Scariest Doom moment

[printz]

Forest. Ghoul's Forest. What Doom 3 should have been.

[Sporku]

JohnnyRancid said:

Oh shit i forgot to mention that too. To this day I always F10 Y right after beating the spider demon on E3M8. I'm 18 now and just listening to D_BUNNY start up still makes me uneasy. That actually maybe one of my only childhood memories that still haunts me.

Oh yeah, I used to be deathly afraid of that damned rabbit head. I used to always do the same thing after beating E3M8, until I picked up the game again when I was 12 (where does the time go?) and realized it was silly. :P

That said, there's still plenty of older games that scare the crap out of me on occasion. I don't know if it has something to do with the industry's current scare tactics, but most modern games I've played that have been touted as "really really scary" aren't actually scary at all.

[Remmirath]

That's because we're used to scary games. F.E.A.R may be one of those scary games, but our biggest fears come from our childhood and youth.
That's why Daisy's head on a stick scares us, while other games don't at all.

[SaladBadger]

I always thought that scaryness factor in old games came from the fact that you probably didn't expect certain things in the game. The Descent series seems to be evidence of this, as many people say the first game was the scariest, with its robot noises and dark corridors/levels, even though Descent II had some much creepier and weirder robot noises, as well as a lot of dark corridors/levels.

Though the fact that the bosses in D2 didn't have that mechinical "footsteps" sound the D1 bosses did screwed up the scariness factor somewhat.

[Christoph]

Please, and for future reference, always clarify what you mean by "D" 1 or 2 - it could bey Descent, Doom, Diablo, or who knows what else.

BTW I've played Descent 1 and 2 and thought they were pretty good - I even thought about buying Descent2 again, as I haven't played it in years and still miss it ;..

I think what makes older games scary is that they're actually challenging - I just played through Super Mario World again and still got butterflies every time I almost fell or missed a ledge. Even when you know all the secrets, it still takes significant skill and coordination to do everything just right. The scariest games are probably, ironically, the most annoying to play because of the way they limit your in-game movement/abilities (like Tetris, Commander Keen, or old RPG's). I found Thief to be the scariest game I played because it demands such careful maneuvering and luck, and the soldiers are actually about as deadly as you.

I guess there are 3 elements that can make a game scary, as I see it:

atmosphere (music/graphics)
challenging enemies (enemies that are HARD to fight)
challenging movement (maps that are challenging, even without monsters)

[PhilibusMo]

Christoph said:

The scariest games are probably, ironically, the most annoying to play because of the way they limit your in-game movement/abilities (like Tetris, Commander Keen, or old RPG's).

Wait, wait wait. Am I reading this wrong or did you just describe tetris as scary?

[Sporku]

PhilibusMo said:

Wait, wait wait. Am I reading this wrong or did you just describe tetris as scary?

My girlfriend screams when she plays Tetris... does that count? I guess nothing's quite as scary as accidentally dropping a block in the wrong place and screwing up the entire rest of the game. :P

[Reevys]

AgentSpork said:

I guess nothing's quite as scary as accidentally dropping a block in the wrong place and screwing up the entire rest of the game. :P

Except little girls. *shivers*

[Mcfc23]

E2 cant remember mission. Running to get yellow keycard when suddenly the roof comes down. I jumped out my seat!

[geekmarine]

Actually, to be quite honest, what scared me the most about Doom was the intro story, specifically the bits revolving around test subjects going through the teleporter, becoming insane, and then ultimately gibbing themselves. I was actually terrified the first time I encountered a teleporter in the game because I was convinced the same would happen to me (and I never did quite understand why it didn't).

Moving forward, nothing really scared me in the Doom games until Doom 3. I wasn't particularly scared by the "monster in a closet" moments, but it was the scenes that focused on psychological terror were damn creepy - most memorably, there was the whispering voices, the organic growths that covered everything, and the moment when you're introduced to the Lost Soul. God, watching that woman shake apart was just... disturbing.

[scalliano]

"wh-pfff, wh-pfff, wh-pfff, wh-pfff..."

Those footsteps still get my adrenalin pumping. The first time I encountered the Cyberdemon on PSX Doom takes the biscuit. I was on the floor from a rocket in the ear before I even saw him, and when I did see him, he was too far away to make out properly, adding to the "WTF WAS THAT??" factor.

[Snakes]

I can only think of two moments that register as a 10 in my book:

E1M3 - The first time a spectre sneaked up behind me and gnawed my backside. The screen turned red and I about wet myself.

MAP11 - Maybe the biggest scare in my life: the wall lifts up and that arch-vile sprung into action. I literally ran to the other end of the circle... and when I went back, I realized what a terrible idea that was... This all after I hit escape and jumped out of my chair.

