Non-horror games are scarier than horror games.

I something wrong with me? Games like Resident Evil 4, Dead Space1 & 2 and others like them don't scare me one bit. Not even in a "dude, GROSS" way with the gore. Now when I played Fallout 3, when one of those fucking Centaurs showed up, I wanted to shut off the game and stick my head into a bucket, I was so scared. Same with the hunchback zombies in Half Life 2. And I won't even talk about Half Life. Jesus Christ, that game made me ruin more pantaloons than any other. 
 
Anybody else feel the same?

I something wrong with me? Games like Resident Evil 4, Dead Space1 & 2 and others like them don't scare me one bit. Not even in a "dude, GROSS" way with the gore. Now when I played Fallout 3, when one of those fucking Centaurs showed up, I wanted to shut off the game and stick my head into a bucket, I was so scared. Same with the hunchback zombies in Half Life 2. And I won't even talk about Half Life. Jesus Christ, that game made me ruin more pantaloons than any other. 
 
Anybody else feel the same?

I do. Games aren't that frightening if you go in expecting to be scared.

STALKER gave me more frights and exploited more fears than Amnesia or Resident Evil or the like. While it does have a creepy setting and enemies, I wouldn't consider it a horror game.

Max Payne's nightmare scenes. Damn those creeped the hell out of me.

There was something about the tone of the music and the dark atmosphere in the DNA sequences in Assassins Creed II that always gave me the heeby-jeebys. Especially at night, so eerie.

Boo's stage in Mario 64 was frikin scary as hell.  

I agree to an extent, yeah. Fallout 3 had some creepy moments, same with Oblivion and BioShock. 
 
Though there definitely have been traditional horror games that have freaked me out. Amnesia is terrifying, for example. I thought Condemned: Criminal Origins was pretty scary as well.

Expectations can be a good part of scaring someone, so it's not that strange. Hell, some people might even find games like Call of Duty to be rather frightening when they suddenly get shot in the back, thinking they're safe.

@TwilitEnd656: That's true. There was a while where playing the HL2CTF mod and running with the flag gave me a kind of sensation that I've only experience in nightmares where I'm being chased. The sensation of "If I make the slightest misstep or go in a straight line for too long, I'm completely fucked". But in the game, the rush you get after capturing that flag after such a narrow escape is amazing; in the dreams there is no relief until I wake up.

STALKER gave me more frights and exploited more fears than Amnesia or Resident Evil or the like. While it does have a creepy setting and enemies, I wouldn't consider it a horror game.

@MrKlorox said:

STALKER gave me more frights and exploited more fears than Amnesia or Resident Evil or the like. While it does have a creepy setting and enemies, I wouldn't consider it a horror game.

I still think that that game is the scariest game I've played, partially from the actual enemies and their design, but also from the constant foreboding atmosphere as well as the improved dynamicism (is that even a word?) of the game.

For example, while Shadows of Chernobyl scared the crap out of me the first time through, I slowly got better with it as there where a good chunk of scripted horror events. But, then, going into Call of Pripyat, all those fears came back. Because of how much more alive the world was, if I had to run into a building I hadn't checked out in a while to avoid an emission, I would be CONSTANTLY checking over my shoulder to make sure I hadn't stumbled into a brand new Bloodsucker nest.

Demon's Souls agrees with you.

Never been scared by a game other than being jump-startled by FEAR 2 and Dead Space 1 a couple times, but Batman Arkham Asylum... when you're fighting Killer Croc, that shit can get tense.  They did an amazing job building tension and bringing it to a climax over and over.

STALKER gave me more frights and exploited more fears than Amnesia or Resident Evil or the like. While it does have a creepy setting and enemies, I wouldn't consider it a horror game.

I find it hard to agree or disagree completely because I've never been all that scared by a game outside of jump scares, horror or non-horror. I do think you have a point though, one of the problems with horror games is I always go in expecting the game to try and scare me, with a non-horror game you're not expecting to be scared and it contrasts more dramatically against the non-horror backdrop of the rest of the game.

