A new research study endeavored to find the scariest video game, and according to the results, the title goes to a game that doesn't feature in popular horror series like Silent Hill or Resident Evil.
The scientific study by Broadband Choices had 200 participants play a random section of a compiled list of 45 horror video games and tracked their heart rates. The researchers not only recorded the players' overall BPM (beats per minute) while playing each game but also the highest spike in their heart rate. Bloodious Games' MADiSON, a video game about a teenage boy who receives an instant camera that once belonged to a serial killer, topped the list on both counts, scoring an average game heart rate of 97 and the highest spike in BPM of 131.
Creative Assembly's Alien: Isolation placed second overall, followed by SadSquare Studio's Visage and Scott Cawthon's Five Night at Freddy's 4. Three Resident Evil games made the cut - Biohazard, Resident Evil 2 and Village - and placed 6th, 11th and 16th, respectively. In terms of the Silent Hill franchise, Silent Hill 4: The Room ranked the highest as the 14th scariest video game, while Silent Hill 3 placed 19th and Silent Hill 2 placed 23rd on the final list.
Other titles that managed to crack the top 25 scariest games according to the study include Red Barrels' Outlast 2 (5th), FromSoftware's Bloodborne (7th), Frictional Games' Amnesia: The Dark Descent (8th), Monolith Productions' Condemned: Criminal Origins (15th), Tango Gameworks' The Evil Within (20th) and Team Psykskallar's Cry of Fear (25th). Unfortunately, Hideo Kojima's iconic masterpiece P.T. was excluded from the study at the onset because it's technically a playable trailer (and not a fully realized video game), and it is no longer available to play through legitimate channels. However, the study noted that were it eligible, it likely would take the top slot; the average BPM in a smaller sample of 15 players reached 99, with a spike of 135.
MADiSON dropped back in July, becoming one of the highest-selling games on Steam for that month, and is currently available for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. The gameplay primarily revolves around the aforementioned instant camera; throughout the narrative, the player uses it to discover secrets, ward off demonic entities and evil spirits and solve puzzles. The title has received praise from critics and has already won multiple awards in the video game industry. This includes People's Choice and Best Game at the EXPO EVA, Best Narrative at the NYX Game Awards and Best Horror Game at the Moscow XII DROP Festival.
Source: Broadband Choices