The original Doom and Doom II had some great moments. I think the best in this category would be the times where you can hear a Spider Mastermind’s mechanical footsteps through the whole level, but without knowing where it is…
And not exactly frightening, but for eerie atmosphere, the catacombs mission in Myth II: Soulblighter is very good. Ghosts of both your unit types and the monsters, battling it out eternally beneath th lost city. They fade in and out, and some of them attack you, some help you, and some pass right through you without harm. But then, that whole game was good.
The Haunted Church episode of Thief: The Dark Project. It was the only time I was ever frightened so much by a video game level that I had to psyche myself up for 5 minutes before I could even start playing. I still recall crouching outside the door and hearing things clattering around inside this large, forbidding stone building in the dead of night, nothing outside me save the darkness, the cold stars and the wind howling in the streets of the deserted Old Quarter and thinking to myself, “I don’t want to go in there.” shiver
I know this is lame … I’d bought **Tomb Raider ** (first one) and was playing it, something went wrong and the sound went, so I was playing in silence (no “threat” music when a baddie is approaching), I was at the part where there are dinosaurs in a valley. I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing, or what was in the valley, at my first attempt Lara got eaten by a velociraptor, next time I realised I had to kill the velociraptors, and I was making my way around the valley looking for ammo, med packs etc when “whumph” T-rex stomps on her. I’m glad I’m a girl, that high pitch scream would have been ten times more embarrassing than it was … :o
I also screamed the place down in another TR (3 maybe?) where Lara’s in a chamber and it’s pitch dark, and I didn’t know there were “monsters” hiding in the corners that jumped out and growled if you went too close …
I agree with the dog bit from Resident Evil, but even moreso than that was the first time you come across a Red Face in the remake. When a zombie you’ve already killed jumps up and starts running after you at full speed and throwing punches when you’re completely unprepared…that fucking made me shit a brick!
And another shout out to Half Life. The first level is creepier than shit.
I didn’t play that much of Undying (couldn’t figure out how to kill that first vampire sister whatever), but in the beginning when you use your death sight and the guy suddenly appears hanging from the lamp post…that was pretty cool.
I’m suprised noone’s mentioned anything from the Silent Hill games. I only played the second one, but when you’re fighting what looks like a guy in a straight jacket with no face as they scoot along the ground chattering at you…god DAMN, that’s friggin’ freaky! I’ve checked out some of the screen shots for the fourth one, and that’s going to be some scary ass shit.
All the Silent Hills had their moments. You’d walk into a room, there would be nothing there. You’d go and explore the rest of the map and have to come back to the room and when you’d return there would be bodies hanging from the cieling. You’d hear monsters or strange sounds coming from the next room. Blood-stained walls and blood smears in crazy places. I never saw the first one, but the second one was freaky to watch. It wasn’t just “jump” scary, but more mind-fuck scary. There were a lot of parts were I didn’t want to see the character continue because things looked so terrible.
The third wasn’t as good as the second, although it had a few choice scenes. A fourth one is coming out, check it out here.
Fatal Frame also had a few good ghosts. There was this one little girl ghost that was both cute and creepy and the same time. The game play was annoying though and I didn’t like the game as a whole.
The designers of that game (and the first one) did that stuff on purpose so much. I still remember during one of the Marine missions in the first game when part of the ceiling collapses right in front of you, and the hanging pipe and cables look JUST like an Alien. “Those bastards,” thought I, running first for a fresh pair of drawers and then for my mommy.
The extremely dark areas of those levels are absolutely terrifying (which means that 90% of the levels are extremely terrifying) to this day, even though I’ve played through several times.
**System Shock 2 ** was full of creepy moments, particulary when you first Reach the Hatechery.
“Babies need Sleep…Babies need meat”
**AVP2 ** was damn creepy, the first couple of levels build the tension until all Hell Breaks lose. And of course, that long walk through to find Lt. Hall through the deserted colonies, then having to go down into a hole that has all that icky alien **** all over it.
**Thief **. I’ll admit it, I’m a pussy. I was so freaked out that I ended up skipping the levels with the Zombies(part of Bonehoard, Haunted Cathedral, Old Quarter, The Eye, eyc).
I plan to play it through in it’s entirely as soon as classes are over in a week and a half.
That was the same thing which popped into my mind when I saw the title of this thread.
Though you recollection of events is a little hazy: you had to land the ship, turn off your shields, wait for the astronaut to knock, then open the airlock and let him in. If you got an alien instead, you could turn on the shields and fry 'im. Conversely, if you opened the airlock too early, the alien would go into your ship, and proceeded to destroy it from the inside out…
This is going to sound lame and stupid, but the very first zombie you see in Resident Evil. Let me explain.
