Favorite Scary Moment in Gaming

[Euryptus]

Depends on whether we're talking 'shock' scares - sudden loud noises, unexpected foes etc - which any game can do, or overall atmosphere. Bioshock or Call of Cthulhu have the best disturbing atmospheres in my book. But you certainly don't have to be an A-list game to be tense and dramatic.

FTL and Dwarf Fortress certainly have their moments. FTL - low on fuel, with heavy hull damage, fires on board and not enough crew to cope with the hull breach steadily sucking all your air out into the void. One bad call and you're toast.

Dwarf Fortress - Oh no. An ettin. Will the dwarves survive its assault, what with them being ill-equipped, poorly trained and deeply resistant to doing anything to help ? Quick ! Muster the guards...oh hold on they've all gone for a beer...and to look at some statues. And to eat.

Uh oh.

 

[Lt._nefarious]

That bit in Condemned 2 where you're in the old apartment building and a mannequin with a prosthetic arm is blocking the doorway. You turn around, there's another one that's just appeared behind you so you sidestep and another lifeless mannequin! You spin round to find you are encircled by those things and then once you turn your back from the mannequin in the door frame it disappears and you continue... Does not help if you already have quite a strong phobia of those godless abominations to the point walking through a clothes store becomes an express journey into hell...

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

This pretty much sums it up:


I almost shat my pants at that part.

 

[lacktheknack]

This is going to make me feel like a total hipster...

Time Fcuk has various other "you"s talking to you from different rooms. They ask about the "old man in the room with you", tell you to "tell [my missing hands] that I love them", threaten you, or scream suddenly as they describe the room full of corpses they're in. All of these are assisted by a vague monotone robotic drone that barely enunciates the words as they speak.

Then, there's one guy who just goes "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA". In creepy single-tone robot speak.

Seeing how the game had already upset me, I was in a bad mental state and the music was really getting to me, I nearly shat myself.

Another great moment is the "White Room" in .flow.

If you haven't found all the effects, then entering the white room sets off an event where you see this:

http://dotflow.wikidot.com/local--files/white-room/whiteroom.png

And trying to enter the black doorway makes Sabitsuke upset. Then she starts bleeding from the face, smiles maniacally at the camera, and collapses in a pool of blood as the ambient rumble cranks up to eleven.

I almost fell out of my chair.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Minecraft

You have just mined a diamond near some lava.
You hear sssssssssssssssssss.
You scream no no no no fuck no no!!!!
You get launched into the lava and all of your gear burns.

 

[Mordekaien]

Being that Halloween is now two months ago and everyone forgot about horror: What is your favorite scary moment in gaming

Mine: The Agropom Tunnels in STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. The combination of a controller and bloodsucker made it a memorable and scary introduction to the STALKER mutants, for me at least.

Oh OP, you cunning ninja!
That part is the reason why I hate STALKER mutants. First time I heard that bloodsucker I said, "Fuck you!", and turned the game off. I don't mind controllers though.

Other choices include:

Amnesia- but when the monsters jump scare you it looses the feeling of dread.

Vampire the Masquerade- two fine places: 1. Sewers.... god I was scared shitless first time 2. That park with observatory

Also, I get an uneasy feeling in Morrowind's Ancestral Tombs. Dunno why.

 

[KefkaCultist]

The Dentist in Bioshock. That smoke and the bait..... brrrrgh.

Damn, exactly what I was going to say.

There's another Bioshock one though. Near the end of the section with all the statue splicers, there's a room with a large number of statues in it and a safe at the back of them all. I walked through the room to the safe expecting a jump scare and didn't get one, so opened the safe, got the loot, and turned around. And all the statues had suddenly disappeared within seconds. Needless to say, I was pretty paranoid for the next several minutes.

 

[Dethenger]

I'm trying to think outside of conventional horror games and just focus on scary moments in games in other genres.

Odalwa in Majora's Mask freaks me the fuck out. There are several contenders in this game, but he takes the cake. His movements have a haunting cadence, and he sways with hypnotic, terrifying rhythm, chanting his own name with a voice impossible to mimic, and then, suddenly, he starts shrieking, jumping violently as he fills the room with his shrill name. Fuck.

Some parts of The Darkness were just highly unsettling. There was one part where the player character, Jackie, is strapped in a chair by some rival gang leader or something (it's been a while) for interrogation. The guy says something along the lines of, "Not talking, huh? You a tough guy? Yeah, everyone is. Lots of guys think they're tough until you shove a drill into the pain center of their fucking brain."
And then he does. In first person perspective, he shoves a drill in your head. Blood and shit spews everywhere. You only survive because the Darkness kept you going. The blessing, though, becomes a curse, and at one point Jackie actually commits suicide. You spend a good portion of the game thereafter in Hell while the Darkness patches you up, determined to keep you as his puppet.

