#10 Clive Barker’s Undying

Forget Jericho, Undying was the Clive Barker game that induced shivers of dread. Based on the horror writer’s twisted imagination, it was a solid first-person shooter with scares-a-plenty and a game that was criminally underplayed. So much so that EA panned a potential sequel and canceled a scheduled multiplayer patch. Nonetheless, what Undying did posses was terrific atmosphere and an undead population vying for your blood. The game might have been quickly forgotten, but I still recognize it as a scare-fest worth remembering.

# 9 Doom 3

Besides being a visual feast, Doom 3 was genuinely scary. Although it’s scare tactics became predictable towards its denouement, I still spent the entire singleplayer campaign traversing the Mars base in quaking… marine boots. When played at the dead of night my spine-tingling dread was almost palpable. Being able to rely on heavy arms meant that Doom 3 didn’t embody the survival horror themes of many scary games, but its superb sound effects and claustrophobic levels ensured that paranoia was close at hand.

#8 Nocturne

Ruined by awful controls and a camera that tried too hard to recreate the silver screen, Nocturne still managed to provide an experience that was thick with bristling tension. Today it’s renowned for exactly that and while it failed as a cohesive, well-structured game, it certainly succeeded in ramping up the frights.

#7 Dead Space

As one of the more recent additions to the scare stable, Dead Space had a lot to live up to. And boy did it do its job. Being alone on-board an interstellar ship meant that your loneliness was all the more apparent while slick visuals and crisp audio helped enhance Isaac’s bleak inhabitance. The need to dismember the limbs of your foes also provided a departure from the usual headshot routine. Atmosphere so rich it jangled your nerve endings meant that Dead Space was not only scary, but also very worth experiencing.

#6 Phantasmagoria

Phantasmagoria may be the aged, sagging, sallow-faced member of this list, but it’s none the less memorable for it. As one of the first games to incorporate live actors, Phantasmagoria was the definition of an interactive movie. In hindsight, the trend was an ill-fated one, but Sierra still managed to a create a sickeningly tense adventure that spanned a bodacious seven CDs.

Next up: #5 – 1, shortly!

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