Looking for games with a dark and/or surreal atmosphere

[ShamefurDispray]

My favorites: Silent Hill 1-3, Limbo, Inside, Killer 7, LSD Dream Emulator, Hell Night, The Lost Souls of Tongue Nou, Machinarium, Lone Survivor, Deadly Premonition, Earthbound, Eternal Darkness, Katamari.

[Lord Satori]

Yume Nikki is a great one. And if you like it, .Flow and Me are great as well. There are a shitload of fangames, but there are so many that just blend together it's difficult to pick out the unique ones.

I'll post more when I think of some, but that's all for now.

[sven666]

Legacy of Kain (ps1), very dark, great game!

[Blinge]

Penumbra Overture & Black Plague
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Pathologic
Anna - a horror themed first person adventure game? I don't know if i'd call it survival horror. The atmosphere is very oppressive but the puzzles were too damn much.
Darkest Dungeon
Thief series

I loved Bioshock's atmosphere. Squire's been jizzing about System Shock 2's aswell.

uhh King's Field series maybe?

[ryu]

The Devil May Cry games are quite atmospheric too, despite their nature as action games.

[zinger]

Nosferatu (SFC) has an amazing atmosphere, very very dark! The fighting/control system is also pretty damn impressive, but sadly the game lacks proper stage/boss design to fully make use of its potential.

Planescape: Torment. Dark and extremely atmospheric, great writing. Totally blown away by this game.

I haven't played Baroque (Saturn) yet, but planning on picking up soon, for its dark/creepy/odd atmosphere alone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2iO5NzE_ik

Edit: i'd also really love to try "I Have no Mouth, and I Must Scream", but I'm going to hold off until I have a proper 486 setup.

[Squire Grooktook]

^^^A friend of mine is a massive fan of both versions of Baroque.

[Blinge]

Oh sheet, Sweet Home on the famicom is excellent.

[LEGENOARYNINLIA]

King's Field series was already mentioned, but the Shadow Tower games are also worth checking out. And Hungry Ghosts.

[z0mbie90]

Sanitarium and Stasis both for PC. The second one is more Sci-Fi horror then pure horror.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Ballance - I didn't think of it as dark/surreal, but - for a marble-rolling puzzler with no story whatsoever - it can be remarkably emotive (for lack of a better word - it just makes me think of the time when Ico demonstrated what "Emotion Engine" was supposed to do).

Pathologic - I haven't played it yet, but it was decribed as a primarily atmosphere carrier.

Nosferatu (PC) - first person shooter that seems more faithful to the spirit of the original Prince of Persia than The Sands of Time turned out.

[Stevens]

Dishwasher: Dead Samurai

[Some-Mist]

you listed earthbound so I'd have to say mother 3 of course.

and for machinarium I would follow up w/ samorost 3
http://samorost3.net/

the dream machine http://store.steampowered.com/app/94300/
the dark eye (1995)
dark seed (by HR Giger)
the neverhood and armikrog

the upcoming game "Agony" seems nuts too

[Squire Grooktook]

^^^Since you mentioned Dark Seed, are you sure you didn't mean the upcoming game "Scorn"?

[Some-Mist]

I'm going to have to look into scorn now

but agony is the first person survival game in hell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry0DisvCrAU

[Obscura]

Seconding System Shock 2, first two Penumbra games, Thief 1 (I don't think the sequel really qualifies), and Shadow Tower: Abyss.

Try The Evil Within, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, Undying, or the Alice series (first one has better atmosphere, second one plays better). If you're willing to delve into mods, Asylum of the Wretched, Void, Horror Collection: Eden, Hell Ground, Frozen Time, Phobia: The Age (if you can manage to run it nowadays, since it was designed for a source port that won't run on any modern OS), Doxalymine Moon: Overdose, Voodoo Guns, and Claustrophobia: The Walls are Closing In for Doom 2 would all be solid picks (Doom's aesthetic lends itself better to surreal weirdness than realism, so aesthetic-focused levelsets will usually take that route). Maybe even 999, if you're willing to suffer through point-and-click escape rooms.

[Mortificator]

DreamWeb does a good job in crafting a surreal atmosphere, though it ultimately feels rushed. At under two hours, though, it might be worth a run-through, especially since it's now freeware.

And on the dark side of things, there's Kagero.

Legacy of Kain (ps1), very dark, great game!

It's an amazing game, but I might recommend the PC version of Blood Omen due to the long load times on PS1. Unless you're talking about Soul Reaver, in which case I'd recommend the Dreamcast version.

[Eaglet]

Soma - from the same guys who did Penumbra and Amnesia.
I won't spoil it for you but if you like existentialist themes it's one you should check out.

[Mischief Maker]

Hyper Light Drifter

Grim Dawn

Devil Daggers

[Ruldra]

For a more recent title: Fran Bow. There's a demo available.