My husband was playing his Play Station. I walked in the room and asked what he was up to. He said “Playing my game…” I was very much a video game newbie, I’ve never heard of Resident Evil, and had no idea what was going on. THen he enters that hallway, and they do the close up of the zombie, which was the last thing I expected, and it scared the fuck out of me.
The golems on Day 9 of Gabriel Knight I by Sierra c. 1994. I immersed myself in that damned game; I was going to beat it if it killed me. And I knew I was getting to the end, but there’s a lengthy puzzle in an ancient burial mound. All these humanoid mud figures are hanging around the rooms being not alive, but you know something you do is going to make them not not alive, but you don’t know what. I didn’t know whether to sigh with relief or piss my pants when they finally started moving.
And then they ate me about a dozen times, but that’s frustration more than fear.
I have not played a whole lot of the horror-type video games, although I have played half-life, and it did freak me out some. I have never, though, been so freaked out playing a computer game as I was when I played the FPS Castle Wolfenstein.
I had no idea what the content was, I just loaded it up and started playing. The first few levels were fun; mostly shooting Nazis and solving puzzles to advance to the next levels. Then it started to get creepy. Eventually, I was battling roomfuls of Nazis to the left and Zombies to the right. Underground. In the dark. I had to stop playing that game about halfway through. The Zombies were too much for me for some reason.
Use to play EQ. Scariest time I’ve ever had was my first Planes Raid. Joined up with 50 other players and assaulted old Plane of Fear. Was the first time for alot of us, so things were very rough at the begining. Wiping out several times and having to restart. Was exciting and scary at the same time. Knowing that if we wipeouted bad enough, we wouldn’t be able to get our gear back.
Proceeded very carefully for the first couple hours. Casters were overnuking, melee weren’t assisting each other. By hour 4 we were clicking pretty good and cleared out half the zone. From here on in it got worse. Some people got shadow Stepped (teleported) into the middle of the zone. And one of them, a wizard who wasn’t even supposed to be there, decided to run back to the group. When that happens, you’re supposed to just stand there and die. Well, about 5 Amygal Knights followed him back and wiped out all 50 of us. It took 2 groups of uber players 2 hours to break back into Fear and get all us rezzed.
Another vote for System Shock 2, this time just from a scene. The gist is that there are two ships: the huge cruiser you’re on and a smaller picket ship docked at the top. The biomass is spreading through the cruiser, so you need to make your way to the other ship to escape. Once on the other ship (near the end) you start seeing splotches of pulsing flesh all over the place. Wait… That’s a rectangle. Why the hell is it growing in perfect geometric… That’s a window. It’s grown all around the entire ship. I sat in a corner for a few minutes and shuddered. Then one of those invisible spiders got me (the ones that are almost invisible, so you think you might see it, but you still don’t until it’s right in your face). I’m just going to mention the escape pod, and that I spent ten minutes walking around inside it because I really didn’t want to leave.
Those damned beetles in Alien vs Predator 2. My motion sensor would pulse - just once - and I’d be on full adrenaline for the next five minutes.
-Return to Krondor, the Haldon Head Vampires chapter. While the game sucked overall, the vampire sound effects were unnerving. And the glowing stone in the baby crib (inside a child skeleton’s ribcage iirc) at the woodcutter’s shack was creepy as hell.
FF7 - seeing Jenova inside the Shinra building for the first time.
-Fallout Tactics, Quincy mission. You’ve spent five long missions shooting at humans and on occasion, animals. Deathclaws show up. Except when you see one, they’re not the old benign mutated chameleon dealies - think hairy HoMM3-4 Behemoths, except well-rendered and fast as hell.
-Far Cry, first Trigen fight. I almost shit myself when I saw how fast they were.
Burrido, was that on Ayonae about three years ago?
Minor Spoiler- You’re close to finishing the game when you open a chest. Inside is a dark purple gem and a note. ‘You think you are winning, don’t you? Fool! I have allowed you to come this far. I wait for you in my tomb. Soon I shall be free from my imprisonment. Hurry to me. I will devour your soul and walk free in your body. Come. I grow impatient’
AITD-The New Nightmare stank. However, I love that first moment when a lightning flash reveals a zombie who definitely wasn’t there before. Then, the zombie disappears only to reappear during more lightning. Then darkness again, and they’re gone. I kept expecting them to pop up and attack, and they never did.
