A little change of pace

I know you’ll all be playing Battlefield 3 this weekend, but in the spirit of Halloween, I ask that you don’t overlook some of the most terrifying and intense games you’ll ever play. Believe me, I’m a tried-and-true action gamer. Games need not be deep or well thought out for me to have a lot of fun. In fact, if a game doesn’t get into some action within the first 5 minutes, I usually give up on it…but every now and then it’s good to have a change of pace, to find a game that really messes with you.

Okay, I’ll admit up front that not all of the games in the list below fall under the “deep and scary” category, but all of these games will take a toll on you, especially when you drop all the lights and jack up the sound like you’re supposed to. You also have to put some of these games in context, both within their time and technology, but believe me when I tell you that all of these games made me jump and, in some cases, even gave me nightmares.

In no particular order…

Doom

Doom - An oldie but a goldie.

Doom is one of the first games I played that genuinely made my heart skip a beat. Sure, Doom doesn’t hold up very well against today’s game, and its reputation as nothing more than a deathmatch game doesn’t help, but playing the campaign alone could keep you up late. I forget exactly what level it was but at the end there was a room of columns that was pitch black except for a strobe light. It looked plenty easy until you hit the door and then BLAM…lights out…followed by hordes of demon imps coming at you from all sides. Between the lights, the monsters and spinning 360 degrees while unloading your shotgun, it was quite a ride. I recommend playing Doom with some Nine Inch Nails…there’s nothing better.

Resident Evil 4

This is one of the few games I really enjoyed playing on the Nintendo Wii, and also one of few games that actually held up great when ported to the Wii. Resident Evil is a well established franchise in the horror department (and even the movie department), but this fourth installment kept me coming back for more punishment. Resident Evil 4 strikes a good balance between action and game pace. There’s enough action to keep you running and guessing, but there are enough story elements to keep you interested in what’s really going on. Especially at the beginning when you’re wandering through the village of zombies; you can really appreciate the mood it creates…even more so with your sub woofer turned up to 11.

House of the Dead

Okay, okay…I admit that House of the Dead isn’t really frightening, but it can get pretty intense when you’re trying to blast all the undead that just won’t stop jumping in front of you. Like any arcade shooter, House of the Dead is about reaction time, accuracy, and your ability to reload at the right time. Out of all the games I’ve listed, this is the only one that can challenge you physically…at least if you play the game properly. This is another game that works well- nay, works best- on the Wii and provides the most accurate arcade experience. So call your best bud, grab your Wiimotes, turn up the sound, and turn down the lights.

Dead Space 2

I have to admit that I haven’t played Dead Space 2 as a complete game; I only played the demo on the Xbox 360…but that was enough…it was enough to tell me this is not a game I could handle. Even in the 10 minute demo, the mood created is one of the most intense I’ve ever experienced and the “jump out and scare you” factor was off the charts. The pace of the game was slow and creepy, and the lack of music didn’t help matters any. In many games the soundtrack gives you clues as to what is going to happen. That’s not the case here,. You’re all alone and you absolutely feel like it. If there’s one thing I have a hard time dealing with in video games, it’s down time…dead air…silence…it’s just unsettling and that freaks me out. If the demo of Dead Space 2 managed to give me the heebie jeebies, I can only imagine how much sleep I’d lose suffering through the entire game.

Bioshock

If Dead Space 2 is sci-fi creepy, then Bioshock is old timey creepy…only Bioshock is a game I actually played through beginning to end. Bioshock is not without its “jump out” moments, but in many ways Bioshock is just out right scary. With Dead Space 2, it’s set inside a futuristic, sci-fi world and you just kind of have to accept what’s going on because you have no basis for reality. Bioshock, on the other hand, takes place in a world that you can understand and believe, even if the story itself is just as ridiculous as Dead Space 2.

The visuals and sound in Bioshock create one of the moodiest games you’ll ever experience, but the other half of the uneasiness is the lack of resources you’re given. This isn’t a game that gives you unlimited ammo and easy access to weapons, so when you chase a shadow around a corner (or more so, when it chases you), you’re not only worried about it attacking you, you’re worried about not being able to defend yourself. Very few games manage to creep you out while also providing the stress that is resource management, but Bioshock does all of this extremely well. This is a game I played in the dark and I’m not ashamed to admit that Big Daddy and his cronies ended up in my dreams. Scary.

