Freakout moments in videogames

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As spawned from the Tomb Raider thread.

When Resident Evil 2 first came out for PSX, I was playing it at a friend's house. I'd gotten to the part where you go into the police interrogation room w/ the one way mirror and the licker jumping through it, which of course scared the hell out of me. I promptly die, and when I reach the interr. room again, my friend turns on the stereo so that the licker and my will be on in SURROUND SOUND. I tell him, "WHat're you doing? THis is the scary part." He's all, "What scary part?" The licker jumps out BAM SCARING US ALL SILLY.

― Leee (Leee), Friday, 8 August 2003 19:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Another memorable moment, not as adrenal as RE2, was first getting through Metal Gear Solid 2. The part where -- and I might be spoiling some people here -- the Col. tells you that you're playing a video game and you should turn it off and go outside. I actually started feeling dizzy.

― Leee (Leee), Friday, 8 August 2003 19:53 (twenty-two years ago)

When 7th Guest hit, I had just gotten a CD-ROM for christmas(2x, baby!). I used to play that stupid game until the sun comes up, in the darkened basement of my parents house. Walking around in the basement labyrnth at 4am and suddenly seeing that ghost thing show up to beckon you away wrecked my shit for a coupla hours, yo.

also, i hate survival horror games that rely on the BAM I GOT YOUR GUR'FREN surprise approach. shocks you once, then annoys you every time you reply that section.

something that didn't really freak me out, but surprised and interested me just the same: i heard somewhere that the blonde chick from Phantasmagoria did porn. i'd like to see THAT.

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Friday, 8 August 2003 20:01 (twenty-two years ago)

That bit where the ball hits the block and --

Oh, that's an "f," not a "b."

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 8 August 2003 20:25 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.notbreathing.com/v2/news/images/sinistar.jpg

"I am Sinistar. Beware I live. Run, coward. RUN! RUN!"

"ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWRRRRRR!"

(still freaks me out to this day)

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, 8 August 2003 20:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I never played a RE game after the screaming Licker thing too. Yuckko.

― ModJ, Friday, 8 August 2003 21:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Once I was kind of wasted and playing this ridiculous game where you played a Japanese businessman (I forget the name) through all these different levels. At one point there was this sudden bit where you were driving a car really fast through heavy traffic, and without noticing it, I was screaming for the entire level. When it ended I realized my friends were all laughing at me.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Friday, 8 August 2003 22:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Ha! A friend of my sister had that game, it was wonderfully nuts.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 8 August 2003 22:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Half-Life: HEADCRABS HEADCRABS HEADCRABS!

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Friday, 8 August 2003 22:53 (twenty-two years ago)

in mickey mouse castle of illusion on the game gear i was up well past my bedtime playing in the dark and i got to the final level...i had completed it before,and pretty much knew what to expect from the level...
or so i though,until one of the baddies that appears from thin air did so,and i was so immersed in the game and it was so unexpected that it frightened the life out of me...
it was a benchmark of terror in my life,at least until i saw the final episode of twin peaks...

― robin (robin), Friday, 8 August 2003 22:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to be seriously queazed out by the rats in the first "Tomb Raider" (the ones that swim about in the pool when you have to jump between towers without getting Lara's comely buttocks singed). They swam and slithered in a disquietingly life-like manner. The Egyptian beetle mites (or whatever they were) in a later "Tomb Raider" (can't remember which) that basically smother you are pretty disgusting too.

Oh, I just remembered. Towards the end of the first "Tomb Raider," isn't there something like a winged statue that comes alive and shrieks all over the place? That used to surprise me (read: scare the bejesus outta me) every damn time.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 9 August 2003 03:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Metal Gear Solid 1 where Psycho Mantis turns off yer television coz he has awesome power like Mr Sparkle.

― fcussen (Burger), Saturday, 9 August 2003 03:41 (twenty-two years ago)

The name of the game escapes me - you're an NYC cop who's framed for murder, you're trying to kill the people who killed your family, bullet-time effects.

Anyhow, there's one section where you get drugged, and you're running through this house and the walls are changing shape and size. Playing at two in the morning by myself in a dark apartment was one of the spookier feelings I remember.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Saturday, 9 August 2003 03:43 (twenty-two years ago)

yahoo: "NYC cop who's framed for murder video game" = Max Payne

Am I right, am i wrong?

― fcussen (Burger), Saturday, 9 August 2003 03:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, that's it. Too bad the game had little in the way of replay value, it was the last shoot-em-up I liked.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Saturday, 9 August 2003 04:10 (twenty-two years ago)

donut bitch OTM!! (i have no idea what the rest of you are talking about, to be fair)

― Aaron A., Saturday, 9 August 2003 04:17 (twenty-two years ago)

In one of the first few areas in Doom, there's a small room off to the right of a large room, with a window into it. I was peering through this window when the first of the Pig-Dogs roaring in from the right. I fell backwards off my chair immediately.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Sunday, 10 August 2003 15:53 (twenty-two years ago)

heh. according to the book on Doom, that's exactly what the developers wanted to happen.

