6 times we got seriously creeped out by games that aren’t even horror games
Relating to creeping us out, games that aren’t classed as horror games have an actual benefit over these that are. Horror games are supposed to be scary, so we brace ourselves, and when an enormous scare lastly comes it may possibly really feel like a reduction. In non-horror games, nevertheless, we’re much less prone to flinch on the first trace of strangeness, so unease can develop inside us with out us even being conscious of it—a lure set behind our defenses that springs open the second we lastly understand that one thing is off, chilling us to our cores.
Speaking to the PC Gamer crew about this, a number of individuals stated they knew that issues like this had occurred to them in games, however that they could not keep in mind specifics—I select to interpret this to imply that they had been creeped out so unhealthy they blocked it out. Under, learn the unsettling moments in non-horror games we did keep in mind, and share your personal tales within the feedback. Glad Halloween!
The whispers of Black & White
(Picture credit score: Microsoft)
Every time a villager died in Black & White, the fun-but-flawed 2001 Peter Molyneux god recreation, a spectral voice would whisper ‘deeeeeeeeeath’. Maybe as a result of it was barely loud sufficient to select out over the common FX, the sound wormed its approach into my mind just like the Ceti eel larva which Khan dunked into Chekov’s ear. The extra I performed, the extra I began listening to ‘deeeeeeeeath’ elsewhere. In supermarkets. In school. On the shrink’s sofa.
Properly, not fairly. But it surely was creepy. And probably even creepier, as a result of the sport would additionally, very sometimes, whisper the participant’s title, supplied it was frequent sufficient to be within the number of audio samples. Fairly the way it knew what you had been known as was hotly debated, with this thread suggesting it was truly primarily based off your Home windows registration. Haunting stuff. —Tim Clark, Model Director
The girl in The Graveyard
Regardless of the title, The Graveyard just isn’t a horror recreation. It is an experimental artwork recreation by Story of Tales. In it, you slowly escort an aged lady via a cemetery. You take heed to a wierd little tune, after which the girl sits down for a relaxation on a bench. That is basically it, no less than within the free model. Within the paid model, there’s an opportunity that whereas the previous lady is sitting on the bench, she’ll die. My morbid curiosity led me to purchase the sport, and there I used to be, watching her relaxation on the bench for a number of lengthy, uneventful minutes.
At one level my cat jumped onto my desk and knocked a bunch of issues over. After a second spent straightening up, I seemed again on the display. The previous lady was lifeless. I am not a deep thinker, however this nonetheless lead to some moments of somber reflection on how minor distractions may cause you to overlook an important occasions in life, and the way our lives are fleeting and sometime we’ll all be passing away on that similar metaphorical bench, maybe whereas somebody essential to us is busy attending to one thing else.
Just a few weeks later, my morbid curiosity surfaced once more. I might gotten one thing out of The Graveyard, these few considerate moments, however I hadn’t truly witnessed that previous lady die. I began the sport once more, decided to see it truly occur. When the sport loaded, as a substitute of it starting with the stroll via the cemetery, it merely began on the bench the place that previous lady was nonetheless sitting there lifeless.
I used to be aghast. I freaked out. I feel I truly got out of my chair and left the room. I imply, yikes and gross and eww and nope. I had no reflective ideas on how as soon as we die we’re lifeless for all eternity, or something like that. What got to me was the thought that there’d been an previous lifeless lady on my laptop for a number of weeks, simply sitting there, lifeless and alone and lifeless whereas I used to be enjoying different games. I instantly uninstalled it, after which double-checked to verify all of the recordsdata had been fully gone. It was simply too rattling creepy to know she was there, her lifeless digital physique haunting my PC. —Chris Livingston, Senior Editor
The stalking of Creepy Watson
A number of the funniest videogame moments emerge from odd NPC companion behaviors, significantly their struggles with pathfinding. However even the silliest of them, like Geralt’s horse Roach winding up on rooftops, strike me as no less than a bit creepy, as effectively. (Have you ever seen Nathan Fielder present The Curse? It’d have an effect on how you are feeling about physics glitches.)
The most effective examples of unsettling NPC behaviors did not occur to me personally, however I’ve included it right here to characterize this complete class of experiences. It occurred in 2008 Frogwares detective recreation (*6*). Because the creator of the video above put it, “You never see or hear Dr. Watson move. He just edges towards you silently when you’re not looking.”
