31 Days of Horror - Day 21

It's obvious I love horror movies.  I've been running off at the mouth about them all month!  There's another side of me though, a side that loves video games.  Video games are my escapism, my decompression tool, my destressor and more.  I've been known to while away far too many hours on them, and enjoy every minute. 

Lucky for us, Video Games are a home for horror as well.  There are quite a few great horror games out there that have come out over the years.  They've changed a lot from the days of Splatterhouse and Resident Evil, but at their core, they're still all about horror. 

For Day 21, I'm going to share a video with you for a short demo for a nifty little retro platformer called Halloween Forever.  You can get the demo yourself over at the games page at the Imaginary Monsters Itcho.io page.   

As you can see, the game's a lot of fun!  You've got to be into old school platformers though, which I totally am.  Platformers aren't my only vice though, I like games of all types.  Here's a few horror games that have ranked amongst my favorites over the years. 

Shadowgate

Shadowgate landed on the NES during my freshman year of high school and it upended my world in a serious way.  While it's technically an RPG, it's setting an story are very much horror based and creepy.  I had a good friend who was also sucked into the game and we would spend our days at school drawing maps of what we had both found at home, then rush home after school and call each other for tips as we played through.  It was something special and it's mix of creepy setting and puzzle solving was an experience that sticks with me even today. 

Alien Vs. Predator

I fell in love with the original Alien the first time I saw it, so it only makes sense that when I discovered I could play a game in that same world, I was going to do it.  It payed off about as much as I expected too.  The single player version of the game was merely okay, but where AvP took off was in its multiplayer.  In multiplayer, you could play either a Predator, an Alien or an Colonial Marine, and each of them had their own strengths, weaknesses and perks. Our typical setup was to play two of us as marines and one as a Predator, and it was intense.  There were times where you felt the panic, just like the people in the movies did when they saw that triangle laser site.  There was much screaming and yelling on Teamspeak on those nights!. 

Phantasmagoria

I have to admit up front; I didn't play a lot of Phantasmagoria.  It's FMV filled hunt and search gameplay just wasn't my style.  My wife though, ate its spooky puzzle solving play up.  The game came free with some sound card or another on an early PC and it was in heavy rotation for the Mrs.  

Outlast

Outlast is one of the first modern games to make me yell out loud in a long, long time.  I'm a bit desensitized with all of the horror movie watching, but this one got me.  It was loud enough that my lovely wife ran in from the other room thinking I may have hurt myself.  This game's an odd one, as you're only armed with a video camera and nothing else.  The rest of it is filled with running and hiding and getting the hell out of the way.  It makes for a riveting experience though, especially if you play it in the dark.  I myself found myself holding my breathe many times as I explored. 

Dead Space

I'm not a big shooter guy; my aim kind of sucks.  So it takes some story and other elements to get me into your standard shooter.  Dead Space drew me in with it's story alone.  The game is very cinematic and packed with gore, and feels very much like a blockbuster movie you'd see in the theater. 

So there you have it, I've outed myself as a video game addict.  And I'm okay with that!  Be sure to follow my YouTube channel for my upcoming play through series on Wasteland 2 as well as some regular quick looks going forward!  I'm a PC Gamer kind of guy, so feel free to say hi on Steam as well!