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Sunday, 10 August 2003 15:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Alex in NYC: it's when you're swimming in an underground lake, right? It's like two centaur statues that shatter their outer shells and start galloping all over the place and shooting fireballs at you and shrieking. I did the only sensible thing, took a big gulp of air swam down as far as I could.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Sunday, 10 August 2003 17:48 (twenty-two years ago)

In the first Gabriel Knight game there's a part where Gabriel has a very freaky dream about coffins and whatnot while at a voodoo lecture at Tulane University, strangely enough where I now go to school. It freaked me out when I first saw it, like 12 yrs old in the dark in the middle of the night. Luckily I have not experienced any prophetic voodoo coffin dreams in class yet.

― adam (adam), Sunday, 10 August 2003 17:56 (twenty-two years ago)

OTM on Max Payne. When he finally gets to the room and the phone is ringing and when he picks it up someone tells him "Max, you're in a graphic novel!" and then the scene starts again and the voice says "Max, you're a video game!" Wierd and creepy.

― nonthings (nonthings), Monday, 11 August 2003 03:47 (twenty-two years ago)

The Resident Evil thing is so spot on it's not even funny, wtf is that shit? I haven't played video games in a long while, I was obsessed with RE for a while (mainly watching other people play it though??? I dunno) and when I saw that occur I was like NEVER AGAIN. Which of course isn't even true.

― Ally (mlescaut), Monday, 11 August 2003 04:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Alone In The Dark rules this thread. Those French really know how to freak a guy out. The game is just full of those "holyfuckingshitfuckohmygod!" moments.

Doom is also responsible for a number of near-heart-attacks I've received.

Oh, shit, I almost forgot Thief: The Dark Project and its sequel. Those games make me so incredibly tense I can't explain it. I've actually yelled and jumped out of my seat in surprise at stuff that's happened during those games.

― Andrew (enneff), Monday, 11 August 2003 05:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, that's it. Scary as fuck.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 11 August 2003 17:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey had hella freakout bits, such as the occasional moments of total silence and relative tranquility (scored by cricket-chirping sounds) suddenly gone all WOO-HOO-y thanks to a spontaneous now-you've-got-to-run-away-from-this-big-funky-monster breaks or some such.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 11 August 2003 17:18 (twenty-two years ago)

There was this one time in Tetris when the blocks were going really fast and I was trying to get the long piece to...er, nevermind.

In the beginning of the first Resident Evil, the hallway where the zombie dogs break through the window freaked me the FUCK out the first time it happened.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 11 August 2003 18:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Afterwards, you were all "Ho hum. More zombie-dogs chewing on my kneecaps, blah blah blah."

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 11 August 2003 18:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually, the only video game to ever give me nightmares was Tetris. Acceleratingly-accelerating geometric nightmares.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 11 August 2003 18:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I never got over my fear of lickers.

― Leee (Leee), Monday, 11 August 2003 20:33 (twenty-two years ago)

The scariest game I ever played was "Granny's Garden", an educational game on the BBC Micro. It was mostly text based, but if you got questions wrong the witch would come and get you - and she looked really scarey! I once told my little sister to go on the computer and type in the wrong question, then ran out the room. Heheheh.

I was 6 though.

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 00:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Jesus, I remember Granny's Garden. As tools for instilling fear of a blind and angry fate, it was second to none.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 08:43 (twenty-two years ago)

this always freaked me out http://www3.pair.com/mosaic/rcr/hclub3.gif

― chaki (chaki), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 08:51 (twenty-two years ago)

It's helped as a tool for adjusting to the zombie dogs in my day-to-day life as well, Dan.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 12:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Jesus, that is frightening.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 14:58 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

Revive, because more video games exist now.

But to dwell on the past: 'Riven' for the most part is very calm and peaceful. But if you solve a certain puzzle in the middle of the woods, and turn around and start to walk back out, BAM there's this little girl standing on the path right in front of you, staring. Then she runs off. It's the most unexpected thing in the world, considering you've seen next to no one the whole game. Plus, little girls are scary.

― chrisco (chrisco), Sunday, 5 September 2004 02:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, shit, I almost forgot Thief: The Dark Project and its sequel. Those games make me so incredibly tense I can't explain it. I've actually yelled and jumped out of my seat in surprise at stuff that's happened during those games.

-- Andrew (n...), 11:13 PM.

So fucking OTM, I can't bear it. The basement of the haunted cathedral is still impossible for me, if only on the grounds of my cowardice.

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Sunday, 5 September 2004 06:36 (twenty-one years ago)

The Aliens Versus Predator games atre mad scary when I'm playing as the marine. (Strangely, I can deal with it as any other character)

― the impossible shortest special path! (the impossible shortest specia), Sunday, 5 September 2004 07:09 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.princeton.edu/~mgeorges/Archives/Pictures/3_19_03/mario_nail_princess.gif

― Gear! (Gear!), Sunday, 5 September 2004 07:32 (twenty-one years ago)

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