A different kind of challenge

Most video games challenge us by simply making the goals difficult to achieve. The bosses might be incredibly hard or the level itself might just be a challenge as you jump from platform to platform. Some games ask you to solve puzzles while others put your reaction time to the test. This is all well and good, and frankly, this is usually challenging enough, but now try to do all those things while fighting your emotions. Making a game hard is easy. Making a game that completely messes with your head is a real achievement. So do yourself a favor this Halloween weekend and play your games in the dark.

Where can we see the ideal society? We need look no further than video games for that answer.

Today’s Let’s Think Deep is going to be a little different than usual. Usually I’m just writing for this site. However, the following is an essay I wrote for a class I’m taking abut Utopian literature and thought, hence why the tone is more formal. To make things simple, I’ve also included the Work Cited/Referenced page at the end, Amazon links included if you get curious.

The Virtual Utopia

To be blunt, the only viable medium that can offer the true understanding of either a utopian or dystopian society is the video game. Virtual worlds such as those found in video games provide not only an insight into the perceived Utopian vision of society but also a completely realized Utopian world all their own. How is this possible? By means of immersing players in a story, giving players the opportunity to create utopias of their own, and by progressing society into a real-world utopia, or rather the virtual component of such.

Saying that video games have evolved since the days of Pong and Donkey Kong is putting things lightly. Video games have progressed to a stage where they’ve managed to tell elaborate stories or represent larger concepts than something as simple as “Princess gets kidnapped.” While the majority of games don’t necessarily have any inherently utopian or dystopian qualities to them, a handful stand out that seem to point toward that exact relation.

One such series that tends to show both is the Legend of Zelda series. The parallels are easily made, for instance, in the world of Termina from Majora’s Mask. In this particular society, few people live an unhappy existence caused by most factors prevalent in the real world i.e. poverty, health concerns, or serious crime. The reason for any strife in this world is a direct result of a magical force causing the moon to slowly fall onto the main town.

Granted, if you looked out your window and saw this, you are given license to freak the heck out.

The same holds true for Ocarina of Time and the land of Hyrule, the usual world seen in the Legend of Zelda series. Hyrule’s populace seems overall content with the only outliers being considered odd and therefore not part of the society, such as a teenager who feels out of place with adults. Although the multiple races of the land, the Hyrulians, Kokori, Gorons, Zora, and Gerudo, live in mostly segregated areas, they share one unified language and one unified currency, the Rupee. Oddly enough, shops all over the land consistently charge the same amount for goods as all other shops, meaning there is a certain amount of regulation placed over consumer goods apparently agreed upon across all races. This implies that no one race is ultimately favored.

Perhaps one of the most important themes the Legend of Zelda series demonstrates is the loose class system in place. Paul Brown states in his essay Hyrule’s Green and Pleasant Land: The Minish Cap as Utopian Ideal:

“Hyrule, then, is something of the Platonic ideal… there is no slavery and, as indicated by Princess Zelda’s high status, there is absolutely no ambiguity regarding sexual equality. The greatest positive departure may be Hyrule’s porous social structure. There may still be no firm movement between classes, but there is a sense of easy integration… This is reinforced by the fact that a “lowly” artisan such as Master Smith can deliver goods to the King in person.”(Brown, 168).

Brown continues on by explaining how Princess Zelda, royalty, has an established friendship with Link, a blacksmith’s apprentice, which carries all the way from childhood. Such freedom of classes to converse and share relationships (the relationship between Zelda and Link has been hinted as being mildly romantic on multiple occasions) shows that this society is functional as an example of a social utopia, similar to that seen in Looking Backward, insomuch as everyone has a job in the society, but no one has a job viewed as necessarily “above” or “below” that of anyone else. Basically, no one shows any real signs of discontent, nor is there ever any mention of someone criticizing the royal family for any reason. In fact, the only individuals who ever view the royal family with spite are those seeking to take the power for themselves, ultimately showing themselves as the villains of that particular game and therefore outsiders to the society.

A world where all races freely trade? That doesn't sound too bad.

