It’s about that time of year where we all complain that the Valentine’s decorations are out far too soon, and everyone you know keeps telling you they’ve got the best costume ever ready to go and all you’ve got prepared is a small list of supposedly high-profile behind-the-scenes people that you are pretty sure no one you know could identify readily so you can just say you’re dressed as them to make some kind of statement, while silently dreading every moment someone pulls out their phone (since they might Google the name and then your costume is ruined. Damn, why didn’t I put more effort into this?)

So maybe you need some inspiration. Something to really get the blood pumping so you can experience that moment of inspiration that says that a “Federal Boobie Inspector” is a terrible way to meet women at a party. So how about I give you 5 of the best horror games you can hope to play? You know, for science. For variety’s sake, I’ll limit selections to one per series, as well. Oh, and possible spoilers. I’ll try to mark as necessary.

5. Dead Space 2  

The Dead Space series has had a bit of a sordid trip, suffering from enough of the common complaints that come with the popularization of a series like this, more action, more control, a general dumbing down of things. But I find that I was far more perturbed by Dead Space 2 than the first Dead Space. While there are many characteristics shared between the two, it came down to the subject matter of the second game more than anything.

Isaac Clarke, space engineer gone full blown asskicker, awakens on the Sprawl, a large space station in the grips of a Necromorph outbreak, Necromorphs being some absolutely disgusting mutant-alien-zombie things that run the gamut of giant clawed semi-people to creepy exploding babies with unusually intact faces and borderline hentai-class tentacle monsters. Much like his previous stint on the USG Ishimura, it falls to Isaac to navigate the Sprawl and attempt to contain as much of the outbreak as possible. But that’s where the real separation from your more traditional zombie narrative comes in: this is not simply some strange pathogen that turns people into monsters. It certainly seems to be some kind of parasitic beast, but this is accompanied by strange hallucinations brought on by Isaac’s poor mental state, a prophecy linked to a well established religion and a supposed connection to the afterlife.

Not only chock full of jump scares (mind every grate…like every grate) the game has absolutely amazing atmosphere. The sound design alone is enough to merit a playthrough, not to mention the sheer vastness of the Sprawl, the disturbing creature design, the amazing UI (everything is integrated on to character models or displayed through a device in-game), dialogue that doesn’t make me want to kill myself, totally decent RPG elements, and one of the best weapons ever in a game: Isaac Clarke’s boots.

Don’t let that fool you, though. The game’s harder difficulty settings are no cakewalks. You’ll have to get creative with your ammo conservation techniques, every injury is a severe drain and truly frightening, and every whiffed shot is a two-fold nightmare as you watch your precious energy sail harmlessly by the ever-approaching fanged beasts of the Sprawl. You can pick up Dead Space 2 on Xbox 360, PS3, and it’s on sale on Steam as we speak for PC.

4. System Shock 2

Don’t let those low-poly visuals fool you, System Shock 2 is an absolutely horrifying experience.

As the grandpappy of the now beloved Bioshock series, System Shock already has a hell of a legacy. After several tours of duty through the armed forces, your character is rudely awakened aboard the Von Braun, a ship that has been overtaken by a strange alien entity. The game lets you tailor your experience, you can build yourself as a gun-toting space marine, a clever hacker, or a Psi-ops specialist, with a number of skills and attributes determining how you approach the dangers that you face.

The game doesn’t waste time throwing those dangers right in your face. I almost pooped myself the first time I was attacked by a pipe-wielding hybrid, a person that had a giant alien worm attached to their temple. The gaping chest wound they had accrued hadn’t slowed them down in the least, and the gurgled apologies they shouted as they beat me to death with forever haunt my memories.

The game also takes the tried-and-true concept of limited resources and turns it up to 11. Firing a gun, for instance, not only requires bullets, but a high enough rating in the requisite skill. Every shot also reduces the durability of the gun, which requires a certain level of a different skill to maintain, and a wholly different skill to repair, should the gun break or jam. Early on, finding a pistol with a durability rating of 8 (of 10) is an absolute godsend, and I found myself thoroughly challenged on my most recent playthrough on the “Hard” difficulty (there’s another difficulty above that). The game is an absolute classic, one that is packed with those signature audio logs and documents that any Bioshock player will find immediately familiar. It’s got a pretty amazing Metacritic score of 92, if you otherwise don’t believe me.

