What makes a game scary...

they forgot the screams of pain and horror in the backround like in ravenholm on hl2 you can hear the zombies screaming and people crying out in horrible pain thats scary

your moms! jk i voted not scared by anything...

Silent Hill 3 scared the hell out of me because of the creepy atmosphere and music. SWAT 3 made me jump more than any other game ever did, because of the sudden pop-outs.

Doom3 and FEAR both scared me... Doom3 especially with surround sound on. The part when they scared me was when someting unexpected happened, so I voted for "the unexpected... BOO!"

A truly scary game is creepy more than scary, where reality is intertwined with insanity, and you dread looking at people.

Anything that isn't cliche is very scary. Anybody ever imagined a baby on a subway growing fangs that pierce the ground and then get ripped out, causing the entire train to lurch sideways and cause havoc?

THAT's pretty freaky.

Ususally in a zombie like game when there is next to no lighting at all.

Why is this poll here again?

The Demo to FEAR scared the life outta me, but the full game was a let down, good twists to the story tho. Didnt like Doom3, just never got on with it.

Something that scares you is the unexpected.. BOO! But not like in the Scream movies, it have to scare you with spooky music and some scary atmosphere. A scary game must be in the modern time so you can imagine that the game could happen on the reality.. Something that also scares you is when something chases you! :)

Nothing scares me except a game with the jackson trio...

Doom 3 scared me... F.E.A.R. did not.

So ‘monsters-hiding-in-closits-jumping-out-screaming-like-a-gorilla' for me.

Definatly the unexpected BOO, although the BOO's in some of the newer games are so frequent they unfortunatly loose quite a bit of their impact.

The BOO from AvP2, I wasn't too keen on being face raped...

Doom 3 was pathetic, hardly scared me. FEAR freaked me out, but didn't scare me... give me a truly scary game already! :P

Please make a mod Supercowbob :)

I sometimes have ideas just like yours, but never have enough time to pull it off along with everything else I do. Maybe you could create something actually scary ;)

I voted for the unexpected, mostly because the games that scare are ones with surprises. AvP 2 scared the hell out of me, and i don't even wanna talk about what number one did to me...

Many diffrent variables contribute to the scariness of a computer game.

Nothing scares me...nothing out of that list anyway. ;)

Bloody headcrabs.

I take my vote back, it's not the unexpected BOO that makes you jump but the one you've been afraid of experiencing since you first started the game. So far it hasn't come, but the music, lighting and sparse environment threaten its arrival around every corner and behind every door. Your sanity is threadbare, ready to snap -and frequently doing so- at the slightest wolfcry or shattering of glass in the room upstairs. But this BOO still hasn't come.

Tghere's a difference between being frightened and being afraid. Fear isn't a reaction, it's a state of being...

Dark Project III, Deadly Shadows

Condemned.
The mall is freaky as hell.

Games need more spooky music in my opinion. And far less (and far more intelligent) enemies.

I'd have to say the unexpected Boo!, Doom 3 was good at that, and certain parts of FEAR were also good. I think the best fear factor is something big mean and ugly chasing you down like a dog chasing a rabbit.

The Boo when i played doom3 demo I heard some say its most scary when playing at night when all the likes are off. So I decided to play the demo at night and had my surround sound on all those fricking noises and **** where great. The monsters game out unexpectedly. I was just surprised when I played it.

I agree with Kaos. If you want to be scared, play Condemned. Nothing quite like someone jumping on you out of nowhere and bashing you across the skull with an iron pipe. Check this game out, because it definitely has the scare factor locked down tight.

Not to mention, it was developed from the same minds behind FEAR (Monolith Studios) ;)

I voted spooky music because the music and ambient sounds from Silent Hill really added depth to the atmoshpere, that is if I had to choose a category. Otherwise it's a mixture of all of the above that makes a game scary.

wheres the "all of the above"
no game scares me since doom 3, 4am, no lights and a set of hed fones.

