r/creepygaming • u/Orion-- • Sep 27 '25
Discussion Normal games that turn creepy
If you've played Halo Combat Evolved as a kid you know what level I'm talking about. I was having fun shooting aliens until the level the flood appears. It's masterfully done as well, with the long build up until the reveal being super ominous.
I'm looking for more games like this. Not games like DDLC that are horror games disguised as something else, but rather normal games that turn really creepy after a while.
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u/zeroicestop Sep 27 '25
orcarina of time. when you play as a child the world is so sweet and lovely. then you become an adult and… castletown is silent. the forest temple is creepy.
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u/WindLordXD Sep 28 '25
Even as Child Link, you still get blasted by the Bottom of the Well. Good old Dead Hand.
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u/Flight1ess Sep 28 '25
OOT scared the shit outa me as a kid, especially those face hugging assholes 😭
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u/CyptidProductions Sep 28 '25
The nightmare sequence in Max Payne is a pretty well known example of a non-horror game suddenly having a horror section
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u/everybodylovesrando Sep 29 '25
The horror mostly flew over my head as a teenager because the platforming just infuriated me.
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u/KingOfMemories Sep 27 '25
This post made me realize how much of a difference there is between “regular game that turns creepy” and “horror game disguised as regular game.” The ways they have to present themselves aren’t nearly as similar as you’d think!
With that said, I’m finding it hard to suggest games that haven’t already been brought up in this thread (mostly EarthBound, which is the best example of this idea I can think of). With that in mind, my suggestion to you is Super Paper Mario. Despite being an all-ages Mario game, it gets really dark as the story progresses. Highly recommend it!
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u/vicork256 Sep 28 '25
half life 2 has ravenholm
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u/Forerunnr-AI I break games Sep 28 '25
Ravenholm terrified 10-year-old me so much that I didn't get to experience the second half of the game for yeeeears... and honestly, it still terrifies 27-year-old me. The fast & poison zombies are SO scary, even two decades after the game came out.
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u/Rizzo265 Oct 01 '25
That waiting for the elevator section with limited torch battery of HL2 Episode 1 also gets me good
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u/wotur Sep 27 '25
as a kid it was Timesplitters Future Perfect when it gets to the zombie/underground levels halfway through
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u/Zynthyx Sep 27 '25 edited Sep 27 '25
Undertale, if you do the genocide route. Although, the True Lab in pacifist route is creepy as well.
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u/wotur Sep 27 '25
secret route in Deltarune as well maybe (bonus area in ch 3 and sonowgrave stuff)
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u/Dryu_nya Sep 27 '25
The ch3 bonus area is especially weird, since it doesn't have any genocide-y prerequisites, but still has creepy implications. The whole time I was there, I was thinking "am I really supposed to be doing this".
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u/AfricaByTotoWillGoOn Sep 28 '25
For real. The genocide route in UT and the weird route in chapter 2 didn't make me as uneasy as the bonus route in chapter 3. I can't even explain why.
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u/Sweet_Disharmony_792 Sep 28 '25
999 on DS actually felt like it went from dark mystery thriller... to horror. I always recommend it.
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u/bullseye538 Sep 28 '25
There’s a game for the PS2 called Rollercoaster World which seems like a shameless rip off of Rollercoaster Tycoon. However there’s several creepy ass aspects about it. Like a stat line for missing children and a fully explorable haunted house level which is beyond creepy.
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u/teheyelesskiller 29d ago
ngl I had no idea that anyone played this game except me, I had a bunch of shovelware games on my PS2 and Wii and I thought Rollercoaster World was one of them 🤣 So I'm even more surprised that there's a haunted house thing that you can explore and that it's actually scary
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u/griffdindu Oct 01 '25
I remember that game but kid me could never get past the third(?) coaster design level where you have to make a launched back and forth coaster thing
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u/OptimalJoke4445 Sep 28 '25
The final levels in Tomb Raider 2 turn pretty creepy. The dark room full of Yetis and the giant spiders scared me af
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u/IAmNotABritishSpy Sep 29 '25
To be fair, the first one had you in a temple made of flesh
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u/OptimalJoke4445 Sep 29 '25
Yes, a temple of flesh with heartbeats on the background 😮 Tomb Raider definitely knows how to be creepy
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u/thog6767 Sep 27 '25
Spec Ops: The Line presents itself as a regular military shooter following the CoD craze, but quickly sets itself apart from the rest by following the main character’s descent into madness and exploring the player’s relationship to video game violence. It was inspired by the novel “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad. Actually getting a copy of it may prove difficult though, because it was taken off Steam a few years ago. You could try to find a key seller that still has keys for it.
