Unsettling Moments in Video games.

[kilenem]

I'm playing the Dragon Quest 7 remake for 3DS and I hit the town where Animals have been turned into humans and Humans have been turned into animals. Most of the time when this happens there is some sort of communication between a talking animal. There isn't and you actually have to go and find someone who can talk to animals. Which I didn't realize so I just went to the next dungeon and found out there was nothing to help the people in the town. I was like shit, you guys are out of Luck.

Anybody have any unsettling moments or uncanny moments in gaming.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

I find the representations of cannibals in games to be pretty interesting. Just in Bioware/Bethesda games there's quite a different angle on it, and many of them allow you to either side with them, or straight up become one yourself.

For example, in Morrowind it's presented as much more creepy than in Fallout, where it's simply a manner of life and curiosity for some. Not gonna bother with spoilers here, but there's some interesting missions in Fallout: New Vegas, and Oblivion/Skyrim. Although in Oblivion I think it's worse, more of a disturbing presence type situation, whereas in Skyrim it's so much more obvious (well it's Daedric more or less).

Maybe because it was still in earlier gaming days and because of the overall tone, but the instance in Jade Empire where something is "just not right" is pretty well done, right until the reveal which kinda unsettled me, in a good way. Great game for its time.

 

[Fox12]

I really like the creepy shit in Nintendo games, especially Zelda. It's unsettling because you don't really expect it. The redeads, the torture device in the well, the boss with his hands cut off, and the wounded guy who disappears in the woods and becomes a staffos... And pretty much all of majoras mask.

Undertales a really good one too. True Lab was creepy as all get out, and the whole genocide run is disturbing. I've never felt creeped out by my own actions in a game before. It's like a horror movie, but you're the monster.

 

[Drathnoxis]

That sounds pretty horrifying. I'm imagining a group of the former animals sitting around the table, staring uncomprehendingly ahead, eating freshly slaughtered pork chops which used to uncle Harry. The family chihuahua, now little Jimmy, can only watch in horror as his friends and family are devoured week after week.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

Sort of an old-ish game but I'll spoiler-box anyway.

Spoiler: Dead Space 2

The return to the Ishimura, good lawd, that was not okay. I'm used to be one-a them types to completely immerse myself in a game (still am from time to time), the kind where you utterly believe everything that's happening, there is no controller, you're in this world too, that kind.
So the return to the Ishimura from the first Dead Space was bone-chilling as all hell. What really sold it was that the developers changed almost nothing to the layout, I think the only change was maybe a power node was somewhere else, I don't know, it's been a while but other than, like, one thing, exactly the same, even the save points were in the old spots.
There's just something really... I'm gonna say "somber", about that part of the game if you were an avid fan of the original. Becuase you didn't need the map or the pointer when you needed to go to the bridge or the engine room or whatever, you just remembered.

 

[Hawki]

Off the top of my head:

Spoiler

-Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (where you have to effective mow down civilians who are rushing towards your lines, lest they infect your forces with a virus)

-Aliens: Colonial Marines (the sequence where you're stripped of your weapons and have to sneak by blind xenomorphs)

-Dead Space (pretty much the whole game - I guess the most effective example of 'quiet horror' is seeing the infants in stasis, realizing just how many children were on the Ishimura, and how many have consequently been slaughtered by the necromorphs)

-Diablo II (where you enter the lower levels of the Temple of Light, and see bodies piled up everywhere)

-Doom 3 (the Hell section)

-Final Fantasy X (after Operation Mihen, how, if you talk to the survivors, you see just how 'broken' Spira's are on the cultural and psychological level in regards to how they perceive Sin and technology)

-The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (the whole 'twilight interlopers' scene)

-Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (the whole Sorrow sequence)

-Resident Evil ReMake (Lisa Trevor)

-StarCraft: Brood War (the intro cinematic)

-Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (Arthas killing his father...really unsettled me the first time I saw it)

-Xenoblade Chronicles (witnessing the effective destruction of the High Entia civilization, as the bulk of their population are turned into telethia)

 

[GTMippey]

I'm playing through F.E.A.R right now, and while the whole game is pretty unsettling what gets me the most is what happens to Janowski. He just vanishes from the game, and you never find out his real fate. The only clue you get is upon seeing a phantom of his presumed final moments, wandering through the dark building following a female's (Alma's) whisper and calling "is someone there?"

