Scariest Moments In Games

When you open a door and find yourself face to face with a Demon in Doom. Also when its pitch black and you can hear the spectres... they can see you, you can't see them.

Also, getting lunged at by a fast zombie in HL:2.

Actually up until about 13 (When i really started to appreciate Doom) i couldn't stand scary games, i could only watch them. And now here i am, mapping Doom levels to scare the shit out of other people. Hah. Irony.

[EDIT] I know this one isn't in a video game but anyone else hated reading about the brain slugs in Animorphs? I was like 8 and the thought of sitting in the back of your mind watching a slug brainwash your friends and family kinda freaked me out [/Edit]

Playing a modified version of the goldrush map in Wolfenstein-enemy territorry, I decided to go exploring a bit, so went into a mine shaft, then through a 'dangerous area" blockade and there was a screamer that popped out at you... I proceeded to say: ah! CENSORED CENSORED god CENSORED CENSORED!!!! That was the only real screamer I've encountered in a game besides maybe the unexpected lost soul in your face. (not quite as bad)

Man, Doom 3 was not scary at all for me. It was just a bunch of "boo!", shit jumping out at you suddenly scare tactics. No particulary horrifying imagery to speak of, and the atmosphere could have been done a lot better.

Atmosphere and imagery are what make games scary for me, not lame scare tactics that most "scary" games I've played use. Occasionally the whole "stuff jumping out at you" tactic will make me jump, but it's not something genuinely scary.

I can't think of very many games I've played that were genuinely frightening to me. The few that have managed to really scare me have left me feeling paranoid and on edge even after having finished playing the game.

As I said in my last post, Clock Tower for the SNES was actually pretty damn scary, at least to me. As far as atmosphere is concerned, it can be pretty minimal, but it was also really effective as well. For the most part there isn't much in the way of music or ambience, aside from the occasional random noise in certain areas, and the music when you encounter Bobby. They also did a good job with the freaky imagery without relying on over the top gore (like the deaths in Waxworks for instance). There's the occasional obligatory "shit jumping out at you" segment, but since I was already on edge while playing the game through the first time, plus the fact that a lot of the game seems randomized, it's worked pretty well. It might just be the most prominent example I can think of because I played it for the first time a few weeks ago, but... *shrug* It's still the first game in quite a while that's had me so on edge. The game has a few gameplay flaws, but I'd still recommend it to anyone who hasn't played it.

A couple other things that come to mind off the top of my head:

• Doom - The decapitated bunny head on the stick at the end of Episode 3 scared the living shit out of me when I was a little kid.
  
• Heretic - The end of... Episode 2 I think that had the picture of the freaky looking disciple used to give me nightmares (again) as a kid.
  
• Tyrian - The decapitated head on the stick (I see a theme here) at the end of the first episode freaked me out the first time I saw it.
  
• Silent Hill - The part near the very beginning where you run into the random deformed(?) body hanging on the wall. Scared me so much that I still haven't mustered up the courage to try and play through that game. I will note though that I still think that the use of unusual camera angles in this game (while walking down the cramped hallways near the beginning of the game at least) is brilliant.
  
• Darkseed - Hasn't aged very well, but some of the imagery (thanks to the perverse and freaky stylings of HR Giger) used to scare me.
  
• Eversion - For some reason the randomized death messages on the later levels of the game gave me the heebie-jeebies. Though, that whole game was freaky in an odd sort of way; not necessarily "scary", though.
  

Oh yeah, and I was always afraid of dying in Wolf3d because the status bar face had a scary look. (I didn't mind blood as a kid, except in certain ways.. dunno why). And how could I forget the robot that chased you around the opening area of Space Quest IV.

Another thing that can scare me is music in games. The music in Geryon for PSX Final Doom takes the cake for being the scariest video game music I have heard yet. That eerie whistle that starts soft and becomes the loudest thing you can hear really got me when I first played that level. Funny how the song is The Dave D. Taylor Blues on the PC, as it's one of my favorite songs in all of Doom 2.

