Scariest gaming experiences

[Ante Bellum]

I think I remember that. I hated the giant Octoroks when I first saw one. I was like, LALALA sailing! Then it showed up and I was like, OH NO WHAT DO I DO! And then it went OM NOM NOM. And then I was like: :<

[Whitefang]

7th Guest

/thread

I played it when I was very young, and it was absolutely terrifying. I don't remember much about it anymore, but there was a haunted mansion and you had to figure out why everyone was dead. It had a bunch of puzzles with gruesome themes and had some live action cut scenes. Which, looking back, were pretty corny. It even had a [spoiler]sixth sense[/spoiler] twist at the end, though I only read about that on Wikipedia since I was never able to finish the game.

[Bobtheduck]

One of my friends told me that RE4 is pretty scary as well. And I've seen the final battle of Earthbound against Giygas...that's REALLY disturbing.

Did you ever read the explanation for the Gigue / Giygas monologue? The creator accidentally walked into the wrong theater as a kid and saw something he didn't want to see. The monologue comes out of that.

[mechana2015]

At my left4dead nights at my place it used to be "AAGH! WITCH WITCH WHY DID YOU STARTLE THE WITCH AAAAGH!" Then we rented 2 and started stockpiling rocket launchers in each level. Now it's "JOCKEY'S DRAGGING ME INTO THE HOARD, DUDES!"

And then there's the tank...

Same here... L4D2 has scared me more than just about any game out there, though Fallout 3 has come close. The fact that I have my friends yelling 'aaaah savemesavemesaveme in the headset when they get jumped is... definitely scary.

[Ante Bellum]

Did you ever read the explanation for the Gigue / Giygas monologue? The creator accidentally walked into the wrong theater as a kid and saw something he didn't want to see. The monologue comes out of that.

I did. That makes it even creepier. Plus...
[spoiler]if you look closely, you can see human fetuses.[/spoiler]

[ich1990]

There are only two instances during which I remember being genuinely freaked when playing games.

First was when I played OoT as a child and went down into the bottom of the well. Between the creepy music, random fake walls/floors, bizarre paintings, yeah. It was a little much at that age.

Second was, as others have mentioned, the final fight in Earthbound. In most RPG's the final fight against "the all powerful force of evil in the universe" is pretty much like any other fight only a bit tougher and longer. Not so in Earthbound. When I fought Giygas, it really felt like I was a tiny ant trying to stand up against a freakish cosmic power. The aforementioned Giygas monologue certainly didn't help either. Add in the music, the incomprehensible attacks, the weird images that your mind picks out in his form, the immunity to damage......

The way you kill him is awesome though, and extremely satisfying.

[Straylight]

The start of Half Life was one of the scariest things I've seen in a video game.
In terms of plain creepyness Ecco the Dolphin does quite well...

[MangArtist]

Another time was early in my first playthrough of ICO, before I knew how it worked. (This was shortly after you first meet Yorda.) I'd left Yorda behind to head off on my own to try to figure out how to move forward, but then I got too far away, and I heard her plaintive little gasp and the camera whipped over in that direction. But I was way too far away, so even though I started running back, heart pounding, I knew I couldn't get to her in time. And then that wave of darkness swept over me and it was Game Over, and that one incident got me so scared that I hardly ever let Yorda out of my sight after that.

I did the exact same thing. D: Now I beat the crap out of those things whenever I see one. D:<

The first game to freak me out was DK 64 when you walk up to those Wrinkly Kong doors and they make that wailing kind of noise. That and the huge money skull in Creepy Castle that moans when you're around it. D:

Oooooh, Re-deads... ;_; First time I ever saw them was when my brothers and I rented OoT and whoever rented it last had saved at the Temple of Time as adult Link. So I decided to try it out and couldn't tell what the re-deads were(they were sitting down when I saw them) so I walked up to it and it grabbed me. Was scarred after that. x_x

The Flood in Halo freaked me out the first time I saw them. ._. (t'was our first "zombie-ish" game)

Call of Duty: World At War's Nazi Zombies has freaked me out before. Those times when you're repairing a window and turn around to see a zombie right in your face.

