You Don't Scare Me

Da Ork

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Nov 19, 2008
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Not scared but very immersed in the game world was many years ago playing the original Diablo. Game music coming out of 4 sets of speakers. Doing our best not to die. Then the most immersion breaking thing happened. Someone got a ICQ message complete with "Oh-O" sound effect.
 

Callate

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Dec 5, 2008
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Part of what I find unsettling about the Silent Hill games- and I guess I'd have to say it's more "unsettled" than "afraid" in the "oh my gosh I'm going to die" sense- is the things you can't fight. Oh, there's those incredibly creepy zombie-things in SH2 that scuttle like stop-motion crabs, and mannequins, and nurses, and all the rest- but while you can happily stomp the bejeezus out of everything, the thing that's tormenting you is beyond your reach. Beating the bosses doesn't take away that sense; you're not so much victorious as released. There are still arguments online as to whether the "hero" of SH2 ever actually leaves the town in any of the endings.

I've said so elsewhere, but my one real "Okay, I have to stop playing" full creep-out was the aliens attacking your windshield in "Rescue On Fractalus" back when I was ten or so.
 

Mufujumon

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Nov 2, 2009
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All I can think of is Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (for those unfortunate enough to be unaware of this game, http://www.callofcthulhu.com/home.html) It contains a mechanic with which to measure the sanity of your character. As your character witnesses "unsettling" sights, your sanity is deducted from an invisible meter. The clearest result of this is that your character will begin to hallucinate, hear voices, lose motor functions, or simply put his gun to his head (assuming you make it far enough to receive a weapon. Don't count on it). It sets up an atmosphere that places you deeply in the characters mind, to the point of seeing through his traumatized eyes.
 

ErGo

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Feb 25, 2009
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Great article.

Scariest moment huh? I haven't played anything that scary lately, but from what I remember, the first F.E.A.R made me really jumpy, seriously whenever I saw a dark room or corridor (...which is pretty much everywhere on reflection), I was debating whether to go on or just stay there and wait to see if something pops out and kills me. Strangely though, the mindfuck sections didn't scare me at all. They were more cool then scary, and whats even more strange, they were relieving. Removing the dark rooms and enemies that take more than one hit to kill, it was like a break away from the constant fear for my life.
 

FROGGEman2

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Mar 14, 2009
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Silent hill is the only horror? What about Siren? Eternal Darkness? This "Call of Cthulu" thing mentioned earlier?
 

Funkyfists

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Oct 21, 2009
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Halceon said:
Penumbra, which you oh so subtly mentioned. 30 minutes in and i've still not seen even one enemy. By that time i was so scared of something suddenly becoming violent, i had to take breaks.

Also, i think survival horror can exist, but only if you apply rogue-like saving. Come to think of it, i believe gaming in general would only benefit from a broad return to permadeath and save=quit methods. And there i go tangenting off...
Hell yes. Penumbra is still the best survival horror i have ever played. Those games kept the atmosphere! You loaded and you were straight back into the horror... I wish something like it was created ;(

Anyways i'm creating a sort of survival horror FP game... This article hit the nail on the head of what i'm trying to achieve. It is going quite well :)
 

DMShade

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Dec 6, 2007
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I can't choose a single scariest moment, so I'll list a tiny handful.

My first encounter with Pyramid Head in Silent Hill 2. Also my first real experience with the series at all. "Why aren't my bullets working? He's not even FLINCHING! They're the best thing I got and he's not FLINCHING!"

Resident Evil 2's segment where you have to solve some puzzles, and dodge zombie dobermen, alone as 10 or 12 year old Sherry Birkins. I though they were SICK making a kid fend for themselves in these things, The same way I grow furious in a Crime Drama when a kid is the victim today, so I was hell bent on her safety and panicked at the slightest footstep.

