Getting Scared with the VGA Staff
The leaves have turned, Chicago’s getting chilly, the news is getting scary. What better time to retreat into the shadows and get possessed? To get you started, here are a few games—some goofy, some gruesome, some cursed—that have haunted the VGA Staff.
What horror games don’t get the attention they deserve? Let us know in the comments or on twitter.
🕸🏚🕸 Tiffany Funk 🕸🏚🕸
I used to be really into the multi-CD FMV games from the 90s. As a teenager I got pretty freaked playing Roberta Williams’ Phantasmagoria, notorious for its graphic rape scene early in-game. The storyline is pretty corny and predictable: a couple moves into a castle with ~~ sp0oky dem0nic SECRETS ~~ and the husband gets possessed (of course) and does a pretty bad impression of Jack Nicholson in The Shining.
However, I remember the FMV cutscenes of the magician going Bluebeard on his multiple wives getting really INTENSE, at least to my 15-year-old eyes. Though I need to give a shout-out to my fave horror series, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Fatal Frame, it’s really the indie games that have horror nailed. My long-time fave is ANATOMY by Kitty Horrorshow is an excellent game that combines a haunted house story with body horror. you love horror, you should really check out her itch page.
🕷🖼🕷Amy Chen🕷🖼🕷
I played Ib by kouri, a Japanese horror game. This is the first horror game I played as a kid. It might not be the scariest but there are some good spooks. If you are familiar with RPG Maker then you should know about Ib. You play as Ib, a girl that visits an art gallery. As you wander around things go astray. There are quite a few puzzles that you must complete and depending on the choices you make and your performance, the ending of the game changes. Jump scares are horrible but the suspense that builds up as you complete puzzles and not knowing what can go wrong is even scarier. Ib is for free here: https://vgperson.com/games/ib.htm
🧙🏼♂️🎇✨Eleanor Schichtel☎🧟⚰
I think the most scared I've gotten while actively playing a video game was probably a Harry Potter PC game when I was 8. However, I've watched the Silent Hill PT playthrough many a time in my day and I think that means I'm not a complete weenie.
🐍🐍🐍Chaz Evans🐍🐍🐍
Legend tells of an old Unity web player game called Room of 1000 Snakes by Ben Esposito and yuliy of Arcane Kids. Some say that those who dared install the Unity web player plug-in and stepped inside were buried alive in snakes. Others never found a way inside and say it's all a myth. Some others say that the snakes took so many lives in their room of doom that they had gathered enough human spirits to ascend to the snake horde afterlife, taking the functionality of Unity web player with them, closing the door to Room of 1000 Snakes as well as every other Unity web player game on the internet. Others contend that to this day if you dare get near https://arcanekids.com/snakes where the game used to live you can still hear the snakes hissing in the distanccce.