Still sticking with that Halloween theme, I thought it would be a good time to talk about five games that I am in love with. This isn’t really a “best of” list, so these games are presented in no particular order. They’re just games that I really enjoyed playing. They just so happen to coincide with the idea of horror and October and Halloween pretty nicely. This also isn’t so much of a review as it is a voluminous amount of love spilled upon the page.

Shall we? We shall.

 1. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem

  Platform: GameCube

 Let me tell you what. This is one of the most amazing games that I have ever played in my whole life. And while I stated that this wasn’t a ranking system, I’m writing about this one first because it’s the best. Hands down. If they ported this to every single system in the world, I would play it on every single system that I currently own, despite the fact that I have already played through it five times. Or six times. I’ve played through it a lot. I got all the endings, but kept going because the game is just that good.

 This game really and truly fucks with your head. Not just through jump scares, though there are some of those. You have a sanity meter that you have to keep filled, or the world around you distorts. Your camera tilts. You start to hear disembodied whispers. But sometimes, even when you’re completely sane, the world gets messed up anyway. Your head might fall off, or you might get a blue screen with a notice that all your data on your whole device has been corrupted.

 It’s an excellent game for anybody who adores Lovecraft. Eternal Darkness absolutely drips with Mythos, though nothing is ever directly tied in. There are puzzles and creepy things throughout. The player uses both magic and might to get through the levels, each one tied to a different point in history. All that you learn throughout comes back to the main character, Alex, who is trying to solve the mysteries of the mansion and the murder of her grandfather.

 I still have a GameCube specifically for this game. That’s all I’m saying.

2. The Suffering

Platform: Xbox, Playstation 2, Windows

 You’re Torque, a man who has been sent to prison for the murder of his family. That’s pretty run of the mill (haha), but what isn’t is the earthquake and monsters that follow. This game definitely sits in the middle of the survival horror genre, and the goal is to stay alive and get the hell off of the prison island.

 All around, this game is dark. From the driving needs of the character, to the monsters that have to be fought. Instead of being nurses or doctors that have been altered, the monsters embody the different ways that a prisoner can be executed. You have a doctor who is trying to cure you in questionable manners, and two characters who play much like conscience angels, swaying decisions toward good or bad.

 This and the follow up The Suffering 2, have an amazing storyline and great play. Another pair of games that I played through more than three times each. I couldn’t get enough of them. Jump scares and creepyness flow throughout.

3. Splatterhouse

Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation 3

 This game is unabashedly gore porn. Undeniably. I don’t think it even cares about ratings systems. It tells ratings systems to sit on it. And it does it with such fantastic fervor and flair. There’s absolutely no need for the amount of blood that comes out of creatures, and the main character, but it’s good fun.

 You’re Rick, and also the Terror Mask, and you’re out to save your beloved Jennifer. The mask imbues Rick with fantastic amounts of physical strength, and the ability to heal incredible, otherwise fatal wounds. It also talks to you through the entire game. Sometimes even laughing at how dumb you are. It’s wonderful. Splatterhouse has an addition that the other games don’t, which is that it carries a soundtrack that metal fans will appreciate.

 Splatterhouse has many, many Lovecraftian references in it, much more directly than Eternal Darkness. Here names from stories, as well as places, are used. Unlike Eternal Darkness, however, you don’t feel as if you’re wading through a nightmare straight from Lovecraft’s brain, so much as you’re treated with little tidbits, especially if you know what you’re looking for.

 I don’t think I stopped giggling at any point during this game. Maybe most people won’t laugh at anything but the sick humor of the Terror Mask, but I’m the kind of girl who gets giddy at excessive blood and violence, and this game is replete with such.

4. Dementium: The Ward

Platform: DS

 Another survival horror game, this time set in a hospital. The plot of this one is similar to that of The Suffering, except here the doctor has decided to place the character, William, into nightmares to make him fight to get out. This is, supposedly, to save the endangered brain of a man who is suspected of killing his wife and daughter.

 This game plays much more on the jump scares and twitch reactions of the player than the others. While definitely creepy and engaging, there’s nothing like a swarm of biting bugs or weird flying things to get the heart pumping. Tack onto that the fact that you have to find clues to what’s going on, keep your flashlight batteries stocked, and other things, there are moments of full on panic that arise during gameplay.

5. I AM Alive

Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows

 While there are no horrifying creatures in this game, there are monsters: Other human beings. You don’t run into them very often, mostly if you’re inside a building, sometimes on the outside. There are a few humans that you can choose to help – or ignore if you’re feeling stingy with supplies, and there are a few who don’t do much when you get near them unless you’re stupid enough to pull out weapons. But then there are those who are out for themselves and nothing else, so the only choice is to take them down.

 But you have to be careful, and I mean really, really careful. In I AM Alive your supplies are meager. You don’t run across bullets very often, or in big numbers. You have slightly more luck with arrows, and at least with those you can recover them. Just the act of being outside depletes your stamina, risking death. You’re a skilled climber, so you can get to higher ground and recover, but even that takes up your stamina. Food, energy drinks, pain killers, and first aid kits are also rare. Each one has a different effect on both health and stamina, but using them means that you might not be able to help somebody you come upon who really needs it. On the other hand, you aren’t superhuman. Dying is pretty easy to do. This makes for some very hard choices.

 I AM Alive is the, I believe, quintessential survival game. Right down to the fact that you only get so many chances to retry a mission before you have to start all the way back at the beginning of a save. Believe me, time between saves can be enormous. Timing, carefulness, wariness of the area around you, all of it comes together to make this game completely nerve-wracking.