The prime example of this character is the series’ usual Big Bad, a Gerudo man named Ganondorf (or in some cases simply Ganon). Ganondorf’s first direct encounter with the Hyrulian royal family occurs in Ocarina of Time where he attempts to overthrow the king and usurp the kingdom so that he may steal Hyrule’s greatest treasure: The Triforce, a gift from the three goddesses that created the land. Ganon is consistently the only individual to seek this treasure, an item capable of granting its owner whatever his or her heart desires, despite the common public knowledge of this item’s truthful existence. Only Ganon ever feels the need to obtain the Triforce, feeling that with this new power he will gain full control over everyone. Remember, he is the only person ever depicted in these games as ever feeling he must have the Triforce’s power. Rather odd to consider.

A Direct Link to Utopian Literature of the Past

While the Legend of Zelda allows readers to see the usual utopian society under attack and ultimately restored, another game immerses the player in a world that has gone from that of a utopia into a state of dystopia where no such hope of reversal exists. This series is BioShock, a game released in 2007 that has currently sold over 4 million copies, not including rentals or used copies sold. Those figures enough are impressive, but what stands as even more impressive is the means through which BioShock’s story is told.

More appropriately, the story of BioShock is actually the story of Andrew Ryan and his underwater city of Rapture. Where to begin the relations between BioShock and utopian literature is difficult to decide since they are so closely linked. Andrew Ryan, a character that the game’s creative director Kevin Levine has stated gets his name from Ayn Rand, is originally a Soviet citizen who fled to the US to pursue the chance to freely invent without restrictions. He eventually creates a method of manipulating water molecules in order to compress and expand them, an invention he believes would be best used to bring water to places of the world in desperate need of such. However, the US government decides Ryan’s invention would better be utilized as a weapon for military purposes. This prompts Ryan to choose a different option. As he states when you first enter Rapture:

“I am Andrew Ryan, and I’m here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? ‘No!’ says the man in Washington, ‘It belongs to the poor.’ ‘No!’ says the man in the Vatican, ‘It belongs to God.’ ‘No!’ says the man in Moscow, ‘It belongs to everyone.’ I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose…Rapture, a city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well.” (Quoted from BioShock by xg3 of Game FAQs).

Ryan’s idea was to build a city underwater in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and only open its doors to the best the world had to offer, allowing artists and scientists full range of expression without fear of oppression. And for a time this works great. One scientist, Bridgette Tenenbaum, discovers a type of sea slug capable of generating a form of stem cells, soon dubbed “Adam,” that has amazing qualities in both the medical community as well as the supernatural community. Adam is altered further until the Eve serum is created, a substance that can be injected to alter an individual’s genetic structure allowing them to gain abilities such as telekinesis or the power to create fires by snapping their fingers. The more these serums are used, the greater the genetic distortion becomes, eventually leading to mental instability. Further complicating the morality of Adam and Eve serums, a method of extracting 20-30 times the Adam from the sea slugs is discovered, though the method requires the sea slug be implanted in the stomach of a young girl. These half-children are called Little Sisters, and while they cannot be killed, they retain very little humanity. Eventually, a method is crafted for Little Sisters to harvest Adam from deceased Adam-users, so another half-human is created in the Big Daddy, a hulking bodyguard that protects the Little Sister he’s assigned to. Both are conditioned heavily to remove any sense of a free will. Little Sisters are compelled to harvest Adam from “angels,” as they see them, and Big Daddies, which the Little Sisters refer to as “Mr. Bubbles,” will instantly attack anything that even remotely looks at their Little Sister.

Also, this greets you in the first few moments of the game as you enter Rapture.

While all of this backstory seems fairly straightforward, the history behind it all is anything but. As the player, you arrive in Rapture years after Ryan’s departure from the US, after Rapture is built, after Little Sisters and Big Daddies are created, and after the city has fallen due to a civil war broken out between Ryan’s inner circle and Splicers, a term used to describe citizens strung-out on Adam. Every bit of backstory is given to the player via recordings found throughout the game. The basic story can be completed without ever really knowing the full history of Rapture. At the beginning of his plot summary, xg3 states:

“90% of the facts stated in the account of Rapture below are taken from the things you hear, see, and experience in BioShock. 5% are taken from reliable outside sources. Ryan’s backstory was taken from an interview with Ken Levine, creative director of BioShock, on CultofRapture.com. The construction of Rapture was taken from a magazine ad someone had transcribed on some forum… Per the disclaimer above, some events (the last 5%) are implied and not directly spelled out for the player. BioShock’s story is a big puzzle. I merely put together the pieces.” (xg3 via GameFAQs).

