The scariest video game experience of your life

[conmag9]

Thief: Deadly Shadows had a whole level of it. The Cradle.

Okay, picture this: an insane assylum. Not a neat, clean place to restore mental health, but the H.P. Lovecraft style, shock therepy, everyone's crazy and the staff are almost as bad style facility. The lobotomy doctors were actually NOT fully trained, because "failure teaches more than success". Then tie it into an orphanage. In the same building. The orphanage part works much like Oliver Twist...if the place were administrated as an assylum at te same time. Okay, got that? Well, the kids interact regularly with the patients. One of them burned her child alive and carries the ashes around, thinking they're her child. Another is a painter who goes berserk if his subjects move for their portraits (and he was permited to paint one of the children). This kind of mixture. Got that? Okay, now have one of the children's SKIN STOLEN, and not by the patients, but some...thing...else. Now, the whole place burns down and everybody dies.

Except they don't. The patients are still moving about, as zombies. Now, zombies aren't so scary, right? Wrong. These guys are fast, tend to sudden motion in an area who's only light is the occasional lone bulb the flickers a bit. Quiet too. No moaning. You only know they're on you when they get close, at which point they SCREAM like a banshee and try to claw you to death. They're wrapped up in restraints (cloth and weird metal...things), but it only serves to make them look more frightening. So you have to go through this place trying to rescue a ghost, who at first only manifests as a loud, sudden knocking in the attic.

Oh, and the building itself? It's self aware. And it doesn't want to let you go.

 

[Fenra]

Jumping into SC2's multiplayer having never played a starcraft game before, man that was scary!

Ok sillyness aside, on topic. The entierity of Dead Space... because im a pansy, but more specifically the first time I came across a guardian, oh god that noise, the scream, couldnt get it out of my head for days.

 

[shadyh8er]

We've gotten this far without mentioning the Regenerators from RE4? My mind is blown! Seriously though, I would take Ashley's screeching over that damn breathing sound any day!


Also, since I'm afraid of heights, the puzzle in Uncharted 2 where you have to climb up a giant dagger made knots in my stomach.

 

[Primee133]

Either the start of Dead Space, or running out of ammo on impossible mode at the section with the Regenerator. Dead Space tends to become a survival horror when you play on harder difficulties, since your character dies in a few hits, and you constantly run out of ammo, which makes you panic, which in turn, gives a wonderful sense of horror.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

My first horror game was Clive Barker's Undying were I tried with a headset on in an internet cafe when I was like 12.

After the part that you look at a painting and a phantom pops out of it unexpectedly,it scared me so much that I swore I would never touch that game ever again.

 

[McSpuddles]

I played through the Quake demo many many times in silence before I fixed the sound card and then nearly soiled myself when I first heard one of those spiky forelegged four-legged things do its leap-across-the-room-and-eviscerate-you noise.

The Fiend.

 

[turbopunk]

I will give a quick nod to Dead Space. It never "scared" me. However, it did manage to keep me on edge for almost the entire game.

The only game to legitimately scare me was Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. As to not be too spoiler-ish, the thing that happens while investigating the bathroom actually hit a nerve so well that I went over my couch for a moment.

I think it was a combination of the sound design, the camera angle, and the fact that I had been playing for 3 hours straight with the hour prior being FULLY drained of sanity.

 

[Squidwogdog]

The original F.E.A.R. and its expansion (ignoring perseus mandate), The Ladder

 

[katsabas]

I actually have 3 moments which made jump up in fear:

1-RE4, when I shot off the legs of a Regenerator, tried to get get by him and the sucker literally jumped and bit my neck right off.

2-Bioshock, trying to set a Splicer on fire and succeeding, only to realize that he was near a Big Daddy who now is on fire as well and wants to vita-chamber my ass.

3-DMC, got too scared of the damn puppets and put the controller on the carpetless floor. Then, Dante got slashed and the controller vibrated which sent out a sound so big it scared me shitless.

 

[Squidwogdog]

Thief: Deadly Shadows had a whole level of it. The Cradle.

Okay, picture this: an insane assylum. Not a neat, clean place to restore mental health, but the H.P. Lovecraft style, shock therepy, everyone's crazy and the staff are almost as bad style facility. The lobotomy doctors were actually NOT fully trained, because "failure teaches more than success". Then tie it into an orphanage. In the same building. The orphanage part works much like Oliver Twist...if the place were administrated as an assylum at te same time. Okay, got that? Well, the kids interact regularly with the patients. One of them burned her child alive and carries the ashes around, thinking they're her child. Another is a painter who goes berserk if his subjects move for their portraits (and he was permited to paint one of the children). This kind of mixture. Got that? Okay, now have one of the children's SKIN STOLEN, and not by the patients, but some...thing...else. Now, the whole place burns down and everybody dies.

