Great video games to play with a Gothic atmosphere

[Zilfer]

I'm not sure buuuuut! I think Dark Soul's might be a bit gothic. Though I'd warn people if you don't like dying a lot do not play it. There's plenty undead, seeming demons, and other creatures. It's gone down quite a bit in price and I'd recommend to anyone who wants a decent challenge but again I warn you. I would say it's not for the average leisurely playing gamer.

[Jimsolo]

It's already been mentioned, but I thought I would put a little extra weight behind Cliver Barker's Undying. I can't say enough good things about that game. Legitimately scary, good gothic atmosphere, great game mechanics (only fps I have ever played which incorporated magic in a playable way) and decent replay value. I highly recommend it.

[HuManBing]

"Jeremiah...? No, you're not Jeremiah... You're - an interloper..."

[Le Noir Faineant]

Dear Esther is pretty much the embodiment of Gothicism, to me.

Also, I think it's free on Steam, or something.

[High Priest Mikhal]

Koudelka (PS1): Pure Gothic-horror setting; the title heroine is summoned to a crumbling monastery in 1898 Wales by a woman's spirit and becomes involved in a plot of insane magicians, the living dead, and the dead living. Resurrection isn't always what you bargained for... Koudelka features an excellent story, exceptional voice acting (with some of the most well-rounded characters I've ever seen), good music, and some genuine creeps. The entire game is almost a template for a Ravenloft dungeon crawl, and there are story ideas and adventure hooks to be pruned throughout (to take just one example, one of the midboss fights can be completely avoided if you lay a ghost child to rest by praying at her grave and by showing her the years of letters her mother wrote to her). The three PCs are extraordinarily well-developed; all of them have their dark sides. The down side is that gameplay is a little clunky, especially in combat, which will turn off some people, but it's worth playing through just for the sheer volume of Gothic-horror possibilities.

And it had a sequel!

Shadow Hearts (PS2): Best. Gothic. Horror. Game. Ever. A straight RPG, Shadow Hearts features exceptional characters, a fun game system, a twisted and complex plot set in the real world, and the best darned soundtrack for a Gothic horror game imaginable. MotRD players could be pruning ideas from this game forever.

A bit of a necro post, but I can't believe I missed this! I have to agree 100%. Covenant and From the New World sold out to tacky comedy relief but still have their good points. As for mining for ideas, way ahead of you. The cameras Anastasia and Johnny use made for an interesting minor artifact, and I am throwing around ideas for harmonixer and spirit binder classes based on the binder class for Masque of the Red Death: Modern Nights (yes, I changed the name of the rules I'm still trying to find time for). But reality has a way of throwing my plans a massive spanner.

[A G Thing]

While I am not sure how gothic some would consider it, I think it is fairly gothic... Ib...

Download Link for Ib

It is a great little game that has its moments and leaves the player to face some hard decisions especially if they roleplay them from the characters perspectives. It is a game that made me both cry and jump with fright... I recommend it highly!

Of note however there is one issue with the game requiring most users to update their video codecs to handle a cutscene but if you are unwilling to look up the download and apply it there are also simple workarounds to bypass the cutscene and still view it listed online.

[Dimitri Mazieres]

While I am not sure how gothic some would consider it, I think it is fairly gothic... Ib...

Download Link for Ib

It is a great little game that has its moments and leaves the player to face some hard decisions especially if they roleplay them from the characters perspectives. It is a game that made me both cry and jump with fright... I recommend it highly!

Of note however there is one issue with the game requiring most users to update their video codecs to handle a cutscene but if you are unwilling to look up the download and apply it there are also simple workarounds to bypass the cutscene and still view it listed online.

Thank you A G Thing. That was a great game. Engaging, fun, with a great story, and fast (in a good way!). I wasn't as moved as you were, but I found it really entertaining nonetheless, with the music setting a great mood.
As for the cutscene issue, I only found it when playing in full screen. If I returned to windowed mode prior to the cutscene (using Alt+Enter) the movie played normally. Alternatively, it can be seen on its own as an .avi video in the Movie folder.