Despite sharing much in common with books such as 1984 (Big Brother looking over everyone’s shoulder), and Brave New World (genetic engineering and extensive conditioning), the method for conveying the story is entirely different. If the player chooses to forgo exploration or listening to audio diaries, they can completely excuse themselves from the experience. If, however, they actively participate in the “puzzle,” as xg3 calls it, they are rewarded with a deeper sense of connection to the material, as well as their own understanding, to a certain extent. Whereas a book presents a world and tasks the reader with envisioning the world of the novel, a video game such as BioShock does the work of fully showing the world to them, but tasks them with completing the story and finding the inherent meaning.

Gamers Building Our Own Society

BioShock is unique in how closely it is tied to overt utopian/dystopian literature, but other games move the story aside and purely challenge the player to create the proper utopian society. Probably the best example of this is the game Sim City, a city simulator, as it’s generally referred to. In Sim City, you play the role of the mayor/city planner in charge of all executive decisions surrounding the city, starting with the most basic choices. Would you prefer to build a nuclear power plant or a coal burning plant? How close to water do you want your city? Are residential areas built next to each other or spread out? All these choices are left open to the player with no definite correct answer. The city will prosper or flounder based upon their decisions, so if the yearly taxes are low, citizens are happy, but this may cause trouble with funding for police, resulting in higher crime rates. Sim City puts the burden of ruling the perfect society on the player’s shoulders, only interjecting to give advice when a clear problem has appeared, such as fires, earthquakes, or traffic congestion.

Dang it, who put that volcano right there?!

Interestingly enough, Sim City gives the player all the needed tools to craft an ideal utopia, but it also has a menu that allows them to inflict disasters on the city, from something as simple as floods to something more devastating like a monster attack. At any given moment the player can decide to take their bulldozer and destroy the only power plant near the city, leaving the populace without power until further notice. Complete control is granted to help as well as hinder this society. The entire experience builds up to a realization that running a functioning utopia, even a simple one, is incredibly difficult.

The connection between the utopian ideal and video games is easy enough to make when looking at story and concept surrounding a particular game or series, but video games as a whole present the opportunity to not just show a fiction, but create a reality with an actual utopia, albeit a virtual one. All games tend to follow the same set of rules, the first of which is that all gamers are created equal. Though it is possible in some games to cheat, everyone by default begins at the same state of neutral at the very beginning of the game. No one can be born into a class where they begin Super Mario Bros 3 in world 6, nor will they be granted an extra life for anything more or less than exactly 100 coins. Everyone plays by the same set of rules regardless of class, gender, ethnicity, or any other number of factors.

A further example of a real (virtual) world utopia is seen in Blizzard’s Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game World of Warcraft. This MMORPG is currently the world’s most avidly played with supposedly more than 11 million subscribers worldwide. Here again is an instance where everyone is equal in his or her roles. When a player starts a new game, they choose a character they’ll play as for months at a time called their “avatar” and start, just like everyone else, at level 1. There are no exceptions. Players can choose different races, such as Elves, Humans, or Orcs, and different classes, such as Warriors or Sorcerers, but everyone is offered the same chance to succeed as everyone else. No one class is given a clear advantage and no one player is freely offered a pass to be the best. Players must work for their success equally as hard as the next player.

Utopian society in a nutshell.

This may not seem like much, but consider the real-world players of these games. It is entirely possible for a 20-year-old female in the prime of her life to play with a 50-year-old overweight male, a 16-year-old teenager in a wheelchair, and a 35-year-old mother of two, and each of them is fully capable of running about, fighting monsters and carrying out tasks for their guild’s quest, unhindered by any restrictions they’d find in the real world. This theme is touched on in the 2008 documentary Second Skin where the idea of an online community allows anyone to be capable of things they wouldn’t normally, where a boy in a wheelchair is a powerful warrior or an awkwardly shy individual is capable of talking without fear of reprisal.