Sadly, I checked and Watson now trots to maintain up with Sherlock as a substitute of materializing a couple of ft away like an evil doll. Pity, however I suppose I am unable to fault Frogwares for patching a human soul into poor, creepy Watson. —Tyler Wilde, Editor-in-Chief US
The phantom fifth good friend in The Forest
(Picture credit score: Endnight Games)
Final 12 months when Sons of the Forest got here out, I performed via the marketing campaign with my go-to group of survival crafting mates. It is all the time the 4 of us and we figured we might make brief work of the SotF marketing campaign if we caught collectively. Some may think about it a horror recreation—its island of harmful experiments and darkish caves is certainly scary and a bit creepy—however that’s not how our occasion of survival crafting adventurers had been approaching it.
Late within the recreation we had been spelunking via one such darkish cave, armed with axes and glow sticks, when we heard a noise we hadn’t encountered earlier than, some form of summary screech just like the sound impact for a leap scare. Besides it sounded prefer it was coming via somebody’s shitty previous Xbox headset and never the sport itself. Off within the distance we noticed an additional participant tag. It was our good friend’s username. Our good friend who was undoubtedly standing proper subsequent to us. Huddled collectively and creeping deeper into the cave we stored listening to the noise, questioning aloud if there was any approach an additional individual might have gotten into our session to troll us with spooky sounds. However why wouldn’t it have our good friend’s title? After about 5 minutes it lastly vanished and we by no means did determine out if it was some bizarre glitch, an intentional meta scare inside the recreation itself, or a gaggle hallucination that we all nonetheless recall to at the present time. — Lauren Morton, Affiliate Editor
The tragedy of Edda Pureheart
(Picture credit score: Sq.-Enix)
This may be bucking the development a bit, in that the developer’s goal right here was to be creepy, however Edda Pureheart—a side-character in Remaining Fantasy 14—and her story’s decision scared the residing crap out of me. Spoilers for sections of A Realm Reborn forward.
You first encounter this character throughout the primary situation quest in a, fairly frankly, messed-up apart that’s meant to show you the way grim adventuring can get. You overhear her speaking to her adventuring occasion, who’ve simply come again from a really, very unhealthy time in a dungeon. Edda’s their healer, and she or he wasn’t in a position to save her fiancé and childhood good friend, Avere. Oh yeah, additionally, she’s maintaining his head in a bag. Regular!
Afterward, when you clear up the Copperbell Mines, Edda approaches you to let you know how a lot of an inspiration you might be, and that she desires to get previous her grief to develop into a powerful adventurer. She doesn’t do that. As an alternative, she will get a bit too into necromancy, culminating within the haunting dungeon of “Tam-Tara Deepcroft (Hard)”—a degree 50 variant of the dungeon that noticed her betrothed beheaded.
This whole factor is creepy sufficient in isolation, as you make your approach via the mind-controlled members of Edda’s former adventuring troupe and hordes of undead, earlier than lastly killing Avere’s reanimated head. She topples, hauntingly, off the sting of the cliff to die a Disney villain demise.
FFXIV: ARR – Edda Apparition (Tam-Tara Deepcroft HM) – YouTube
However then, for some motive, Sq. Enix determined to place the nightmare of a cutscene embedded above on the finish of the questline that unlocks the dungeon and—twelve forfend, who greenlit this? It comes out of nowhere, and whereas FF14 does sometimes have spooky and harrowing scenes, nothing ever fairly reaches this degree of chilling once more. —Harvey Randall, Workers Author
Down within the Bonehoard
(Picture credit score: Trying Glass Studios)
Like a grasp thief slinking previous unsuspecting guards, I’ve already snuck a Thief recreation and mod into our listing of the most effective horror games. Now I’ll have my cake and steal it too by speaking about Thief as if it is not a horror recreation.
And horror actually is not the first focus of those foundational stealth games, however the ambiance is so brutal and oppressive, its occasional digressions into one thing spooky depart a long-lasting impression. A whole lot of love deservedly goes to the third recreation’s Shalebridge Cradle, a haunted orphanage/sanitarium (what a combo!), however I need to shout out the O.G. Darkish Mission’s Down within the Bonehoard.
It begins with a descent via some claustrophobic crypts and tunnels earlier than opening up right into a dizzying necropolis filled with zombies. The creatures are threatening sufficient, however the true horror right here comes from this sense that you might be an outsider, even extra so than The Darkish Mission’s common infiltrations. You are inhaling air gone stale from centuries of isolation, kicking up mud that settled earlier than your forefathers had been even born, and you’ll virtually really feel the disapproval emanating from the advanced’s low-poly creepy statues. Throw in a memorable leap scare with a speaking lure and a mission goal guarded by a perpetually burning man, and you have got your self a recipe for an unsettling evening at dwelling alone. —Ted Litchfield, Affiliate Editor