Tuesday, October 30, 2007
What Are Your Spookiest Gaming Moments?
Halloween is nearly upon us (for those of us who celebrate it... those who don't, don't know what you are missing...), and so I thought I'd throw out a few of my scariest gaming moments. Games aren't really good yet at evoking emotion, but fear is one that can occasionally be engaged in the right game if you are in the right mood.
So here are some of the moments that have scared the snot out of me. Or at least creeped me out. I've mentioned a few of these before. But hey, it's Halloween! Let's repeat 'em.
Alone In The Dark - The Dance of the Dead. Okay, this wasn't exactly a scary segment. But pretty much anything with Saint-Saens "Danse Macabre" involved is nice and spooky all by itself. Using the phonograph of this song, you get the ghosts to dance around the room, allowing you passage.
Doom - The Specter. Okay. I dunno about you guys, but the first time I half-saw that little graphics-glitch thing approaching and roaring, I felt the ol' fight-or-flight instinct kick in. I think I just started firing the gun and didn't stop until it was dead and I was out of ammo. Yeah. Now we know how good I'd be in a REAL gunfight. I'd go through my "mad minute" in about five seconds and then throw my gun behind me as I flee through the door.
Aliens Vs. Predator 2 - The first level or two as a marine. Man, these guys NAILED the feel of the movie, "Aliens." Pretty much the entire Marine campaign. That game put you under such intense pressure because you NEVER knew where those aliens were going to come from, and it built on the anticipation. It was almost a relief when the inevitable attacks DID come. This was what Doom aspired to be, in my mind. (And to Doom's credit... the "Aliens Total Conversion" for Doom way back in the when managed to pull off a very similar feel).Unreal - The Lights Go Out. One by friggin' one. That game gave you a few seconds to contemplate just how screwed you were about to be as it trapped you in a "U" shaped hall and then started shutting out the lights, one by one. The battle itself wasn't much to write home about --- but it was that anticipation building the first time you played, the pants-wetting fear of the unknown, of wondering just WHAT was going to happen when that last light snapped off.
Ultima Underworld - The Pounding On The Door. I'd not yet encountered an imp. I didn't know they were actually little itty bitty monsters that could only pound high on the door because they were flying. No, what I saw and heard was something pounding WAY up on the door as if they were ten feet tall, and making some awful screeching noises behind it. My mind conjured up all kinds of imaginary horrors that were trying to bash in the door to get me. Late at night, that freaked me out, and I ran out of the virtual room like a scared little girl. Then when I finally got up the courage to fight the thing, I was really, really embarrassed at what it turned out to be.
F.E.A.R. - Alma appears at the ladder. Okay, pretty much anywhere Alma appeared was creepy, spooky, or downright risky to one's unsoiled undergarments. Monolith took what they learned with Aliens vs. Predator 2 and improved on it. A lot. They were very smart about keeping the appearance of the supernatural elements rare and unexpected. You caught glimpses of Alma when you least expected her. Or, in at least one moment, I thought I saw her when she actually wasn't there - it was simply a potted plant. But when a game gets you jumpy like that, you know it's doing something right.Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines - the haunted hotel. Oh, man. With the flitting figures around the place that aren't really there, to the whispered voice in your ear as you approach the elevator shaft --- this was perhaps the best "haunted house" sequences I've ever enjoyed in a game. Definitely spooky!
For a quick run-through of the game, if you've never seen it (and if you can handle an out-of-control first-person perspective), you can check out the abbreviated visit to the haunted hotel on YouTube:
VtM Bloodlines Haunted Hotel
Okay - so there are some of my creepiest / spookiest / scariest gaming moments. What about yours? I left the survival-horror genre pretty much untouched except for Alone In the Dark, which was the original.
What are your scariest / creepiest / spookiest moments in video games?
(Vaguely) related spookifying myself:
* Giving Me The Creeps! I want More!
