Most Horrific Scene in a Game (May Contain Spoilers)

[Still Life]

Amnesia: After slowwwwwly traversing a small labyrinth containing one of the most vicious monsters yet, finding a "brass bull", at which point the flashback voices explain exactly how it works. It doesn't even show you anything, but still...

Implied imagery went a long way in that game. I actually have Amnesia as my game of the year for 2010 (beating my much loved ME2), as its story telling and horror were far beyond anything I've experienced in any game. It's a 6 hour game that took me months to finish because I just couldn't keep persisting in some of the scenarios -- it gets into your head, under your skin and stays there. Granted, horror affects everyone differently, but it certainly hit the mark for me.

It has been three months since I finished it and it still gives me chills.

 

[Raistlinhawke]

My first instinct is to mention the crack baby in "The Suffering: the Ties That Bind". One of the few times you can actually kill a child, in this case in its crib as its mother sits fifteen feet away too strung out on crack to muster anything but casual acceptance to the murder.

Granted, there are dozens of applicable moments in most survival horror games, and nearly the entire game of "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" is distributing without being overt. That, and when you first stumble into the cultists' basement in "SWAT 4" is a jarring tonal surprise.

For the end all, most horrific though...Albedo torturing MOMO in "Xenosaga"? That or the Giygas fight in "Earthbound".

Jesh, typing all this made me realize just how much I love being disturbed. It's...disturbing.

 

[cryogeist]

The call of duty 4 Nuke...Was not prepared for that...

and in a more silly route
Whenever anyone talks in men of war...worst.voice acting.EVAR

 

[The Gnome King]

What can I do with this one, Aphrodite? SHE WON'T - STAY - STILL! I want to make them beautiful, but they always turn out wrong! That one - too fat. That one - too tall. That one - too symmetrical! And now - what's this, goddess? An intruder! And he's ugly. Ugly - ugly - UGLY!!

Ooooh, good call.

About 40-50% of the path has been the most disturbing thing I've seen in games. Just hearing the music now really shits me up. However, if you want a good, pretty surreal mindfuck-by-suggestion I would absolutely play it.

Edited for clip:

I LOVE that game, and I'm exactly the same way. Just the music will freak me out now. I don't get why people always say the girls were raped, though. It's clearly a metaphor, which frankly makes it even scarier.

OK Now I had to go look up The Path on Steam... that looks interesting. I am inspired to try it out.

 

[putowtin]

One sentence:

"WHERE'S MY BOY!?" - The Boss, Saints Row 2

Spoiler: The Event

this, you've been running around covering people in poo and pimping your car with the biggest rims ever, then bang! that happened!
Tip of the Hat Volition!

 

[Sarge034]

What's the most appalling and downright disturbing scene you've ever seen in a game?

I was just watching my roommate play Homefront, and this has been the only time my jaw has dropped from something I've seen in a game. I've seen executions before in games and thought nothing of it, but when I saw Korean troops execute two civilians in front of their crying child, I was absolutely horrifed!

I understand that shock value is very important in a game with a good story, but I believe there are things that should not go into a game. Watching a virtual invasion of the United States is enough. I don't think Homefront needed to break the envelope for a dark introduction.

So, has the Escapist seen worse?

Homefront was so short it needed to make its point fast and dirty as they say.

My vote goes to Dead Space 2.

Spoiler

or
or even worse

 

[ProtoChimp]

Seeing Mojang beat every other developer who has actually released a finished product rated pretty high, also:

The cake is a lie.

and

The Amnesia: The Dark decent

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loSzpvq73FY - Funny but still pretty creepy

I'm glad they won, if only to show everyone that MM is a farce.

How is MM a farce?

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I foolishly played Fallout 3 not long after my Dad had died of cancer... yeah.

 

[dreddfan]

The nurse bleeding from her eyes in Silent Hill. I was already disturbed by the game, but that scene really upset me.

 

[ProtoChimp]

Flower. Seriously. Not a single gun or zombie, nor the opportunity to teabag someone while questioning their sexuality over chat.

I keed, obviously. Honestly the only scenes to really disturb me have already been mentioned, namely Jenny's death in The Darkness and a few moments in Heavy Rain. Thanks to the fact that I didn't read any how-to's but wanted to get all the trophies I actually had to repeat the finger cutting scene, and it isn't any easier the third time. As well as that I found myself feeling kind of queasy the longer I made Ethan crawl through the glass in the Butterfly Trial, and the final decision in the Shark Trial... gah.

shark trial? Which one was that again?

