We are in the thick of spooky season and many of us have already feasted on some of our favorite horror movies or games. With the recent releases of Chronos: The New Dawn and Silent Hill f and updates for Resident Evil 9, I reminisced over some of the scariest locations a horror video game can be set in. Check out eight cream of the crop set pieces that will send chills up your spine and see if it lines up with your own list!
Bottom of the Well — The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
This location is a no-brainer. In one of the most acclaimed video games of all time, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time—a whimsical fantasy action game by “kid-friendly” Nintendo—created with a level that traumatized a generation.
There is a part in the latter half of the game where you must travel back in time from adult to child in order to squeeze into a hole deep beneath Kakariko Village’s well. It’s just a well, so it’s probably one big earthy pit, right? No one expected it to end up being a miniature labyrinth of monsters and torture devices.
Ocarina of Time took such a dark turn beneath the well and foreshadows the next temple, which isn’t any more pleasant, the Shadow Temple. Oh, and the cherry on top? You encounter and fight Dead Hand. Enough said.
The Ocean House Hotel — Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines
Sam Reader: Thought I’d get this one out of the way early. The Ocean House is the prototype for a number of horror game staples— it’s a foreboding structure you’re introduced to as a fetch quest, only to be plunged into a series of unnerving setpieces as you run from intermittent poltergeist activity and the axe-wielding demonic former caretaker. It’s a series of creepy, quiet, dark hallways and minimal activity that foreshadow genre stalwarts like Amnesia and Visage.
But the thing that makes The Ocean House Hotel really sing is the long quiet portions, the undeniable feeling of wrongness that suffuses everything despite the low poly count and the 2005 audio quality. Things move when you’re not looking. Strange whispers pop up. There’s an entire section in a liminal space that suddenly explodes into violent activity as a poltergeist hurls knives at you. It’s not a constant chase, but instead paces out its scares so you’re jumping at shadows and narrow escapes, questioning if something moved or if you just forgot.
Plus, I’m pretty sure it’s the only one on this list with a vague reference to classic B-grade true-haunting series A Haunting, so there’s that.
Coffee World — Alan Wake 2
Stephanie Klimov: The triumphant return of Alan Wake in the 2023 sequel was filled with true scares. In Alan Wake 2, you alternate between both the titular author himself as well as FBI agent, Saga Anderson. Many locations are downright eerie, from the woods to the nursing home; however, exploring Coffee World as Saga takes the cake.
There is nothing like drawing horror from a location that is normally considered cheerful and fun. Coffee World is a take on a local theme park, but in its decrepit state and with ghoulish mascots, this area had me on my toes from beginning to end. With the occasional creaks and groans from the rides, you can’t help but shake that there is someone else around. This game features the Taken and cultists, but I still couldn’t help but wonder if there was a deranged clown or psychopathic Ferris wheel operator around the corner. I’m not quite sure which are worse to deal with. The art direction, lighting, and sound design are also key factors that turned Coffee World from a fun plan for families to a twisted horror show that I would otherwise avoid at all costs.
Concrete Intersections — Lethal Company
Lev Working: Maybe it says more about how skittish I am playing horror games, but these concrete rooms were terrifying to go through when playing Lethal Company. With the industrial parts of the moon, it felt like danger was further away, and like the door out provided some illusory sense of safety. For my group, this seemed to be the area where the most gruesome deaths happened, where I’d hear an explosion and a cut-off screen from the room over, or see a bracken snap somebody’s neck. The lighting was poor, the guy in the chair didn’t turn off the turrets, or sometimes actively shut us in one of the halls.
I think these intersections, as Lethal Company does in general, speaks to how simple horror can be. Sometimes it’s just dim lighting, creepy tunnels, and the sounds of a mine clicking somewhere, that do the trick.
Sevastopol Station — Alien Isolation
Stephanie Klimov for David Lasby: Space is frightening. There are already plenty of hazards when you don’t have a monstrous creature stalking you. In Alien Isolation, you are constantly stalked, and any noise you make could be your last. That’s the brilliance to this game that makes Sevastopol Station a terrifying place to be— any visual or audio disturbance can alarm “The Creature”, and because you can’t kill it, you must learn to evade it at all costs. And of course, given that the station has already fallen, it’s eerily empty, save a few remaining survivors and androids. However, I must give a honorable mention to the USG Ishimura from Dead Space, for it too is a vessel in space that has gone to hell, and the monstrosities Issac Clarke encounters will give you nightmares for years to come.
The Tower of Latria — Demon’s Souls
Jardan Davis: From Software has taken gamers to some of the strangest and creepiest locations in video games, from the nightmarish streets of Yharnam to the festering landscape of Caelid. But their scariest level for me has always been World 3-1 of Demon’s Souls, the Tower of Latria. Locked away at the top of the ironically named Prison of Hope, the player must break out of the dimly-lit prison while avoiding monstrous prison wardens who are all too eager to paralyze you and murder you with their face tentacles.
What really builds the tension in the Tower of Latria is the sound design. Throughout the prison, you can always hear the faint ringing of the wardens’ bells, reminding you that you could be caught and killed at any moment. Apart from that, there are certain prisoners adding ambient sound to the area — The Once-Royal Mistress singing an eerie two-note aria, and Lord Rydell banging on his cell and yelling for help. The relatively sparse soundscape in the rest of the game makes all this NPC noise stand out and feed your paranoia as you progress through the prison. Am I about to get chased by some sort of singing demon? Or flattened by some enraged escaped prisoner?
I’ve replayed Demon’s Souls several times over the years, and even after all this time, I still get goosebumps every time I get to the Tower of Latria. The low visibility, terrifying guards, and eerie soundscape makes it one of the most oppressive yet compelling locations in video games.
The Cave of the Past — Earthbound
Jordan Davis: The final dungeon of Earthbound is the creepy dungeon is capped off by one of the most famously terrifying final boss encounters in video games. Our heroes discover the Devil Machine, an enormous biomechanical monstrosity that looks like something out of an H.R. Giger painting. Inside the machine rests Giygas, the alien overlord whose evil influence.
Mount Massive Asylum — Outlast
Stephanie Klimov: I was divided between Mount Massive Asylum from Outlast or Silent Hill 2‘s Brookhaven Hospital. Hospitals are a widely known epicenter for bad things to happen and are common locations in horror video games. In the end, Mount Massive wins by a hair because of how much of the hospital you get to experience (lucky you) and the patients found within. Sure, twitchy nurses with bloody bandaged heads are also freaky, but I’d rather take my chances with them than Little Piggy, Little Piggy guy, aka. Chris Walker, or those two naked dudes. Every inch is covered in blood or patrolled by inpatients — some docile, some not. To add insult to injury, you also have to worry about something called the Walrider who can easily pick you up and shred you through an air vent like taking cheese to a grater.
What are some of the scariest video game locations you’d braved? Sound off on our Boss Rush Facebook Group or our Boss Rush Discord.
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