

Gaming's most brutal bad endings

Death is nothing new in video games.

Think back to the first one you ever played. Was it Pac-Man? The monsters can eat Pac-Man. He definitely dies in that. Was it Super Mario Bros.? Mario can one-hundred-percent lose his life falling down a hole. Through every new console generation, with every new genre that's been created, the main penalty for failure in video games has been death. The fear of watching our video game characters die has made us reevaluate our strategies. The desire to keep our video game characters alive has made us strive to be better players.

Especially in the games that take those deaths to a whole new extreme.

Most of us weren't afraid to open a door in a video game before Resident Evil came out. Quick-time events never had so much on the line before The Walking Dead made us watch our favorite characters get torn open by zombies. The more gruesome the video game death, the more intensely we'll try to avoid it. But sometimes we slip up. We venture into the wrong space, or we miss a button, and that death becomes unavoidable. Then we're forced to watch, shivering all the while.

These are gaming's most brutal bad endings. Some old. Some new. All taking pain to new heights. All things we'd never want to experience ourselves.

Taking an acid trip in The Amazing Spider-Man vs The Kingpin

We've seen Spider-Man take on a number of foes over the years, but Kingpin is one that seems to show up quite often. He did in the recent Marvel's Spider-Man on the PS4, and he also did way back in 1991 when Spider-Man vs The Kingpin hit the Genesis, Master System, and Game Gear. And since we mentioned that latter Spider-Man title, we'd like to highlight one of the more gruesome moments that takes place during that game.

It comes in one of the alternate endings, when Spider-Man is facing off against Kingpin for the last time.

Failure comes at a cost, and takes on a few different faces. Should Spider-Man successfully defeat Kingpin but fail to save Mary Jane, she'll be dropped into a pool of acid. That sounds bad enough, but things can actually get worse. If Spider-Man fails to defeat Kingpin at all, both he and Mary Jane will be lowered into the acid as Kingpin watches with glee. That's obviously not something you want, as you can see above.

So if you dive back into that early '90s Spider-Man title and battle your way to the end, please, for the love of God, do not lose.

Data extraction going wrong in Dead Space 2

Do you ever miss the Dead Space series? We do. There is still a place for that type of survival horror experience, but sadly, EA has left games like Dead Space behind in favor of pushing its sports lineup and licensed titles like Star Wars: Battlefront. It's a shame, because all the Dead Space titles had memorable moments that stuck with you. They all had scares aplenty and death scenes that made you pay for your mistakes with a stomach-turning shot of Isaac Clarke losing his life.

Like that one from Dead Space 2, for example; you know, the one with the NoonTech Diagnostic Machine?

At one point in Dead Space 2, it becomes necessary for Isaac to gather some data from something called a NoonTech Diagnostic Machine. This device uses a needle to extract information from the brain, and Isaac requires said information to continue on his journey. The problem with the machine, however, was that Isaac needs to remain calm in order for the NoonTech's needle to insert properly. The slightest bit of panic will cause the machine to malfunction. And if you are unable to properly guide the needle toward Isaac's iris — and Isaac can't keep his heart rate down — well, the NoonTech's needle will burrow a little too deep, killing Isaac instantly. Ouch.

Lara getting impaled in Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Lara Croft has bitten the dust in a number of Tomb Raider titles, but the modern games have really taken her deaths to a whole new level. The Tomb Raider reboot trilogy slaps an M rating on Lara's adventures, and that means a whole lot of blood and guts, a slew of curse words, and Lara dying in the most painful ways possible. Over and over.

In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the third game in the trilogy, Lara meets her maker in some particularly disturbing ways. But none are quite as stirring as watching her get impaled.

In the scene above, Lara is exploring when some ground falls out from under her (as it so often does). Surviving in this moment is a question of having solid reflexes. Should you fail to possess them, though, Lara will fall right into a conveniently placed pit of spikes, taking one right through her neck and bringing her tomb raiding days to an early end. Trust us when we say this: it's tough to watch.