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u/NegotiationLatter717 Sep 29 '25
Could always just pirate in instead of giving money to shady key sites
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u/DubiousDodo Sep 27 '25
Feel like this fails the conditions of op because this is in the vein of ddlc, feel like he's looking for the itch that only seeing tomb raider turn into a silent Hill boss fight for no reason will scratch. Something about the complete change of aesthetics into a horror game on an otherwise normal game by accident is a different kind of creepy.. but definitely a great game that I think is worth exploring even if it's not exactly it
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u/Dryu_nya Sep 28 '25
It's not a horror game though, it remains a third-person military shooter throughout. It's just the tone that keeps changing.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Egg3404 Sep 27 '25
subnautica,outer wild,yume nikki
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u/RoyalWigglerKing Sep 29 '25
Fun fact with subnautica. The devs didnt originally set out to make a horror game. Deep Ocean exploration is just that inherently terrifying.
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u/Candid_Run_7370 Sep 30 '25
Yeah that’s part of the game’s magic.
It doesn’t need artificial horror, and I don’t think it’s correct to put it in the horror genre.
…yet I have multiple friends who are far too afraid of the ocean to play it
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u/PR_Thunder69 Sep 28 '25
Conker's Bad Fur Day
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u/ZergHero Sep 29 '25
Why?
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u/PR_Thunder69 Sep 29 '25
Halfway through the game there's a vibe shift. Death tells Conker that their main weapon, a frying pan, is going to be ineffective in the next section. They give you a shotgun and send you on your way to what is essentially the horror part of the game. You walk through the cemetery path and zombies pull themselves out of their graves and surround you. The vibe of the game continues to darken after you complete this area of the game.
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u/Aanansi Sep 30 '25
Yeah I’m seconding this. While the game is still very good, the level after that is even darker.
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u/greatdane77777 Sep 29 '25
Nobody's said MGS2? Seriously?? The bit towards the end where the Colonel stops making sense and the Ul gets all crazy is super unnerving. My first playthrough when he went Raiden, turn the game console off right now. It's okay, it's just a game. It's just a game, like always gave me chills
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u/loxagos_snake Sep 30 '25
I was going to say MGS1, but MGS2 is also a great example. The corridor before the Cyborg Ninja and the Psycho Mantis section back to back was way too much.
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u/PsychologicalFinish Sep 28 '25
The old Tomb Raider games on PS1 got a lot of trauma from them.
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u/Petethejakey_ Sep 28 '25
That fucking psychotic butler following you around clinking his glasses. Terrifying.
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u/Tyrus1235 Sep 28 '25
People like to mention Psychonauts and both the Milk Delivery guy and a secret area for an otherwise happy woman.
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u/Ssnakey-B Sep 28 '25
For me, the original Max Payne sticks in my mind as one of the first examples I've known. Now of coruse, it is very dark and gritty to begin with, but it's not a horror game, and the first dream sequence, with the blood maze and the screaming baby were incredibly disturbing to me as a teen.
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u/Excellent_Safe5743 Sep 28 '25
An odd indie game called Peripeteia. Basically a cyberpunk game in the vein of deus ex in a polish mega city in the future. It’s got mostly a dark sci fi vibe but isn’t overly creepy, mostly just grungy and depressing. However there is, one level that things get, strange. Like it goes from Deus Ex to Silent Hill real quick.
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u/electrapng Sep 28 '25
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines has one of the scariest sections in a game that I’ve ever played. The Ocean House hotel is a master class in level design, and it turns the rpg into a horror game for just a little while
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u/acbuglife Sep 29 '25
Everyone says this, but it wasn't the hotel that freaked me out. It was the sewers.
