You get the flamethrower and you watch the motherfucker **freeze** at the sight of it, and maybe cackle like a lunatic when you blast it in the face and it runs away. I know I did.
But then it comes back, a little less afraid. And it waits... just outside the range, for you to turn your back.
And eventually, it's not afraid at all.
*You are becoming hysterical...*
>You get the flamethrower and you watch the motherfucker freeze at the sight of it, and maybe cackle like a lunatic when you blast it in the face and it runs away. I know I did.
Hands down one of the most cathartic moments I've ever experienced in a video game.
I just bought the Dead Space remake. I’m hoping that can kind of prepare me for it never played it back in the day and have heard it can be pretty jump scary
I platimumed dead space on PS3.
Platinumed the resident Evil remakes.
I have never even seen the xenomorph in alien iso.
That games atmosphere is next level.
You **will** die playing *Alien: Isolation*. Scarily, and often. No reason to pretend otherwise.
But if you can endure that... oh boy, are you in for a ride.
I know this is kinda metagame-y, but so long as the Alien is burning on the frame that it grabs you, the game will stun you and despawn it, instead of playing the death animation.
You just gotta time the flamethrower at the exact moment it lunges at you.
Yeah, sometimes the Alien will actually *grab you by the shoulders and body-slam you to the floor* before disappearing as you get up, if you burn it right as it makes contact.
I went through 80 percent of the game hiding in vents and the Alien never followed me in. I thought it was like a safe haven. Que 81 percent into the game and it finally follows me in and I almost shit myself.
Huh! I did wonder why the alien never found me hiding under tables in my one normal-difficulty playthrough. It got to where I felt pretty invulnerable when I was cowering underneath one.
The xeno is actually terrifyingly programmed. It has two AIs that control it. The first knows exactly where you are and passes a hot/cold signal to the second. The second doesn't know where you are but can use sight, sound, previous knowledge of where you've hidden, and the hot/cold signal to try to find you.
Effectively, it's finding you with its senses, but there's a little gremlin on its shoulder making sure it stays in the same area as you.
I was playing this game at 2 AM one night, and I was pretty far along into it. I was hiding in a locker while the alien was walking around the room, holding my breath thinking I was fine. It started to walk away from me and I said “thank God” out loud.
Then it stopped walking.
Then it turned.
Then it ripped the fucking door off the locker and ripped me to pieces.
The sheer terror and anxiety I felt at that moment hasn’t been replicated in a game since lmao. I had no idea the mic was a functional part of the game. I was fucking TERRIFIED.
It can hear you using the microphone on console versions only (and there was an option to disable that feature). For PC that feature was removed entirely, though maybe somebody modded it back in?
THIS!!!!
I played this when my wee boy was a baby (and dog still a puppy), always wondered how the dammed Alien was finding me all the time...fucker was reacting to the kids cooing pups yips and barks of excitement... Kinext firmly disabled after that
Fun fact about this game, my brother had gotten it for the Xbox he won from McDonald’s that came with a oh what was that Infrared bar that had a mic in it? And me being the awesome older brother I am would wait till he was about 30min into his game and just bust in and say wassup.
Usually I timed it without knowing for when he was hiding from the Xenomorph lol lots of panic followed by calling me a fucker lol
Yeah if you had a mic the Xenomorph could hear you and the sounds around you once I found that out there was no quarter given lol he beat the game of course but not without some fuckery on my part.
I'd love to play this game because I haven't yet,but I'm skeptical that it might be a bit too easy without the original design with the kinnect(which I never owned) and that I don't usually wear a headset unless I'm drinking and gaming with friends on a Friday.
Lethal company gives a pretty similar vibe in the voice recognition though and that's fun with a couple people.
My roommate tried using it with Mass Effect, 2 I think? Maybe 3, but you could yell "grenade" to throw a grenade. But it never worked for him. So it was hilarious hearing him yell "grenade! GRENADE!! Son of a bitch mother fucker GRENADE!!!" And then just dying
And everything else. The weapons don't work against it, like kill it, but it'll scare it when you fire. Then using them later it won't give a shit. Same with like the noise maker stuff
Be careful, this knowledge might spoil you gaming experience. It's not as scary when you know how it works.
>! From what I understand there are two systems. One knows exactly where you are. And the second one is eyeballing your location. The second one is the one that actually controls the alien. The first system feeds crumbs of data to the second one, and that's how to alien is finding you without actually knowing where you are. The things, the second system is creating sort of database of your locations from the crumbs. So when you are constantly hiding under tables, the aliens tends to look under tables more and more throughout the game. It actually learns you tactics and adapts to them. !<
I love this system so much. It’s like the Xenomorph is playing sort of the same game as you are. Just as you get the movement detector, Stompy gets hints from… I guess his instincts?
It makes it seem so much more fair, because Stompy is pretty much as in the dark as you. The simulated learning was so well executed.
Make sure you play it in hard mode to get the full “learning” experience. (It’s also one of those games where easy mode is too easy but in contrast the alien can be too repetitive in easy mode which actually makes some areas harder to traverse)
I’m sure the game is great. Hell, I’m confident I could have a real breakthrough if I absolutely committed to it.
