What Scares *You* In Games?

[JohnnyDelRay]

Funnily enough, when playing games that involve underwater sections, it's the fear of drowning rather than the potential monsters of the deep that scares me more. So games where you can breathe underwater don't do much, even with the freakiest of beasts.

The first game that gave me crazy jump scares was Doom 3 back in the day, until you kind of get accustomed to it and then it's more like, bring 'em to me, I'll make a mess of the next bastard who tries that.

After that, it's more anticipation of things rather than straight-out horror, for example I found the suspenseful bits of earlier Resident Evil games way more scarier than the crazy mutated bosses. And Condemned does it really well too, especially when going around with that small UV light footprint scanner thing. And opening locker doors searching for things. Or when supernatural type shit happens (those manikins were NOT standing there just a second ago!) Darkness, obscured vision and good creepy sound effects puts me over the edge, that's when it actually takes a bit of guts to proceed and I love those moments.

 

[FalloutJack]

Cubia's first appearance in .hack games.

Shadow Hippie Jesus (Persona 4).

The walls eating people in Extermination.

 

[Soundwave]

Silent Hill one made me afraid of wheelchairs. Silent hill two made me afraid of the sound a dryer makes when you're drying a pair of shoes. Last thing that really got my blood pumping was in that part in amnesia where there's an invisible monster in the water and you have to leap from box to box to avoid being murdered by it. Heights me too, as mentioned previously the bridge in half life 2 was the stuff of nightmares.

 

[Furioso]

Oh this is an easy one, the fucking Dead Hands from Ocarina of Time, forget Re-Deads, this guy was a nightmare...

Spoiler: Still gives me chills

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Sorry if this seems unoriginal, but I have to agree with the Icthyosaurs in Half-Life. I mean, the first time you see one, where it jumps out of the water with the scientist, just... DAMN.

 

[TheTJackson]

One of the games that got me and most of my close friends was the Cry of Fear mod (at least I think that's what it is called)for Half Life 2? I distinctly remember crawling through a vent then having 4+ 17 year-olds jump backwards away from the desk yelling as something brutally assaulted our character. Gut times

 

[The Elephant of Lies]

Probably Omni-tone (I think that's what it's called) voices, when a person or thing is speaking, and it sounds like there is more than one, I don't know what it is about it, but it makes my skin crawl.

You mean like this:
?

Yea, like that.

 

[DugMachine]

Being chased by things I can't see. Amnesia did this quite nicely and recently Black Mesa did it quite literally. When you are being chased by that cyclops thing I know it's there but I'm just sprinting like mad and I can hear it right behind me getting louder and louder... makes my heart race. That's when you know you've got quality

 

[Phantom Kat]

Giant centipede like creatures. Doesn't matter what the game is, giant centipede like creatures make me extremely uncomfortable.

 

[thesilentman]

It's usually atmospheric sound in general.

Example: Amnesia. Even when there's nothing there the sound just preps my heart to explode. The footsteps in particular sound incredibly real and the dust that falls from the floorboards just tops it off. Then there's the wind whistling through the broken windows and holes in the walls, things howling in the distance or the up-close scraping or snarling of something that might not even be there.

It's a game I like but I can't play for too long at any one time because after a solid day of playing it I think it'd probably give me a permanent sense of paranoia.

I second this very, very much. I was paranoid for a whole freaking week after playing this at night and using headphones. Christ Frictional wasn't kidding...

 

[Sack of Cheese]

The eerie nothingness in horror games.
And deep water too, like that level in Serious Sam 1 where you accidentally fell into the dark water, ugh. *cringes*

 

[Starbird]

It's usually atmospheric sound in general.

Example: Amnesia. Even when there's nothing there the sound just preps my heart to explode. The footsteps in particular sound incredibly real and the dust that falls from the floorboards just tops it off. Then there's the wind whistling through the broken windows and holes in the walls, things howling in the distance or the up-close scraping or snarling of something that might not even be there.

It's a game I like but I can't play for too long at any one time because after a solid day of playing it I think it'd probably give me a permanent sense of paranoia.

I second this very, very much. I was paranoid for a whole freaking week after playing this at night and using headphones. Christ Frictional wasn't kidding...

Honestly, I thought Amnesia was horribly overrated. It had atmosphere, but honestly Call of Cthulu: DCOTE was far better. For the most part it was scary less because of the actual structure/set pieces and more because you had no way to defend yourself.

Much like Dead Space, it was a cool game and very jumpy, but not what I'd call scary.

Silent Hill 1/2 now...yeah.

 

[Pink Gregory]

spiders. though i dont know if id even call it fear. like if im playing resident evil and something scares me that improves the experience and makes the game more fun for me. with spiders, just seeing them in a game not only doesnt improve the experience, it flat out destroys any fun i was having. i mean i think we can all agree that torchlight and torchlight 2 are not designed to be scary games, but just watching gameplay videos where people are fighting giant spiders is too much for me to handle.

oooh...you'd HATE Penumbra...although it's only a small part.

Off topic, but speaking of spiders, I remember the few that were in Tomb Raider Legend shrieking when you shot them.

Of all the sounds a spider could make, shrieking?

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Honestly, I don't think any game since maybe Tomb Raider 1 or Silent Hill have scared me. Bioshock 1 had some mildly unnerving moments early on, before you become a walking death machine, but that's about it.

 

[TrollFase]

The unexpected.

Anything that I don't see coming, mostly.

Dead Space was the first game in many moons to pull this off.

 

[Dreadman75]

The goddamn Dunwitch building from Fallout 3.

The dim lights, the enemies coming out of complete darkness with the intent of clawing your face off, the FUCKING WHISPERS. God the atmosphere of that place always gives me chills.

But I go down there anyway. Why? That fucking bobblehead! I want a complete collection of those little bastards, and I'm going to get it even though it means going through the single most creepy building in the Capital Wasteland.

...Oh, and that really creepy obelisk and the worship it inspired.

 

[Lectori Salutem]

Good sound design.

A good example, in my opinion, is Scratches. It's a first person adventure game with static, pre-rendered environments (like Myst), but it has a great eerie atmosphere, which gives me a really uncomfortable feel when playing it.

The same goes for Amnesia, as well as several other horror games, but Scratches manages to make me feel uncomfortable about static images of a mansion, which I think is quite neat.

 

[triggrhappy94]

Kinectimals.

Scariest thing ever.

He's staring into your soul. He's hungry and he likes what he sees.

 

[ihateukyle]

in general, anything i cant kill
specific, re deads, creeped me out since i was young