The Most Horrifying Moments in Video Games | Video Game Reviews
I'm a big fan of horror video games. I mostly play video games that are either just horror or have elements of horror. I've basically been playing Fallout 4 off and on for four years now and every time I visit Nuka World, I'm reminded of why I dread visiting Dry Rock Gulch, or Infestation Zone, as I like to call it.
If you regularly play video games, there are probably games you've played where you absolutely dread playing certain parts because they greatly disturb you in some way. Today, I'm going to share the most disturbing moments I've encountered in games I've played on PlayStation, Xbox, VR, and the PC.
*These described moments contain minor and major spoilers, so if you haven't played these games yet, I'd recommend playing them first so none of these moments are ruined for you. On the other hand, if you think you may be scarred for life by not knowing ahead of time about these horrifying moments, go ahead and read this article.
Top Horrifying Moments:
Fallout 4 (2015) -Available on PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, and Xbox One
Location: Nuka World, Dry Rock Gulch, Mad Mulligan's Mine
Why It's So Horrifying: Dry Rock Gulch is infested with worms, more specifically, bloodworms. Some of these worms have spikes that make them look a lot like the worms from the movie Tremors (1990), but that's not the horrifying part. The horrifying part is when you visit Mad Mulligan's Mine to destroy the source of the bloodworms. I went inside, figuring there would be some massive bloodworm mama or something just as gross. Nope. There were these bloated cow corpse things that explode when you get near them and a bunch of bloodworms pop out and try to kill you. It's disgusting and horrifying and you have to run by these exploded corpses to get to the bloodworms because they like to burrow, so you get a fantastic view of busted ribs, blood, and organs as you run by.
Resident Evil VII: Biohazard (2017) -Available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation VR, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows
Location: Old House
Why It's So Horrifying: After you escape from the Main House, you find your way to the Old House, where you eventually encounter Marguerite Baker. You have a short fight with her and she falls into a pit that fills with water. Later, when you go to retrieve a lantern that fell in the pit with Marguerite, you see the pit has been drained of water and the lantern is sitting at the bottom, but Marguerite has disappeared. There also appears to be a small tunnel that was hidden before. At the time I thought, "This shit is a trap. That creepy Marguerite is in that tunnel, waiting to grab me." Well, that's not what happened. Instead, when I looked down into the pit, a creepy elongated, definitely not human arm grabbed the lantern and saw that it was wearing Marguerite's shirt. Fuck, fuckity fuck. Against my better judgment, I climbed down the ladder into the pit and saw that Marguerite had turned into some creepy spider person and was crawling as fast as her creepy ass could out of the tunnel. Luckily, you get to see more of her fantastically horrifying body once you reach her lovely greenhouse, but even that disgusting reveal not as bad as following her creepy ass out of the tunnel, not knowing what's going to happen next or what she has actually transformed into.
The Evil Within 2 (2017) -Available on PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, and Xbox One
Location: STEM, Union, Stefano Valentini's Mansion
Why It's So Horrifying: As you play The Evil Within 2, you learn that Stefano Valentini is a psychopathic, narcissistic serial killer. He was a war photographer who became obsessed with capturing images of the moment of a person's death after becoming seriously injured while on a job. His obsession with capturing the moment of death after this incident led him to murder a friend of his who was a model (there were probably more victims, but it's not known how many) and he later somehow became involved with STEM as a Union resident. While our hero, Sebastian Castellanos is exploring STEM, searching for his daughter, Sebastian begins to encounter Stefano and enters Stefano's mansion on several occasions. Stefano's mansion becomes more and more decrepit every time you visit it, seeming to deteriorate as the world of Union breaks apart. When getting close to a final battle with Stefano, you travel through some hallways in his mansion. In one hallway, you hear Stefano torturing and killing one of his victims (I believe it was his friend) and it is horrifying. It's so graphic and disturbing because his friend is screaming and in pain, yet he absolutely does not care. At one point he even suggests that he will cut her tongue out so her screaming won't distract him. Every time I go through this hallway I rush through it so I don't have to experience it again, because it's that bad. In another hallway, the lighting is completely red and it's covered from the floor to ceiling in the decapitated, mutilated head of his friend with no eyes. I really think if you've ever wanted to kind of have a visual of what it'd be like to see inside a killer's mind, this is an excellent representation of it.
