Not to spoil what’s likely to be in my next Spooktober post, but, I don’t like overly-large, beastly antagonists. It’s bad enough when you’re minding your own business and they pop up out of nowhere (looking at you Fallout’s mirelurk queens!). What I fund much worse, however, is when they ambiguously but distinctly announce their presence. Just hearing that something BIG is in my vicinity is enough to make me freeze up every time.

I constantly return to the Doom games, because that’s just where so many of these gaming fears started. This topic is no exception. Say what one will about Doom and Doom II’s original pixelated gore and stiff character models, those games possessed incredible sound designs. While traversing through levels, you could almost always hear monster grumbles and shrieks in the distance. There was no place safe; you always had to be on guard. Maybe those sounds of something monstrous led to terrible encounters, maybe they didn’t. The latter was almost worse due to the extreme tension those sound induced.

Speaking of shrieking, I can’t think of a more terrifying “announcement” cry than that of the tall, spindly Asari banshees in Mass Effect 3. Oh. My. Goodness. How I do not like them at all. I would happily go head-to-head with scores of Mass Effect 2’s scions and abominations over facing a few banshees. For one, banshees are formidable opponents that, though slow, can warp across a battlefield. But really, their terrible screams are just spine-chilling. Even the description of them in the game mentions how awful they are: “Although their wails have no apparent physiological effect, the psychological impact is undeniable.” Yeah, no kidding. Even now, knowing when and where the banshees will show up in the game, they still make me stop cold every single time.

The closest I’ve come to playing a horror game in recent times is The Last of Us. I’ll admit that I never saw it through to the end, but I spent enough time with it to meet the clickers. Eww, what a literal nightmare they are! While they aren’t as excessively large as enemies go, they are nonetheless awful to encounter. And you know you’re going to encounter them when you hear their *clicks* coming from the shadows. It’s a wild mechanic to deal with in the middle of everything else the game throw at you, but the clickers’ use of echolocation – they are all blind due to the most horrifying facial fungal infection ever to be brought into existence – is quite effective. The clicking sound alone turned me to stone enough times to think that I’ve never make it through a level. Well, I did make it through a few levels, at least, and that was plenty scary for me.

So, to any developers out there, if you want to find a way to frighten me, just me in particular, in any given game, make sure to include plenty of far-off growls, screeches, and roars. Make sure those terrible sounds are attached to big, scary, creepy beasts, and your mission will be accomplished! I will stop I my tracks every few second until I find the nerve to keep going. It’s a great way to play a game.

Oh, and also, sarcasm.