Creep-Out in Video Games.

[sugoi-chan]

Monster attack the moment you touch some awesome treasure is such an old trope that it isn't really Doom 3's fault. My first thought in any game where I suddenly see some glowing pile of awesomeness is what the fuck is about to attack me.

True, totally but Doom 3's big gimmick was the horror and it doesn't work when it's predictable. It was definitely atmospheric in other ways though. (I will say I can't wait for the new one. Looks exciting.)

That sounds like a crazy campaign (or whatever they're called. I've never played tabletop games.)

 

[ZehnBoat]

I thought Richard was a lot more unsettling in the first game. The dark, creepy flashing room and the weird off key music really freaked me out when I was younger.

richard wasn't that scary in 1 for me, i always got the vibe that the parts with him and the other two were dreams, and they were people in masks.

when i first saw him in 2, i was like "oh it's the guy in the rooster mask"
and then his mouth started to move, and then he started to speak through people, outside of dreams.

he went from figment to force of nature

 

[Count groudon]

richard wasn't that scary in 1 for me, i always got the vibe that the parts with him and the other two were dreams, and they were people in masks.

when i first saw him in 2, i was like "oh it's the guy in the rooster mask"
and then his mouth started to move, and then he started to speak through people, outside of dreams.

he went from figment to force of nature

I felt like him being just a guy wearing your mask and your clothes who knows way more than you do was way more unsettling. In 2 i thought him being like some all knowing ghost was pretty cool, but it felt to me like they were just using him to recreate the feel of the animal room from the first game. But either way his theme song in two is pretty kickass.

 

[Shadow Fox]

Spoiler: Tron

When I was really little we had Tron: Deadly Discs for the Intellivision. The part in the game when the Recognizer shows up was somehow really creepy to me, because Recognizers could pass through walls, were all but invincible, could paralyze your character and kill him with one touch. I grew to develop a real sense of foreboding with these damn things that put me off playing the game at all.

Eventually I forgot all about the game and the Recognizers, until I saw Tron: Legacy a few years back. A Recognizer shows up to capture the main character early in the movie, and as soon as I saw its distinctive shape that feeling of doom came rushing back with such intensity that I actually muttered "oh shit" under my breath.

Spoiler: Fatal Frame 2

There is a sequence in this game where you're standing in what appears to be an empty room, facing a doorway to another room, through which a big wooden box can be seen, its top ajar. After some small period of time, through the doorway, you can see a hand reach up out of the box and shove the top to the side, and then a fucking ghost woman comes out of it and tries to attack you.

I know it's a horror game and thus is supposed to be scary, but there was something about the goddamned box ghost that really freaked me out - how she made her appearance and her way of drifting across the floor, arms swinging bonelessly as she prepared to fuck your shit up.

 

[MMX]

The return to the ishimura in dead space 2

Spoiler: Minor spoilers

i spent a good twenty minutes slowly making my way. Trying to anticipate jump scares and ambushes working myself up with the tension but no not a damn thing. Just some serious tension

 

[_blank_]

Alright, I'll share a few.
----------------------
The first time I've ever experienced true panic in a game was waaaay back on the NES with Bubble Bobble. Seriously. Me and my friend Curtis used to play the hell out of it- and for the most part it was a pretty saccharine game. You play as a dragon dude you vomits up bubbles and catches monsters in said bubbles. You pop the bubbles, and the monsters become food. You eat the food for points. Empty out a room and continue to the next.

However, what the game does is that every floor you have a little less time to clear, and if you take to long, you get a "HURRY UP" message flash across your screen. If you don't complete it in time, Baron Von Blubba shows up. Dude was this white ghost/skull/whale/blob thing with red eyes that basically said "fuck the rules" and would clip through the entire level to hunt your ass down. You couldn't stop him- he was a completely unrelenting bastard of an enemy. He doesn't look like much compared to today's standards, but back then, when he showed up, you knew you were about to go through hell.
------------------------
The next game I'd like to mention is TLoZ: The Ocarina of Time. The game has plenty of creepy moments, but the one that really stuck with me was the Dead Hand mini-boss you first meet at the bottom of the well in Kakariko Village. I had played Zelda games since the very first one, and so I was used to fighting things like skeletons and mummies, and but Dead Hand was the first legitimately disturbing creature I had seen in a Zelda game. ReDeads were good for a jump scare... or eleventy billion (the goddamn scream), but Dead Hand looked like something out of a Silent Hill game.
-------------------------
So, I have had played my fair share of horror/ survival horror games, and while many have made me tense (Dead Space One and Two), and many have made me go "nope nope nope nope" out loud (Outlast) - only one scene from one game has ever legitimately caused to cry out in fear and jump in my seat.

And that game is Condemned: Criminal Origins.

In the game, you play a forensic detective who is hot of the trail of chasing down a serial killer. Unlucky for you, you're essentially out on your own while the homeless denizens of the city have been drinking the Rageahol. But interspersed between segments of bashing homicidal hobos with lead pipes, you do your job and collect evidence of your killer (the people you kill apparently don't matter but... semantics. Carrying on...)

