In the day and age of modern technology, video game press can easily reach all corners of the internet. Unfortunately, some of these talked up games don’t always live up to their circulating rumors. Some titles deliver even more horrific scares than players initially expected, while others can leave much to be desired.
While not being objectively bad all around, some of these games just aren’t the bone-chilling experiences the hype made them out to be. Whether they deserved it or not, here are some horror games that had everyone’s attention even before their big release.
10 Worth The Hype: Until Dawn
Supermassive Games outdid themselves with the release of Until Dawn. It was an incredible interactive horror experience that pulled in both loyal video game fans and newcomers alike. Even if new players weren’t too familiar with video games as a whole, it didn’t stop them from understanding how groundbreaking and terrifying the story of Until Dawn was.
Not only were enemies horrifying, the fear of accidentally offing one of the characters was constant and lingering. Until Dawn did everything right and definitely was just as scary as rumors made it out to be.
9 Over-Hyped: Five Night’s At Freddy’s (Series)
When Five Night’s At Freddy’s first came out in 2014, YouTubers left and right were putting out as many Let’s Plays as they could. Monitoring Freddy and friends made for a great game, at least at first. The same few jumpscares over and over again can only be effective for so long. On top of that, after pumping out sequel after sequel, the FNaF series quickly became trite to many players.
After losing track of that one animatronic for the nth time and having Foxy beeline from his keep straight into the player’s face, it loses its spark. Slowly that feeling of dread and fear fades into frustration and boredom instead. FNaF was frightening but compared to the hype it got during its year of release, some players may feel a bit let down from the feeling of repetition.
8 Worth The Hype: Resident Evil 7
After disappointing fans with Resident Evil 6 back in 2012, Capcom knew it needed to remind its audience why Resident Evil became a household name in the first place; and that’s just what the company did with the release of Resident Evil 7 in 2017. Being the first mainline game in the series done in first person rather than third, RE7 really was the shot in the leg the beloved franchise needed. Capcom went out on a limb and tried something new and different, and it paid off.
Resident Evil 7 received a lot of attention during its release and with its fresh new story, frightening enemies, and eerie environments. The hype was worth it, as this trip to the dilapidated Baker household was less than welcoming.
7 Over-Hyped: Ju-On: The Grudge (Haunted House Simulator)
After the theatrical release of The Grudge in 2004, almost everyone and their moms were plagued with nightmares of Kayako and her cat son, Toshio. But when The Grudge expanded into games and came out with a haunted house simulator in 2009, it fell a little flat.
Controls were clunky, the gameplay was slow, and oftentimes, scares were less frightening and almost a little laughable due to the poor graphics. Although the game may not fulfill its main purpose of being scary, it somewhat made a name for itself as an embarrassingly fun to play horror game.
6 Worth The Hype: P.T.
Although P.T., unfortunately, didn’t come to fruition in the end, it definitely earned a mention when talking about hyped horror games. The buzz around this simple teaser was astounding, stressing streamers left and right to hurriedly be the first to uncover the secrets hidden within.
This “would have been Silent Hill” teaser had everyone talking about how baffling it was that a simple hallway could be so terrifying. So much so that even as an incomplete game that is no longer available on the PlayStation Store, P.T.‘s existence inspired plenty of indie and AAA developers.
5 Over-Hyped: Friday The 13th
After being generously gifted to PlayStation Plus players for free in October of 2018, Friday The 13th quickly skyrocketed in popularity. Unfortunately, the game itself didn’t quite do all of its spooky reputation justice. Controls felt janky, graphics weren’t the most impressive, and it was riddled with glitches and bugs that made the experience more frustrating than scary.
Overall, there was too much hype behind what essentially felt like an unfinished product. Perhaps Jason should have sat this one out (every single variation of him).
4 Worth The Hype: Dead Space
From the moment Isaac Clarke boarded the Ishimura in Dead Space and laid eyes on his very first necromorph, players knew the rest of the game was just going to get more and more terrifying. This new take on zombies goes heavy on the body horror, unleashing disgusting mutated monsters on the player around each unsuspecting corner. The game mechanic of strategically dismembering each enemy to ensure they would stay dead cleverly forced players to focus and aim as best they could in the face of fear.
Dead Space overall was a fresh new take on survival horror. It had audiences talking about it, pinned players up against a new gruesome enemy, and somehow made it just as fun as it was harrowing.
3 Over-Hyped: Alone In The Dark (2008)
Coming off the success of the series’ long-awaited comeback in 2001 with Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare, the 2008 installment was quite the drop-off. Alone In The Dark (2008) was notorious for disappointing fans. The game was overambitious and tried to provide the player with too many different experiences, making it feel like a messy amalgamation of too many genres.
The 1992 original game of the same name was revolutionary for the survival horror genre, and this particular installment really seemed to focus on the “survival” rather than the “horror” (unsuccessfully so).
2 Worth The Hype: Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Even with its initial release being 10 years ago, Amnesia: The Dark Descent has easily solidified itself as one of the most iconic horror games to this day. All the hearsay about Amnesia being an exciting, new, and unnerving experience wasn’t all talk. Amnesia was also considered a psychological horror game as well as survival, all adding more and more layers to the hair-raising experience.
This Lovecraftian-inspired game lived up to all the hype behind its name; whether that fear is from running out of lantern oil or escaping the infamous water monster.
1 Over-Hyped: Slender: The Eight Pages
This game was a great “first try” and there’s no doubt it’s a fun time. But was Slender: The Eight Pages truly as scary as so many people made it out to be? Sure, it’s exciting running from Slendy while picking up some drawings in a dark forest, but “terrifying” maybe isn’t the right word for this game. Slenderman himself resembles a suit-wearing egg and aside from him, there aren’t really any other threats.
Although a fun game from a small developer, Slender: The Eight Pages wasn’t exactly that chilling of an experience.
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