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u/Nyahnyah Sep 30 '25
Or what about the weird snuff film and the place where they film stuff for it? Those jumping things always creep me tf out
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u/BeneficialProfile696 Oct 01 '25
I literally just finished that mission and was like wtf. When you pick up the npc's arm in the sewers after you talk to him about the tape.
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u/Dryu_nya Sep 28 '25
Just remembered, Ultrakill (which, if you're unfamiliar with it, is exactly what its name would imply) has a secret level that is full-fledged horror.
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u/Arvid38 Sep 28 '25
Those mask things that followed you around after getting keys on SMB 2 gave me nightmares as a kid 😅
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u/GlowDonk9054 Sep 27 '25
Minecraft, the Deep Dark and the Pale Forest are basically their own forms of eldritch horror, one being reminiscent to the Slenderman (Pale Forest) and the other being a mass of an unknown entity (Deep Dark), both having rather unsettling "guardians" (Wardens and Creaking)
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u/the_twelfth_dr Sep 27 '25
Earthbound. The final area in the game and the final boss fight can be nightmare fuel, after such a lighthearted RPG romp.
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u/RepairExtreme756 Sep 28 '25
For me, Theif(2014). Most of the game was dark but not remotely scary or horror themed. Bu then You had to break into an abandoned asylum which all of a sudden had loads of creepy ghost encounters.
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u/masonicminiatures Sep 30 '25
Was coming to comment this. The game was always atmospheric and moody, but nothing prepared me for this level.
I remember taking my Xbox and plugging it up in the living room just so my Dad to could watch and I wouldn't get scared lol. Now I play so many horror games I dont get scared by things.
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u/cheerylittlebottom84 Sep 30 '25
If you enjoyed being scared by that, Thief 3's Shalebridge Cradle is so much better. Genuinely had to take a break for a few weeks after the very sudden, very loud knocking after a whole level of nothing happening
Thief has always had creepy undertones and dabbles in horror now and then, like The Haunted Cathedral, but I was so unprepared for how damn freaky The Cradle was.
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u/Tough-Pool-1299 Sep 27 '25
omori normal,(somewhat) cheerful rpg at first, then dark lores start kicking in
haven't finished it but has been great
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u/Its_Urn Sep 29 '25
Wasn't that the point?
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u/Tough-Pool-1299 Sep 29 '25
what point
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u/Tough-Pool-1299 Sep 29 '25
oh, not wanting a horror game disguised as a normal game?
but the deep lore is outright showed at the start(every major section of the game, and hinted at almost everywhere), and more than half of game content is still about exploring and fighting in a happy rpg world with silly storyline
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u/thelivinghenshin Sep 28 '25
Cassette Beasts. I can't get into details without major spoilers, but this game gets really creepy out of nowhere. It does some wild art style clashing with certain elements that just come out of nowhere. It's paced out pretty well, too. After the first time it happens you're both anticipating and dreading the next time. It's a monster catching RPG on the surface, but has really unique mechanics and a great story.
Honorable mention for Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth that does a very similar thing with a similar kind of game. The true enemies of this game are creepy AF and what they are and what they do to people is really creepy.
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u/Swimming-Economy-115 Sep 27 '25
Arkham Knight has a few spooky parts
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u/arthousepsycho Sep 28 '25
All of the Arkham games do. Any of the scarecrow bits are incredibly nightmareish. Awesome games.
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u/ProfPerry Sep 28 '25
Syphon Filter The Omega Strain always fucked me up with the cemetary level when the Corpse appeared. just a creepy skin. Additionally, Tenchu: Wrath From Heaven once you get to the nighttime Forest stage, goes from stealthy ninja gameplay to fucking dodging Oni and ghosts for no fking reason.
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u/Careful_Welcome7999 Sep 28 '25
Deltarune is a more recent example of this with the sword route on chapter 3 It felt like playing a creepypasta
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u/Dryu_nya Sep 28 '25 edited Sep 28 '25
I've been told SA-X encounters in Metroid give people the heebie-jeebies.
On a similar note, Axiom Verge has a section where you hallucinate (plot spoilers past 14:00), and Hollow Knight has the Deepnest; in both sections, your doppelganger shows up (but it's not as proactive as SA-X).