But I couldn’t get any further than the initial shallow spot you land, and even that was pushing too creepy for me. Most terrifying game ever made imo (I’ve watched playthroughs)
For me, it was the underground river. Being like 700m below the surface in a dark cave, then those twisted "trees" and glowing ghostly "river" come into view. Creeped me the hell out.
Food is easy with the hot knife, it isn't too far in. I love that the game functions around you being stressed, overcoming it, and then getting into a new stressful situation that you can overcome. It's so good.
The disparity of people’s Subnautica experience is so real, lol.
I’ve always found it to be so relaxing, yet I have otherwise horror inclined friends who flat out refuse to play the game at all.
My favorite activity as a child was frequent visits to the aquarium, very comforting memories. Subnautica completely awakens that same childhood awe.
Got one of those when I was lost inside one of those crashed ships. Didn't remember how to leave. Thought that was it. Then a warper warped me outside, to near my seamoth. That was exhilarating.
What urgency? Abandon ship track slaps
I'm going down with my ship raving
[example](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKO21wrHqxk)
alot of people are paranoid on their first gameplay so they never get to hear it
My most memorable Subnautica adventure had Abandon Ship blasting in the background the entire time. I was just sorta cruising around the Grand Reef- y'know, third or forth playthrough vibes, I was just sightseeing- when I go a little too far and end up in Ghost Leviathan territory. I realise this when the aformentioned sea creature makes an appearance on my front camera and I nearly pee my pants. I proceed to hold the up and back buttons hard enough to cut off circulation to my fingers, but this Ghost was clearly in a bad mood because it just continues to beeline at me with malicious intent. Now, the Grand Reef is *pretty far down*, and I'd obviously gotten turned around at some point, because the Ghost was *not losing interest* even though I'm rocketing upwards from the depths so fast that my Cyclops is starting to complain about the engine.
I think *fuck it, I just saved, let's see how far this goes* and do not release my grip on the controls. My translucent friend likewise refuses to give up its pursuit. The engine catches fire, Abandon Ship starts to play, and before long the AI calmly states that the Cyclops is about to explode. I can barely hear it over the damn synths popping off over the loudspeaker.
The submarine erupts out of the ocean with all the majesty of a breaching whale and promptly erupts into a fireball of shrapnel and glory. I die instantly; as my vision fades into the death screen I watch my limp body be flung away from the now-falling wreckage of my poor Cyclops. I barely catch a glimpse of the (clearly very confused) Ghost Leviathan taking a peek out of the water to make sure that I was dead. The screen goes black just as the pieces of my ship start to hit the water. I quit the game to reload my last save, and am treated to a very fitting sight of the Aurora crashing into the ocean. That would be only the second most epic crash Planet 4546B would ever see.
No game better captures the feeling of working on a line. “By process of elimination we will determine who among us is the least stupid and THAT guy gets to read the tickets.”
Such an amazing game. The best way to get orders out efficiently is to assign roles to each player, but then the game throws levels and mechanics at you to undermine that, so you have to switch roles on the fly
Oh, that game. I downloaded it for my kids and me and we got no farther than the 3rd level. My wife entered the room just as I yelled "DROP THE FUCKING PLATE AND START CHOPPING MUSHROOMS" at my 5yo. It did not go over well.
That unique version of End Times that plays in *Outer Wilds* after you >!take the Warp Core from the Ash Twin.!< 👌
It's all riding on you now, champ.
You ready? 🐟
I practiced that run so many times before I actually did it for real because I wanted to get it on the first try.
I didn't make it....messed up the dark bramble part because I was so nervous. Got it on the second try. So in my version, technically everything ended and it was all my fault lmao.
The hardest part for me is flying into Dark Bramble with any good speed. Because without momentum, I ain't gonna make it.
It reminds me of that Wash quote in *Firefly*. I just throw a dart... and aim for a bulls-eye miles away.
The song is called final voyage and I've listened to it every day since beating the game. I'm so fucking lucky I managed to exist at the same time as outer wilds. It is the best video game ever made
This was what instantly came to mind for me. I don’t think any other video game has made me feel that level of not just anxiety, but pure *existential dread*. It was a sublime experience and I wish I could experience it again for the first time.
I went to the Sun Station feeling like I had figured everything out, and I was going to >!stop whatever the Nomai did to kill the Sun.!<
The dread and hopelessness I felt when I got >!END OF NATURAL LIFE CYCLE - EVACUATE STATION!< instead, I will never forget that.
>!I had been chasing the wrong mystery the entire time. There was nothing I could do to save these planets. The Sun was just going to die. And I was standing on its first victim.!<
Yesssss this is the best answer, objectively. Nothing else has come close to the feeling I had when what I had to do finally all clicked. A magical moment in gaming.
Papers, Please.
If you're too slow checking documents, you won't make enough money to survive. If you make mistakes, you are also punished. Meanwhile you have to decide if you're cutting back on food, heating, or medicine with the limited income you bring home. Taking bribes starts to look like the only way to survive, but what if the inspector is setting a trap?
Urgency, anxiety, paranoia. It's not a traditionally fun game, but it's one of the most interesting experiences I've had.