The scariest game ive played is hollow moon (well mod actually), that game is just so erie, it realy achives making you feel alone in the empty barenness of the moons surface, the sound effects really spook you out or there lack thereof. Thats what is really scary about this game is that it keeps you in a state of fear the whole time, not just when your gonna go through a door, ala "doom 3".

The beginning and end of Ravenholm on HL2 was pretty scary imo. :P

doom 3am nolights :)

on word - avp2 (even though thats like 4 when you say it)

I think it is combination of the BOOS but more so the spooky music. You will find that if you play a any good "BOO" game without spooky music it isnt half as scary. The boos become lame and they seem cheap. Music... in any form of multimedia, has the power to make, to break, to scare or stun it's audience! :-)

It HAS to be something that can kill you. FEAR had a few momments that were pretty good but no monsters sprinting towards you to kill you. Like being surrounded by zombies all of the sudden. The fear of getting hurt works really well I think. Espically when it's something creepy like spiders or headcrabs etc.

Might just be me, but I tend to supress emotion.

If i had to vote for what might scare other people...the unecpected only makes them jump, a momentary scare. To truly scare people, you need a combination of atmosphere and unexpected events.

Hard to vote, a little bit of everything = scary

DooM3 wasnt scary but some scenes we're freaky...corpses in the ceiling etc. FEAR was creepy but not something youd quit game from fear...so yeah, no real horror games/mods yet....maybe in time...

I would have to say that the music and sound effects play a huge role on making the game scary...
Just look at doom3 and FEAR.

To me a good horror game would include the mix between unexpected boo's but as well the feeling of dread which makes you not to proceed thinking something that may happen. This is done by a mix of enviroment and sounds as well as making the player think something is there. This to me would make a great horror game. I also think the player should feel as he is there so it would need to be first person I think to immerse the player greatly. This is part of my idea of a good horror game/ mod thats what I plan to achieve with my mod.

They Hunger, need I explain? There also was a part in FEAR in which case a body flew out of an office's window into the hallway.

And the Hidden Source.

i say its all in the atmosphere. in doom3 it was more the first time i encountered the spiders. it was all quiet with the music going, then you could hear them, not knowing what they were or where they were. scared the **** outta me.

some scary music and the allways important sound effects that makes freak out, and then a supprise attack ...
but for me the music and sound effects are too important.

ATMOSPHERE!! RAvenholm was only scary because of all the hanging zombies and buring corpes

Silent Hill series are the only games I know that made me scared. The music, lighting all equalled scaring the living bejusus outa me.

My vote goes to music.

Doom3 was a kindergarten, because after 4levels you know where the next monster arrived...
But in FEAR it really freaking me out when this strange noise suddenly came and you know, that something crapy going to happen now, BUT you don't know what it is. I think thats really spooky!

I actually think Hidden:Source is one of the scariest/creepiest things I've played.

I'm not sure which is more creepy, being the Hidden, with many people hunting you, or being the last one left on your team..? I think it' fn when there's 2 guys left and you watch the guy near you explode into pieces. There needs to be more blood though. That would make it very creepy.

Anyway, HL2 wasn't that scary, though the fast zombies and fast headcrabs were somewhat scary. I think the poison ones were just kind of lame though.

I need to play more scary mods/games. Or maybe movies?

Blood and the BOO! scares me the most, so I voted for the BOO. Well, Blood is only scary if it's like weird, and looks real..I don't know. Urge to start and never finish a horror mod...rising..

How about what you cant see, but you know is there?

heh the expected boo, yah it is pretty scary knowin somethings two seconds from scarin the **** out of you.Makes my spine tingle.

I'd say Fatal Frame is the scariest game ive ever played. The "unexpected boo" really gets you, but all the atmosphere leading up to that gets you all tense making it that much more scary.

the unexpected boo is a 'cheap shot' at being scary.
anyone and anygame could just add something jump out at you
it's so bland and lame.

F.E.A.R. is scary because it gets UNDER YOUR SKIN! and generally creeps you out the whole time.
F.E.A.R is NOT a 'ticking time bomb' (like Doom 3 is) where you just walk around knowing and waiting for something to jump out. Which is typical and boring.

I went for spooky music.