Another Top 10 Insanely Stressful Video Games (ft.Todd Haberkorn)

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#10: “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” (2017)

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PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds REVIEW! - MojoPlays

Regardless of your opinion about the explosive popularity of the Battle Royale genre, you can’t deny the rush it provides when you’re one of the last players alive. “PUBG” is a slower paced game compared to its competition and you’re likely to go through most of a match without encountering another player should you take a safer route. But that doesn’t make for a comfortable experience. To the contrary, because the the slow and cautious strategy is so common among players, the overall tension is actually much higher. And if you’re able to make it into the top 10 during a match, it can get very nerve-wracking knowing you made it this far with victory in your grasp.

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#9: “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl” (2007)

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Top 10 Insanely Stressful Video Games

A cult classic of the open world survival game genre, “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.” throws the player into “The Zone”, an irradiated wasteland that’s the result of a second nuclear disaster in Chernobyl. Not only does the player have to worry about areas filled with toxic radiation and scarce supplies, but roaming gangs and twisted mutants will not hesitate to make your trip across the desolated wasteland an unpleasant one. One enemy type in particular, known as a Bloodsucker, has a habit of rushing the player when they least expect it, and in tight areas too. Have fun exploring those abandoned laboratories!

What’s scarier than navigating the depths of our ocean? Visiting the ocean on an alien planet. Taking the one kind of level that most people detest and turning it into an entire game (and a remarkably fascinating one at that) “Subnautica” has you exploring the depths of an unfamiliar body of water after crash landing on a newly discovered planet. While there are portions where you have your feet on dry land, the majority of the game has you underneath the waves scrounging for materials and trying desperately to stay out of the way of the huge carnivorous creatures that lurk below.

As one of Telltale’s finest games, “The Walking Dead” is held dear by many gamers. The Father Daughter type relationship that develops between Lee and Clementine as they struggle to survive in this new world makes for an incredibly emotional story, though anyone who’s played this knows that it’s as heartbreaking as it is engaging. Often the choices you make can spell disaster for the characters and you typically only have seconds to make them, giving you little time to weigh the consequences. Choose wrong and you’re forced to watch a favorite character die.

To this day, “Silent Hill 2” remains one of the most terrifying gameplay experiences out there. The player takes control of the awkward James Sutherland as he tries to unravel the mystery of the twisted town of Silent Hill. The developers definitely went out all in order to disorient and scare the player. The camera angles change drastically to confuse you, and the various nightmarish creatures continuously emerge from the fog to end your life. It doesn’t help that James can barely fight, which makes every encounter a terrifying one. If this game doesn’t get you sweating, you’re clearly blessed with nerves of steel.

This one caught us completely off guard for how stressful it can be. As a remake of a classic PS1 title, we thought we knew what we were in for; Shooting or avoiding zombies with limited ammo, while getting big guns to take down Lickers and solve puzzles, how bad could it have been? And then ... HE shows up! This invincible trenchcoat clad monster: Mr. X will he constantly stalk you throughout a large portion of the game. We lost count of how many times we were cowering in fear in some of the offices, hoping he wouldn’t find us while his footsteps echo the hallways. It’s even more terrifying if you’re wearing headphones.

There are a lot of dark themed games out there that focus on jump scares and grotesque monsters to stress the player out. “Hellblade”, while having some nasty creatures of its own, shifts the focus to the horrors of the mind. Senua is on a journey to Helheim to rescue the soul of her dead lover, fighting all sorts of horrors along the way. However, the real danger is the voices brought on by her psychosis, that prey upon her fragile sanity. Not only do they try and put her down the wrong path, but in some cases they even attempt to get her to take her own life. Talk about intense!

There are very few games that manage to stress out the player like the “Souls” series. While Dark Souls wasn’t first “Souls’” game, it is the one that elevated it to worldwide popularity, introducing millions of new players to its unforgiving nature. Enemies that attack relentlessly, traps around every corner, and towering bosses that toss the player around like a rag doll - this game throws everything at you. Then there’s the fact that you can be invaded at any time by other online players, and the constant fear that one wrong move will cost you all the vital souls you need to level up. It all adds up to one seriously nerve wracking adventure.

You may be asking how a game with so much charm could possibly be so high on this list. Well, cute though it may look, “Cuphead: is one of the most challenging 2D shoot’em ups of the last decade. Depending on nothing but your wits and quick reflexes, you have to make your way through a multitude of levels with very little room for error.The bosses alone make you want to break your controller as most of them go through several phases, each one harder than the last. But hey, at least the soundtrack will keep you company as you die over and over again.





Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few Honourable Mentions:





“The Evil Within” (2014)





“Manhunt” (2003)





“Left 4 Dead 2” (2009)





“Outlast 2” (2017)

With stress as one of its central mechanics, this game more than earns our top spot. “Darkest Dungeon” is a turn based RPG where the player must explore randomly generated dungeons with their party of rather interesting characters. The thing is that each party member comes with a stress bar and this bar increases as the party witnesses’ events such as character deaths or particularly disturbing enemies. When they get too freaked out, they may refuse to attack and potentially even go insane. Throw in some difficult boss fights and you have yourself a game that revels in torturing its audience.