Silent Hill or The Suffering?

[Dasquian Belargic]

I'm looking to buy a game to scare myself with. Ideally, I'm looking for something that balances between action and puzzles, with a detailed story to frame the whole thing around. Something supernatural or eerie.

So far ideas that I have are either one of the "Silent Hill" games (I haven't played any of them, didn't realize they were available on PC) or "The Suffering" (which appeals to me because I've read that there is some gameplay in an asylum level, and the scariest level I've ever played was the Shalebridge Cradle asylum in "Thief: Deadly Shadows"). Plus a few other games, listed below.

Anyway, the thing is, the reviews I'm finding for these games are mixed, so I'm asking for you guys to give me some help on what I should buy. Tell me what's good about the game, give me a brief description or something. Silent Hill 1 doesn't appear to be available on PC, so these are the options...

Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill 3
Silent Hill 4: The Room
The Suffering
System Shock 1 or 2
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (not yet released)
Alone in the Dark (I don't know much about this one :huh)
... other? Recommend something!

Any help is much appreciated.

[Rognan Dar]

Well, I watched my brother play a demo of Silent Hill 4: The Room, on XBOX, and man, it was really weird. Its not my kind of game because its really slow. But that also made it kind of scary. There is a little action in that, but it wasn't anything to get excited about. Its more like a scramble to keep yourself alive from nightmare creatures. Thats all I know of the games...

[Morgan Evanar]

System Shock 2. There are some higher definition model packs for it too.

"I'mm... sorrrrry."

And you will hate monkeys. Monkeys. argfjkl;galkjl;fdjs;lkjf MONKEYS.

[Darth Stratus]

System Shock 2 without a doubt.

[Dasquian Belargic]

The only trouble is finding a copy of System Shock 2 at a reasonable price :(

[Darth Stratus]

Tried it, you wont, you will have to pay for quality :)

[Dasquian Belargic]

I don't have the money to pay for the quality right now. I'm on a budget :cry

[Darth Stratus]

Then i suggest SH4- The Room

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

System Shock 2 is the best sci-fi / horror experience you can buy. It's Event Horizon, 2001, First Contact, and Aliens, except multiplied by ten and interactive.

[Phantom]

The Suffering is damn good game, I have it on XBOX, but still haven't beat it. I'll admit, so far its been pretty freaky, I'll play it at night with all the lights off and the volume turned way up. Gameplay is pretty good, but the game itself is not big on puzzles. I also have Silent Hill 4: The Room which is also a great game, though again I still haven't beat it. That ones on XBOX as well. Alone in the Dark is pretty good, but its kinda slow. I don't know much about the others you mentioned. I'd suggest the Suffering based on the games I've played.

[Baralai Lotus]

Never played System Shock. . .but if you wanna be scared, buy Silent Hill. But you have to play from the first one. Otherwise it may seem weirder than it is. As far as Alone in the Dark goes. . .I would avoid it. Suffering is good if you want some psychological crap big time. All in all, they're good.

[Pierce Tondry]

And you will hate monkeys. Monkeys. argfjkl;galkjl;fdjs;lkjf MONKEYS.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Quoted for great truth.

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

Originally posted by Baralai Lotus
Never played System Shock. . .but if you wanna be scared, buy Silent Hill. But you have to play from the first one. Otherwise it may seem weirder than it is. As far as Alone in the Dark goes. . .I would avoid it. Suffering is good if you want some psychological crap big time. All in all, they're good.

Silent Hill is a happy child's game compared to any of the System Shock games.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Originally posted by Pierce Tondry
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Quoted for great truth.


Do I want to know why I will hate the monkeys?

[Morgan Evanar]

NO. RUN! MONKEYS! ARGHGHGHGHHG.

[Droo]

If you want to be scared and play an amazing game. System Shock 2.

Speaking of which, are they making a sequel to it? A new SS game is due, methinks.

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

Originally posted by Dasquian Belargic
Do I want to know why I will hate the monkeys?

1. They're 1.5 feet tall at best

2. Use evil mind powers to throw fireballs at you and burn you.

3. They come out of absolutely nowhere and scare you, even when you've cleared an area.

4. You usually can't get close enough to them to beat them with your wrench, you have to waste valuable bullets to kill them, of which you have TEN :cry

5. They make creepy monkey sounds when they're nearby. Enough for you to know they're close to you, but not enough to triangulate their whereabouts.

6. For your trouble of killing them, you are usually rewarded with their sweet brain-meats which you use for SCIENCE, and a bag of potato chips. POTATO CHIPS? For death?! Gee thanks, insult to injury!


Originally posted by Droo
If you want to be scared and play an amazing game. System Shock 2.

Speaking of which, are they making a sequel to it? A new SS game is due, methinks.

I've heard they are, but its gonna be set in the past or something - a la WW2 nazi science kind of thing. I'm interested, just a little nervous though.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I managed to get ahold of SS2 this morning. Only on the first level, but I'm really enjoying it so far. The in-game music is awesome. I just wish that I didn't have to turn it down so I could hear things coming after me :uhoh

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

I disable music when playing SS2. It makes it scarier, to be honest.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I have to agree - those monkeys are very annoying.

I can't play this game for more than 45 minutes at a time without freaking myself out and needing a break ^_^;

[Tod Marr]

What profession did you choose? I always go the Navy Tech officer - nothing better than hacking doors and crates and modifying weapons.

Here's a tip - the wrench is your best weapon. Unless you're a marine with bigger guns or a psi officer with psychokinetic firepower, you'll never need anything other than the wrench until very late in the game. When you find the very rare one-use upgrade units (there's only 3 or 4 in the game IIRC) there's an option to increase melee damage by 25%. This effectively allows you to kill hybrids (zombies) in a single strike, which is very handy if you're at point-blank range without a gun and staring down a shotgun barrel.

