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Top 10 Indie Horror Games of 2012


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JoshWoodzy
Joined: May 22 2008
Location: Goshen, VA
PostPosted: Jan 03 2013 01:19 pm Reply with quote Back to top

http://indiegames.com/2013/01/top_10_indie_horror_games_of_2.html

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10. Anna (Dreampainters) [Windows and Mac, paid]
Set in a real location and inspired by ancient Italian legends of Val D'Ayas, Anna is a beautiful 3D point-and-click adventure that, despite a few problems, quite a bit of pixel-hunting and some obscure puzzles, will happily disturb you. It is well paced, the atmosphere simply works and even the doors of the spooky mansion you'll be exploring will shut themselves in the most jump-inducing of ways. Interestingly, Anna also sports three different paths/endings.

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9. Erie (UGF) [Windows, free]
Erie is a stunning survival horror-esque affair taking place back in 1966 and following a partial nuclear meltdown and the subsequent strange events taking place in a sleepy Michigan town by Lake Erie. You get to play as Oliver Victor, a Red Cross investigator, sent to help survivors and investigate the strange going-ons, only to end up running for his life and avoiding mutated horrors.
You will probably get to scream quite a bit too, as Erie isn't afraid of scaring you in a variety of ways, and even its jump scares are masterfully tied to its overall atmosphere.

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8. Imscared (Ivan Zanotti) [Windows, free]
Those wanting a little more than a quick scare should definitely dive into this first-person psychological horror game, for Imscared, cute yet apt name and short length aside, is an offering you won't be forgetting anytime soon. Imscared is devious and ready to deceive, and is happy to both terrify and puzzle you. Actually it's an excellent game and, yes, that portrait definitely had blood on it the first time you looked...

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7. SCP-087 (haversine) [Windows, free]
SCP-087 has somehow been inspired by a sort of rather unnerving and slightly creepy pasta. It is thus very odd. What's more, it also is an incredibly intriguing, procedurally generated experiment in horror that may or may not have you jumping out of your seats, but I frankly can't say much more. Spoilers would definitely kill the experience.

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6. Fibrillation (Egor Rezenov) [Windows, paid]
Disorientation. Oddness. Darkness. Hallucinations. Voices. Impaired vision. Yes, getting scared doesn't have to involve violence. At least not of the direct kind. A truly empty building can be perfect for horror, let alone a building that doesn't really make sense. A building that defies the laws of both physics and logic. Or an endless maze. Fibrillation, a "first person philosophic horror with elements of mysticism" according to its developer, is both unsettling and thought-provoking. And, despite being a gorgeous little game, it also allows you to close your in-game eyes. And be scared while enjoying the short and evocative Dear Esther-esque experience it has to offer.

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5.The Corridor (Al-exe) [Windows, free]
Ever since The Shining, empty hotel hallways have been scary; especially late at night. I mean, really, is that bucket of ice really worth leaving the security of your room? In Al-exe's first-person horror The Corridor it most probably isn't. Players wake up from a sense of unexplained anxiety, leave their room, and find themselves in a dark, long, eerie hallway. The hotel slowly turns into an endless maze of walls that forebode something sinister. They then must go deeper into the darkness to escape and, whether they make it or not, test their calmness.

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4. Slender: The Eight Pages (Mark J. Hadley) [Windows and Mac, free]
A first-person horror game that has been viewed as both gimmicky and ground-breaking, Slender has inspired a slew of clones and derivative material. Drawing from the Slender Man myth, the game has players scrambling to recover manuscripts before the inevitable approach of the Slender Man and the onset of terror-induced insanity. Even more importantly and despite its non-universal appeal, Slender has inspired more than a few indie devs and people are still coming up with Slender-esque offerings even today.

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3. The 4th Wall (GZ Storm) [Windows and Xbox 360, paid]
Calling it an "abstract horror puzzler" as its developers seem to prefer, really doesn't do The 4th Wall justice. This one is one of the weirdest 2012 releases, a wonderfully surreal game and an offering in which the horror element is masterfully executed. It can be downright creepy and genuinely confusing; a game which starts off oddly and makes sure you fail to grasp what's going on, only to get much stranger and more disturbing and go out with an incredible finale.

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2.Home (Benjamin Rivers) [Windows, paid]
Saying that Home is a unique game, might sound like a cliche, but, trust me, this is not the case. Home shares very little in common with the average horror game; its pixel-art graphics, subtle atmosphere, sensible sound-design, deeply psychological nature and short length make it a one of a kind offering. The fact that it's built around the mysteries of the subjective make it a masterpiece. A masterpiece that effortlessly evokes feelings and provides with an almost perfect blend of adventure-esque puzzle solving and horror.

