Top 7 Nightmare Fuel in Video Games

It's October, a month of scares and other stuff. I guess it's time for me to make a video game countdown that fits with the overall theme. There are plenty of moments in games that I've played that left me either unsettled, disturbed or scared. This is coming from me, who doesn't get scared that easily. However, I know when something succeeds at being nightmarish. There are various aspects that can make a game possess some nightmare fuel, like shock value, music, location, or overall atmosphere.

To make things interesting, I'm only sticking to non-horror games, with one exception. I think the scariest or nightmare-inducing moments in non-horror titles tend to be more surprising and stand out more. I'm also doing one game per franchise. These are the moments that left me unsettled. Turn off your lights, wrap yourself up with a blanket, and revel in my Top 7 Nightmare Fuel in Video Games.

7. Slippery Climb

(Crash Bandicoot)

The original Crash Bandicoot doesn't hold up as well as its successors, but there is one thing that it knows what to provide and that is atmosphere. For the most part, it's a light-hearted, goofy adventure until you reach the final island. You're nearing the end of Crash's journey as he approaches Dr. Cortex's castle. It's time for a dramatic ascent into this lair of villainy.

The level "Slippery Climb" provides a haunting atmosphere. It's pouring rain, with water dripping from the edges and thunder striking like a classic horror film. Not to mention that you're climbing up. Any jump you make could possibly be your last. It's also noteworthy that it's one of the more difficult levels, requiring some precision platforming and good timing just to stay alive. It's not uncommon that people lose a lot of lives on this level.

What sticks out to me in "Slippery Climb" is that you'll be passing by some of the prisoners. You'll only see their eyes glow in the darkness while their arms are sticking out, trying to grab you. What in the world are they? Test subjects, perhaps? Whatever the heck those are, it's pretty much left to the player's imagination, making them even scarier. Too bad the PS4 remake cheapens this by revealing that it's just crazy old men, looking desperate to get out.

Lastly, the music makes this level. It's nerve-wracking to listen to because of the haunting piano and the distorted guitar that comes out of nowhere. "Slippery Climb" is no easy level, but it's a spooky one at that.

6. The Blue Barrels

(The Last Guardian)

**SPOILERS!!**

The Last Guardian succeeds in being a perilous adventure. There's danger everywhere you went, like heights, Trico's species, heights, animated suits of armor trying to nab the Boy, and even more heights. There is also one little mystery that is left unsolved until the end: what on Earth are these barrels that the Boy has been feeding Trico with? We see them lying around throughout this journey and most of them are necessary to progress throughout the game. Surely, it must be nutritious enough to keep the creature going. Well...

I bet you all regretted feeding Trico those barrels after that reveal.

**END OF SPOILERS**

5. The Cordyceps Infection

(The Last of Us)

The Last of Us is a game in which its story uses conventional zombie tropes, but feels fresh and new as it delivers on giving us an emotional journey of trust and morality. This post-apocalyptic world came to be because some fungus infected people, causing all heck to be loose and bringing out the worst of humanity. You know, typical zombie tropes, but, hey, it's all about execution.

Imagine becoming infected with the Cordyceps. This fungus starts growing inside your body. Pretty soon, as it progresses, your mind is taken over, bringing in an entirely new behavior. By the end, you are no longer yourself; you are aimlessly roaming around without a care in the world. This does leave me wondering: are the Infected still conscious? Are they seeing what they are doing, yet cannot do anything about it, having no control of their actions? These are some scary thoughts.

It doesn't help that there are different stages of being infected. Runners look human, but due to no longer being themselves, they beat the tar out of people on instinct. Then there's the Clickers, whose heads suffer from body horror, losing their sight, but can track you down if you make noise. You don't want to get spotted by those guys, or else they'll bite you.

And you know what's even more frightening about Cordyceps? It's a real thing, only that it's parasitic towards insects. If you've seen pictures of infected insects, you will feel sorry for them. Who knows: what if it mutates and actually affects humans, too? We wouldn't be far from a world like The Last of Us.