Again, a great game!

[A G Thing]

Glad you liked it!

[HuManBing]

Clive Barker's Undying

A great example of dark fantasy horror gaming. The game could easily be ported into the Ravenloft setting with minimal changes. It features a cursed family estate off the coast of Ireland, where five siblings grew up with an occult secret that warped and haunts them still. Four of the siblings are gone but not forgotten, and the fifth needs your help to lay them to rest. Much of the game takes place in a brooding mansion, but portions of it take place in the catacombs below, or a breathtaking astral world ("Oneiros"), and finally in a devolved prehistoric violent paradise called "Eternal Autumn". One of the very few FPS games to feature an occult magic system that works well with the atmosphere. The end boss of the game may be a bit too fantastic for the buildup, but other than that, the game is a great WWI-era period piece.

Game highlights:

• Several of the magic spells are surprisingly versatile for an FPS game. "Invoke" has three uses, for example: a) turning undead, b) driving living victims insane, c) raising corpses to fight for you. "Lightning" also can infuse your weapon with static and call down a lightning bolt if you shoot something with the charged weapon in the outdoors. "Dispel" not only clears away magical fields, but they also cancel the effects of a psionic blast.
• Some of the action takes place in extraplanar worlds, like the dream world of Oneiros or the alternate-stone-age of Eternal Autumn. Oneiros is particularly fanciful: entire cities float suspended above the voidscape, with bits that crumble off into the depths, or even "instant floor tiles" which pop into existence when the player draws near, but which vanish behind you when you leave.
• One spell you pick up is "Flight", but you can only use it in a dreamworld, and you can only sustain maybe 30m. of flight before gravity takes over again.
• A significant amount of the game takes place with a focus on exploration and the level design is aesthetically detailed. Underground crypts, cistern tunnels, bonehoards, outdoor crevasses, hewn caverns, otherworld ziggurats.
• Player gets the following weapons: pistol (accurate fire, good for headshots), shotgun (up-close bruiser), Tibetan War Cannon (fires ice ball, slows enemies), casting stone (generates a blast that pushes enemies away from you), Phoenix Eggs (homing fly-by-wire exploding missile attack), Molotov Cocktails (grenade attack), scythe (life stealing melee weapon, must be used to deliver the killing blow for the game's boss enemies), Speargun (crossbow type weapon, can be paired with Lightning for a powerful outdoor attack).
• Player gets the following spells: Scry (see past illusions, see plot elements in the surroundings), Ectoplasm (close-range cheap magic missile attack, unreliable aim), Dispel (dispels magic fields, heals insanity/confusion effects), Invoke (raise dead, turn undead, drive living people mad), Haste, Shield (barrier in front of you takes damage instead of you), Skull Storm (like a fireball spell, accurate and damaging but takes time to cast), Lightning Bolt.

VIEW CONTENT:

