I’ve always been weird when it comes to horror. Like all other humans I have the odd quirk of enjoying creepy things. I’ve watched movies (but they make me laugh), been to a haunted house (it really kills the mood when the actors keep screaming “HOW MANY IN YOUR GROUP”) and read creepypasta (not at all scary… until I want to sleep). But surprisingly, I’ve never really played a horror game until recently. A couple of my friends had been talking about them a lot lately and I figured that if a couple of girls could do it, then so can I… and hopefully not freak out like they did. So here are some of the finest free horror games the internet has to offer.
SCP: Containment Breach
SCP: Containment Breach is a game based on the stories of the SCP Foundation. SCP stands for “Secure, Contain, Protect”, a secret organization dedicated to containing paranormal artifacts and lifeforms that are deemed a threat to normality and/or global security. You play as an agent of SCP and are attempting to escape from the facility after the testing of the violent SCP-173 escapes from its cell.
I dare you to take your eyes off of it.
SCP: Containment Breach has a gameplay feature that I have never seen in any other game. Are you ready for this? Are you sure? I hope you’re sitting down because this game has the amazing innovative feature of… blinking. It seems unnessecary, like having controls where you scratch an itch, but it’s actually pretty cool. Every few seconds your eyes shut for a moment, taking away all of your visibility. You would be surprised by how much this freaks you out when you’re not paying attention. I have gotten so immersed in the game that I have even refreained from blinking in real life.
SCP is still in development, so it’s kind of glitchy and there’s no end to it yet. This game is definitely worth a look.
Slenderman is one of the internet’s most famous urban legends. In Slender, you play as a little girl (at least that’s how I imagine the character) trying to collect 8 notes in the park at night while being stalked by Slenderman. The gameplay is pretty simplistic, but the way it handles sprinting is very smart. In most games, you can sprint for a short distance and after a few seconds of rest you’re at full stamina again. Slender takes a more realistic approach, Every time you sprint you can’t run as far as the last time you did it. Eventually you’ll be at the point where you’ll be out of breath after only a couple steps, reminding us of the real monster: obesity.
Is it too late to go to the gym?
What really makes this game stand out is the atmosphere. Every time you move you hear the creepiest footsteps ever made. Even though I was the one making the sounds, I still felt like I was being followed wherever I went, which is what I think the developers were going for. Throw in some loud booms that may or may not be made by Slenderman and you have a very high heart rate.
Slenderman is developed Parsec Productions and is currently showing very promising results in an FDA study on alternative laxatives.
Any indie horror games that I should check out? Leave them in the comments.