 

[grijp01]

I'd go for two levels of Condemned Criminal Origins, Bart's Department Store and Apple Orchard.
Also Dunwich building in Fallout 3 gave me the creeps.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Odalwa in Majora's Mask freaks me the fuck out. There are several contenders in this game, but he takes the cake. His movements have a haunting cadence, and he sways with hypnotic, terrifying rhythm, chanting his own name with a voice impossible to mimic, and then, suddenly, he starts shrieking, jumping violently as he fills the room with his shrill name. Fuck.

Seconded. Worst part is when he does the 'verse' that summons swarms of little flying bugs to devour you, even more disgusting than the locusts in Twilight Princess...

Hexen generally freaked me out when I was first getting into it. To wit:
1) When you first arrive in a level most of it is packed with hideous creatures, mainly the two-headed Ettins but there's also freshly-bleeding undead corpses with their lower halves missing and the dark bishops with their creepy chanting.
2) There are a lot of different shrieking noises the beasties make when they're wandering around the level trying to find you which get louder the closer you are.
3) They randomly respawn on any difficulty (thankfully one at a time unless you're on the top 2 difficulty levels).
4) Many times when you hit switches that may or may not be required to progress, a huge swarm of monsters spawn either directly into the room with the switch or in the main lobby. Then they will start looking for you, making their angry noises.
5) Two levels have hidden spikes that pop up and down out of the ground randomly, causing instant death if you are hit. Thus it feels like you can die at any time without warning.

 

[Norrdicus]

Silent Hill 4

The moment you see what causes the loud breathing sound in the hospital level

Also, the entire level after Woodsie Lord reveals himself in Thief: The Dark Project. Such a constant "What IS this shit??? Oh god, I need to get the fuck out ASAP!"

 

[aguspal]

I never really got *SCARED* by a game and trust me, I am begin serious about it. I would actually like a TRUE horror game but all they do is maybe startle me a little and thats different. Most of the so suppused scary games are actually pretty hilarious (The best example: Bioschok series. I laughed so hard with the crazy people in that one game, LOL)



Strangely enough, the closest to a scary moment I have had with a game is Minecraft of all the things. And no, its not the overrated creeper that does it, but rather that ONE arrow the skeleton shoots, that LOUD sound when you are minding your own bbunnisese in the dark cave. Fuck you silent hill/Resident evil, this game did better than you for some odd reason. (too bad Minecraft in itself is pretty lacking on the long run, but thats a whole ohter history...)

 

[IrenIvy]

Thief 3: Deadly Shadows, Shalebridge Cradle. The level is just extremely creepy up to the point where appearance of lights is more scary than the absence.

Amnesia, first 10 minutes of it, I don't remember what it was but I couldn't continue.

Dead Space 1, that scene with the guy hitting his head at the wall and Dead Space II, Ishimura again

Bioshock, that plastic surgeon in Medical Wing. Actually relieved to fight him instead of walking around in his madness.

captcha: rack your brain. Appropriate

 

[Rose and Thorn]

Probably FEAR. I was younger when I played it and I was still in that little girls are creepy stage. Movies like the Ring and Grudge I found to be the scariest movies, so it makes sense FEAR took the shit out of me.

It was also probably my first horror game, I haven't played much horror in my life mostly because I am a chicken. I loved FEAR, I thought it was an excellent game and that ending, oh boy.

Now keep in mind, I haven't played many horror games. Games like Amnesia and penumbra would probably kill me, so I have been to afraid to play them. The last scary game I have played, well I am still playing, is Dead Space, I am really loving it, but it is a bit scary. I don't like jump scares.

 

[Nouw]

xeno-snip

I'm hoping the upcoming Aliens:Colonial Marines has its fair share of scary moments. AVP2 had a fantastic marine campaign, one that really nailed the horror-aspect of being a Colonial Marine. I haven't tried AVP1 though, would be it worth it or should I keep an eye out instead for the Crysis mod?

 

[Gatx]

Me and my friends were taking turns playing Amnesia, and on my friend's turn the monster started chasing him. He ran into a room because I had previously kept saying that the monster wouldn't spawn inside rooms and we were all shouting at him to do so. He shuts the door, turns around, and BAM, monster right there. Didn't even bother trying to run.

 

[triggrhappy94]

Condemmed. The department store. 'Nuff said.

(I actually haven't played past that level, I just haven't had time.)

 

[StylinBones]

For an older example, one time I visited a nice little village called Ravenholm.

Ravenholm is on my top 5.

I love the part in Bioshock when the female splicer is over the baby stroller. Dead Space has a few nice moments, too. The whole "elevator doors kill enemy" sequence is played out, but it was executed beautifully in DS1. Other than that, I'd say a few moments from Resident Evil 2 and Silent Hill 2 round out my top 5.

 

[The Rookie Gamer]

In Dead Space 2,

Spoiler

revisiting the USG Ishamura

Oh. My. God. I feel like I'm going to crawl out of my skin. And the white sheets covering the blood, and the lighting illuminating all the symbols written in blood. Even on the second time though, or with a friend next to me, I need to have steel resolve for that.

Edit: I forgot, a runner up is Halo: Combat Evolved's reveal of the Flood. I still feel uncomfortable when the infection forms break through the doors.