Creepiest Moments You've Had... in Non-Horror Games

[bificommander]

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, when the Water Spirit goes for the 'show, don't tell' approach in explaining the backstory about the Sacred Realm. The ingenious thing is that it looks like a slightly changed version of that cutscene in Ocarina of Time, with the same music and everything. And hey, why's the music changing and the camera panning down from your childhood friend's face to her hand and HOLY SHIT WTF.


The main reason Twilight Princess dissapointed me is that while the average quality of the story is a bit better than Ocarina, Ocarina had a constant whimsical but compelling story while TP has awesome moments like this, coupled with boring, rushed or otherwise poorer parts.

 

[SomebodyNowhere]

only thing I could really think of was the nightmare sequence from Max Payne. That was pretty damn creepy.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I once was invited into a server on minecraft and was teleported to the far lands, where it seemed like only one person lived and had more or less set it up as a post nuclear fallout zone and it was just eerie seeing the buildings destroyed ad how "realistic" it all seemed because I was the only one there with the person.

but then again the server also had a pretty decent texture pack.

 

[Thyunda]

Another veteran of the dreaded Dunwich Building here. There were other moments in Fallout 3 that attempted to be creepy, and some in New Vegas, but nothing at all compared to the effortlessly eerie nature of THAT FUCKING BUILDING.

I don't know what it is about that place, but no other place in any other game has ever frightened me like that building. I barely jumped at Dead Space. Only the first F.E.A.R elicited any response except tired, routine shooting. But that. God. Damned. Building. Fuck my Xuanlong assault rifle. Fuck my power armour. I felt naked in that place.

 

[Muspelheim]

Agreed, Dunwich Building was pretty frightening. But I think stumbling into Vault 112 by accident, with no idea of what to expect, was even scarier than that. That simulation was nothing short of limbo. A 50's suburban neighbourhood populated by eight idiots, with no way out. The dreary, black-and-white plane of existance begun and ended there. Imagine that, being stuck in that cul-de-sac. Forever. I think I've found my personal interpretation of Hell.

I more or less kissed the scarred, radioactive desert soil once I finally secured my release.

<youtube=sAL76WYw0FE>

*Shudder*

 

[Mikejames]

"WHY DID YOU LET US DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE?"

Man, Psychonauts got dark sometimes.

And yeah, I feel justified including this, because while the game ended up being a terrifying mindmelter, it had all been cute kids and candy up to THIS point.

"Raaazzpuuutiiin!!"

I loved how there were manic dark tones underneath the strange hilarities. Remember the psychotic faces in the asylum sky?

 

[daveman247]

snip

Haha i was wondering when that was going to come up. Worked well on me because it was totally unexpected, and i was curious because i was SURE i had seen something in the corner of my eye in that corridor. I know the games about a killer clone, but still

To be honest that entire game is pretty creepy. Its scary what goes on in Mr 47's head :S

 

[Kud]

Rocket: Robot on Wheels

The whole damn game. So eerie.

 

[TheRussian]

snip
Dishonored is normally unsettling enough that I don't think it should qualify for this thread, except...

Spoiler

If you've been paying attention to all the little background stuff like guards' chatter and the propaganda posters, you should already have a sneaking suspicion that there be zombies in Dishonored. This really seems like the place you're going to meet them. And then NOTHING happens. The house is just an eerie house, but there are no encounters with anyone past a few guards at the entrance.

But you're forgetting, there are zombies in Dishonored. They're called "weepers" but for all intents and purposes they are zombies.

As for me, I'd have to go with

Spoiler

The hallucinations from Spec Ops: The Line. Without spoiling anything, one creepy example involves an enemy soldier with the face of your squadmates. I could also the haunting ending sequence, but I wouldn't want to spoil anything for anyone.

 

[MrBenSampson]

In Oblivion, when I got an awesome deal on the deed for Benirus Manor in Anvil. The atmosphere inside the place was really forbidding, and one of the basement walls was covered in strange symbols. Spending the night was not the best idea.

There was also that quest when you had to follow a pair of brothers to reclaim their family home from a group of ogres that drove their family off the property many years ago. When exploring the house, you find many skeletons, which could possibly be those of the brothers' family... The creepiest part was that they didn't dispose of the bodies after moving back in.

Also, the Forlorn Watchman. A ghost who appeared near Bravil every night, and would walk to the shore on the opposite side from the shipwreck where his body was still trapped. I remember being very nervous as I followed the ghost along the shore.

