The Top Ten Horror Games that Should Come to the PS Vita

Sony’s insubmissive handheld game console, the PS Vita, has one major shortcoming as opposed to its main rival, the Nintendo 3DS: it doesn’t quite tally the same amount of AAA game titles. Seeing as some of the most prominent survival horror games fall under this category, there’s much left to be desired. However, it is a popular platform for indie games, which are largely on the rise. But whether it’s legendary mainstream entries or the small scale productions with some kicks, here’s a list of horror games that would be every bit as terrifying in smaller resolution as it is on a monitor…

10. Slender: The Eight Pages

Based off the popular fakelorgic Slender Man, a mysterious figure with a featureless face and arms so long they might as well be stilts in the wrong place. A free to play indie game, the game’s only objective is derived from its title: to collect eight pages. Starting off in a dark forest with only a flashlight, players will go about collecting the pages. With each page collected, the background music will gradually become more dreary and Slender Man will show up, and grow increasingly aggressive as the end of the objective becomes closer. Looking at Slender Man will result in a game over, but seeing the menacingly tall figure amongst the trees for the first few times will be so terrifying that it’s easy to run in all the wrong directions and straight into the Slender Man’s long, welcoming arms.

9. Resident Evil

Taking place directly after the events of a previous entry, Resident Evil 0, Alpha Team locates Bravo Team’s helicopter, but there is no trace of any survivors. Since mutated zombies are running wild in Raccoon City, and both teams were conducting investigations in the city’s outskirts, it’s safe to assume that a zombie or two are having a good meal. Players are left with the choice of one of two characters to start with: Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine. Besides their attribute difference, both influence plot details differently. Nothing quite replaces the adrenaline rush resulting from fear when fighting or running from mutated zombie hordes.

8. SCP Containment Breach

If the otherworldly monsters aren’t enough, the gameplay mechanics are even more of a nightmare in Containment Breach. Randomly generated rooms and enemies, a limited inventory, and no respawns… A little too close to reality in some ways, isn’t it? Then again, you are only a test subject for military experiments. And luckily there is the blinking mechanic, but it comes with a catch. When a monster is in sight, closing your eyes will only make things worse, because you’ll open it to find it standing right in front of you instead of where it used to be in the doorway many meters away.

7. Doom 3

Remember NASA’s plans to colonize Mars? In the universe set in the Doom franchise, it’d be best to pass should you ever receive that invitation to the red planet. In the game, scientists in Mars’ research facility are looking into technologies like teleportation, when a portal to Hell is inadvertently opened. All…hell breaks loose as demons invade, and players take up arms as an anonymous space marine to combat the threat before the devils can reach Earth. The malevolent spirits instill every sense of the word fear as one never quite knows where the jump scares will come from, as the demons manifest themselves in almost every nightmarish form imaginable.

6. S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl

In an alternate reality, a second nuclear meltdown disaster occurs at Chernobyl, but this it causes changes in the surrounding area that defies the laws of physics. Players wake up as a stalker – the term used for adventurers and treasure seekers within The Zone, a dilapidated area in which most of the action occurs – dubbed as “The Marked One.” Whilst adventuring through a dilapidated area called “The Zone,” players will scavenge for food to keep from starving, work their way around pockets of radiation areas and explore for artifacts to equip and improve stats. Only four types of main mutant enemies are encountered throughout the game, but even one of these enemies will make you wish that you’ve never come face to face with them.

5. Dead Space

The U.S.G Ishimura, the very first Planet-Cracker class ship, stands as a testament of humanity’s ability to extract resources from planets by literally breaking it open. From the surface of the planet Aegis VII, an alien artifact – the symbol and a treasure of immense value for the powerful Unitology religion – is unearthed. After mere hours, both the colony on the planet and the ship go dark. Engineer Isaac Clarke is dispatched along with a group of specialists on a repair mission. What they find on the seemingly derelict vessel is a gorefest and a parasitic alien enemy that foregoes the typical headshot kill. It’s either tear them limb from limb, or be torn apart yourself.

4. F.E.A.R

Something even more disturbing than an adult man or woman with cruel intentions is a little girl with immense psychic powers and seemingly no emotions. As part of a special operations team tasked to deal with paranormal threats, the little girl called Alma is more than capable of showing the very heart through the eyes of the player character dubbed “Point Man.” To battle the armies you’ll be up against, the Point Man possesses a supernatural skill known as “reflex time.” Enemy movements pass in slow motion until the ability’s meter runs out. It’ll also require superhuman resolve to endure the psychotic nature of the paranormal threat.

3. Silent Hill 2

After receiving a letter from his wife – who is deceased, by the way – James Sunderland drive to the town of Silent Hill, confused by the content of the letter. Immediately after arriving, he notices that the town isn’t what it used to be, and he subsequently becomes entangled in the same fog that has trapped others before him along with its lurking grotesques. With a heavy emphasis on close combat, whether in melee or with a firearm, the creatures that will seek to devour you will force you to look the few that still have faces, in the eyes while you fight.

2. Outlast

A relatively new release that already topped the charts of numerous horror lists, this’ll make you regret ever having set foot inside the Mount Massive psychiatric hospital as a freelance journalist. With cluttered, corpse-strewn hallways and blood soaked grounds, the unfathomable violent tendencies of the mentally insane is only an appetizer of the supernatural terror that lurks underground. Armed with only a video camera in constant need of batteries, you’ll even be checking if the Vita has enough power for fear of the dark.

1. Amnesia: Dark Descent

Waking up in the dark hallways of the Prussian Brennenburg Castle in 1839, the only things facts still embedded in the shattered memory of an amnesiac man is his name, Daniel, his residency and that he’s being hunted by something. With the dark foe in hot pursuit, Daniel’s only option of survival is to run and hide. Spend too much time in the light or dark, and monsters in the castle will be drawn to you. In addition to spending too much time in the dark, Daniel’s – and maybe your own – sanity will start to drain away…