Topic: What's the darkest game ever?

[Quemaqua]

Just curious as to what everybody thinks, as I've been playing through Blood Omen again (PS1 version on my PSP).  I think that's gotta' be one of the darkest games I've ever played.  I mean, it isn't nearly as crazy and violent as it once was just because technology has moved on, but for its time... holy crap.  And there's just so much badness.  It's awesome!

Thoughts?

EDIT - Also, don't list games like Painkiller and junk.  I'm talking *really* dark games, not games that just have a dark atmosphere or evil enemies or whatever.  That may be part of it, but I'm talking about that little extra something that makes a game twisted.

[idolminds]

Doom 3....lol flashlight lol.

[scottws]

I would say the Silent Hill games easily take the cake.  If I had to pick one, I'm not sure I know which one to pick.  I never played SH1 but did play its successor, SH3.  The environment was truly fucked up and the story was pretty creppy.

But I'd say SH2 is far darker.  I mean the whole thing is just... sad.

[PyroMenace]

I always felt the darkest games gave the best sense of bleakness. Like Fallout with its post apocalyptic world and even Freespace 2. Yea Freespace just did an awesome job by weighing so much on you and the sheer power and impossible the enemy was, the Shivans. I felt the ending was one of the most amazing, exciting, depressing things Ive felt in a game.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I'm with Scott on Silent Hill.  Blood Omen was pretty dark for its time.  Soul Reaver had a bleakness to it too.  Blood was pretty twisted for its time.  The Silent Hill games are the darkest of the dark when it comes to games though.

[MysterD]

I would say the Silent Hill games easily take the cake.  If I had to pick one, I'm not sure I know which one to pick.  I never played SH1 but did play its successor, SH3.  The environment was truly fucked up and the story was pretty creppy.

But I'd say SH2 is far darker.  I mean the whole thing is just... sad.

Oh yes -- Silent Hill 2 has to be one of the darkest games ever made.

From the atmosphere to the actual depressing storyline/plot, yeah -- makes sense. Especially if you get the "In Water" ending.

I don't think there was really anything happy about SH2. Period.

I'm trying to think of other dark games....
Planescape: Torment
Vampire: Bloodlines

[Quemaqua]

I think the reason Silent Hill doesn't stand out as much for me is because I feel those game have such deep art in them.  I feel that keenly, and I think it takes away from the rawness of the dark and oppressive elements and make it something further.  Blood Omen isn't constrained by much.  It's very primitive in its presentation and design, even fairly primitive for its time, and there's something about that which gives it a very animalistic quality even beyond just the content.  But the content is there, too, and it's pure badness.  Humans as food, but in a rather appalling way that's made more horrible by how dated the game is.  The huge piles of bodies in the plague-ridden areas.  Some of the mass slaughters that are made far darker than your average game by context, even if not by body count.  I remember some of the original ads for it.  A couple of them were really quite gruesome.

But yeah, Silent Hill is definitely up there.  SH2 certainly ranks as one of the darker games to come in recent years.  One of the reasons I can't play those games too often.

I'd also like to add System Shock to the list.  That one had some stuff that went beyond just standard horror, and with the added atmosphere there was some seriously bleakness happening.

[Cobra951]

I was about to mention System Shock and its technically much superior sequel.  There's one part in SS2 in particular where I was chilled to the bone.  The lights slowly went out, and I was alone with the voice of the evil machine.

[Pugnate]

This thread has bugged the hell out of me. I can't think of a single PC game that I'd call dark. Games like System Shock 1 & 2 and Undying had genuinely creepy moments, but I wouldn't call them dark.

I guess it is just how I define dark. Those games I mentioned have can be scary, but to me dark would be completely twisted. For some reason a game that scared me more was F.E.A.R. I guess you could call it dark...

From how you guys describe Silent Hill, I'd say it was pretty dark.