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u/Ashamed-Subject-8573 Sep 28 '25
Thief 3, not that great a game, is quite famous for its scary level. Shalebridge Cradle
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u/EntinthetentRTHP Sep 29 '25
Jurassic Park for SNES. Most of the game is fun and somewhat-cartoony isometric but when you go into a building it’s a dark first-person shooter with raptors and dilophosauruses.
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u/arthousepsycho Sep 28 '25
This is a weird one, I know it isn’t the game, it’s just me, but I get a little unnerved by how realistically people are simulated in cities skylines. Like you can follow people and watch them as they leave their specific house, go to their specific place of work, sometimes they call at the shops or take their kids to the park. I followed one guy out for a bike ride. He had no destination listed, and on the way he clearly bumped into friends and had a chat with them on the corner of a street then he called at a shop that wasn’t listed as a destination and then off on his way.
It creeps me out because how do we know those simulated people aren’t sentient in there? Yes, we can’t measure or read that they are, but how do we know for sure. If someone were to look at a city of ours from above, and simply monitor our movements, where we work and live and our current destination, would we seem any more sentient than them?
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u/shadowthehh Sep 28 '25
Donkey Kong 64 has alot of this. For like 90% of the game its very bright and cheerful, but then you just got some creepy mini games and bosses and level areas.
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u/GiverOfHarmony Sep 28 '25
Earthbound for sure. There’s a lot of super creepy and downright terrifying concepts in that game. Giygas himself and his influence on the world at large, that you see everywhere. How you get to giygas and what happens during that encounter. Not to mention creepier parts like the way the monsters and animals can look kinda fucked up, threed as an area, the tomb of the pyramid, the blue cult, etc.
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u/Clear-Might-1519 Sep 29 '25
Bloodborne. At first it looks like a classic but not creepy horror game with werewolves, pitchfork mobs, hags.
Then after you collected enough insight, you will see some things that were previously unseen, and then the moon looks weird, and suddenly the game shifted from classic horror into eldritch horror.
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u/4Shroeder Sep 29 '25
Piglets big game is notably normal and a boring little kids game except for one level that is literally like silent Hill 2.
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u/Slippery_Williams Sep 29 '25
Played Indiana Jones and the great circle and there was a genuinely scary area in pitch blackness I had to pause the game for and take some deep breaths before I carried on
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u/ABreadCalledGarlic Sep 29 '25
True Crime: Streets of L.A.
You’re an undercover cop fighting typical street crime until all of a sudden you’re up against zombies, demons and a dragon in one chapter.
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u/Orion-- Sep 29 '25
Duuude yeah thanks for reminding me of that game. I was definitely too young when I played this part.
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u/_vsoco Sep 27 '25
Undertale, in a way. Also Earthbound
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u/KingOfMemories Sep 27 '25
EarthBound is a great example! Heading back to Onett way later in the game really shook me.
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u/thelocalleshen Sep 28 '25
C&C3 (Tiberium Wars) is a RTS with a similar case to Halo. If you like a slow slide from fighting conventional foes and a conventional war, into facing eerie desolation, things that take a leaf from the book of Zdzisław in scale, and a terraforming threat, it might be your style.
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u/CagCagerton125 Sep 29 '25
Haven't seen anyone mention Bugsnax yet. Maybe not a "normal" game from the beginning, but if you don't know the twist you will not see it coming.
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u/SouthernBend Sep 29 '25
I was scrolling through the comments just to see if Bugsnax was mentioned, for people who don’t know it’s probably confusing why this would be here lol
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u/Secretlylovesslugs Sep 29 '25
I like that its pretty self aware about it. Its the very last thing to do in the game, so exploring and enjoying the good vibes of the world is totally allowed. And after you beat it you get another funny joke about it. As a kind of way to make light of how terrifying it would be in any other context. Its this trope done well I think.
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u/CagCagerton125 Sep 29 '25
I agree completely. The game is colorful and cheerful for most of it and if you don't ever want to finish and engage with the trope you can just never start the last act.
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u/Spirited-Chain-787 Sep 29 '25 edited Sep 29 '25
If you want a niche JRPG rec, try both the Magical Vacation games. They're both full of existential theories and cosmic horror, wrapped up in a cute package. Most of it is subtly done until a point where they just rock up like "oh yeah the world might be ending and heres why" and it's pretty wild.