4. Kali's... Final Form

(Gravity Rush 2)

**SPOILERS!! (and get your barf bags ready)**

Gravity Rush, a light-hearted, action-packed duology of games where this adorable girl gets the ability to shift gravity and fights eldritch abominations called Nevi. What exactly is nightmarish about this game? Well, there's this supporting character named Kali Angel who seemed nice at first, but she's a downright psychopath. So why the barf bag warning? Well, in the final fight with her, she has a villainous breakdown, resulting in her transforming into this...

If that's not the definition of body horror, I don't know what is. I left my jaw dropping upon first looking at this monstrosity. Up until now, Gravity Rush 2 had little to no horrific imagery. It doesn't help that you actually fight this thing, forcing us to get closer and witness her uncanny valley facial animations. Oh, and her weak spots are her eyes. That means poking her eyes out! I guess director Keiichiro Toyama hasn't forgotten his horror roots. This is a series of faces that a mother herself would not love.

**END OF SPOILERS**

3. The Lurker Shark

(Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy)

The Jak and Daxter trilogy featured nice open world areas to run around in, but there are limits as to how far you can go. In Jak II, if you swim too far, a turret pops out and one-hit kills you. In Jak 3, a tentacle pulls you from below to drown you. In the first game, a Lurker Shark eats you.

As a kid, I was always scared of the Lurker Shark. Imagine just swimming far from the map and you hear the sound of a creature exhaling, followed by a very loud heartbeat that acts like some sort of radar. That audible heartbeat gets faster as it approaches you, and then... it swallows you whole at the snap of a finger.

Even as an adult, the creature still makes my heart beat in fear. At least the turret warns you to go back and the tentacle happens so fast that you forget to react. Like the movie Jaws, you'll probably never want to swim again after that experience.

2. Monster Ock

(Spider-Man 2000)

Carnage is what happens when an insane man like Cletus Kassidy and a symbiote merge together, resulting in an already unstable monster.You thought that was frightening enough? Try merging the Carnage symbiote with Doctor Octopus and the young gamer playing this game will be scarred for life. It's pretty much Carnage, only with Doc Ock's arms, but even worse since he looks like he could pound you like there's no tomorrow. In the final level, you don't even fight him; you run away because it's unstoppable. It's a tense moment that puts your navigational skills to the test.

I'm not even finished as to why Monster Ock is so scary. Wear some brown pants first, because get a load of his voice:

He sounds like some strange alien creature that loves to feed on anything that moves. How actor Marcus Shirock managed to create a sound like that with his voice is beyond me. That voice was probably too well done that it has now been ingrained in every gamer's head... and not in a good way.

1. The Sorrow's River

(Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater)

The Metal Gear franchise has had its share of Nightmare Fuel, from Psycho Mantis in Metal Gear Solid, to the Beauty and the Beast Corps from MGS4, to the quarantine level from MGSV. However, none have ever left me unsettled like the boss fight against The Sorrow from Metal Gear Solid 3. In fact, it's not even a boss fight since he's already dead, so what's the gameplay? Just walking in his river until it's over, but even something as mundane as that can turn into something frightening.

Remember when Psycho Mantis read your performance and your memory card? Here, The Sorrow reads your kill count and punishes you for it. If you spent the whole game up until this point killing countless NPCs, you're going to be there for a while.You are forced to see every enemy you have killed. If you killed a guard and fed him to a vulture, he'll appear with that bird, screaming "You ate me!" If you shot a guard in the groin, he'll shout "I'm worthless!" And, of course, you'll get to hear The End's parrot yelling "Grandpa! Grandpa!" as if that wasn't creepy enough. See why I mostly do non-lethal runs in this game? The Sorrow's quote sums this all up:

"The living may not hear them. Their voices may fall upon deaf ears. But make no mistake: the dead are not silent. Now you will know the sorrow of those whose lives you have ended."

It doesn't stop there. At some point, The Sorrow will blast some beam at you. If you don't dodge it, you'll be treated to a jump scare in the form of a split-second image of The Sorrow's corpse and a scream that sounds like it came straight from the fires of Hell. As someone who is hardly ever jumpy, that attack gets me every single time.

Top that off with a gray-looking world with a heavy thunderstorm and one of the creepiest boss themes ever made, The Sorrow's "boss fight" is, to me, the most frightening moment in any video game that I have played.

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So, what scary or disturbing moments have you experienced in a game? Feel free to leave a comment down below. I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween and good luck sleeping tonight.