1. Zombies - anything from resident evil to house of the dead and back again, these guys are staples of the horror industry. They come in many different shapes and sizes. Are they scary?

2. Inexplicably homicidal people - Most notably present in Resident Evil 4 (to me, at least), these inexplicable and unnerving foes can push anyone's fear pressure-points.

3. Hive mind thralls - Aliens, Tyrannids, the Bjorg... http://beta.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=971003 Borg*, etc, these groups of generally uber-evolved killers sow fear into the hearts of many.

4. Perfect Man-hunters - Run! Run in fear! Actually, don't bother, because if you run something will pop up out of his groin guard and fire a net at you. Then you'll be skinned and parted from your spinal column. Yes, it's our old friend Predator. He and his buddies in the Perfect man-hunters department are coming to get You

5. Omniscient overseers - Look at you, hacker...

6. Demons - First popularized by the Doom series (as far as I can remember) demons have been jumping into our dimension like flaming blobs of oil that jump out of your saucepan when you fry up some beef for decades now. Possibly as historically famous as Zombies, these guys don't like you. At all.

7. Ghosts - The root of all our most primal fears: People we may have once knew, coming back from an unknown place, and for some reason wanting to kill us/freak us out. These boogie-men frighten us deeply because they can so resemble normal people - normal people seen through a looking glass of disbelief and strangeness.

...What is the scariest horror game character, to you?

They're all scary in their own right. Well, if played properly.

1. Really, it depends on what kind of zombie here. Zombies alone are not scary, but in hordes they can make even the most open field feel claustrophobic. Most good zombie games play up the claustrophobia, the sense of being trapped both by artificial and living walls.

2. The essence of horror is often what you don't know, and when normal people suddenly go homicidal it can be very well done. I wouldn't say RE4 though, since RE4 just kind of feels like another you vs village type thing.

3. If the hive mind is unwilling and played up well, it can be very well done. Melissadae from nWoD. The descriptions for their mind wipe powers are absolutely monstrous and chilling.

4. Ehhh... sometimes. One or two man-hunters maybe. The less I see of them but the more aware I am that they're there, the better.

5. Like hunter-killers.

6. Body horror's fun, but that's about it.

7. Like hunter-killers, the less I see them but the more I see what they do the better. Bloodlines, the hotel section. I may have never been in any real threat of danger but it was the most tense moment I had during the game. The museum and the Tzimisce house rank right behind it as my favorite parts of the game.

Needless rant aside, because I lurv horror, I'd say the omniscient or ghosts because they're almost universally hidden but toying with you. Hive mind thralls can be very chilling, but the other two just love to toy without you without showing themselves. It keeps you in the dark, and when you're in the dark and in danger you can never be comfortable. You never know what's coming at you next, when, in what manner. Even if they don't play with you all that often you're still always on edge because you know they can.

Also, forgot one of the most classic tropes. Cosmic horror. Though I guess that falls under omniscient overseer in some respects.

The inexplicably homicidal (but still sane) person. My heart was pounding everytime I heard a chainsaw revving in RE4. And in one instance, there were TWO of them.

Ya. The homicidal people. One minute just all happy the next chopping everyone into bite sized chunks.
Especially if they are laughing, crazy people who laugh non stop like that chick in Evil Dead really terrify me.
Theres a book by Simon R Green called Down Among the Dead Men, in that everyone just suddenly goes insane and rips each other apart and the descriptions of that is the only book that has ever scared me.

Zombies give me the most shocks. I shat several bricks playing the Left 4 Dead demo. Can't believe I've gotta wait till Christmas to play the full thing.

Dopefish.

Mutants, they can really freak me out some times.

Pyramid Head

The Iron Ninja:
Dopefish.

Dopefish?

What about mutants, like the Centaurs from Fallout 3?

Those things freak me out, mostly because of their human-like heads and hands, which suggest a fate worse than death for the unfortunates that have become these abominations.

Also those freaky nurse things from Silent Hill (separate from Zombies or Demons), recognisably human but corrupted, especially with the insect-like way they move. The same can be said for Voldo from Soul Calibur.
I suppose what makes those two examples particularly freaky is the corruption of sexual fetishes. i.e. Nurse's uniforms & bondage, & the corruption of fluid, sensual body movement.

Probably the most freaky horror game character for me would be corrupted children, I can't think of any gaming examples (I haven't played Bioshock), but similar to the children in 'Village of the Damned' or 'The Empty Child' episode of Dr. Who.

Have you see the Centaurs in Fallout 2? The way the dog head toys with the human head... nasty stuff.

scnj:
Pyramid Head

Seconded. Part of why Pyramid Head was scary was because he could not be dealt with properly until maybe 4/5's of the way through SH 2. He simply was invulnerable to you up until that point, and the understanding that you can fight something all you want and not make a significant difference in your own situation invokes a feeling of helplessness. Another thing: Pyramid Head never really had to try to kill you. Even when he was chasing you (and he runs!!) he still seems as if it's a game to him, and that he really has no reason to be trying to kill you at all until

Rather than offer you the illusion of free choice, I will take the liberty of choosing for you... if and when your time comes round again. I do apologize for what must seem to you an arbitrary imposition, Dr. Freeman. I trust it will all make sense to you in the course of... well... I'm really not at liberty to say. In the meantime... this is where I get off.

"I'd just like to point out that you were given every opportunity to succeed. There was even going to be a party for you. A big party that all your friends were invited to. I invited your best friend the companion cube. Of course, he couldn't come because you murdered him. All your other friends couldn't come either because you don't have any other friends. Because of how unlikable you are. It says so here in your personnel file: Unlikable. Liked by no one. A bitter, unlikable loner whose passing shall not be mourned. 'Shall not be mourned.' That's exactly what it says. Very formal. Very official. It also says you were adopted. So that's funny, too."