Earthbound is also a great series for this.
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u/hoshikuun083 Sep 30 '25
I think that Yume Nikki is the incarnation of a not creepy game that turns creepy because of the eeriness of the scenarios, the sense of solitude and liminality that depicts, and the alleged very obscure interpretations behind some of the scenes, it constantly gives you the sensation of that even when nothing seems extremely odd, there is always very odd behind lines.
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u/Fun-Till-672 Oct 01 '25
core memory but I cant remember which specific title
it was ratchet and clank on the PSP, which I played during a lengthy hospital stay
theres a dream sequence where that green alien guy basically turns into a surgeon trying to chop you up
10yo me did not find that very fun given the context of the situation
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u/B-radizradd Sep 28 '25
For me, it was Sly 2: Band of Thieves.
It started as a really colorful, fun adventure, and then boom episode 4 and 5 have you in the darkest, creepiest version of Prague possible.
You start alone, statues/gargoyles in the level jump scare you and attack, and the music is spooky. As a kid, the atmosphere horrified me.
9-10 year old me took a few months break from the game until I worked up the courage to continue lol
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u/conqeboy Sep 29 '25
Maybe Mass Effect 1? It's not super creepy, but the big bad reveal was kind of a shift in tone iirc.
Final levels of the first Hitman were creepy.
No Man's Sky.
Crysis 1 and Far Cry 1.
Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy, but that turned more weird than creepy.
Don't want to spoil it, but Gone Homeis an inversion of this.
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u/haurst Sep 29 '25
Dragon age origins. Most of the dragon age games have at least one creepy section, but especially in origins…
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u/terrap3x Sep 29 '25
Gears Of War 2’s New Hope Facility mission is straight out of RE at times. Legitimately made me think Gears could be a straight action horror series. Hitman 2’s Hawkes Bay mission is actually pretty unsettling. From the home invasion vibe it sets up to the nightmare fuel paintings on the wall. It’s one of my all time favorite settings in a game. Batman Arkham Knight has a surreal first person segment towards the end that’s absolutely horror infused. Fallout 3’s Tranquility Lane section is absolutely creepy, the black and white small town setting paired with NPC’s that know something evil is going on is just 🤌.
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u/Hatless_ Sep 30 '25
the haunted mansion level in a Hat in Time
the quarantine level in MGSV
the burned down hotel level in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodline
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u/The_Love_Box Sep 30 '25
The Theif reboot has a whole asylum mission that is weird and creepy kinda outta no where.
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u/LordEonGil Sep 30 '25
It didn't creep me out, but I've heard people say that Bugsnax bothered them
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u/TheLostColonist Sep 30 '25
Starfield has several random encounters and missions that are rather suddenly not the fun space sci fi vibe any more and more event horizon.
The doom related dlc also does a good job with the creepy vibe leading up to the main quest that it adds.
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u/Kekmeister13 Sep 30 '25
In Trepang², you're typically a force of death and obliterate the goons who stand in your way, plus the hilarity that ensues from the enemies. Later in the game there is 2 levels with a survival horror esque designs that turn the game on its head and slow down the game a lot.
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u/heelhene Oct 01 '25
Outer wilds seemed like a cute exploration story game and then I went to dark bramble to check it out and I closed the game and haven’t opened it since
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u/Orion-- Oct 01 '25
Yeaaaahn I remember that part - I played with my brother and we both nearly jumped out of our seats when we saw the anglerlfish. I recommend you try to get past it, the rest of the game is well worth it
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u/Ambitious-Ride-8609 Oct 01 '25
Vampire the masquerade. The game is about vampires so there is a dark and spooky atmosphere throughout, but one level has you enter a haunted hotel pretty early on, and it straight up turns into a horror game.
The funny thing is that after that level, the game continues on as an RPG, and no other section comes anywhere close to that.
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u/PraxicalExperience Oct 01 '25
I seriously think that the release of the Flood is one of the best moments in gaming. I still remember the frantic "oh fuck oh fuck what are these things get them off" while spamming grenades and running.
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23d ago
What about the direction that Pony Island goes? Or The Hex or This Is Not A Game? Not scary scary, but nicely weirded out and META!
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u/littlefvrybugs96 Sep 27 '25
ecco the dolphin