In some ways, fear is the easiest emotion to create. Novels, comics, radio plays and films have been doing it for decades, and video games are no different. While advances in graphics have helped make games gorier, it takes a special touch to make one genuinely scary. Terror, dread, shock; we've all felt these at one time or another with certain games. Some were cheap shots while others genuinely preyed on your fragile psyche in the wee hours of the night.

Here's a list of moments in gaming that scarred the GameSpy editorial team for life, and as an added treat, we'll also be sharing some of our real-life videogame-related nightmare scenarios that actually happened.



DOOM's Pinky Demon Surprise (id software, PC)

Witnessed by: Li C. Kuo

Sure, nowadays the graphics in the original DOOM don't look especially terrifying (unless you have an unreasonable fear of pixels), but back then the immersion factor of id's first-person shooter was unmatched. You really felt like you were a stranded, lone marine fighting for his life, and when you were in those narrow corridors and the lights went out you just knew that something wicked was coming your way.


First you'd hear the distant growling and grunting, and then it'd get closer, and then you'd turn around to find a pinky demon gnawing your face off. Marines are made of stern stuff, but more than a few gamers jumped when one of these large fleshy baddies snuck up on you to take a bite out of your soft and tasty flesh.

Li's Real-Life Gaming Nightmare

Back in college I was playing Tomb Raider II on my PlayStation. A great new feature in this game was that you could actually save the game anywhere you wanted. This was a big improvement over the checkpoint system used in the last game. Unfortunately, it came around to bite me in the butt due to a lack of common sense. Here's what happened: I was nearing the end of the game and found myself in a strange world with floating platforms over a seemingly bottomless drop. I jumped for the one nearest me only to realize at the same moment that I hadn't saved for some time.

While I was in the air I paused the game and saved the game. I then unpaused the game only to discover to my horror that I had jumped too early. The lovely Lady Croft missed the platform and tumbled into oblivion. Then the true horror of what I'd done settled in: My memory card was full and I only had one save game for my TRII exploits. I had effectively put a complete halt to any possible progress into the game; sure, I could've restarted the level, but I just didn't have it in me. I never played Tomb Raider II again. To this day I have yet to see the end of Lara's second adventure.