Things in games that creeped you the fuck out -

[Overcast]

Poison Headcrabs from Half Life 2 used to scare the crap out of me. The screechy noises they made, the way they prepare to jump at you and the fact they dropped you down to 1 health made me terrified of being anywhere near them. Even worse when a Poison Zombie who threw the things was around.

Now? Not so much, but I remember finding myself shutting off the game when I got surprised by one.

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

Back when I was a kid playing original WoW I was just leveling in Silverpine Forest when suddenly this ?? elite came barreling out of some bushes and murdered me.

Thought that was it, but imagine my shock when I encountered it in 2 other spots in the zone. This was before I knew there were multiple Son of Arugals on set patrol paths.

Just felt like I had to constantly keep an eye out around me or it would spawn out of thin air to come wreck my shit. Was a tad unnerving back then.

 

[Elysian]

When I was a kid the Gooper Blooper from Super Mario Sunshine freaked me the fuck out. I think it’s because you had to rip it‘s legs off to kill it, and that was a bit too much body horror for 5 year old babby Elysian.

Also the spooky rollercoaster with the guillotine from Magic Town in The Sims: Makin Magic expansion pack was really scary to me back then too since I thought the guillotine on it had a chance to actually behead your sim and there’d be blood and gore everywhere. Obviously it’s a T rated game so that wouldn’t be the case, but I was too young to have that level of common sense at the time.

 

[Ralph Cifaretto]

Literally basic resource collection in Subnautica. I spent like 30-40 minutes last night trying to get some diamonds around 250-300 meters deep and the whole time I was on edge just waiting for some sea monster to jump scare me and make me backpedal to my base. I'm at about the midpoint in the game I think, so my strategy to avoid reapers, warpers, crabsquids, sharks, etc. is to go incredibly slowly in the seamoth, hop out, mine shit and when I run low on oxygen, fucking book it like Michael Phelps back to the submarine. Rinse, repeat.

The whole fucking time I did this last night in a cave, I was just filled with this sense of dread. I was completely disoriented. I had no idea how to get back to the surface. Yet I knew some fucking lovecraftian horror was going to absolutely destroy me as soon as I rushed into a blind corner.

Turns out none of that shit came to fruition in the biome I was exploring. It was pretty safe to wander around. I built up some fucking horrid scenario in my own head based on the atmosphere and freaked myself the fuck out for nothing. I didn't get as many diamonds as I wanted, but man, the fact that this game used my own pessimistic imagination to create horror is absolutely incredible.

 

[graywolf88]

The Floormasters in The Legend of Zelda series. Seeing the shadow of them following you from above was paranoia inducing for me.

 

[Blimp]

The early era of any DOS game using an extender like DOS4GW pushed pretty much any genre into "jumpscare" due to it's extremely in-your-face crashes, and since early sound card drivers were the biggest culprit, the stream of imposing text taking over your game was accompanied by the last chunk of audio being played in a horrifying corrupted loop. Sam and Max really REALLY didn't like the first Sound Blaster, especially if the map driving sound was cut-off halfway due to a short distance, and I was permanently playing everything on the edge until my dad grabbed an SB16 at a computer fair, it was MPC3 certified!

 

[LolRaccoon]

Water levels in video games in general. When the boat segments were a thing in Resident Evil 8, I was terrified that I would be dragged underwater, but apparently not (outside of that one death animation in the Moreau boss battle).

 

[LazloChalos]

Once bitten; twice shy.

This pretty much describes me when it comes to water, now there are things that are supposed to scare you or at least let you know something is dangerous.

It is the unintentional scare that really slaps you hard, like when something like a leaf falls in your arm and your brain immediately sends alarm signals of a spider skittering on your arm making a beeline to your neck.

GTA V, mission with some feds in scuba gear at night, water is murky and I can't see farther than a few meters. As we are swimming in formation a huge Orca almkst crashes into us.

