Halloween is right around the corner, and what better way to spend it than with a horror game? With that in mind, we've decided to put together a two-part collection of horror games hand-picked from some of the better indie titles of recent years.
Lone Survivor
Following in the footsteps of the legendary Silent Hill 2, Lone Survivor made its debut on Steam last year, awing the PC crowd -and eventually PS3 and Vita owners- with its haunting adventure. The reasons behind its success are simple enough: it borrowed ideas from just the right place.
Lone Survivor begins with a lonely, nameless survivor spending his days in a post-apocalyptic world surrounded by a ruined society: the streets are ruled by constant darkness as the town is overrun by the “infected” - human transformed into monsters after a viral outbreak of unknown origin. Gathering up his last remaining fragments of willpower and sanity, the lone survivor sets out to explore the apartment complex providing him with a safe haven, looking for answers and a potential way out.
Those embarking on Lone Survivor's adventure will no doubt realize within the seconds how strong the influence of the Silent Hill series is on the title. The typical Silent Hill style, although made to fit into a stylish looking 2D pixel-environment, is clearly present; as is the brilliant soundtrack making it complete. The apartment complex we begin to explore at the start of our journey is highly reminiscent of familiar locales from Konami's classic survival horror franchise, with its bizarre puzzles, nightmarish enemies and deep plot. The story itself most definitely contains more than what meets the eye – not necessarily everything is what it appears to be at first glance, and behind the repulsive mask, there might very well be a more deeply-rooted and personal tragedy: this, too, is a clear tribute to the deeply symbolic storyline of Silent Hill 2. Unfortunately, that very aspect of Lone Survivor also comes to serve as my single major gripe with an otherwise stellar title: it doesn't quite do anything that hasn't already been explored in much greater detail by other titles, namely SH2, its very inspiration. And yet Lone Survivor is still a great title – its only fault is merely its failure to surpass its elders.
Despite all the above, I would highly recommend the title to any gamer feeling nostalgic about the horror games of the past decade, yet still desiring something fresh – Lone Survivor was tailor-made to fit their needs.
Gameplay time: ~3-8 hours
Official page. The Lone Survivor on Steam, price: 4,66€
SCP - Containment Breach
In the end, we remain alone within the walls of the now-abandoned research complex, in full knowledge of the fact that a number of dangerous creatures are lurking somewhere in the darkness, merely waiting to encounter us. And so, the cat-and-mouse game begins. The above might sound like a tired concept to veterans of the genre; however, the developers made sure to spice up the experience through the inclusion of a cast of specific monsters from the SCP mythos. The first creature players will no doubt encounter has the ability to move at lightning speed, able to appear in front of us in less than a second. The twist is the following: as long as we maintain eye contact with the monster, it remains still; the moment we take our eyes off it, however, it launches its attack, and by the time we look in its direction once more, it might very well be several feet closer than it previously was. SCP – Containment Breach builds its suffocating atmosphere by utilizing a basic fear of the player: a fear of an unknown something that happens to be the most threatening when it's out of sight. On the official site of the SCP Foundation, we can, in addition, read detailed information about each monster in the mythos, including those making an appearance in the game (such as the dreaded monster codenamed SCP-106), making the overall experience that much more terrifying when we know exactly what it is we're up against.
Much like the indie fan favorite Slender: The Eight Pages, in SCP, the player is most affected not by the actual encounter with the monster: rather, it is the prior buildup and anticipation that has the most effect on us. And so, through the power of imagination, a dimly lit office becomes far more terrifying than a corridor plastered with blood and intestines: instead of a million-dollar budget, terror is instead birthed by the players themselves. We cannot deny that SCP – Containment Breach is a definite success when it comes to tapping into that very potential.
Gameplay time: ~2,5 hours
Free download here.
Which
Mike Inel's game, despite being a brief 10-minute adventure, still manages to tell a simple, yet coherent story without giving us a single line of actual dialogue. In “Which”, players are tasked with finding their ways out of a locked-down house, searching for the key that would unlock its front doors: sounds simple enough, and yet, in its short time span, it becomes evident that not everything is quite alright within the house, as the game ultimately manages to throw a curve ball or two at its unsuspecting players. Revealing more would no doubt ruin the charm of this short tale, nonetheless it can definitely be said that both in terms of visual style and narrative technique, Inel managed to create something rather special indeed.
Gameplay time: ~10 minutes
You can download the game here. It’s free.
Missing
Hardi “Orchard-L Gosal's” relatively unknown adventure game lets players accompany ex-cop Melvin on his investigation into a mysterious inn located in a lesser known pat of the country, searching for his wife and child, both of whom seemed to have disappeared without a trace. Missing is primarily a point and click adventure game played from a first-person perspective – as such, our investigation will mostly consist of talking to the relevant people, finding useful items and figuring out when and how to use them in order to further the story. The puzzles present in the game are not hellishly difficult, although they do require a certain level of thinking on the player's part. However, gameplay elements aside, the strongest point of Missing, without a doubt, lies in its almost Silent Hill-ish atmosphere, chilling sound effects and gloomy, supernatural narrative, leading to a highly shocking finale that will no doubt please fans of disturbingly dark conclusions.
Highly recommended.
Gameplay time: ~3 hours
Download the ex-cop adventure here.
Games to be spooked by – the best indie horror titles to look out for this Halloween – part 1.
