Silent Hill 2: Absolute masterpiece made by Team Silent where you experience James Sunderland's mindfuck journey through silent hill with the most maniac characters you'll encounter like the out of touch Angela Orosco or Eddie Dombrowski as well as the most relentless and terrifying enemy The Pyramid Head. This game just messes with your head on an emotional scale with the environment drawing you in. There are a lot of rooms you have to enter and have to constantly keep checking the map but it's still a fine experience with a plot so deeply depressing it'll stick with you.
REmake: The spectacular remake made on the GameCube of the PlayStation horror pioneer that basically enhances the experience of the mansion with it's control options and upgraded visuals featuring the choice of two protagonists (also included in the original) that have thier own difficulty adds to the replayablity of this game. There is a great amount of puzzles that don't detract from the horror atmosphere and you'll have to learn to conserve your ammo. A B horror movie type of story with a likeable cast of characters.
I don't get the love for REmake; the controls are so bad, which I get is a staple for the series, but it's so hard for me to feel any kind of horror when playing the games because I'm too busy being annoyed at the controls.
Now, Silent Hill 4... mmmm, tasty. STALKER's got better horror and survival vibes than either. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, though. That's the best horror game of all time. Nothing quite as eerie as showing up at Innsmouth for the first time, with the city's inhabitants just watching you. Nothing as scary as sneaking through a town with a gun but knowing if you use it, you'll end up in worse trouble than you were before. "What if I accidentally pull the trigger?" is the scariest a game's ever been to me.
My love for the film will forever impede me from appreciating what the game does right. One day I'll try again, but it bothered me so much when it came out. I was expecting it to focus on the narrative elements of the script and instead we got a damn survival shooter, I was so pissed off. Went back to it a few years ago and still couldn't deal with it. I just love the film too much...
From the past: REmake, Resident Evil 2 (despite being more open to action in some parts), RE3, Fatal Frame 2 and Silent Hill 2.
In the recent years: Resi 7 and Alien Isolation.
Some people would argue about The Evil WIthin and Dead Space, but i'm more inclined to say that they're after the "action horror" experience that became so popular and effective after RE4.
Remake
Resi 2
Silent hill 2
Eternal darkness
Alien isolation
Soma (tbh the story just got to me. More sci if than Horror)
Dead space 1+2
Last year was good. Resi 7 was fantastic for the first 3/4 (same as most Resi Games tbh) and evil within 2 was an interesting follow up to the first. A more coherent story, but still might prefer the first. Haven't got a chance to play outlast 2 yet, but I have it waiting for me.
REmake GOAT, and don't forget Silent Hill 1, I think it has the coolest vibe.
I feel like a lot of people who hate REmake don't really unterstand the game-play loop. It's kind of Soulsish in that youre meant to get a ways in, die. Rethink and try again, die. After a few trys you basically can figure out how to do what's needed perfectly until you get over your next milestone, save the game and repeat the proccess.
Never understood the hate for Tank controls either. Sure it was confusing the first 30 minutes or so of RE1 on psx. After that though, I was perfectly adjusted and never had an issue for the next 5-10 years of the tank control heyday. I actually found it refreshing to boot up AA horror titles and realize they had tank controls, it just feels natural to me for fixed angle horror games. I love it!
Silent Hill and Resident Evil 2 are my favourites.
As good as Silent Hill 2 is, I've never been spooked as much as I was by the first Silent Hill. That game was revolutionary and shocking. Silent Hill 2 iterated on it well with a unique and well-told story, but it just didn't have the shock factor of Silent Hill. Nothing you ever played before it could prepare you for Silent Hill.
SOMA for me, mainly just because the story is so damn good. Certainly not the most scary game I've ever played but man, so good. Glad to see it gets some love and attention here!
Great picks in this thread, but I came to underline Fatal Frame 2 // Project Zero 2
The spirit photography mechanic and theme of the game is just brilliant. It makes the game super scary, since the ghosts move through every door and wall, there's not a single space that is completely safe. But the most brilliant part is the way your perspective changes for the photos, seriously limiting your view and movement, and forcing you to get dangerously close to the ghosts in order to damage them the most. In short: no safe spaces having to be as close as possible to the enemies makes for a very grating atmosphere.
Deep Fear would fit if the thread said the cheesiest instead of best, heheh.
Also I feel the first Parasite Eve is a weird mix of JRPG and survival horror (yeah 2 went full RE clone mode and the next game, let's not talk about it) and is pretty damn awesome and worth a playthrough for sure.
If Amnesia The Dark Descent counts then that's also an amazing game up until the very (disappointingly mundane) end, you get no weapons in it though.
