Fear in virtual worlds, part I

Kotaku had recently posted an article concerning spoof article on the most scary enemies of video games, which resulted in a very interesting debate in comments, in which I have also taken part in. This in turn has stimulated me to write some more about scary moments in computer games I played, but since it began to become really a huge post (not to mention me falling behind my schedule), I have decided to split it in parts in chronological order.


The very first game that really scared me was Wolfenstein 3D. It may seem funny nowadays, but at the time it was the very first game with full 3D view I played. The immersion was further strengthened by the fact I was playing it alone in a dark room of an empty building after the night has fallen. It took place during students conference, where my mother was a lecturer and I was more or less twelve back then, which also explains a lot.

The most scary element of this experience as far as I can recall was the sound of steel doors slamming shut somewhere in the distance, because that meant something out there was prowling through the level searching for me. I also knew that if "it" attacks me from behind, I will not turn around in time (turning around was a long process in Wolfenstein). What added to the sense of incoming danger was that the enemies were actually quite scary: from Gestapo officers with machine guns, shouting "Gestapo!" when they saw player to deadly zombies with machine guns sticking out of their corpse. Suffice to say this game made me jump more than once.

On a side note, epic fight with Hitler in his bunker was also quite a showdown, requiring running from the fight in order to replenish disappearing health and ammo, with Adolf H. in his exoskeleton armour chasing the player. The sense of satisfaction coming from seeing his bowels spill out from the exploding armour was immense, even more so since the fight was so intense. In these politically correct times this would not pass quality assurance or Sony / Nintendo acceptance process (vide Manhunt 2 case).


While its successor, Doom, was more sophisticated graphical-wise and contained more suspense moments, including some "Bam! Lights go out and thousand imps descends upon you!" thrills, it never really scared me as much as the original Wolfenstein. But then again, I played it with my lights on and I was quite a bit older. I remember my friend ducking in front of my PC when imps hurled fireballs at him, so I guess it was quite suggestive nevertheless. Also, I can recall a story of a student who played Doom all night in his dorm and when leaving his room next morning he saw a cleaning lady, screamed and run away - he was later explaining that seeing her in her brown clothes at the end of dark corridor caused him to believe she was an imp. I guess the fact that he hasn't slept at all justifies him a little - the perception is a little different in such a state.

Honorable mention includes The Legacy, the old DOS game heavily based on Lovecraftian mythology. If player's character didn't have enough willpower, they would scream seeing zombies, their hair would rise, they would drop the objects they were holding (usually a weapon, which made fighting zombies kind of hard) or even freeze in shock. As I tend to play magical characters in RPGs, this would not be a common annoyance for me (high values of strong will), but there were some monsters which would melt even occultist's mind (green tentacled thing for example). I actually thought it was a very original approach to creating a horror atmosphere, even though it wouldn't scare me too much - but I have played it as an adult, because it wouldn't run on my DOS era PC.


Next in line comes X-Com: UFO Defense, also known as UFO: Enemy Unknown. How a strategy game (sic!) presented in mere 320x200 resolution could make player twitch is beyond my comprehension, but it really did. One of the reasons might be that there was a good amount of unpredictability, both in terms of enemy AI during missions and in terms of the game rules that kept changing during the game. Atmospheric music also helped.

At first rules were clear - it's us humans versus little gray men. We use weapons to kill each other, mano a mano, when we shoot down their vessels. But then the aliens would then terrorize the cities and bring deadly Cyberdisks with them! Fighting with numerous alien foes was a tough cookie, but we would learn how to do it with only minimum civilian casualties. And that's when a new race appeared - all of a sudden I had to battle a different kind of enemy, the one that could fly (Floaters), at night, keeping an eye on civilians. The in-game darkness became much more threatening now that I wasn't sure what was hiding in darkness anymore. Couple of in-game days after that fight, aliens retaliated and attacked me in my own base, my soldiers scattered randomly in different rooms, aliens roaming free through the corridors of our own hideout! Still, it was all but a prelude.

The first real horror was another mission to counter alien terror in one of the Earth cities. New alien type, the Snakemen, brought a deadly pet - the Chryssalid. Breeding in a manner of H.R.Geiger's Alien, infecting both civilians and my soldiers, who would in turn into Chryssalids and start devouring next victims - this enemy was terror incarnated. On first encounter my battle-hardened squad was torn to pieces in just a couple of turns.

At this point I must say that during many missions I have actually grown attached to my soldiers, recognizing their individual skills and remembering their names. Seeing them die one by one was a really shaking experience. As a result, I would replay the mission adapting the approach of US Army in Iraq - upon seeing anything suspicious move inside a house, I would bombard it with explosives. Civilians? Oh well, bad luck. My men come first. Still, even this tactic wouldn't spare me some nasty encounters - and Chryssalids were very quick beasts. Researching Plasma weapons and flying armours alleviated the fear of the Chryssalid a little, but these monsters were still dangerous.

Just when I got used to changing conditions and new alien types the game would throw at me, I thought that things couldn't get worse - and I was once again proven wrong. With arrival of Ethereals, the master race behind all the alien invasion, the Psi combat was introduced and it quickly turned the rules upside down. The toughest of my soldiers would panic, shoot their comrades in berserk frenzies, drop armed grenades or even totally succumb under alien control. I remember one particular mission where the only thing I could do after saving in a particularly bad moment was the damage control - after many failed attempts, I managed to save half of my man, most of them wounded. Spooky music, night missions and unseen enemy unknown decimating my teammates - that was the very definition of the word "scary".


Then Diablo came and rocked my world. The thick atmosphere of something evil boiling underneath a cathedral in a small village of Tristram was incredibly dense. The stories told with excellent voice acting were adding to it. One recurring motive was that of a cruel demon called The Butcher. Crippled kid who lost his leg to it, old drunkard telling the story of how it slaughtered his brothers-in-arms and breaking to cry, dying soldier at the cathedral entrance - player could feel that there was a savage beast out there, waiting for his next prey. This introduction alone was enough to feel chill. When the beast rushed towards me snorting "Argh, fresh meat!", I almost had to change the armchair cover. And trousers. There were many other monsters in Diablo, including the main evil boss in hell, there were many other spooky moments as well, but nothing compared to that moment of opening the door to bloody hideout of a blood-thirsty demon.

To be continued...