Games that scare the bejesus out of you

[SlaveOfSeven]

There aren't many of them, but there are a handful of games that have really quite unnerved me on occasion. FEAR managed it a few times. One memorable scare was the "ladder moment". Anyone who's played it will know what I mean. Near the end of the first expansion, I found the hospital really quite hard to get through, even though the few enemies you face are fairly easy; the atmosphere was just so unpleasant. Most people seem to scoff at Doom 3's jack-in-a-box design, but for much of it, I found it so oppressive there were times I had to stop because it was getting just a bit too intense. Guess I'm a wimp. The X labs of the first Stalker game were pretty effective.

So, what games have scared the crap out of you?

Oh, the X-COM thread reminded me: terror missions. At night. With Chryssalids... just horrible.

 

[Canadave]

Half-Life 2 would be near the top of my list, actually. I mean, first of all, there's the G-Man, who's creepy as hell:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRtT4HHQef0[/yt]

And then there's anything to do with headcrab zombies...

 

[TheBrew]

Dead Space does. I've only beaten the first chapter. I still have it though, but I stop playing after five minutes every time.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The old 'Gorgar' pinball machine. It had a huge picture of the Devil on the front. Scared the crap out of me when I was a kid.

 

[TheGodBen]

Pac-man. When I played it as a kid I used to freak out when the ghosts got near me, so I'd thrown down the controller and run out of the room.

 

[Mr Light]

Dead Space scared the crap outta me. Parts of Bioshock. But the the biggest shock I ever had was on the Gall Spaceport level opening of Star Wars Shadows of the Empire. I'm going along a cliffside and there's a cave and I turn around and there's a DESERT WAMPA swiping at me!!! Who the hell expects a Wampa in the desert?! I fall off the cliffside screaming cursewords shooting at it. I wasn't invited to my friend's house after that due to my foul language

 

[Joel_Kirk]

There aren't many of them, but there are a handful of games that have really quite unnerved me on occasion. FEAR managed it a few times. One memorable scare was the "ladder moment". Anyone who's played it will know what I mean. Near the end of the first expansion, I found the hospital really quite hard to get through, even though the few enemies you face are fairly easy; the atmosphere was just so unpleasant. Most people seem to scoff at Doom 3's jack-in-a-box design, but for much of it, I found it so oppressive there were times I had to stop because it was getting just a bit too intense. Guess I'm a wimp. The X labs of the first Stalker game were pretty effective.

So, what games have scared the crap out of you?

Oh, the X-COM thread reminded me: terror missions. At night. With Chryssalids... just horrible.

*Silent Hill 1-3
*Some parts of Resident Evil 3

 

[Jono]

My most memorable fright was at the start of a particular mission of Freespace 2 where you find ourself getting shouted at by another pilot to evade. Came as a real shock as all the other missions start off sedately, half the time there are no enemies about or they are a couple of kilometres away so you don't need to really be on alert for several second once you launch.

The music and atmosphere started to get to me with the last Mystery Case File game. Nothing particularly scary about a find the object in the image game but after a few hours at night on my own it did start to get to me.

Edit: By last game, I mean the last one I played, which was Return to Ravenhearst.

 

[John Clark]

For me, certain parts of the AVP games and FEAR have their moments

 

[Zulu Romeo]

It's still System Shock 2.

 

[Jadzia]

Only one computer game has ever properly scared me, and that was Funhouse on my Spectrum. It was really bad.

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0006343

With a name like funhouse, I was expecting fun, but no. The game is so cold and cruel. The gate was locked. I couldn't get out, no matter how many times I tried. I felt trapped with that coldness and cruelness. It is pure evil.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

This was another scary and atmospheric game for me:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hwjBEJkGW4[/yt]

 

[Jax]

Stalker, F.E.A.R and some of Dead Space are good at this. Personally I am hoping Alien Colonial Marines will have a scary tone and not just run n shoot.

 

[Ayelbourne]

Pretty much any Silent Hill game.
Psychological horror >>> Jack-in-a-box-shockmoments

 

[Lindley]

My most memorable fright was at the start of a particular mission of Freespace 2 where you find ourself getting shouted at by another pilot to evade. Came as a real shock as all the other missions start off sedately, half the time there are no enemies about or they are a couple of kilometres away so you don't need to really be on alert for several second once you launch.

I remember that one.....you pop into the mission right in the path of a massive ship that's in the process of jumping into FTL, and if you don't hit the afterburners it plows right through you.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Half-Life 2 in general (alien dyspotia=nightmare for me) and the Ravenholm level in particular.

 

[Jax]

Ravenholm level in particular.

love that.

 

[Canadave]

Half-Life 2 in general (alien dyspotia=nightmare for me) and the Ravenholm level in particular.

Ravenholm freaked me out, hardcore. Fast zombies on the roof... *shudder* I think they topped it with the sequence in the parking garage (especially when you get to the elevator) in Episode One, though.

And seconding ZR's nomination of System Shock 2.

 

[SlaveOfSeven]

I can't believe I forgot System Shock 2. Great atmosphere.

Ravenholm was pretty horrible. I didn't really find it scary, just... ghastly. All the blood everywhere; zombies wailing as you set fire to them; insane ranting priest; just a really grim atmosphere.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

One thing I remember was the original Unreal. The thing that scared me about that game was the Tentacles: creatures that hide in crevices or on ceilings and throw knives at you.