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1.Lone Survivor (Jasper Byrne) [Windows, Mac and Linux, paid]
Evolving from a freeware and pretty brilliant Silent Hill 2 demake (Soundless Mountain II) and never being shy of its traditional survival-horror legacy, Lone Survivor went on to become one of the most successful indie games of 2012 and a glorious love letter to those pioneering genre classics.
Lone Survivor, Jasper Byrne's side-scrolling box of scares, does much more than evoke memories and transport them to a new aesthetic though. It goes back to the survival horror roots, pays its respects and then evolves and refines everything in a way the AAA industry hasn't so far managed. This is a sleek and mature game, dealing with mature subjects in an artistically mature way; a game that feels heretically close to Twin Peaks and one you simply can't afford to miss.


Looks like some good stuff, have only played two of these. Big fan of horror games, and as much as the indie scene annoys me at times, they have a lot more to offer in the horror genre than the mainstream does these days.


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Syd Lexia
Site Admin
Title: Pop Culture Junkie
Joined: Jul 30 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
PostPosted: Jan 03 2013 03:13 pm Reply with quote Back to top

This list needs more Ib. That was a damn cool game. And REALLY creepy.
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Greg the White
Joined: Apr 09 2008
Location: Pennsylvania
PostPosted: Jan 03 2013 04:04 pm Reply with quote Back to top

Played Lone Survivor and Slender, have Home in my library from the Steam Sale. Lone Survivor is great, if a bit short, but the game doesn't showcase how scary it is until you finally return to the safety of your apartment to find you personally relaxing your clenched muscles and messed-up heartbeat. Slender is neat with cool ideas, but the screeching retards on Youtube have pretty much ruined it for me. Once I learned that he's stalking you from the very beginning, it gets twice as creepy.

I find myself digging indie stuff more lately. They're just nice little pallet cleansers to break up the safety of mainstream titles.


So here's to you Mrs. Robinson. People love you more- oh, nevermind.
 
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krislexia
Title: Now with a hint of lime
Joined: Jan 21 2007
PostPosted: Jan 03 2013 06:21 pm Reply with quote Back to top

I second what Syd said about Ib, considering he would know NOTHING about it if I hadn't introduced him. Razz If you're terrified of dolls, Ib is guaranteed to make you lose sleep. And on top of that, it has a handful of possible endings based on the choices you make throughout the game. Sure, Ib isn't the longest game, but considering Kaori is an indie developer, it's damn impressive.

And I'm curious, what other RPGmaker games would you reccomend?


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Syd Lexia
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Title: Pop Culture Junkie
Joined: Jul 30 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
PostPosted: Jan 03 2013 06:24 pm Reply with quote Back to top

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JoshWoodzy
Joined: May 22 2008
Location: Goshen, VA
PostPosted: Jan 03 2013 07:00 pm Reply with quote Back to top

Good RPGMaker games:

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To The Moon - Great game about an old man who's dying and his last desire is to go to the moon.

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Witch's House - About a little girl entering a big, spooky house in the middle of the forest. Basic horror game full of puzzles, scares (some are creative enough, some are just little jumps) and a bit of story which eventually turns out in a big, crazy plot twist by the end.

Those are two of my favorites, there are loads more obviously.


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LordHuffnPuff
Title: Mahna Mahna
Joined: Jan 12 2009
Location: Fairyland
PostPosted: Jan 03 2013 07:34 pm Reply with quote Back to top

I don't understand the hype over Slender.


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krislexia
Title: Now with a hint of lime
Joined: Jan 21 2007
PostPosted: Jan 03 2013 08:22 pm Reply with quote Back to top

JoshWoodzy wrote:
Good RPGMaker games:

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To The Moon - Great game about an old man who's dying and his last desire is to go to the moon.

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Witch's House - About a little girl entering a big, spooky house in the middle of the forest. Basic horror game full of puzzles, scares (some are creative enough, some are just little jumps) and a bit of story which eventually turns out in a big, crazy plot twist by the end.

Those are two of my favorites, there are loads more obviously.


I'll have to try them Smile!! Have you played Yume Nikki? I'm just starting it and I don't know if I have the patience for the creepy dream world format...


