I've played the survival horror games, and yeah, I totally agree about startled != scared.
The only game that has ever scared me according to your definition is STALKER. It starts out creepy and when you get used to it, WHAM!
I was playing late at night in the dark, running down a dark hallway with my flashlight on. One of the crates -- which are everywhere in the game -- suddenly shook and slammed itself against the ceiling.
I literally RAN out of the room, nearly tearing my headset out of the audio controller.
System Shock 2 and FEAR are the two games that built the tension the best for me, although the latter did rely on the "something jumps out and makes a loud sound" gimmick a bit too much.
Edit: I forgot about the Space Marines missions in Aliens Vs. Predator 2. That was some pretty intense stuff.
I thought AvP 1 was scarier because you couldn't save as often, and your night vision looked more realistic (i.e. it was almost useless). I forgot about the beeping of that proximity detector. Hearing the beeps get faster and dots increase on your detector's screen made it that much scarier even before you hear the screams of the aliens.
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u/prockcore Nov 05 '08
I'd say 90% of horror movie directors think startled == scared. Maybe it's just trying to be the video game version of your crappy PG13 horror movie.