Summary
Horrorgames were meant to scare you. That’s a fundamental fact when it comes to designing some grizzly monster or even bringing the dead back to life as scientific abominations. Even games that can seem friendly at first glance might set a mood that keeps you on your toes as you navigate through the game world.
However, this will sometimes happen. You boot up a game that you remember as scary but quickly find out that it doesn’t hit quite as hard. It doesn’t make it any less entertaining, but it feels like it was much scarier before. Here are some horror games that aren’t as scary as you remember.
8Resident Evil 4
Don’t Touch Your Cousin’s Gamecube
It’s the year 2005, and you boot up an older friend or relative’s Gamecube. Resident Evil 4 boots up. The setting is creepy, and your movements are limited. Suddenly, a man wielding a hand axe walks towards you. You shoot for the head and blow it off only for the menacing Plaga tentacles to come sprouting out.
This is when you say nope and quit the game. This game is definitely too scary. Years later, you come back to it and realize it’s not as scary as you remember. Leon can roundhouse kick everyone and there’s corny dialogue littered throughout. Then you realize that Salazar is more silly than threatening.
7Five Nights At Freddy’s
One Too Many Jumpscares
The first time you play Five Nights At Freddy’s, it might seem like the game is definitely scary. In most cases it is. Havinga scary animatronicsuddenly pop out at you can make you fall out of your chair if you’re not prepared. However, this is also where it starts to get less scary.
Coming back to it, you know what you’re in for. You also know what constitutes a game over. So before the jumpscare even hits you, you’ve already accepted that it’s coming. This causes the scares to not land as hard as they used to. Luckily, the franchise has a compelling story, and it’s still fun to watch others react.
Fun Gameplay, Terrible Voice Acting
Arcades also have their fair share of horror games that you don’t want to walk past. The House of the Dead 2 haunted arcades back in 1998, and it remains an arcade horror classic today. The zombies always looked deader than in other games, with bulging eyes and bodies that would be destroyed when you shot them.
The fact that the demo always showed them lunging at you also made it difficult to walk past the cabinets as a child. However, the game is actually quite fun, and it has some of the worst voice acting in video game history. Luckily, it’s bad in a good way and only makes the game more enjoyable.
5Luigi’s Mansion
A Solid Kid Friendly Horror
Luigi’s Mansion may not seem like the kind of game that could scare its audience, but all the elements are there. The game includes dark corridors, ghosts that can’t be tackled normally, and even door-opening transitions that make you wonder just what’s on the other side.
Luigi’s Mansion might have seemed likea much scarier Nintendo gameif you first played it as a kid. Even the fact that you play as Luigi can add to the atmosphere — if he’s scared, then you’re scared. Of course, coming back to it later isn’t as scary, and you can really appreciate all the cool designs of the ghosts that you have to hunt down.
4Jump Start: Haunted Island
So Infamous It Was Replaced
What happens when you mix the horror genre with children’s education? You get frightened kids who never want to go to computer class again. The Jump Start series of games was known for educating elementary schoolers everywhere and one game was just too much. This was Jump Start: Haunted Island.
It has an evil witch turning an entire classroom into monsters the one day you happen to be out with a cold. This forces you to go after your classmates as you travel around a creepily animated island. The music, voices, and even the design of your surroundings don’t exactly portray the usual Jump Start friendliness. Looking back at it now, it’s not as scary, but back then it was so bad, that it was replaced by anothergame featuring robotsinstead.
3Ghostbusters: The Video Game
Silly And Spooky
The Ghostbusters are not exactly the first franchise you think of when you want something scary. However, Ghostbusters: The Video Game managed to make the experience feel just a bit darker and spookier. This might catch some younger players by surprise the first time they experience the game, but upon more playthroughs, it really is just a love letter to the franchise.
The Ghostbusters is the kind of game where the player will spend more time geeking out over all the cool details than being scared by all the frightening imagery. So going back to it as a Ghostbuster super fan will override its presence as a horror game.
2Friday The 13th
Infamous 8-Bit Horror
Friday the 13th is one of the more interesting horror games to come out during the NES period. It is also considered one of the worst due to its difficulty. However, as kids, gamers can adapt to every bad element of gameplay or even controls. Regardless, Friday the 13th still managed to appear scary at first glance.
The objective is to defeat Jason three times. While this seems simple enough, you will need to locate him before he manages to kill a camp counselor or some of the children. This always gives you a level of tension that is only elevated by a hard-to-navigate map and surprise appearances from Jason himself. When you encounter him though, it just becomes Punch-Out.
1Until Dawn
Scary The First Time
Until Dawn is one of thescariest horror games of all time. However, it doesn’t exactly have the staying power that you might think it does. Until Dawn thrives on keeping the players in the dark about the true monster of the story. It creates tension, throws jumpscares, and fills you with fear that your characters might die by any wrong choice.
After you’ve experienced the game once, the scares don’t hit as hard. All the mysteries have already unraveled and the choices you need to make if you want to save everyone are much clearer. It’s still a fantastic horror game, but it is one that you kind of wish you were playing with no memories of your previous experiences.