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JoshWoodzy
Joined: May 22 2008
Location: Goshen, VA
PostPosted: Jan 03 2013 08:55 pm Reply with quote Back to top

I've downloaded it but haven't started it yet. A few people have said the same thing, that the dream world thing was off-putting. I'll check it out in a day or two and see how it goes.


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Cameron
Title: :O � O:
Joined: Feb 01 2008
Location: St. Louis, MO
PostPosted: Jan 03 2013 11:19 pm Reply with quote Back to top

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Syd Lexia
Site Admin
Title: Pop Culture Junkie
Joined: Jul 30 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
PostPosted: Jan 03 2013 11:32 pm Reply with quote Back to top

Does Virtue's Last Reward count as indie?

It was created by people YOU'VE never heard of and it's better than whatever YOU'RE currently enjoying.

Those are the two defining characteristics of indie music, and I assume indie video games follow the same criteria.
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DarknessDeku
Title: Deku Scrub
Joined: Dec 08 2007
Location: The Forest
PostPosted: Jan 04 2013 07:29 pm Reply with quote Back to top

This is funny. I found the same list on TekSyndicate.com:

http://teksyndicate.com/news/2013/01/04/top-ten-indie-horror-games-2012


i'll_bite_your_ear wrote:
DarknessDeku is already assimilated by the bots.
He knows your algorithm.

 
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username
Title: owner of a lonely heart
Joined: Jul 06 2007
Location: phoenix, az usa
PostPosted: Jan 04 2013 07:33 pm Reply with quote Back to top

DarknessDeku wrote:
This is funny. I found the same list on TekSyndicate.com:

http://teksyndicate.com/news/2013/01/04/top-ten-indie-horror-games-2012

he does mention it is from the indiegames.com in the first sentence:
Quote:
Disclosure: I adore horror games, movies, books...so, now that IndieGames.com has released their list for the top ten indie horror games of 2012, I know exactly what I'll be doing with my spare time: playing through every one of them!


Klimbatize wrote:
I'll eat a turkey sandwich while blowing my load

 
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Joined: Sep 13 2008
PostPosted: Jan 05 2013 11:11 am Reply with quote Back to top

To the Moon was an amazing game. Not so much for gameplay as there was very little, but for the story.

Home was shit though. The game was super short, offered little to no explanation for things, had no threats, the story paths were pretty lame, and even at the end it was kind of a "Well... what do YOU think it was about". It actively encouraged you to go to their website, post your ending, and tell your thoughts. Not in the good way with regular feedback, but to actually discuss the endings and try to figure out what the game was really about, which feels really cheap. Some games can have an open world where you determine the story, and some games have multiple endings but even those are as the result of small choices you've made throughout the entire game, Home offers those choices, but none of them matter until the last bit of the game.

If I recall there were about 5 endings
[SPOILER:ee2ec97dae]
Your wife cheats on you
Your wife didn't exist. Which shouldn't count because even if you do it the character breaks the fourth wall and blames you for her not existing.
Your wife's dead.
You're an alcoholic
(I also heard there were suicide endings but I never tried that)

A main part of the ending that bugged me was at the very end it kind of offers decisions that affect how your ending story is generated, but even so it's small variants to above, and the whole choice part pretty much renders the rest of the game pointless
[/SPOILER:ee2ec97dae]
and none of those endings actually provided a decent bit of explanation for the beginning of the game where you wake up with a dead guy in the room, with an empty house, or for references in the game. It constantly talked about the train yard, and even though there was a door it was always locked. You could fall down holes and hurt your leg, and none of these things actually affected the game. The game doesn't change until the last 3... well i guess they'd be levels of sorts. Where you can find two or three things that determine the actual ending, which narrows your choices for the ending text generation at the end. It's a very cheap system

After you leave the house, and Along the way back home you can find bits of your wallet, that don't actually affect anything other than raise more questions, cross a bunch of bones, even find a couple dead bodies (if you go the right way) and the little puzzle it has is more of a cheap maze.

With the actual horror, I remember one jump scare, some creepy noises, and a shifty guy following you in one part that runs off an the game offers no explanation to him, and some footage of a guy being killed THAT ISN'T EXPLAINED. It's hinted that maybe you killed him on the way in, but the game drops it and it doesn't matter.

The game cost $2 on steam when I got it, and I'd say it's only redeeming factor is the sprite art.
Side note, when I checked the steam hub back when I got it there was a mild amount of hate, I went back just now and the hates only grown, with a lot of comments reflecting a "this is just a press X to continue with a couple times to press Y" attitude.



 
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