And that's it. You never find out what actually happens to him or what Alma actually did to him. You just see his phantom once or twice but his ultimate fate is left unknown. I find that more terrifying than Alma burning the skin off of anybody.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Playing through SMT IV: Apocalypse now, but haven't come across anything approaching its predecessor's most unsettling moments:

Spoiler: Knowledge beyond human ken

Xi Wangmu eating lots of people alive.

The Reverse Hill facility where humans have their neurotransmitters extracted to create the demon-pacifying red pills. Even children. The gasmasked guys working down there have to regularly clean the 'seedbeds' of fecal waste.

The two alternate Toykos, particularly Blasted Tokyo since you're not initially told what it is, that you didn't just jump years into the future or something. Exactly one underground shelter with living people left still besieged by even stronger demons... and then the Ancient of Days shows up and nukes that too, forcing them to move into the abandoned stronghold of their previous tormentor. It isn't long before it attacks that place as well, breaking Kiyoharu's mind while it's at it.

 

[Xerosch]

I had two very distinctive moments in 'Vampire Bloodlines'. The details are fuzzy, so please don't get too annoyed if some things are wrong.

If I remember corretly, there's a dentist whom you're supposed to investigate. While gathering information it turns out that he likes to produce sleazy videos and is looking for new 'models'. So you call him, tell him you want to participate. He asks you to visit him in his office to get to know each other. When I met him I was asked to wait while he prepares for the shooting. After he didn't return for about a minute I got curious and realized that the door to his office rooms wasn't locked. I got in and what started in a nice waiting room where you could listen to classical music became darker and filthier. At one point I passed a dirty mattress, a camera and I think some drugs, but I could still go further. In the end I found a torture dungeon where the friend of the quest giver was kept. He begged me to find the key to his cell. I turn around and am immediatly attacked by the dentist, wielding one of his victim's arms... Mind you, between entering the office and meeting the captive there are no attackers or interactions . The whole atmosphear is set only by the things you see on your way.

The other one happens way later, when you investige a building complex because the tennants suddenly disappeared (this is not the haunted hotel). This quest takes a somewhat 'Silent Hill' turn. At first all seems like a nice bungalow stellement at night. But once you enter the first house you know what's wrong. See, the current resident belongs to the Tzimice. That's a vampire clan capable of molding flesh and bone as they please. Suffice to say that the weirdly shaped stuff everywhere is not the wallpaper...

 

[kilenem]

Most of the Silent Hill series.

The death gurgle of some fatalities in MKX.

Valley of Defilement in Demon's Souls

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Either the Dead Space 2 eyeball scene, or Outlast: The Whistleblower when you first walk into the area with the deranged man trying to find a "bride" ...

Spoiler: Best to shield thine spoiler sensitive eyes...

A particular headless corpse on a presenting table you come across has human heads stitched into many areas including a visibly cut and stuffed make-shift vaginal area with legs spread wide apart. That certainly set the tone for things to come.

SOMA...pretty much all of it is consistently unsettling in its' subject matter.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

'Silent Hill' is a pretty good catch-all answer. But I particularly like those moments that catch you completely off guard for how jarringly surreal they are compared to the rest. The quiz show elevator in SH2, the storage room in SH3, the gigantic head in SH4...

 

[Blitsie]

Spoiler: Original Post

I had two very distinctive moments in 'Vampire Bloodlines'. The details are fuzzy, so please don't get too annoyed if some things are wrong.

