The worst kind of jump-scare.
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00:00The most genuinely unnerving kind of moment in horror is the one that takes you by surprise.
00:05It's why jump scares are so often used and why the scariest monsters can be ones that you barely ever see, if you see them at all.
00:12And it's exactly this logic that has games which don't belong to the genre of horror still containing a terrifying area or two.
00:19As you aren't expecting to be spooked and have no idea how long said spooks will last, any frights hit twice as hard as they would otherwise.
00:27This list is filled with particular scenes that, fair cop, absolutely got us.
00:32I'm Jess from WhatCulture and here are the 10 most terrifying areas in non-horror games.
00:3710. The Abandoned Shack, Skyrim
00:40With the overwhelming majority of Skyrim being the vast open wilderness or, at worst, a surprisingly spacious cave,
00:47The Abandoned Shack stands out as a particularly weird sight.
00:51A lone house in the middle of the open wilderness, the weird vibes you immediately get about this area are only made worse by the way you're introduced to it.
00:59That's because you'll almost definitely first find this area by being kidnapped in your sleep and awakening in said Abandoned Shack with no idea about what's going on.
01:09Then you're shown three blindfolded captives and told one has a contract on them and you must figure out which and kill them.
01:16Only you can kill literally any combination of them and your kidnapper, the Dark Brotherhood member known as Astrid,
01:22will still applaud you for showing your proverbial fangs and offering you a place on the team.
01:27If you weren't trying to find the Brotherhood, however, it's safe to say you're probably going to come out of this whole experience just a little traumatised.
01:349. The Mutant Nests, Rage 2
01:37A Borderlands-esque shooter, anyone coming into Rage 2 was likely expecting that the only tense moments they'd experience
01:44were desperately trying to save themselves from an enemy they'd underestimated.
01:48While the Mutant Nests located across the surprisingly small map are certainly going to provide you with that thrill, they're also more than a little spooky.
01:56The claustrophobic areas combined with the enemies that literally pour into arenas at some point can make exciting battles suddenly turn terrifying
02:04when you realise you're either out of bullets or otherwise sprinted into a dead end.
02:09It pales in comparison to other games, sure, but few areas manage to be as surprisingly terrifying as these dens of scum and villainy.
02:178. Ravenholm, Half-Life 2
02:20What could be creepier than an abandoned mining town?
02:23Why, an abandoned mining town covered with zombies and headcrabs, of course!
02:27While you could argue any part of the game with the creepy cranium huggers is horrifying, Ravenholm bumps things up just that little extra notch.
02:35They're tucked away into every dark corner of the level, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce on your unsuspecting scalp.
02:42Hilariously, even when you think you're finally done and free of Ravenholm, the game throws one final poison headcrab at you,
02:49presumably just to remind you that it can make you piss your pants whenever it goddamn feels like it.
02:547. The Ocean House Hotel, Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines
02:59Given Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines lets you play as the spooky bloodsucker that goes bump in the night,
03:04it's fair to say you head into it not expecting to feel real human fear.
03:09After all, it's pretty much you who spends most of the game skulking around and feeding on humans,
03:14so it feels like, well good, I get to be the strong big bad for once.
03:18Then you go to the Ocean House Hotel, and suddenly you're reintroduced to the concept of terror,
03:23because the hotel is incredibly, incredibly haunted, and these ghosts are more than a little riled up that you've stepped on their turf.
03:30As such, you have stuff thrown at you, doors exploded at you, and spend a nice portion of the mission being chased by a man with an axe.
03:38All in all, it's less than stellar hotel service.
03:41Worse yet, assuming you actually want to play the rest of the game, you can't just tap out of this one,
03:46because it is not a side quest, it's part of the main game, so buckle in and good luck if you want to see the end of the game.
03:536. Andale, Fallout 3
03:56Nothing says real, genuine horror quite like cannibalism, which is exactly what makes the humble town of Andale so dang scary,
04:03as an inspection of the village reveals a basement where it's made clear the townspeople have been chowing down on their fellow man.
04:10This is made twice as creepy by the fact that said inhabitants aren't the conventional, drooling, animalistic monsters,
04:16but rather polite, well-spoken people who are surprisingly relaxed when you tell them you've found out their dark secret,
04:23so much so that they even offer to let you share in their fleshy spoils.
04:27But then the scariest thing about Andale is actually that you can agree to this,
04:31you can go off and be the hero of the wastelands and just chow down on people in your spare time.
04:375. The Sorrow Boss Fight, Metal Gear Solid 3
04:40Metal Gear 3 is a game that's more or less back-to-back clever boss fights, and Snake's surreal battle against the Sorrow is no exception.
