Unsettling Moments in Video games.

[The Madman]

Anyone remember SWAT 4?

That game was not only brilliant, but had some incredibly disturbing missions. The two that immediately come to mind being the serial killers house and the death cult building. That shit might've been a little toooo real for my tastes; Finding the serial killers rape dungeon or the little childrens graves dug into the cultists basement were unsettling to say the least.

Otherwise gotta agree with those who've mentioned Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. One of the few games out there where I'd say it very much deserved that M rating and where I'm legitimately confused how it didn't get the dreaded AO rating. I mean one of the missions has you trying to find the source for an underground pornographic snuff tape, tracking its roots back through scummy porn shop backrooms, grimey studios, to the 'meat house' itself.

That game could get really messed up when it wanted to be and had more than a few moments that left me feeling off.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

The Giygas fight from Earthbound.

Sometimes, it still gives me nightmares. Guess playing that part at 2:30am wasn't the best idea, but I really wanted to finish that game.

 

[Aeshi]

The "Axe Ending" from 999/Zero Escape has more or less engraved itself into the "Fear" part of my brain.

 

[stroopwafel]

I think I've been unsettled in a game only once and that is in that stripclub level in Hitman Absolution. You sneak backstage and overhear some of the girls talking about how some girls go away and don't return and that they are afraid of going to 'Hawaii'. Then you sneak around some more upstairs and find out what this 'Hawaii' really is and I was like..ehhmmm this is pretty unsettling. The entire scene was however a damn effective piece of environmental storytelling.

This is really the only example I can think of. Other games(even titles like the original Silent Hill games) are too far in the realm of fiction to be properly unsettling I think.