Your scariest moments in a game

[Frindis]

I have four scary moments to share:

1. Playing Amnesia The Dark Descent and meeting the first monster. I got chills down my spine and still not played it since. I will though, just need a little more time to brace myself.

2. Meeting Alma Wade in a cramped space in F.E.A.R.

3. Alone in the Dark and the horrifying realization of being in a room, knowing you have to come up with a plan quick before monsters devour you.

4. The demo of Resident Evil 7. Absolutely nerve-racking to walk into an old house, hearing all the eerie sound effects hit you in the face and noticing all the nastiness scattered around. Not to mention the gut feeling of not wanting to go one inch further because you know there has to be a Leatherface type of character luring around in the shadows.

 

[Volley]

+1 for Alma in F.E.A.R. Does anyone else remember approaching that ladder early in the game, turning around, and there she is at the top of the ladder? I nearly fell out of my chair. LOL. The entire game is amazing, and hasn't aged too terribly much. Once you get to the Armacham offices, the game amps up immensely.

Clive Barker's Undying was so scary back in 2001, that I couldn't play it when it got dark outside. I finally finished it last year after procrastinating for a couple decades. The awesome part, I finished it on my very zippy Pentium III-S 1.4GHz with 3dfx Voodoo5 5500 at 1280x1024 and Glide, as close to what I would have played it on in 2001.

I remember Alone in the Dark demo back on our 486DX33 and SoundBlaster 16, and I do remember this monster crashing through the window in the attic. As kids we screamed and ran out of the room. I really should go through the full game sometime.

 

[Frindis]

@Volley Alma at the top of the ladder was a scary moment! The slow-motion skill in F.E.A.R was also some of the coolest I have experienced since Max Payne.

The paintings in Undying were creeeepy! I really need to finish that game. I remember getting stuck in the church scene and thinking it was a bug, I angrily uninstalled the game.

You are going to love it when you get to the famous dinner scene in Alone in The Dark or even more cramped moments like that attic scene.

 

[PioneerRaptor]

Amnesia: The Dark Descent. I hated that part where there was an invisible monster and the water.

F.E.A.R. Going down that ladder and Alma being there immediately.

Outlast. Still haven't gone back to it. It was like right after getting in the building and the thing drops from the ceiling. I immediately quit and uninstalled the game. One day.

 

[McStabStab]

Does anyone else remember approaching that ladder early in the game, turning around, and there she is at the top of the ladder?

Oh yeah, and when you got to the bottom the other creepy dude was staring you in the face. Some other terrifying moments:

• Meeting Dr. Trager in Outlast
• The first time you see Foxy full on sprinting down a hallway in Five Nights at Freddy's
• Encountering the Controller for the first time after finding Strelok's stash in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
• Jack Baker coming through the wall in Resident Evil 7
• The body in the locker scare in Condemned: Criminal Origins
• The first encounter with the Alien in Alien: Isolation

I love horror games and could keep going but these are some of my favs.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

I'll just say the bathtub in Eternal Darkness and say nothing more so I don't spoil that moment for anyone else.

 

[Snake]

Playing system shock 2 against the many! Especially the spider things , yup they gave me the creeps.

 

[Johnway]

Playing system shock 2 against the many! Especially the spider things , yup they gave me the creeps.

Yep same here. i hate those spiders. It was why i skipped operations and went to recreation deck first. you needed guns to fight properly as close quarter combat with a melee weapon was suicide. Especially since they are fast and their attacks poisoned you. I like to think that System shock 2 cured my phobia of spiders in a video game. Not in real life though...


Speaking of spiders, thief series with the spiders. The last level in the dark project with that spider cave meant that my entire progress through that section was reduced to a crawl. Hindsight might have been better to run right through the cave and let the traps in the next stage deal with them.

Thank god in thief 2 they weren't as numerous.

 

[Rensje]

Playing system shock 2 against the many! Especially the spider things , yup they gave me the creeps.

My scariest gaming moment came from System Shock 2 as well. It's been over 15 years since I played it, but at one pointI was in some kind of laboratory and the ship computer SHODAN started giving me her 'what is a drop of rain compared to the storm' speech. I was playing in the dark with a headset on at the time and I just froze because the speech sounded so realistic that I actually thought she was talking to me, the player, directly. I looked over my shoulder to check if I was still sane and sitting in my own room.

Had to take a second after that to compose myself. Fourth wall breaking elements of video games can be pretty damn scary, but what gets me is how affective a game from 1999 could be even then.

Also, entering the child's bedroom in Resident Evil 7 and catching a glimpse of her scampering away. When you turn around and walk back out the bedroom door, one of the goop monsters is there to greet you. First and only time I ever screamed out loud. My girlfriend had a laughing fit for a good 5 minutes after that!

 

[Frindis]

@McStabStab God, I hate Baker! He sure knows how to creep up on you, that bastard.

I wanted to love Alien: Isolation, but the plentiful fetch items and opening shut doors kind of ruined it for me early on in the game, as it took away a lot of the suspense.

 

[Bobario]

the Shalebridge Cradle level in Thief: Deadly shadows has to be the scariest level in any game ever. It made me literally break out into a cold sweat. No other game has instilled that level of fear in me ever.