Nathan Drake losing a sword fight in Uncharted 4

Uncharted 4's Teen rating ensures that Nathan Drake's death animations aren't too grotesque — for the most part, anyway. And the game manages to keep Nathan somewhat clean in spite of the fact that Uncharted 4 shares a lot of similarities with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which shows lead character Lara Croft dying in all sorts of gruesome ways.

But there is one scene in Uncharted 4 that is rather shocking, and it comes at a pretty pivotal moment in the game.

Toward the end of the main campaign, Nathan battles against the game's antagonist, Rafe Adler, with the two picking up swords and dueling it out aboard an abandoned pirate ship. There's a lot of quick-time action going on here, and you're asked to press buttons in the correct sequence in order to get the upper hand on Rafe. If you get through the sequence correctly, Nathan ultimately comes out on top and Rafe loses his life. If you drop the ball, though? Rafe gains the upper hand, and he drives his sword right into Nathan Drake's chest.

To be honest, we're a little surprised that one got by the ratings board.

Lee getting ripped open in The Walking Dead

Telltale's The Walking Dead took the world by surprise in 2012. After all, who was expecting a game based on The Walking Dead license to be so good? Who would've predicted that the game would be as moving as it was, causing many who played the game to openly weep at its conclusion?

Actually, if you haven't played The Walking Dead, go ahead and do that now. We'll wait.

Okay, now that we're all on the same page, you probably noticed that The Walking Dead is a pretty brutal game, too. One miss of a quick-time event and suddenly the undead are treating Lee like some kind of snack. It's only right that The Walking Dead shows up on this list then, particularly when the zombies tear into Lee as he screams in agony on the ground, literally pulling his insides out and feasting on them in front of his eyes. Do you want some motivation for getting those QTEs right the next time around? Watching a man's intestines become dinner will do it for you.

On second thought, maybe it's good that we might not be getting any more Walking Dead games.

Going out with low honor in Red Dead Redemption 2

While the story beats in Red Dead Redemption 2 are out of your control, you can still have a bit of an impact on the game's main character, Arthur Morgan. If you roam the West like a true outlaw, killing everyone in sight and stealing when you darn well please, Arthur won't have a lot of honor by the time you reach the game's conclusion. On the other hand, if you save all the killing for the bad guys and generally do right by the people of the world, Arthur will end the game with high honor.

Low honor and high honor. Two paths for Arthur Morgan to take during his time on earth. Two ways for Arthur Morgan to ultimately meet his maker.

If you end Red Dead Redemption 2 with high honor, Arthur Morgan can take his dying breath while staring at a beautiful sunrise, a fitting way to go out for a man who tried to change what he'd become. Unfortunately, the low honor version isn't so pretty. If you run roughshod through the world of Red Dead 2 and live like a monster, you'll die a monster's death: Micah will shoot you point blank in the head, cackling as he does it.

It's your call.

Becoming a Keeper kabob in The Evil Within

In terms of horror, The Evil Within is a game that doesn't get near the credit it deserves; this in spite of the fact that the game was pretty darn scary, and was successful enough to spawn a sequel. And like so many games on this list, there is plenty of violence to be found in this title, with much of it being dealt out by you against the monstrosities you face during your playthrough.

But you can be killed in fairly violent ways yourself. And nowhere is that more clear than your encounters with The Keeper.

The Keeper is a large creature decked out in a butcher's outfit, and his choice of weapon is right for the job he appears to perform. Have you ever seen a meat tenderizer? You know, the little hammer with the tiny spikes on it? Imagine that but way larger, and with what looks like pickaxe on one side. That's what The Keeper carries around with him. And if you happen to find yourself on the losing end of a battle with The Keeper, he'll treat you just like a piece of meat.

He'll tenderize you with one side of the weapon. Then, while you're down and vulnerable, he'll impale you with the other side, dragging you away to God knows where.

Dying by drill in Silent Hill: Homecoming

It's been a long while since we've gotten a Silent Hill game. It almost makes you wish that Hideo Kojima and Konami hadn't split up, because we really, really could've used that Silent Hills project. In any case, at least we got the couple Silent Hill games we did. And one of them was 2008's Silent Hill: Homecoming, which — like so many Silent Hill titles — had a really messed up story.