World of Warcraft sets about to give players the chance to go on magical fantasy quests, but another game, loosely termed, is Second Life, more an online community than anything else, a place where essentially anything the player wants can happen. In Second Life there are no limitations and the focus isn’t on things playing out as a game but just about creating a virtual space for you to inhabit. Your avatar here is whatever you choose it to be, so it is routine to see an avatar in a tuxedo chatting with an avatar shaped like a carrot. The only thing holding the player back is their own creative limitations as anyone can program anything they choose into the game, as obscure as it may be. One user created a cannon that fired video game systems, just because he chose to. Nowhere else is the concept of a utopia capable of realization than in the realm of a video game. Nowhere else can the idea of the “no place” be realized than in a location that doesn’t physically exist.

Video games may not be a perfect society all their own quite yet, but they offer a close connection to that oft-sought ideal of the Utopian society. They provide a means to tell a story in a way no previous forms of entertainment could and assist in demonstrating the world of perfection and the world of ruin represented in many utopian/dystopian texts. They allow the player the opportunity to build and manage their own utopian societies. And finally, they stand as a place where all gamers are created equal, allowing for the virtual landscape to experience the chance at a true Utopia. This is all from just 30 years of progress in the medium. Just imagine how much closer to the perfect world the next 30 will bring us.

Work Cited

Brown, Paul. “Hyrule’s Green and Pleasant Land: The Minish Cap as Utopian Ideal.” The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy. Peru, Illinois: Open Court Publishing Company, 2008.

xg3. “BioShock: Plot Summary.” GameFAQs. Version 1.14 (07/22/09). 18 May. 2010 http://www.gamefaqs.com/xbox360/931329-bioshock/faqs/50049.

Work Referenced

Bellamy, Edward. Looking Backward. New York, New York: Dover Publications Inc, 1996.

BioShock. Boston/Canberra, Australia: 2K Boston/2K Australia, 2007.

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York, New York: Harper Perennial, 2006.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. Kyoto, Japan: Nintendo, 2000.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Osaka, Japan: Flagship (under Nintendo), 2004/2005.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Kyoto, Japan: Nintendo, 1998.

Orwell, George. 1984. New York, New York: Penguin, 1981.

Pineiro-Escoriaza, Juan C. Second Skin. Pure West films, 2009.

Second Life. San Francisco: Linden Lab, 2003.

Sim City. Emeryville: Maxis, 1989.

World of Warcraft. Irvine: Blizzard Entertainment, 2004.

You ready for another trip to Rapture?

If you’ve read my Bioshock review, you already know that I like Bioshock. If you read my preview for Bioshock 2, then you know I’m pretty psyched for the sequel. Well, the sequel’s out now, so did it live up to my expectations? There is some good, some bad, and some blah, but let’s save that for another day. Oh heck, why not, let’s do it now. On to Rapture!

Something Old, Something New

As you may remember, the world of Bioshock takes place in the doomed underwater city of Rapture. You got to see a great deal of it in the first game, so you’d think the second game is just gonna ramp up the amount of new areas, right? Uh, there are some new places, but to be honest, the first game sort of has this one beat in terms of atmosphere. Why? Because the first one completely set up a new world. This one just continues on, so there isn’t as much mystery to everything. It’s still great, but the effect of the city has somewhat diminished in a repeat visit.

You get to play as the very first Big Daddy here with all that goes along with that, such as a drill, the ability to walk underwater (which is completely under-utilized), and the choice to either harvest Little Sisters for Adam like in the first game or adopt them as your own Little Sister for a while, a new concept. It’s a good idea, but babysitting the Little Sisters for a while can get somewhat repetitive and, well, dull. Plus, the thought of a drill weapon is great, but it isn’t nearly as fun as it sounded.

Maybe if you were as cute as this doll, I'd have less to complain about.

Regardless of these faults, there is a lot of good to the game. It starts out slow but the later half hits hard and sweet, a good combo. This is an FPS, but the focus isn’t so much on reactionary speed and reflexes so much as just experiencing the world. Even if it doesn’t seem as vivid as the first outing, Bioshock 2 is still fantastic in the story department.

There are a lot of new Plasmids to play with and thankfully a completely new hacking system that happily replaces the monotonous hacking minigame from the first. There are also boss battles with the Big Sister, though it isn’t set up as the seemingly random encounters the pre-game hype lead on. These are scripted story events, but that doesn’t matter: Big Sisters are a welcome addition to Rapture.

