Things in games that surprised/scared/dazzled you

[Soul Splint]

I made the mistake of playing at night the first time I played through Ravenholm in Half-Life 2. A seriously, seriously unholy level where you meet two new kinds of zombies that make the old variety seem like a joke. Just watching the Black Headcrab Piggyback Zombies walk around creeps me out.

Oh, and the first black headcrab I saw: I threw a gas can at it from a high window, setting it on fire, and nearly soiled myself when it leaped about thirty feet through the window into my face.

[Archaon]

[Lemonectric]

a)

My separate reactions were basically a) jerking violently and thinking the innocent homeschooled kid version of shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit. I used to stop playing Ocarina of Time after the Water Temple. Especially because I didn't realize the TV brightness was set way too low.

[PROTO·DOME]

Was there even a way to get past that bastard? No matter what I did, he would always catch me.

Yeah, I've always wanted to know that actually. As a kid it would infuriate me.

[Cecilff2]

Yeah, I've always wanted to know that actually. As a kid it would infuriate me.

Press f

Anyways,

.

The STALKER games pretty much

whenever you go into labs.

[Pyrion]

Yeah, let's just list our various gaming experiences that really made us jump out of our seats for whatever reason.

I had one early this morning that I talked about on IRC.

Fallout: New Vegas, at the conclusion of Vault 11 where the game's supposed to spring a rather obvious death trap, it gets about 99% of the way through the reveal when the fucking game crashes.

[Benjamin Briggs]

'nuf said.

ah that's a good one

[LuckyXIII]

Surprised: Zombie arms bursting through the boarded windows of Raccoon City's Police station

Scared: the telltale hissing of the Licker when entering a new area

Dazzled: the first time I played Amplitude. Meant only to play for a half hour - turned into about six.

[Tables]

Majoras Mask:

Alright the mere SOUND of the mask flying towards you on the opening menu made me shit myself as a little kid, I always mashed start to try to skip it.

And then of course the first time I got a game over for time running out (I had no idea what I was doing, I swear I spent a whole ingame day looking for the Bomb Brats). Oh my god that ending. I remember being all wide-eyed, slowly getting up to turn the game off, and then I didn't touch it again for a week.

On a lighter note, dazzling, the very first cutscene for Metroid Prime (which was also my first Metroid game, and now is one of my favorite games of all time). Somehow it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen.

[Flexstyle]

I made the mistake of playing at night the first time I played through Ravenholm in Half-Life 2. A seriously, seriously unholy level where you meet two new kinds of zombies that make the old variety seem like a joke. Just watching the Black Headcrab Piggyback Zombies walk around creeps me out.

This, exactly.

[Icrosonze]

Pokemon Red & Blue:

This.

The music is genuinely haunting, disturbing, and completely out of place for a game with such upbeat music everywhere else. There are constant references to ghosts all throughout the town it plays in, and it's one of the very few times a reference to death is made in the pokemon series as a whole. In a game played by 9 year olds.

For all the one time shockers in games and movies that scare the crap out of you that one time, this seems to be the only one that's gotten scarier to me with time. I was dazzled as a nine year old by this - it was very much my favourite tune in the game. Now I'm just as creeped out as dazzled.

[The Xyco]

Colonel Campbell in MGS2. This face is imprinted in my nightmares.

(Some spoilers in here)

Also, the final dialogue with Rose & Campbell (JFK) before you fight Solidus. Scared the shit out of me on an intellectual level.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_W4EV-ikJY (Mad spoilers in here.)

[Tuned Logic]

Mooshoo Pork boss from Gex: Enter the Gecko scared the living crap out of me. I had to fight him with the volume all the way down.

To a lesser extent, Big Sisters from Bioshock 2 creeped me out.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

The bottom of the well in Ocarina of Time always scared the shit out of me. Usually when I play through a zelda game, I'm OCD about getting EVERYTHING, but I was in my late teens before I could bring myself to do a full sweep of the bottom of the well. Until then, I'd always just get in, get the lense, and get the fuck out.

Also, Silent Hill 2. To this day, I have not finished that game, because it just scares the shit out me.

[AMT]

I just finished Silent HIll 3. Holy crap, that game is intense o_o

[Ajax]

Ceiling Masters, Re-deads. Re-deads more so I think. The fact that they would paralyze your character with fear would practically paralyze me with fear before you start whizzing the control stick around going "WAHHHHHH!" And then they would latch on to you, and when you would finally break free there would be another one just waiting for its turn. Not so scary anymore really, but they sure did do a good job creeping me out back when I was... 10 was it?

[Benjamin Briggs]

There are constant references to ghosts all throughout the town it plays in, and it's one of the very few times a reference to death is made in the pokemon series as a whole. In a game played by 9 year olds.

lol when I talked to the npcs in the tower as a kid I always thought 'wut your pokemans died there's a pokemans center like 10 steps away'

[Muskweeto]

EarthBound, Giygas...