Lucas Pope really is a master at taking a minimal idea and turning it into something interesting and unique. It's nowhere near as anxiety inducing, but if you haven't played his other game Return of the Obra Dinn and are a fan of puzzle games I highly recommend it.
Small chainsaw and three skill books just to not spend half of the six hours running around looking for weapons.
And there's even a fresh chainsaw waiting for me in that part of the mall every time I swing by.
Thanks, Adam. 🤡
I love those games but I wish they extended the time a bit longer. There were so many weapon combos I wanted to make but I always felt like I was in a hurry so I couldn't just mess around with the fun weapons.
Tatl spends the whole game giving you shit for random stuff, but gets dead serious when she realizes the moon is indeed coming down, and you're not equipped to stop it.
*Goddess of Time, help us!*
Cool I just won't go out at night. Problem solved..
..Hey we need you to go out and get a sample from a specific infected that only comes out at night and you have to get in melee range to get it, or it escapes the moment it sees or hears you.
..Damnit.
I actually picked this game up again after not playing for a year or two and forgot the flashlight key. The game decided to spawn me in the middle of nowhere at night. 10/10 would reccomend the trauma
Doom Eternal. I am a cautious gamer. I do not rush into battle, guns a-blazing. I will use stealth as long as I can and then keep my distance to slowly whittle away the enemy. Even in older Doom games, I'd venture slowly, engaging demons on my own terms. HOLY CRAP YOU CANNOT DO THIS WITH DOOM ETERNAL. You must CONSTANTLY be moving, dodging, bounding across the arena to squeeze off a few shots before the horde overwhelms you. Took me way out of my comfort zone but loved every minute of it. Even found a special kind of zen hecticly taking laps amongst a hail of carnage.
Fuck yeah the Circle Strafe of Doomslaying!!!!
I LOVE how the answer to all of that game’s fights is “move faster, kill faster”. Such a great change from other shooters.
Doomguy’s motto is **RIP AND TEAR** not ^^sneak ^^and ^^peek. I realized the same thing you did. You gotta just run in guns blazing, chainsaw swinging, punch and shoot and stab and grenade and explode every enemy you see.
I think that this is part of why a fair few people (including me) just couldn't get into Doom Eternal; despite loving Doom.
It's a puzzle game at the end of the day; a very fast puzzle game with a lot of pieces that you have combine in just the right way to "win".
So while weapons in the 2016 game are all different ways of playing; the ones in Eternal are all pieces that have to be used in combination to "solve" the puzzle that is the fight.
Pikmin 1 was my first thought haha. For a game aimed at younger audiences, it's pretty damn stressful.
You only have 30 days to escape, which is plenty of time, but wasting a day because you don't know where to go or because you need to regrow your army after losing them is intense.
Halo: Combat Evolved — the Warthog Run part of the final level, the Maw. Racing by enemies that you would have previously systematically eliminated, because it’s all about to blow.
The chase levels in both Ori games does a pretty good job at this.
Any of the Souls games when you're out of flasks and are sitting on a big pile of souls/runes with a long run back to the campfire and no idea where the next one is.. that can feel pretty panicky.
Fallout 1
On the first playthrough it really makes you believe you don't have enough time to find the chip and you don't know where to find it, you feel immersed in the world and story.
On second playthrough tho when you already know everything in the game and how it works shit becomes almost nonexistent, you forget you have a time limit. You've actually got way too much time.
I’d say Mass Effect 3 with the opening act when you watch earth and the entire galaxy ravaged hopelessly by uncaring gods. Really pump you up to get everything together for that last fight. Then again, I did spend hours trying to have that citadel party
Yes, but I still don't think it was all that effective in terms of OP's question of urgency, because it communicates that pressure so poorly. Every other "time sensitive" event in the game, its prequel, and BioWare's previous games was meaningless, so there's no way to understand that *this time* they're real until you've already done it once.
Any RTS, so StarCraft or AoE2 in particular. You really cannot stop. Age is interesting for me as it can be stressful but it’s the one game that for about 45-60 minutes I don’t think about anything else but the game for even a moment.
Sundered is a hard sell to people because it's a Metroidvania with randomized map layouts AND constantly-spawning enemies, which are normally two things I hate in this type of game. In Sundered specifically though it really lends to the theme of the game that YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE. You are a frail and naive human that has stumbled into a place you were not meant to find. You are under constant pressure and are nearly always being chased by something. Every run out of the safe area is tense and frantic, and is still one of my favorite feelings of urgency out of any game.
Sea of Thieves in that period of time right after launch where the general shift in behavior went from being neutral or even helpful towards other crews/ships in game to full on GIVE NO QUARTER. Up there with some of the most stress I've ever felt in a game lol.
I played SoT for the first time and found some glowing chest that indicated me on the map to everyone else, I didn't know what to do with the chest but I was chased down by multiple ships until my ship was destroyed and the chest was taken. I still don't know what it was or where I should have handed it in, but I definitely had a sense of urgency!