The Siren and the Fatal Frame games also have their fans but I've not played through any of them to the end myself.
Did anyone else think the first Siren game was whack as fuck? The whole thing was really cool in art design and concept, but it's basically impossible to play without a walkthrough in front of you, which kills the tension. And even with a walkthrough there are some sections that are waaaaaay too hard. I've tried to play a few times and never made it more than a couple hours.
Yeah, those are pretty good picks, OP. REmake is the best designed Survival Horror game ever, and SH2 has the best atmosphere and storytelling of any Horror game ever.
Also... I see some peeps mentioning Dead Space here, and... well, I can't really agree, although not because I think the games are bad. I actually really like them. They just aren't "Survival" Horror , is all. The amount of ammo you get in those games is ridiculous, as the game literally gives you ammo for killing enemies as well as money, with which you can buy ammo at any nearby shop (the third game jumps the shark further with "universal" ammo that any weapon can use). Like, the games are fun, but they're not Survival Horror, y'all. More like "Action Horror".
I don't get the love for REmake; the controls are so bad, which I get is a staple for the series, but it's so hard for me to feel any kind of horror when playing the games because I'm too busy being annoyed at the controls.
Now, Silent Hill 4... mmmm, tasty. STALKER's got better horror and survival vibes than either. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, though. That's the best horror game of all time. Nothing quite as eerie as showing up at Innsmouth for the first time, with the city's inhabitants just watching you. Nothing as scary as sneaking through a town with a gun but knowing if you use it, you'll end up in worse trouble than you were before. "What if I accidentally pull the trigger?" is the scariest a game's ever been to me.
On REmake, have you tried REmake HD? It has more modern analog controls that make the game easier to pick up for newcomers (albeit they do make the game easier).
Also, the love for REmake really has nothing to do with it's controls (which I don't agree are bad btw, as they work perfectly within the realm of that game's design). It's all about the atmosphere, the gorgeous pre-rendered backgrounds, and the impeccable design and pacing of the game. It's the way in which it gives you just enough ammo to survive, it's the terror of crimson heads getting up (should you not burn their bodies) and chasing after you, and it's just the expertly crafted metroidvania style level design, which is the best of any traditional Survival Horror game by far. Nothing else really comes close to it.
Also, it's phenomenal as a remake. It stays faithful in many ways to the concept and design of the original, but also isn't afraid to try new things or surprise the player. For example:
In the original game, dogs burst through a window in a hallway. In REmake, they only crack the glass your first time through the hallway, and only burst in if you re-enter the hallway from the opposite side. This is just one example of how REmake expertly plays with the expectations of RE1 veterans to make the experience terrifying all over again.
It's a perfect mix of old and new, and the best videogame remake the medium has ever seen.
I've heard such good things about the Silent Hill franchise, I wish they'd put a collection on PS4. Sometimes I even consider getting the PS3 collection (though I'm told it's terrible).
The original Silent Hill, REmake and Clock Tower (SNES) are my top 3.
Siren would be in it instead of Clock Tower, but the game is kinda of an unique experience I can't imagine myself to replay ever again. Rule of Rose is probably my favorite story in a SH, but the gameplay is super crappy.
REmake
Silent Hill 1 (cleverest story and amazing setting that makes so much horror tropey sense with the story)
Resident Evil 2
Metroid Fusion maybe (parts at least)
That's fine Reset. We don't have to include Dino Crisis anywhere in this thread until I post it.
Anyway Dino Crisis gets my vote. Great addition to the Survival Horror genre and one of the Kings from the PSX era. Uses the RE style as a mold while being its own thing.
Silent Hill 2 is probably my favorite game of all time, but in terms of enjoying the game, I think I would give the edge to Silent Hill 3, even if the plot is less memorable.
I would also like to add a game that I rarely see mentioned nowadays.
If you like Silent Hill 2, this is like a love letter to that game.
The game is short, but it has multiple endings, a lot of missable events, and that same melancholy feel that permeates Silent Hill 2, with a story that's not explicitily told to the player.
I feel RE7 deserves to be mentioned alongside the two in the OP when it comes to "best survival horror". After almost 15 years of absence of "true" survival horror, Capcom took a huge risk with the classic survival horror mechanics while innovating and incorporating modern mechanics into the game. Furthermore, the atmosphere is top notch, gave me those "nope, not going in there" vibes many times. It should be noted that the game generally doesn't go for cheap jumpscares most indie games cling to. The game builds up the tension through disturbing imagery, unsettling atmosphere and random audio cues and executes the jumpscares when the tension is at its peak
