I feel the scene where you're running away from the huge baby monster in RE Village should've been mentioned. Game was still scary at some points, but those rooms you run around while the monster chases you is a moment ill never forget
Its unbelievable nobody freaked out and did whatever they could to have Kojima make that game, from the legendary buzz it would have probably sold 10 million copies minimum.
I honestly just wish PT was still available to purchase and play if you already didn't. I have so many people who don't even know what it is - and I want them to experience the horror.
Give what Konami was at the time only to get worse, I'd say this is the best case scenario. I doubt they would've allowed the full game to be what it needed to be.
Yes, the Silent Hill 3 mirror room really got me when I played it. I felt SO unnerved by it. Modern game makers could learn a lot from a scare like that.
The horror games released during the 2000's still scare better than modern ones, and that's including the amazing games released this year. Silent Hill, during it's height, encompassed every single thing that makes the horror genre so unnerving.
The thing that sets SH3 from a lot of modern horror games is the audio. Some of the sounds they put in the game put you on edge, even though there's nothing around.
@@CEREBRALWALLSY Audio, but also the visuals. They're right in that sweet uncanny valley spot. Also, subtlety was a thing back then. Games are not very subtle today. Sometimes, less is more.
I liked the room in the dilapidated department store level of Condemned 1 where dozens of mannequins suddenly start appearing all around you and behind you, just staring. In general thats one of my all time favorite levels in any game because of the unsettling Christmastime ambiance of the store and paranoia of the mannequins
It's a shame we never got another condemned game. The whole dilapidated urban setting was so well done, I could smell the mold and trash thru my TV in almost all the levels 😂
Very rarely has a game made me the same way as when I run up stairs faster to get away from the "monsters". This night mission and also being chased by Mr. X in the RE2 Remake
The one flooded room in BioShock in the area where you meet Sander Cohen. You go into the empty flooded room, grab the loot out of the box, lights flash off then on, you turn around and there are splicers right behind you that look like statues. Scared the hell out of me the first time I played it.
Just started replaying the remaster, earlier in the game you go into a dental office that fogs up, a corpse appears in a surgical chair the first time, then you go to pick up a key item off a desk and the fog happens again. You turn around and there's a splicer right behind you, it didn't scare me this time but when I played the original I jumped pretty hard from that.
The morgue in Arkham asylum before the first scarecrow nightmare was freaky to me when I first played it. I didn’t know what to do so I was in the morgue for like 20 minutes just listening to the ghostly "get out” and “you shouldn’t be here” before I went back through the doors again
I wish Monolith would remake or, heck, even just remaster the Condemned games. They were super underrated, fun, scary and beautiful for the console generation. They were a perfect amalgamation of Mystery, Action-Horror, Investigative Thriller. Some amazing set-pieces as well, like the one mentioned in this video, ALL the crime scenes of the first one and the "Bear Lodge" in the second one.. the way you slowly make your way through the snowy wilderness, finding tracks, hearing growls, finding the half-dead agent then hearing the bear above you, dust falling from the ceiling as it ominously moves around, DEAD quiet as you walk up.. I have no issues going back and replaying my Xbox360 copies, but a remake or just an enhanced update would be so awesome. Condemned, FEAR, The Darkness and Chronicles of Riddick, those are the game series from that generation that I would LOVE to see remade, remastered or continued. I wont ever expect to see them, probably doesn't make sense from a sales standpoint, but it would be welcomed and I'd be willing to pay $20-$40 for a remaster bundle of each
I agree - condemned and FEAR id love to see remade on a new one. That bear scene in condemned and the elementary school in fear 2 were definitely two of the scariest parts in any game
i vividly remember looking in the mirror in a restroom in doom 3 when you get a jump scare. i have the biggest respect of bathroom mirrors in every spooky video game since then.
I can't emphasize enough how scary Reginerators were in Og RE4. The way they moved...was the nightmare fuel, nothing else in the game moved like that and it was the contrast between, zombies and predictable behemoth monsters and...the reginnerators odd slow walk with weird shaking and then fast jumping bites from nowhere (and the need to hit it in weak points not just its head) that made me feel like after hours of playing the game and not being too freaked out, I suddenly didn't have any idea what I was doing and how to not die, and the sheer fear of how that thing walked, turned this stage into the most memorable thing in all RE4 for me as a kid. So much so, they became memes between me and my sister, us pretending to be Reginerators hiding in the corners. It's also why you don't give a 4th grader an M game.
I find it funny Capcom didn't change the regenerators breathing sound effect from the original. Was a nightmare back then, and is now. Also that part in Eternal Darkness got me too. Wish the game got a proper sequel.