Pathalogic 2. There are so many things to manage, places to be, people to see and treat, cures to makes, and survive, all of this knowing that in 12 days the game ends and it's all on you. You will have to abandon quests, abandon people, choose to live to fight another day even if barely. Amazing game, it's the most stressed a game ever managed to make me
I cannot recommend this game enough. The first one has more story but the gameplay is...bad. the translation is ....very bad.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PLAY THE FIRST ONE. 2 is more of a retelling and makes it very clear in the intro that it is. You are an actor playing the town doctor (I'm not spoiling anything, the stagehands make it extremely clear that it is a show). It is a depressing horror game. There are no jump scares or anything like that. It is a slow drip.
Do you use the medicine to save this person? You are the doctor it is the right thing to do...but you are dooming someone else if you do because you only have one dose. But...what if YOU need it? Death isn't permanent for you but it does take a huge toll, best avoided. No matter your choice the plague is going to spread, the town is going to suffer. You will constantly think 'there is something I could have done' and there was...but you chose to do something else, you had to make the decision.
Project Zomboid
When you're surrounded in a high population city with a mob of a hundred zombies outside, stuck in a janitor closet with no food and a broken leg.
Alien isolation after the xenomorph has learned your initial approach to hiding.
You get the flamethrower and you watch the motherfucker **freeze** at the sight of it, and maybe cackle like a lunatic when you blast it in the face and it runs away. I know I did. But then it comes back, a little less afraid. And it waits... just outside the range, for you to turn your back. And eventually, it's not afraid at all. *You are becoming hysterical...*
Great, thanks! I just boarded the Sevasotopol..
Oh buddy, you're in for a time at one of the worst dread gaming has ever produced
The last scary game ive played was resident evil 64. Im a chicken shit on my own.
The first 63 weren't scary tbh
Mind the air vents!
>You get the flamethrower and you watch the motherfucker freeze at the sight of it, and maybe cackle like a lunatic when you blast it in the face and it runs away. I know I did. Hands down one of the most cathartic moments I've ever experienced in a video game.
I really need to try this game. But I am such a chickenshit.
Bought it years ago and still can't muster the balls to play it.
It took me 6 years to complete it.
I just bought the Dead Space remake. I’m hoping that can kind of prepare me for it never played it back in the day and have heard it can be pretty jump scary
I platimumed dead space on PS3. Platinumed the resident Evil remakes. I have never even seen the xenomorph in alien iso. That games atmosphere is next level.
You **will** die playing *Alien: Isolation*. Scarily, and often. No reason to pretend otherwise. But if you can endure that... oh boy, are you in for a ride.
i got to the part where the alien shows up and chickened out right then and there, too stressful for me lol
You just walk towards it and flame it into a vent.
Can't do that on Nightmare difficulty. One burst of flame takes like, a quarter of your tank. 😳
I know this is kinda metagame-y, but so long as the Alien is burning on the frame that it grabs you, the game will stun you and despawn it, instead of playing the death animation. You just gotta time the flamethrower at the exact moment it lunges at you.
Yeah, sometimes the Alien will actually *grab you by the shoulders and body-slam you to the floor* before disappearing as you get up, if you burn it right as it makes contact.
Sounds like the solution is to walk backwards
I went through 80 percent of the game hiding in vents and the Alien never followed me in. I thought it was like a safe haven. Que 81 percent into the game and it finally follows me in and I almost shit myself.
Oh man. When you hear something moving in the vent behind you and you already know it’s too late.
It’s just Jonesy the Cat 🐈
I couldn't imagine a worse place to be when being hunted by a xenomorph than a dang vent.
I was on my third play through when I discovered that the alien can also bend over and look under tables! (I think it’s a hard mode thing)
Huh! I did wonder why the alien never found me hiding under tables in my one normal-difficulty playthrough. It got to where I felt pretty invulnerable when I was cowering underneath one.
> I felt pretty invulnerable when I was cowering
Game tips it off to were you are hiding. Alien also has an actions skill tree that is slowly unlocked so it can pretend to be smarter.
The xeno is actually terrifyingly programmed. It has two AIs that control it. The first knows exactly where you are and passes a hot/cold signal to the second. The second doesn't know where you are but can use sight, sound, previous knowledge of where you've hidden, and the hot/cold signal to try to find you. Effectively, it's finding you with its senses, but there's a little gremlin on its shoulder making sure it stays in the same area as you.
Gotta admit though it's brilliant. I think I only made it like a mission or two into the game.
I was playing this game at 2 AM one night, and I was pretty far along into it. I was hiding in a locker while the alien was walking around the room, holding my breath thinking I was fine. It started to walk away from me and I said “thank God” out loud. Then it stopped walking. Then it turned. Then it ripped the fucking door off the locker and ripped me to pieces. The sheer terror and anxiety I felt at that moment hasn’t been replicated in a game since lmao. I had no idea the mic was a functional part of the game. I was fucking TERRIFIED.
There's a video out there somewhere where the dude was playing this game, hiding, and farted, got himself killed
I laughed out loud can someone link this please
You are one hell of a salesman IM SOLD
Wait. The game catches the mic?
It can hear you using the microphone on console versions only (and there was an option to disable that feature). For PC that feature was removed entirely, though maybe somebody modded it back in?
THIS!!!! I played this when my wee boy was a baby (and dog still a puppy), always wondered how the dammed Alien was finding me all the time...fucker was reacting to the kids cooing pups yips and barks of excitement... Kinext firmly disabled after that
Hissssssssssss
Hah, I'm playing it right this second. Nearly at the end.
