I am fascinated by games with 2D art that still manage to give you a good scare. I guess what I find interesting is if a game can manage to translate the scares and audio design which we know from 3D environments and movies. I have never really played any though. I would love to hear some suggestions, especially with Halloween coming soon!
Is there a reason Limbo is being talked about these days? My 10 year old nephew was going on about it at the weekend. Did some streamer play it recently?
Darkwood is terrifying especially with perma death on. Less emphasis on jump scares, more on terrifying environments and suspense.
Less emphasis on jump scares
That’s a good point. The “scary” genre spans a really wide range of games. Might help if OP lists some games that they particularly liked, and maybe any that aren’t quite what they’re looking for.
Consider some games that might be considered scary (not selecting these as the “scariest” or 2D, just examples of how broad a variety of scary games might be):
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Gone Home. There’s no killing, no monsters. But it’s got a spooky ambience – I mean, you’re wandering around an house where people are missing, trying to understand what happened. I don’t know if I’d call it a horror game, but there are definitely people who might call it “scary”. I felt tense while playing it.
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World of Horror. This has no shortage of gore, but its graphics are 1-bit and low-resolution.
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White Night. That’s also black-and-white, but entirely-different, derives most of the scary factor from ambience and limited visibility. No gore. You can definitely die, though.
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The Lurking Horror. Just text.
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Resident Evil: Village. High-end, realistic graphics.
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Super Lone Survivor. 2D, color pixel art with 3d hardware effects.
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I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream. A core element of the game’s horror is that the characters cannot die.
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Among the Sleep. You’re a mostly-helpless toddler.
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F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. You’re a decidedly not-helpless special forces operator, lots of jumpscares.
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The Forest. Open-world, not driven by a story.
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Inscryption. A deckbuilder.
Doki Doki literature club
Signalis is my vote.
Even though it’s technically 2.5D I’d also recommend Inside.
Oxenfree messed me up when I played it a few years ago. It’s got this super eerie vibe to it that really ratchets up the tension and sense of dread.
A game I played recently might do the job too, it’s called Signalis. It plays a bit like a 2D Resident Evil game, but with a slightly more interesting story.