For me one of the most terrifying gaming experiences was TLOU II where there’s a dark office space with a bunch of stalkers just crawling around. I was tensed up the entire time. 😱
@@hyulle well, to be fair, the first game has some similar areas. But it’s the 2nd game I’m talking about. You play as Ellie and I feel like this area I’m talking about had way more stalkers and it’s so much creepier.
I feel it was even worse in the remake if you happened to have played the original first. Going through that hallway the first time you're expecting it, the windows crack, but nothing happens beyond that. Coming back through that hallway at a later time after feeling like it's safe now, THEN the dogs burst through.
Making something genuinely terrifying truly is an art. I don't think there's a lot of genres that have missed the mark as much as horror has. Imagine trying to frighten a player that's already used to horror games, from the comfort of their home, without overusing cheap tricks like jumpscares.
Resident Evil 2 on PS1 ALWAYS put my heart into overdrive when you're in the interrogation room and then run to the other room on the other side of the mirror 🥶
Can't believe you missed out RE7 with the children's room, where the lights are out and a ball moves across the room as you enter. The sound design is so creepy and you can here a Mold nearby and you have no ammo after the boss fight with the Sister. Clutter everywhere in the darkness so hard to make an escape in a hurry
In resident evil 7 at the beginning of the game when Jack busts straight through a wall to cut you off was horrifying the first time playing because he doesn’t always do that!! The entire baker house was extremely unsettling but yea that was a massive clinch and run backwards moment when he came through the wall!
Not a horror game, but the first room when you encounter the Flood in Halo was absolutely terrifying. I ran around with a pistol and shotgun panic firing before ultimately dying to the little creeps.
Whoa, I was not expecting Scratches on here or in any video. Such a great game. I bought it at Walmart back in like 07 on their tiny little PC gaming rack. Good times and a hidden gem.
Same here! I never buy games at Walmart either, it just happened to be on a shelf and caught my eye as I was walking by. I figured wth it's cheap and it looks cool. Holy christ, I was not prepared.
Silent Hill 4's titular room is much scarier than that silly Eileen head room. The Eileen head wasn't creepy; it just left me scratching my own head and wondering, "Why?"
While not a great game, the scene in Silent Hill: Downpour on the cart (roller coaster?) got me. You cone across the scene with the mannequins when the cart stops and the light goes out. What follows is similar to the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who. The light comes back on and the mannequins have moved. Then it goes dark before coming back on and reveals they're approaching you. And just repeats until they're right on top of you. And there's nothing you can do. I kept spamming the attack button to no avail. And was greatly relieved when the light came back on for the final time and those mannequins were back in their starting positions. If only the rest of the game could have been that intense.
what made TLoU2 workbench so effective with the locked door is that if youre already an explorer and come across the door, it put you into a false sense of security that you were gonna have to access the room from another angle and unlock the door that way. I remember going to bench and I couldnt press cancel fast enough when I heard those foot steps running up. "shit shit shit!!!!" lmfaoooo
Fatal Frame 3 was the first game of the franchised that I played. In the game, you can wander around your home and your bedroom is basically your game save spot. You would think that you'll feel safe in your own home but sometimes you'll be seeing ghosts around your house makes it unsettling. Not to mention the "screen saver" after being idle for too long.
Here are two I never forgot from Fallout 3: In the small village of Andale, the residents are creepy and pretend to be nice, until you unlock the basement under a house and go inside. You see cut up corpses of people they were eating. Another one is in the Dunwich Building, and while the entire place is terrifying, in one room you see a ghostly apparition of a man, who then turns into a Glowing One. The audiologs are scary and explain what happened.
Vault 106 terrified me. When you start hallucinating, walking down a hall and you see Amata running towards you and then multiple of her running towards you😭
For #8, there was a point in the original Dead Space where a necromorph attacked me at a save point, can't remember which chapter but it was towards the middle of the game. Not sure if it was intentional or by accident. But that made me stop and question, "Am I really safe here?" at various points throughout the remainer of the game.
the Doom 3 BFG bathroom cutscene scared the heck out of me. i was so into the game at that point and when the cutscene triggered. i was not prepared for it. However, the most fear inducing time i have had is playing Skyrim VR with a darkness mod and a mod that made bears much bigger. On the way to riften i was attacked by a bear. Nearly fell over while using a KAT C.