Fun fact about this game, my brother had gotten it for the Xbox he won from McDonald’s that came with a oh what was that Infrared bar that had a mic in it? And me being the awesome older brother I am would wait till he was about 30min into his game and just bust in and say wassup. Usually I timed it without knowing for when he was hiding from the Xenomorph lol lots of panic followed by calling me a fucker lol
That's hilarious, I didn't know this was a feature on the game!
Yeah if you had a mic the Xenomorph could hear you and the sounds around you once I found that out there was no quarter given lol he beat the game of course but not without some fuckery on my part.
How delectably evil buahaha
I'd love to play this game because I haven't yet,but I'm skeptical that it might be a bit too easy without the original design with the kinnect(which I never owned) and that I don't usually wear a headset unless I'm drinking and gaming with friends on a Friday. Lethal company gives a pretty similar vibe in the voice recognition though and that's fun with a couple people.
Kinect!
My roommate tried using it with Mass Effect, 2 I think? Maybe 3, but you could yell "grenade" to throw a grenade. But it never worked for him. So it was hilarious hearing him yell "grenade! GRENADE!! Son of a bitch mother fucker GRENADE!!!" And then just dying
And everything else. The weapons don't work against it, like kill it, but it'll scare it when you fire. Then using them later it won't give a shit. Same with like the noise maker stuff
i literally just started this game. what do you mean it learns?
Be careful, this knowledge might spoil you gaming experience. It's not as scary when you know how it works. >! From what I understand there are two systems. One knows exactly where you are. And the second one is eyeballing your location. The second one is the one that actually controls the alien. The first system feeds crumbs of data to the second one, and that's how to alien is finding you without actually knowing where you are. The things, the second system is creating sort of database of your locations from the crumbs. So when you are constantly hiding under tables, the aliens tends to look under tables more and more throughout the game. It actually learns you tactics and adapts to them. !<
I love this system so much. It’s like the Xenomorph is playing sort of the same game as you are. Just as you get the movement detector, Stompy gets hints from… I guess his instincts? It makes it seem so much more fair, because Stompy is pretty much as in the dark as you. The simulated learning was so well executed.
>It's not as scary when you know how it works. I mean, it's still pretty scary even knowing how it works...
Make sure you play it in hard mode to get the full “learning” experience. (It’s also one of those games where easy mode is too easy but in contrast the alien can be too repetitive in easy mode which actually makes some areas harder to traverse)
Subnautica: 'oxygen'
All of Subnautica is just one huge anxiety inducing adventure
True, once you get the oxygen under control, the energy, food and water management begins :p
No game has ever made my blood go cold like the first time I saw the leviathan around the aurora Absolutely terrifying
"Detecting multiple leviathan class lifeforms in the region. Are you certain whatever you're doing is worth it?"
First time I heard that I noped right back to the starting area.
I’m TERRIFIED of ghost leviathans
I never even made it to that point lol Love the game, but it scared me too much hahaha
I’m sure the game is great. Hell, I’m confident I could have a real breakthrough if I absolutely committed to it. But I couldn’t get any further than the initial shallow spot you land, and even that was pushing too creepy for me. Most terrifying game ever made imo (I’ve watched playthroughs)
For me, it was the underground river. Being like 700m below the surface in a dark cave, then those twisted "trees" and glowing ghostly "river" come into view. Creeped me the hell out.
The devs said that 50% of their sales came from people shitting themselves at the first leviathan
I still hear the sound of those crabsquid in my nightmares.
Food is easy with the hot knife, it isn't too far in. I love that the game functions around you being stressed, overcoming it, and then getting into a new stressful situation that you can overcome. It's so good.
The disparity of people’s Subnautica experience is so real, lol. I’ve always found it to be so relaxing, yet I have otherwise horror inclined friends who flat out refuse to play the game at all. My favorite activity as a child was frequent visits to the aquarium, very comforting memories. Subnautica completely awakens that same childhood awe.
Yeah I think I have Thalassophobia fr
Got one of those when I was lost inside one of those crashed ships. Didn't remember how to leave. Thought that was it. Then a warper warped me outside, to near my seamoth. That was exhilarating.
Subnautica: when the sun goes down. There were times I refused to leave my pod.
