Well, here we are. It’s Halloween weekend. If there is any one time for spooks and scares in the year, this is it! Despite our planning, Spooktober is’t quite over yet, so I figured now would be a great time to share my scariest gaming moment. You could say that it combines almost all of the things that skeev me out the most. It involves being hunted, takes place in a mostly abandoned location, and builds suspense like no other point in the game. It’s a moment that has, all by itself, made me think twice every time I’ve thought about going back to its host game. I have gone back of course, but dreading just a little more each time. The game is Dead Space, and the moment…well, we’ll get to that.
As anyone who’s played it knows, Dead Space is a game that thrives on making you feel unsafe. It’s setting, the USG Ishimura, it an aging, rotting hulk of a ship and it just so happens to be populated by scores of undead ever eager to add to their ranks. It’s as inherently dangerous a place as it can possibly be, and it’s our job as engineer Isaac Clark to not only survive in this place, but also keep it functioning long enough to devise a way to escape. This takes us all over the ship, from the rot-infested oxygen garden to the hellish, elaborately-trapped mining deck.
No matter where we go on the Ishimura though, it’s always the same: necormorphs charging out the darkness, bursting out of vents from all surfaces, creeping up from behind or slinking silently along ceilings right up until they’re in striking distance. It’s always without warning, always from the one spot you lost track of after scanning the room, always without any music to queue you in and always with a horrific scream and a loud cacaphonic stinger of sound. It was terribly nerve-wracking in the original, and now is even more so in the remake. The one saving grace in all of it is that you could always just kill them and move on, or even just run to the next room. That is you could until you get through the medicl deck.
Making my through medical is my absoluteleast favorite part of Dead Space, and it’s entirely due to one thing: The Hunter. My first encounter with it wasn’t so bad, but not that much worse than other necromorphs when they pull their appearing acts; I just shot it to pieces and moved on, not really wondering why the music didn’t stop after I’d killed it. I’d spent a bunch of resources killing it, but otherwise wasn’t terribly concerned. No, what really got me, what made me jump out of my chair all those years ago is when it came back.
Like I said, I was kind of low on supplies and was running ever lower things to dealing with the necromorphs that kept popping up as I made my way back out of Medical. I wasn’t running or anything, thinking that I could just kill whatever showed up and get some much-needed ammo and health items in the process. After proceeding through a couple of rooms, it happened. Rather than lying on the floor back where I’d left it, the Hunter burst out a vent right in front of me! It was back, and I “killed” it again only to watch in horror as it quickly reattached its limbs, got back up and started toward me again! This time I didn’t try to shoot it apart again; I jus turned an ran through the remaining rooms, hearing it burst out of more vents in each one. This thig wasn’t going to stop!
The relief I felt as I, health in the red and nearly out of ammo, managed to trap the thing in Cryogenics was unlike anything I’d felt playing a game before. I never wanted to see that thing again (and was certain that I wasn’t). I went through the next few chapters without much care or worry because at least that wasn’t hunting me anymore. So, imagine my delight when The Hunter showed up again in chapter 10 and I got to spend another whole level getting chased down while simulataneously trying to get a shuttle prepped for launch. As likely goes without saying, that was almost as bad as the first time!
I’ve played games that are scarier than Dead Space; Outlast is one of them. Yet, I’ve never had another moment that freaked me out in the same way as my first encounter with The Hunter. Every time I’ve thought about Dead Space, even now, I’ve of The Hunter. It’s haunted every subsequent playthrough adn has even gotten me to pivot to other games rather than go through again. The surprise is no longer there of course, but somehow that’s even worse! I know it’s coming and I’d really rather not deal with it again even though I know the encounter backwards and forwards by now (I have played the game through several times, I’ve just hesitated a lot more). Truly nothing has topped The Hunter since, and honestly I kind of hope nothing does.
Thank you all for enjoying Spooktober with us again this year! Be sure to stop back again next week for our final thoughts and the overall results from the polls! In the meantime, what is your scariest gaming moment? What was it that got you?
Image compiled by Hatmonster
VIRTUAL BASTION 