1. Dead Space 2 eye-poke machine scene

Dead Space is known as a graphic game and has many scary jumpscares and scenes to make your skin crawl. But the most memorable and shocking scene has to be when the main character Isaac has to poke his cornea with a needle whilst strapped into a machine.

Not only does the loud noises the machine creates and Isaacs panicked breathing makes this scene uncomfortable but if you mess up, Isaac has the needle jammed into his eye ripping apart his eye as he screams.

At Least if your at this point in the game the many deaths of Isaac Clark have probably already scarred you at this point.

2. The wheelchair guy jumpscare in Outlast

Outlast is heavily known for its many many jumpscares. This one in particular is quite scary because of its setup. Mount Massive Asylum is filled with many damaged and crazy people who won’t harm the player.

So when wandering around its normal to see one hanging around and maybe even whispering to themself. So when you see a lone man in a wheelchair residing in an empty hallway a lot of players either don’t think much of it or will cautiously walk past him. The reason that makes this jumpscare so great is that the first time you walk past him he does nothing. But when the player is forced to walk back through the hallway to continue the rest of the game he leaps out and screams, “Get them out! Please! The Doctor is dead! Rip them clean! You have to help me!” After that the player kicks them off and he crawls away a bit until stopping to curl up into a ball and cry, which I wish I could have done too after experiencing that scare.

3. The Infamous Milla Vodello scene in Psychonauts

Psychonauts was a fun game mainly marketed towards kids which is what makes this scene in the game highly disturbing. Milla Vodella is a fun carefree character but when the player enters her mind you may come across a dark secret hidden in a room. The first thing you’ll notice is that it’s a childrens play area and you come to learn that Milla used to take care of children in an orphanage.

One day she went grocery shopping and came back to the orphanage being on fire as all of the children were trapped inside. Her psychic powers allowed her to hear their screams and cries for her help as they burned to death. This scarred her, creating sad disturbing memories hiding in the deepest depths of her mind. For a kids game it seems like the developers felt like they needed a tragic backstory, but do you think they went too far?

4. First encounter with a Leviathan in Subnautica

If you’re like me and you have thalassophobia (fear of the depths and what lurks in them) Subnautica as a whole is a living nightmare for you. Being forced to go deeper and deeper in the water to upgrade and create more things to progress makes the player come into contact with many creatures. One of the categories of the creatures is known as a “Leviathan” these creatures a notoriously gigantic but the one people are scared of the most is the  Reaper Leviathan.

This is because the Reaper Leviathan is known as one of the most aggressive and scariest looking creatures. Not only is meeting one of these guys scary because of their size but when they attack it plays a jumpscare animation. 

Subnautica will always be one of those games I stay away from out of pure fear.

5. The radio in P.T.

P.T. could have been an amazing game if completed. Nothing gave me the chills like walking through an endless corridor not having a chance to even tell when something was about to happen. Not only that but the radio talking about a man murdering his wife and children and then telling you to  look behind you to see the chilling ghost of his wife also known as Lisa. Not to mention the radio speaking demonic swedish voice that when translated says, “Close your eyes. Let your ears listen to the radio. Do you hear my voice? Can you hear your own soul’s scream? Let us choose. My voice that tells the future. Or your  Tortured mind. Well, what do you choose? You can choose. 

“Your life, your future. Wise as you are you might already have discovered it. Yes, the radio drama from 75 years ago was true. They are here on our earth and they monitor and see all. Don’t trust anyone. Don’t trust the police. They are already controlled by them. That’s the way it has been for 75 years now. Only our best will prevail. You have a right. A right to become one of us. So, welcome to our world. Very soon the  gates to a new dimension will open. 204863. 204863.”

Another thing is that Lisa is always behind the player, for the entire game, which makes sense as to why you feel like you’re being watched the whole time.

6. Jack bursting through the wall in Resident Evil 7

Resident Evil is known for their Invincible characters where your only way to win is to run or hide. This being one of the only first person Resident Evil games not only allows for more creative scares but also forces the player to not be able to see behind them making it more immersive.

Jack in this game is the Invincible character that chases you around the whole game. In the beginning when Jack “welcomes you to the family” he slowly chases you around their house and when you think you have finally made it to safety he goes full Koolaid-Man and bursts through the wall next to you blocking you from running away. Not only does Jack do all of this but unlike the other immortal silent antagonist he actually speaks.

At Least I wish he wouldn’t because if you do something stupid he’ll make fun of you right then and there as he tears you apart.

7. Manbat encounter in Batman Arkham Knight

Batman Arkham Knight was known for its very eerie gothic scenery and most notably the unique cast of characters and villains. One of the characters being the elusive Manbat.

Manbat is a creature usually found lurking on rooftops so as a new player playing around with the flying mechanics, finding this guy can give you quite the jump. Especially since Manbat screams in your face unexpectedly.

The sad part is that this villain doesn’t want to be Manbat. So it’s up to you to capture him three times to be able to make a cure and put him into isolation  

8. Dying Light first Volatile chase

In dying light you are a parkour master in a zombie apocalypse so you would think that surviving is no problem. Well that’s what most new players think until they start hearing loud screeches in the night while dropping off a supply package. And if you’re like me, seeing those creatures scaling up buildings and sprinting just as fast as you made does no less than cause a panic attack. Especially because you aren’t told what they are yet.

But if you’re feeling curious to see what they look like you’ll find yourself sprinting as fast as you can anyway because not only are they highly dangerous but they hunt in pacts and look absolutely terrifying. 

9. The Fingerpaint killer in Watch Dogs

Killers in open world video games aren’t unheard of and are pretty cliche at this point. But the main thing that makes this one of the scariest to find is that you have no sense of direction or questline that tells you where to go. You just randomly start coming across bodies with complicated paintings in blood around them.

Slowly the player pieces together that all of the killed have one thing in common, they are all hemophiliacs. And when you find all the bodies you find out the killer is Edgar Noone. A prolific killer and hemophiliac that wants to destroy not only himself but other hemophiliacs claiming that it’s a  monster in him and he has to destroy his bloodline. Aiden Peirce, the playable character, ends up killing him and saving another woman’s life stopping the killings once and for all.

10. Finding a serial killer’s den in Red Dead Redemption 2

RDR2 is known for a lot of its creepy easter eggs and secrets. But this one is a little more unique because you’ve got to go around to the killer’s areas where there are mangled bodies and heads on stakes but in each of these locations you’ll find a piece of a map. Once you have collected all of the pieces the map will lead you to a dimly lit abandoned cellar.

When you’ve made it through you can find a knife around some more bodies. When inspecting the knife the killer sneaks up behind you and punches you in the face knocking you to the ground. After this the killer monologues for a bit but the player can throw a severed head at the killer in order to stagger him and take him down. 

When taken to the sheriff’s office and being put into custody he attacks the sheriff where either the player can kill him for a 20$ reward or just sit and let the sheriff take care of it.