Are there any games that play with your phobias?

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

Random topic I know, but it just came to me while thinking of Shadow of The Colossus.

I just remembered how the very murky water that you fight one of them in had my aquaphobia(not to be confused with hydrophobia, which is not actually fear of water) kicking it into high gear.

Any seemingly innocent game scenario screw around with your heads?

[yangfeili]

Part of the reason my brother loves zombie games/movies is because he's genuinely afraid of zombies.

[MajLink]

F.E.A.R. nuff said.

[Zephyr]

Odd as it may sound, Endless Ocean, most of it was absolutely fine (I do not have a morbid fear of cuddly dolphins) but when told to go into the "deep" I refused. I hate deep, unknown water things. I had a lot of trouble forcing myself to beat that colossus aswell, it was creepy.

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

Odd as it may sound, Endless Ocean, most of it was absolutely fine (I do not have a morbid fear of cuddly dolphins) but when told to go into the "deep" I refused. I hate deep, unknown water things. I had a lot of trouble forcing myself to beat that colossus aswell, it was creepy.

This is exactly what it was.

[DarkeSword]

Not really playing on my phobias, but I have to say that zombies/undead in shooters bother me; the Ravenholme sequence in HL2 is not something I should have played at 11:30PM right before going to bed.

[Mustin]

I genuinely hate the game because I thought it was a shitty game, but the thing that I hated most in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was the "swimming across the lake" section, where the music faded out and it was just sound and you couldn't see the bottom.

Can't. Stand. Water.

[JCvgluvr]

Haha, funny. I'm gonna post about something Zelda-related next!

In Majora's Mask, when you need to retrieve the 3 zora eggs in Pinnacle Rock, I was developing real vertigo diving down into the bottom of the rock. But then...the real shocker came.

IN THE FORM OF A GIANT EEL LUNGING FORTH IN AN EFFORT TO CONSUME MY FISHY FLESH!!!!!!!!!!

Why Nintendo...why?

[TheSnowStorm]

I dunno why, but Mortal Kombat 3 used to scare me because of the gruesome fatalities. I was afraid that somebody would rip my head off or burn me alive as a child.

[friendlyHunter]

The only thing in Zelda:OOT that I really found scary was the multitude of invisible things at the bottom of the well (especially the invisible holes in the floor that lead into a pit of redeads and green mush with hands sticking out of it!!) If I recall, the wall/ceiling-masters were invisible too I mean that game had some really messed up stuff, but the invisible hazards and enemies plus creepy music was something not very many games had (and at that time, certainly not many 3D games!)

And some of those low-res textures really creeped me out for some inexplicable reason. Mostly those crazy like-likes (the shield-eating... sponge things), and the mysterious brown heaps of who-knows-what on the floors of dark corners and jail cells. Gaaah, the pixels!!

I also had to turn the brightness up at one point in System Shock 2, because in some parts I simply couldn't see a thing.

And boy did THAT game have some creepy low-res textured organic matter spreading across the walls and floor! I can't even remember if that stuff damaged you in the game, but I always stayed the hell away from it.

And on the topic of phobias, SS2 has a mod/patch that removes all those spider creatures, for players with arachnophobia.

[Edit]

And the freaking eggs, those were the worst!

[Moseph]

And on the topic of phobias, SS2 has a mod/patch that removes all those spider creatures, for players with arachnophobia.

Potential lulz: if the mod said it removed all the spiders but left just one near the end of the game.

[friendlyHunter]

Potential lulz: if the mod said it removed all the spiders but left just one hundred near the end of the game.

Fixed. That would cause incredible awesomeness and/or lawsuits. And without spoiling the story: that would fit sooo perfectly with the story.

[Linkjing Donuts]

his partner is dead

mr. grimm eats his partner

wears skull as a mask

[SLyGeN]

The closest I can come to that is having dreams where I am playing a video game, and for example, I will fall, and I, myself, will feel the weightlessness of falling and feel afraid.

That said, I wish there were a game that could evoke a genuine fear out of me, rather than just "uh oh something is going to go boo". I would think Mustin's experience would be exhilarating.

[friendlyHunter]

That said, I wish there were a game that could evoke a genuine fear out of me, rather than just "uh oh something is going to go boo". I would think Mustin's experience would be exhilarating.

I am assuming you haven't played System Shock 2 then? =P I think that's why I liked the game so much.

[Tables]

I swear, I could barley play the first level or two of Donkey Kong 64 because of those GOD DAMNED BEES

Once you got the guns and instruments, it was okay. But at the beginning, there was like no way to kill the bastards. Except for the oranges but who uses those anyway?

