Fear in video games.

[Pieshels]

As a level designer for half-life modification counter-strike maps/levels (to be more precise - KreedZ climing mod), I have stumbled upon this question many times:

What do you fear the most in video games?

Is it the darkness? The monsters? A Hollywood-style quick-show-up screamer? The unknown that lies ahead? Ambience?

There are many things to mention, but what is that makes you scream and fear in a particular game (with examples if you can)?

For example, I fear from excruciating enemy/level encounters which are mentioned by clues and ambience.

Discuss.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I fear anything that I would be afraid of in real life.

For example... Giant Radscorpions freak me out really bad as they have so many limbs and big claws. The feeling of one of them running up in my face with their legs clicking everywhere in my headphones... ugh. Same with Mirelurk Hunters.

Then there's a game like Silent Hill 2, whose imagery and creature design exploits our fears of claustrophobia, rape, suffocation, our darkest sexual desires and the most violent and bestial parts of ourselves that are uncomfortable to consider or think about.

 

[Sn1P3r M98]

I fear water. Being in deep, dark water with nothing but the blue void all around me scares the living hell out of me, in real life, and in games.

EDIT: Also, any insect or bug. Damn those creepy insect bastards to hell.

 

[AtmaPhil]

Only game that felt actualy scary to me was thief : deadly shadow one of the last stages called The Craddle.
Its not about the monsters jumping at you its all about anticipation (there's no enemy in the stage for the first 20minutes just sounds). You're a thief not a big warrior and zombies don't die to well, they tend to get back up.
So I guess what made it scary was :
How built up the stage was (guards and loading screen mentioned it).
Anticipation/atmosphere building.
All those little documents you found along the way detailing how sick the place was.
Feeling of being kind of hopeless against the enemy.
Powerfull zombies with headwears that made the light flicker and that unlike normal zombies didn't vaporize when killed so you had no way of telling if it was realy dead or just sleeping.
The fact that you had to explore the whole place to.

 

[BreakfastMan]

I have yet to find anything anything that I "fear" in video games. Things I find creepy? Yes. Things I find unnerving? Yes. But never anything I would consider that I am afraid of. I am not an easily scared person, nor am I a particularly fearful person.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Amnesia: Dark Descent

/thread

No other game has actually stopped me playing it, because my heart was racing that fast.

Scuttling beasties are a bit of a cop-out thanks to Alien, as are screamers. AD just terrifies you with yourself.

 

[BlastedTheWorm]

Never have I felt such fear.

 

[Kryzantine]

This is easy. Waste Water Treatment Plants. One of the only environments that sparks dread just by its location, mostly because it's naturally dark, grimy and unusual.

 

[blouk]

the only times im ever scared in video games is if im woefully unprepared for the situation. playing a horror game with no weapons...i really love/hate ammo constrictions

also the dogs in the maze in RE4

 

[mireko]

Something that makes me feel really uncomfortable in a lot of games is the inevitable "HEY, LET'S GO INSIDE A MONSTER"-level. I don't know if it's the fleshy walls, the squelching when you walk, the ambient noise (like rumbling and heartbeats), the fluids, the claustrophobia or the.. bits, but it really gets to me.

 

[GodofCider]

Fairly obvious, but it's suspense. Continuous contact with monsters in a dimly lit scenario is certainly exciting, scary even, when ammo begins to run low, as does your health accordingly. However to get that true terror, requires nothing more than for there to be implied monsters. Then the imagination begins to run wild.

If you're having trouble following, then think about it like this:

You're sitting around a campfire, and telling 'scary' stories.

Do you fill the entire story with constant trauma and fear for the characters involved, or pull it out as long as possible, the characters involved becoming continuously more terrified, before the finale hits and the revelation of what has truly occurred comes to pass.

Implied monsters are often more terrifying than the monsters themselves.

 

[Lilani]

Fear of the unknown really gets to me. Feeling like I'm walking into a trap but having know idea what to do about it. THAT is scary.

 

[x0ny]

Never have I felt such fear.

Dude, I used to get goosebumps badly in the Laybrinth Zone stages. What's worse they brought back more water areas in Scrap Brain zone, but it was purple.

 

[Gardenclaw]

Watching my oxygen meter running out when i'm in water in a game, not sure if its fear or more blind panic....

 

[Mr Pantomime]

Bioshock scares the crap out of me because of the dialogue. Everyone is so twisted and insane. If the werent talking and screaming id be fine

Dead Space, however, doesnt scare me at all. Its fun, not scary