I have AVP, the gold expansion pack, and AVP2. Scary?, well maybe at first, the Aliens are a bit unnerving. But looking back at it, even that became a bit repetitious. I always thought Sytem Shock 2 was fairly scary. I am now at about the final 3rd of farcry. It's deceptively open ended, which is to say you are drawn by all available paths(sometimes of which there are many) to the same point. You can choose a different way to achieve the same goal, but ultimately wind up in a boss fight at the end of each level. Am I dissappointed?. Hell no!. I can clean out a level, go back and explore huge vast environments(although I would'nt mind a cityscpe. Getting tired of the tropical bit),try other means of travel(vehichles, hang gliders)and when I am tapped out, I go to the end point. So, not reeally open ended play. Still wildly entertaining at times though. Some of the mutants are rather scary when they come at you in the darker cramped hallways. I can say with an almost certainty that Hl2 will have more than this to offer. Why should the cleverness of delivery be lost? It is the same company, same creators/writers.

System Shock 2 is probably the game that's scared me the most. I was a few hours into the game at the Engineering levels, specifically the cargo bays. Next thing I know, 3-4 robots pop out and my gun jams while trying to shoot at them! Then I begin running madly for my life onto a lift that collapses and kills me (or something).

And then I remember on the recreation-area when I was in a bar. A ghost started playing the piano (or something) and I was watching it and listening. Then 3 cyborg assassins run in and kill me. Just the sight of them and I knew I was already dead, pretty much.

The graphics are really dated, but I think the situation/gameplay is what really scares people. You know, the fact that you have about 3 bullets left in a nearly-broken gun and you can hear the monsters chanting to you around the corner.

I must admit I was scared by the headcrab jumping out of the air duct in the beginning of HL.