The scariest gaming moments we’ve ever experienced

Cassie Mammone

31.10.2025

Translation: Patrik Stainbrook

Happy Halloween folks! In keeping with the scariest day of the year, we’re sharing those moments from our gaming history that truly made us quiver.

Video games and jumpscares are as closely linked as zombies and their insatiable hunger for brains. It’s very easy to scare a person who’s hyperfocusing on something.

It’s why the Five Nights At Freddy’s games work so well: jumpscares paired with a difficult challenge provide huge thrills.

However, we’re going one step further today, sharing with you those gaming experiences that go above and beyond. These scares hit our souls so hard that we still think back on them with horror to this day.

The 17-year-old Dead Space is still considered by some to be the scariest video game ever. Why? Simple: that horrifying atmosphere in the deserted, zombie-infested spaceship USG Ishimura. Conversely, the game taught me to fear something completely different: randomly placed, seemingly dead enemies.

Drawn by my fondness for aliens and space horror, I played Dead Space a few years before I came of age. That may well have played a role in my terror.

In Dead Space, you can only save at dedicated stations. Early on in the game, you’ll come across necromorph corpses lying around in front of such stations. As I went to save for the first time, one zombie alien prevented me from doing so by jumping right at me, roaring crazily. A mere horror novice, I didn’t expect it at all, and was so shocked that I threw my keyboard off the table instead of saving the game.

Since then, I’ve been double-tapping every seemingly dead enemy in endless video games, just to be on the safe side.

Domagoj: Eternal Darkness – the bloody bathtub

Eternal Darkness is an underrated horror gem. In this playable nightmare, you control a total of twelve characters, battling against an ancient monster that wants to enslave humanity. The story spans two millennia and takes you to different historical periods.

There are dozens of creepy moments and nasty jumpscares I could mention here as examples. One of the central reasons for this is the ingenious Sanity meter. The more scared your character gets, the more they hallucinate. These delusions often break the fourth wall in the process. Your TV turns off and on again. Bugs crawl around the screen. The game crashes. Your Gamecube deletes all saves.

However, what disturbed me most was a specific jump scare relatively early on in the game.

I investigate a Resident Evil-style villa, interacting with various objects to solve puzzles and find items. During a quiet bit, I enter a bathroom, looking around, clicking here and there. So far so good.

Then I see a bathtub. Why not take a look, maybe I’ll find a rare item in it. I press the interact button.

Cut, perspective shift. The fixed camera jumps to a close-up of the bathtub. It’s not empty any more, but filled with blood. My character’s corpse lays there, in her own viscera. A loud cry rings out. Cut back to the fixed camera.

I can’t emphasise enough how traumatised I was by that moment. Since the jumpscare happens relatively early on, it changed my whole attitude towards the game. As the game progressed, I constantly expected more of those horrifying scenes. Nevertheless, the bloody bathtub has forever earned a spot in the pantheon of nasty jumpscares.

Kevin: Resident Evil – those damned dogs

To me, Resident Evil is the classic survival horror title. Unsurprisingly, my most memorable jumpscare comes from just that game. As Jill Valentine, I play a member of the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team, an elite unit of the local police. My mission: to investigate mysterious incidents in the Arklay Mountains. At the start of the game, my buddies and I are attacked by hungry dogs. With the last of our strength, we manage to escape to an opulent manor house. But we’re anything but safe there. Bloodthirsty zombies are out to get us. We split up and look for a way out of this hellhole.

I examine the east wing of the building and walk along an L-shaped corridor. Out of nowhere, a disturbing dog crashes through the window behind me and attacks. I flee in a blind panic, only for another hellhound to jump in through a different window. From that moment on, I’m on pins and needles for the whole game. I expect a grotesque creature behind every window, every corner.

Why do I think this is one of the scariest moments in gaming? It’s all down to the era in which the game was released. In 1996, fully three-dimensional worlds were new to me. Gaming experiences with realistic worlds were revolutionary at the time. I first had to get used to the fact I was surrounded by horror, uncertainty and terror on all sides. Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami and his team made sure that the hairs on the back of my neck were constantly standing on end. Both from the opulent environmental graphics, but also from the sound design. It was the moment I fell in love with the genre.

Debbie: Alien: Isolation – I don’t like trains

I’m not really a fan of horror games, but there are still a few in my gaming history. Alien: Isolation made me suffer the most. The game perfectly captures the feeling of being hunted and pure helplessness debuted in the 45-year-old film classic Alien. It’s why I like the game, despite the many near heart attacks it gives me. As you’d expect, it has plenty of funny «Hello, I’m the Alien and you’re dead» moments in store.

I can’t tell you how many times the alien beast appeared behind me, in front of me, above me or anywhere else and ruined my progress. There’s one part I still remember very well: I finally managed to sabotage the reactor where the brood had built its nest. In a cutscene, I watch with satisfaction through a window as all those horrors get blown to smithereens and I’m finally rid of the nasty beasts. To be honest, I should’ve expected that one of them would suddenly jump right at the window in front of me. Of course, I was still scared senseless.

What I wasn’t expecting in this game was a train hurtling through the alien-infested space station. I climb a ladder and look over the edge. A screeching squeal, sparks fly and a train ploughs right through my face without warning. Dead, game over – a complete surprise, all without Alien influence.

Philipp: F.E.A.R. – Alma and the ladder

Monolith’s first-person shooter from 2005 is known for its spectacular action, crisp AI and especially Alma. The little black-haired girl with the red dress haunted my dreams. Indescribable horror villains were all the rage at the time. In contrast, however, F.E.A.R. has me playing a super soldier who doesn’t really have to fear anything. Still, the gloomy levels, eerie noises and blood constantly dripping from the walls did take their toll on my psyche.

But any time Alma showed her face, I was scared stiff. Although I was already pretty jaded about jumpscares back then, I wasn’t prepared for this one. It really consists of two parts. Shortly before, I crawl through a narrow ventilation shaft. In an area where I already felt exposed and defenceless, Alma suddenly crawls towards me on all fours.

But I was half expecting that – by now, I’m familiar with such clichés. However, as I climb down a ladder shortly afterwards and the camera turns normally, Alma is suddenly standing in front of me. If I’d had to hold on to the ladder myself, I’d have fallen to the ground like a sack of potatoes. I’ve climbed and descended thousands of ladders in games. This is the first time I got this scared on one. You’re safe on ladders – at least I thought so until that moment. You really got me there, F.E.A.R.

Header images: Capcom, EA, Nintendo, Sega, Warner Bros.

Cassie Mammone

Freelance Editor

cassie.mammone.freelance@gmail.com

I wrote my first text about video games when I was eight years old. I haven't been able to stop since. The rest of my time is spent on my love for 2D husbandos, monsters, my cats and sport.

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