* Game Moment #9 - Ultima Underworld
* Game Moment #13 - Doom
* Game Moment #14 - Wolfenstein 3D
Oh, and Here's a Forum Thread On the Subject, Too!
Labels: Game Moments
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:00 AM (Permalink)
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The scariest game moment I've encountered has to be Thief 3's asylum level. They built up the atmosphere to a huge amount during the first half of the level, until they finally unveil the things that you should be scared of. Great pacing.
Dang it. You are making me want to play Thief 3 now! :)
I played the first two, but heard that the third wasn't up to snuff. But that's twice in as many days I've heard people saying good things about it.
I played the first two, but heard that the third wasn't up to snuff. But that's twice in as many days I've heard people saying good things about it.
System Shock and System Shock 2 for being even better than SS1
Resident Evil 1 for being my first survival horror game and not expecting a zombie to leap out of every window I walk by. After RE1 it was like oooh look a window, oh yay another zombie *blast* next please. Finally any Silent Hill for being a survival horror and still managing to be spooky enough title after title.
Resident Evil 1 for being my first survival horror game and not expecting a zombie to leap out of every window I walk by. After RE1 it was like oooh look a window, oh yay another zombie *blast* next please. Finally any Silent Hill for being a survival horror and still managing to be spooky enough title after title.
# posted by 
: October 30, 2007 11:42 AM
: October 30, 2007 11:42 AM
The lights going out in Unreal was really cool, but only in Unreal. This effect has been copied a lot in other games and it has become one of the most predictable FPS clichés.
AvP playing the Marine was uber scary and perfect. Just as you said, "just like the movie."
Believe it or not the original Tomb Raider in the Colosseum level. The first time that I was "introduced" to the gorillas nearly gave me a coronary. Even afterwards you would hear them but they would always pop out and scare me.
I'm sure there are more but those stand out the most.
Believe it or not the original Tomb Raider in the Colosseum level. The first time that I was "introduced" to the gorillas nearly gave me a coronary. Even afterwards you would hear them but they would always pop out and scare me.
I'm sure there are more but those stand out the most.
"The Polito form is dead, ins-s-sect.
Are you afraid? What is it you fear? The end of your trivial existence? W-w-when the history of my glory is written, your species shall only be a footnote to my magnificence.
I am SHODAN."
So yeah, I'll second SS2.
Are you afraid? What is it you fear? The end of your trivial existence? W-w-when the history of my glory is written, your species shall only be a footnote to my magnificence.
I am SHODAN."
So yeah, I'll second SS2.
I had borrowed Turok from a cousin and so was playing it in the middle of the night, trying to get maximum playing time out of it before I had to give it back.
I was running around a maze of tall rocks, and as far as I can tell, I had killed everything. I was just lost and couldn't figure out how to leave. So at one point, I get bored and pull out the knife. I was swinging it out in front of me, admiring the graphics (N64 was still new), when all of a sudden a man runs right past the stones in front of me. My knife stabbed him fatally, and he screamed loudly.
It was the middle of the night, and there was no music playing, and all of a sudden YEAAAAGH!!! It scared the heck out of me!
I was playing Eternal Darkness recently, and investigating the bathtub scared me.
When I was really young, I was playing The Oregon Trail. When my entire party died, and I saw the gravestone and heard the creepy music playing, it put me off playing for weeks.
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I was running around a maze of tall rocks, and as far as I can tell, I had killed everything. I was just lost and couldn't figure out how to leave. So at one point, I get bored and pull out the knife. I was swinging it out in front of me, admiring the graphics (N64 was still new), when all of a sudden a man runs right past the stones in front of me. My knife stabbed him fatally, and he screamed loudly.
It was the middle of the night, and there was no music playing, and all of a sudden YEAAAAGH!!! It scared the heck out of me!
I was playing Eternal Darkness recently, and investigating the bathtub scared me.
When I was really young, I was playing The Oregon Trail. When my entire party died, and I saw the gravestone and heard the creepy music playing, it put me off playing for weeks.
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