The Nine Scariest Games of All Time

Another “scariest games of all time” feature has hit the web, only this time Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines gets a well-deserved mention alongside System Shock 2.

Admittedly, this game as a whole isn’t scary. In fact, there’s only one bit in it that really deserves a mention as frightening or unsettling. But damn, that one area is enough to render you completely and utterly incapable of speech or bipedal motion. We’re talking of course, of the ‘˜haunted hotel’ area in Trokia Games buggy but brilliant title based on the Vampire: The Masquerade roleplaying game.

If you haven’t played Bloodlines, then we’ll give you a quick recap. One of your earliest missions in the game is to head to the aforementioned haunted hotel to retrieve a pendant. Simple enough for the intrepid bloodsucker, but once inside the building events get freaky fast. The Source engine is used fluently to render the gothic interior of the hotel itself, which is designed with every haunted house horror movie in mind. Darkened hallways filled with decrepit wallpaper, chandeliers that hang from the ceiling fall when you near them and creepy portraits adorning the walls.

When you start moving from room to room you’re treated to triggered effects like ghosts passing through walls, screams of the long dead and objects thrown by unseen hands. The musical score is a perfect accompaniment, rising and falling in sync with the freakiness of the events around you. The hotel level of Bloodlines is a beautifully executed example of the Gothic horror genre, and we’re damn lucky they didn’t make the whole game this scary, because we’d have all died in our chairs three hours into the game to be found days later with our eyes bulging out and the tell tale sounds of a creepy hotel emitting from Logitech 5.1 speakers.