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

Episode Date: March 20, 2026

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, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps and NorwegianGreaser, and Dettmarp   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, PeopleWonder, Bobby S.   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/h2cHKAvSmu Follow us on Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠  Follow us on X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1⁠    Visit us on the web:⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, fellow gamers, and welcome to this 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. 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 to basically, you know, 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 sclerty 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 like per using 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. Yeah. 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, 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 later and guess what I found out, right? 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 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 going to make fun games for people to play too.

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 Podcast, 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. Dude. 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, you know, 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 play in 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 that or I'm just the worst. You know, one of the two. We're going to save that for that episode, Ryan, because I, we're going to have a whole like 10 minute section on how bad I beat you in the arm.

Yeah, 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. I don't. 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 for me, for this one, obviously I think, 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. not to say that I don't like it and 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. Leithel 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. 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 can happen in a run. and I love the ability of the proximity chat and how that works you can't ruin the kind of ambiance in the setting with using Discord or something like that

got to 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 stuck and you're deep in the this facility and you've got all mountain of stuff and you 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. Ryan. Ryan, are you there? And then realizing you were lost in the dark with things stalking you. And oh, man, it's terrifying. That game, it's, it's, it's funny because it's like it was such a huge hit and then I feel like it just kind of like 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 like horror really gets me uh you'll see in a lot of like my picks that like the the anticipation that's what yeah the psychological horror is what gets me. Gore doesn't really do a whole lot to me because it's kind of like 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 a 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. All right. So I think

going to save my number one. I'm going to 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, you know, 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, you know, look, I love Paul to death, man. But Paul, 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 meow by angering the ghost. But this game, phasmophobia is a ghost hunting game that is very just like 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. 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 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

and jump scares or they will actually start hunting you and chasing you down. Oh no. And then you have to go and run and hide in a closet or something like that. It is the 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 creatures. Even if it's not the ghost, I'm just, I'm the dude that's like, what was that? Ryan, right? Right. Are you up here? Ryan, are you? Tell me you're on the second floor with you, right now. You know, like, 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 just, 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, like, 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 going to go with one. This one is going to be pretty old school that Paul and I actually played quite a bit together. Probably was way too young to play this when I did. Definitely.

I still, I just don't understand like the people who made this game is just, 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 are, you are trying to create these kind of cinematic sequences for this guy

that's making movies or whatever. And I'm trying to remember back mostly to it, but you just got to do all these crazy, crazy things throughout. 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 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. running through and it's dark 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 yeah it's 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 going to 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 Manhun. I have heard it's messed up. It's gnarly, dude.

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 way old. and you will get bonus points and like better scores for the brutality of your murders and stuff like that. So the whole game is actually going around just murdering people.

You're going through these like old abandoned, like, or not abandoned, but like construction sites and other things. And like I said, the more brutal and crazy the murders are, the more points you get. Yeah, 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 going to play it again. Yeah. Yeah, especially as like a younger, like as a kid too,

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, he, a murderer is hunting you at the same time. Yeah, yeah, this crazy pigman guy is coming after you. This sounds terrible. 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 Biosha, Shock was made to be an actual horror game. Like, it takes place under the ocean, just like Bioshock, but whereas Bioshock went with the like, hey, let's explore this world, you know, this utopia and find out what happened.

Soma is, 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 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 like the failed humanity and you have to make some really hard decisions. There's like it's hard to get into it. I don't want to spoil it for people, but like humans have been like 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, this is, 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 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 mishaping. apps 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 let's there's something to be said for um like just the depth of the ocean where you just you feel alone like you feel there's nothing around you have a million feet up to the top and it's the same as like space like you're just an 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. Yeah. Legitimately. Like,

you do feel isolated. You've got nothing. You've got nobody. You were 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. Right? All right. We'll be right back.

All right, Ryan. What is up next for you? So I'm going to 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. Yeah. 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 playing this. And so we played the remake, number one, what a great video game. So good. Just in general, dude. Overall, I was blown away. Like, 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 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 going to say the bells ring. I was going to say Resident Evil's been out for a while. So we're not spoiling anything here.

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, what the? That game is great, dude. And then it just gets weak. weird. Yeah.

Like 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. Yeah, it's one of those that there's a lot of depth to it with your interactions throughout the environment. There's a lot of different characters in 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 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. Like 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,

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 Resident Evil love going because I do have a Resident Evil game on my list. I'm going to 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 in my life. And that is Resident Evil Village. Oh. So Resident Evil Village caught me completely off guard because I hadn't played a Resident Evil game. I played Resident Evil's, is it seven?

