just go back to and remember so i would heavily if anyone hasn't played it you you've got to go play this. Yeah, and I feel like I'm missing out. So that's a game I'll definitely have to go back to at some point.

All right, so next up for me, man, there's a couple of remakes on this list here. For me, Dead Space absolutely belongs in the top five for me. Now, I will say that the Dead Space remake is actually the one I'm going to suggest to people because the remake of Dead Space was fantastic. I mean, it was so true to the source game. They pulled it off phenomenally.

This was also right around the time the Callisto Protocol was coming out. Like I remember we had two space horror games and we were so amped up about Callisto Protocol and then the Dead Space remake. Turns out Callisto Protocol came out super buggy. We abandoned it instantly, got really mad at that game. And then a month later, like Dead Space remake comes out and I'm like, don't do this to me again, please don't. And then it's fantastic, dude. The graphics are great. The gameplay is great. Where Dead Space shines to me is the, again, the atmosphere. You are in this derelict rundown space station and it is just creepy all around.

Regardless of the monsters, regardless of the combat, and all the other terrifying things that are going on in that game, just walking, just moving in this space station that is like this thing's on its last leg, and you're trying to find your way around. Lights are flickering. Things are clanging and banging. There's jump scares. There's the freaky, horrifying monsters. There's situations where all of a sudden you're in the dark. You're being stalked by something. It captures that psychological horror like few games do. Plus, it's just a fantastic video game, man. It's fun to play. It's like up there with Resident Evil, where you're playing this game.

You're like, dude, this game is fantastic. And at the same time, it's scaring the pants off me. And it's hard to do because I feel like some games try to be horror and then they don't know how to like make it like a video game. So it's either just kind of cheap scares or it has to kind of almost lean into like funny, like Lethal Company. Lethal Company is terrifying, but it's also hilarious at the same time and so like there's a few games that really nail that mix of gameplay with the horror element and are still fun and will still mess you up all at the same time and i think that's where you you kind of find that perfect picture of like what a horror game should be yeah exactly like it when you have that kind of super tight tense feeling around every corner everywhere you look like that that's when you know okay they did what they were supposed to do like it's not just anyone can just throw blood

and guts and gore into anything so when they when they make it and they make it well, that's when you know that it's the right type of a scary, spooky, tense kind of horror game. I like it when they tell a story, too. That's where Resident Evil does a good job. Exactly. I think Last of Us does a fantastic job. Yep. Dead Space, kind of the same thing. You're figuring out what the heck happened.

Why is the space station abandoned? Something horrible happened on that space station and it's kind of like you spend the game figuring that out and the more you learn the worse it gets you're like i don't want to learn anymore yeah yeah i'm done i'm done i'm already too scared all right ryan what's the last one on your list uh so for me this one is one that, man, this was beyond scary. It was beyond scary how bad it is. And I'm going with Pacific Drive because it just scared me how horrible of a game it was. No, don't say that word, Ryan.

Don't say it. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I just had to throw that. I just had to put a shot in at Pacific Drive. Shots fired at Pacific Drive. Shots fired for sure.

I know some people liked it, but I was very let down by that one. But where I'm going to go in, I know this is what shows a really good series and a good continuation when you know you have devs that know what they're doing and people that know how to make a good quality game and it has to do with a little bit that i played it in vr i mean i played both but i played it in vr too and you had mentioned it a little bit ago resident evil 7 oh man the exploring that little village and or the little house house and walking through it in VR, dude,

is something that, you know how I am, and I think the people who have been listening for a little while know how I am with jump scares and scary stuff. It freaks me the crap out, man. I was walking through,

and there's a part, this is a pretty old game, so I don't think it's a spoiler now. Yeah, you can spoil this at this point. This chick jumps out around a corner and cuts your freaking hand off and you put your arm up and just she just cuts right through it i i don't know if i've ever been as scared as that one instant in my life and um with the vr doing it and they didn't tell me. My friends recorded me while I was playing because they knew that whole setup

and that whole kind of scene. It was leading up to it like an hour, hour and a half. And I'm just silently, I'm immersed. It had been a while. It's not like I just hopped in. And it was something that I had never experienced before. That type of fear and anguish and pain, you know, whatever you want to call it.