This eventually leads you to locker room in a high school. Here you do the forensics thing you've done about a half dozen times already- so you're in the mindset... and then there is the locker. It's something I should have seen coming but it totally blindsided me and brutally reminded me to NEVER trust a quiet moment in a survival horror game.
------------------------
I do have to make one special mention though to Irrational Games for making me fall for the same time of jump scare twice: The Dentist in Bioshock, and the Boy of Silence (you know which one) in Bioshock Infinite. If you played the games, you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.

 

[MMX]

Lisa Trevor from Resident evil.
Shes a pretty standard unkillable boss monster nothing special there but her background and diary entrys are just horrific.

 

[Too Many Crooks]

Lisa Trevor from Resident evil.
Shes a pretty standard unkillable boss monster nothing special there but her background and diary entrys are just horrific.

I'm actually replaying the GameCube remake of RE1. There were plenty of moments in The Resident Evil series that scared me, especially Nemesis from RE3.

 

[Clown Doll]

Here you do the forensics thing you've done about a half dozen times already- so you're in the mindset... and then there is the locker. It's something I should have seen coming but it totally blindsided me and brutally reminded me to NEVER trust a quiet moment in a survival horror game.

Oh yeah, I know that fucking locker too. Anyway, I really like Condemned for it's oppressive atmosphere early on in the game especially because of how brutal the game feels. The game isn't very heavy on the gore, but the weight behind the weapon swings is communicated really well in the sound and the animations and enemies' reactions. One thing that really added to the horror imo was that it really felt like going to the really skeevy parts of town after dark. I really wish they'd make a Hub-World Condemned style game that was all about hobo survival.

 

[Jaimas]

Oh yeah, I know that fucking locker too. Anyway, I really like Condemned for it's oppressive atmosphere early on in the game especially because of how brutal the game feels. The game isn't very heavy on the gore, but the weight behind the weapon swings is communicated really well in the sound and the animations and enemies' reactions. One thing that really added to the horror imo was that it really felt like going to the really skeevy parts of town after dark. I really wish they'd make a Hub-World Condemned style game that was all about hobo survival.

For all the myriad other areas it fails, Condemned 2 has it in spades, too. To date, it has one of the most terrifying sequences I've ever faced in a game, solely due to the AI....

Spoiler: Scared of Humans

In one mission in the game - and this is after the one with the fucking bear, no less - you're in a hunting lodge, but the SCU's SWAT team is on-site hunting for your ass. You have to find clues to where your contact is whilst dealing with the present enemies. This is where things get.... Well, amazing. The AI in Condemned 2 is great, and it responds sanely to occurences. Enemies will react to sound, including loud impacts and gunfire, and each enemy type has different combat responses and tactics.

In the Lodge level, you first arrive unarmed. The SWAT guys are all wearing body armor and armed to the teeth with assault rifles and shotguns. Almost all of them carry backup weapons (pistols and rarely, batons). This level gets really shooty if you let it, but if you're like me, you take your time, stealthily take out the guards so you don't get overwhelmed, and the true value of this level sinks in. In a few locations, the SCU guys have left spare radio equipment around - which allows you to listen in on their radio chatter. What you may not realize is that this radio chatter is not idle chit-chat - it's an up-to-date live feed of the guards in the house right now. They report on one another's positions, if they see suspicious things, and where they think you're likely to come from. Imagine the horror then, as you enter an area, and encounter a guard with a shotgun. If you're like me, this leads you to Tazer the motherfucker, grab his Shotgun and put a hole in him before he can react, lest he wreck you.

....At which point the radio indicates that they heard a noise in the kitchen.

The very same kitchen you just entered.

What follows is a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, fighting against armed and armored opponents who are far deadlier than anything you've fought before this point. It's a visceral, solid moment, and a great example of how sometimes the most terrifying things aren't monsters and horrors, but regular old people, armed to the fucking teeth and trying to hunt you down.

 

[MMX]

For all the myriad other areas it fails, Condemned 2 has it in spades, too. To date, it has one of the most terrifying sequences I've ever faced in a game, solely due to the AI....

Spoiler: Scared of Humans

In one mission in the game - and this is after the one with the fucking bear, no less - you're in a hunting lodge, but the SCU's SWAT team is on-site hunting for your ass. You have to find clues to where your contact is whilst dealing with the present enemies. This is where things get.... Well, amazing. The AI in Condemned 2 is great, and it responds sanely to occurences. Enemies will react to sound, including loud impacts and gunfire, and each enemy type has different combat responses and tactics.

In the Lodge level, you first arrive unarmed. The SWAT guys are all wearing body armor and armed to the teeth with assault rifles and shotguns. Almost all of them carry backup weapons (pistols and rarely, batons). This level gets really shooty if you let it, but if you're like me, you take your time, stealthily take out the guards so you don't get overwhelmed, and the true value of this level sinks in. In a few locations, the SCU guys have left spare radio equipment around - which allows you to listen in on their radio chatter. What you may not realize is that this radio chatter is not idle chit-chat - it's an up-to-date live feed of the guards in the house right now. They report on one another's positions, if they see suspicious things, and where they think you're likely to come from. Imagine the horror then, as you enter an area, and encounter a guard with a shotgun. If you're like me, this leads you to Tazer the motherfucker, grab his Shotgun and put a hole in him before he can react, lest he wreck you.