Have you ever been tortured by the mother of your childhood friend? That happens to main character Alex Shepherd in Silent Hill: Homecoming. Like we said, messed up.

In the scene above, Alex comes to and discovers he is strapped to a chair, unable to move. He then finds that Margaret Holloway, the mother of his friend Elle, is sitting there next to him. She was the one who'd had him strapped down, it turns out, and she reveals a whole kooky story about how children have been vanishing from the town of Shepherd's Glen because they were part of some kind of sacrificial pact with the neighboring town of Silent Hill.

Margaret then tries to torture Alex with a power screwdriver. If you manage to escape as Alex, you'll turn the screwdriver on Margaret, killing her. If you don't? You'll slowly be screwdriven to death.

That has to be painful.

Getting chainsawed in Resident Evil 5

When Resident Evil 5 arrived in 2009, some lamented the game's very existence. After all, it seemed to signal a full transition for the franchise; one away from the series' horror roots toward a more action-heavy experience. But don't let that spoil you on the game entirely. If you're all about blood and guts, Resident Evil 5 still has that. There are still evil things that require killing. There are still evil things that want to kill you.

And there are still plenty of ways for you to die a very gruesome death.

If you want a video game or a movie that focuses on grotesque violence, you look for one with a chainsaw. And Resident Evil 5 has one. The problem is, the enemies carrying them aren't all that keen on letting you borrow one. As you can see above, your foes would much rather snuff out your last remaining bits of life with said chainsaw, separating your head from your body in the process. You can avoid this grisly fate by killing the bad guys before they have a chance to kill you, as is the rule for most video games. But if you fail to thin the herd and you get overrun? Prepare to hear that chainsaw spin up just seconds before it meets your neck, ripping right into your precious, precious arteries.

Who said this wasn't horror again?

Dying over and over in Another World

Can a 1991 Amiga game make this list? It sure can. Another World is a gem that came ahead of its time. In fact, if you look at games like Limbo or Inside, you can see strands of Another World in those games. They're both relatively short, as is Another World. Both challenge you to make your way through based on environmental cues, as does Another World. The only difference is, Another World gives you a blaster.

But good luck using it. The creatures in Another World are crack shots. And there are plenty of other hazards waiting to kill you in the game, too.

The truth is, just about everything in Another World is out to kill you. And despite being from 1991, there are some rather graphic deaths portrayed. You can be disintegrated. You can be sucked up by tentacle monsters. You can drown. You can be stabbed to death. Death is waiting to pounce on every screen, forcing you to use trial and error to find the correct path forward.

The odds are good that you'll die in every way imaginable while playing Another World. Best of luck!

Being fed to the meat grinder in Resident Evil 6

There sure are a lot of Resident Evil games on this list, aren't there? What can we say: Resident Evil set the standard in terms of scary monsters and immense amounts of gore, and always made every moment feel dangerous. No matter where you are in a Resident Evil game, you can be just around the corner from death, and in Resident Evil 6, there are enemies that want to kill you so badly they'll kill themselves in the process.

Like the Rasklapanje you run into by the meat market. Remember him?

In Resident Evil 6, Rasklapanjes are terrifying because they can essentially put themselves back together. Blow an arm off? No problem. The Rasklapanje regenerates it. Shoot off a leg? The Rasklapanje replaces it. It's incredibly difficult to kill one fully, but if you head into RE6's butcher shop, you have a chance.

You'll struggle with the creature, and if you succeed, you'll feed it into the meat grinder, destroying it entirely. If you're the player above, however, and you lose the fight, the Rasklapanje will send you both tumbling into the meat grinder.

Hopefully Helena Harper likes sliced Leon.

Realizing an alien just ended you in Alien: Isolation

The Alien movies are scary enough, aren't they? You've probably seen this scene a thousand times by now, and it's just as unsettling now as it was when Alien 3 released in 1992. But something different happens when you bring horror to video games. There's something far more terrifying about playing a character in the game, rather than passively watching and knowing a scene is out of your control. In a video game, you can change the story. You can live.

