Horror Adventure, I summon thee Codex!

[mangsy]

I was just thinking back to my childhood gaming and remembered the Are You Afraid of the Dark? game based off the TV series. Pretty scary stuff (when you're a kid, at least), and a fun game.

The Shivers series of games also deserves a mention, although they're not particularly scary. Still, great games and awesome music!

 

[ArcturusXIV]

PS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_No_ ... ust_Scream

 

[villain of the story]

Haunting Ground for PS2. Pure horror survival, no combat bullshit. You run and hide and run and hide as this loli, and there's no rape* :

*: If there were rape, everyone would get caught on purpose and switch to fapping.

 

[Trash]

Alpha Polaris is a recent and fun indie horror adventure that foregoes gore for atmoshpere. The production values are top and the arctic base it is set in provides a great setting. Shadow of the Comet is an ancient but fun Cthulhu inspired horror one.

 

[Chaotic Lulz3r]

Since you liked Phantasmagoria, Phantasmagoria 2 is an obvious recommendation. You should also give Harvester a go, quite possibly the most fucked up FMV horror adventure ever.

Ripper and Black Dahlia, both sadistically hard.

Most other good picks have been mentioned, but +1 for Sanitarium, I Have no Mouth and I must Scream, and Blackstone Chronicles.

 

[Bruticis]

I enjoyed Scratches quite a bit and it was just released on GOG. Very atmospheric and pure point n click.

 

[Kz3r0]

Seven Games of the Soul

 

[made]

Turns out Amnesia is pretty cool. The light/sanity mechanic is simple but does wonders for the atmosphere. It's rather depressing than scary though. I can only play one hour at a time and then I have to watch a couple Futurama episodes to be able to sleep.

 

[Darth Roxor]

PAINT THE MAN

CUT THE LINES

 

[Wolfus]

Personal Nightmare, Harvester, DarkSeed, Dracula 3: Path of the Dragon, Black Mirror 1-3...

And try Last Half of Darkness, if you are a DOSBox fan

 

[Sceptic]

Speaking of Last Half, how does the Windows version from 10 years ago compare to the DOS original? Is it a similar plot but different puzzles, or something else entirely? Also, how are all the new games of the 2000's? There's one coming out soon IIRC.

 

[coaster]

Forgot completely about Last Half of Darkness. I've played the first three "modern" (ish) ones, Shadow of the servants, beyond the spirits eye and tomb of zohir. Haven't played the original(s?) or the new one.

They are kind of atmospheric in a cheesy way - albeit not very scary unless you're a nervous wreck. The first two are a bit dated graphically (probably not a problem for codexers). Some decent puzzles in SotS & ToZ including a couple which require a physical game copy (as the CD comes with one or two charts etc with mysterious symbols which are used in-game; old school copy protection FTW). I vaguely recall I lost patience with BtSE a bit and cheated but enjoyed SotS & ToZ more.

Actually I now see that SoTS & BtSE can be bought as downloads - I guess there are workarounds for the physical puzzles.

 

[coldcrow]

Something more obscure:

Rhiannon: Curse of the four branches

I am not too far into it, seems to be more "soft" horror, but I really like the setting and realistic gfx.

 

[KickAss]

Zork Nemesis was pretty cool

 

[Darkforge]

I wonder if any of you can help me. I remember this game from my youth, I never got to far into it, but it was point and click, a horror game and all I remember is it seemed to have this plot with a overlord type and his minion's one of which was a vampire woman.

Think it was called Nectropolis or some such (don't think to hard about that title.) I think it's relatively obscure and/or crap as I never seem to hear anyone talking about it. My memory of it is very hazy heh.. Anyonw know what it is?

 

[Mystary!]

According to google it's called Nectropolis

 

[PWSteal.Ldpinch.D]

Of varying quality.

The Black Mirror Series
Return of the Phantom
Veil of Darkness
Dead Reefs
Temüjin
Black Dahlia
Twisted Lands Series
Cosmology of Kyoto
Midnight Mysteries Series
Dark Dimensions: City of Fog
Dracula: Love Kills
Alpha Polaris
Harvester
Waxworks
Necronomicon: The Dawning of Darkness
The White Chamber

 

[Wolfus]

Browser based horror adventure:
http://hotel626.com/hotel.html

 

[Nope]

The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure is a fairly recent one that's good if you can see past it's flaws. (made by the guy behind Dark Fall 1 and 2)
I've also heard a lot of good stuff about Rule of Rose for the PS2.

