Topic: GameSpy's Scariest Moments in Gaming

[MysterD]

GameSpy's scariest moments list for Halloween

The original Silent Hill makes it for the School

The Haunted School in Silent Hill  (Konami, PS)

Witnessed by: Gerald Villoria

I've played every Resident Evil game since Resident Evil 2, and have yet to be frightened as much as during my original experience with Silent Hill. If Resident Evil is the Night of the Living Dead of video games, then Silent Hill is our Jacob's Ladder. The moment that defines the original game for many people is the first visit to Midwich Elementary and the encounter with the shadowy children of that cursed school.

While there were plenty of things that could kill you in the game, nothing was as frightening as these squeaking, crying little horrors, even if they were completely harmless. While "scary children" are being overused in films these days, Silent Hill captured the frightening imagery perfectly, and it's still hard to get their creepy little voices out of our heads.

System Shock 2

Entering Janice Polito's Office in System Shock 2  (EA, PC)

Witnessed by: Allen 'Delsyn' Rausch

There are plenty of terrifying moments in System Shock 2 (every time the ship's alarm goes off and summons zombies from all over the level is a good one), but even so, this moment in the game stands out. System Shock 2 begins with the player waking up from cryogenic slumber aboard a starship where something has gone horribly wrong. Most of the crew is dead, those who aren't have been… changed, and hideous aliens who call themselves The Many are invading the ship.

The only survivors seem to be the player and one other crew member, Dr. Janice Polito, who communicates with the player from her office where she's been trapped by the aliens. After a couple of hours, however, the player may start to realize that something's wrong. Dr. Polito isn't acting like someone who's desperate to be rescued. She's showing flashes of irrational rage and she's awfully nasty to the person whom she's supposed to be working with. It's isn't until the player finally reaches Dr. Polito's office that the reason for this becomes clear. Dr. Polito's dead. She has been since the game started. The... thing… that's been masquerading as her greets the player with a laugh and reveals some terrifying truths about who she is, who The Many are and what's really been going on. That's the moment when, as bad as things looked before they got to Dr. Polito's office, the reality is infinitely worse.

One Word/Acronymn: F.E.A.R.

Meeting Alma in F.E.A.R. (Vivendi Games, PC)

Witnessed by: Li C. Kuo

Few games have unnerved me as much as last year's hit first-person shooter F.E.A.R., thanks to a creepy little girl named Alma and her uncanny ability to show up at all the wrong times. While it's true that the image of the little dead girl with dark hair is getting old, F.E.A.R. was one of the first games to capture the unease of films like The Ring and incorporate it into an action game.


There were many times when you'd round a corner or turn around to find Alma looking at you with her dead eyes. These moments were combined with the screeching audio cues and eerie music to create a genuine feeling of dread and fear. If I had to pick any one moment to stand out from all the others, it would be the scene where you run into Alma while crawling through some air ducts. You creep over a declining portion of the ducts just in time to see Alma crab-walk sideways straight towards you. I didn't sleep well that night.

Vampire: Bloodlines gets on there for the Ocean House level

The Ocean House Hotel in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (Activision, PC)

Witnessed by: Allen 'Delsyn' Rausch

In a game about vampires, it's ironic that the scariest moments in the game involve ghosts. The Ocean House Hotel is a piece of property owned by one of the vampires of Santa Monica. Unfortunately, it's also being haunted by the spirit of a murdered woman and her two children along with the ghost of her husband -- he's the nutbar who killed them and then set the hotel on fire. The player's job is to put the spirits to rest so that the vampire's construction crew will return and finish tearing the place down.

The Ocean House is filled with every haunted house cliché you can imagine. Lights flicker on and off as you approach them. A chandelier nearly drops on you as you walk in the front door, "Get out!" written in blood suddenly appears on a wall, a screaming woman in a nightdress runs down the hall, and when you turn the corner, there's nobody there! About the time you're halfway through the level a female voice suddenly whispers in your ear, "He's coming." You'll be ready to just shut off the computer and huddle in the corner clutching a crucifix.

[iPPi]

One part made me jump in FEAR.  It was when you are going to climb down a ladder, and Alma just stands there when you turn around to climb down.  That made me literally jump.

[Quemaqua]

Made me jump too, but FEAR wasn't a scary game really.  Very, very cool, but not scary.

And the stupid little ghosty children in Silent Hill I don't find scary at all.  I always kind of liked them.  They make me feel comfy.  What scared the pants off me was the evil side school and all the little mummy children things running around.  *That* freaked me the hell out.

[MysterD]

Made me jump too, but FEAR wasn't a scary game really.  Very, very cool, but not scary.

And the stupid little ghosty children in Silent Hill I don't find scary at all.  I always kind of liked them.  They make me feel comfy.  What scared the pants off me was the evil side school and all the little mummy children things running around.  *That* freaked me the hell out.

Que, what did you think of Ocean Hotel in Vampire: BL? Scary??? Or no???

Definitely one of the coolest levels in recent gaming history....

[TheOtherBelmont]

Made me jump too, but FEAR wasn't a scary game really.  Very, very cool, but not scary.

And the stupid little ghosty children in Silent Hill I don't find scary at all.  I always kind of liked them.  They make me feel comfy.  What scared the pants off me was the evil side school and all the little mummy children things running around.  *That* freaked me the hell out.

Same here, holy crap that part was freaky.  That part that JB mentioned about FEAR was in the demo that I played, I remember jumping on that part too.

[Quemaqua]

The Ocean House was... a little scary.  But not really.  Damn cool, though, you're right.

Actually, I don't know if I've ever told this story, but what freaked me out about that level wasn't anything in the level itself, but a hardcore deja vu thing I had while playing it.  Now, I get deja vu really "bad" sometimes.  I don't believe in psychics or anything like that, but I frequently get very specific feelings of deja vu over very specific things that I can prove I've never done before.  Like when at work, we got these paintings in to decorate the basement, and I was writing out a card in our filing system while my boss was talking to the guys carrying the paintings and setting them up.  I had this hardcore memory of which painting they were carrying, what she said, and what I was writing down.  And it all sort of happened seconds after I had the "recollection".  Again, I don't believe in funny business, but for some reason this happens to me a lot.  I guess my brain just thinks it knows things it doesn't sometimes.

Anyway, that happened to me the first time I played the Ocean House level.  I obviously had never played it before since I'd just bought it and hadn't downloaded it or anything, or even played a demo.  But the beginning portion of that level started to feel really familiar, and it all came to a head as I went down into that one area where you find the journal.  The journal is a little cheesy, but it was really fucking eerie because I felt like I knew exactly what was coming next as I read it, all the way up until the end.  It's probable that I just guessed it, as it was pretty by the numbers... but it freaked me the fuck out.  So when all the pots and pans and shit started flying, I got really weirded out and had to turn the game off for a while, haha.

[Xessive]

Fatal Frame 2: The Crimson Butterfly Was one of the scariest games I've ever experienced! The two main reasons being (besides the content actually being creepy) that the scary things you see can actually hurt you, and that it takes me a while to aim properly with frickin' analogue stick!

I'm a little surprised that Clive Barker's Undying didn't make it into the list. The first time you encounter the creepy beasts in the garden room was pretty scary.