Lastly, many sections of Raw Danger (A lesser known PS2 game). Raw Danger is all about escaping a flooding city, making it survival without the horror, though still frightening. Apart from the fear of being swept away to drown, you can also suffer a loss of body heat as you get soaked and hypothermia sets in. First you lose the ability to run...then the screen begins to get hazy from the outside in, slowly...eventually, you just collapse and are 'lost', likely doomed to freeze to death. Who needs the threat of bleeding to fear for their lives?
 

odBilal

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Feb 7, 2009
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Resident Evil 1 remake on the gamecube. The first time a zombie stands up, that you killed an hour ago, bricks will be shat
 

Halceon

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Jan 31, 2009
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Mufujumon said:
All I can think of is Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (for those unfortunate enough to be unaware of this game, http://www.callofcthulhu.com/home.html) It contains a mechanic with which to measure the sanity of your character. As your character witnesses "unsettling" sights, your sanity is deducted from an invisible meter. The clearest result of this is that your character will begin to hallucinate, hear voices, lose motor functions, or simply put his gun to his head (assuming you make it far enough to receive a weapon. Don't count on it). It sets up an atmosphere that places you deeply in the characters mind, to the point of seeing through his traumatized eyes.
There is one glaring problem with CoC:DCotE - they have done this great work to bring about the sense of helplessness, fear and dread. Then you get your first shotgun and get involved in a full-on military assault. Fear? What fear?.
 

TitsMcGee1804

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Dec 24, 2008
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In the dark area's of HL EP1 subway system, where you have to shine a light on the zombies to get Alyx to shoot em, then your light goes out, and you hear a wierd girl-zombie noise like, whelping, scared the shit out of me!

then you turn your light back on and Alyx goes 'GOTCHA!', and she was making the noise

I fell in love with Alyx at that moment
 

rXp

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Sep 23, 2009
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Wait... FEAR not a survival horror ? (the first one of course)
It's the ******* scariest game I ever played, dead space doesn't beat him !
Constant stress, and I pissed my pans a lot of times in the games, because of Alma. he good thing is that the game is not hard (even in hard mod) but you don't feel invincible like in FEAR 2 where they took all the pressure of because you starting to get that Alma WON'T hurt you so you just play it for the story.
 

Sphinx86

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Apr 15, 2009
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1/. Vampires The Masquerade: Bloodlines - when you have to go to the haunted house, the first part of the level in the basement and then the house before the sewers with those crazy two legged monsters, those parts really suckered me in.

2/. Painkiller - the asylum level, on the top floor when the enemies first appear and start jumping at you and all you have is flashlight veiw.
 

annoyinglizardvoice

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Apr 29, 2009
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Interesting article.
I have an issue with the slasher film comparison, becuase American slaher films aren't proper horror (sorry, but it's J-horror or nothing for me).
One big problem with a lot of horror games is the difference between a helpless situation and a helpless character. If the situation feels helpless, then it's scary. If the character is helpless, then I tend to see the character as a deadweight.
 

gains

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Jan 8, 2008
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Excellent. That is EXACTLY the experience I had yesterday. For years we've been planning to do a SH2 playthrough, like watching an extended horror film. We finally got it together yesterday. Before the main event, I loaded up SH5 to warm up and loaded a save right before the Schism enemies show up. I then died about 12 times in a row just trying to leave the goddamned police station. I threw down the controller and switched the game off in disgust, never frightened, just infuriated.

Then we loaded up SH2. When we got to the labyrinth and Pyramid Head's lair, I was yammering and begging my friend to read the strategy guide faster so I could get out of those tunnels before I ran into The Red Pyramid again.

Beautiful.

Also, Angela's story unsettled everyone in the room.

"It's hot as hell in here."

"You see it too? For me, it's always like this."
 

Brainstrain

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Oct 3, 2009
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I agree with anyone who's said Max Payne. I must've been 11 or 12, but the opening scene and the nightmare scene were overpowering scary. I couldn't play that game at night - I'd be sure to get nightmares.

Now, it's all about being DISTURBED; the abandoned baseball diamond in Fallout 3 made me reflect with sadness. It's an emergent moment (no cutscene, no attention called to it)...just a backstop in the middle of a blighted field.
 

Norman Rafferty

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Mar 18, 2009
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My scariest moment remains "Rescue on Fractalus." It was a game where you landed a spaceship in canyons and picked up pilots. What I didn't know, at the time, was that some of the distress beacons were from aliens, who would jump up on your windshield and pound on the glass until they broke through. I was so unprepared for it, and so shocked by the nightmarish image of the alien, that I was too scared to play the game again.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8opv5u9nf0
 

Truehare

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Nov 2, 2009
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Hey, guys, I'm new here, and I would like to know how to "spoilerize" my comments, so I can talk about my scariest moments. Can you help me?

EDIT: Never mind, I found it (Hey, I warned you, I'm a newbie...)