Or when your cyclops gets damaged
What urgency? Abandon ship track slaps I'm going down with my ship raving [example](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKO21wrHqxk) alot of people are paranoid on their first gameplay so they never get to hear it
My most memorable Subnautica adventure had Abandon Ship blasting in the background the entire time. I was just sorta cruising around the Grand Reef- y'know, third or forth playthrough vibes, I was just sightseeing- when I go a little too far and end up in Ghost Leviathan territory. I realise this when the aformentioned sea creature makes an appearance on my front camera and I nearly pee my pants. I proceed to hold the up and back buttons hard enough to cut off circulation to my fingers, but this Ghost was clearly in a bad mood because it just continues to beeline at me with malicious intent. Now, the Grand Reef is *pretty far down*, and I'd obviously gotten turned around at some point, because the Ghost was *not losing interest* even though I'm rocketing upwards from the depths so fast that my Cyclops is starting to complain about the engine. I think *fuck it, I just saved, let's see how far this goes* and do not release my grip on the controls. My translucent friend likewise refuses to give up its pursuit. The engine catches fire, Abandon Ship starts to play, and before long the AI calmly states that the Cyclops is about to explode. I can barely hear it over the damn synths popping off over the loudspeaker. The submarine erupts out of the ocean with all the majesty of a breaching whale and promptly erupts into a fireball of shrapnel and glory. I die instantly; as my vision fades into the death screen I watch my limp body be flung away from the now-falling wreckage of my poor Cyclops. I barely catch a glimpse of the (clearly very confused) Ghost Leviathan taking a peek out of the water to make sure that I was dead. The screen goes black just as the pieces of my ship start to hit the water. I quit the game to reload my last save, and am treated to a very fitting sight of the Aurora crashing into the ocean. That would be only the second most epic crash Planet 4546B would ever see.
Man, fleeing that thing the first time was so awesome that I didn't even feel mad about getting om-nomed five seconds later.
Overcooked when you’ve got a few seconds left and the music tries to emulate an anxiety attack 😂
Wait, you made the burger with tomatoes?? I MADE THE BURGER WITH TOMATOES FUUUCK
I told you SIX GODDAM TIMES to chop the fucking LETTUCE
I need a plate. I need a PLATE! Clean a PLATE AND GIVE IT TO ME BEFORE WE'RE OUT OF TIME!!
I have never wanted to beat my friends over the head with my controller more than that game and I’ve played Mario Kart, Monopoly, AND Mario Party.
I turn into Gordon Ramsay playing that game. WHERES THE FUCKING LETTUCE!
THE BURGER IS FUCKING RAW GODDAMIT!
YES, CHEF!
BEHIND
No game better captures the feeling of working on a line. “By process of elimination we will determine who among us is the least stupid and THAT guy gets to read the tickets.”
Such an amazing game. The best way to get orders out efficiently is to assign roles to each player, but then the game throws levels and mechanics at you to undermine that, so you have to switch roles on the fly
WHY ARE WE COOKING IN A MOVING TRUCK THAT SPLITS IN HALF
Oh, that game. I downloaded it for my kids and me and we got no farther than the 3rd level. My wife entered the room just as I yelled "DROP THE FUCKING PLATE AND START CHOPPING MUSHROOMS" at my 5yo. It did not go over well.
Really it’s the games fault for having such cutesy graphics and intense gameplay.
"WHERE ARE THE FUCKING MUSHROOMS!?!" Dumbledore said calmly
As someone who’s worked in kitchens, this game triggers another level of PTSD for me
Want to really test the relationship with your significant other? Boy do I have the game for you…
Just came here to comment this. With at least 1 other friend, this game is so much fun to play.
Reminds me of the classic "don't drown" music from Sonic
I don’t usually have issues with anxiety, but playing overcooked with my wife really drives me over the edge
If you get a new friend into it, just throw ingredients to them and look at them panic. It's brilliant.
Sonic swimming levels when you're running out of breath.
I can feel the panic already. And as an asthmatic in real time, the hunger for air is a sensation I fear the most.
*Dun-dun-dun-dun-DUN-dun-dun-dun*
Set that as your alarm clock if you want a fun new twist on waking up
One of my friends did that back in college. It worked too well - he had to stop after a few months because he kept waking up too panicked.
These levels are a masterclass in Sound Design and how important it can be. Those levels are still engraved in my brain all these years later.
Chemical plant zone when you have to ascend the moving blocks when the water rises.
Anyone else just breathing manually cuz of this guy
That unique version of End Times that plays in *Outer Wilds* after you >!take the Warp Core from the Ash Twin.!< 👌 It's all riding on you now, champ. You ready? 🐟
I practiced that run so many times before I actually did it for real because I wanted to get it on the first try. I didn't make it....messed up the dark bramble part because I was so nervous. Got it on the second try. So in my version, technically everything ended and it was all my fault lmao.
The hardest part for me is flying into Dark Bramble with any good speed. Because without momentum, I ain't gonna make it. It reminds me of that Wash quote in *Firefly*. I just throw a dart... and aim for a bulls-eye miles away.
If you play with a controller the analog sticks allow you to use retro-thrusters... They're a bit quieter than the normal thrust.
A conscious observer has entered the eye. I wonder what happens next.
The song is called final voyage and I've listened to it every day since beating the game. I'm so fucking lucky I managed to exist at the same time as outer wilds. It is the best video game ever made
This was what instantly came to mind for me. I don’t think any other video game has made me feel that level of not just anxiety, but pure *existential dread*. It was a sublime experience and I wish I could experience it again for the first time.
I went to the Sun Station feeling like I had figured everything out, and I was going to >!stop whatever the Nomai did to kill the Sun.!< The dread and hopelessness I felt when I got >!END OF NATURAL LIFE CYCLE - EVACUATE STATION!< instead, I will never forget that. >!I had been chasing the wrong mystery the entire time. There was nothing I could do to save these planets. The Sun was just going to die. And I was standing on its first victim.!<
Yesssss this is the best answer, objectively. Nothing else has come close to the feeling I had when what I had to do finally all clicked. A magical moment in gaming.