Another word of advice - stick to youer specialization. When I first played the game, I went a marine. But I was trying to 'buy' psychic powers and hack skills as well as improve my weapon skills. If you do this, you'll have very poor stats in the second half of the game since the majority of your points will have to be spent simply learning the skill tiers before the skills themselves. EG, to learn a level 1 skill is about 10 modules, but level 2 is only about 2 - the principle is that its a milestone to learn how to walk, yet running is easier once you know the basics of moving your legs.

So stick with whatever skills your profession specializes in and if you really want something else, limit your differentiation. For example, I go Navy but am fond of the Assault Rifle - so I always save up to learn Standard Weapons 6.

Congradulations on being able to find a copy of possibly the greatest survival horror ever made. I've played all the way through the game several times now and always find myself re-installing it for another play-through every couple of months.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I just picked up a pre-owned copy of Silent Hill 4 for £8 ($15) :)

EDIT... but I won't be playing that, because it won't install :mad

[Shawn]

Silent Hill 4 was the weakest in the series, but I still managed to have some fun with it. Do you get any specific error message when you try to install it?

[Dasquian Belargic]

I've tried a couple of times and it always stops, during the installation, on reaching a certain file. I can only assume that there is some problem with the disk :\

[Shawn]

My first recommendation would be to return it and see if you can get a copy of Silent Hill 2 or 3. ;)

You could try buffing out the scratches with a non-gel toothpaste. Or try making an image with Alcohol 120%.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Toothpaste? o_O How does that work?

[Shawn]

"Baking soda toothpaste, huh? Actually, any mild abrasive like furniture polish, Pledge, or plastic polish works fine for removing CD scratches. Just take any lint-free cloth, add some of the abrasive to the afflicted area, and then wipe. Make sure to wipe from the center of the disc to the rim in a straight line. Never wipe in a circular pattern."

From a Googled page on the subject. Most people have pretty good results with this method for getting rid of light scratches, but you do risk making it worse.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I see. I'll have to give that a go then!

EDIT - I used some Pledge on it and that got it further into the installation than before, but still not more than half way :(

[Bandage]

Personally, I kinda liked the Silent Hill series. The radio static effect when monsters are nearby made it cool, plus being able to beat zombies to death with a metal pole.

The Suffering is quite an awesome game. The way it unfolds, and the creepy effects, like the game play slowing down so that you can watch an event of the past occur and create the ghastly monsters that you have to fight. In addition, I am a big fan of the main "bad guy" characters, such as the Doctor that shows up from the old projector cameras, Hermes Haight who shows up as a wisp of gas-chamber gas, and the other inmate who constantly shows up around electrified areas, like the cameras, where you can watch him be fried with the electric chair, and walking behind you, but when he gets up to the character, the screen gets hazy and then the image disappears. The effects for the Suffering, along with the edgy characters, fighting in an asylum, an ancient slave ship, a prison, and the outer perimeters, the great weapons, the ability to monster out similar to the Devil May Cry series, and the warped monsters representing ways that people suffered and died on the island. In general, The Suffering's an awesome game.

I can't comment on System Shock, because I've never played it, but it does sound quite interesting.

[Sanis Prent]

Originally posted by Tod Marr
What profession did you choose? I always go the Navy Tech officer - nothing better than hacking doors and crates and modifying weapons.

Here's a tip - the wrench is your best weapon. Unless you're a marine with bigger guns or a psi officer with psychokinetic firepower, you'll never need anything other than the wrench until very late in the game. When you find the very rare one-use upgrade units (there's only 3 or 4 in the game IIRC) there's an option to increase melee damage by 25%. This effectively allows you to kill hybrids (zombies) in a single strike, which is very handy if you're at point-blank range without a gun and staring down a shotgun barrel.

Another word of advice - stick to youer specialization. When I first played the game, I went a marine. But I was trying to 'buy' psychic powers and hack skills as well as improve my weapon skills. If you do this, you'll have very poor stats in the second half of the game since the majority of your points will have to be spent simply learning the skill tiers before the skills themselves. EG, to learn a level 1 skill is about 10 modules, but level 2 is only about 2 - the principle is that its a milestone to learn how to walk, yet running is easier once you know the basics of moving your legs.

So stick with whatever skills your profession specializes in and if you really want something else, limit your differentiation. For example, I go Navy but am fond of the Assault Rifle - so I always save up to learn Standard Weapons 6.

Congradulations on being able to find a copy of possibly the greatest survival horror ever made. I've played all the way through the game several times now and always find myself re-installing it for another play-through every couple of months.

Anybody who isn't a Navy tech in that game is a moron or an evil genius, I am not sure.

Navy is definitely the best way to go in that game.

Also, the assault rifle is magnificent. Don't bother with anything heavier than this.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Silent Hill 2 scares the hanoonies out of me. I refuse to play it alone, even during the day; but I've got an aversion to play it while Charley is around since he makes creepy breathing noises and generally DOESN'T HELP AT ALL in the 'stay positive and not scared' department. So I'm not quite halfway through it and I've had it for over a year :(

I've got Ak's copy of SS2, but I still haven't loaded it up thanks to both Charley's and Ak's praises about its' scariness. About the only thing I remember from it was watching Ak play with cheats, and moving so fast that whenever he hit something he lost health points or sometimes just died instantly.

Eternal Darkness is also good, IMO. Messes with the mind a bit.

[Shawn]

sIl: Install and playing Thief: Deadly Shadows. It doesn't have a scary level at all. Nosiree. :D