Scariest video game moments...

The water monster in Amnesia the Dark Descent. Hell that entire game drove me to the brink of insanity. :p The other scariest moment that comes to mind is that room with the giant mirror in Silent Hill 3 scared the hell out of me because I had no idea what was going on and it was just really really disturbing looking.
 
Bobby Barrows busting out of the bathtub in the original Clock Tower, or running away from Lisa Trevor in Resident Evil: Rebirth.
 
Anything where you are being chased by death usually gets my heart pounding. The Ant lion cave chase from HL Episode 2 was a good example of that.
 
I'm surprised no one's mentioned the Cradle level in Thief: Deadly Shadows.

Other games i've played like Doom3, Resident Evil, FEAR, etc. are only in it for the shock value. I just ignore the scary bits and run through it. You can't do that in thief.
 
I'm surprised no one mentioned any moments in Dead Space, F.E.A.R., Call of Cthulhu, Condemned, X-COM, Cryostasis, etc. I know a lot of people didn't think Dead Space was scary or thought it was boring, but I really liked the game. I had a feeling of dread the entire time I played.

Since we're supposed to name scary gaming moments, I'll go ahead and name a couple:

System Shock 2 - many parts, but the part with the cargo bays and protocol droids always gives me the willies. Jesus.

Thief 3: Shalebridge Cradle. FUUUUUU!!

Wow, Sly, I was typing up my post as you posted yours. Not only did I mention the thing you were surprised no one mentioned, both of our posts started out with "I'm surprised no one mentioned"... lol! But don't laugh too hard. Laughing ruins the mood of this thread. ;)
 
FEAR-1: Alma in the hallway where everything starts exploding. First time I saw that, I unloaded my weapon until I realized that wasn't going to stop her.

That game still messes with me to this day.
 
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC: First time you see a controller in the underground tunnels in Agroprom...first time you get killed by a bloodsucker...lurking inside X-16, X-18...I could go on. The A.B.C. horrortime mod could get you to jump.
Resident Evil: Dogs through the window. Works every time.
Silent Hill (especially 2): Just about anything...that damn hospital! Jeez.
Metal Gear Solid: Feeling the DARPA chief have a heart attack and die through the PS2 controller. That freaked me out a lot.
Also: Fallout 3, when you find the transcriptions of the city being nuked in the Dunwich Building. That was pretty disturbing.
 
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I can think of several moments burned into my memory...

I'm surprised no one's mention Clive Barker's Undying. There is a scene in the game where you have to haul ass through that massive house, not knowing where you're going, and the whole time there is an invicible ghost chasing you that can go through walls and find you no matter where you are. In fact, that game played dirty pool the whole time- I remember at one point this creepy sound plays and all the lights go out in a window-less hallway. I actually stood there and got murdered in the dark because I figured "surely the game wouldn't send stuff after me with no light at all."

Number two is practically the whole last half-hour of FEAR. You have to run around in the dark with screaming sounds everywhere, crap coming out of the walls to kill you, and even worse, Alma was practically invincible and would kill you just by standing too close. Thank god that game had quicksave.

Three would probably be those super-irritating flash screens in The Suffering that wait till the moment it's been quiet too long and just yell in your face like the practical joke flash videos people email. Every time the screen would flash something horrible in your face and shriek for no reason it just made me and everyone else that played want to throw things.

Last I can think of that hasn't been mentioned is in Dark Fall 3. There is a part where you have to solve a puzzle requiring intense concentration while the lights are flickering on and off, all before a mummyish dead thing gets across the room to you as you stand there frozen. Some adventure games are anything but casual; I don't know if anyone else here plays Jonathan Boakes games.
 
When I was playing Dead Space I was scared of the gothic nature of it at first, but it wore off. Interestingly that when playing through the entire Alan Wake game, I had this overwhelming sense of dread.. not morbid fear of whats around the corner but Alan Wake did a great job of tapping into that fear of the dark. The game didn't have to give throw different enemy types at me to make it interesting the setting alone did that throughout the game. Felt like I was really in a somewhat believable story.

The sense of dread mixed with thriller storyline and the setting really pulled me in like most horror games never can. Playing the game gave me the exact same sense of fear I get from reading a good novel.. say a Steven King book that makes the hair stand up. Its a different fear than a scary horror video game .. its subtle in nature but consistent so its always there, always clawing at you.

