Good(sleeper hit) survival horror ps2 games?

[jonnyutah]

Been looking for some good underrated, rare japanese style survival/horror games for ps2. something atmospheric with truly scary music and story. I want true survival horror. I made a short list of some games that look interesting. tell me what you think......

KUON: saw the triler for it and looks really freaky! the unique thing about it is it's set in historical japan which really seperates this game from the rest. historical survival horror? just seems so different. the only thing i didn't really like was the main character blowing fire at monsters...that seemed out of place for a horror game. what do you think? worth picking up?

Rule Of Rose: this game just looks disturbed LOL. only saw a shot clip but the music and art style rally looks creepy with phyco kids. this look like a rare game too. any good?

TRAPT: I don't know if this falls under the horror genre or not but it look cool. it reminds me of the deception series for psone. I think this is basicly deception 4 under a new name. even though you play the trapper in this game is there anything scary or edgy about it?

Fatal frame 1,2,3: How are the fatal frame series? they seem pretty popular. second to silent hill of course. any good?

Siren: I am really concideing importing the ps3 version of this game. don't know how different the ps2/ps3 versions are....besides the ps3 version looking amazing! if i play this game, i want it to be on ps3 :) since the ps3 verison wasn't released here i think it would make a better collector game.

these are the horror games i'm thinking about. they are rare and some can be found in the bargain bin for as little as $7 some places. if i'm missing anything good please feel free to weigh in. :)

[porkins]

Go back and play Parasite Eve for PS1. Very atmospheric! If you have a GameCube or Wii, then DEFINITELY pick up Eternal Darkness!

[BetaWolf47]

You could take a look at Cold Fear.

[shopkins]

Fatal Frame is fantastic. I love the whole series. It's probably the scariest game of its type out there except for maybe the Silent Hill series. I love the picture-taking mechanics and the storytelling, which is actually rather dark and twisted.

Rule of the Rose is an odd duck. The characters and the story, especially the dark fairy tale aspect of it, are wonderful. Everyone denigrates and humiliates your character throughout the whole game, the other girls call her "filthy Jennifer" and even the narrator calls her "the unlucky girl." When she dies it says "and everyone lived happily ever after." It has scary hints at all kinds of childhood abuse throughout.

But the gameplay is just, bad. Jennifer is one of the weakest characters in videogames and when you have to fight it's a chore. It's better to just run from things. There's a boss battle halfway through that's a nightmare of bad collision detection and unbalanced difficulty. The only real saving grace for the gameplay is Jennifer's interactions with her dog, Brown, a helper character who doesn't really protect you but instead helps you find the next object you are looking for by sniffing it out with his nose.

You also might want to look into the Clock Tower games released for the PS2. Clock Tower 3 is fun and relatively true to the rest of the series but it's almost spoiled by these out of place bossfights where you shoot magic arrows at things. The end boss is hairpullingly difficult. Haunting Ground is only a pseudo sequel, it follows the Clock Tower formula by giving you a weak character chased by a number of stalkers that you generally have to hide from. But, kinda like Rule of the Rose, in this version you have a helper dog named Hewie. Hewie is better in a fight than Brown and is your main method of protecting yourself. Haunting Ground has a few frustrating elements too, but overall I liked it better than Clock Tower 3. It has this nice European horror vibe to it.

Another one you might want to check out is Obscure: The Aftermath. It has some gameplay flaws and frustrations, but it does a really good job of capturing a teen horror movie feel.

As for Kuon, I haven't been able to play it yet because it's kind of rare, but I've heard mostly bad things about it. It's apparently really short and artificially padded by playing it through twice with nearly identical characters.

I tried the original Siren. It seems like the kind of game one might be able to get into if they had a lot of time to master it but it's stealth-based and seemed really hard to me.