....At which point the radio indicates that they heard a noise in the kitchen.

The very same kitchen you just entered.

What follows is a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, fighting against armed and armored opponents who are far deadlier than anything you've fought before this point. It's a visceral, solid moment, and a great example of how sometimes the most terrifying things aren't monsters and horrors, but regular old people, armed to the fucking teeth and trying to hunt you down.

Whilsts its not really a creepy moment i loved the multiplayer stuff for the game. The bum fights were brutal.

Spoiler: Minor spoiler

Im not a big fan of jump scares. But the mannequins that switch position and then multiply...
.fuuuuuuuuck

 

[Clown Doll]

For all the myriad other areas it fails, Condemned 2 has it in spades, too. To date, it has one of the most terrifying sequences I've ever faced in a game, solely due to the AI....

Condemned 2 also was really great in communicating to you the feeling that the entire city was rapidly falling to shit and the brief glimpses you got of the supposed "normalcy" gave you a large enough sensation of civilization that the descent back into the gutter felt really uneasy again. The news about the city descending more and more into chaos made you also feel uneasy even if it had next to no bearing on the gameplay itself.

That also played a big role in the F.E.A.R. games, even though in that game it was much, much less subtle but I was still creeped out by the cityscape that was eeriely empty even though it shouldn't be. Imo they should've played more with sequences of eerie quiet rather than scenes of corpses and blood splattered everywhere.

 

[Trans Fat 41g]

More Fallout sperging:

In FO4 there is a children's book writer who waxes over a 'silly squirrel' -- it's a serial killer who tortures animals.

 

[SpacePanther]

The banshees and balverines in Fable and Fable 2 have always freaked me the hell out. I don't know why.

In Fable 3, the cave that you go in when you reach Aurora. Fuck the Darkness and that monster and fuck it for making Walter go blind. And fuck the Sand Furies. They make my skin crawl.

 

[MMX]

F.e.a.r

Spoiler: Wheres Jankowski

F.e.a.r has a bunch of jump scare moments and gore but theres nothing more scary than the unknown. So when teammate Jankowski straight up disappears you figure theres gonna be some gory payoff. But nope hes just gone. Hes still giving off life signs, his radio is active but hes just not there anymore. Even after encountering his phantom later on his fate is never really clear.

 

[Xerxes IX]

The infinite stairs in Super Mario 64 scared the shit out of me when I was a kid because of the music. I learned about a bunch of exploits to beat the game with less stars than required, but I'd always be too afraid to try it.

 

[Too Many Crooks]

The infinite stairs in Super Mario 64 scared the shit out of me when I was a kid because of the music. I learned about a bunch of exploits to beat the game with less stars than required, but I'd always be too afraid to try it.

The monster piano in the Big Boo's Haunt section scared me when I played it for the first time.

Who expects a piano to attack them? Who?!

 

[Muhyo]

For those that played Bioshock Infinite, there is a particular creepy character in that game.

It's the guys who wear the bell like helmet. They are called the boys of silence, and boy do they look creepy!

You can't help but feel sorry for them. Forced to wear a large cumbersome helmet that elites all sense expect sound and a bit of sight. Thesee guys only at as sentry guards and alert people if am enemy is nearby. And they do this by emitting a loud piercing scream.

Overall, they are just very creepy.

 

[ZehnBoat]

For those that played Bioshock Infinite, there is a particular creepy character in that game.

It's the guys who wear the bell like helmet. They are called the boys of silence, and boy do they look creepy!

You can't help but feel sorry for them. Forced to wear a large cumbersome helmet that elites all sense expect sound and a bit of sight. Thesee guys only at as sentry guards and alert people if am enemy is nearby. And they do this by emitting a loud piercing scream.

Overall, they are just very creepy.

uuuuuughh
thanks for reminding me of the one part of that game that scared the hell out of me

slight backstory and power level possibly:
sound is a big thing for me. like, if you play a note wrong on a song i know, it makes me clinch my teeth and dig my fingers in.

so i played BI and got to the room
THE ROOM
with the warbly warped recording of canon in D

it's basically audio uncanny-valley. i think that was the only time in a video game where i felt distress.
well it was

until undertale
you should know what i'm going to say. So Cold
that's all.. ugh

now i have to listen to something to get it out of my head

 

[c-no]

F.e.a.r

Spoiler: Wheres Jankowski

F.e.a.r has a bunch of jump scare moments and gore but theres nothing more scary than the unknown. So when teammate Jankowski straight up disappears you figure theres gonna be some gory payoff. But nope hes just gone. Hes still giving off life signs, his radio is active but hes just not there anymore. Even after encountering his phantom later on his fate is never really clear.

Originally, the devs wanted to make Jankowski's death be something that was told to you. Not as unsettling and creepy as his ghost appearing now and then while wondering if he really is dead or not.