Five horror games worth playing during this Halloween season

Spencer Hunt staff writer

It is the spooky month. October, the month of spooks and the time when we scare ourselves silly. So, let’s play some horror games. The most immersive form of the medium, horror games have been around since the Super Nintendo. So let’s look over some lesser known horror games worth giving a try.

Fatal Frame, PS2: Japan has a very… differ- ent outlook on horror than we do in the states. Nothing example es this more than the Japanese Horror Game, Fatal Frame. You play as Miku Hinasaki, and must explore a derelict mansion with only a camera to protect you from the ghosts that haunt it. You take pictures of the ghosts to exorcise them and solve puzzles to find your missing sibling. The ghosts that haunt the mansion will horrify and disturb you. It’s a lovely romp.

The Suffering, PS2: Another oldie but a goody. In The Suffering, you play Torque, a criminal locked away in Abbot State Penitentiary. The Suffering is all about body horror, and the monsters that plague the prison will haunt your dreams for weeks.

The horribly grotesque transformations of both your enemies, and yourself, will keep you on edge the whole way through, with a great combat system to go with it. Be prepared for some less than subtle shock value, however.

Eternal Darkness, Sanity’s Requiem (Gamecube): Released on the Nintendo Gamecube, and published by Nintendo themselves, Eternal Darkness is a love craftian nightmare that goes straight for the heart of games: The fourth wall. The game will mess with you any way it can, pretending to delete your save les, cut off your character’s head, and even pretend to hit you with a blue screen of death. It is a non-stop ride, and one with a compelling story and combat system in which melee is the name of the game.

Condemned, Criminal Origins (PS3, Xbox 360): Condemned, Criminal Origins is a horror game in which you play a detective. Weapons are sparse and you’ll have to take whatever you can get: chair legs, baseball bats, mannequin limbs or the occasional gun.

You can only carry one weapon at a time and you’ll need every weapon you can get in your hunt for a serial killer that kills criminals as you fight crazed humans. It will keep you tense and on edge the whole way through.

Silent Hill 2 (PS2): I couldn’t resist. Silent Hill is one of the best horror games ever made. It’s not exactly an overlooked game, but it’s the paragon of Survival Horror. You play as James Sunderland and explore the strange entity of a town known only, as Silent HIll. This game is a master class in puzzles and mood setting. This game is eternally unsettling and haunt you for years after you play it.

It introduced the enemy that many horror games would desperately try to recreate in sheer fear factor, Pyramid Head. A hulking brute who will shock and horrify you, all while constantly chasing you, no matter how many times you kill him. This is a masterpiece you need to play at least once.