Horror in non-horror games

[Pinballbuzzbro]

This fucking thing from Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland

 

[J.B’s rabbit den]

These creepy little guys always scared the living crap out of me and my brother when we were kids. The noise and just hearing and seeing them from afar was enough to make make us run away or have our sister get rid of them before getting back on an continuing with what we’re doing lol.

 

[Atlas45]

For me the latest thing in a non horror game that scared me was close to the end of metal gear solid 2,

Spoiler

where the game starts glitching out, telling you to turn it off, sending codex calls all the time, glitching the codex you get, and then the game shows just live action footage of a woman being watched where the minimap should be, it hit a part of my head that made me feel like I was going crazy, worried about what else was going to happen and it actually overwhelmed and terrified me, after meeting snake it gets fun but before that it just really hit me in the bad spot and I'm pretty sure it wasn't supposed to be a scary moment

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

The Ocean House Hotel in Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines... No enemies just sound design and dreary atmosphere, some high tension situations also.

 

[Sinmenon]

I was just gonna say the big-ass spider in animal crossing wild world

(does that thing actually exist? the memory is very blurry and surreal and I don't think I encountered that thing more than once)

Actually yes! And only at night, during summer. I recall in New Leaf and it freaked me too

I hated the butler following you around everywhere in Tomb Raider II. His noises and slowly shambling towards you made me uncomfortable lol

Big mood. I don't know which was worse: him following me and running into him when not expecting or when I trapped him inside the walking in fridge and I run into him because he got out somehow

 

[Deleted member 525181]

Not necessarily "frightened" but shocked, especially the first time I played this part when I was 13 years old. It was a unique experience that no other game has got... I'm talking about Chrono Cross (spoilers ahead) when Lynx changes bodies with Serge, that freaking part when Serge goes from this:

To this:

 

[Gavin_McShooter]

I can't even and this still haunts me damn it.

Why?? Why do this???
*Final Fantasy VIII*

 

[Frickinfrik]

This cutscene in Twilight Princess made me shudder the first time I saw it.

Wallmasters in OoT and MM are more terrifying than any other enemy in those games. It’s the fact that they’re a disembodied hand and they can catch you by surprise if you don’t pay attention.

The Normal Game Over screen in Metroid Prime 3 gives me chills. Mainly because of the eerie ambient music that plays during it and it’s nothing but blood on a white background.

 

[Cantarella]

i'm going to do my best to describe this feeling. I don't want to oversell it and make this sound like the subject of some stupid creepypasta. Freaked out is too strong a term but something about the combination of elements here struck something in my brain. Rattled something primordial, y'know?


At the end of Quest 64, you enter the world of Mammon. Mammon is the main bad guy of the game that you've been hearing about for a bit. When you get there, you're greeted by this track, and it's the only track that you'll be hearing for a looooong time.

The world of mammon is a pretty atypical quest 64 dungeon. Forests with bright pink, bubbly backgrounds, long, loooong checkered hallways with miasmic backgrounds, and it goes on for a while. I don't think it's the longest, most exhausting dungeon, but it's pretty long. Hallway, forest, stairs, hallway, forest, stairs, over and over, fighting mobs in most areas, and eventually end up in a nightmare version of the town you started the game in. Now, this isn't scary. Even as a kid, I thought it was kind of cool. There are no monsters here, the music track has changed, and it's just kind of interesting to encounter. Quest 64 dungeons sometimes have tiny breaks, but usually they're almost unnoticeable. So a reprieve from the journey? With a unique setpiece! How refreshing. I must be near the very end or something. So, with nowhere else to go, you go through the town and then up to the nightmare version of the monastery you started your journey at. You open the door, and...

the music starts back up again and it's ANOTHER forest with a bright pink background.

Just those opening bars of the song, combined with how this game had made you walk through some brutally long hallways, and just how suddenly things shifted from 'enjoying an oasis' to 'oh god how much more I have to go,' well, it didn't frighten me, but I'm sure you all have had those nightmares where you're being chased or are lost, maybe in a hotel, maybe in a mansion, maybe somewhere else, and you throw open a door you think is the exit and there's just more hallway. There comes a point where you're sure subconscious is just fucking with you. And for a split second, I felt like this stupid sometimes charming rpg was fucking with me the same way a bad dream would.

 

[glokglakglak]

being chased

 

[ArkenDev]

Good ol' Ravenholm from HL2.
I think this part of HL2 would kill someone who has arachnophobia.

 

[nobitakun]

A mix of respect and fear:

 

[WesternYokai]

This fucker

Also this other fucker

 

[PhrawzT]

The Flood in Halo

 

[Your_Homie_Gale]

The ghosts in Sonic Adventure 2 are just so ugly and scary to me. I find it weird that they didn't scare me as a kid but now, only now that I've played other scarier games, they do. My only question is why add something like this to a child's game? Why do they look so ugly? And why do they jumpscare the player? That's just evil. As much as I love Pumpkin Hill and Aquatic Mine I dread going there because then I have to deal with them. Same goes for Death Chamber.

 

[Skeleben]

Lovin all the Earthbound talk in this thread. Me personally I always think about the Desert of the Knaaren level from Rayman 3. Scary atmosphere, location, and the Knaaren themselves.... jesus. The shit they yell at you while they hunt you down, while they're completely invincible to damage.

"Crush his bones."
"Skin him."
"Tear off his flesh!"

Crazy scary stuff for a goddamn Rayman game.

 

[Varyag]

I'm sure many people can confirm getting freaked out the first time SA-X shows up in Metroid Fusion, and the game does a close up of it's face and blank eyes inside the helmet.

But one thing that truly fucked me up as a kid, in a game that I still love to this day, was the "We live...." scene in Homeworld Cataclysm. When the Beast awakens taking over a huge section of your ship, and absorbing all the helpless crew into it.

Nowadays, the one not-specifically-horror game that I play a lot and still manages to scare me and keep me on a constant state of tension, is Stalker, specifically Anomaly with mods. Roaming around The Zone with a gas mask and an assault rifle, just hoping that an Emission doesn't pop up suddenly and ruins your latest loot run back to your base. Or getting jumped by mutants when you least expect it. Have jumped me off my chair a few times.

 

[kingofdragons]

Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland

freaking love this game. So underrated, ironically its a spinoff and yet its one my fav Zelda games

The Ocean House Hotel in Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines... No enemies just sound design and dreary atmosphere, some high tension situations also.

lmao, I still remember that when first playing it, here I am, cool Toreador Vampire, immortal, virtually indestructible, a creature of the night, I drink humans blood, I have supernatural speed and powers, I am the danger...and then here I am in this hotel, its haunted, it should be a great place to crash for a vampire and instead my heart is beating, I'm sweating, and I'm scared shitless. Its just one of the reasons I doubt anybody will ever make another VTM game as broken yet as perfect as this.

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

Spider headcrabs in Half Life Alyx nearly made me poop my pants.

 

[Pinballbuzzbro]

Lovin all the Earthbound talk in this thread. Me personally I always think about the Desert of the Knaaren level from Rayman 3. Scary atmosphere, location, and the Knaaren themselves.... jesus. The shit they yell at you while they hunt you down, while they're completely invincible to damage.

"Crush his bones."
"Skin him."
"Tear off his flesh!"

Crazy scary stuff for a goddamn Rayman game.

Love how eventually they just start yelling ridiculous crap like "Stick bamboo under his nails....", the entire game is full of great stupid humor like that and it's partially why it's my favorite Rayman game

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

lmao, I still remember that when first playing it, here I am, cool Toreador Vampire, immortal, virtually indestructible, a creature of the night, I drink humans blood, I have supernatural speed and powers, I am the danger...and then here I am in this hotel, its haunted, it should be a great place to crash for a vampire and instead my heart is beating, I'm sweating, and I'm scared shitless. Its just one of the reasons I doubt anybody will ever make another VTM game as broken yet as perfect as this.

That level was pretty well constructed, from the moment you emerge from the sewers and enter that courtyard, you feel that eeriness, permeated by silence.
Thankfully we have the unofficial patch that fixes most of the "blunders" of 1.2 version, some still remain like I often get stuck in the levels geometry specially if you use the third person view.
I miss the Troika guys, they made other bangers like temple of elemental evil and Arcanum.

 

[PSVitaForever]

Yes, "The Witcher 3" for Switch is 18+ so I should have seen something coming, but it was an open world action game, two things I like, so I thought: let's watch some gameplay videos and then decide.
I saw a part with a monster child, just one second and I was like "OMG", shut down the YouTube window and decided I would have bought some other game :)

 

[Cardboardtubeknight Cardboardtubeknight]

Drugs are bad, mmkay

 

[Yousef Yousef]

Sonic heroes; the level design

 

[Lokgamer]

The baby in Resident Evil Village. I never expected horror from Resident Evil (except for the 7th), and after playing Village for a couple of hours, I was really surprised at how well this section was made. The atmosphere is excellent, and I can see people who are still capable of being scared freaking out because of this.