Then there was F.E.A.R. 2...... ._. Dude, that game freaked the crap out of me. The things that scare me the most are when you turn around and someone is in your face which F.E.A.R. 2 is full of. That and when you can hear something, but can't see it. *hides*

[Ante Bellum]

Oh yeah, in Metroid Prime when you encounter the [spoiler]Chozo ghosts[/spoiler] especially the first time because you aren't expecting it. The shrieks, the music, ugh...Yeah, that really got me. Even now I don't like them.

[the_wolfs_howl]

How could I forget Ocarina of Time?! XD Yeah, the Re-Deads freaked me out, stupid name and all. I used to get so scared when they would do that shrieky thing and make me freeze. Precisely like those nightmares where you can't move. And the Wallmasters traumatized me. My brother had to beat the Forest Temple because there were too many Wallmasters. Just...that rushing sound they make, and the shadow that falls on you.... *shudder* And yeah, the bottom of the well was creepy, but what really freaked me out was the Shadow Temple. The music and the darkness, especially. It just felt really oppressive, and it was hard as anything to beat, so it felt like a nightmare I couldn't escape. Bongo-Bongo was the scariest boss, if you ask me. I would just fall to pieces whenever I'd go to fight him, and again my brother had to do it. Oh, and Queen Gohma scared me, because she was the first boss and because her lair was pretty dark compared to the rest of the tree.

Oh, and I remembered another game that scared me as a kid! I would play Reading Blaster 2000 a lot, even though I was way past that reading level even when we first got it. For those who don't know, you're basically doing these reading games to collect chapters of a choose-your-own-adventure story (with the same characters as the Math Blaster games). So at the end of each chapter, they would have this "dun-dun-DUN!!!" sound and a "To Be Continued" message. I found that horribly scary when I was six or seven XD

[Davidizer13]

Oh yeah, in Metroid Prime when you encounter the [spoiler]Chozo ghosts[/spoiler] especially the first time because you aren't expecting it. The shrieks, the music, ugh...Yeah, that really got me. Even now I don't like them.

Metroid Fusion has...well, pretty much everything about it's scary. But Nightmare takes the cake. I mean, look at that thing. That's messed up, man.

[TGJesusfreak]

LOLOLOL Wind Waker's Re-deads freak the heck out of me. They're so easy to kill but the scream *shudders*
I can play through the entire metroid prime series and never freak out as much as those re-deads make me freak out .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPMRPyZfftA

[Ante Bellum]

Actually, Fusion is a big barrel of Nightmare Fuel. There's so much that can scare you in that game.

It's kind of funny how a cute game like Wind Waker can have those redeads. Oh, in Majora's Mask, you can shoot a Gibdo with a fire arrow and it turns into a redead.

[ADXC]

Demon Soul's....I was always afraid to die. XD I was afraid of the dragons who would pass by overhead and breathe fire at me!

[Makachop^^128]

LOLOLOL Wind Waker's Re-deads freak the heck out of me. They're so easy to kill but the scream *shudders*
I can play through the entire metroid prime series and never freak out as much as those re-deads make me freak out .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPMRPyZfftA

Those things are so creepy! >.< I once was playing that game with little kids over and it gave them nightmares...I still feel guilty.

[firestorm]

for me it was in Dino Crisis 1 the 1st time you go into the room with the room length glass window. This scared the pooh out of me XO. That don't know, I don't want to spoil the surprise but for the ones that want check it out go here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp-59rTKNi4&feature=related

[TGJesusfreak]

That's not near as bad as this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8hcv-uUNDw
Now THAT is creepy

[Ella Edric]

I was playing LoZ WW and got attacked by a redead unexpectedly. I FREAKED OUT. XD

[Ante Bellum]

Actually, I usually just cheat and bypass that entire section of the castle. After getting on the roof, it's possible to throw the Powder Keg just right and blow up the skylight.

[Esoteric]

Though Dark Forces technically is fairly removed from the trappings of the horror genre, I could never for the life of me EVER beat Anoat City, because the darkened lower sewers were teeming with those dianoga creatures, which scared the crap out of me as a kid. One of these days I'll have to play that game again, just so I can face them without fear.

Oh man...that brings back memories. I had the arrow keys jammed down, shrieking and bashing into the walls trying to run out of that sewer maze. And then later, the horrors of the Ice Station Beta level. After struggling through miles of hazardous machinery and conveyor belts, you get thrown into a claustrophobic hallway with...the terminator!!!! AHhHHHHHhhHhh! I started new levels with stomach butterflies after that. One of the best Star Wars games ever.

[MOAVGproduction]

hmm... nothing scares me now... but when I was really young... about 10 or 11... I had nightmares about "The Thing" that was scary... seeing monsters rushing into the door... yeah... now I want to play it... I miss it... :'(

[GrubbTheFragger]

Been playing Alan wake recently and its given me more than my fair share of " HOLY!" and " GAH!" moments. The storyline is way up there with best thriller story lines ever.

[Shao Feng-Li]

Doom 3 and F.E.A.R. are the two scariest games I've ever played. Man. Doom 3 has the best ambiance.

[Nightshade X]

Fighting The Sorrow in Metal Gear Solid 3. That freaked me out...

[Wolf-man]

Love Horror games.
Lets see...Resident Evil. Those games are really freaky (except 4 and probably 5). Especially if you are in a dark room all alone. Especially 2. I think that one captured the Horror aspect the best. The scene where you are walking through a hall and then the zombie arms pop out of the windows your just like "HOLY CRAP!!!!"
The Thing video game is just as creepy as the movie on which it is based. They did a great job of capturing the fear of not knowing who to trust that John Carpenter instilled us so long ago.
I was playing this new free Horror fighting game called Terrordome. The music is creepy just in the loading screen! I'm like "yeah! that's what a horror fighting game needs!"

[Arya Raiin]

I remember when I played Call of Duty Modern Warfare for the first time... I got attack by the dogs. I was like "OHMYGOSH!!! I'm gonna die! Oh no! OH NO!" and just shot all around me in circles. I killed about five before they took me down. That was horrible.

One of the most recent was when I was playing Halo with a friend. We walked into the enemy's trap and were surrounded. We went as white as ghosts before we dropped. We didn't play the game for the rest of the evening. XD

[Peanut]

Adding to my push for Eternal Darknes, I've recently finished F.E.A.R. which, at one time, really freaked me out...it didn't have close to the same effect but it did effect me. Recently, because of this game, I've found myself jumping at silly things like people speaking or yesterday when I saw in my rear-view mirror some dude on a motorcycle who I thought looked like some hobo who had randomly appeared right behind me and was staring at me...go F.E.A.R.

Also the Dhaka from Warrior Within...I don't know...something about being chased by a thing that can instantly kill you if you make one mistake gets the heart pumping...the tentacles and black abyss for a stomach don't help either...

Then there's the Asylum level from Painkiller...which I forgot about for some reason...yeah its pretty freaky...

Edit: Oh, and how could I forget STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. Survival horror with less ammo, breakable gear that can't be fixed, and a high likelihood of never getting the good ending...

[GrubbTheFragger]

Adding to my push for Eternal Darknes, I've recently finished F.E.A.R. which, at one time, really freaked me out...it didn't have close to the same effect but it did effect me. Recently, because of this game, I've found myself jumping at silly things like people speaking or yesterday when I saw in my rear-view mirror some dude on a motorcycle who I thought looked like some hobo who had randomly appeared right behind me and was staring at me...go F.E.A.R.

Also the Dhaka from Warrior Within...I don't know...something about being chased by a thing that can instantly kill you if you make one mistake gets the heart pumping...the tentacles and black abyss for a stomach don't help either...

Then there's the Asylum level from Painkiller...which I forgot about for some reason...yeah its pretty freaky...

Edit: Oh, and how could I forget STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. Survival horror with less ammo, breakable gear that can't be fixed, and a high likelihood of never getting the good ending...

I think the scarest part of the Dhaka parts was the godsmack soundtrack. That comment aside the Design of dhaka was awesome and actually frightening.

EDIT: Forgot to mention the game, Condemned was terrifying. The scene with the manicans in the first was freaky. And the bear part in 2

[Htom Sirveaux]

EDIT: Forgot to mention the game, Condemned was terrifying. The scene with the manicans in the first was freaky. And the bear part in 2

Oh, I loved Condemned. Reminded me so much of the movie Seven. I really wish it was out for the PS3 too, 'cause I can't play it on a dead 360.
Bloodshot was good, but didn't quite stack up to its predecessor.