The song for Ziggurat Vertigo on Quake 64 made me jump the first time I heard it. Silence then this big loud moaning sound made me jump out of my pants when I first played that level.

Damn, forgot about the fast zombies in HL2. Seriously, just hearing their screams was enough to send me diving for cover. Also, the poison headcrabs - after the first time you got bitten by one, I don't think anyone didn't tense up after hearing their noises.

Ninjalah said:

Actually up until about 13 (When i really started to appreciate Doom) i couldn't stand scary games, i could only watch them. And now here i am, mapping Doom levels to scare the shit out of other people. Hah. Irony.

That's actually true for me too. It wasn't until I was in like 7th grade when I was able to play FPSs by myself. Before that, I'd just watch my parents or my friends play.

david_a said:

Alien vs Predator 2 - the marine missions.

The first AVP goes down as the scariest game I have played, along with Doom itself. Definitely this.

Lord_Z said:

-Doom 3 had a bunch of scary moments, especially the bathrooms.

...and this

printz said:

* Wolfenstein 3d

... and this.

DuckReconMajor said:

When I was young I was afraid of one of the music tracks in Lemmings.

This... not so much.

Come to think of it, there were some fairly scary moments in Doom 64 as well. Mostly when a monster would unexpectedly show up, or I was low on health and was unfamiliar with the level.

Anyone remember Zero Tolerance on the Genesis/Mega Drive? I remember some of those levels being pretty freaky, too. Particularly the ones with fog/smoke, and the underground levels in the 3rd part. For me they were scary because I either couldn't see the monsters very well, or because I never knew when I'd have to face a hoard of some super-strong things. Things like that tend to make me pretty tense.

Super Jamie said:

There were a few scary spots in Half-Life, there's a hallway with those headcrab things which comes to mind but I have no idea where in the game it is.

Such as on the cliffside section after passing the area with mines? The exit (or entrance) tunnel to the next area that is up pretty high?

DJ_Haruko said:

Come to think of it, there were some fairly scary moments in Doom 64 as well. Mostly when a monster would unexpectedly show up, or I was low on health and was unfamiliar with the level.

Anyone remember Zero Tolerance on the Genesis/Mega Drive? I remember some of those levels being pretty freaky, too. Particularly the ones with fog/smoke, and the underground levels in the 3rd part. For me they were scary because I either couldn't see the monsters very well, or because I never knew when I'd have to face a hoard of some super-strong things. Things like that tend to make me pretty tense.

Dude this was one of the first if not THE first FPS I've ever played, and it was also the reason I was afraid of scary games (although im not sure if that game was supposed to be scary or not). I'm surprised anyone else has played that game, thought it was pretty under the radar.

There was one bit in Doom 3 where a corridor went dark, then the floor split open and "waves" of glowing evil symbols rushed down the walls and floors with screaming noises. That was pretty chilling.

The first few times when the lights went out and you could hear monsters coming but not see them were pretty cool too. By about the 5th time it was just tedious, i've never finished that game.

The second monster encounter in the Penumbra "tech demo" - bearing in mind that Penumbra gives you no means to defend yourself except perhaps a live electrical cable, encountering a monster in which there is no means of defense really gets you. Especially when you start trying to use the physics engine to barricade yourself inside a room with crates, then the thing just effortlessly pushes them out of the way.

Actually, anything that I can't adequately defend myself against can get pretty tense and frightening.

And yeah, I'll have to second Eversion; while it's not scary by itself, the whole "decaying universe" thing goes to great lengths. Even...

deathbringer said:

There was one bit in Doom 3 where a corridor went dark, then the floor split open and "waves" of glowing evil symbols rushed down the walls and floors with screaming noises. That was pretty chilling.

