Amnesia

I don't have any screenshots of this game because anytime something screenshot-worthy happened, I was too busy screaming like a girl and thus couldn't press the screenshot button.  So you'll just have to use your imagination a bit.

This game is all about setting the proper atmosphere, and that atmosphere is utterly creepy and disturbing.  You start the game as a guy named Daniel who is lying on the floor of an old castle in 1839 England.  You don't remember much.  (Thus the title of the game.  Hint hint.) 

This game is unique at what it does.  You have no weapons, but you can pick up just about anything.  Mostly, you're searching for tinderboxes, and oil for your lantern.  These are needed to provide light, because without light you start to lose your sanity.  This causes you to start shaking, stumbling, and seeing things.  All of which are quite unpleasant. 

You progress through the game by solving puzzles, which so far have ranged from pulling secret books from shelves in a library in order to trigger a mechanism, to knocking apart a false wall, to finding a key in a wine cellar.  These puzzles give you back some of your sanity, which is quite useful. 

So far, all of the moments that have made me jump have been nothing more than strange sounds or odd occurrences.  Doors opening by themselves.  Scraping behind walls.  Loud crashes.  Pianos playing themselves.  Stuff like that. 

Finally, though, near the point where I stopped playing the game (mostly because I was getting too freaked out to continue), I saw some kind of…creature…in the wine cellar.  This is where I realized how the game was doing a very good job at combining all of their strengths to scare the living shit out of me.  For you see, that creature on its own, while creepy, would really not have scared me that much in any normal circumstances.  However, the combined effect of seeing it unexpectedly out of nowhere, at a distance, in a dark cellar, with creepy background music, and having NO WEAPONS with which to defend myself….yeah.  That's just utterly terrifying. 

All in all, if you like that kind of game, you'll enjoy this one. 

Now playing: Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars