The existential dread of The Source Engine 

A HUGE part of it is that all the textures are low-res photoscans*, making everything look like a somewhat hazy dream from your subconscious real-life memories. Secondly, for me, I used to play with my friends on GMod quite a bit, so it literally feels like some depopulated space. Thirdly, I don't think Source is an inspiration for backrooms; but both draw on the same 1990s office aesthetic (soulless, creepy, nostalgic all at once)

To underscore your idea that the backrooms were inspired by Source, the original 4chan post literally mentions it being reached via "noclip".

Empty source engine maps feel like you got sucked into another dimension but you can still faintly hear traces of the other side

I usually don't leave comments but I felt so connected with this video, i remember feeling the exact same way messing around in gmod when i was younger, that weird paranoia, it always made me so uncomfortable. Really great video, so glad it showed up in my recommended, you definitely deserve heaps more recognition!

for me I almost never feel creeped out or uneasy when playing games like half life 2, because all the ambiance actually makes sense along with the dark and grimey environments, but the second I boot up gmod I start constantly looking over my shoulder

Yep. Source's otherworldliness was creepy but strangely alluring as well. It's what got me into gamedev. I suspect there's a magic sweetspot of baked ambient occlusion, far-off stinger sounds, and flat repeating textures that make a space feel liminal.

I thought your visual examples and sound effects to help describe what you're talking about really helped me truly see how creepy being alone can be In a videogame world.

I always credited that unsettling feeling to sound design more than anything else, more specificallly the sound engine reverbation effects to emulate sounds bouncing and echoing off the space around you. It's just that *everything* sounds like its recorded in an empty, open back alley, with a sort of cold, short and harsh plate reverb, even if you're not in that environment. The early part of HL2 easily comes to mind, in the dead and dreadful City17. It works really well there, but it's kept throughout the whole game and in nearly all games using the same tech. Our brains know what sounds should sound like in different environments, and because the reverbation and echo effects themselves are quite real sounding in that engine, it's basically the uncanny valley effect brought on via sounds.

One of my favorite genres of video, "Why is Source creepy?"

wait why am i watching this i dont have gmod

I recently rewatched the first Kane Pixels Backroom video, and despite knowing when the jump scares happen, they still got me. I even felt myself reflexively tensing up when you showed that footage in this video. While I haven't messed around with Gmod, I can understand that unsettling feeling you've described.

Your insight about the backrooms is spot on, I always got a Source vibe out of this one. Also, I clearly remember playing the original Gary's Mod (when it was still a mod) wandering around and messing around in de_dust2 (where else), then suddenly being extremely creeped out by the whole thing and never playing it again.

This is a pretty good video! I always play Garry’s Mod alone and I feel on edge when doing so.

I've never really found any Source maps particularly creepy or unnerving.

Source games almost feel like their mocking you; so many games make an eerie atmosphere with spooky songs and sudden sounds so that a jumpscare feels so much more impactful. Source will build a deadly quiet atmosphere with soft distant sonds and just leave you there, on the edge of your seat for ages. If something scary or shocking does happen (For example, GLaDOS's first attempt to kill you in Portal, the Mariella Ending in The Stanley Parable,) it will fade in, pushing you slowly, right onto the very, very edge of your seat. It never jumpscares or does anything sudden like so many other games. That's what makes it's horror so addictive.

Gmod is literally just existential dread simulator. Liminal space type shit. Its scary alone.

This is what drives the Backrooms concept.

The original FEAR hit similar notes, it's very repetitive, backroom-like level design, fairly high quality props (all the danger/keep out signs etc.) but mushy and undefined furniture together with the very sharp, very harsh lighting gives you these vibes of familiarity yet if you get close to something it's a mirage, sand through your hands, and disappears. (The actual horror elements of FEAR on the other hand mostly impress 12 year olds, it certainly impressed me back then - true dread for an adult is navigating endless office and liminal spaces).

This is a phenomenal video and when I saw you only had 478 subs I was genuinely astonished... idk if you plan on making a career out of RU-vid but keep making stuff like this and you definitely will.

I first stumbled upon Gmod in 2009, then first played it in 2010 as my first Steam purchase. I have vague memories from 2011 using the toybox (when that was still around) and using the Gnome mod which scared the shit out of me when I was little. I think that left a haunting feeling for that whole year.

As a youngster compared to a lot of gmod players (16) I’m so glad that Im not alone in thinking that something about this games atmosphere is off. I’ve been playing for about a year but whenever I’m alone in gmbigcity, goofing off and torturing combine, I feel like I’m not alone, i wonder what makes the sounds I hear, the trains wheels screeching, the beep of a alarm. Idk but it’s a silly billy of a game.

To answer the thumbnail: Because claiming everything is creepy is trendy these days. Next question.

The most unsettling is easily subnautica, meme reddity wording aside, i went in thinking minecraft but water, blindsided by the saturated colors and the cartoony looking character model, i was hit with a flavor of dread i have never tasted in my life, first of: the vastness of the areas alongside with the lack of a map, and no i didn't googled a map for the game, then the fact that you got no efficient means of defense, all you gotta do is observe creatures and learn their paths and behavior, which brings the third problem, visibility, the lower i went the harder it got to see things from mildly far, but boy oh boy, you sure can hear them, you don't know what it is, it might be coming towards you, you don't know. One time i parked my big sub a little away from the place the sandsharks and leviathans proul, it was a cliff near mineral deposits on a sand field, i went on mining inside my not very good at floating mech, better yet, i was playing with a defective keyboard, the wire had a bad contact, meaning must avoid touching it, after grabing all the ore i needed i went back to the main sub, hit space to float towards the opening to dock my mech, touched the wire the keyboard went dark , i kept trying to get it to work again by messing with the wire, meanwhile my mech plunged into the abyss and there wasn't much i could do but watch as the pressure caused damage, the thing is, there was no floor, i just kept falling into nothingness pretty sure i heard something moving in the water but it was off my field of view, i eventually reloaded the previous save, but the experience was burnt in my mind, it kept haunting my long after i stopped playing the game.

I’m convinced this is a zoomer phenomenon. When it was new we didn’t think it was creepy at all. It’s because of backrooms and liminal horror that people invented Gmod being creepy

I like how the short clips you use like the beginners guide dev saying a quote, never overstays its welcome. Great pacing throughout the whole video 👏

Metroid Prime 2 echoes. The interplay between the light and dark. The inky black sludge that made monsters MONSTERS. That ink black sludge is alive. It doesn't like me, it wants me dead. I've honestly never felt very disturbed when playing source engine games. But now that I think about it I think I just managed to ignore it. I've seen things so much scarier in my life. I think I just didn't notice, until now.

the worst feeling is playing a server which is normally populated by yourself, then you start hearing sounds

Nier and Minecraft(SP) do this feeling pretty well also. Alone, empty, world

I would say two of the most unsettling gaming experiences I've had are The Stanley Parable and The Talos Principle. Everyone should just play them without knowing anything about them. Just experience them.

When I was a kid I could not even finish half life 2 cause of zombies and headcrabs. But later when I was messing in solo gmod i was always playing some loud random music tracks and never felt this jumpscare imminent feeling.

Titanfall and Titanfall 2 is made with the Source engine as well and you can actually notice that creepy feeling too if you load up a map like Angel City in a private match and roam it by yourself.

I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU MEAN!!! Source Engine always creeps me out, I still can't finish the original Half-life even 'til this day with numerous tries.

I was always convinced there was something in that room on construct. Always preferred big, flat, preferably desert maps.

The second you showed the creepy car commercial I verbally said “oh fuck off”. All of my childhood trauma came back in an instant 😂

I actually recall covering my Webcam on my old laptop whenever I would play gmod as a kid. Such a random thing. I personally believe a big part of it is the textures and the lack of ai or npcs. These textures were mostly made for half-life. Seeing that in such a light hearted game is weird.

Great vid my first steam purchase was also Gmod.

Damn your channel is really underrated, if you keep up with making Gmod/Source videos that would be great

4:54 "The games don't look particularly good, especially older ones" BRUH Half Life 2 was a huge graphical leap at the time, Left 4 Dead series, Portal series, and CSGO, the last high profile Source Games to be released with the engine, also hold up pretty well. It's just Valve chose being "minimalistic" compared to its contemporaries, during the PS3X360 era. No bombastic set pieces set in a huge city, instead there's small (in comparison) skirmishes or lonely journey.

If you lived in eastern Europe all your life, you wouldnt feel any dread.

I really need a spooky liminal space game in Source

Liminal space is also described as a transient area, one which you are intended to traverse but not linger in. Hallways are the typical example. Many of the examples you've shown are those types of areas. Subconsciously you know that you're not supposed to stay there, yet are forced to. This itself is unsettling. Stripping these areas of all objects just amplifies this effect. Probably because with no features present, there's nothing to balance that feeling that you should go, since there's nothing there to cause you to want to stay. Even the large open courtyard is an example. Without features, trees or plants, it feels like someplace you need to get through without any draw of it's own.

I have to wonder what you would think of the work of Looking Glass Studios. A lot of Valve's design philosophy was inspired by them. They were one of the pioneers of the "unbroken narrative" experience: that being that control is never taken away from the player. Like Valve, they rely on scripted sequences to relay information to the player. One of the critiques leveled most often at Looking Glass was that their games often felt like real worlds in and of themselves. This was especially notable in Ultima: Underworld 1 and 2, and System Shock 1. All Three of these games have lately grown a reputation for having a liminal space feeling, like Source Engine games.

minecraft is definetly the most terrifying game i've ever played.

In my opinion, there's is nothing scarier than something that isn't really inherently scary. Things such as animatronics, puppets, certain noises, a shadow on the wall or even just a familiar space, all of those are much scarier than any masked serial killer out to kill you. It's like a paradox that the brain cannot solve - something that poses no immediate threat to you, but still has this sense of unease or danger. These fears don't feel like the panic of running from a threat, instead these fears make you feel as though you are always being watched by something and your body has no reason to run away. What do you think is scarier? A monster that you can see and is trying to kill you or something that you can't see and have no idea of its intentions. The scariest things in this world are never what we KNOW, but instead what we DON'T know.

I'm obsessed with the "liminal" aesthetic, have been for years before I heard about it online (yes, you can experience "liminal spaces" in real life). I can't express how happy I am that people are talking about it now, and some seem to enjoy it in the same way I do. Source games definitely have that vibe. Thank you, perfect video. Subscribed. Please make more content touching on theses themes, if you can. No pressure. P.S. I'm a software developer myself, as a passion project I'm trying to recreate this "vibe" with modern rendering techniques, it has a lot to do with lighting.

I've had this with Garry's Mod but also with the PC version of Spiderman 2 as a kid. There were npcs on the ground and in missions but often there were moments where it was just you on rooftops. Also there was a Mysterio level where the whole city was taken up into the air and space and all the npcs were gone. That unlocked a new feeling in me as a kid :"D

392 SUBSCRIBERS, FOR A VIDEO LIKE THIS?????????? this video looks like it was made by a popular youtuber, BUT 392 SUBS? this video is so well done i seriously hope you get more subscribers

To some degree Gold source and the HLA version of source 2 have the same feeling. May just be me but it does.

I fear no man but that thing "ravenholm" it scares me!

**cliche how do you only have 100 subscribers comment**

By the way I felt this same dread playing Titanfall II. And guess what, it's a source engine game too! A lot of level in Titanfall II really gave off that portal II vibe.

I remember being unsettled when I played through the Ravenholm chapter in HL2 or just feeling like someone or someTHING is watching me when I play Gmod in singleplayer

Random idea due to this vide: advocate to take the best parts of Source, UE5, and Havok Engines and mesh their respective toolsets to create the next Gmod Project.

i think part of this s also that you usually play on servers, so you know there could be someone else there with oyu.

The flat lighting does it. The gray dull flat colors of source games. The more bright and shiny a horror game is the harder it is to be scary without just going full dark rooms with monsters out to jumpscare you. It's why Ocarina of Time 3D loses a bit of an edge the original version had despite it not even remotely being a horror game. Why older games in general could be scary when not meaning to.

The most unsettling game I was playing was Infra... and that's Source engine.

never had that with the source enginge but in HL1... this atmosphere just creeps into my mind and i carry this feeling into the real world for a few hours after playing F for Marvin

Good video, but please credit the music you used. I wanted to find a couple of the songs in the background that I heard, but cannot because they are uncredited.

CS:GO map are terrifying when you're alone

ever since i played on unturned's as of now recently curated map 'buak' and explored the skorpion-7 lab i can say with confidence that unturned, a game mocked for having bad and simple graphics, is the most unsettling game i have ever played my opinion here may be biased as i get rather easily uncomforted in horror games so i generally don't play horror games alot, most of the ones i have played are rather focused on jumpscares but those don't unsettle me as much as something designed to unsettle you, since i've been avoiding unsettling scary games, unturned, a blocky zombie survival game, is the most unsettling i have played so far

cant be too safe round these parts

Bro said the stanely parable is scary lmfaoo

'Is that... is that an empty room???!!!! AAAAAAAAA HELP ME!!!!!!!"

5:49 Doom3 sound effects. Are they free to use? 😮 Btw, I love a first person game as much as it can makes me feel in the skin of the protagonist (hell, Doom3 is my favorite game despite all the years), so I tottally love how Source games can do it. I even use cheats to turn L4D into a single player experience.