You're just reaching down, feeling your hand. I was just like, get it off, get it off, take it off me. Fling the VR set against the wall and run away out the door. Yeah, it was one of those that they just did such a good job

and in VR as well. I think, man, and there's so many games obviously that that you and i haven't played that people are going to freak out about we'll mention a bunch in our honorable mentions but this is the one that i have played this is the one that probably scared me the absolute most and this scene uh just was just so creepy going through that house going through that that environment there's just there was nothing like it family's crazy too absolutely nuts dude yeah it's i it's funny because i can't imagine playing that in vr i played it normally and it was terrifying enough i can't imagine vr

yeah that's who man it was it was funny though there was a little bit of a cheat code uh my buddy said to get the skill saw he set me up with the skill saw in the game and then he just said nod your head up and down and so i was just walking around just going up and down like this and i'm doing it right now but you can just kill everything like you get just stuck in like a little kind of basement area and you just do the skill saw that way and you can kill everything so it took away a little bit of the immersion but it was pretty funny to see me just nodding my head like that dude vr horror games are a completely different yeah that's like it should be like a whole nother section man it was yeah it really should crazy you talk about immersion that's one of the only ones i've done because of how insane it was i'm like i ain't messing around with that anymore

no no i yeah that game's bad enough as it is i can't i ain't messing around with that anymore no no i yeah that game's bad enough as it is i can't i can't imagine trying to do that in vr dude yep all right my cream of the crop finish it off brother bring us home dude no other game has scared me like this game has i talk about it all the time somebody says, what's the scariest game you've ever played? This is the easy answer for me. It fits the bill when I mentioned that psychological horror is what really gets to me. It's a little bit older. I think it holds up to this day. So if you were somebody that is like, I need to try this game, I want to see what the hype is about. And you can deal with slightly dated graphics. It's a game called Amnesia, The Dark Descent. Now, Amnesia, the bunker released, I think, within like the last year

and a half, which looked pretty freaky as well and definitely has updated graphics. But in Amnesia, The Dark Descent, you play a guy that is exploring this castle. It's an old, haunted, rundown castle or something like that. The premise of the game, don't hold me to this because it's been a little while, but what sets it up basically is you go into this castle and then you find out that there's this thing called the shadow that is going to hunt and stalk you until it kills you. And that's the premise. And so you're trying to explore this castle. I don't know why you're there.

I think you get locked in or something like that. But when you have something that is hunting you slowly and stalking you and you cannot get away. Oh, yeah. And you can't see it. That's the main thing. It's called the shadow because you don't get that payoff of like, oh, look, it's a giant scary creature thing. The entire game is filled with this freaking shadow thing that is messing with you, and you know it's after you.

And I'm telling you right now, there's a few moments in the game. I'm getting freaking chill bumps again. Yes, we're calling them chill bumps. Goosebumps. Because there's a part where you're in the cat i'm getting freaking chill bumps again yes we're calling them goosebumps because like there's a part where you're like in the catacombs and there's like a sewer area and there's water and the sound just goes all crazy and it's the most horrifying thing you've ever heard and then you look and you see giant footsteps splashing into the water but you can't see the creature oh no it's just the footsteps are getting closer and closer and the sound is getting worse and worse you talk about

like a clicker sound where your brain just wants to revolt and then you were like your heart starts beating it's the most terrifying thing ever and this happens about a thousand times in this game yeah because you just go to open up a door and then all of a sudden it's just right there on the other side of the door and you can't fight it. The only way to survive is to just run. Survive. And so you freaking run for your life

and then you get away and then you just, your heart's pumping and you're like, this game sucks, man. I hate this game. But then you just go back to it because it's like nothing has ever made me feel this way yeah dude telling you amnesia the dark descent is hands down the scariest video game i've ever played in my life i know i talk about like the baby part of like resident evil village

amnesia the dark descent the entire game is like that oh i i mean dude i'm i'm telling you you it's one of those things where you have to experience it. You can't really explain horror to people. You just have to experience it. But man, is it worth it? It's the most memorable horror game I've ever played. So that is easily the number one on my list. I hate that it's a little bit older at this point. I'm trying to think when it came out. It's probably like 20 years old at this point so the graphics are a little dated yeah 2010 2010 yeah 24 years old dude graphics were you know they were still okay back then but even at the time they weren't like cutting edge graphics either

so 2010 it it holds up trust me but yeah i can't recommend that game enough to people that want to have to change their underwear after they play the game. Yeah, creating fear in a game and creating fear in people who are playing that game. Like you can feel it in your bones. Like audio, yeah, you can just feel the fear. You can get scared and you can be scared, but fear is a different emotion in my opinion.

And amnesia made me like fear. Like that's where I was like, I have to get away. It's not like, oh, this is scary. I don't like it. It's uncomfortable.