The multiplayer, however, can just be done away with. No reason to play it after a single glance or two as it’s just like any other multiplayer shooter except with Bioshock as the backdrop. Forgettable, so just forget it and make this a purchase based on the single-player experience.

And it really is a purchase to make. I’m still big on the mythos behind Rapture, so any new storyline has high standing in my court. Go play this one after you play the first, at least as a rental title. Few other games are hitting this perfectly in the story department, so don’t miss out.

This is a Bioshock prototype image from early builds, but it still demonstrates the terror.

First Person Shooters (FPSs for short), are not the kind of games I recommend to everyone. Currently, yes, they are everywhere in video games, but not everyone can get into them or really enjoy them. I am terrible at FPSs and therefore, I prefer not to play them when given the choice. However, there are some FPSs that I’ve played and that I really enjoy. One such example is Bioshock for the Xbox 360, PS3, and now PC, and it’s a Game You Should Have Played.

A Plot Worthy of a Movie

That is terrifying. Like Spider-Man combined with a mutated ex-girlfriend.

Bioshock revolves around the character of Jack as he survives a plane crash during the year 1960. He swims to the only land nearby which happens to be a lighthouse-like structure that serves as the entrance to an underwater city known as Rapture. Not too long into the game you are helped by a man named Atlas as the city is, surprisingly, in total chaos and swarming with genetically altered humans called “Splicers.” The villain is the creator of Rapture, a one Andrew Ryan. You will very quickly learn to fear and loath Andrew Ryan.

Beyond just acquiring guns, you have Plasmids at your arsenal. What is a Plasmid?  Think of them as super powers and you’re set. You can fire lightning, fire, ice, bees, levitate things, and all for the purpose of escaping the city, but not before killing Ryan and probably a bunch of Little Sisters in the process.

Wait, you don’t know what a Little Sister is? Well what about a Big Daddy? Ah, you’ll find out. That thing on the game’s front cover? That’s a Big Daddy. Lightly put, Big Daddies will ruin your face and you in turn will ruin your shorts. Every Little Sister has a Big Daddy following them around, and if you can kill a Big Daddy you can decide to save the Little Sister or harvest her for Adam. What’s Adam? Okay, seriously, no more questions.

Focus on Plot, Not Random Shooting

The key focus of the game does not revolve around shooting everything that moves (though you will be doing a lot of that). The plot for this game is frankly one of the best plots for any game to recently come out. I was genuinely interested to find out more about this world. The entirety of Rapture’s history is conveyed to you via radio diaries that you can find scattered all over the game. They are entirely optional to find, but you’ll soon discover yourself scouring every last corner to find them all.

In short, the backstory is so intriguing that I’m salivating at the very thought of a novelization (why books make me salivate I am unclear).

Possibly the only aspect of gameplay you may take offense with has to do with the difficulty. The game is…not exactly difficult and this is all because you have no penalty for death, nor does it do much except inconvenience you slightly by sending you to a Vita-Chamber.

Hardcore fans of FPSs will have no difficulty playing the game on even the toughest difficulty, so don’t expect to get your jollies unless you force yourself never to use a Vita-Chamber. Then the game would become masochistic in practice. No, the real purpose of the game is to explore this world, learn more about it, and escape it as soon as possible.

Also, to set many things on fire, throw carcasses into other attackers via telekinesis, and then perhaps more fire, all while enjoying the story.

You shouldn’t have any trouble tracking down a copy of Bioshock for a good deal. I found mine for $10 used and in good condition. The game is currently retailing at $29.99, though you can probably find it cheaper depending on where you look. Also, Steam has it for offered for $19.99. Once more, you have no reason not to play this game. Unless you aren’t old enough to play Mature games. Then you have a reason to play this game, but only until you turn 18.

They are shooting pure joy from my heart.

Halloween is pretty much here, but for some of us that doesn’t mean much. Why is that? Well we’re too busy playing video games to care what’s happening around us. As a result, we may accidentally pass up the day in lieu of just playing something bright and cheery, but there are other options for us shut-ins that still want to celebrate Halloween with some good atmospheric games. So here are 10 Games You Should Play On Halloween.