I feel really dumb

[Schwaltzvald]

I swear, I could barely play the first level or two of Donkey Kong 64 because of those GOD DAMNED BEES

While I don't have a phobia persay, I do hate it thet whenever I kill something, it has a bad habit of coming back at me much angrier and viciously. This mainly applies to those damn regenerators in RE4; however I've always found it funny to simply use the flash nades against them to kill them.

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

The closest I can come to that is having dreams where I am playing a video game, and for example, I will fall, and I, myself, will feel the weightlessness of falling and feel afraid.

That said, I wish there were a game that could evoke a genuine fear out of me, rather than just "uh oh something is going to go boo". I would think Mustin's experience would be exhilarating.

On the subject of dreams, I think the freakiest game dream I ever had was wandering through an empty school that had clutter all around it like the school in Silent Hill. It even had the same creepy lighting.

So I eventually get to the second floor and turn into a big hall. It's empty save for a door at the left end of the hall that presumably leads to an auditorium. I get closer and I start hearing that overused laughtrack(you know, the one at the N64 logo of Diddy Kong Racing). I start walking closer, and I hear a shrill scream not unlike something out of The Phantom of The Opera, then I hear a loud slam of some kind, then a baby starts crying.

Then I wake up all covered in sweat. Damn it scared the shit out of me.

[Vivi22]

Silent Hill always freaked me out (especially the third) but not because they play on any real fear or phobia, it's mainly just because they create some of the most surreal and distrubing environments and creatures I've ever seen in games.

As for actual phobias, the giant spiders in the Gamecube remake of RE always bothered me a bit because they looked much more real than in previous games. I was never that bothered in the PSX games, or even Code Veronica, but giant hairy tarantulas apparently make my skin crawl. I never got super scared or anything like I would if I saw said creature (or even a normal sized tarantula) in real life, but they did bother me a bit.

[Schwaltzvald]

The giant spiders in the Gamecube remake of RE always bothered me a bit because they looked much more real than in previous games. I was never that bothered in the PSX games, or even Code Veronica, but giant hairy tarantulas apparently make my skin crawl. I never got super scared or anything like I would if I saw said creature (or even a normal sized tarantula) in real life, but they did bother me a bit.

Is it as bad as this..?

[Nohbody]

how is it physically possible for humans to hate water? I have always loved water, its like my natural habitat. My favorite parts of videogames are the water temples, that one level of pokemon snap where you went down the rapids, stuff like that.

water + vertigo = bliss

for me, space is just unnatural. playing space levels has always made me uncomforable, and here I speak specifically of the crazy gadget level in sonic adventure 2.

[Thalzon]

When I was younger, 4 levels would freak me right out in Mario 64: Tiny-Huge Island, Dire Dire Docks, Jolly Roger Bay, and Ghost House.

In the first, it was that giant fucking fish that would eat you if you got close. In the docks, it was that big black hole that threatened to suck you in (and then it turns out you don't even die, you just get sent to the lake outside the castle!). Jolly Roger Bay had that huge creepy eel, and the Ghost House was just unsettling, with its music and the ghosts coming through the walls.

And yes, Endless Ocean scared me, too. In the Abyss, I once turned around and came face-to-face with one of the shark species there. I jumped a foot off the floor and felt very tense until I finally left behind that creepy place. Too bad I had to return a half-dozen times to find that freakin' whale (and I never did find out what lay beyond the geysers in the whale graveyard).

[Schwaltzvald]

how is it physically possible for humans to hate water? I have always loved water, its like my natural habitat. My favorite parts of videogames are the water temples, that one level of pokemon snap where you went down the rapids, stuff like that.

water + vertigo = bliss

for me, space is just unnatural. playing space levels has always made me uncomforable, and here I speak specifically of the crazy gadget level in sonic adventure 2.

In the case of water - Humans can't physically hate water, mentally though... It goes into the fears of drowning, having constricted movement in water to a degree, not to mention rational/irrational fears of undersea creatures attacking humans. Also the great uknowns of the sea always brings up terror for those already predisposed to it...

Space actually shares some similarities with the fear of water; exceptions of course being things space related...

[reelmojo]

Resident Evil 2 in the sewers. One of the giant spiders used it's "run straight at you with my front legs in the air" attack while it was on a wall... it missed Claire and came straight at the camera. I had to stop playing. I didn't even save. Yeah, they were overall creepier in REmake, but that one moment is definitely the most scared a game has ever made me.

Also, a friend of mine has the aforementioned aquaphobia and for some reason really wanted to play Ecco on Dreamcast back when it was new. When he swam down into a giant hole and found an oversized (putting it lightly) octopus he threw the controller across the room at me, covered his eyes and said "you're playing!" One of the funniest things I've ever seen.

[Drack]

Super Mario 64, at Tiny-Huge Island. The fish that tries to eat you when you're tiny.

I don't know why, but that really got to me.