Or you can die. And when a character in a game is responding to your inputs, and all of the sensory information you're taking in is crucial to your video game avatar's survival, it can feel like a little bit of you dies, too.

In Alien: Isolation, you're stalked throughout a spacecraft by a xenomorph. It crawls through the duct work, searching for you. It roams the halls, hoping to cross paths with you. And should it discover you, it'll strike with an unmatched quickness and deadly precision. You'll hear it just steps behind you. You'll try to run. And in the next moment, you'll look down and see the alien's razor-sharp tail, slowly pushing through your torso.

Game over.

Walker killing himself in Spec Ops: The Line

Spec Ops: The Line contains one of the best shooter campaigns in recent memory, and spoilers, it has to do with a pretty major twist that comes at its conclusion. You see, the main character, Walker, has trouble coming to grips with the fact that he murdered a number of innocent civilians while trying to carry out his mission. So in his mind, he creates a scapegoat; someone else to blame for his own atrocities. You'll go through most of the campaign believing you're on the right side of the battle. You'll think that you, controlling Walker, are the good guy.

When you reach the end, however, you'll discover the truth. That scapegoat — Conrad — was dead all along. And it was you, not Conrad, who was killing all of those innocent people.

You'll come face to face with a hallucination of Conrad; one conjured up by Walker's mind. And you'll have a decision to make: shoot the vision of Conrad and refuse to take responsibility for your actions; shoot a reflection of Walker, which in effect is shooting yourself; or allow the vision of Conrad to shoot you, which is also, in effect, shooting yourself.

If you shoot Conrad, you can walk away with your life. If you let either one of the other two scenarios play out, however, you die by your own hand. It's an unsettling end to an amazing game.

Being eaten alive in Resident Evil 2 remake

How great is the Resident Evil 2 remake? If you haven't played since the original came out back in the '90s, the remake basically takes all of the great parts from that game and puts a fresh coat of paint on them. What results is something that plays a lot like that PlayStation classic, but modernized. It's definitely not to be missed if you were a fan of the original Resident Evil 2.

Especially if you want to see what it's like being eaten by RE2 zombies, but with current-gen graphics.

Resident Evil 2 was known for its guts and gore back when it released in 1998, but the remake takes things to a whole new level. Zombies are a whole lot scarier, for instance. And Mr. X? He is a walking nightmare in RE2 remake. You won't get a true sense for how far things have come unless you die, though. Depending on who you are and how you go down, you might get to see a group of zombies tear into your flesh, pulling out your organs while you scream. And once they start munching away at said organs, blood splashing everywhere as the life drains away from your character, only then will you appreciate the work Capcom put into this updated version of RE2.

Failing to escape The Doc in Heavy Rain

Heavy Rain is one of those narrative-driven story games that come with a multitude of branching story paths and outcomes. So naturally, there are going to be opportunities for you to both succeed and fail. You'll make one choice and progress through the game one way. You'll make another choice and take an entirely different route through the rest of the adventure.

Or you can fail in your execution of any choice and say goodbye to the character you've been playing as.

In Chapter 34 of Heavy Rain, you're playing as a character named Madison, who either lives or dies depending on the choices you make. One path enables you to get in and out of a villainous doctor's home quickly with information you need. Another results in you being knocked out, coming to only to find you're fastened to an operating table, with that doctor preparing to operate on you in a way that can only end badly for you. From there, you can escape and kill the doctor, keeping Madison alive. But if you don't? He murders you instead, and Madison is gone for the rest of the game.

Getting stabbed to death in Outlast 2

When it comes to horror games, the Outlast titles are their own brand of frightening, and it's because they don't offer you any way to fight back. In Outlast 2, for instance, you're an investigative journalist, not any kind of gun-toting Rambo. A camera is usually your weapon of choice. You tell stories. You get to the truth. You're not well versed in the fine arts of firing arms or engaging in melee combat.

So when an enemy in Outlast 2 has you knocked down and cornered, you'll certainly have a journalist's eye for the finer details of your coming slaughter. But you won't be able to do a damned thing about it.

