Metacognition: Unexpected Creep

We’re back with our “thinking about thinking” series! If you’re interested in our previous deep thoughts, check out the Metacognition series.  Join us for some deep thoughts (and maybe the occasional not-so-deep thought) about gaming. If you find one you’d like to answer, you can either comment below or write a post and share the link so we can all read your fantastic thoughts!

What are the three creepiest games you’ve ever played?

Easy. I don’t generally play creepy games. Since I have probably only ever played three creepy games in my whole life, it would be those three. The end.

Okay, that wasn’t very fair, was it? Here are three of the creepiest games I have ever played (in no particular order):

Until Dawn

I’m currently playing this one (at time of writing), and while I can’t say it is the horror game I was expecting it to be, it is definitely a solid horror game with plenty of twists, turns, jump-scares, and tropes to keep the fans happy. While some of the scares became predictable, to the point where even horror-aversive me barely startled by the end of the game, the story is compelling in its own way. Because of that, I was pleasantly cringing when I knew the inevitable thing was going to pop up into the camera and scream.

Also, I could only play it in small doses, usually while chatting with someone online so I had an excuse to pause the game and do something else for a few minutes…

An unnamed game from my childhood that looks like a Wolfenstein game but I don’t think really is

I wish I knew literally anything else about this game, but I don’t. It was on our old Macintosh computer, and it was in first person like Doom or Wolfenstein, but you started with a knife and there were these orange, bipedal monsters that shot green balls of slime out of the top of their canon-like heads. Little Athena was dead by the second hallway, mostly because I was too terrified to move most of the time, and even more terrified of actually going up to one of the monsters and fighting it with the little knife the game gave you.

Maybe not a traditionally creepy game, but it certainly  creeped me out quite a bit!

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

This is a game that had all the right disturbing things in all the right, disturbing places. I mean, this game preyed on everything a person could find creepy, mostly because it is based on the frightening things that one’s own brain can cook up: not being able to see, being disoriented, the rules of the world not being rational or predictable, monsters appearing and disappearing, the dark, and your own deepest, darkest thoughts – all rolled into one tight little game with a bow (or perhaps a sword) on top.

The rivers of blood and mountains of corpses that poor Senua had to wade through, or perhaps the towering, eyeless figure of Hela, the realistic crucifixions, or even the the very graphic depiction of Dillion’s demise were presented in such an off-handed and yet unavoidable way that one couldn’t help but feel slightly disturbed.

And the best part was that, despite the gore, it was my favorite type of horror: psychological, through and through.

Honorable Mention: Prey

I only give this honorable mention because I only played the demo, and I’m not sure there was a point where I was truly creeped out. A little nervous, sure, but the demo didn’t really include anything that I found to be disturbing to the point that it sort of lingered with me. However, it’s a great horror game (as far as I can tell) and so it’s carved a little space out on the bottom of this post here.

What about you? What are some of the creepiest games you’ve ever played? Do you recognize the unnamed one in the middle of this list? What did you think of Until Dawn? Hellblade? Prey? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll see you soon!
~Athena

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