If I remember corretly, there's a dentist whom you're supposed to investigate. While gathering information it turns out that he likes to produce sleazy videos and is looking for new 'models'. So you call him, tell him you want to participate. He asks you to visit him in his office to get to know each other. When I met him I was asked to wait while he prepares for the shooting. After he didn't return for about a minute I got curious and realized that the door to his office rooms wasn't locked. I got in and what started in a nice waiting room where you could listen to classical music became darker and filthier. At one point I passed a dirty mattress, a camera and I think some drugs, but I could still go further. In the end I found a torture dungeon where the friend of the quest giver was kept. He begged me to find the key to his cell. I turn around and am immediatly attacked by the dentist, wielding one of his victim's arms... Mind you, between entering the office and meeting the captive there are no attackers or interactions . The whole atmosphear is set only by the things you see on your way.

The other one happens way later, when you investige a building complex because the tennants suddenly disappeared (this is not the haunted hotel). This quest takes a somewhat 'Silent Hill' turn. At first all seems like a nice bungalow stellement at night. But once you enter the first house you know what's wrong. See, the current resident belongs to the Tzimice. That's a vampire clan capable of molding flesh and bone as they please. Suffice to say that the weirdly shaped stuff everywhere is not the wallpaper...

I was about to post exactly those two moments! It's crazy how that game could have you go through standard vampire gothic stuff, lulling you into this false sense of security only to throw you into some truly fucked up situation which has you shutting the game down after thinking "what the hell did I just experience?"

Welp, and can't have a Bloodlines post without this pic, as I'm definitely that person right now (I still have to finish my malkavian playthrough!):

Spoiler: You know its true!

 

[Saelune]

All the story parts of Prey 1. Really shows how fucked up an alien invasion can be. The girl phantom is still the most horrific thing Ive ever seen in a game ever.

 

[Igor-Rowan]

Does this answer your question? Skip to 1:02
The creature itself isn't that scary, but the transformation is... unsettling to say the least. I know it's kind of obvious what they're parodying, but should I remind you this games was rated E? As in Everyone... can play this, I can't wait for the Nintendo game that parodies A Clockwork Orange and gets away with it.

Oh and here's something from the newest one:

The mere mention of this joke should set up all of the alarms within the ESRB, but it's a Mario game, I think it'll pass nonetheless. And don't even get me started on "the Plunger".

 

[Xprimentyl]

I?ll second Silent Hill. I?ve not played any through completely except Homecoming, but have seen video of many of the terrors lurking throughout the town, and let me say, some bold, disturbing imagery there. Particularly for me, the boss fight in Homecoming with Scarlet. Watching the lithe demon doll reincarnation of the dead child rising from the pool of blood to bite her penitent and doting father?s head off, the industrial fan above only allowing light in intermittently and the haunting choral ambient music, the whole event was just eerie and uncomfortable.

 

[CaitSeith]

I would go with Song of Saya for a mile, but it's a visual novel so I don't know if it counts (still the most unnerving unrated trip I have ever taken). Bloodborne has lots of unnerving concepts and designs (are those bloody veins inside the tombstones!?). The ending in Spec Ops: The Line disturbed me severely. Flowey's tale in Undertale genocide run too.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

Flowey's tale in Undertale genocide run too.

On a similar note, when I was playing through the demo, I wound up killing Toriel by accident while trying to get past her without killing her. So I reloaded a save and tried again.

The game remembered, and berated me for doing so.

Games are not supposed to do that.

I get that Flowey's shtick is to basically be a dick to you the whole time, but it bothered me that the game remembered what I did in a previous save state and then berated me for trying to fix my mistakes.

It bothered me so much, I never finished the game, and have no plans to.

 

[Zombie Proof]

Silent Hill always brings the thunder creep wise but the moment that stands out to me was Lisa's realization in Silent HIll 1. I remember playing this shit at night, lights off. When that damn piano starts at 1:05, my stomach clenched and stayed that way long after the sequence ended.