Take the above clip, for instance. That's the main character, Blake, being knocked over by one of the many cult members you'll encounter. Those cult members? They believe your wife is carrying the Antichrist, and that the end of the world is coming. Why would you not arm yourself? In any case, it doesn't matter. Once you're down, the end of the world is coming for you. A stab here, a stab there, and that's it.

At least you won't have to see what God had planned, eh?

Feeling the spikes in Resident Evil 4

Did you know that the band Iron Maiden is suing 3D Realms over the game Ion Maiden? Apparently the musical group thinks the video game is a rip-off of its name. But come on: Iron Maiden didn't invent that phrase. One only has to do a quick Google search to learn what an actual iron maiden is. As you can see, it's a (really painful-looking) torture device with spikes. People get locked inside the iron maiden. The spikes dig into their bodies. It all sounds truly dreadful.

Also dreadful: meeting an Iron Maiden in Resident Evil 4. And yes, RE4 uses the name Iron Maiden, too.

The name's rather appropriate in this context. Resident Evil 4's Iron Maidens are creatures with spikes sticking out of them, and they're capable of grabbing a player and reeling them in, driving the spikes in one side and out the other. They're like walking versions of those old torture devices, which means if you come across one in RE4, you either have to dispatch them quickly or else run to the hills.

If you do that, you just might live to fight another day. If an Iron Maiden gets a hold of you; well, watch the blood begin to flow, as it pours upon the floor …

Zeus splitting Kratos' skull in God of War 2

It's certainly strange to go back and look at the older God of War titles, now that the 2018 release is out and captured an entirely different feel for the franchise. But those prior games paved the way for Kratos to become something more, and they're definitely worth experiencing if you haven't played them. If nothing else, they were more unapologetic in the carnage that Kratos spread across their worlds, and in the deaths Kratos would meet if he failed in battle.

Like in God of War 2, when it looked like Kratos and Zeus would do battle for the last time.

Toward the end of the game, Kratos and Zeus meet once more, with Kratos imploring Zeus to "release me from this torment of my life." In this moment, Zeus picks up his sword, and a QTE prompt pops up. If you press the corresponding button in time, Kratos blocks Zeus's sword blow, setting off another scuffle between the two characters. But if you don't quite get to the button in time, Zeus swings his sword.

And Kratos? His head gets split like a melon. Needless to say, you'll be trying the encounter over again.

Getting forked in Catherine

Catherine is such a weird, weird game. First released in 2011, it really doesn't give off the vibe that it has anything to do with horror. It honestly looks more like a girlfriend simulator. It sort of is. It's also a puzzle game. And a platformer. And there's a branching narrative story in there, too, with multiple endings that show up based on the choices you make.

Oh, and the horror. The main character, Vincent, has nightmares where all sorts of madness takes place. They can be pretty terrifying at times, like when you're trying to platform through a level while being chased by a giant fork.

We told you this game was weird.

As you can see in the video above, Vincent must navigate giant towers with all sorts of moving blocks, trying not to off himself as he makes his way to the end. And that's not even mentioning the giant fork. All the while, the giant fork hovers nearby, stabbing toward the tower in an attempt to kill Vincent where he stands. If Vincent is able to keep moving, keep pushing blocks around and keep moving around the tower in the right way, he can survive the nightmare and make it to the next morning.

If not? He's forked. End of story.

Joel meets a bloater in The Last of Us

The Last of Us is a Mature-rated game that takes place during the zombie apocalypse, so you're darn right there are going to be some nasty deaths in this one. Quite often, you'll find that the game doesn't tend to linger on the death animations for too long, sparing you the sight of seeing Joel or Ellie lose their life for the thousandth time. But you know what's happening.

Like when the bloaters get you. They're a little meaner than the rest of the zombies in terms of what they'll do to you.

First the bloater grabs you, putting you in a sort of headlock. That's terrifying enough. Then the bloater really sinks its fingers in, using one hand to grab your head and the other to pull on your jaw. The camera cuts away just before you get to see your jaw torn completely off of your face, leaving what would undoubtedly be a large gaping hole in the bottom of your head. But the worst part is knowing that wouldn't kill you. You'd actually still be alive! In pain, but alive.