Oh, and some people might not even classify it as Survival Horror, but I have to say I liked Extermination. It's basically an early take on what would happen if you removed some of the artificial limitations on your character that games like Resident Evil had and played a character more competent in a fight. It has a nice cheesy Sci-Fi movie storyline and you can get it for less than five bucks, so it's worth picking up.

There's also, while I'm at it, The Thing. The Thing takes place at the artic, so you have to fight the cold and it gives it an interesting setting. It's main gimmick is that you don't know who of the people you interact with is infected and they don't trust you either, so you have to build their trust by giving them weapons and stuff. The big flaw with this is that it's heavily scripted and as far as I can tell people change at predetermined points no matter what.

[Darren870]

Clock Tower 3 was kinda fun.

[The 1 2 P]

You could take a look at Cold Fear.

I was going to suggest that too but I've still never played my Xbox copy. He can also play Silent Hill 2 and 3, although I wouldn't exactly classify those as sleeper hits.

[Darren870]

You also might want to look into the Clock Tower games released for the PS2. Clock Tower 3 is fun and relatively true to the rest of the series but it's almost spoiled by these out of place bossfights where you shoot magic arrows at things. The end boss is hairpullingly difficult.

I never did beat him...He was just way to fucking hard. I almost want to say I spent more time trying to beat him then I did with the rest of the game.

[garagesaleking!!]

cold was a very lesser known game that was a lot of fun and had great graphics.

[norkusa]

I never did beat him...He was just way to fucking hard. I almost want to say I spent more time trying to beat him then I did with the rest of the game.

Yeah, this has to be one of the longest boss fights ever. Took me 40 minutes to finally beat him. I thought I was doing it wrong because it was taking so long, but that was the only way to kill him.


CT3 was was a good game but I liked CT1 the best. Couldn't even play thru CT2 though. Ugh.

[mobiusclimber]

I loved Kuon. I wouldn't say it was short, but you DO have to go over parts of the same game as other characters, so it's like playing the same game three times instead of once. Even if you quit two thirds thru tho it's still a decent length. It was fun and creepy, imo, and the setting really elevates it above most other lesser-known horror titles.

Played the first Fatal Frame and didn't care for it. The atmosphere is great, tho the story seems a bit lacking. It's the combat that killed it for me tho. I hate using that stupid camera. Way too cumbersome.

Rule of Rose was really great... until I got to the boss battle. Never bothered to try to get past it either. There was that other horror game where you have a dog helping you... I don't remember the title of it but it sucked pretty badly. The main character was pure eye candy and for no real reason, and you could only run away and hide. Just not my kind of game.

Siren, again, ruined by its play mechanics. I hated it. You can see thru the enemies' eyes so you have to use that in order to avoid them. Of course when you do that, they can just come up behind you and fuck you up. *sigh*

I second Parasite Eve, btw. Great game. Not very scary tho, even if it IS horror.

OH! If you like RPGs as well as horror games, check out the first Shadowhearts title. Damn good game, with lots of creepy stories throughout. Also, check out the first game in the series for the PS1, Koudelka. Great story, very atmospheric, the battles kinda suck tho. And weapons break, which is really frustrating. Still it's a good game.

[jonnyutah]

kuon is really hard to find in stores. seems very rare indeed. it reminds me of the anime; yoma: curse of the undead. very edo period-gothic. but i'm a little bit turned off by themagic in the game. As for Rule of Rose that game is just twisted....them are some bad kids! unleash american mcgee's veriosn on alice on those kids and it's all over, haha. LOL I am turned off by the text based interactions with other characters.

Anyone play Trapt? it's prety much the unofficial sequel to deception 3. it's pretty clear this si not survival horror but is there any scary moments? been a while since i played deception on psx.

So what you are saying is Haunting ground is some what of a sequel to clock tower 3?

Fatal frame seems to have a nice cult following. which one should I get? looks like fatal frame 4 is only on wii and not coming to the u.s./eu. I'm concidering Fatal frame 2 or 3. is the xbox version much better? in terms of extra's/graphics?

