With the release of Resident Evil 7, a lot of people are getting interested in horror games again. Art imitates life right, so what inspired the horror survival games that we love? Real life events of course.
If you’re looking for a game that will give you a fright on the best gaming laptops from Sager Notebook, here are three horror survival games along with the true story that inspired them:
The Town of Light
The Town of Light is a psychological thrill of an adventure, set in a 20th century mental asylum. You explore the decrepit asylum, you’ll find notes and items that help you uncover the main character’s past. The game features a very accurate representation of a real life location.
Real life: The Volterra Psychiatric Asylum
This asylum can be found in Tuscany. The Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra at one point held 6,000 patients. Those unfortunate people were locked up for various reasons such as minor depression. In the 50 and 60s, it was one of the largest psychiatric hospitals in Italy.
Among the treatments one could expect from this asylum were electroshock therapy, experimental medication and poison, and medically induced comas. For a hospital, it was a pretty unsanitary place, with only 20 sinks and toilets for every 200 patients. One of the most unsettling facts about this place is the wall carvings of runes and phrases etched in the inner courtyard were made by a patient Oreste Ferdinand Nannetti who was kept there for 14 years. That’s messed up.
Kholat
Kholat is a walking simulator that’s set in Ural Mountains of Russia. In the game, you retrace the steps of nine college students who disappeared on Kholat Syakhi in 1959. The game has a lot of scary atmospheres and shocking visuals. It being narrated by Sean Bean (aka the guy who always dies in movies) adds a lot of mystique to the story as well.
Real life: The Dyatlov Pass Incident
The Dyatlov Pass Incident happened in 1959. Nine skiers from the Ural Polytechnic Institute disappeared in the Urals for over four months. Investigations on the incident occurred after the group failed to send a message to their starting point in Vizhai which prompted the start of investigations.
In two weeks, investigators found their tent cut up from the inside with the group’s belongings intact. Footprints made with bare feet lead to the bodies of the missing students. The circumstances surrounding the incident is to this day, shrouded in mystery. The Soviets concluded that six members of the group died of hypothermia, while one ended up with brain damage (without any head trauma), another had a fractured skull, and a female victim was missing her tongue.
Sherlock Holmes Vs. Jack the Ripper
As the title implies, the game deals with the killing sprees of the infamous Jack the Ripper, one of London’s most prolific serial killers. While technically not a horror game, dealing with the grisly subject matter of Jack the Ripper’s murders are chilling, to say the least.
The cases in the game are modeled after real murders that are attributed to Jack the Ripper himself. Though in the end, you actually get to catch the culprit.
Real Life: Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper is one of the most prolific serial killers in history. In 1888, in the Whitechapel district of London, he went on a killing spree targeting prostitutes. The motive for the murders was never known. His MO was pretty specific — victims were all of a certain age, the timing of each murder was consistent, and the bodies underwent severe pelvic mutilation. Pretty unsettling stuff.