Startling moments in games

[Sean Hollyman]

What are some startling moments you experienced in games? I rarely play horror games, so mine is pretty tame.

Whenever a guard sees me and the alert thing goes off in a MGS Game, I jump a little

 

[OctalLord]

The ladder/catwalk moment from the orignal FEAR title. Everyone who's played the game knows it. You walk down a long catwalk with a ladder at the end. Once you character turns around to climb down you get a glimpse of the (Scary Little Girl)antagonist Alma.

When I played it, That would have scared me except that I'd already seen it on YouTube. I make this comment to my friend who was watching me play at the time. However I'm cut of midsentance as I reach the bottemn of the ladder and see the other antagonist Paxton Fettel reaching out towards me. I scream a little and fired my gun wildly because I hadn't seen THAT part on YouTube.

The conversation(As explained by my friend once I got him to stop laughing went something like this: (As I climb down the ladder.) "Alright I actually saw this part on YouTube before so OHMYGOD PICKLE!"
Apparently I had in my fright screamed out the sentance at high speed and combined the name Paxton Fettel into Pickle in my head.

 

[DoPo]

I'm immersed in the game, especially if it's less acton oriented (at the moment), so maybe trying to sneak or solve a puzzle and...the door opens. I mean the door in my apartment. I've jumped more than once.

Or better yet, I played in the dark late at night and was totally immersed in a game, trying to listen and look for any hostiles while prowling around...and a hand grabs me by the shoulder. I nearly suffered a heart attack. My mother wanted to tell me to go to bed (yeah, that was long ago), while I was ready to beg for my soul.

Other than those, I get startled by a game. A true horror game fills me with terror, it doesn't merely startle me. Case in point, Amnesia: the Dark Descent. The fear is almost palpable and most of the time you are in different levels of fright. You would be happy to be startled, that would mean it was relatively calm and something provoked you for a moment. Amnesia isn't really calm.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

Pretty much the only game that I regularly get startled in is Morrowind.

I'm just wandering around between towns when BAM!!! I get attacked by a Nix-Hound out of nowhere. Has made me jump a few more times than I care to admit.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

The first time you find the dentist in Bioshock, who is right-the-fuck-behind-you.

 

[Keoul]

Minecraft creepers T.T

 

[Dandark]

Im playing STALKER: Clear Sky.
So there I am walking through the swamps at night with 3 of my other faction members. It's completely dark so the only way we can see anything is with our helmets flashlights, we were going trying to find our way through the maze of reeds without being irradiated or stumbling into a boar nest.
The bushes have been rustling for a while and we occasionly hear strange noises, the other squad members would reguarly stop and look around, even firing random shots into the bushes sometiems.
It was a pretty tense atmosphere. Then suddenly as we are walking along, we hear a horrible scream that immediatly brings us to a halt.
Something jumps out of the bushes, lands on the back of the guy in front dropping him to the ground. It then rears up and roars at us, it is invisible except for two evil glowing eyes. it then picks up the flailing body of our comrade and before we can do anything jumps something like 20 feet into the air and runs off with him.
His screams were silenced moments later.

The creature is called a bloodsucker.When not invisible

Spoiler: It looks something like this

 

[CrazyGirl17]

That cutscene from Twilight Princess where they show you the history of Hyrule. You know the one.

Here's a link (teehee) for the curious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X6FhKdmkxc

 

[The Wykydtron]

The entire of Dead Space 2, it's a complete startlefest. "AH! Oh it's just more of you squishy zombie guys again, pew pew dead" Not actually scary but the shooting mechanics are really good.

Funny that the only time it gets close to being genuinely scary is when they stop all activity for about 10 minutes of gameplay and you've only got some dark hallways and spooky sounds and lights to deal with.

Y'know if they'd paced the rest of the game as well as that particular section, DS2 would have been so much better.

 

[Iwata]

Echo Night: Beyond.

You're walking around in your space suit, in the middle of a paranormal fog, and all you hear is your heartbeat monitor.

Then a loud *THUMP* and a bloody handprint suddenly appears in your helmet's visor.

I jumped in my seat. Only time it happened with a video game, I think.

 

[BENZOOKA]

I don't like nor play horror games.

Maybe some odd time in CS:S when you are sure that no one can be in specific spot and suddenly they attack. Also, headcrabs in Half-Life back in the day, and especially the very first time you briefly visit space on a round little piece of land and you are surrounded by those electrocuting creatures.