I might go replay through the game again, it was rad.
 
piscian18 said:
I tried to start playing planetside a few years ago. I didn't know it had friendly fire and accidentally killed some girl on my side. She apparently was some sort of whiz kid pilot because she got a helicopter and chased me for an hour shooting at me. Most terrifying experience of my life. Never went back.
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Unfortunately there are a lot of elite dumb asses in that game.Can't tell you how many times I have accidentally TKed one of those and get killed repeatedly by them.
 
merlin704 said:
Phantasmagoria
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I loved that game, scariness and all.

imyourzero said:
System Shock 2 - many parts, but the part with the cargo bays and protocol droids always gives me the willies. Jesus.
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One of the first experiences in that game still gets me; where you come across one of the first "zombies". It's running at you, swinging a pipe (out of nowhere) and yelling "KILL ME!" That freaked me the hell out right there.

To mention one that I don't think has been yet, I think the screaming mummies/zombies from the LoZ series were pretty scary. Especially since you really couldn't do much about them at the time.
 
Scariest video game moment for me was when I used Steam to launch my game instead of the regular shortcut, and it showed that I had wasted over 500 hours playing and Civ5 hadn't even been out that long.

Scary.
 
Oh yeah. I recently played Amnesia. Being chased in the water by some invisible...thing was kinda freaky. :eek:
 
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl scared the shit out of me at times, I just couldn't bring myself to play it alone at night, literally, and even during the daytime I got freaked out more than once, there are scary moments in the other two (like sneaking past the bloodsuckers in their lair in CoP, I bumped one the first time and they woke up..lol) but the first experience with the atmosphere of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in SoC prepared me for the others so they weren't as bad as the initial "atmosfear" of the first...
 
wol-va-rine said:
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl scared the shit out of me at times, I just couldn't bring myself to play it alone at night, literally, and even during the daytime I got freaked out more than once, there are scary moments in the other two (like sneaking past the bloodsuckers in their lair in CoP, I bumped one the first time and they woke up..lol) but the first experience with the atmosphere of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in SoC prepared me for the others so they weren't as bad as the initial "atmosfear" of the first...
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Yeah man Stalker had lots of scary moments. I always hated going through the underground passageways, It was so confined and noises constantly kept me looking over my shoulder. Great atmosphere these games have.
 
Scariest game I remember was The Suffering. I had nightmares of being chased by the bad guys with blades for arms/legs. Dead Space with headphones had some scary moments, too. I kept looking back over my shoulder while playing at night.
 
System shock 2. Could only play it during the daytime lol. Amnesia far and away surprised me. Thought I was past the point of being scared by a video game. Boy was I wrong.

The opening of SS2 made me sh$t a brick, the entire game just had me on edge. At one point you find a message where an autopsy goes wrong....Turned the monitor off and I couldn't bring myself to play again for a week.

Exploring the dungeon cells in Amnesia....yikes. I just did not like that.
 
Aliens Vs. Predator 2 had me more on edge than any game ever. And like most of you, I've played a heck of a lot of games. :)
 
Another vote for the cradle from thief 3. I also jumped a bit in Half Life 2, several place, but ravenholm was one.
 
Dead Space.

When that big freaking thing that keeps coming after you throughout the game and you have to figure out ways to get away from it. There's a section with sliding walls that basically are a pain in the dick to use even when you have all the time in the world to figure them out. Well, combine the two, and I was panicking like hell. I actually had to pause and calm down. I was totally convinced that thing was going to either slide the walls open and come for me, or I was going to get jumped when I opened one up to get through.

Scariest game ever? Amnesia. I couldn't even do 10 minutes of the demo without wanting to cry like a sissy girl.

I most definitely had a sense of dread everytime I heard the fast-crab zombie howls in HL2. To this day just the sound alone gets the hairs on the back of my neck to rise up and my heart pounds.
 
Porter_ said:
the original F.E.A.R.
scared the shit out of me back in 2005, scares the shit out of me today.
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FEAR for me as well. My brother sent it to me with a note saying "don't play it in the dark or with sound on".

So I'm 15 or so mins into it going through a building, the only light on in my room is my monitor and head phones at max vol.(crappy headphones). I was looking for something so of course my head was about 8 inches from the screen.

I turned around in time to see a door being flung open, right as my dad flung open my bedroom door...

Ended up pissing my pants and screaming like a schoolgirl. Looking back it is funny as hell(shit my dad laughed until he was in tears). But then... not so funny.

Never did finish the game because of that.

Silent Hill. Still one of the only games I miss playing.
 
Focker said:
Aliens Vs. Predator 2 had me more on edge than any game ever. And like most of you, I've played a heck of a lot of games. :)
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Forgot about that game. It was intense. That motion tracker would just wind me up. :eek:
Going into the first alien den freaked me out. As soon as you mercy kill your fellow marine and you hear the aliens coming out.....
 