Except they don't. The patients are still moving about, as zombies. Now, zombies aren't so scary, right? Wrong. These guys are fast, tend to sudden motion in an area who's only light is the occasional lone bulb the flickers a bit. Quiet too. No moaning. You only know they're on you when they get close, at which point they SCREAM like a banshee and try to claw you to death. They're wrapped up in restraints (cloth and weird metal...things), but it only serves to make them look more frightening. So you have to go through this place trying to rescue a ghost, who at first only manifests as a loud, sudden knocking in the attic.

Oh, and the building itself? It's self aware. And it doesn't want to let you go.

I wish I mentioned this. I wasnt exactly scared about the knocking or the zombies. I started getting really creeped out when the player finds out about the building being self aware. The cage, the building having memories, brrrrr. Cool ending though, I abandoned stealth just to get out as quick as I could

 

[velcrokidneyz]

Vampire the masquerade the ocean house hotel, pretty creepy.

i think it won some awards for level design just for that.

 

[Trildor]

The Shalebridge Cradle level from Thief 3. I found it more unnerving and creepy than Amnesia, because you just don't expect it.

 

[estoria-etnia]

Resident Evil 4 ? Particularly the... things... I can't remember what they're called ? hang on I will go and check... Okay. The Regenerator and Iron Maidens scared the living bejeezus out of me. Mostly because OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT?! SHIT SHIT SHIT RUN RUN RUN. The damn things scared the crap out of me and they can be ridiculously difficult to kill if you don't really have an idea of how to go about it...

The remake of Resident Evil for the GameCube counts, because at the time that I played it, I was scared. I was such a cautious gamer and my friend kept telling me to just get my ass in gear and stop worrying about whether or not that corpse I saw was going to be getting back up any time soon to help itself to a delicious Chris sandwich... and half the time, I WAS RIGHT. It doesn't measure up to either SH2 or SH4, but it was still scary at the time.

I haven't played Amnesia, but from the clips of it I've seen and feedback on it from friends, I know that I would be huddled over under a blanket with my giant stuffed dog and jumping at every little sound while panicking and fleeing and hiding like a hyper-active dog.

Silent Hill 2 ? I can't play this game without all the lights on and without a blanket over my head with my trusty stuffed dog at my side. I'm paranoid and my experience has largely been: HOLY FUCK WHAT WAS THAT?! OH SHIT RUN RUN RUN FUCK RUN OH GOD WHAT IS ? SCREW THAT JUST RUN... am I safe now? OH SHIT NO. I recorded myself playing JUST so I could see how paranoid and scared shitless I got.

Silent Hill 4: The Room ? One word: Ghosts. You cannot kill them. Just remembering playing the first level has me cowering. Seriously, it's probably scarier than Silent Hill 2 in the scare factor, but SH2 gets the paranoia which is probably significantly worse. These two games alone have contributed to my not being able to sleep properly in weeks...

 

[TheFloBros]

When a guard in Oblivion suddenly yells "STOP RIGHT THERE"

 

[TilMorrow]

I came, I saw this thread, I watched the clips and read the posts on the 1st page, I forgot to post and left.

Now I return. lol

OT: FEAR. Alma is so f'ing scary when she catchs you unawares.

Also Water in games when I was younger. What was hiding under that glassy surface? Definitely not friendly fishies or turtles.

Oh and when playing games in FP and you have companions and you happen to forget about them and they jump out at you. Yes I'm looking at you New Vegas.

 

[bruunwald]

The first three Silent Hill games scared the bejesus out of me. Silent Hill: Origins disturbed me on some level I haven't quite figured out yet, and so I refuse to finish it or go back and play it again at this time.

But if I had to crown one of these king, it would be the original: Silent Hill 1. No other horror franchise has come close for me (not for lack of trying). And you just never forget that first, real, terrifying thrill.

Silent Hill 1 scared me so s***less, I went out and bought the PS2 just so I could play Silent Hill 2. I would say that first game, and the two that followed, made such a good impression, that it was enough to keep me buying new platforms (PS3, Wii) to keep up with the series, in the hope that one would scare me that well again.

 

[SodaDew]

It wasn't scary but the original music to Violate Town on Pokemon B/R/Y was kind of eerie. But I don't remember any time a boss or enemy ever scared me..

 

[phantasmalWordsmith]

meeting the flood for the first time on Halo CE. I was 10 at the time so i think I'm fair enough

 

[coopie1]

I once played the whole of resident evil 4( I know what you're thinking) on the wii. The first time you had to shoot was unbearably scary as I had a the wii not properly set up. Which lead to an old spanish peasant with an axe slowly hacking my body to bits while I couldnt aim at him.

there are some bits in HL2 ep2 when you are in the car park holding off the infected which was truly scary because of the dark and your puny flashlight, and the fact you had no ammo after 2 mins of it.

 

[Cybele]

The scariest I have watched being played was Amnesia.
The scariest I have played was that one level in Thief: Deadly Shadows (you know which one I mean). Also being jumped by a bloodsucker in stalker gave me a hearth attack D: