You Don't Scare Me

[Bloodeye]

Nice article. Survival comedy had me laughing.

As far as scary games go there's the obvious ones like Eternal Darkness, Silent Hill 2 and the Resident Evil remake. But one less obvious moment that has always stuck with me was while playing Doom 64 a few years back. I still remember this one level where the backround noise sounded like babies crying, which I found bizarely unnerving. I mean it was still the exact same kill-everything-that-moves game it was before but that one added detail made it.... eerie.
Probably the best example I can think of where the games sound has changed my perception of the game itself.

 

[Blow_Pop]

Silent Hill 2, The mannequin you get your flashlight off of and seeing Pyramid Head for the first time. Of course I also had two sick twisted sadistic boys in the room and I was immersed enough in the game that they managed to help the game scare the shit out of me. Coincidentally, have not played it since, nor have I had time....damn you work.....

 

[Kuchinawa212]

I ain't afraid of no ghost....
*que theme song*

 

[Inco]

Condemned 2.
Not because it was the normal 'atmospheric-kinda-scare'. In fact, the level was quite the opposite, a warm cottage in the middle of a snowy mountain range. BUT

Spoiler: Heres the BUT

Going through the cottage you find a room full of mutilated bodies of people. As you move into the main room, through the wall on the far side of the room comes a massive,mutated bear-thing. The mission object changes from a normal 'investigate the cottage' to 'RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!' It is this point in the game that i have felt the most fear i have felt in a game, with my body shaking after finally beating the bit. There are points where you have to do things on the run to slow the creature down, many of which actually happened unintentionally. There is a point though, where you have to stand in this little gap at the dead end of a corridor and the creature will come within a single metre of your guy.. that part hard my heart pound loudly as i watched..

 

[Daruth_Winterwood]

The original AvP games had some really pulse pounding moments when you play as the marine. Playing as the Predator or Alien just make it a hilarious murderfest. But for the marine your constantly alone and being hunted and those bloody facehuggers with there clickity clacking sounds they make when they're around make me fire explosive rounds at my feet!

Totally agree with you about modding Fallout3 the game actually becomes a post apocalyptic survival game had a whale of a time struggling not to die and the weapons actually do damage and the armor actually protects you!

The reason I find Silent Hill terrifying comes from the idea of being forever trapped in the endless nighmare. Even worse if it is all in your head but there' no way to shake it off. It means your forever trapped seeing nightmarish visions and always running and its so dark and claustrophobic. It was such a marvelous game series.

 

[Scrythe]

I have a few

1) I was one of the people who bought and played Metal Gear Solid 2 on launch day. After playing all day and night, I was at the point where I could barely keep my eyes open and Campbell tells me "You've been playing the game for a long time. Maybe you should shut of the game and walk away." I just about ran out of the room.

2)

Spoiler: This level on Haze.

3) The haunted hotel mission on Vampire: The Masqurade. That level was all kinds of fucked up.

4) Rule of Rose.

 

[Florion]

4) Rule of Rose.

YES.

Not dying is scary! Now that you mention it, Rule of Rose was the scariest game I ever played, and it wasn't particularly hard. I mean, because of the controls, it wasn't Bioshock easy, but it was still not difficult to complete - and yet, there were some magnificent moments. I couldn't play it unless I either had my sister in the room or the lights on. Oh my god.

 

[samsonguy920]

One moment comes to mind, when playing the original Thief and going through the Hammerite Prison to rescue an acquaintance who had information. The patrols were tight, very little room to slip by, and so I huddled in a corner for a time. One hammerite comes around, doing his patrol, and all I can say to myself is, "Move along, nothing to see, move along..." And then he suddenly detects me and as soon as he made his first step for me, without even thinking I had hit the escape key which took me to the main menu. Wasn't so much that the hammerite scared me, but as it was dark there, and up to then my nightmares had consisted of things leaping at me, it just became too real.
And as cheesy as Doom 3's method is, it has its moments of making my heart beat faster, being more nervous around every turn.

 

[Orange_Clockwork]

Dog plus window. Enough said.

"smile.jpg"?

I'd have to think back a bit, I've been really null on the whole survival horror to horror genres for the simple problem that I cannot buy any new ones. I'll pick a few out though...

Fatal Frame 1 & 2. Those games serve to give me chills just buy reciting the chilling names. Beating Fatal Frame 1 was the biggest sigh of relief I've ever had from an all-night scare fest, so when I heard Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly was out, I was hesitant to try it. Buying Fatal Frame 2, though it was a long time after 1, I immediately set in on my PS2, and spun it, enjoying the Japanese school girls and the backtracking storyline, until the intro ended. The feeling I got was a very nice and moody atmosphere, but it did have the tendency to interrupt my experience with damned cutscenes. I say cutscenes kill horror, scripted and designed events while the player is still in control is a lot better, it's as easy as "player 'x' is pointed in direction 'y,' trigger script, player 'x' may not react until script is finished." We're to assume that the person is frozen in fear, essentially, you are frozen in fear, if you're immersed well enough.

Enough of that, I also remember distinctly a very under-rated game. In this game you weren't the tough, chainsaw-wielding bi-curious man (pun) who could kill just about every one with a trained shot, you are as defenseless little girl, so the game contours your imagination to the view point of the girl. Personally, that was my biggest scare. It put the fear of death into frame because you were a defenseless little girl, who's only friend in that world was a dog and everything was going to hurt you. I want a game that makes you feel defenseless in all ways, but only serves to shock, instead of kill. Don't remember what it was called unfortunately.


Edit: RULE OF ROSE, HOLY CRAP, THAT WAS THE GAME.

 

[WhiteRat07]

after fiding a copy of "D" in a bargin bin i took it home and while it claimed to be a horror game i was unimpressed until i walked by a mirror the music had been low and barely noticable then a hand reaches out of the mirror and tries to grab at your throat this game summed up what you were saying about dying taking you out of the mood it had a time limit letting it expire made you fail but you really couldn't die you just had to walk around solving puzzles and getting the crap scared out of you

 

[Redfefnir]

I have to say. The entire first playthrough with Metal Gear Solid on the playstation. Watching my brothers play it, playing it myself. It was a very... Unnerving experience. Then, youknow, the introduction to the ninja scene. Then walking through said Gorey bodies, and through the door.

Thief 1. When Zombies were introduced, I was like, 13 at the time or something, and I was watching my brother play. I was pretty much scared for months. And months. Of the lights on. Sad, really.

But the first time that -I- had this scary moment, where I knew fear, and it unnerved me, and I could not just look away, or stop playing. Was Halo. On the PC. It had to have been, 2 in the morning, dark, and where my computer is, the front door and porch, with windows all around, is behind me, the garage door is a few steps away from me, and a corner going into the kitchen is in the other direction. The bathroom door is almost behind me, opposite of the entrance.

So I was playing Halo for the first time. I was enjoying it, alot. Guilty 343 started playing, swampy, dark, quiet. I got into the ancient structure. Dark, quiet. And quickly becoming foreboding. As there was nothing to shoot, I started observing my surroundings. I eventually got to the cutscene. THAT cutscene. I watched it, and then I saw the flood for the first time, honestly, the first time. There were absolutely no hints to even the existence of the flood. That shook me, that shook me hard. The cutscene ended and I had my pistol out, the smaller parasite floods stormed the room, even though they were defeated I was shaky. Careful twicefold around every corner.

See, funny thing about myself. I played doom when I was 4 years old. There is an ever present fear of the dark that I just can't explain. Really.

So, slowly, I made my way back, fighting this new enemy. Then hastly, rushing to get the level done. I made it to the elevator shaft that I rode down on. I hit the button. And I raised my hands behind my head, streching. I had headphones on, which was my main source of sound.

I heard a loud shrill, and the elevator that was going to take me out of this hell screamed down literally inches from my characters face in a ball of flames.

I stood there for probably a literal 5 minutes. Thats how shaken I was, to have all my comforts pulled out from under me. It got me, it got me bad.

Later I had to do the Library, which honestly, was not a pleasent experiance, but not because of the flood, but because I kept fuggin dying, which helped a LOT to keep my cool, because it turned it into this slow brooding anger, instead of fear. Which I needed.


Of course, there is still the undeniable fact that too this day I cannot play Doom 3 alone. At all. Ever. I can beat it on Co-op no problem, I play Skulltag, the multiplayer Doom 2, alot. But never alone. I just can't, I have to turn it off. I can't even beat the first level.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Survival Horror is one of my most loved genres.(Given most of my avatars)

Top for me still has to be Alien vs Predator: The skittering facehuggers emboy several different kinds of nightmare in one.

An interesting notion is whether you consider L4D to be Survival Horror in certain places. The finales and areas like the Upper floors of the Hospital blend away the idea of hitpoints into a mad dash for survival. No-one playing through on Expert doesn't lose a little chunk of self when they fail to make it through a level.

Oh, and to show how well Survival Horror can be done: The Haunted Motel on Vampire: Bloodlines: You're almost invulnerable, maybe one thing in the entire level can hurt you...And you'll be terrified, even if you've played it before.

Also, The Pit Creature from the original Half Life. Tink, Tink, Tink...

 

[Fire Daemon]

Of course though, an easy game can completely remove fear as well. When a player knows that a boss can be defeated through the repetition of an easy pattern, a hard part can be finished by staying in the corner or each enemy doesn't take that much damage (as well as many more aspects of easy games) they don't respond in the same way to a difficult horror game. It's possible for an easy game to have horrific moments in it. For example in FEAR your average enemy is pretty easy to beat and when they do get difficult, they do not get more scary. When Elma turns up some scary stuff does happen, the ladder part is great in the first game, but these are far and few between and most of the scary parts fail to scare later on because you tend to notice a pattern expect them. You kill some guys, Elma turns up and yells Boo, trippy things happen, you fight more people, rinse and repeat. The game mixes this up a little but not enough to warrant actually fear, just a 'well that was different'. In FEAR you know what to do, you know what's going on.

The most powerful fear that can be created is a fear of the unknown and a fear of death/suffering. Take JAWS for example. In this movie you don't see the shark for the first 3/4 of the film (fear of the unknown) yet you see it kill plenty of people (fear of death). When we are not in control and have a serious risk of death, we get scared. The reason that people find the SAW movies so scary is because they can see themselves having all control removed from their lives and being minutes away from death at the hands of a psychopath. People can see that happening to folks like themselves and are terrified at the thought that control can be taken from their lives and that they can be killed by the unknown. Getting this feeling is what makes a good horror movie. Another example is the original Wicker Man. If you've seen this movie you would know how the unknown, a lack of control and death can make a movie scary.

I think that for everyone there are plenty of scary moments in games in which the player doesn't know what to do, dies plenty of times and is completely and utterly confused as to what they can do. The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time was the first Zelda game I played and so I wasn't aware of hitting the weak spot for massive damage and because I was only around nine or ten I wasn't exactly sure of the controls. I wasn't a good aim and I hadn't nailed Z-Targating. The entire first level, The Deku Tree, had enemies that didn't require much skill to kill, just spiders on the wall that you can take your time with or Deku shrubs that you kill by sitting down with your shield. So leading up to Queen Gohma I pretty much sucked at the game and I had no way to kill her. Suffice to say this was the most fucking scary boss I have ever fought. Not only did the atmosphere of the cavern freak me out, but I just couldn't kill her. I assumed the eye was linked, I had my slingshot, but I couldn't get a shot off in time. I didn't know how to use the Z-targeting so I never got Navi's hints of the auto aim. And so I failed to do any damage to her and then to reward my incompetence these fucking egg things come from the roof, little spiders jump out and then kill me. The second and third attempts to kill were just as scary (if not more) as the first because I knew, walking into that cavern, I wont walk out. The fear of the unknown was still there, I didn't know what to do, I didn't know how to win, all that I knew was that I was going to die. That was a fucking scary boss. I didn't find it frustrating, I found it as freaky as hell. This fear was completely removed the next day when after talking to a friend he described how to use Z-Targating and kill her and I dominated that spider *****. She wasn't scary because I was in control and all the atmosphere in the world couldn't change that. From then on I've never found a boss scary in the same way. While some are still cryptic, the way to defeat them is never so hidden that you can't beat them. An example of this would be Phantom Gannondorf who was a little like Gohma in that I wasn't sure how to win, but before I died I figured out what was going on and was able to win. Part of the reason I think is Navi, who explains too much. Makes it winnable for everyone, but in some places too easy.

Another example of a player facing and inevitable death because of a lack of control/understanding and fear being caused as a result is that damn acid maze in the first level of Quake. As a kid that part always freaked me out because when I jumped in I knew that I would lose my way and die as a result. I made it a few times but I died mostly and that was always scary for me.

To be a good horror game the player needs moments in which they have no control and may die as a result. This doesn't have to be difficult, in fact the possibility of death may only be alluded to and never followed through or at least difficult to achieve. Once the player may start to recognize a pattern, mix things up and take the control away from them. This causes fear. Not the quick and easily repetitive 'Boo I'm a monster' fear that many games go for, but a slower and more thought out fear that you certainly feel on the inside but wont be seen by people watching you play. These parts aren't necessarily difficult or and don't have to be frustrating, but they are certainly scary. Combine these with some freaky imagery and some 'Boo' scares and you've got a good horror game.

 

[Mad Maniac with axe-firing chainsaw]

What about adding a sanity meter of sorts? Dying is one thing, but having your character slowly go mad from one explosion of gore or heaping helping of pain too many, or rather, the constant threat of it, certainly helps with the whole "horror" aspect of the game, and makes your protagonist less of a walking death machine and more of a human being. Cue bad ending and some really creepy mind-screwing if your character should go insane. No madness-inspired suicides though. One major drama point of horror is there is no escape from the horror. Suicides are more depressing than terrifying. (Unless done in a particularly gruesome and disturbing manner worthy of an immediate R rating. Self-disembowellment anyone? Talk about a non-standard game over.)