Seeing that shape just pop out of the darkness was enough for me to yell out obscenities.

 

[A single cheeto]

Whenever I play FONV and this comes on, I feel uneasy. It's the sirens, I think.
The entire area of the Sierra Madre unnerves me, to be honest.

 

[Big Ruski]

When Colonel Campbell started glitching out in Arsenal. The music didn't help either.

 

[CausticMinory]

Did I mention river crusts from dishonored? If do imma do it again. The way they look, the sound they make when they see you. The fact all of them look like grey pussies that shoot goo at you is just the fucking worst.

 

[Jimjamflimflam]

Not scare me but the opening track to Metroid put kid me on edge. It was unsettling. Props to the composer for nailing the other worldly theme.

Also the Metroids at the end. Again unsettling in how they looked and attacked.

 

[gaystoner]

Literally basic resource collection in Subnautica. I spent like 30-40 minutes last night trying to get some diamonds around 250-300 meters deep and the whole time I was on edge just waiting for some sea monster to jump scare me and make me backpedal to my base. I'm at about the midpoint in the game I think, so my strategy to avoid reapers, warpers, crabsquids, sharks, etc. is to go incredibly slowly in the seamoth, hop out, mine shit and when I run low on oxygen, fucking book it like Michael Phelps back to the submarine. Rinse, repeat.

The whole fucking time I did this last night in a cave, I was just filled with this sense of dread. I was completely disoriented. I had no idea how to get back to the surface. Yet I knew some fucking lovecraftian horror was going to absolutely destroy me as soon as I rushed into a blind corner.

Turns out none of that shit came to fruition in the biome I was exploring. It was pretty safe to wander around. I built up some fucking horrid scenario in my own head based on the atmosphere and freaked myself the fuck out for nothing. I didn't get as many diamonds as I wanted, but man, the fact that this game used my own pessimistic imagination to create horror is absolutely incredible.

I also can't play subnautica..the most terrifying game ever made.

 

[Jerri's Kid]

Silent Hill 4 was a mixed bag for me but I still remember this one part near the end when you go into a room and you see a GIANT disfigured Eileen head staring at you and that's all it does, but it was very random and unnerving.

I also can't play subnautica..the most terrifying game ever made.

It was scarier than most horror games, especially when you play it for the first time and don't know the spawn locations for all of the leviathans. I remember freaking out when I accidentally hit the edge of the map. Everything is pitch black and then you see multiple huge Ghost Leviathans rapidly heading towards your Seamoth. It was a great moment. Too bad Below Zero doesn't live up to that.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

The Marguerite boss fight in RE7 is in my opinion the scariest fight in the series (that I've played anyway, haven't gotten around to Village). Firstly, Marguerite's design is really fucked up with the bug nest womb and the unnaturally elongated limbs. Just seeing her walk around is uncanny, and the way she pokes her arms and head through narrow spaces is unnerving. It's probably my favorite design for an RE boss. Then there's the fight itself which takes place in a dilapidated greenhouse. The fight plays out with you and Marguerite hunting each other, both of you hoping to get the drop on the other so there's already a lot of tension in the fight. As the fight goes on, you can hear her birthing wasp nests, which is one of the most disgusting things ever put into an RE game.

It's the only boss fight I've ever come across that makes me feel afraid to fight it, and it's the only boss fight in an RE game that really gets under my skin.

 

[The Lawgiver]

Theres some shit that legit spooked my shit as a kid but like I'm too tired right now to go into deepspook zone

Those fucking sharks that exploded out of the wall in sonic cd's water level made me freak the fuck out slightly as a kid just because of how fucking loud and unexpected they were but thats less actual fear for my life and more fear of life loss in video game from wallsharks.

 

[Kulmeister]

Ooh boy, have I got a bunch:

The screams of the souls, bound to the Flesh Golem Boss "Thaddius", in WoW's original Naxxramas raid.