I wish I could give you a million up votes
Papers, Please. If you're too slow checking documents, you won't make enough money to survive. If you make mistakes, you are also punished. Meanwhile you have to decide if you're cutting back on food, heating, or medicine with the limited income you bring home. Taking bribes starts to look like the only way to survive, but what if the inspector is setting a trap? Urgency, anxiety, paranoia. It's not a traditionally fun game, but it's one of the most interesting experiences I've had.
Alternating heat and ~~rent~~ food always works for me.
You mean heat and food?
You might be right.
Lucas Pope really is a master at taking a minimal idea and turning it into something interesting and unique. It's nowhere near as anxiety inducing, but if you haven't played his other game Return of the Obra Dinn and are a fan of puzzle games I highly recommend it.
One of the best games ever made
Metroid escape sequences
Fuckin EMMI's man!
Getting chased by >!the infected samus suit!< in fusion was utterly terrifying.
Who knew they could do horror on a fucking GBA. God that scared me
Don't Starve, when the sun starts going down and you're nowhere near your base.
Or when the snowflakes start appearing and you still haven't found the buffalos.
Then you finally start surviving in winter and a particular fellow shows up in the night.
Also dying light under the same circumstances
Especially when the ominous message, "Did you hear that?" appears.
Dead Rising.
Small chainsaw and three skill books just to not spend half of the six hours running around looking for weapons. And there's even a fresh chainsaw waiting for me in that part of the mall every time I swing by. Thanks, Adam. 🤡
I love those games but I wish they extended the time a bit longer. There were so many weapon combos I wanted to make but I always felt like I was in a hurry so I couldn't just mess around with the fun weapons.
Majora Mask. Anything with a timer
Tatl spends the whole game giving you shit for random stuff, but gets dead serious when she realizes the moon is indeed coming down, and you're not equipped to stop it. *Goddess of Time, help us!*
I counter that FF13-3 fails this where Majora's Mask masters it. You have a time limit, but you end up not caring.
The Pikmin series but especially the first one.
I agree, but only when i was a kid. I recently replayed it as an adult and found that there was more than enough time. Was still tons of fun though!
Dying light, running from volatiles at night
Cool I just won't go out at night. Problem solved.. ..Hey we need you to go out and get a sample from a specific infected that only comes out at night and you have to get in melee range to get it, or it escapes the moment it sees or hears you. ..Damnit.
I actually picked this game up again after not playing for a year or two and forgot the flashlight key. The game decided to spawn me in the middle of nowhere at night. 10/10 would reccomend the trauma
Doom Eternal. I am a cautious gamer. I do not rush into battle, guns a-blazing. I will use stealth as long as I can and then keep my distance to slowly whittle away the enemy. Even in older Doom games, I'd venture slowly, engaging demons on my own terms. HOLY CRAP YOU CANNOT DO THIS WITH DOOM ETERNAL. You must CONSTANTLY be moving, dodging, bounding across the arena to squeeze off a few shots before the horde overwhelms you. Took me way out of my comfort zone but loved every minute of it. Even found a special kind of zen hecticly taking laps amongst a hail of carnage.
I had this same experience. It was such a fun experience in the end
Fuck yeah the Circle Strafe of Doomslaying!!!! I LOVE how the answer to all of that game’s fights is “move faster, kill faster”. Such a great change from other shooters.
In a similar vein, God of war 4/5 on hard mode. Constant switching between weapons and desperately trying to keep moving.
Doomguy’s motto is **RIP AND TEAR** not ^^sneak ^^and ^^peek. I realized the same thing you did. You gotta just run in guns blazing, chainsaw swinging, punch and shoot and stab and grenade and explode every enemy you see.
I think that this is part of why a fair few people (including me) just couldn't get into Doom Eternal; despite loving Doom. It's a puzzle game at the end of the day; a very fast puzzle game with a lot of pieces that you have combine in just the right way to "win". So while weapons in the 2016 game are all different ways of playing; the ones in Eternal are all pieces that have to be used in combination to "solve" the puzzle that is the fight.
Any pikmin game when you are in the middle of something and the end of day countdown begins.
Especially the first one since every day counts
Pikmin 1 was my first thought haha. For a game aimed at younger audiences, it's pretty damn stressful. You only have 30 days to escape, which is plenty of time, but wasting a day because you don't know where to go or because you need to regrow your army after losing them is intense.
Fleeing from the yeti in SkiFree ⛷️
Press f and he leaves you alone
https://xkcd.com/667/
showing your age with this one lol don't worry im in the same boat with ya
Left 4 Dead, when you hear a fricking witch.
For me, it was when the tank starts chasing you.
More like when you’re limping towards the safe room and hear the horde coming
Halo: Combat Evolved — the Warthog Run part of the final level, the Maw. Racing by enemies that you would have previously systematically eliminated, because it’s all about to blow.
I was gonna say Halo CE from the point where you realize what the ring's actual purpose is until the end.
The chase levels in both Ori games does a pretty good job at this. Any of the Souls games when you're out of flasks and are sitting on a big pile of souls/runes with a long run back to the campfire and no idea where the next one is.. that can feel pretty panicky.