Layers of Fear (2016) -Available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, OS X, Linux, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows
Location: House, Art Studio
Why It's So Horrifying: This game is a psychological horror game about a man who is creating a painting that he thinks to be his magnum opus. Although the game is ambiguous, there is a suggestion that one of the realities is that the main character (who, as far as I know, is unnamed) took his wife's body after she committed suicide and used it to "paint" his magnum opus. Her skin may have been used as the canvas, her blood as paint, her finger as the paintbrush, and so on. I remember when I realized that this is what the game was suggesting and my mind rejected it. I was so sickened that I paused and really thought about what it could mean. The main character is not a reliable narrator, so I felt that I could put that suggested reality to the side and not really think about the possibility of this sick man using his wife's body parts to create art, otherwise I'd have a hard time continuing to play the game.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) -Available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendo Switch
Location: Velen, Crookback Bog, Bald Mountain
Why It's So Horrifying: While Geralt of Rivia is searching for Ciri, he learns that The Ladies of the Wood may have information about where Ciri may have gone, as they recently had contact with Ciri. Geralt travels to Crookback Bog and meets a woman known to local orphaned children as "Gran" and Gran tells Geralt that she has the ability to contact The Ladies. As Gran is contacting The Ladies, Geralt notices a tapestry above an altar that depicts three young, beautiful women. When I played this part of the game for the first time, I was very wary of The Ladies of the Wood because even though the tapestry depicted them as beautiful, the altar was, in a word, worrying. In several words, it was disturbing as shit. There was a lot of lit, melted candles and small skulls decorating the altar, indicating the skulls belonged to children. It was not the kind of altar where I thought to myself, hmm, this looks wholesome and nice. As soon as I left the altar room, I got the pleasure of meeting The Ladies. Um...these scary bitches are not ladies in any sense. They are more aptly named Crones, and I can see why they are referred as such. Personally, I'd refer to them as Nightmare Material of the Woods, but I didn't get to choose their names. As grotesque as their appearances are, what they look like is nothing compared to their actions, as they mainly eat children (and sometimes adults). We learn that they force Gran to take care of orphaned children until they are well-fed, then they take them away to some disgusting cave and eat them. You do get to kill them later, so it takes away some of the horror, but it never feels like enough.
Far Cry 5 (2018) -Available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows
Location: Henbane River (Faith's territory)
Why It's So Horrifying: We learn through notes and messages left on answering machines that "Faith" is actually Rachel Jessop, a former drug addict who was preyed upon by "The Father". Although Rachel portrays herself as an enlightened, happy person who truly believes in what The Father preaches, we learn that she is not the first "Faith" The Father has "transformed". There have been a number of women dubbed "Faith" by The Father and we really don't know what happened to them. My guess is they tried to leave and he killed them or had them killed. The worst thing though, is that we learn The Father raped Rachel, put her on drugs to keep her docile and easier to brainwash, and brainwashed her to believe in his vision. He then manipulated her into preaching his vision. The other two men working for The Father, John and Jacob, seem to be entirely working for him because they enjoy hurting and brainwashing other people and The Father has given them essentially free reign within their territories to do so, yet I look at Rachel as a victim because I really don't believe she would still be around if she wasn't on drugs and had been so manipulated by The Father.
Final Thoughts:
What do you think of these horrifying moments? What have been your most memorable moments in any game? I will probably make a part two for this post as there are so many horrifying moments in video games, so keep reading for more posts!
Thanks,
A
