Five Spooky Let's Plays to Watch this Halloween
If you'd rather be a bystander to terror than experience it yourself, check out these great guided tours of horror games.
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Horror games are great, but they're certainly not for everyone—myself included. And, to be frank, some of the more punishing ones from past generations haven't exactly aged well. So we should be thankful Let's Plays exist, as they allow others to do all of the work we're either too lazy or terrified to take on ourselves. If you're in the mood to check out playthroughs of scarifying games during this Season of the Witch, consider turning the lights down low, grabbing a bucket of peeled grapes or cold spaghetti (standard Halloween cuisine), and settling down with these guided tours of horrific—or just plain bizarre—greats.
Note to the concerned: None of the following Let's Plays include the relentless screaming and exaggerated reactions you might expect from this sort of thing.
Illbleed
Illbleed could have only happened during those heady days of the Dreamcast, where any weird idea seemed perfectly viable for a boxed, 50-dollar game. And ideas don't get much weirder than Crazy Games' bizarre creation, which pays tribute to the comedic violence of Sam Raimi, Peter Jackson, and Lloyd Kaufman via a bizarre survival horror experience with some pretty unique mechanics. Along with fighting any number of horrific enemies, the protagonists of Illbleed also have to maintain their sanity, since each level features dozens of terror-inducing traps engineered to cause total hysteria. And if that doesn't sound interesting, one of the later levels drops the premise entirely for the sake of an interactive, horror-themed parody of Toy Story. You won't be able to look away.
Silent Hill 4
Silent Hill 4 might not be the best game of the series, but it certainly has an intriguing (and claustrophobic) premise. Unfortunately, it's not a whole lot of fun to play, as the last half simply revisits areas from the first half, but in escort mission format. Still, it's undeniably creepy, especially when you don't have to put up with its many annoyances. The protagonist might be as dull as dishwater, but watching his apartment gradually grow more haunted over time—from a first-person perspective—makes for some great scares.
D2
Kenji Eno (R.I.P.) will forever be remembered for his small stable of absolutely bizarre games, and D2 stands as one of his most ambitious. This action-RPG drops digital actress Laura (of D and Enemy Zero fame) into a harsh Canadian wilderness full of weird creatures and even stranger humans. Thanks to some completely unpredictable plot twists, D2 might be funnier than it is scary, but that's just fine: Eno's ride is so wild, you'll appreciate it regardless.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Amnesia is definitely one of the scariest games of recent memory—too damned scary for me to suffer through, anyway. And if you also don't have the fortitude to suffer through its relentless psychological manipulation, the Let's Play format is a godsend. And, better yet, this one is subtitled, so the atmosphere won't be disturbed by someone mumbling into a microphone. There's likely 10,000 Amnesia Let's Plays on YouTube featuring someone perpetually shrieking like a jackass in the corner of the screen, so this video deep-dive certainly stands out based on its quiet dignity alone.
Call of Cthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth
Horror games are known to borrow liberally from the works of H.P. Lovecraft, but Call of Cthulu exists as one of the few to go for a direct adaptation. Dark Corners of the Earth had a tumultuous development cycle that lasted six years, though, so not everything works as intended. If you're not willing to suffer through some of its stickier moments, the Let's Play format makes for the perfect way to experience Dark Corners, especially because it's known to be buggy as hell.