 

[Haba]

Since all good "normal" adventure games were already mentioned:

Saya no Uta
Kara no Shoujo
Divi-Dead

 

[Azrael the cat]

Definitely Amnesia: the Dark Descent. Scariest game I've ever played. Puzzles aren't too bad. The Penumbra series is another good choice (made by the same dudes). Also, the Silent Hill games (esp. 2; 1-3 are the best). They have more action and less "adventure" (in the sense of the games you referenced in your OP) though.

Oh yeah, Longest Journey was supposed to be good, think it's more fantasy, but I watched some Dreamfall vids and the atmosphere made me cry.

Definitely give TLJ a shot. Dreamfall is an amazing game too, IMO, although many on the Codex will tell you otherwise. Neither is a horror game though, so if you want to be scared, look elsewhere.

ETA: The Resident Evil games are another option. They get more and more actiony as they go on though (the first few are survival horror, but four and five definitely step into shooter territory).

Oh, and I found the Alone in the Dark games scary when I was younger. Not sure how they'd stack up now. I think they inspired Silent Hill and Resident Evil though.

I second the TLJ and am squarely on the pro-Dreamfall side, but yes, neither of them are horror. Dreamfall DOES have some horror themes that increase as the game goes on. I have to warn you though - the reason why Dreamfall has these horror elements, and the increasingly eerie feel, is that it was supposed to be the middle chapter of a trilogy, and hence it does the 'Empire Strikes Back' trope of being the chapter where all the main characters end up completely fucked, at least one of the two connected worlds seems completely fucked by the end, all of the main characters' friends and families are completely fucked* (THE main character's friends and family in particular...) and no-one to stop either world from going to mindless-drone-zombie hell.

...and then you find out that the company is now making a mmorpg, and the 3rd chapter isn't actually in development yet, and that while the writer is still promising (like a decade later) that he'll finish the story, nobody knows whether he means whether there will actually be a 3rd game, or whether he'll just write a comic or something (and given the time lapse, the latter is looking like the best we'll get).

Nonetheless TLJ can stand on its own - it's both 'first chapter' AND 'stand-alone story'.
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* one neat thing I liked was that the narrative made clear that Zoe isn't ever getting out of the prison-dimension (forgotten its name, but the place where's she's floating around at the end, watching her former boyfriend-turned-mindless-drone hand out the dream-machines that turn people into mindless-drones to all of her family and friends to 'try out'). It doesn't say it outright, but it does say that this chapter (i.e. Dreamfall) is her story, and her story ends here. I.e. Dreamfall is the entirety of Zoe's participation in events, and that's why things begin and end without a real resolution - as far as Zoe is concerned, the story is over. She's freed a child and because of what she's done, either April (it's a fair bet that she survives the knife to the guts, otherwise they'd have shown her death rather than have her fall into the water) or Kivan (who seems to be set up to be the main character in the 3rd chapter, the guy's supposed to be a badass assassin, who realises he's on the wrong side at the very end of the game - it's a safe bet that prison won't hold him) might be able to save the world/s, but there's no happy ending for Zoe. It's not the emo-ness I like, more the fact that if it hadn't done that, the ending would have felt even more arbitrary. By making it the 'full' story of Zoe, the chapter makes sense, and would have set the 3rd game up for a presumably victorious resolution that would nonetheless feel a little more 'real' by not simply resetting the mess that the characters are in by the end of Dreamfall.

 

[Elwro]

The next chapter is the (as it seems) shitty mmorpg, right? They won't be making "normal", single player adventure games anymore?

 

[Burning Bridges]

Sublustrum (Outcry)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKHjPHm2 ... re=related

Phobos 1953
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS1rUSBVmtA

 

[Quilty]

Try to find some horror text adventure games. Those can be quite effective if you're into that sort of thing. Playing those games was actually pretty unnerving, much more so than when I played any games with graphics.

 

[Elwro]

Try Anchorhead!