Resident Evil 4:

Sure, the first game is great and the most recent installment is pretty good, but Resident Evil 4 knocked my socks off when I first played it on the GameCube all those years ago. It was the perfect mix of fluid gameplay with situations that terrified me to no end due to stuff like, oh, I don’t know, chainsaw wielding zombies or Wolverine-style monsters with their eyes sown shut. I freaked, but I never stopped playing.

The thing about RE4 is that it pushed games to be at least as good as it was by deciding what 3rd-person gameplay should be for shooters and what to expect with quick-time events (one of two games I was actually okay with the silly feature). You can pick up a copy for the GameCube, PS2, or PC, and the Wii has a version with motion controls that work extremely well (Amazon’s got it for under $15). Just do yourself a favor and play through if you haven’t already. Just tell me when you get to Del Lago.

Silent Hill 2:

This is Pyramid Head. This thing should not be.

I was forced to play both Silent Hill 1 and 2 by my friends and I made fun of them the whole way through, especially number 2. And why? Because I didn’t want to let on that I’d probably be crying unless I found a means of coping with fear since Silent Hill 2 throws you into a bad situation and just makes it worse. If you haven’t heard of a Silent Hill game, you probably live a happier life than I, otherwise Amazon has the PS2 version for around $10.

See, Silent Hill is a town that’s cursed since a little girl was pushed to become pure evil and fill the town with demons (yes, I hate it when this happens, too). The combat is awful on purpose as the main character isn’t a great fighter or solider. He just wants to find his dead wife because she told him to meet him in Silent Hill (if your dead anything ever says this, don’t go). You will see horrible things and you will hear horrible things and by the end of the game you will have had to do horrible things and you won’t sleep with the lights off for a while. Seriously, if you ever want to terrify someone who’s played a Silent Hill game, flick off the lights and blare a disaster siren. They will go hide in a corner; I guarantee it.

Super Ghouls & Ghosts:

And that's about as far as I get.

No, not every game has to be extremely terrifying to make for good Halloween playing. Super Ghouls & Ghosts (and really any entry in the Ghosts & Goblins series), will give you nightmares just realizing you can’t make it past the first level. I’ve put the game on easy, cranked up my lives, and still I couldn’t make it anywhere near the end of the first level. The first level! And I’m not a bad game player. I’ve even beat I Wanna Be The Guy (go search this on Google to see what it is), so you know I’m hardcore.

Super Ghouls & Ghosts has you jump in the shoes of Arthur on a quest to save a princess from a demon. Along the way, Arthur will die and die and die because he will be attacked by every manner of zombie and skeleton and unholy death with only two hits before he dies. If that sounds merciful, it isn’t. Ten hits before death is even being stingy. But the game is still worth playing even if you can’t make it past the first few zombies, so go find this on the SNES or the Virtual Console. In fact, this is so dificult that it looks like people are practically giving away used copies on Amazon for under $4.

Super Castlevania IV:

The box art sort of says it all.

Yes yes and more yes. I’m not going for scary here, I’m just telling you to go play games that put you in a Halloween mood and Super Castlevania IV (so super it needed it in the title), is such a good game that you’d be a fool to just let it pass you buy. It’s on the SNES but also on the Virtual Console, making it an extremely easy and affordable purchase.

Simon Belmont goes toe-to-toe with Dracula yet again, but at this point the structure of the Castlevania games is nearly perfected. The game is tough but fair and beating it yields a sweet sense of accomplishment that games don’t typically give anymore. Just whipping zombies and horrors and Death itself makes this one a game you should be playing anyway.

Luigi’s Mansion:

Don't care; Great game.

There I said it. Go play Luigi’s Mansion, one of the first titles released on the GameCube. It gets a bad rap but the game was great, albeit extremely short. So what better game to play through in a single day? This was Luigi’s big chance to shine (the only other game he’s starred in since Mario Is Missing and that doesn’t count), and while he doesn’t get a chance to stomp Goombas, he does get a chance to rid a haunted mansion of ghosts and spirits and such.

Surprisingly, this was one of the best looking games on the system, and it was a launch title. I always found that strange. You’re going around a mansion filled with ghosts and everything makes spooky noises. It’s cartoony but it works. It’s a small diversion but it pays off, especially since you can probably find this title for $5 at a video game store, Amazon inclued. Just think of it like Ghostbusters but with Luigi instead of Bill Murray.

