The last time you were truly scared and/or disturbed in a game?

[moretimethansense]

simple enough question really.

Please remember to make a distinction between being scared and being disturbed

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/scared
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/disturbed

For me the last time I was disturbed in a game was about a week ago I was playing an eroge called Saya no Uta (minor spoilers ahead if you care) in which you are a car crash victim who has underwent experimental but life saving surgery on his brain the drawbacks of which are his perception of reality is royally fucked.
Basically the entire world (to him) looks, smells, feels, and Even tastes as though it was covered in living pulsating organs and people look, smell, feel and sound like something straight outta Lovecraft.
Now that didn't bother me hell I could probably adjust to that myself after a month or two
but he meets a girl in hospital who still appears human but is surprised he's not scared of her like the other patients (the genre savvy among you can probably see where this is going)
at any rate he falls in love with her and she moves in
later after he alienates his former friends by insulting one of them viciously his best friends girlfriend goes to his house to give him a piece of his mind
he isn't home
his girlfriend is
and she is what everyone else appears to be, she kills her and begins to eat
then he comes home and is surprised to see the first palatable thing he has eaten in weeks spread all over the floor

now this loses a lot of it's impact out of context but the entire scene is incredibly creepy from the way he notes how the blood and flesh of his former friend smell and taste like sweet fruit, to his girlfriend casually mentions normally catching them by the park but they are not usually that big disturbed me to no end.


And the last time I was truly scared was tonight/this morning actually I just got Eternal Darkness sanity's requiem for Christmas At first I thought people were exaggerating about this one but fuck me!
to begin with I wasn't impressed
I'd done the centurion bit at the start no prob
I'd done the bit just after with the dancer no biggie
I was doing the bit with the messenger and I sank through the floor, now that surprised me a first I thought I'd encountered some horrible glitch when I noticed I was still sinking and realised it was not I try to struggle my way out of the room and before I know it I'm fully submerged I was expecting a game over screen and suddenly I was in the previous room and my character was freaking out
... You have my attention
I finish that bit and start exploring the mansion for more pages and I start to hear knocking
so I go to the front door but apparently there's no-one there but the knocking won't stop
and I notice the heavy breathing inter-sliced with the knocking
...a little unnerved now
as I'm looking around I could swear that the knocking was getting louder
and I notice the walls are bleeding not much but they are or at least I think they are when I stop to look it stops.
I keep looking around and I start hearing footsteps, or are they mine? I'm not sure but I could swear the knockings getting louder
I pass down a hallway and a bust of what I think is Freud is watching me and it's not Even being subtle about it Arrgh that bloody knocking!
I go into a bathroom and figure I'll have a nose around(is that my characters heartbeat or my own?) I notice B to examine bath so I comply A scare chord and a half second view of a dead woman in a bath of blood later my heart is beating my pants are soiled and the knocking is getting louder I'm bloody sure of it!
So I run all the way back to the hidden office chased by heavy breathing, the watchful eyes of Freud and that infernal knocking I save and turn of determined that next time I'll leave the lights on.
I haven't been so tense in a game nor had the tension break so violently since The sonic the hedgehog drowning music.

So how about the rest of you?
When was the last time you were truly scared and/or disturbed by a game if ever?
Which game?
What happened?
WHY WON'T THE KNOCKING STOP!?
Was it scary/disturbing because it was well told? well scripted? Deeply Immerse? or was it a reason that was more personal to you?

Please do tell
Now if you'll excuse me I think I can hear someone knocking.

 

[Omikron009]

Never. Games have stressed me out before, but never scared or disturbed me. Maybe ravenholm a bit.

 

[Julianking93]

Silent Hill 2 and Dead Space are the only games that have truly terrified me.

I couldn't play them without someone else in the room with me.

 

[DRTJR]

Chrono trigger 1995, the Day of Lavos creeped me out(i was six)

 

[Cherry Cola]

Dead Space is creeping me out as we speak.

STOP CHASING ME DAMMIT, I'M TOO SKINNY FOR YOU ANYWAY!

 

[the_bearpelt]

Oh my god, Bioshock! D8
I dunno if that'll make me sound like a pansy, but that game made me scream like a little girl. It's all the goddamn anticipation, noises, dark movements, and creepy-ass happy music with blood stains all over the place. O____O

 

[TheNumber1Zero]

Silent Hill 2

Quick question, which of the silent hill games had to have a disclaimer because it put some people in a mental ward?

I'd have to say Fallout 3.
When you're playing as a character focused on item retrievel with low battle ability, almost broken weapons and only a few stimpacks handy the last thing you want to see is a Mirelurk hunter, least of all a King accompanied by 3 Hunters. Those moments made me freak out and avoid at all costs.