Is that Biohazard? The crazy family people want. Oh, yeah. So I played that one. I made it 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, it's not super scary. It's definitely got like horror undertones and stuff like that. Uh-huh. But then you get into the freaking puppet masterhouse 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. That kid laughter really messes with me. don't like that at all. You hear this baby. It's Goo Goo Gagan. And then you are like, what is that? And then around the corner comes massive blob baby where its head is, it looks like Jabba the Hut, like legitimately. It looks like Jabba the Hut. But it's like as if a baby had been stretched into Jabba the hut. It is the most horrifying thing I've ever seen. This thing starts to chase you around, cooing 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. Because, 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 monster 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 this, 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 a kind of eerie, creepy baby noises or stuff in a game like that's spooky, it's even if it's not spooky. It's just it, 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. Yeah, 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 games go, scary games go, this is probably one of the best to ever do it. As far as an overall, just top to bottom game. gameplay, graphics, scenery, settings, story. And I'm going with Last of Us, one and two. 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, it's just, you hear that and you just, you tense up with fear and, and 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. Which goes against panic. Yeah, exactly. You want to panic. And then you can't panic because it's like if you panic and make a bunch of sound, they're going to 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 gosh. What did you just say that? Now I'm going to think about that. I'm just saying, we would instantly know. 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 this is not good. Oh, yeah. Dude, if I was to hear that, I'd just be sprinting. I pick up my kid and throw them over my shoulder and just sprint out the door

and just deal with whatever happens after, even if I have like items in my hand. I'm like, I'll pay for it later. Yeah. Oh, man. You know, 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. I've watched the series. I know all about the game at this point. But it's like I really need to like finish that game because I think it was one. That that's like a mistake that I stopped playing that game. Well two two I could understand it's it's I would

still say finish it play through like it's 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'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 is 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. Yeah. 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 Colistow Protocol was coming out. Like, I remember it was like 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 do. 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, you know, 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, 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. Yeah.

It's fun to play. It's like up there with like 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, man. 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 a 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 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 make it and they make it well, that's when you know that it's, um,

it's the right type of, of a scary, spooky tense kind of horror game. I like it when they tell a story too. Like that's where Resident Evil does a good job. I think Last of Us does a fantastic. job. 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? 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 just had to throw that. I just had to put a shot in a Pacific Drive. Shots fired at Pacific Drive. For sure. I know some people liked it, but I was very let down by that one. But what I'm going to go in,

I know this is what shows. 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. exploring that little village or the little house and walking through it in VR, dude, is something that you know how I am. And I think the people who are listening for a little while know how I am with with jump scares and scary stuff. It freaks me the crap out, man. I was 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 don't know if I've ever been as scared as that one instant in my life and with the VR

doing it and they didn't tell me and my friends recorded me while I was playing because they knew that whole setup and that whole kind of scene it was 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 up, get it off, take it up 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 in VR as well.

I think, man, and there's so many games, obviously, 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 was just so creepy. Going through that house, going through that environment, there was nothing like it.

The family's crazy too, man. Absolutely nuts, dude. Yeah, 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 funny, though. There was a little bit of a cheat code.

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 nod in my head like that. Dude, VR horror games are a completely different. Yeah, that's like, it should be like a whole other section, man. It was 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.

Yeah, that game's bad enough as it is. 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. Anytime 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 you know, that's the premise. And so you're trying to like 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, and you can't see it is that that's the main thing. It's called the shadow because you're 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. Goose bumps. 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. And then it's just the footsteps are getting closer and closer and the sound is getting 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.

and times in this game 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, I'm telling you, amnesia of the dark descent is hands down the scariest video game. I I've ever played in my life. I know I talk about like the baby part of like Resident Evil Village. Amnesia of the Dark Descent, the entire game is like that. Oh, man. I mean, dude, I'm telling 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 is 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 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, like, it's 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 of the Dark Descent, I was fearful, dude. I just needed to get away. Oh, that's awesome, man. Well, that's cool. Definitely, definitely one of those ones 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. It's almost like they're a little hokey sometimes.

Yeah, it just kind of feels hokey. So, but I by no means want to steer away from a good experience. So I know from looking into this and researching and talking to people, but like things like alien isolation. is a huge one. Dude, that game's all my honorable mentions is like the number one. The game will mess you up. A ton of people. Obviously, we got Silent Hill and, you know, 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, you know, 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. Plus Silent Hill 2 remake is out right now and release like a week ago.

It is. So we too have to give it its dues as well. That's all 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. I do you lock me in here. All right. So you got any others? Oh, man. Nothing really else that I got. on here. I got to ask you a question. Because do you think, and now 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 read people talking about that. And I also, once I read that, I thought, oh yeah, there's parts where I was, again, like we spoke of at the bottom of the ocean and you hear something or you see something. Oh, crap. You know, I'm 200 meters from my ship and I'm going to have to get there. What am I going to do? You know, and so you're in the darkness and just a depth. So 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 Somnodica is a good one. It's not a scary horror game. But there's elements of it for sure that freak you the hell. heck out, man. I feel like that's the entry level. I would not consider Subnotica 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 Subnotica is a good example of that one, because it does have its moments where 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 Alien isolation you mentioned is on my list as far as honorable mention. Subnautica was a honorable mention as well. You already mentioned the Resident Evil 4 remake. That was another one. 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 of Fridays. There's so many. I don't find Five Nights of 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 Five Nights of Freddy's doesn't do it for me.

So, so, um, 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.

Yeah. 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 VideoGamer's Pond. And if you are so inclined to

go that extra mile, you can support the show over at Multiplayer Squad.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 love to see it. We are so thankful to everybody that is listening and, you know, 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. Now got to 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? Well, see ya!