MYST was pretty scary

I think it's the sudden change in expectations.  In Vanquish, for instance, the first run in with the Unknown enemy type... it's bizarre, unexpected, and totally unlike anything you've fought or even seen up to that point.  It's also got the only attack in the game, that I'm aware of, that can result in an instant kill if you let it get close to you, and it's extremely hard to tell if you're even doing damage to it until you can figure out what it is, which in itself is a feat.

It's pretty goddamn great.

dead space 1/2 or RE are not really horror games they are action games go play amnesia thats pretty fucking scary

the krypt in Mortal Kombat

Just last week I finished Puzzle Agent 1 and got stupid startled and creeped out by the stupid gnome people.

Climbing through the clockwork temple in Uncharted 2 put a lump in my throat through the whole experience.  I don't do high places well and that includes within virtual space.  I still get scared even though I know there are no repercussions to falling.  Actually, I'm usually kind of relieved when I fall because the anticipation is maddening.  So, in that sense for me personally, non-horror games are scarier than horror titles.  I'm not afraid of the dark or monsters in a closet, but put me up on a high scaffold and I'm left agitated. 

Climbing through the clockwork temple in Uncharted 2 put a lump in my throat through the whole experience.  I don't do high places well and that includes within virtual space.  I still get scared even though I know there are no repercussions to falling.  Actually, I'm usually kind of relieved when I fall because the anticipation is maddening.  So, in that sense for me personally, non-horror games are scarier than horror titles.  I'm not afraid of the dark or monsters in a closet, but put me up on a high scaffold and I'm left agitated. 

When you go into a game expecting to be scared, it takes a lot to actually scare you.

Minecraft

In terms of scaring the player:
Intense Gameplay>Atmosphere 

As much as I love cats, I think the panthers in Red Dead Redemption are scary as hell.

The reason for the different reactions is because, when you watch/play something scarey you go in the mind set of "okay wheres the next jump scare?" When you see something creepy in a game not marketed as a "horror" you are in the mind set of something completely different thus you are caught off guard by something that really shouldn't make you go "dude, WHAT." but it dose because, it gets in head that the material  you are consuming is what it says on the box, but its not like the creators don't want to throw a curve ball where you are like "OH-MY-GOD!" and need to take a breather. This is all of course -> in my opinion.

I agree to an extent.
 
Bioshock has creeped the hell out of me at times. Demon's Souls scares me as I know that I'm a hit away from losing hours of progress.
Then again horror games can be effective, F.E.A.R and F.E.A.R 2 have some terrifying moments as does Condemned 2.

Demon's Souls for the reasons everybody's said. But I can't agree that it's scarier than certain horror games.
 
The hospital level on Siren Blood Curse has me scarred for life.

@PhatSeeJay said:

Max Payne's nightmare scenes. Damn those creeped the hell out of me.

Same here. That goddamned crying baby with that little blood trail... uggh

@Crocio said:

In terms of scaring the player:
Intense Gameplay>Atmosphere

I would say that the reason why Dead Space, for example, doesn't scare me as much as other games, is because it deals strictly with two things: jump scares and intense gameplay.

The jump scares are good the first couple of times, but they get tiresome after a while. It's the cheapest trick when it comes to scaring someone and anyone can do it. But if you can build up an atmosphere of fright and keep it for extended periods of time, then you are talking about a truly scary game.

I'm not completely sure what you would define as intense gameplay, but my definition is a game that challenges you to use all your skills in certain situations like combat, boss battles or puzzles etc. But that doesn't scare me, it keeps me focused and concentrated on the game cause I have to play the best I possibly can to succeed. That I would call intense, but that is not the same as being scared in my opinion.

Atmosphere is much more effective in that regard, I mean look at a game like Amnesia: it deals strictly in building up a tense feeling mixed psychological uncertainty. It constantly plays with your mind and makes you see things which you aren't sure are exactly there or if it's just you the player that are going insane.

So I would say in terms of scaring the player:

Atmosphere>intense gameplay.