• The first boss, Lizbeth, taunts you every so often at points in the early game. When you finally fight her, she's in her mother's sepulcher. The fight takes place in an elaborate tomb, with occasional skeletons coming after you. Horrifyingly, the undead mother is standing at the head of a fully-set banquet table, murmuring lullabies to her restive daughter. She attacks at close range with her claws, and leaps and pounces to close with a distant foe, occasionally throwing rocks as her ranged attack. Must be decapitated with the scythe.
• The second boss, Ambrose, is reached by water and cavern, as he's in cahoots with bandits. One particular neat level has you entering a cavern and scaling up the side of a large rock rise in the middle of it. Once you get there, there's a pool of placid water in it, some 40' above the floor of the cavern; you swim onwards through that. An underground fortress (complete with functional cannon) and collapsing roofs present a challenge. The sibling himself leads you back to the mansion and you fight him. He grabs your casting stone and turns into a giant ogre with a huge battleaxe. Damage him enough, and a monstrous dog will seize his arm, giving you the chance to regain your stone and making him vulnerable to the scythe.
• The third boss, Keisinger, lives in the dream realm and is found atop a ziggurat floating in the void. The two of you fight while flying around the summit of the ziggurat. If you defeat him outside, he flies into a grate to the interior of the ziggurat and the fight continues. Once you injure him enough with spells, he falls to his doom below. This is one of the two fights that take place in three dimensions.
• The fourth boss, Aaron, is a ghost who used to paint scenes of death and torment. He can paint enemies to life, causing them to attack you. To kill him, you'll have to find his stolen jawbone and replace it in his skinless corpse in the dungeons. His body is hung up by chained meathooks, and he'll swing them at you. To prevail, you have to provoke him into attacking you while you're near the hanging chains, thus entangling his limbs long enough to scythe him to death.
• The fifth boss, Bethany, has usurped control of the dimension of Eternal Autumn and its warring clans. She is a summoner, and conjures up numerous flying enemies to harass you atop a forested stone ridge. To kill her, you must defeat her witch servitors and then fly up to her neck and cut off her head.
• The final boss is rather like a dragon. The less said about this, the better.

[HuManBing]

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Immersive first-person puzzle horror game. You're exploring a castle and its environs, while reading diary entries that clue you in on your past... and it turns out there's a reason you lost your memory. This game is entirely non-combat, making it a highly unusual first-person game. It also succeeds better than most at instilling a very real sense of fear and horror in the player as the unknown dangers in the darkness stalk you. Darkness hides you from enemies, but it makes your sanity expire faster. Merely seeing an enemy is enough to make your sanity slip somewhat. Getting injured or worse is enough to make your vision blurry, your turn rate uneven, and your character will start muttering and weeping. Solving mysteries will restore your sanity significantly, and health potions are around to regain your health. Light is another issue - it protects against sanity loss but attracts enemies, and it uses two expendable items (tinderboxes and lantern oil) that could eventually leave you stranded in the dark. There is minimal on-screen display - everything is presented as much as possible from the character's actual viewpoint.

The game is set in a medieval Gothic castle, then goes underground to catacombs, then to a water cistern tunnel, and finally to a magical laboratory. Some of the set pieces are beautiful - the approach to the final confrontation takes you over a stone walkway flanked by exotic azure flames, and although the chamber has a ceiling and walls, there is no floor visible, just a murky chasm... Some of the earlier parts of the game use events to allow or deny access to relevant parts (a breeze blows open a door once you achieve something, or a poisonous mold suddenly recedes from a corridor it was blocking, etc.).

VIEW CONTENT:

• The plot has a character twist: your character is an amnesiac by will, and he chose this fate because he could not live with the horrific crimes he'd committed. The main antagonist is a dimensional traveler in the guise of a human who funded human torture experimentation in order to return to his home plane - your actions at the end of the game will determine one of three endings for him.
• Puzzles include: a) collecting and mixing reagents to create an explosive to clear a corridor blockage, b) arranging pipe joints to restore air pressure to a key machine, c) jerry-rigging a crude decanter setup to bleed a corpse of its blood for vaccine, d) carefully navigating the flotsam and jetsom in a flooded passageway because something horrid and aquatic will chase you and grievously injure you if you're too close in the water.
• Torture devices come into play, somewhat, including: Brazen Bull, Iron Maiden, Wheel, Strappado, Judas Cradle, and Saw.

[HuManBing]

Nosferatu: Wrath of Malachi

A retelling of the Dracula story, but with several twists. Your relatives are in the castle with you, and as the clock counts down, they can and will be sacrificed to Malachi's dark ritual. You can save them, which will have direct consequences on the final fight. Features a surprising degree of innovative item use, such as using a cross to both turn undead and to bless holy water (giving you a very powerful weapon). Features a stamina mechanic (so melee attacks and running will exhaust you faster), and prohibits reloading weapons while you're running. Ammunition left in a weapon is wasted if you reload the weapon.