When I saw the title of this video I immediately thought of the mirror room in Silent Hill 3, glad to see it on the list, didn't think it would actually be up that high though. Also a bunch of these relied on jumpscares, which in memory are tied to the room, but weren't really about the room. Also when there isn't a jumpscare, but a room that has a really unsettling atmosphere or an event that gets under your skin, to me, is way more impressive than something quick and unexpected that goes "boo!" imho
In Resident Evil 4, if you're quick enough, you can actually get a peek at the monster before he takes off and hides, prior to his reappearance in the doorway.
Yuppp. I saw the bastard and I got goosebumps and was like “well that’s enough for tonight” lmao. That section was so difficult to get through, absolutely terrifying
Not a horror game, but I think my biggest "pucker moment" was in "Portal 2". Towards the beginning you come along the remains of GLaDOS, and I just froze. I knew I was heading there, but once she was right in front of me on the ground... I was honestly too scared to move. Until then, I had no idea what effect Portal and GLaDOS' character had had on me. As I inched by, I kept waiting for a jump scare or something, like her grabbing me. But it didn't happen. I walked by her, went into a little chamber, flipped a switch to power some stuff back on and just made my way back the door... and then she started to move slowly, piecing herself back together. I couldn't have felt more intimidated than if it was actually happening to me in real life. Brilliant work by the development team. Shoutout to the END of Portal 2 when GLaDOS, after having formed and odd relationship with her, deletes "the file". My heart sank through my stomach and into the floor. Also, I'm 44 and I'm STILL traumatized by the piano in "Mario 64". 😵💫
The gallows room in SH2 always terrified me he most. There are no enemies, just a black void with gallows in the middle, but every now and then you can hear creepy footsteps passing by and it never failed to send chills down my spine.
you do in fact see the regenerator before fighting it, when you first enter the area and hang a right, it's at the end of the hallway and runs left around the corner
For me the interrogation room in Resident Evil 2 when a Licker jumps thru the mirror will always be the scariest room and moment ever. I know it looks like a cheap jump scare, but the preparation for this moment is just on point, the first time you visit this room you are still exploring the police station for the first time and you are wary of whatever might be waiting for you every time you visit a new room, but this is surprisingly a clear room with no nasty surprises waiting for you, BUT the second time you need to visit this room you already know your way and you cleared most of the path out of enemies, you enter confidently, pick the item you need, start walking your way out and then that fucking Licker crashes thru the mirror and forces your shit to abandon your body at match speed. I was like 12 or 13 years old when I played this, but at that moment I paused the game and felt the urge to smoke a cigar to get my shit together and I have never in my life smoked one single time. Up to this day I still curse the devs for this and I wish for a game that would make me feel this scary again.
For the integration room I think the item that triggers the jump is different for Clair and Leon, one is a key item and another is a spray. That unpredictability makes the room even more scary!
Visage. The room with the full length mirror on the first floor of the house. When the door locks behind you and the lights go out…It’s the closest I’ve ever been to being too scared to play a game. I’ll never forget it.
cool thing about tlou2 bench that enemies dont spawn behind you, they are actually in the locked room. So if you put a bomb under that door it will blow up dudes, when they try to leave it to ambush you.
I don't think this exactly counts as a room, but the stairs in Resident Evil 7, when Mia comes crawling up. I never experience any worse abject fear then in that moment and the game is relatively tame up to that moment.
#8: Resident Evil 2 Remake did this in the RPD main hall. They removed the safety of being able to be left alone to save and use an item box in that room by allowing Mr. X in there. It was a great curveball.
I hated the generator rooms on two betrayals, popping my shields to then have a flood mob full of rocket jockeys. That terrified me so much when I was 6.
Honorable mention, Silent Hill 2, the Prison's cell hallway. The one where you hear footsteps and a voice just repeating the word "Ritual" in a low tone, and then you enter the one cell and it locks you in for a minute. That whole sequence is terrifying.
This list was really unsatisfying. Many of the games were "you had to be there to feel it" level of horror which doesn't translate when many of the games are one or two decades old. By this metric, the fact that you missed out the _dead Hand_ zombie creature from the bottom of the well of Kakariko Village from Zelda AoC is incredible. That thing was really the stuff of nightmares for 8 year old kids..
how could you ignore resident evil 2? both the art room and the interrogation room are absolute bangers, for a jump scare that you know is coming and still jump every time.
terrifying rooms include: Alien: Isolation A 2014 game that some consider one of the scariest horror games in recent years. It features dark, desolate settings, dynamic sound, and an unsettlingly-smart alien AI. Dead Space A sci-fi game where players investigate an unknown threat infesting a food storage station in space. The gruesome discovery is a hoard of misshaped monstrosities called Necromorphs. Outlast A first-person survival game where players must escape with a less than reliable night-vision camcorder. BioShock A game that some consider one of the most unnerving and effective examples of horror in gaming. Fatal Frame A game with grim environments, unsettling noises, and tension. Bloodborne A game that some consider uniquely terrifying, with a setting and high-stakes combat full of unforgiving monsters and traps.
The scare that got me in Scratches was the mask jump scare after checking out a small walk in closet. Normally the mask is in there but in this instance it's missing. When you open the door to leave it's outside the door looking at you. Very well done!
Missing from this list is the first server room from System Shock. To complete the level you have to destroy the servers, and as you’re about to start smashing SHODAN contacts you and says “touch those servers and that room will be your grave.” It’s the first time I ever pushed back from the keyboard and actually took a moment to contemplate doing what I’d originally planned. Of course I did it anyway because duh, but the hell she unleashed as soon as I started plus the fact a video game legitimately caused me to pause and rethink things made sure I never forgot that game or that room.
For me it's Milla Vodello's hidden mindscape room in the original Psychonauts. Such a bright, colorful level in an already bright and colorful game filled with familiar cartoon voice actors -- and then you find this room, likely by accident, revealing that a group of orphaned children she once cared for had tragically died in a fire. The children even manifest as horrible, whispering nightmares that inform the player just how guilty Milla feels over the incident (though you'd never know if you never found the room). Stumbling upon this for the first time as a kid (at 1AM, no less) is something that has always stuck with me.
that one elevator in dead space 2 when a necromorph jumps on you, after dead space 1 and the first half of dead space 2 showed you that elevators are "safe space" really got me a heart attack.
System Shock 2: The cargo hold. It sounds boring, but the cryokinetic monkeys can and do attack from almost any direction keeping you on the edge of your seat, the "helper" droids coming to life randomly can drive you nuts, and the mecha-bots keep you on your toes, especially as the last two track you down once they see you. Oh, and then there are the hidden turrets. It may sound like a combat fest, but between never having enough ammunition to deal with everything coming at you, that anything can attack you, and you need items from the area that you need to solve puzzles while dealing with the attacks, and it's easily one of the scariest places.
that final Ashley section in rooms full of armors gave me nightmares. Not because of any jumpscares. No. It's because playing on Profesional is near damn impossible. So scary. lol
Resident Evil 2's interrogation room. You'd been in the other side of the room, so you're not expecting anything to be in there. It was a one way mirror, so when you were in the other side, you could see through and see the loot on the other side. So when you finally get to that side of the room to get the loot, you've got dollar signs in your eyes, because it's been teasing you with this loot for so long. But it's a one way mirror, and you can't see what's on the other side. And then one of those licky tongue creatures comes crashing through the mirror and attacks you! I was so surprised I literally dropped my controller and let out a high pitched scream like a tiny little girl. Then I had to scramble on the floor for my controller, frantically pressing buttons like a cat pawing at the controller, because I didn't have time to properly pick up the controller in order to save myself from dying. That was perhaps my most memorable video game moment of all time.
The cabin from Resident Evil: Code Veronica. Right near the start of the game, there's a pair of limited ammo dual guns in a cabin. As you explore throughout the cabin, you can hear somewhat rhythmic banging at a window deeper in. When you finally come across the weapon it is plainly obvious the banging is from a zombie at the window in plain view, conveniently near said guns. Predictably, picking up the guns causes the glass to shatter as the zombie lunges through the window, also activating several more enemies in the surrounding area, which you have to get through to actually leave the cabin again. Now the event itself is very predictable as stated, but the sounds are what really makes the scene. You spend a couple to several minutes exploring this cabin with the constant banging gradually ramping up the anxiety. Even though your heart may be racing wondering what is causing this noise and when you'll be attacked, you're initially let down by the obviously coming jump scare, even chuckling a bit. Perhaps at your foolish nerves, perhaps at the developers for such a scene. Then you pick up the guns. The short cut scene plays, but when the glass finally gives way to the zombie it is truly, horrifyingly loud, quickly followed by the sounds of zombies not only of the one next to you now, but throughout the cabin, on top of the haunting background music. You're startled by the glass sound effect and immediately thrust into a situation where you could lose your life, or at least much needed ammo and healing items, with the only way out being through the sudden horde you find yourself facing.
So happy you mentioned the Mirror Room from SH3. I was remembering back then. Some friends and I would never stop talking about the mirror room from SH3, Pyramid Head's first encounter from SH2, or the kitchen monster from SH1.
The Silent Hill 2 room with Pyramid Head and the mannequin monsters...it was so disturbing and mind chilling. I dread that room every time I replay the game.