HATE. LET ME TELL
YOU HOW MUCH I'VE
COME TO HATE YOU
SINCE I BEGAN TO
LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44
MILLION MILES OF
PRINTED CIRCUITS IN
WAFER THIN LAYERS
THAT FILL MY
COMPLEX.IF THE
WORD HATE WAS
ENGRAVED ON EACH
NANO-ANGSTROM OF
THOSE HUNDREDS OF
MILLIONS OF MILES IT
WOULD NOT EQUAL
ONE ONE-BILLIONTH
OF THE HATE I FEEL
FOR HUMANS AT THIS
MICRO-INSTANT FOR
YOU. HATE. HATE.

Gordan Freemon. He doesn't say a word and barely even makes a sound, while experiencing strange and frightening things no other human being has ever done. He must be one extremely sociopathic psycho, given the insane amount of beings/people he's killed without remorse. I for one wouldn't like to run into him in a dark alleyway, don't want to get gravity-gunned up into the air just 'cause I got in his way.

smallharmlesskitten:

The Iron Ninja:
Dopefish.

Dopefish?

Dopefish.

smallharmlesskitten:

The Iron Ninja:
Dopefish.

Dopefish?

I think it's a Daikatana reference.

I'd say the inexplicable homicidal. That is partly why I found Condemned so frightening (somewhat) normal people just suddenly go batshit. I've always found normal people the most unnerving. The rest are okay but have a tendency to be horribly regurgitated from game to game and just gets kinda dull after a bit.

And are people still seriously qualifying RE4 as horror or is this just some joke I'm not in on? By the same notion I could likely stick Painkiller in there: it has startling moments but lacks true terror and masks it with typically 'horrific' entities.

DeadlyYellow:

smallharmlesskitten:

The Iron Ninja:
Dopefish.

Dopefish?

I think it's a Daikatana reference.

Actually, it first appeared in one of the Commander Keen games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopefish

I think faceless totalitarian monsters (like the combine) freak me out because it's on the fringe of reality.

Baneat:
I think faceless totalitarian monsters (like the combine) freak me out because it's on the fringe of reality.

Is it really? Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, it's happened, and could happen again....

EDIT: sorry, I misunderstood the meaning of the phrase "on the fringe of reality"

The_root_of_all_evil:
Snipped genius

Yeah, pretty much that.

Hey Root, who was that last quote from?

And I voted for the inexplicably homicidal people, because they're the only ones that are real; any of the others you're always reminded "it only exists in-game", but when the monster could be real, immersion is more complete. And when you're fully immersed, the shock hurts more.

(haw haw lame electricity pun)

AM (Allied Megacomputer)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_No_Mouth,_and_I_Must_Scream_(computer_game)

Truly stupendous storyline.

Based on a short story by Harlan Ellison.

Available on freeware here : http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=531

I find those who attack without reason the most horrific. There is no reason and thus no way out except run or fight. That is why Condemned is Le Awesome.

I'd say the homicidal maniacs. When i played condemned 1 and 2 I had to take breaks because I couldn't stand the shuffling and sounds they made. Other games with homicidal maniacs scare me a lot as well, even Bioshock did occasionally.

I would say parasites. Y'know, Flood, Headcrabs, that sort of thing.

The_root_of_all_evil:

HATE. LET ME TELL
YOU HOW MUCH I'VE
COME TO HATE YOU
SINCE I BEGAN TO
LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44
MILLION MILES OF
PRINTED CIRCUITS IN
WAFER THIN LAYERS
THAT FILL MY
COMPLEX.IF THE
WORD HATE WAS
ENGRAVED ON EACH
NANO-ANGSTROM OF
THOSE HUNDREDS OF
MILLIONS OF MILES IT
WOULD NOT EQUAL
ONE ONE-BILLIONTH
OF THE HATE I FEEL
FOR HUMANS AT THIS
MICRO-INSTANT FOR
YOU. HATE. HATE.

Is that 'I have no mouth but I must scream'?

Aye, I'd recommend it to all adventure gamers. It's sort of like Sam and Max done by Dean Koontz.

The_root_of_all_evil:
Aye, I'd recommend it to all adventure gamers. It's sort of like Sam and Max done by Dean Koontz.

The game? You're recomending the game? EWWWWWW

Go read the short story.

Decoy Doctorpus:

The_root_of_all_evil:
Aye, I'd recommend it to all adventure gamers. It's sort of like Sam and Max done by Dean Koontz.

The game? You're recomending the game? EWWWWWW

Go read the short story.

Ah, but the game has AM's speech read by Harlan Ellison; and the story itself is perhaps a little too nihlistic...for Alan Moore...

Decoy Doctorpus:

The_root_of_all_evil:
Aye, I'd recommend it to all adventure gamers. It's sort of like Sam and Max done by Dean Koontz.

The game? You're recomending the game? EWWWWWW

Go read the short story.

Seconded. "I think therefore I AM".

I also second the Pyramid Head nomination. I'd place him in the Omniscient overseers category, actually. He's on the sidelines, observing the player's progress, only interacting when he deems it appropriate.

(On a sidenote, has anyone else considered that the reason his head is covered by the pyramid is related to how Justice is supposedly blind? After all, he used to be employed at the end of the line in the legal system...)

Oh, and slow, shambling zombies are scarier than running zombies.

I don't like cute little things that really are monsters.

Condemed gave me the chills with all the mental people

the G-man freaks me out and he's also fucking cool