Also, the location of key personnel and items in the castle is randomly generated at the start of each game. One of the first time challenges you'll face is finding a doctor to heal an injured ally within half an hour. Fail in this, and you'll lose the ally and a valuable item that will make the rest of the game much smoother. Finally, the ending has a few surprises.

• Weapons include: fencing blade (surprisingly good reach melee weapon), Crucifix (may be presented to turn undead, or used in a holy blast to harm certain undead), Revolver (multishot pistol), Flintlock pistol (one-shot powerful pistol), Musket (one-shot powerful longarm), Chalice (fill it with Holy Water and then attack unholy enemies with it - oftentimes a one-hit-kill weapon), Wooden Stake (melee and special perma-kill use against certain enemies), Machine Gun (quick-firing Revolver, essentially).
• Saving your family members will open up various useful items: Garlic (repels some enemies), Stamina Potion, Speed Potion, Regeneration Potion, Protective Vest, Keys (to unlock trunks of deceased family members).
• Enemies: Dogs (fast but weak melee enemies), Peasants (slow and stronger melee enemies), Pistoleers, Musketmen, Desmodiij (quick undead melee monsters), Ghouls (upgraded Desmodiij), Zombies, Shadow Vampires (immune to non-spiritual weapons, often mixed in with other corporeal monsters to make things difficult).
• Bosses: an array of vampire types - I unfortunately took the easy way out and just Chaliced them all to death very quickly, so I don't recall what their combat builds were like. One boss cannot be injured by your attacks at all and must be exposed to sunlight to truly die. The end boss of the game has variable life depending on how many of your relatives you saved.

[Le Noir Faineant]

What about "Dark Souls"? That one looks very much like Ravenloft without the license.

I played it briefly, I think, but didn't want to buy it, back then, because I detest the DLC terror.

[Zilfer]

There is only 1 DLC for that game and to tell the truth that was an awesome DLC. Artorius fight alone was worth the DLC in my oppinion.

I agree it is very Ravenloft and there are layers upon layers of story and a good deal of it is missed by not reading the descriptions of items and/or talking to the NPC's and listening carefully.

I give forewarning however Dark Souls can be a very frustrating game to the uninitiated. It's difficulty is higher than most games and there is no "easy" mode. They are coming out with a second Dark Souls !!! The world's atmosphere can definately be dark and gritty. (not sure that's gothic but it's the general feel)

Generally you have the feel that you are facing insurmountable foes (Especially if you do not have LIVE or are playing Online). There are plenty of "sad" stories that I won't spoil for anyone playing but I will say the "Fair Lady" has my pity everytime I play. :'(

[High Priest Mikhal]

The Evil Within

Shinji Mikami, creator of Resident Evil, delivers us with a new idea of survival horror more in the vein of Alone in the Dark than his previous franchise. The Evil Within (WARNING: Videos NSFW due to violence and gore) is scheduled to be released 0n October 21, 2014 (date is subject to change). Not having beta tested this I can't say for sure whether its as terrifying as the preview video of players who did make it seem, but it does seem to possess all the elements of a survival-psychological horror hybrid that made AITD and RE so successful. And translate well into a Gothic milieu.

You play Detective Sebastian Castellanos who is investigating a grisly murder with his partners. After a mysterious force slaughters his partners, Sebastian is ambushed and knocked unconscious, only to awaken in a deranged, surreal world where horrid things dwell among the dead. Besides the struggle for survival, he must find out more about this strange force of evil. One question that is raised already is, "What twists await?"

Mikami is well known for his ability to tap into our anxieties and really bring horror home in ways both subtle and visceral and to make us unsure of what's coming next. Hopefully this is a ride into terror that unsettles even the most jaded of us. With Mikami's pedigree in horror, it's already looking good.

[Zilfer]

It's the Subtle Horror that Made Silent Hill 2 so good and a good portion of the other silent hills.

I'm looking forward to this game as well.