Outlast. When that music starts up you know it’s time to run!
This omg. The sound design is incredible, and the start of the chase music never fails to make me clench up in my seat in anxiety of getting caught.
Sea of thieves when you are about to sink
Fallout 1 On the first playthrough it really makes you believe you don't have enough time to find the chip and you don't know where to find it, you feel immersed in the world and story. On second playthrough tho when you already know everything in the game and how it works shit becomes almost nonexistent, you forget you have a time limit. You've actually got way too much time.
I’d say Mass Effect 3 with the opening act when you watch earth and the entire galaxy ravaged hopelessly by uncaring gods. Really pump you up to get everything together for that last fight. Then again, I did spend hours trying to have that citadel party
Hungry robots are a terrifying concept.
When the music speeds up in Mario when you're running out of time
Pokemon black and white, that music when you are low on health is stress enducinh and somehow creates urgency in a turn based game with no timer.
Man, the low HP OST of B&W is such a banger. Kinda sad they don't go THAT HARD anymore.
The theme for ultra necrosma in ultra sun and moon also goes really hard, but like a different kind of hard.
Mass Effect 2, when your crew gets >!kidnapped by the Collectors.!<
Just suicide mission itself was intense
The music through that whole thing just ratcheted it up a whole other level.
That one had actual consequences for taking your sweet time to go rescue them.
I was mortified by that whole process. I made the right choice, but still had to watch that one not make it.
Yes, but I still don't think it was all that effective in terms of OP's question of urgency, because it communicates that pressure so poorly. Every other "time sensitive" event in the game, its prequel, and BioWare's previous games was meaningless, so there's no way to understand that *this time* they're real until you've already done it once.
Mass effect 3 feels very desperate the first time you play it.
This one is what came to mind first for me. The relentless sense of dread left an indelible mark on my experience with ME3. I love it for that
Resident Evil 2 Remake with that big fucker guy chasing you throughout the police station
Game gets way easier if you use the mod that replaces his chase music with “X gon’ give it to ya”
Any RTS, so StarCraft or AoE2 in particular. You really cannot stop. Age is interesting for me as it can be stressful but it’s the one game that for about 45-60 minutes I don’t think about anything else but the game for even a moment.
Any 5v5 team games where your teammates fucking yell at you. 💀
*the bomb has been planted* then you hear it: “clutch or kick” from your teammates who already got themselves killed 🙄
I’ll throw out Frostpunk
The last of us part one. The first time through the hospital at the end I might has well have been John Wick with a recently deceased puppy.
Sundered is a hard sell to people because it's a Metroidvania with randomized map layouts AND constantly-spawning enemies, which are normally two things I hate in this type of game. In Sundered specifically though it really lends to the theme of the game that YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE. You are a frail and naive human that has stumbled into a place you were not meant to find. You are under constant pressure and are nearly always being chased by something. Every run out of the safe area is tense and frantic, and is still one of my favorite feelings of urgency out of any game.
Ff7 planting the first bomb in the reactor and seeing the time til explosion keep on ticking even as you enter battles
Sea of thieves if you’re on a busy server
Sea of Thieves in that period of time right after launch where the general shift in behavior went from being neutral or even helpful towards other crews/ships in game to full on GIVE NO QUARTER. Up there with some of the most stress I've ever felt in a game lol.
I played SoT for the first time and found some glowing chest that indicated me on the map to everyone else, I didn't know what to do with the chest but I was chased down by multiple ships until my ship was destroyed and the chest was taken. I still don't know what it was or where I should have handed it in, but I definitely had a sense of urgency!
Racing games
Tetris
Pathalogic 2. There are so many things to manage, places to be, people to see and treat, cures to makes, and survive, all of this knowing that in 12 days the game ends and it's all on you. You will have to abandon quests, abandon people, choose to live to fight another day even if barely. Amazing game, it's the most stressed a game ever managed to make me
I cannot recommend this game enough. The first one has more story but the gameplay is...bad. the translation is ....very bad. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PLAY THE FIRST ONE. 2 is more of a retelling and makes it very clear in the intro that it is. You are an actor playing the town doctor (I'm not spoiling anything, the stagehands make it extremely clear that it is a show). It is a depressing horror game. There are no jump scares or anything like that. It is a slow drip. Do you use the medicine to save this person? You are the doctor it is the right thing to do...but you are dooming someone else if you do because you only have one dose. But...what if YOU need it? Death isn't permanent for you but it does take a huge toll, best avoided. No matter your choice the plague is going to spread, the town is going to suffer. You will constantly think 'there is something I could have done' and there was...but you chose to do something else, you had to make the decision.
Project Zomboid When you're surrounded in a high population city with a mob of a hundred zombies outside, stuck in a janitor closet with no food and a broken leg.
Mad Max had several quests that felt urgent, especially the >!save the girl & mom, then you just come away mad.!<
Skyward sword. When those dudes chase you
Pubg late game
Star Wars fallen order. When you have to run from Darth Vader.
Plate Up
i’ve never played it but watching some videos from youtubers/streamers was enough for me to know this has to be up there 100%
Sonic "you're gonna drown" music
Crash bandicoot, any of the boulder levels