[Quemaqua]

See, I wouldn't call most horror games dark.  They're just bloody or scary.  To me dark implies stuff that's a lot more disturbing, twisted, depressing, and generally unsettling.  Stuff that is rooted more on an emotional level than a visual one, say.  Again, hence my nomination of Blood Omen.  I think the System Shocks did some pretty interesting and dark stuff, though I don't know that they were entirely consistent throughout in that regard.  I never quite finished SS2, so I can't say for that one anyway.

[gpw11]

I can agree on Blood Omen. 

Personally, I can think of the feeling I got when playing a certain game, but can't for the life of me remember what it was...at all.  It's actually kind of pissing me off. 

[Pugnate]

See, I wouldn't call most horror games dark.  They're just bloody or scary.  To me dark implies stuff that's a lot more disturbing, twisted, depressing, and generally unsettling.  Stuff that is rooted more on an emotional level than a visual one, say.  Again, hence my nomination of Blood Omen.  I think the System Shocks did some pretty interesting and dark stuff, though I don't know that they were entirely consistent throughout in that regard.  I never quite finished SS2, so I can't say for that one anyway.

I agree with that. I can't really think of a dark game on the PC. Maybe we should make one.

[MysterD]

See, I wouldn't call most horror games dark.  They're just bloody or scary.  To me dark implies stuff that's a lot more disturbing, twisted, depressing, and generally unsettling.  Stuff that is rooted more on an emotional level than a visual one, say.  Again, hence my nomination of Blood Omen.  I think the System Shocks did some pretty interesting and dark stuff, though I don't know that they were entirely consistent throughout in that regard.  I never quite finished SS2, so I can't say for that one anyway.

Que, what about The Suffering???

[Xero]

Going Old School...American Mcgee's Alice. That was fucked up.

[Quemaqua]

The Suffering was dark, but still a bit too shallow.  It had potential, though, and it certainly wasn't a trot through happy land.  Actually, it was probably darker than a lot of horror games on certain levels.

Also Pug, Blood Omen was a PC game.  It was also on PS1.

As for Alice... I'm probably the game's biggest fan, like, ever, but I don't know how dark I'd say it was.  Again, I think that's probably because the artistry was just so heavy, for me that took precedence over most everything else.  Not to mention the theme of the game was really pretty positive in the end.

[MysterD]

The Suffering was dark, but still a bit too shallow.  It had potential, though, and it certainly wasn't a trot through happy land.  Actually, it was probably darker than a lot of horror games on certain levels.

Suffering was good stuff. I did like it, myself. But yeah -- you had decisions to make, and it didn't always coming out the darkest, depending on your actions. I got the "accidental" ending.

I never got Suffering: Tie That Binds. It has that damn Starforce on it.

I don't think Silent Hill 2, regardless of any ending you got, had any happy endings. I only got the "In Water" ending.

Also Pug, Blood Omen was a PC game.  It was also on PS1.

As for Alice... I'm probably the game's biggest fan, like, ever, but I don't know how dark I'd say it was.  Again, I think that's probably because the artistry was just so heavy, for me that took precedence over most everything else.  Not to mention the theme of the game was really pretty positive in the end.

I got Blood Omen PC.
If I recall, I couldn't get it runnin' on this Win XP rig.

[Quemaqua]

I got all the SH2 endings.  There's one ending that's actually pretty nice.  All the rest are either outright sad or hint at bleak futures.

[Pugnate]

Yea I am the sort of person who hates one trick ponies, but I loved Alice. It just looked so cool. Each level looked like a labor of love.

[NatchDan]

Okay, this may sound weird, but we're talking unsettling, right? StarFox Assault on the Gamecube. Bear with me on this.

Cutesy animal characters flying around saving the day. Whoo. Only.... This time there's a borg-like enemy who absorbs people. And General Pepper, the loveable bloodhound who has given you your missions since the SNES, BEGS YOU TO KILL HIM. ACTUALLY BEGS.

It's WEIRD.

[Quemaqua]

 ...

[Pugnate]

NatchDan truly belongs here.

[NatchDan]

HE BEGS YOU TO KILL HIM. THAT'S WEIRD TO ME.