We almost shudder to think what the bloater would do after that.

Just about everything in House of Velez Part 2

We'll be honest; we were not even remotely familiar with the House of Velez series before we stumbled upon its jaw-dropping death sequences. After watching through them, we had a little trouble sleeping. The games are, by all accounts, 'torture porn' in terms of the graphic deaths you'll see on screen while playing. And in a game with stealth elements and puzzle-solving mechanics, there's a good chance you'll be seeing a lot of them.

In fact, there are so many that we couldn't even pick just one. They're all equally disturbing in their own ways.

Whether Ryona is taking a giant drill through her body, having her entire scalp ripped clean off of her head, or getting a giant high heel through her eye socket, you will sit in stunned silence at the brutality on display in House of Velez Part 2. The game's creators clearly wanted to evoke a reaction each time Ryona loses her life, and incentivize you to try harder in the future. But did they really need to go to these lengths?

If you're the kind of person who loves gore, House of Velez Part 2 might be up your alley. Just be prepared for a few weeks of nightmares.

The shark jumps Batman in Arkham City

Batman has faced off against a number of enemies in his video game days. Who could forget his encounters with the Joker? How about that classic battle with Killer Croc? In Batman: Arkham City, though, Batman got to add a sort of unlikely foe to his list of bad guys: a shark. But not just any shark: a shark with a rather misleading name.

We're speaking, of course, about Tiny. And if you remember Arkham City and your face-off with Tiny, you'll know that "tiny" is about the last thing you'd use to describe him.

How Batman would ever get himself eaten by a shark, we'll never know. Doesn't he have a bunch of gadgets that could help him, you know, not have to walk on frozen ice? Anyway, at a certain point in Arkham City, you'll be tasked with rescuing a few police offers on a frozen waterway, stepping ever so quietly as to avoid falling through. Succeed, and the officers are saved. Fail, and you'll crash through the ice very loudly.

That's when Tiny comes. He'll gobble Batman up in one go, and it's game over for both you and Gotham. Seriously, how does Batman not have the tools to avoid this?

Death by body contortion in Unforgiving: A Northern Hymn

We'll go on the record and say that some of the scariest horror comes from Europe, particularly its northern regions. There's just something inherently creepy about Swedish folk tales and anything having to do with Nordic legends, because they're something we don't see a lot of in these parts, and we don't have a built in tolerance for their tropes.

Unforgiving: A Northern Hymn has these in droves. And come on: you know any game that claims to "create the nightmares" of Swedish kids is going to have some scary moments. Not only that, it's going to have a lot of bizarre, twisted deaths, too.

Take the body contortion death sequence you'll find in Unforgiving. You could simply be trying to make your way through the game, scared to death all along the way, when all of the sudden a strange enemy presents itself to you. Before you can react, this enemy somehow manages to jump inside your body. And then the real horror begins, as you watch your fingers twist and break, and your legs bend in ways they're not supposed to. Before too long, that happens to all of you. It's a painful way to go.

Remind us never to watch a Swedish horror movie.

Getting the guillotine in Granny

For most people, visiting grandma is an occasion they look forward to. For the player in Granny, however, there is no visiting grandma, because you're locked in her house and she won't ever let you leave. It's a weird premise, for sure, but even stranger still is the fact that Granny will kill you if you try to escape.

If that's the case, what the heck is she keeping you locked up for in the first place?

There are a number of ways you can meet your end in Granny, thanks to her competing desires to both keep you and kill you. But the most alarming has to be the death by guillotine. If you're somehow knocked out while trying to make your way out of the house, you'll come to in a daze, looking around to try and get your senses. It's then you'll notice that Granny is perched over to your side, gripping a handle.

That handle is attached to a guillotine. And before you have a chance to react, Granny will set the guillotine's blade loose, dropping it down on your neck and separating your head from the rest of your body. Why, grandma, why?

Cooked kiddo in Little Nightmares

No kidding, Little Nightmares. You're probably familiar with the story of Hansel and Gretel, and if you're like us, it's made you distrust houses in the woods as well as old ladies. That has a lot to do with the idea of being cooked alive in an oven, a slow, painful way to die, for sure. And in Little Nightmares, you can live out that experience (and see the death sequence) yourself if you're not careful.

