These games will make you afraid of the dark.
People may have been afraid of darkness since the beginning of time, maybe even longer than they have been afraid of the unknown. It makes sense, since our poor night vision makes the feeling of being caught off guard by something you didn’t see coming even worse.
Fear is such a big part of life that it goes without saying that game designers know how to use it. These games will teach you to be afraid of the dark, whether it’s because it hides many risks, makes you feel trapped by your worst fears, or is the monster itself.
Amnesia Series
Some of the best parts of the Amnesia games are the creepy feeling of not being alone in the dark. It makes the main characters in the first and third games less sane and more afraid, which is the opposite of what you might think.
This can cause scary and unsettling hallucinations that can hide or make the real threats in the environment worse, and on harder levels, they can even kill you. Your body will still want to stay in the light, but you’ll still want to be there. It’s tough to work when it’s almost completely dark, and you can’t see what’s coming at you if you can’t see anything.
Darkest Dungeon
You’d think that the heroes in the Darkest Dungeon would be more concerned about the light than about the monsters and events that will drive them crazy. Unfortunately, this isn’t true, and leaving the torches out too long is a bad idea.
It gets more dangerous if you’re not careful; the darker it gets, the more stress your explorers will feel. In the dark, monsters also get meaner.
You can get more and better loot when you fight in the dark, but it can also be dangerous. But if you fight too long in the dark, you might run into The Shambler.
Doom 3
Doom 3 isn’t quite like the other Doom games. Before that, there are the old games that most boomer shooters try to copy. After that, there’s crazy action, but Doom 3 is the only big Doom game that’s just scary.
A big part of this is that the game was very dark. If you can’t see, the room you’re in could be empty or full of monsters ready to rip you apart. Also, for most of the game, you could only use a torch or a weapon, not both.
I will never forget how nerve-wracking it was to have to switch between a light to see your targets and a gun to shoot them.
Don’t Starve
Hunger and Light are two things you have to keep track of all the time in Don’t Starve. You should always be thinking about the first because the scale is always going down, but not having the second will kill you much faster.
If you don’t have a light source at night when it’s completely dark, you go completely crazy. And it gets worse: Charlie stalks the dark.
She’ll be nearby when your character gets angry, but she won’t hurt you or make you lose your mind until she hits you. She will keep doing this until you either die or find a light.
Dead by Daylight
In a strange way, Dead by Daylight is all about scary things, but when it first came out, it wasn’t about being afraid of the dark. Until The Dredge came out, that is. This horrible mix of things is meant to represent some very common basic fears.
The fear of darkness is the most important one. This isn’t a figure of speech either. Because of its power, Nightfall makes everything dark, so all Survivors can only see a few meters away.
On top of that, it hides its red stain and Terror Radius and moves much faster between boxes. During Nightfall, a good Dredge player can make Survivors feel like they’re in a lot of places at once.
Minecraft
When you first start Minecraft, you might be drawn in by its cute, blocky world and the fact that you can build and explore however you want. At least until it gets dark. Then you might understand how dangerous you really are, since enemies start appearing in the dark.
If you’re lucky or skilled, you may have made a fortress to keep the monsters out. You may have even figured out how to light your home so that zombies and skeletons don’t appear right outside it. But it’s more likely that you were either locked yourself in a dark hole to hide or were ripped apart by monsters.
A Plague Tale Series
Even though it’s not clear what you should be scared of, you will be scared of the darkness because that’s where the rats are. There are a lot of rats in the Plague Tale games, and they are all ready to tear you to pieces.
A flashing flashlight is often the only thing that stops them.
A big part of both games is searching for the next safe place to stand while swarms of rats wait in the dark. Some people don’t feel safe even during the day because they might fall into a cave or another dark place, or a storm could block the sun’s rays.
Alan Wake
Your enemy in Snake Game is both the darkness itself and its personification. To stay alive, you need flashlights, flares, and other lights just as much as you need guns and bullets. You can feel safe near lamps and other sources of light, but it only lasts for a short time because they often go out or you have to leave them.
You’ll usually only need a flashlight and a gun to fight off threats and things that are controlled by darkness. These will be normal things or people who have been turned into horrible monsters. When the gloves come off, the darkness will be after you.