 

[I Will Haunt You]

The crying and music that accompanies encountering the witch in Left 4 Dead. It still creeps me out to this day.

Maybe a close second is the radio static in Silent Hill 2. Terrified me every time because the creatures in that game were so unique to me at the time whenever that static started up my imagination went wild of what grotesque thing was around the corner.

 

[McStabStab]

Maybe a close second is the radio static in Silent Hill 2. Terrified me every time because the creatures in that game were so unique to me at the time whenever that static started up my imagination went wild of what grotesque thing was around the corner.

And also the Pyramid Head and Mannequins cut scene which had its very sexual and violent undertones left you with something you wouldn't ever forget.

 

[mazz0]

The Doom 3 demo, when the zombies would get up after you kill them. Just had me totally on edge.

Haven’t played Alien Isolation yet mind you...

 

[I Will Haunt You]

And also the Pyramid Head and Mannequins cut scene which had its very sexual and violent undertones left you with something you wouldn't ever forget.

And you thought walking in on mom and dad was bad...

 

[Lutfij]

F.E.A.R(the first iteration)...the entire game was scary(and amazing) but all the moments where Alma appears knocked me out of my chair. Couple that with playing that game at 1AM when all your siblings and folks are asleep, in an expansive house.

 

[SeriousNERD]

I will join in with the F.E.A.R. crowd. Whenever anyone asks what is the scariest moment in a game I
immediately remember the time I was playing the game, and in one of the offices I finished a few battles with the replicas. And I was pumped! Feeling like a true badass, running through some cubicles, looking for the next fight and then Alma just ran in front of me between two cubicles... I was so shocked I can't even remember my reaction properly, it reduced me from a badass fighting machine to a frightened chicken checking every corner carefully from then on.

Also the thing on the ladder with both Alma and Fettel is pretty up there.

First fight with Necromorphs in vacuum in Dead Space when you can just hear the thuds getting closer.
Late in the game there is a particular Bench, and they did a masterful thing training you that a Bench is a safe space for the whole time before that, and then as soon as you finish with the bench a Necromorph jumps at you... That scared the **** out of me, afaik it never happens again, but the Bench is forever tainted after that

 

[I Will Haunt You]

the Shalebridge Cradle level in Thief: Deadly shadows has to be the scariest level in any game ever. It made me literally break out into a cold sweat. No other game has instilled that level of fear in me ever.

That is such a great level. Before you even start the mission Garret's intro already puts you in a state of dread after mentioning murder, the hag, and finishing the intro with "I'm used to the dark, but this feels like a house with bad dreams."

 

[McStabStab]

A couple of titles no one ever mentions in the genre of horror are the Half-Life games, but there are some levels that made my skin crawl when I first played them.

In the first game the Surface Tension level freaked me out, something about that large underwater creature gave me the creeps, and when the cage falls into the water, yeesh.

In Half-Life 2, Ravenholm was also pretty incredible playing through it the first time. It was like its own mini-survival horror part within the game. "We don't go to Ravenholm."

 

[I Will Haunt You]

In Half-Life 2, Ravenholm was also pretty incredible playing through it the first time. It was like its own mini-survival horror part within the game. "We don't go to Ravenholm."

Ravenholm was def a creepy level with those creepy headcrab zombies. For me, though, tossing saw blade around with the gravity gun took some of that edge off.

 

[Mazer]

I remember getting pretty creeped out just escaping the prison ship in Unreal, but I was pretty young at the time. That big boy down in the basement of Lab X18 in Stalker:SOC wasn't my favourite thing in the world either.

But truthfully, anytime I'm underwater with something larger than me in a videogame I just fall apart.

 

[I Will Haunt You]

But truthfully, anytime I'm underwater with something larger than me in a videogame I just fall apart.

Hah, yeah. There was a similar topic on PCG about the, um, leviathans(?) in Subnautica. I hadn't played it, but I know the feeling. I was traumatized by Jaws when I saw it alone in the theater as a kid.

 

[AGMoore]

In Morrowind, the cave just outside Seyda Neen. I nearly crapped myself when I was ambushed by a bandit. I think Elder Scrolls 3 had more genuinely scary moments than many horror games.

 

[McStabStab]

In Morrowind, the cave just outside Seyda Neen. I nearly crapped myself when I was ambushed by a bandit. I think Elder Scrolls 3 had more genuinely scary moments than many horror games.

The accuracy of this. In Oblivion I remember being under-leveled but adventurous, not realizing the perils of the woods. My first encounter with a troll resulted in me SPRINTING to the nearest town, the beast dogging me for what felt like 10 terrifying minutes (probably 2 or 3) until I saw the gates of Skingrad and ducked my low-health hero inside.

 

[AGMoore]

The accuracy of this. In Oblivion I remember being under-leveled but adventurous, not realizing the perils of the woods. My first encounter with a troll resulted in me SPRINTING to the nearest town, the beast dogging me for what felt like 10 terrifying minutes (probably 2 or 3) until I saw the gates of Skingrad and ducked my low-health hero inside.

That sense of danger is really missed in later era Bethesda games. Skyrim had it occasionally with trolls charging you out of nowhere but that atmosphere disappeared with Fallout 4.