The "Hammerite Haunts" in Thief 1 & 2. Weren't as scary in Deadly Shadows, though. Oh, and that scene from Thief 1 as well! Scared the shit out of me when I was little, especially right after escaping from the haunted cathedral!

Speaking of the original Thief Trilogy - This dialogue exchange between two of the game's antagonists in Thief 2: The Metal Age is really sinister and unnerving (pay attention to the background ambience). The level itself is called "Eavesdropping" and occurs early on in the game. Also, if you go exploring around the level, you will uncover how the Mechanist cult creates their "servants", where they come from, and what they intend to use them for later on in the game. Also, fuck that level's basement!

One of my favorite games growing up happened to be "SWAT 4", where a mission, titled the "Children of Taronne Tenement" takes place, where your squad deals with Doomsday Cultists, with the goal of arresting the cult members, and 'neutralizing' their leader:

Also the 1st mission of that game is intense.

Those are just some off the top of my head. I might post some more later on.

 

[VIPPER?]

One of my favorite games growing up happened to be "SWAT 4", where a mission, titled the "Children of Taronne Tenement" takes place, where your squad deals with Doomsday Cultists, with the goal of arresting the cult members, and 'neutralizing' their leader:

Children of Taronne Tenement is unironically my favourite level

A lot of SWAT4's levels are really creepy. They do that style very well. fun fact, the SWAT4 team did try to make a zombo game after it, but stuff just didn't work out:

https://irrationalgames.ghoststorygames.com/insider/division-9-unreleaesd-zombie-shooter/

I saw some alpha footage way back and it really looked bad. basically swat4 except with melee enemies, and instead of flashbangs and stingers you had meme noisemaker pipe bomb things. The few levels they made were top notch spoopy quarantine hut though.

Silent Hill 4 was a mixed bag for me but I still remember this one part near the end when you go into a room and you see a GIANT disfigured Eileen head staring at you and that's all it does, but it was very random and unnerving.

maybe because I was just watching my sister play the impact was lost, but this room fucking whips and made me laugh really hard

 

[AmpleApricots]

There used to be this Frankenstein-like game simply called "Mad Doctor" on the C64 that was very detailed. You played the Role of a crazy doctor with the goal to build the perfect undead servant. You lived in a castle and would be able to steal corpses from the graveyard or kill and abduct villagers. The higher quality body parts you got for the monster, the better it was. The villagers would eventually get suspicious of you up to attacking you on sight, so you had to avoid them. You could literally stalk people around to kill or abduct them to keep them in your dungeon and then cut them into pieces and you also had to steal supplies like thread for sewing for your operations.

The game had these minimalist graphics that looked quite ok maybe even good for the time but really were poorly drawn and had weird proportional problems all over (coffins bigger than houses, people as tall as buildings etc.) and also would change the drawing style for no reason between screens which added to the slight discomfort of all. The sound effects were equally minimalist and you literally only could hear steps of people. It might sound quaint for today but honestly, the entire game came across as made by some deranged lunatic who spent way too much time thinking about murdering and cutting up people. Game mechanics wise, nowadays I'd say it was ahead of this time (this was some when middle of the 80s) with all that detail that was really unparalleled but back then it just gave me the jebies. You have to think it wasn't like today where you'd just google the blog of the author and see he's got a steam page and patreon running, it was just some nondescript executable on an equally nondescript disk you got from a coworker with no hint where that game came from or who made it.

And yep, after about 30 years I finally did some research who made that game just right now and it was apparently some bargain bin cassette game sold through some budget game publisher and nobody knows who wrote it. Appropriate.

 

[Overcast]

Whenever I play FONV and this comes on, I feel uneasy. It's the sirens, I think.
The entire area of the Sierra Madre unnerves me, to be honest.

Ironically, I find this track soothing. Maybe it's because I associate it with being in the BoS Bunker.

The Glow theme for me is spooky. It definitely helped with the "Bad shit happened here" vibe the place gave off.