Between watching a lot of horror and playing through Silent Hill as a kid it seems to have killed off any sort of deep fear at such things. They can feel quite tense with good atmosphere but never really been compelled to stop playing out of fear. Main appeal with Silent Hill was the complexity, symbolism, etc. I actually really rather liked what they did with 4; it has a great juxtaposition with being trapped in the room, able to look out longingly at the normal world just out of reach with cars passing, seeing some human interaction by looking at neighbours, etc. It was a sort of melancholy sanctuary that is dependable. When things change later into the game you actually prefer not to visit the room unless you really have to which I thought was a brilliant twist.
Amnesia I rather enjoyed the cryptic storytelling style with rather lovecraftian themes and handles building tension rather well. Penumbra was similar though I do prefer amnesia with it's setting, visuals and narrative style.
As for Dead Space, maybe I was just in a bad mood due to other factors at the time but I just found it kind of obnoxious with trying jump scares, riddled with plot holes and trying too hard with it's twists. The way people in the setting would just explode in a shower of gore if they so much as brush past someone in a hallway tended to bug me aswell. Felt more akin to the horror approach of something like Jason X than something more subtle and psychological. 2 had that section of walking through the Ishimura for a while without conflict which was nice. But the rest of it was just swarms of things leaping out of air vents (always with a thing or two behind you) screaming wildly with the music jumping to a screeching pitch.
Felt it gets kind of predictable with the encounters and approach. The muffled space stuff is great though, and if they dial back on the wild gorey action the atmosphere would kind of be there. Also making the character more vulnerable (but not by just throwing a dozen more enemies in at once) rather than heavily armoured and armed with shops to stock up in, etc. Might help. Also a shame that all the advertising material prior to the game kept going on and on about it being innovative for needing dismemberment rather than headshots. So first actual fight you simply blow an arm and a leg off them and then shrug as you wander off, or go stomp loot out of them. It kind of robbed it of slowly giving those details to the player subtlely through the environment over time.
Maybe it is my fault in a way for following information too heavily, is it possible to go into the game oblivious to the limb thing?
Anyway, another thing I feel did an opressive atmosphere quite well is the S.T.A.L.K.E.R games, especially the brain scorcher related stuff/people. They just slowly and inneringly come from everywhere. No urgency or apparent interest, they just shamble over from everywhere, moaning carried on the wind from all around. Was made a bit odd though with the bug of some scientist saying "Hello Hello" looping randomly throughtout that entire small region >.< Overall though the game had really great atmosphere, and some punishing realism to shooting which I actually kind of liked.
I saw some things on that cry of fear mod, always interesting to see what people can pull off now, especially using something quite old as a base. I'll have to get around to trying it sometime.
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