04:48That's because it's capable of being two very different experiences,
04:52dependent on how many times you flub a stealth section and decide to just kill the people who found you in a Rambo-like fit of rage.
04:59Should you have given in to that urge earlier in the game, this fight will be littered with those you killed,
05:04ready again and back for round two.
05:06This is made extra spooky by the fact that the game will change their appearances to reflect how you killed them,
05:12so if you get them on fire, prepare to see some blazing bad guys.
05:16Ate a vulture that feasted on an enemy you killed? Prepare to hear them say,
05:20you ate me, and then spend forever thinking about the fact that you made poor Snake a technical cannibal.
05:26Even if you played Snake as a massive zen pacifist and didn't kill anybody, the scene is just as creepy,
05:32as you're then left following the Sorrow through an empty mist-filled swamp until you either find his body or he decides to kill you.
05:394. Professor Pig's Base – Batman Arkham Knight
05:43Despite being a relatively new addition to Batman's rogues' gallery,
05:47Professor Pig has managed to awaken a unique sense of horror in everyone who's seen him in the comics,
05:53the Gotham TV show, and most importantly, in his appearance in Batman Arkham Knight.
05:58After chasing the poor scene crime hound down through scanning a series of torture victims and discovering his lair,
06:04you're almost immediately filled with regret, because it is profoundly creepy.
06:09Pig has made his home in the Pretty Dolls parlor, which is stacked to the brim with mannequins,
06:14to set the awful, awful tone of the area.
06:16The villain himself is waiting down in the basement, where he's carving up his latest victim.
06:22Step inside his operating theater, and a posse of his lobotomized henchmen leap in from the balcony,
06:28setting up for a truly horror-inducing boss battle.
06:313. Senpou Temple – Sekiro Shadows Die Twice
06:35When you first enter the Senpou Temple section of Sekiro,
06:38it feels like a well-needed rest from the poison lakes and burning buildings that you've been murdering your way through.
06:44It's a luscious forest mainly filled with monks who provide challenging, but unsurprising fights.
06:49Then you reach an area where three monks are praying, and suddenly, huge centipedes burst out of them.
06:55And it becomes clear a nice forest was not worth this traumatic trade-off.
07:00Not only are the bugs magnificently creepy, but anyone who tries to fight them before they get the mortal blade
07:06will also discover that they are unkillable,
07:09making you realize the bugs are forcibly keeping these frail, husk-like humans alive.
07:14And speaking of centipedes, one of the two legitimately disturbing long-arm centipede bosses in the game
07:20also resides in this part of the game.
07:22All of this in an area that you can just accidentally fall into, as if you haven't suffered enough.
07:282. The Shale Bridge Cradle – Thief 3
07:31When it comes to pretty scary areas in otherwise non-horror games,
07:35the Shale Bridge Castle in Thief 3 is pretty infamous.
07:38Because where you're normally robbing from the notably human aristocracy,
07:42Shale Bridge has you enter a former orphanage that's been repurposed into also being an insane asylum at the same time.
07:49Which, yeah, is exactly as awful an idea as it sounds.
07:53And instead of being guarded by your conventional human knights,
07:56the cradle is protected by animated puppets,
07:59who move with all the disjointed menace of a successfully terrifying horror movie monster.
08:04Worse yet, it becomes apparent that the puppets are made from the dead bodies of those who died in the asylum,
08:10brought back to life to take you down.
08:12All in all, not the friendliest environment.
08:151. The Secret Laboratory – Undertale
08:18Although it deals with some pretty dark subject matter at points,
08:21the vast majority of Undertale is perfectly suited to being a kids' game.
08:25Although this is largely because its most terrifying area is open to only the most intrepid of explorers.
08:32After doing a successful pacifist run by not killing any monsters,
08:36and completing the extra dating section that you can start between two of the characters,
08:41it's complicated,
08:42you can gain access to the secret lab.
08:45The laboratory is hidden within the scientist Dr. Alphys' own lab,
08:49and contains all the dark secrets regarding the experimentation done on the monsters of the land
08:54in order to try and help them escape the mountain they're trapped within.
08:58It also contains the remains of said experiments,
09:01meaning you have to meet a frankly horrifying collection of maimed monsters,
09:05including those that have been forcibly joined with other creatures.
09:09And, uh, yeah, that's about as horrible as it sounds.
09:13That's the end of our list, but let me know down in that comment section
09:16if you can think of any other terrifying areas in otherwise non-terrifying games.
09:21As always, I've been Jess from WhatCulture.
09:23Thank you so much for hanging out with me.
09:25If you like, you can come say hi to me on my Twitter account, where I'm at JessMcDonald.
09:29But make sure you stay tuned to us here for plenty more great gaming lists.