Darkness might be one of the most ancient, primeval fears humans have, second only perhaps to thefear of the unknown. It makes sense, since we have terrible night vision which only compounds the prickling paranoia of being taken by something you never saw coming.
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Being such an integral part of the human experience, of coursegame developers know how to tap into this fear. Whether the darkness hides all sorts of dangers, is an oppressive blanket of your worst imagined fears, or the monster itself, these games will teach you to be afraid of the dark.
8Amnesia Series
The crawling feeling of not being alone in the dark is something thatthe Amnesia gamesdeal with in spades. For the less mentally sound protagonists of the first and third games, it actually has the effect of lowering their sanity and increasing their fear.
This can lead to unnerving and terrifying hallucinations that can mask or exacerbate the very real dangers already in the environment and even lead to death on higher difficulties. But even without the mechanical incentive to stay in the light, you’ll still want to be in it. It’s hard to operate in near-total darkness, and it’s hard to see what’s coming to get you if you can’t see at all.
7Darkest Dungeon
With all the sanity-shredding monstrosities and events the adventurers of the Darkest Dungeon have to deal with, you’d think that darkness would be the least of their worries. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case and letting the torches run low is a dangerous proposition.
The darker it gets, the more Stress your adventurers will take, which can get lethal if you’re unlucky. Monsters also get fiercer in the dark.
Fighting in the dark can be a double-edged sword since you also get more and better loot. However, fight in the dark too long and you might find yourselffacing The Shambler.
6Doom 3
Doom 3 is a bit of an odd duck amongst the Doom games. Before it, you have the classics that most boomer shooters attempt to emulate. Afterward, you have balls-to-the-wall action, but Doom 3 is the only mainline Doom game that was just straight-up horror.
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A major part of this is that the game was very dark and without light, the room you’re in could be completely empty or filled with monsters waiting to tear you to shreds. And also, you could only wield a flashlight or a weapon, not both, for the majority of the game.
Having to switch between a light to see your enemies and a gun to shoot them with was a memorably nerve-wracking experience.
5Don’t Starve
Two things youneed to constantly managein Don’t Starve are Hunger and Light. While the former is something you always need to think about since the gauge is always depleting, a lack of the latter will kill you much faster.
At night when it’s pitch-dark if you don’t have a light source, your sanity plummets. Worse yet, Charlie stalks the darkness.
You’ll know she’s around when your character gets agitated, until she strikes, hitting you for a lot of damage and sanity. She’ll repeat this process until you die or find a source of light.
Ironically enough,Dead by Daylightis a celebration of scary, but when it launched fear of the dark was not one of the fears it tapped into. That is, until the release of The Dredge. This amalgamated abomination is meant to represent some very common primal phobias.
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Chief among them is the fear of darkness. This isn’t figurative, either. With its power, Nightfall, turns the environment dark, reducing the sight range of all Survivors to just a few meters.
On top of that, it masks its Terror Radius and red stain and travels between lockers much faster. A good Dredge player can make Survivors feel like they’re everywhere and nowhere at once during Nightfall.
3Minecraft
Upon first starting Minecraft, you might be taken in by its cute, blocky world and the ability to freely build and explore as your heart desires. At least, until night falls. Only then might you realize what terrible danger you’re in since enemies start spawning in the dark.
If you’re lucky or skilled, then you might have built a hovel to keep the monsters out, maybe even worked out some lighting so that zombies and skeletons don’t spawn right outside of your home. More than likely, however, you either sealed yourself in a dark hole to hide in or torn apart by monsters.
2A Plague Tale Series
Though the darkness isn’t explicitly what you should be afraid of, you’ll fear it all the same because in the darkness are the rats. The Plague Tale games have teeming, squirming, and biting masses of rats all too eager to tear you to shreds.
Often, the only thing stopping them is flickering torchlight.
A good chunk of both games is a precarious search for the next well-lit spot with swarms of rats waiting in the shadows. Even the daytime isn’t completely safe, since you’ll often fall into a cave or other darkened place or a storm may hide the sun’s rays.
1Alan Wake
In Alan Wake, your enemy is the darkness both literal and personified, to the point that flashlights, flares, and other sources of light are as necessary as guns and bullets for your survival. You can find safety in the light– streetlights, and other environmental sources of light, but it’s often fleeting since they often go out or you’ll have to leave them.
As you face down darkness-possessed enemies and objects– often mundane things or people twisted into horrors– you’ll often just have your trusty flashlight and a gun to fight them off. And when the kid gloves come off, you’ll find yourself chased by the darkness itself.
