Probably RE2, but not really scary. I just remember that was the first time in a game I got a jump scare. I believe it was the moment you're walking in a hallway and a bunch of zombies' arms break through some windows. I was eight and watching my brothers play it when it came out. The first time I actually persistently felt scared in a game though is harder to tell because older games, even from last-gen didn't really have that much effect on me. I mean, playing Dead Space on Impossible the first time through was pretty intense. F.E.A.R. on hard was pretty intense too, but not because of Alma, but because of fighting the smart A.I. and knowing they could kill me quite fast. Maybe my memory just doesn't serve me well, but honestly, only recently have horror games been really effective to me in being consistently scary throughout most of the play time.
A few games have had moments of tenseness, or just jump scares, but nothing that felt harrowing almost the entire time. This year alone RE7 was pretty creepy throughout, even the more action focused sections, and Outlast 2 made my palms sweat in how relentless it ratchets itself up. I tried replaying Outlast 2 again and got to a point where I didn't want to go through that again so I uninstalled it off the PS4 (also because I wanted to play something with a little more action.) Oh, Clock Tower 3 on PS2 I remember being pretty creepy a lot of the time, but I didn't finish that game and hardly remember it. The first time a game actually made me want to turn it off because I couldn't handle the horror (while simultaneously still wanting to move forward) was P.T. That's recent, but it's the first time I felt I couldn't keep going.
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