SPOILERS... i guess.

I remember the first time I fought him I really felt completely alone with no hope.

It would hit me the hardest right after the game would show the people stopping to pray for you.

It was like a little break from the chaos showing you all the people who you have met and that they care enough about you to stop what they were doing and pray, then instantly put you back in the Giygas fight with that extremely creepy music (if you can call it music.) and formless creature in front of you.

That game left an impact on me.

[Schwaltzvald]

Silent Hill 2. To this day, I have not finished that game, because it just scares the shit out me.

Cmon man it's been nine (PS2/Xbox), eight (PC) years since its release. Time to complete what you've started regardless of you may already know what happens. Perhaps seeing some one else go through it would help you muster up the courage to finish it yourself..?

Would have edited my earlier post on what dazzled me but I had to respond to GT's current inability to complete SH2.

MMZ4 pretty much dazzled me back in 05'. It's not so much how it gives a definitive ending for Zero's story but it just feels like a culmination of the previous titles and series. Starting from Mega Man on the NES, to the X series and finally to the Zero series. While fighting Weil I couldn't help but think back of all the previous Robot Masters, Mavericks and "variants" of both leading up to Weil's "shoggoth-ic" final form. It really did feel as it I witnessed and experienced a particular earth's history and watched/interacted with said history.

Never had the chance to play the MMZX series to say anything about them and MML is supposedly waaaaaaaaaaaay past all previous titles in regards to time line; it's separate to me.

[Nutritious]

I guess it's a spoiler if you never played NES Bionic Commando, but...

Hitler's face exploding at the end of the game is messed up - especially for an 8 year old.

Also, when I played the game I absolutely refused to Wiretap, because the possible resulting blaring alert and surprise attack totally freaked me out.

[HalcyonSpirit]

MMZ4 pretty much dazzled me back in 05'. It's not so much how it gives a definitive ending for Zero's story but it just feels like a culmination of the previous titles and series. Starting from Mega Man on the NES, to the X series and finally to the Zero series. While fighting Weil I couldn't help but think back of all the previous Robot Masters, Mavericks and "variants" of both leading up to Weil's "shoggoth-ic" final form. It really did feel as it I witnessed and experienced a particular earth's history and watched/interacted with said history.

Never had the chance to play the MMZX series to say anything about them and MML is supposedly waaaaaaaaaaaay past all previous titles in regards to time line; it's separate to me.

I had the same experience when playing Zero 4. It also helps said feeling when you know that, despite the series continuing on, Zero 4 really does mark the end of a particular era: with ZX and beyond, the distinction between Robot/Reploid and Human is pretty much nonexistent, and it's the events in MMZ that help to facilitate this change.

[Unstable Hamster]

Since we are on the subject of Megaman, I'll talk of something that probably wouldn't bother most but to me it was one of the few things that put dread into my core.

I was playing a Megaman Battle Network 5. (those of you who have played this are probably going "how in the world did you get scared by something in MMBN?")

I had been playing it about 3/4th through. I already had that dark chip deal going on, didn't think much about it. Then one day I left the cursor on the dark chip. I realized something that day. The background sound they used was a deeper, darker sounding version of the disappearing blocks from the original Megaman's. Needless to say, my childhood youth made that connection and for the first time in YEARS I had felt true fear in a video game. Needless to say, I was not 7 at the time when I played MMBN 5. Yet it caused an immense fear into me for some reason.

I hate those blocks.

[LuketheXjesse]

As a kid, I'd watch my dad play Super Mario Bros. on NES, and whenever he got to a castle, I'd be so scared shitless just because of the music. I'd run the fuck out of the room as fast as I could.

Come to think of it I didn't like playing Zelda by myself for the same reason, specifically because of the creepy ass dungeon music.

[LuckyXIII]

i guess it's a spoiler if you never played nes bionic commando, but...

Hitler's face exploding at the end of the game is messed up - especially for an 8 year old.

Also, when i played the game i absolutely refused to wiretap, because the possible resulting blaring alert and surprise attack totally freaked me out.

this...!!!

[Nick Hyral]

As a kid, I'd watch my dad play Super Mario Bros. on NES, and whenever he got to a castle, I'd be so scared shitless just because of the music. I'd run the fuck out of the room as fast as I could.

Come to think of it I didn't like playing Zelda by myself for the same reason, specifically because of the creepy ass dungeon music.

This in a way. At a younger age I was like that in every Zelda game. I'd run all around the world map to the cheery music gathering hearts, rupees, and other upgrades and my parents would do the dungeon crawling as the music and atmosphere of what it was would scare me too. Now that I think about it.. I was pretty easy to scare at that age...

When it comes to things that "dazzled" me.. Silent Hill 2's depth of story was amazing to me. I usually wait a month or two before I replay a game, moving on to others in my collection but it made me sit down and get in depth with it. Analyzed the story more closely and such. It was extremely well done.