Ghostbusters The Video Game:

Or heck, why not just play Ghostbusters The Video Game? It’s new this year on the PS3 and Xbox 360 (there is also a pretty good Wii version, too), and if you are wondering, yes, it is just what you’d expect from a Ghostbusters game. And by that I mean it’s awesome.

Those games on the NES from back in the day? Yeah, those sucked. This game is like seeing the 3rd movie that never was (but will be due to the high sales of the game). Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis all reprise their roles for the game, and for a video game that’s simply amazing. You play as the rookie, a nameless new guy that the other Ghostbusters don’t want to get attached to since they think you’ll probably get killed testing out the new equipment. The best part of the game is the humor, but they still don’t skimp on the actual gameplay, which is also great. It’s just the perfect lighthearted Halloween game to play, plus it’s under $20. Good deal.

Eternal Darkness:

No don't try to figure out what they're talking about. You'll just go insane.

But maybe you don’t want lighthearted. Maybe you want to go over the edge with insanity. So go ahead and pop in Eternal Darkness for the GameCube and watch your mind slowly retreat into itself to hide from whatever you’re about to see on the screen. This game was the answer to anyone that ever called the GameCube a kiddie system. You dare challenge me? Snag it on Amazon for $15 and prove me incorrect.

What sets Eternal Darkness above other horror games is the way you play through multiple characters’ doomed stories. You know that each of these characters will die by the end of their chapter, but you want to see where their section of the plot takes them. Naturally, it takes them to the brink of madness as you have both a health meter and a sanity meter to deal with. If your sanity gets too low then weird things start to happen like the TV volume fluctuating, the screen turning on and off, and even a message telling you that your memory card is being erased. I freaked out around the point that my character thought her head fell off and she had to go pick it up. Read that sentence one more time if you didn’t catch that. Oh yeah is this game messed up.

Dead Space:

That hand there isn't going back on any time soon.

Yup, another game for the 360, PS3, and PC with play control similar to Resident Evil 4. You are one of very few survivors left alive on a space mining facility where a plague of alien something or other…yeah, it doesn’t matter. All that’s important is the fact that crazy stuff happens all around you and you have to fight off hellish monsters with futuristic mining equipment. Also, that the game is a Bestseller, meaning it’s only $20 these days.

The main draw here is the ability to sever various limbs from the enemies in order to rendering them unable to walk or attack. Instead of headshots being the best way to go, some enemies had more of a weakness in their legs or midsection or something similar to that, making you have to rethink the genre slightly. Not by much, but just enough to be extremely creepy and keep you playing past every insane challenge that comes up.

Left 4 Dead:

At least the Dead Space guy's hand still had a thumb.

Okay, so you could play this on your 360, or you could play it right on the PC. I suggest the PC version. Left 4 Dead is a Valve title and currently it is one of their best (which says a lot). You are one of four characters alive after a zombie apocalypse and you must work with the others to stay alive through swarms of the typical zombie fare. You can play this as a single player, but the best reason to play Left 4 Dead is to blow zombies away with three friends in cooperative play.

This is simply one of the best multiplayer games on the market right now, and Valve has been hard at work delivering patches and new content and a sequel hitting not too long from now (which promises to be just as great, if not better). If you saw Zombie Land this past month, this is pretty much the game that the movie is based off of, even if it wasn’t aware of it.

Bioshock:

Why won't you love me?!

I will never stop telling everyone to go play Bioshock. Maybe it’s my own guilt for not playing it until just recently, but Bioshock stands out as a game that understands what it means to create atmosphere in order for things to be scary. Out on the 360, PS3, and now on Steam for the PC, everyone can play Bioshock and figure out what I’m going on about.

You play as a character that survives a plane crash and swims to a lighthouse in the middle of the ocean, only to find the entrance to the city of Rapture, a dystopian society that’s been utterly destroyed after people spliced their genes way too much for God to allow. You’ll get to encounter Big Daddies, Little Sisters, Splicers, and Andrew Ryan, my new favorite villain. I can’t wait until Bioshock is made into a movie since the plot alone has me sold.

And that’s my list off the top of my head. I promise that there is something here for everyone, from the hardcore gamers out there to the casual players. But I know this isn’t a complete list, so tell me what I left out. Are there some games I should be ashamed to omit? Let me know with a comment or two in the comments section and let your voice be heard.