 

[Ninjat_126]

1. Dead Space 2's needle scene. I'm rather attached to my eyes, and have a phobia of needles. Fun!

2. Jenny's death in The Darkness (Which so many others have kindly spoiled.) You go from practically unstoppable to completely helpless. It would have been worse if you had more Darkness powers though.

3. Doom 3 has a stage where no monsters appear until you collect some item and activate a computer panel. Compared to the frenetic-jump-scare-filled-monster-blast-fest that everything else has been, it's really jarring.

 

[Chewster]

See, none of these do a single thing for me. There is no subtly to the horror. It's all in your face visuals and quick transformations. Horror needs to be subtle, brooding and atmospheric to be truly effective. Those are a bit shocking, but that is all.

On topic: the original Blood [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CibO_6YBX_k] had some fairly horrific elements to it. The screams that the acolytes would let out when set aflame were pretty horrific. That game always managed to get under my skin, even if it was a bit over the top sometimes.

I don't know who the hell did their sound effects, but they need to be doing more.

 

[LittleBlondeGoth]

Heavy Rain.

Spoiler

The bit where you have to chop your finger off.

That had me feeling queasy for a while.

And someone mentioned the Broodmothers in Dragon Age. That was also... unpleasant.

 

[Deadyawn]

Although I didn't find it horrifying it was probably the worst for me. And considering I have no idea how to do that whole spoiler thing (although it's unlikely that anyone who cares would have not played it by now but I like to be safe) I will just say the end of HL2: episode 2. I just really got to me. the whole game is an excellent example of immersion and storytelling and it snuck right past my defences and hit me where it hurt. I really cant explain it...

 

[Even McNobleface]

I'd say the white rabbit's death in American McGee's Alice (just because that guy was awesome) & in Dead rising when that clown guy falls on his 2 chainsaws & laughs the whole time while they're slowly slicing through him.

Oh, also that one fancy looking insane guy from that japanese game, who could regenerate his limbs & liked cutting them off for fun, & when he cuts off his head & recites poetry or something.

 

[Laser Priest]

Seeing Mojang beat every other developer who has actually released a finished product rated pretty high, also:

The cake is a lie.

and

The Amnesia: The Dark decent

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loSzpvq73FY - Funny but still pretty creepy

I'm glad they won, if only to show everyone that MM is a farce.

And yet we have the site-hosted flame wars every damn year. And if anyone other than Valve or BioWare makes it to the finals, we're going to have just as many people complaining.

OT: The finale of Red Dead Redemption.

Spoiler

You know something's wrong when the US Army invades your house. And after John finally helps his family escape, he walks out of his barn and the massive force surrounding him opens fire.

 

[FirearmsKill]

One sentence:

"WHERE'S MY BOY!?" - The Boss, Saints Row 2

Spoiler: The Event

To be honest, the whole mission was quite disturbing.

Oh man totally hit me. And it's quite hard for video games to do that to me. I think what helped get it even higher was I was playing Saints Row 2 and Gears of Row 2 at the same time and a day ago I just saw Dominic mercifully kills his wife. Had a double mercy kill. And now this reminds me of when Tai blows his brains out after being rescued. You have to think about Tai's death. He went through all that physical and mental trauma and first thing he does when freed is commits suicide.

OT: I gotta say Saints Row 2 Carlos' mercy kill is it. That and Jenny's death in The Darkness. I wasn't gonna say the part when the doctor is goring the patient in Bioshock, but if you look at the patient you'll see that they're still alive and possibly conscious during the "operation", that's pretty messed up so it's on my list now.

 

[2718]

I've never been upset, offended or disturbed by a video game. Except one. Mario Kart. Getting shelled off a cliff on the third lap while in first place.

 

[inFAMOUSCowZ]

See, none of these do a single thing for me. There is no subtly to the horror. It's all in your face visuals and quick transformations. Horror needs to be subtle, brooding and atmospheric to be truly effective. Those are a bit shocking, but that is all.

On topic: the original Blood [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CibO_6YBX_k] had some fairly horrific elements to it. The screams that the acolytes would let out when set aflame were pretty horrific. That game always managed to get under my skin, even if it was a bit over the top sometimes.

I don't know who the hell did their sound effects, but they need to be doing more.

While I agree they aren't scary, that doesn't keep some of them from being sick and twisted.