3. Silent Hill

This game, even today, is still a source of great discomfort for me. I played Slender: the Arrival and had my share of jumps. I played Amnesia and has my share of scares. But when I recently replayed this game, on a PS Vita, no less, I was still rendered with a chilly feeling as I ran through the ash-laden streets of the abandoned West Virginia town. This game is no stranger to the “Top Horror Game” list, and for good reason. It’s ever encroaching fog, and constantly hissing radio have engendered a strong sense of just how alone you really are in Silent Hill, more so than any other horror game I can think of.

Protagonist Harry Mason is taking his daughter on a vacation. As they drive through the mountainous streets, a mysterious girl appears in the road, causing Harry to crash his car. He awakes hours later to find his daughter missing, and his search for her leads him into some of the darkest and most disturbing places I can imagine. Not only are the creatures utterly horrifying, but the environments themselves, even rendered in those gorgeous old 1999 graphics, are dripping with gut-twisting creepiness. You’ll visit all the horror mainstays, an old elementary school, a hospital, dank sewers, an amusement park. All armed with little more than a flashlight, a gun with too few bullets, and a rusted old pipe.

Add to that Akira Yamaoka’s award winning soundtrack (which coincidentally just started playing on my Pandora station…creepy) and some well-crafted puzzles, and you’ve got one of the most well-loved-and-hated games ever made.

2. Resident Evil 2

I will admit, there’s a bit of nostalgia that fuels this entry. Resident Evil was the game that introduced me to the survival horror genre, and it did so in all its shuffling, groaning, rotting glory.

The story is one of the grandfathers of zombie stories. A terrible virus leaked from a secret testing facility beneath the city, turning many of the inhabitants into the walking dead within days. The was unique for its time in that it had two stories: one as rookie cop and now series favorite Leon S. Kennedy, and the other as the somewhat rebellious Claire Redfield. They both enter Raccoon City for separate reasons, but are quickly trapped by the onslaught of creatures and psychotic survivors.

There is just something about the game that affects me still to this day. Fifteen years ago it was the first game I found myself unable to play alone, no matter how hard I tried. The moans from the zombies were just the right mixture of mindless hunger and masked sadness, the limited controls made every encounter a danger. Should you use six or seven of your precious handgun bullets, or see if there’s enough space to that zombie’s right to just run by? The dodges and quicktime events that became more popular in the series were nowhere to be seen. Every step toed the line between methodical practice and chemically-fueled terror. The narrative still stands out as one of the better in the series as a whole. It is a game that simply needs to be experienced to fully understand what a horror game was.

1. Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented

This game crowns the list easily for me for one reason: I still can’t finish it.

While I was unable to last twenty minutes in Resident Evil 2 when I was ten, I can’t seem to play Fatal Frame III for an extended period of time. This could be a personal thing, perhaps it simply hits all the right chords with me. What I do know, is I’ve been at the same save point for the last two years or so, and  I even know what’s coming as soon as I load the game, and I still can’t seem to proceed.

The Fatal Frame series is very much an eastern-styled horror. There are focused around a sort of ritual, the sacrificing of young girls to seal the gateway to Hell. In the third installment, you play as Rei Kurosawa, a photographer whose fiancé was killed in a car accident that was her fault. While photographing an old mansion, Rei discovers her fiancé’s image on one of the photos, and shortly thereafter begins to have nightmares where she is trapped in a horrific manor and pursued by several ghosts, primarily one of a woman with tattoos covering most of her body. The game is filled with what one might consider trope-like horror moments, but the horrifying soundtrack, dark environments, and constant feeling of dread make the entire experience a stressful one, to say the least.

The key mechanic lies in the Camera Obscura, a camera capable of capturing supernatural images. It can show the relationships between places, dispel certain energies and—most importantly—it can harm the ghosts. The biggest trick, though, is to do the most damage to an attacking apparition, one must wait until just as it attacks, and the pictures are often saved, leaving you with a photo album of some of the most disturbing images you could have. Even recalling some of the adversaries in the series sets my neck hairs on edge, spirits like the long-armed man from the first game, or the wandering mother from III, but really they’re all pretty terrifying. It is, quite simply, one of the most horrifying experiences I’ve ever had in my entire life. And I love it.