What Scares *You* In Games?

[OldDirtyCrusty]

The most disturbing horrors in games are corupted save files, crashes before saving and gameplay destroying bugs preventing me from continuing or finishing a game.

As for ingame horrors jumpscares get me good from time to time. It could even happen in a usual FPS. Seeing me twitch in front of the tv is always great fun for the rest of the people in the room.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

For me, I find it scary when there's a deadly threat that cannot be killed or harmed.
In something like Silent Hill, Resident Evil or Dead Space the majority of the scares wear off on me because I know I can just beat the enemy to death with a steel pipe and be done with it. Sure there are some invulnerable enemies in those games like Pyramid Head, Nemesis and The Hunter but they can still be stopped, even just temporarily by applying a shit-ton of ammunition to it or waiting it out while dodging their attacks

But take something like Amnesia or Slender where the threat is just... there.
It chases you, it will hunt you down and if you so much as even look at it it will kill you. All you can do is run, hide and pray. It cannot be damaged by your feeble attempts at combat, all it does is shrug off the blow while still running toward you. The only way to survive is to hide amongst the piled, sprayed corpses of its previous victims, turning off the lights and facing the darkness just hoping that it doesn't find you.

 

[Ultress]

Heights if I jump from a high place in a video game I get a weird sense(vertigo i think) and it freaks me out. I can't be the only one who experiences such a thing in video games?

yeah same here,happens every time I jump in Shadow of the Colossus.


OT: Like many are saying deep water. I still remember playing Jak and Daxter,deciding to swim to an island and being eaten by the giant fish with little warning.

Termina bay combines my fear of deep water with my fear of being lost.Ikana Canyon is nowhere near as scary.

Also the sequence in Condemned where Serial killer X chases you is probably one of the scariest things in the game and in general.

 

[Coffeejack]

Spontaneous Cliff Racers.

 

[Grivahri]

When I can't see or when I can only see a few meters ahead.

 

[deathninja]

Much like real life, just Goblin Sharks, Basking Sharks, drowning and deep, dark water, in that order. Albeit a log scale.

Considering I've been shot and stabbed before, I think that says a lot.

 

[PureChaos]

knowing there's SOMETHING lurking in the shadows that wants me dead and I can hear it but it's not there when I look

 

[Leoofmoon]

Mine has to be amnesia in 2 parts.
1. I was in the prison level and doing all the stuff when one of the monsters showed up as I was coming out of a room. I quickly ducked back in and hid for a wile as he was investigating the noise, he stood at the door for 5 hole minuets just standing there.
2. is in the water level were you'r being hunted down by the water beast and you have to trow door in his way, and then the fucker with the huge arm showed up....

 

[Starbird]

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.

Hah, so *that's* what it's called? Always wondered.

 

[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.

Hah, so *that's* what it's called? Always wondered.

Yeah, technically "Icthyosaur" is the name of a group of extinct marine reptiles. But, due to the latin translation to "Fish-Lizard", I guess Valve thought it was an appropriate moniker.

 

[Adventurer2626]

Deep water is always a good one, but in general: an atmosphere that builds upon something being horribly wrong and knowing that I'm being hedged into a confrontation. But only if it's done right. I've had experiences where I felt like I was being extremely limited with choices and so was mad instead of afraid.

Basically, needs a sense of being alone intellectually with a sense of being in bad company emotionally. Randomized or at least uncalculatable "jump scares" help. Presence of choice but absence of power over the game. False senses of power/accomplishment with accompanying sucker punch. Things of that nature.

 

[Alduin Silas]

Personally, Minecraft. When I'm underground mining, and you're sure you've put enough torches down, and yet there's a dungeon or cavern SOMEWHERE nearby, and so there's growling and hissing from all around. Also, every time I leave my door, the Griefing brigade always leave a silent creeper by the door. I've made it a habit of leaving my door at a dead run.

 

[scorptatious]

Failure in games. And I don't mean losing all your health and dying, I'm talking about like in the first Fallout, where if you took too long doing what you're supposed to be doing...

Spoiler

The Super Mutants find your vault, tear the door off, and proceed to slaughter your fellow vault dwellers as they cower and run in fear. The last bit of it showing the overseer doing his best to fight them off, only to get overwhelmed and beaten to death. The screen showing all the footage then short circuits.

Made my stomach turn just watching it on Youtube.

Basically, failing those who trust you and seeing them pay the consequences kinda scares me in games.

Holy crap, I've been talking about Fallout a lot lately.

 

[Woodsey]

That always does it for me too. I think because it always swims a lot fucking closer than I remember it's going to, and it appears out of nowhere as well.

 

[Ix Rebound]

those MOTHERFUCKING poison headcrabs from Halflife 2
they sound like fucking demon rattlesnakes with legs!
also, water levels, im fucking terrified of sharks so when i saw that Far Cry 3 has sharks in it i already started panicking that i was going to become fish-food

 

[Pfheonix]

I'm easily frightened, and I jump at everything, so I don't do horror games, but what gives me that delightful little tickle down my spine, the tingle of "Oh shit. I'm going to explode." that I get is just amazing when I'm playing Battlefield. Whether BFBC2 or BF3, the tanks just frighten me in a good way. I'll be sneaking between objectives, trying to be quiet and not get spotted, and a tank will just roll up as I'm walking along a road. Not a problem, but the turret... That fucking turret. It turns towards me while I'm trying to find visual cover, and I just know that I'm done for. It's an awesome feeling of helplessness that the game elicits somehow.

More to the topic, however, motherfucking Ravenholm. FUCK. THAT. BULLSHIT.

 

[Starbird]

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.

Hah, so *that's* what it's called? Always wondered.

Yeah, technically "Icthyosaur" is the name of a group of extinct marine reptiles. But, due to the latin translation to "Fish-Lizard", I guess Valve thought it was an appropriate moniker.

Aha!

I'm easily frightened, and I jump at everything, so I don't do horror games, but what gives me that delightful little tickle down my spine, the tingle of "Oh shit. I'm going to explode." that I get is just amazing when I'm playing Battlefield. Whether BFBC2 or BF3, the tanks just frighten me in a good way. I'll be sneaking between objectives, trying to be quiet and not get spotted, and a tank will just roll up as I'm walking along a road. Not a problem, but the turret... That fucking turret. It turns towards me while I'm trying to find visual cover, and I just know that I'm done for. It's an awesome feeling of helplessness that the game elicits somehow.

More to the topic, however, motherfucking Ravenholm. FUCK. THAT. BULLSHIT.

Oddly, Ravenholm didn't bother me that much. The deserted house in the Highway segment creeped me the hell out though.

 

[Nerexor]

Title.

So yeah - in games, anything with deep water, especially where I can't see bottom, *especially* where I may be attacked by a large monster makes me deeply uncomfortable. Even something as tame as WoW can do it to me.

Same thing for me. I hate and fear the concept of going underwater in games, even if its only for a few seconds. I blame this on the section in Half Life 1 where you get dumped in water with A GODDAMN ALIEN SHARK/FACE-GNAWING-CREATURE-FROM-HELL!! Gah!

Some game music as well I find does too good a job of making me unsettled. I can't play dead space with music on, or many other survival horror games either.