[eargosedown]

I had a 'jumper' today,
I was playing a random map (Oblige ftw) and it was set to the highest monster amount possible, with almost no health. Anyways, I ran through an area with a cyberdemon because I didn't have the ammo at the time to kill it, but had to backtrack later.
The area looked like this:
___________
| __***__ |
| |.........| |
| |.........| |
| |.........| |
|_--***--_|

Basically a square room, with two stair cases at the north and south that connected to an elevated platform in the middle of the room. The cyberdemon was in the middle area, and there were a few mancubi in the 'halls' around it.

Anyways, I saved right before the area he was in when I was backtracking, and went in. I ended up dying the first few times trying to bring him down (Mostly splash damage from strafing, but the rocket hitting the wall lol) and then, on about the seventh attempt, I go in there...and he's gone?

Puzzling, I think the sourceport might have bugged, then I hear 'wuggghhhh!!!' and the thing was RIGHT BEHIND ME! O.O

A few split seconds later, I'm a popping pile of goo on the floor, and I'm staring at the screen shocked.

It's amazing that no matter how much you play it, occasionally you can still get surprised.

[punnyone]

Since I got Doom when I was 5 years old, I never really got past half of the 1st episode. Most of my memories of doom come from DOOM 2. The first one I beat (me beating the original came years later when I brought the collector's edition). I used to be petrified of cacodemons, and having them suddenly appear close up made me jump. Of course, nowadays, they are my second favorite enemy in the game (mancubi are my favorite). Time changes all I guess.


As for a frightening moment in a wad, one huge jumper I had was in Torm's "City of the Damned Apocalypse". The whole level is eerie and has a frightening feeling to it, but at one point, you wind up in a building that is filled with spiderwebs and small infernal spiders, (from the doom bestiary). Soon, you enter a library of sorts and the music gets quiet. There is a key on the ground, a spider key at that, and as soon as I picked it up, the music lurched immediately into a tense tune, and several medium sized infernal spiders leaped right at me. I practically jumped out of my seat. If the giant versions of these beasts had been used, I probably would've shouted out loud! Looking back on it, it is a great chiller moment, but playing it the first time nearly gave me a heart attack!

[exp(x)]

Map30 of eternal when two revenants popped up from the floor suddenly

[Doomaholic]

When I first bought Final Doom for my PC (my first doom game), I whacked in the disk drive and heard the revv and whirr of the fan and mechanisims inside the PC. I played it late at night, around 10:15. It was taking a while on the shitty old box, but it would work and I couldn't wait to play. Then most suddenly a picture of a face screaming out in a terrifying manner pops up, and a rocket explodes with a super massive boom, and with the speakers on full blast (my finger slipped and I didn't notice it'd been up that loud). Shit I nearly fell out of my seat as the shockwave of sound hit me, and the shock of the horrific looking face staring at me.

But, now that I look back on it, it's not all that scary. -.-;

[PRIMEVAL]

I don't have any specific moments, but I remember when I was a kid, the SNES port of DOOM always terrified me. Episodes 2 and 3 were the scariest. Also didn't help that my TV set was dying so it was really dark. When I first saw a Caco, I damn near shat myself.

[Philnemba]

Mine was when I first met the Cyberdemon on E2M8 and I was like "HOLY SHIT!!", then I got blasted to bits X_X

[Doomguy_Blazkowicz]

I have one for Doom and DooM II

In the first one i had always hated the cyberdemon level. The first time i played i saw the Barons of hell and was just like " What the fuck? What kinda bad ass monster could take out the scariest things in the game?" (At the time i was just scared shitless of them.) So i open the doors and i shot one of those annoying bastard LS and herd a roar and the foot steps. So im walking around and i turn a corner. i hear the footsteps getting closer and closer and i turn and i see his face right in front of me and bam im just dead.

Then in Doom II (I had a really glitchy defective copy.) I had finaly gotten to the final level. As the level starts the bosses voice comes in and im already just scared as hell cus' its 12:00. i go throught the teleporter and The Icon Of Sin is right in front of my voice suddenly. and I jumped off my bed into my tv set. I had the hardest time sleeping that night (Hell i probably didnt sleep.)

[Talvi]

Thinking the road was clear, turning around and "OH SHI***!" founding a Demon eating my face. Spectres in dark areas when I'm playing without paying attention, like late night. That sure wakes me up for the next minutes.

Also that rabbit... traumatized me as hell, I'm not sure if I can stand that look along that creepy music.

[Mr. Freeze]

PSX Doom had some of the scariest music I've ever heard in a videogame. It's amazing that by only changing the music, the entire feel of the level flips around.

Aside from Doom, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. can be extremely frighting sometimes. The nuclear plant interior...*shudders*

[azureace]

My Moment, First was the E2M8 Cyberdemon I remember pistol starting cause my dad wanted me to "try my luck" the thought that ran through my mind when I saw it before I ran like hell was "I'm gonna need a bigger gun..." and of course me being 11 at the time I figured it was faster than me and when I ran all the way around and in to him and he just turned and wasted me I was like Oh Crap.

The Doom 2 was the First Appearance of the Arch-Vile I was already hurting from past mistakes in the level then boom he shows up throws me like a rag doll then started to rez the creatures I just slayed..I was truly scared at that point