I feel like the same can be said for the GoldSrc engine as well

Gmod doesnt really feel creepy to me because i usually screw around and do goofy stuff, but when i stop and just walk around a map slowly, thats when it starts getting freaky. Something tells me that there is something behind the walls or inside one of the buildings and when its indoors i feel like something is right behind me and it stays behind me when i turn around and it makes me noclip the hell out of there

ngl i've always found portal 2 and tf2 to not have that dread factor

I feel like it's because the worlds are largely unanimated. There's no sense of time.

i first bought farming simulator 2011 and as of now it feels liminal almost source like

i just got off portal 2 to watch this and just noticed i didint even feel that same dread, but i totally agree i feel this alot but i just spawn a ton of npcs and only do npc related stuff in gmod to fix that snese of dread

this video was so good, how does this channel have less than 500 subs? just subbed, looking forward for the next video

Minecraft also has that weird feeling of being watched especially when you're tired

That’s why nextbots can be so horrifying sometimes. Sometimes. If it looked humanoid and not a png they would be even scarier

This is absolutely the first time i've heard anyone say that Gmod is scary. maybe it's cuase i wasn't a kid when it came out? as a kid i grew up playing resident evil and silent hill.

Kotor 1 was my first Steam purchase. Woop.

Isn't this exactly the same as that famous video someone made like a year ago? You've just copied it?

bonelab and boneworks have a simulair feeling

fs gonna blow up fr u make solid content

source was first made for Half Life 2 and HL2 isn't sunshines & rainbows

aye dropped a sub, your sense of pacing and editing is awesome. youtube algorithm better do its thing!

This is a look into the Backrooms

absolutely right man. You really hit the nail on the head with this vid.

It inherited the half life 2 dread, it's a testament to how incredible it was.

youre scarily underrated

creepiest game for me was petscop. didnt even have yo play it 💀

Makes me feel cozy

SAME MY FIRST PURCHASE ON STEAM WAS GMOD

another game that gives me a similar feeling is gorilla tag on VR

my first game was gmod but in 2016 too :)

Mine was Orange Box then Garry's mod

its not

yeah really bone-chilling

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Another one of these videos...

Interesting because the source engine is derived from the Quake engine, and all of my experiences with the Quake 2 engine are the opposite, perhaps it was the fact that the Quake 2 engine utilizes a lot of fuzzy lower res visuals for their skybox and warm, soft colors, however especially in empty Action Quake 2 maps, I always felt the opposite of vulnerability in an isolated sense, more like the entire world was a freeze frame of a living world that only I had access to. Instead of perceiving distance and emptiness it felt as if Action Quake 2 maps no matter how drab, were metaphorically packed with wool, they were comfortable and I always felt as if I was the only thing there, as if I were there that I could find a spot in such a pocket world and find a place to take a nap and be perfectly safe. The AQ2 maps with the metro Hong Kong skyline skybox instilled the greatest sense of ease and comfort, it is probably the warm colors, the lack of ambient sound, some AQ2 maps very much ad the presentation of the backrooms but I have spent long periods of time in those maps on my own and never once felt any trepidation at all, I still feel a warm sense of nostalgia, safety and comfort when I think of them. You want to know a game that creeps me the fuck out without it being unpopulated, the world maps of the Landfall series of FPS games, such as TABZ and TABG, both feel profoundly unsafe and harbor some uncanny valley discomfort that I perceive the entire time I play those games.

This video is really interesting to me, because although I can recognize _why_ Source games can be so unnerving, I personally rarely _feel_ unnerved playing them. I really wonder why that is.

You literally compare community mapping experiences or workshop content, with game design skills using game engine. If you want to make your own game mod, enjoy using any repetitive texture you want, but good luck releasing your game with those Valve IPs textures. It wouldn't feel repetitive anymore. I guess there is a reason You didn't had this feeling when you saw Titanfall, right. On the other hand, ANY time I start a random Unreal Engine game for example Rocket League or Back 4 Blood after initial 15 seconds I can literally see and feel that im inside total bland soulless cheap matrix of game engine, lacking detail or ACTUALLY IT IS SPECIFIC "lifeless" ENGINE MOOD mixed with my anger, because it feels so basic and artificial. first sign is always UI, if they cant get UI right in first seconds or minute of game how u wanna convince me pretending that they got engine right. but Valve always do. I could feel your existential dread of Source Engine also inside Minecraft, Starfield or even older Oblivion, Fallout, Stalker with its boxy textures and outdated mapping techniques mixed with infantile feeling of being home alone. But Im not trying to relive them now and junging their believability. I guess sometimes it is that simple as echo could be. But by reading comments I think I finally understood that ghosts thing :) and yeah video is edited like some busters documentary series but I dont think its necessary. My first purchase was DVD of Counter-Strike 1 Anthology in 2007 also have receipt inside, it cost 690.00 SK crowns (our old currency which got replaced with € long ago). But I got banned at that one so I buyed another DVD in 2008 that Im still using. And after that my mom also buyes me Team Fortress 2 DVD that year :) We used to play Gmod nonsteam back than, same as CS:S zombies.

0:04 first of all same Second of all am i the only teen who knows that hl2 didn't ripoff gmod ?

mine was terraria

Nice vid. 👌