That scared the shit out of me the first time I played through Doom3. When it started I didn't dare move and just sat there, staring at it for about a minute, then had to save and turn off because I didn't dare move a step further down that corridore. I loaded that up a couple of times and still couldn't move and only on my 3rd load did I dare move, just to find a pinky and a fat zombie. Quite an anti climax.

Also in doom3, the level where there are no monsters for the first half, that was pretty creapy.

The fast zombies in Half Life 2 leaping and making that noise a little like a tie fighter, that still gives me the shits each time i hear it.

Also the Dunwich building in Fallout 3, that had a great atmosphere and a couple of freak moments where I turned fround to come face to face with an angry ghoul. Shitty dev.

Oddly I didn't find deadspace at all scarey, despite reviews saying it was the scariest thing since forever, but it really wasn't. I just couldn't get properly immersed in that game, despite playing it from begining to end. I did think it was because it was 3rd person but I got so immersed in GTA IV that I forgot to sleep one night so thats obviously not it. Any ideas?

PhilibusMo said:

That scared the shit out of me the first time I played through Doom3. When it started I didn't dare move and just sat there, staring at it for about a minute, then had to save and turn off because I didn't dare move a step further down that corridore. I loaded that up a couple of times and still couldn't move and only on my 3rd load did I dare move, just to find a pinky and a fat zombie. Quite an anti climax.

Also in doom3, the level where there are no monsters for the first half, that was pretty creapy.

The fast zombies in Half Life 2 leaping and making that noise a little like a tie fighter, that still gives me the shits each time i hear it.

Also the Dunwich building in Fallout 3, that had a great atmosphere and a couple of freak moments where I turned fround to come face to face with an angry ghoul. Shitty dev.

Oddly I didn't find deadspace at all scarey, despite reviews saying it was the scariest thing since forever, but it really wasn't. I just couldn't get properly immersed in that game, despite playing it from begining to end. I did think it was because it was 3rd person but I got so immersed in GTA IV that I forgot to sleep one night so thats obviously not it. Any ideas?

Maybe it's because it was made by EA? No but i didn't think it was scary at all, after the first monster popped out of the ceiling it happened like 5 times a chapter.

Ninjalah said:

Maybe it's because it was made by EA? No but i didn't think it was scary at all, after the first monster popped out of the ceiling it happened like 5 times a chapter.

EA bashing should become an olympic sport, its definetly more fun and widespread than curling.

PhilibusMo said:

EA bashing should become an olympic sport, its definetly more fun and widespread than curling.

I agree, although of course everyone in EA isn't all bad, but as a whole i despise them.

And another scary moment is when you are playing Call of Duty (yeah yeah flame me) Search & destroy, are the last person left, and the enemy has just called in a UAV. That's less scary, more freaky, as you have no choice but to become very, VERY paranoid.

Ninjalah said:

I agree, although of course everyone in EA isn't all bad, but as a whole i despise them.

And another scary moment is when you are playing Call of Duty (yeah yeah flame me) Search & destroy, are the last person left, and the enemy has just called in a UAV. That's less scary, more freaky, as you have no choice but to become very, VERY paranoid.

same in battlefield 2 (a good game by EA!)

on a similar note almost any game where you are perilously low on health and then hear a mysterious noise which you can't pin point gets you very jumpy.

PhilibusMo said:

Oddly I didn't find deadspace at all scarey, despite reviews saying it was the scariest thing since forever, but it really wasn't. I just couldn't get properly immersed in that game, despite playing it from begining to end. I did think it was because it was 3rd person but I got so immersed in GTA IV that I forgot to sleep one night so thats obviously not it. Any ideas?

Dead Space was probably my favorite single player experience of 2008 (that didn't come from Doom of course). Maybe I'm just a wimp, but when I played that game in the dark with headphones on, I got really immersed in its atmosphere, and dreaded whatever came around the next corner. I also thought the story was clever for what it was, and though it was basically Resident Evil 4 in space, I thought it was pulled off very well. Unfortunately, nobody I've talked to seemed to like the game..