 

[the_bearpelt]

Oh and Okami.
Mrs. Cutter chasing me around and the freaking dragon in the water chasing you totally freaked me out.
My sister stared at me wondering what was wrong with me while I sat there screeching, "OH MY GOD IT'S CHASING ME OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!!!" (But she was afraid to fit a monster shaped like tulip bulb with legs, so who is she to talk? >_<) The first time it happened, I threw the controller in the air and it almost hit the TV.

 

[Julianking93]

Silent Hill 2

Quick question, which of the silent hill games had to have a disclaimer because it put some people in a mental ward?

I didn't know any of them did.

 

[SantoUno]

Silent Hill 4, back when it barely came out. I stopped playing it for a while because it was too scary, difficult, and disturbing for me. Even when I finally beat it I was still disturbed.

 

[blue heartless]

I played Barbie: Horse Adventures.

No lulz were had.

 

[Yumi_and_Erea]

Silent Hill 2 was the only game that consistently frightened me, although there was one moment in Resident Evil 4 that I admit was scary:

You've just saved yourself from a 10-story death-drop and you're working your way back to the surface. As you leave the first area, the camera suddenly switches to first-person perspective. But it's not YOUR fist-person perspective.

This thing, whatever it is, also falls down the shaft and also comes out fine. Then it starts to climb up again, by the exact same path you chose. The sequence ends with it bursting through the very door you just walked through.

So there you are: in a tunnel, enclosed by concrete on all sides, with no-one around for miles, except for the very thing you're running away.

To me, that was the only time RE4 felt like actual survival-horror rather than a zombie-shooter.

 

[NeutralDrow]

For me the last time I was disturbed in a game was about a week ago I was playing an eroge called Saya no Uta

Oh god all you had to say was that. You don't mind if I didn't finish reading your post, do you?

Anyway, on topic...last time I felt genuinely disturbed in a game was while playing <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.148564>Little My Maid (as I kind of rant about in that review). The last time I felt scared...depends on what you mean by "scared." I kinda had stirrings of that during Devil May Cry and Kanon, but that was probably more creeped-out nervousness and incipient grief, respectively. But really...

I remember playing through Aeka's route in <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.135672>Yume Miru Kusuri, and during almost the last half of the route, I felt a sort of omnipresent dread. I didn't know what was going to happen, all I knew was that the girl I was in love with was a target of some very horrific abuse, and I never rested easy until I could see her at school, and make sure she was safe at the end of the day. The time Kouhei is attacked and put out of commission for a couple of days, that feeling reached a fever pitch...which made the resulting scene (with Aeka <color=white>almost committing suicide) that much more powerful.

Also, during the climax of that route, I did feel genuine fear...combined and complimenting my feelings of sheer helplessness and throat-ripping rage.

Off-Topic: perhaps you'd be interested in joining the <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Visual-Novels>Visual Novels usergroup? Most of the stuff we discuss (if anything) is far more tame than Saya no Uta *shudder* but we welcome anyone with interest in eroge. Just thought I'd throw it out there.

 

[Marble Dragon]

In Ravenholm, I was both scared and disturbed. Scared because there were zombies all over the place, milling around, groaning, clawing at me, running really fast, and generally being really fucking scary. Disturbed because I am a very imaginative person, and when I see even the slightest little suggestion of a terrible battle or other scary thing, I start thinking about what happened there.

Needless to say, it took me a long time to get through Half Life 2.

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

Bought S.T.A.L.K.E.R. a couple of days ago. It's pretty chilling, but I literally screamed "OHGODWHATISTHAT" when I got attacked by a bloodsucker for the first time.

 

[Kollega]

Ravenholm in HL2, Dead Space (i was merely watching, but still), and Bioshock (a little). Hoooo-leeee-shit.

 

[lacktheknack]

I'll say it again, the abortion/baby eating/birth/demonic jump scare sequence from Silent Hill 3.

That was just... eurgh.

 

[lacktheknack]

Silent Hill 2

Quick question, which of the silent hill games had to have a disclaimer because it put some people in a mental ward?

None, although SH3 had a disclaimer that "some content may be seen as disturbingly violent or cruel".

Well, THAT was mildly understated.

 

[moretimethansense]

For me the last time I was disturbed in a game was about a week ago I was playing an eroge called Saya no Uta

Oh god all you had to say was that. You don't mind if I didn't finish reading your post, do you?
.

Not atall

Off-Topic: perhaps you'd be interested in joining the <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Visual-Novels>Visual Novels usergroup? Most of the stuff we discuss (if anything) is far more tame than Saya no Uta *shudder* but we welcome anyone with interest in eroge. Just thought I'd throw it out there.

Done