Probably when i was a kid on zelda ocarina of time them damn zombies that jumped on your back before ganon. ><
 
I just played through Condemned: Criminal Origins in 3D, and this game had some really creepy parts. The creepiest sections were the abandoned department store level that featured random mannequins coming to life (or just nutcases dressed as mannequins?) and attacking you with clothing racks and pipes... And the delapidated Appleseed Orchard house with creaks, moans, and attacking drug addicts coming from everywhere.
 
Condemned: Criminal Origins had a few very scary parts. The worst ones for me were just walking around in pitch black with only a flashlight and hearing guys grunting and screaming but you didn't know where they were. Also, the mall with all the mannequins, and the part where you open the locker at the school.

The Ocean House Hotel in Vampire: Bloodlines probably takes the cake for me, though. That place was just oozing with atmosphere and was probably the scariest sequence in any game I've played,
 
I actually had another moment in Stalker: Priboi Story. It was just after a blowout (you need to take cover during a blowout). I was in a house that I had already cleared of the enemy. The blowout just ended and I walked out the front door to search for a stash...I heard a horrifying grunt, I turned, startled, and a troll-like Burer was right behind me...I jumped right out of my skin lol. :p
 
The first STALKER was scary, especially in the underground labs...can't remember their names (I think it was X Labs or something along those lines). Very well done atmosphere.

Clive Barker's Undying was superb in this regard as well. Absolutely perfect atmosphere and great storyline that helped create one of the most unique and scary gaming experiences I ever had.

Alien vs Predator 2, playing as marine. The marine was cannon fodder for both Predators and Aliens and the mood did change when we played as marine for the most part. And I'm not talking about jump scares. I'm talking about subtle sounds in the background that made you cringe about what was coming...

FEAR had its moments too, but they were mostly related with jump scares. The parts I liked the most, were when the superb soundtrack created such a creepy atmosphere on itself, that even when there was nothing really scary jumping out of the closet, we would feel shills throughout the game.

Metro 2033 has a STALKER vibe to it, but even though it didn't reach the level of scaryness of the X-Labs? of STALKER, the atmosphere that it created, especially in the topside levels, was truly amazing. Being hunted by creatures, while needing to find air for our mask, was really something unique and somewhat scary. The infested tunnels were also good, but mostly for jump scares.
 
spacing guild said:
I actually had another moment in Stalker: Priboi Story. It was just after a blowout (you need to take cover during a blowout). I was in a house that I had already cleared of the enemy. The blowout just ended and I walked out the front door to search for a stash...I heard a horrifying grunt, I turned, startled, and a troll-like Burer was right behind me...I jumped right out of my skin lol. :p
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Priboi's Story was responsible for my biggest "Oh,man,I am so screwed!" moment. I was in the Radar area for an extended time and there were two blowouts,which spawn more mutants.There weren't that many along the road to the main compound,so I figured I was safe.I walked into the compound,rounded a corner - and found myself in the middle of the biggest mass of mutants I've ever seen! Had to be at least 30 of them,zombies,Burers,Controllers,Bloodsuckers,you name it.I lasted all of 3 seconds!
 
I'll just echo the Doom / Doom 2 comments. I remember playing it with headphones on becoming totally immersed and having my older brother come into the room without me noticing and grab my shoulders.

What got me worse was reading 'The Day of St. Anthony's Fire', couldn't eat bread for a month.

The opening sequence in HL1 got me as well, anything that's really immersive with solid atmosphere has the most impact on me.

Not so much a scary moment, but one of the most intense would be in Descent Freespace, the mission in which you're to scout a supply depot using a captured alien fighter. However getting within so many km of any alien ship or scanning buoy will alert them to your presence, then the massive enemy mother-ship warps in and they tell you to get in close and take a look, even direct you to fly into the cargo hold, only to be spotted immediately and then they have you run around like a chicken while their entire fleet chases you around since your warp engines are on the fritz. My heart rate went up to about 200 the whole mission. Few games have managed to so successfully make you feel like a small piece of a very large conflict, and yet still have your actions have major impact to the overall story. Also some of the most believable game aliens ever, you never really get a sense of what their motivations are, nothing they do makes sense to humans.
 
guys come on, System Shock 2? Where you walk down this hall, look through a sealed window into another hall and this zombie alien guy is chasing this human down and they go off camera and then you hear screams. I was like oh shit.

that game was fricken scary.
 
Silus said:
The first STALKER was scary, especially in the underground labs...can't remember their names (I think it was X Labs or something along those lines). Very well done atmosphere.
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my guess is the Agroprom Underground (that's what the map is called in multiplayer) was one of them, IIRC that's where you find Strelok's PDA and where you first encounter a controller, which scared the shit out of me, so much so I ran outside without even killing him...lol
 
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