At some point in Little Nightmares, you'll need to sneak your way through the kitchen of a giant troll baker. The baker will go on with his routine if you manage to stay out of sight. But if you're seen, he'll make it his mission to catch you. And should he succeed, he'll snatch you up and make his way right over to the oven. From there, he'll unceremoniously toss you in, where you're sure to be cooked just right before becoming part of the troll community's next meal.

Seriously, you don't want to become troll food, do you? Don't be seen, please.

Taking a sword through the chest in Game Over: Alive

You know what we don't have enough of anymore? Full-motion video (FMV) games. They used to be all the rage back in the day, when video game graphics weren't as lifelike. And for some reason, they showed up quite often on the original PlayStation, where Japanese developers went absolutely wild with them.

Game Over: Alive is one of those titles. And it is so rarely seen or talked about these days that you can barely find information about it online. Fortunately, some wonderful human being on YouTube captured some of the game's death sequences for safekeeping. And they have us convinced that this would've been one of the scariest games we'd ever have played — had it come to the West, of course.

Take the scene above, for instance. Those are real people acting out the murder of someone with a sword through the chest. And it looks real, too! Those aren't 32-bit graphics staring you in the face, reminding you that you're playing a video game. That is full-motion video, fully scripted cinematography that will never age as poorly as the original Resident Evil has in the years since it came out.

Meeting the circ saw in HeadHorse

Don't let the mobile operating systems fool you: iOS and Android devices can fit in your pocket, but that doesn't mean they won't punch you directly in the gut by offering up some worthy horror experiences. And you know, there's something even creepier about being scared by your phone. It's such an intimate device. You're always holding it close to you, trusting it to store all of your valuable information.

And then you see someone get sawed in half by a circular saw, and it's like your phone suddenly became a small child that blurted out a curse word.

In HeadHorse, you are literally held prisoner by a being with a human body and a horse's head. That's messed up enough. What's even worse, though, is that you're trapped in his house, trying desperately to escape, and he thought ahead enough to lay a bunch of traps in your path. Should you get caught by one, you could experience a death like the one above, listening to a circular saw tear into your organs before you finally succumb to the mercy of death.

And then you'll have to use that same phone to order dinner. That is, if you didn't already panic toss it across the room.

Meeting another circ saw, this time in The Evil Within 2

Horror games sure love circular saws, don't they? They're like the ultimate tool in generating fear in the player, as they spin up and whir, inching ever closer. Most of the time they're used to create suspense. You get to see the circular saw traveling toward you over a period of time that feels like an eternity. But not every game holds fast to that rule.

Take The Evil Within 2. That game murders you with a circ saw and then gets on with its day.

Just check out the clip above and you'll understand what we mean. As you can see, the main character gets knocked down and is in prime position to get diced up in short order. But The Evil Within 2 doesn't go into slow-motion to show you the saw. It doesn't rev the thing up and sell it. That monster with the circular saw gets right down to business, like a lumber yard worker who has about a thousand more boards to cut after this one. He splits you into two pieces, guts flying all over the place, in the span of about three or four seconds.

And then he takes a moment, almost as though he's admiring his work. Not the cleanest cut, but it'll do.

Ignoring her in Don't Chat With Strangers

Remember the days of AOL Instant Messenger, and the unease you felt at receiving a message from someone you didn't know? Take that feeling of unease, add ghosts, and you've pretty much got Don't Chat With Strangers.

It's a game where a strange girl messages you out of the blue, and you somehow deem it your responsibility to figure out what her story is. The perfect recipe for horror.

A lot of the game takes place in your room, as you chat with the girl through a messaging app. You'll start to notice this is no ordinary chat, however, when a spirit begins to float behind you, making its way toward the back of your chair. If you keep the conversation going and solve the puzzles correctly, that spirit won't get close enough to do any harm. If you ignore the girl's messages, however, you can fully expect to have your throat slit.

Just a word of advice: do not ignore the girl.