But before just giving you a list, I think that it is only fair you you to know my personal opinions on the subject. My personal opinion is that media under the 'horror' genre are really only scary if there is a good story and structure driving the experience. While some people might actually be terrified of watching some psycho chop up dozens of people just for sport, I find that the real terror comes from slowly uncovering the causes of the events you are currently going through.
The scariest games don't necessarily have to be remotely based on realism, such as psychological horror games. Titles such as Eternal Darkness and Alien Isolation can be just as frightening from the knowledge of the terrifying creature might be around the next corner, as games that manifest actual fears and then exaggerate them into horror elements.
Screenshots from Eternal Darkness (2002) and Alien Isolation (2014)
Although I am a graphic artist, I don't think that graphics are absolutely needed for a good horror experience. Although many games on newer platforms are able to provide a feeling of being in the game which certainly adds another layer of fear on top of all of the other classic elements, this doesn't make older titles any less frightening as they once were. The ability to achieve an effective jump scare or make people fear what might be around the next corner was developed long before we had these advancements in artistic technology.
If you want to do more investigating of your own into the different horror games across all platforms, and news on upcoming titles, I would highly recommend scaredtoplay.com, which is where I did the bulk of my research for my posts on horror games.
Do you have any older games that you like to bust out for some nostalgic frights?
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