Anyways, the first time I discovered a dead maid's body and had to fight those jumping buggers in Clive Barker's Undying was pretty horrific for me. What made it worse was how TOUGH those little bastards were, they didn't take many shots to kill, but if they hit you they hit hard.

PhilibusMo said:

Oddly I didn't find deadspace at all scarey, despite reviews saying it was the scariest thing since forever, but it really wasn't. I just couldn't get properly immersed in that game, despite playing it from begining to end. I did think it was because it was 3rd person but I got so immersed in GTA IV that I forgot to sleep one night so thats obviously not it. Any ideas?

I got immersed in the game, but I didn't really find it scary. That's not to say I didn't like it, though. In truth I loved it. But the psychological aspect was more interesting than creepy, and there weren't enough "jump out" sections.

Ironically, the level leading up to where you fight that huge boss in the tunnel (the level with all the vegetation), reminds me of the Green House levels in Zero Tolerance, a game I mentioned earlier.

To be honest not many Horror scenarios like you see in Resident evil and Doom etc scare me much..

More circimstancial things scare me in games.. like when the Underwater Drowning Timer appears in Sonic the Hedgehog.. I Panic when that appears.

David_Dweedle said:

To be honest not many Horror scenarios like you see in Resident evil and Doom etc scare me much..

More circimstancial things scare me in games.. like when the Underwater Drowning Timer appears in Sonic the Hedgehog.. I Panic when that appears.

Hah, i have to agree. I panic when i see that and end up missing a totally obvious exit point and die.

That's because you panic. You gotta keep your cool in those moments of pressure mayne!

Mr. Chris said:

-Resident Evil dogs jumping through windows. On the Gamecube remake that is, it surprised the shit out of me since I never played the Playstation original

Oh man, me too. A friend of mine and I were playing it together (we were too scared by ourselves, haha) and the moment this happened I just threw my controller across the room in a fit of panic.

I think my friend soiled himself.

Speaking of Resident Evil: This Guy :(

Phantasmagoria: The final chapter, when you're stumbling around the house in a panic and you don't know where the demon is.

Silent Hill 2: The first time one of the wrapped fuckers screams out from under a car in the street.

Resident Evil 2: Catching glimpses of the Licker before the first encounter.

Doom: E1M8. Those barons scared the shit outta me the first time.

Doom 3: For some reason, I'm more scared of the ominous 'use your imagination' lighting than of the actual encounters.

FEAR: As above.

Dead Space: Playing it for the first time on the hardest difficulty and having no knowledge about limb-shooting. Jesus Christ.

Penumbra 1: The first Dog and Worm encounters.

Penumbra 2: First encounter with a Mutant.

Theif 3: Ascending the stairs to the attic in The Cradle.

the craddle in thief3 was cool, but the crypt mission full of zombies and revenants in the original thief scared me more. speaking of which... oh wow, don't tell me i'll be the first one to mention this.

not me. no way. they're not gonna get me. they're not gonna change me. rachel, kids, i'm sorry. stuff like that. and the FUCKING monkeys. and having the explosive c3po spawned 2 centimeters behind your back. 'oh, there y-KA-BLAM!'

The scariest game I have ever played has got to be either Scratches or Darkfall (Adventure Games). I remember in Scratches you open up the shower curtain and some deformed thing chases you around the house, and in Darkfall you walk down some hotel hallway and the lights turn off and you hear footsteps run up behind you and scream something then the lights go back in.

Weird games...

Any one get a chance to play The Thing from a few years back? I remember having a couple crazy moments while playing that game. I remember the first time one of my team mates got infected and he attacked me out of no where.

Satyr000 said:

Any one get a chance to play The Thing from a few years back? I remember having a couple crazy moments while playing that game. I remember the first time one of my team mates got infected and he attacked me out of no where.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that one! Yeah, that freaked me out, too. I really liked the suspense in that one.

To me, Dead Space feels sort of like a futuristic version of The Thing.