Like phasmophobia would make me scared because it's like, I don't know when a ghost is going to show up. But amnesia, the dark descent, I like, I was fearful. I just needed to get away oh that's awesome man well that's cool um definitely uh definitely one of those ones that that's way up there for sure what do you got on your honorable mentions like i said i haven't

played a ton of these types of games in this genre i know from researching and looking into it and reading about it i may dive into a few more because if they are good and they are like these other games that i really enjoy i don't mind playing that but i've just i'm always when you get that run-of-the-mill blood and guts and gore it just turns me off to it so i it's almost like they're a little hokey so yeah it just kind of feels hokey so but but i by no means want to steer away from a good experience so i know from from looking into this and researching and talking to uh to people but like um things like alien isolation is that game is on my honorable mentions yeah it's like the number one game will mess you up ton of people obviously we got silent hill and um you know alan wake pt there's A ton of people. Obviously, we got Silent Hill and Alan Wake, PT.

There's a ton of really, really good games. I know we would get it just crucified if we're not mentioning a lot of these from people who – because horror people, horror game people, and horror movie people, they're a specific breed. They're very passionate. They're very passionate, and they love their stuff. So we don't want to leave any stone unturned for you you know we're sorry if we miss a game uh silent hill 2 remake is out right now and it is like a week ago so we do have to give it its dues as well that's on my honorable mentions i haven't played the remake which i'm kind of excited to try out i know i want to try

it out too silent hill 1 and 2 were terrifying back in the day except i want to smack that little girl around like lock me in the freaking room for her. I dare you to lock me in here. Alright, so you got any others? Oh, man. Nothing really else that I got on here. I got to ask you a question.

Nobody considers this a horror game, but there are some kind of somewhat creepy parts occasionally. What about Subnautica okay so i was actually now that you've mentioned that i did i did read people talking about that and i also once i once i read that i thought oh yeah there's parts where i was again like we we spoke of at the bottom of the ocean and you hear something or you see something you're like oh crap you know i'm 200 meters from my ship and uh i'm gonna have to get there what am i gonna do you know and so

and you're in the darkness and just the depth so it's it's just like being trapped in space or trapped in a basement or a bunker like there's nothing else there to help you other than yourself so definitely i think subnautica is a good one it's not a scary horror game but there's elements of it for sure that that freak you the heck out man i feel like that's the entry level like it's i would not consider subnautica a horror game by any means but if somebody's like i think i might want to just dip my toes into being a little scared in a video game to see what that's like i think subnautica is a good example of that one because it does have its moments where sure yeah it can get to you but it doesn't necessarily it's not trying to get to you in that regard but it can give you that kind

of creepy like i don't like this feeling and so i think it's a good like entry point for people to see if they like that so um alien isolation you mentioned is on my list um as far as honorable mention subnautica was a honorable mention as well um you already mentioned the resident evil 4 remake that was another one um and that's really it i mean i had lethal company as an honorable mention as well but we talked about that one also so left for deads five night at freddy's there's so many i don't find five nights at freddy's scary at all my kids love it and i get it but it's like i just don't i know it's supposed to be creepy but there's something about i don't maybe it's my adult brain which i don't like i'm still a kid but yeah something about about Five Nights at Freddy's doesn't do it for me.

So, all right. Well, listen, that's going to wrap up this episode. But join us next week on Halloween because we are going to be covering the Outlast Trials. We have been playing it. We have beaten all of the levels at this point. We might jump in a time or two again just to kind of see what else the game offers. But this is an episode you're not going to want to miss. This game's crazy. There's going to be a lot to talk about. It'll probably be one of our darker episodes because you can't talk about this stuff without just bringing it up. And so it'll be an interesting one for sure.

If you enjoyed this episode, remember to leave us a review, rate us five stars, check us out on social media at Video Gamers Pond. And if you are so inclined to go that extra mile, you can support the show over at MultiplayerSquad.com. As little as five bucks a month, which is nothing nowadays, but it really does help us out. If everybody out there was supporting the show, we might be able to bring another episode a week. You know, I mean, there's definitely things that we could do if we continue to grow, which we are growing. We'd love to see it. We are so thankful to everybody that is listening and helping spread the word about this podcast

to their friends and to other gamers as well. So I'm kind of creeped out after talking about all these games, Ryan. I gotta go to bed, man. Yeah, I know, man. I'm going to turn all the lights on downstairs for a little while. But that's it for this episode. Thank you for tuning in. And until next time,

happy gaming. Josh, what's behind you? What? See ya.