I think i'll pickup.....siren (ps3), Trapt, fatal frame 2 or 3 and maybe haunting ground.

thanks for all the feedback guys :D much appreciative.

[shopkins]

Haunting Ground is sort of a spiritual sequel to Clocktower 3, it has similar gameplay but the stories don't seem to be related. It also adds the dog and gets rid of the terrible boss fights from 3.

My favorite Fatal Frame is definitely Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly. It has these creepy twins in it and a nice feudal Japanese setting.

[Icarus Moonsight]

I have the Fatal Frames on PS2. Awesome games. The odd thing about the horror genre is the creepiness and terror aspects are generally sparse. Fatal Frame has it wall to wall. It has got everything right as far as atmosphere, vulnerability (no conventional weapons, just your camera), story (sadistic malice twisted by insanity with a sprinkling of ancient foreign theology adds elements of confusion and wonder on top of the terror to keep you going) and visuals. It's the scariest game series I've ever played period.

I've tried the Xbox versions and they are better in some aspects, namely slightly better graphics (both) and minor extras (in FF2 DC). They're all worth owning IMO. Yes, all five copies. LOL

[jonnyutah]

icarus you are right on about the spooky aspect of horror games beign sparse. hat's what makes it scary. not knowing whats' waiting down thehall. i thing some developers try to jam up the enviroment with monsters around every turn thinking more is better.....in the survival horror genre, Less is more.

[kupomogli]

Parasite Eve 2 doesn't have as creepy an atmosphere as the original has, though it tries. For some reason it got low review scores, but the gameplay is great and it deserves much better than what it got(it's a better game than the original.) It plays alot like the original Resident Evil games but with more action and a slight RPG element(upgrading spells and purchase of weapons and items, etc.)

I think the game is better than the Resident Evil titles, even my favorites, RE2 and the Outbreak series.

[koster]

Echo Night: Beyond is an ok sci-fi horror game - the setting is a haunted moonbase.

You may want to check out the game reviews at Chris' Survival Horror Quest (http://www.dreamdawn.com/sh/reviews.php).

[Chadt74]

Jonny, Trapt is not scary at all. It can be fun killing all these different people in different ways, but I wouldn't call it scary.

[Cryomancer]

I'd like to suggest Michigan: Report From Hell, but it's really not a very serious game.

I'd also like to suggest Disaster Report and Raw Danger but those are probably not really what you are looking for either.

I guess I'm unhelpful.

[neotokeo2001]

I'd like to suggest Michigan: Report From Hell, but it's really not a very serious game.


I have never heard of Michigan: Report From Hell, Is it import only?

[shopkins]

I'd like to suggest Michigan: Report From Hell, but it's really not a very serious game.

I'd also like to suggest Disaster Report and Raw Danger but those are probably not really what you are looking for either.

I guess I'm unhelpful.

If someone likes playing Survival Horror games, though, there's a really good chance they'll dig Disaster Report and Raw Danger. The games play out in similar ways and in are similar to survival horror in that you have weak characters up against unfair odds.

I also recommend checking out Chris' site. I've been doing my own Survival Horror Quest lately and can't believe I forgot about the Echo Night game for the PS2. I own it, I just forgot about it. I think it's a little more of an adventure game ghost story than really survival horror, though. Or at least not Survival Horror in the Resident Evil mode because there's no combat.

This thread has inspired me to give Cold Fear another chance. I tried it years ago and just hated it, it seemed awkward and difficult. But it might be worth another shot.

[Cryomancer]

I have never heard of Michigan: Report From Hell, Is it import only?

Japan and Europe only, I believe.

I'd really like to suggest Illbleed in this thread too, but that's only for Dreamcast (with a canceled xbox port sadly). That game is nuts. Goes all over the place. Also probably one of the most literal takes on the genre, as you have to keep your heart rate and bleeding and what not within safe levels to survive the horrors you face. Of course, you had better enjoy your horror with some doses of comedy.