[scottws]

See, I wouldn't call most horror games dark.  They're just bloody or scary.  To me dark implies stuff that's a lot more disturbing, twisted, depressing, and generally unsettling.  Stuff that is rooted more on an emotional level than a visual one, say.

I think you and I are on the same wavelength as to what "dark" means to us.  I haven't played many of the games mentioned in this thread so I can't comment on them.  But I think Silent Hill 2 is easily all of those things you said.

I think SH2 is more dark than SH3 simply due to the emotion of the game.  SH3 seemed to be more frightening on a audio-visual level, but SH2 was simply full of guilt and depression.  It conveyed a black hole... a downward spiral of mental emotions.  It captured the emotions of all the characters extremely well.

[Quemaqua]

I'd agree with you on that, yeah.  SH3 definitely had those elements present as well, but the main character had to be more detached for plot reasons, really.  It was a much more visually striking game, a thing I think SH2 failed at (well, only in comparison to the other titles, certainly not on the whole), but it didn't have that same deeply personal punch that SH2 did.

[scottws]

Man, I really need to play SH2 again.

[Xessive]

I thought Fatal Frame 2: The Crimson Butterfly was pretty dark and creepy.

Call of Cthulhu was definitely one heck of a dark game.

These are two games I've seen people generally have a hard time playing alone

[nickclone]

The only game that has ever scared me into not being able to finish it is System Shock 2. It literally took me years just to get to level two without freaking out and quitting.

I have to say Grand Theft Auto 3 was pretty dark as well, this was the only game the let you go to town in such graphic detail. I still remember telling my friends about this and how it was so much better on the PC (still can't fly the fucking plane though).

Postal 2, you knew it was coming sooner or later. I hate that this game doesn't get credit, but Dead Rising gets all the praise in the world. This game is just outright, all in all a good time, covered in shit, piss, puke and blood (did I forget anything?). It came out of the starting gate kind of slow, but patch fixed all of the problems and made the perfect game. All of my friends who I told about it personally, loved every minute of it.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, I'd never even attempt to lavish the praise on it that you do, but I still think Postal 2 got a bad rap.  It was actually fun.  I wouldn't call it dark, though, not by a long shot.  Nor GTA3.  There's far too much humor in both, and a truly dark game is going to have close to zero, dark humor or otherwise.

[idolminds]

Hey, I thought of one!

Defcon

*cue eerie music*
*blip*
5.8 MILLION DEAD

[Quemaqua]

Heh, good point.  There are just the vaguest hints of humor there, but that game is almost pure evil.  It's good stuff.

[nickclone]

Yeah, I'd never even attempt to lavish the praise on it that you do, but I still think Postal 2 got a bad rap.  It was actually fun.  I wouldn't call it dark, though, not by a long shot.  Nor GTA3.  There's far too much humor in both, and a truly dark game is going to have close to zero, dark humor or otherwise.

I think it was definitely dark, but it was dark humor. In GTA3 you could murder an old lady with a flamethrower, pretty damn funny to me. As for Postal 2, you could piss on donuts, have cops eat them and puke on the spot. I love how dirty the Chinese restaurant is and I love pissing on random women like R. Kelly after a six pack.

Kingpin is another game that kicks as, think of Morrowind in a very neutered state of mind, with more violence and foul language and you have Kingpin. I first played the demo way back in 98' and fell in love with it and I only bought the game about 4 years ago (never beat it), this game is still in one of my top 10 FPS titles ever though.

Messiah: This has to be the single most original game ever ever made, I don't have the energy to explain to the plot, but if you just google it and see whats going on you'll understand the potential. Not only was the soundtrack funded by "Fear Factory", but when the camera zoomed in on one of the characters, the pixels would multiply and look less...pixelated. Its a game that I only got to demo, but the demo won't work on XP (with sound), it sucks that such a gem is lost.

[Quemaqua]

Kingpin is awesome.  Not so dark, though.  Just scummy crime stuff.  But yes, the game is a classic.  So was Messiah, though I never got to finish it.  There was a bug they never addressed where the sound would cut out halfway through the game or so, hence I could never complete it.  A real drag.  That game was actually pretty dark, too.