 

[daveman247]

snip

Theres quite a few uncomfortable things in deus ex HR. I can only vaugely remember but didn't the triads kidnap people and strip them down for augments?

I think cyberpunk in general has an element of horror to it. A sort of techno-horror.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Fallout 3, this building

The Dunwich Building

Seriously. This place gives me the chills

And the basement OH GOD THE BASEMENT

Bethesda needed to remind people that it made Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth...they did a really good job in that respect.

---

While playing Wind Waker, you free Tingle from a jail cell and he quickly escapes the Island prison holding him. Later on you find him again on his own island with a pair of what I can only describe as slave boys since they're dressed like him and complain about the work he forces them to do (basically walking around a circle to make a thing spin). The creepy thing about this is that...well I think Tingle's imprisonment on the island in the first place had to do with him doing unbecoming things to, with or, to obtain children. The island he's on is full of kids after all and he seems to have been deliberately placed far away from any children's homes. I can't remember completely but I think he also makes mention of how much he loves kids or something along those lines. I'm not saying Tingle is a pedophile...but I guess I kind of am.

 

[champy_fan]

I've got an obscure one for you: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on the PC.

I have no idea what genre this game falls under, it's some sort of third-person... shooting... platforming... adventure? It was horrible. But considering I was about 10 or 11 when it came out, I couldn't stop playing it. There were ample opportunities to explore Hogwarts, and there were tons of secret rooms, usually containing a few gnomes to fight. The secret rooms were also buggy as hell. The gnomes' standard attack was to charge at you with their hands out and push you, because who cares, but one time I fought a group of gnomes who had glitched into one single stationary frame of them standing with their arms stretched out, and instead of running, they were just scooting along the floor, completely stationary, making no noise, just chasing me, chasing me, trying to end me. The room I was playing it in was cold and dark, so it just made everything so much worse.

 

[Tesral]

Has this really not been mentioned?

Spoiler: I wonder what's through this pipe

OH GOD WHAT IS THAT

A touch to creepiness really adds to a game, gives it that Majoras Mask feel that keeps people discussing it decades later.

 

[hermes]

The majority of playing through TLoZ: Majora's Mask, I was incredibly confused and creeped out, I was only 8 back then. =V

This. I was surprised it took so long for someone to mention it:

Spoiler

 

[wolvik92]

I've had one uniquely personal creepy moment while playing Oblivion. In dungeons I kept hearing a sort of chinking sound that I was sure wasn't a part of the soundtrack. One day my friend was with me while I played and when it happened, I asked him whether he'd heard it and he said he didn't... I had to take a break from the game after that.

Another game that creeped me out a bit was Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP. I found the game's atmosphere a bit weird from the beginning, though not in an unpleasant way, but then the Gogolithic Mass happened.



The Neverhood could be quite unsettling at times as well. Walking through an empty world with the only sounds being your footsteps and the howling of the wind. The creepiest stuff in my opinion was the Weasel warning and this:

Hm, literally falling off the world seemed way creepier when I was a child.

 

[shadyh8er]

Because I'm afraid of heights, the Blades of Hades level from the first God of War and the mountain climbing level from Uncharted 2. Yes. The level in Uncharted 2 that's more platforming/puzzle solving than usual was the scariest for me.

Then there's the Chicago chapter from Resistance 2. First you have to jump across Fury infested waters (enemies that kill you in one hit). Then you have to navigate a dark apartment filled with zombie-like Grims while a radio talk show guy whimpers in the background. And lastly, you step right into a battlefield against hordes of Chimera and Stalkers. The part that truly taught me that war is hell.

And finally, both instances in Heavy Rain where you have to escape from a locked car. I don't remember the last time I panicked like how I did while playing a video game.

 

[OpticalJunction]

Fawkes racing up to me like he's on steroids in Old Olney. It made me jump.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

It was in Mass Effect 2. I spent about 40 minutes laboriously creating my character exactly the way I wanted it...

...and then I saw it in-game.

 

[karma9308]

Spoiler

Every breath you take

Every move you make

Every bond you break

Every step you take

I'll be watching you

Essentially all of Majora's mask. The...obvious is easy, but what really gets me is the final part here:

Spoiler

It was just SO unsettling and the dialogue with all the kids there is blatantly designed to get under your skin and it does it so well for me. Also Sander Cohen from Bioshock.