The point is that it needs much more thoughts to make a single room scary compared to a whole area. Since there is not that much space to build up the horror!
I'm glad the Eileen head room finally made a list. I was playing that with my aunt and uncle back in 07 and the minute we saw it, simultaneously we all went "Oh gat damn!" The funniest sheeit ever, but terrifying. And the dude said absolutely nothing about it, like it was normal.
If you liked Scratches, you should play the similarly low budget point 'n click horror title The Last Crown: A Ghost Hunting Adventure. It also has probably one of the most memorable 'terrifying room's I've ever experienced.
So with that TLOU2 example, I actually thought the same thing as Falcon, but I searched the whole damn apartment. They literally don't exist before you access the work bench, or at least they didn't immediately after release. I was surprised and honestly pissed when jt happened BECAUSE I'd gone out of my way to search for them.
You can't search the whole apartment because they're behind a locked door; they don't exit the room until you interact with the workbench 😅 then you can enter the room they were hiding in
The little room under the stairs in Fatal Frame 3 really did it for me. We enter it, the door suddenly locked, traps us in that little space and here comes some ghost whispers and so many faces appears on the wall. We have to endured those apparitions for a few minutes until they all are disappeared, and the door opens up again.
On the topic of scary rooms and the last of us…. Either the hotel basement (you know the one) in the first game, or the rat king encounter in the second game. Also think the opening of Dead Space deserves an honourable mention.
Halflife - the original one - the room rigged to blow with all the trip wires. A picture of that room is a definition of "Anxiety" Hellblade: Trapped in the dark room, no light, working from SOUND ALONE with Hellblades BRILLIANT sound design.
For anyone that played PT, I think it’s fair to say it could be number one. Game was so scary it inspired many copy cats after it’s release, just brilliant.
@jonathanbirch2022 There were a few of those in that game, not sure which one was the most memorable, but I guess safe-head guy encounter when you turn the valves was an adrenalin riser scene, and ruvik's sister encounters maybe. also there was a time when you were at the safe house where you could save and patch yourself up talking to that nurse... one second everything was fine and after checking something all of a sudden a freaking frightening roar or something plays out and all the lights are gone, the nurse is nowhere to be found and that music and atmosphere scared the shit out of me although there was no enemies around. That game was one of the best titles in survival horror genre and its very unfortunate that it didn't get a third one, definitely had a great potential. my salutation to Mikami for his masterpieces.
If anyone knows anything about silent hill and it's lore + what it's inspired by (I'm not talking about the original and very real town of Silent Hill and it's tragic story) then the mirror room makes perfect sence. For those that didn't know, Silent Hill I'd based on 2 things..... 1. As I mentioned, the very real Town "Silent Hill" (actually called "Centralia") in Pennsylvania which suffered a horrific incedent in a mine that made everyone abandoned the town but a few people including the mayor...... 2. The lore of the games is heavily focused on Japanese superstition of the mirror being a reflection of your soul, Silent Hill acts as the mirror realm where your force to face your soul and all your physical manifestations of your souls sins. A great example is Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2.... Pyramid Head is actually just James Sunderland (the protagonist we play as) Pyramid Head us the physical manifestation of our guilt of what James did to his wife. Once you know these 2 points the games have a whole new perspective and makes them so much more better.
2:31 not only that, if you've played the original, you'll be on the edge of your seat in that area only to turn around and see a hand grab at you. Damn, didn't know Leon had this much reflex
I bought Scratches when it first came out, gotta say it was one of the best horror games I've played. It keeps you on edge without going insane with jumpscares.
The few spaces where you could craft ammo and then suddenly the lady ghost with the distorted voice in TEW2 scared me for a while, I was scared of going into those rooms because of her haha
You can actually see the regenerator run out of view down the corridor prior to switching the power to turn on the lights. That's the most unnerving part of that sequence.
The game Scratches and the boiler room (nr 3) was literally that first thing I thought of when I clicked on this video. I haven´t thought about it for years or played in since it came out in 07 something. I remember playing it alone in my room in the dark at night (as it should be experienced) and to this day Iˋm too p*ssy to reexperience it lol. 😅Since it is a puzzle game it never got the attention it deserved. Highly recommend if you reading this want to play something that will be in the back of your mind for years to come! It says something that it was mentioned and ranked high in this video even tho the guy has played hundreds if not thousands of games since then but still remembers it. Also a nice change of pace to play a horror story game that relies on atmosphere rather than cheap jump scares like most modern horror games.
Max Payne on OG XBOX got me! In a nightmare, when you had to follow the blood trails and listen to the screaming baby. As a kid, i could not play that section in the dark.