The constant fear of death is certainly an important part of horror. One of the scariest experiences I've ever found in a game is ironically a form of self-imposed difficulty. The no-deaths run-through. There's a certain dread in that. Now I am not advocating sending the player back to the start of the game if they die, but it certainly increases the tension if you know that if you die, that is it, your character really is dead.

What hasn't been explored is the possibility of permanently dead main characters. What if, when one of your main characters died, they stayed dead and the story adapted around them? Adds to the fear level when your erstwhile allies really are going to die if you let them(assuming you care and assuming they aren't all incredibly stupid.) Of course, most horror protagonists are solo for a very good reason.

 

[Simply Simon]

The scariest moment I've been through in a game was in the first underground lab in STALKER.
After I had gathered all the ammo in a room I had fought some bandits in I had to go around a bunch of anomalies in order to get an item or another. In order to do this I had to go through a mostly empty room.
That room scared the crap out of me.

In this game, if you run everywhere, you are going to die quickly and a lot. So I decided that instead of going into a certain ambush by going the straight way forward, I'd go on the slightly elevated and lit platform at the right side of the room. This had the disadvantage of not letting me get a clear sight of the rest of the room because of some sorts of tanks (not the military vehicle) being placed beside it.
As I slowly crawled along the wall the game starts throwing all kinds of noises at me. Metal creaking, distant sounds, some anomaly going off somewhere and such. This all makes me increasingly paranoid till the point where I'm moving half a metre at a time and looking suspiciously at all the shadows.
"Oh god, what was that sound? Just metal creaking, probably. Did I hear movement? I must have! Did that shadow just move?!" and such.
Then suddenly something screams, at least it sounded like it, and I shut off the game and didn't dare continue until a few weeks later.

That room was also empty at that point.

 

[Slider2k]

When i was a kid the game that scared me most was DOOM II. Visuals, sounds, and the feeling that you are all alone against an army of monsters was too heavy. The game had it's atmosphere on me. Reaching a level exit was such a relief. I never played past first few levels, the game was too stressful for me.

Silent Hill games, at least first ones, are those that define horror gaming genre for me. Fear of the unknown is the strongest fear there is. And SH gave that fear.

 

[PlasticTree]

Maybe it's a silly thing, but the moment that spooked me most was in the first Metroid Prime, in the Space Pirate base. After a harrowing first battle with a Metroid (during I spent half of which rolling around in terror from the dang thing, since I have no Ice Beam yet), I climb down a spiral pathway lined with cages which contain more of the buggers. I just know they're gonna bust out and eat me any second, but I make it to the bottom unharassed. So I grab the key item at the bottom and...

The power goes out. No or very low lights. No barriers around the Metroid cages. And I have leave the way I came. >.<

^That. I recently replayed Prime thanks to the Trilogyversion, and I loved it, but the moment I was standing before the Thermal Visor..I just didn't want to pick it up.

 

[Irridium]

ET on the Atari. Good god that was scary.

Also one time in FEAR, I was fighting 3 guys, and when the fight was over, there were only 2 bodies. I looked around but couldn't find them, so later on after a particular jumpy Alma encounter, he came out of nowhere right behind me right when I turned around.

He must have followed me, waiting, plotting...

Damn that was scary.

 

[irrelevantnugget]

Enough of that, I also remember distinctly a very under-rated game. In this game you weren't the tough, chainsaw-wielding bi-curious man (pun) who could kill just about every one with a trained shot, you are as defenseless little girl, so the game contours your imagination to the view point of the girl. Personally, that was my biggest scare. It put the fear of death into frame because you were a defenseless little girl, who's only friend in that world was a dog and everything was going to hurt you. I want a game that makes you feel defenseless in all ways, but only serves to shock, instead of kill. Don't remember what it was called unfortunately.


Edit: RULE OF ROSE, HOLY CRAP, THAT WAS THE GAME.

Hmm, sure of that? I don't know anything about Rule of Rose, but the game you just described sounds more like Haunting Ground to me... the dog bit, mainly.

Anyhoo, to contribute to this thread: Unreal started out pretty scary as well. Spaceship crashed, everyone is dead or dying in front of your very eyes, you get stalled in your progression through the level by a malfunctioning door, upon which you hear a survivor being ripped in pieces. Then the door opens, and you see his torso get slapped against the wall, and a strange creature run off.
After getting out of the spaceship (you haven't encountered any opponents yet at this point), the first thing you see is a beautiful idyllic environment: a large green open field, a small house next to a small pool of water and a waterfall.
Next level, you're stuck in a mine shaft, all lights go out (slowly and one by one, with an audible clunk), and the monster (Skaarj) that ripped apart the guy in the space ship, leaps after you in the dark. The only illumination during that segment are from the energy balls the Skaarj fires at you.

Scared the shit out of me. On the other hand, I was just 10 years old back then. Good times.